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Updated by Zack Beauchamp on November 16, 2015

On Thursday, one day before terrorists who appear to have been linked to ISIS launched a series of devastating attacks across Paris, President Obama went on ABC and made a comment that now looks pretty bad:

What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them.

In the wake of Paris, it looked to many like Obama had badly overhyped his administration’s efforts against ISIS. At Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate, moderator John Dickerson asked Hillary Clinton if the quote meant that the Obama administration’s legacy will be “that it underestimated the threat from ISIS.”

Obama’s comments don’t look quite as bad in context. Rather, as PolitiFact points out, Obama was saying that ISIS’s territorial expansion in the Middle East has been contained — that, partly as a result of US actions, its march across Syria and Iraq had been halted. That’s both a much more modest claim and factually correct.

“The statement is, in the context of the interview … almost entirely correct,” Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told me.

But as the Paris attacks show, that in itself is hardly cause for triumphalism. And it’s not necessarily a coincidence that this attack occurred as ISIS has been losing ground in Syria and Iraq. Perversely, the world’s success in containing ISIS territorially actually makes the group more dangerous internationally, at least in the short term.

Some analysts worry that as ISIS suffers battlefield losses, it may shift more of its energy away from the battlefield and into international terror attacks like what happened in Paris.

ISIS is losing ground in Syria and Iraq

On the ground in Iraq and Syria, ISIS has in fact been stalled and in many places even turned back. According to Will McCants, the head of the Brookings Institution’s Project on US Relations With the Islamic World, ISIS “lost something like 25 percent of their territory” since its peak last summer.

By the end of June 2015, ISIS had lost nearly 10 percent of the remaining territory it held at the beginning of the year. Red areas on this map show ISIS territorial losses, and green shows gains:

(IHS Jane’s 360)

At the end of June, Kurdish fighters broke through in northern Syria, taking the strategic town of Tal Afar and advancing to within roughly 30 miles of ISIS’s de facto capital, Raqqa.

These losses have continued since.

“You look back to the past two months,” Gartenstein-Ross says, “and it’s just two month of steady losses.”

He ticks off a list of ISIS losses: Baiji district in Iraq, almost all of its presence near the Kurdish-held city Kirkuk, the outlying areas near Ramadi, and defeats in parts of Syria (like northern Aleppo). Just last week, ISIS lost the Iraqi town of Sinjar, which cuts off an important highway connecting its Iraqi and Syrian holdings.

None of these losses mean that ISIS is on the verge of collapse. Rather, they’re part of a slow but steady process of chipping away at the group’s holdings, taking advantage of its structural weaknesses — too many strong enemies, vulnerability to airpower, no real ability to hide — to put it on the path toward defeat.

“Right now — and I approve of this — we’re moving at a very deliberate rate,” Michael Knights, the Lafer fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says. “We’re pushing forward nice and slowly, snipping off little bits of the caliphate, [and] building our confidence.”

The problem: As ISIS weakens, it could get more dangerous abroad

(As ISIS loses territory in Syria and Iraq, it poses less of a danger to the people who are far and away its primary victims: Syrians and Iraqis. Still, whether Obama meant to imply this or not, his comments sounded to many like an argument that because ISIS was being contained territorially, it was less of a danger; that the threat it posed to the US was being contained as well.

Obama’s comments were “terribly, terribly phrased — just disastrously,” Gartenstein-Ross says. “When you use the term ‘containment,’ people naturally think of it on two sort of dual tracks, terrorism and territory.”

As ISIS weakens as a state by losing territory, it may actually become more dangerous as a terrorist organization. Until Paris, ISIS didn’t really focus much effort on staging attacks on foreign targets outside of the Middle East. Some analysts worry that Paris represents the beginning of ISIS devoting more resources to staging these dramatic attacks outside its territory — perhaps in part to compensate for its territorial losses.

“We don’t yet know that there’s a trend,” Gartenstein-Ross cautions. “But I do think it’s likely that that pivot does and will exist.”

ISIS thrives on a narrative of victory. The reason it attracts so many foreign recruits, including Westerners, is that it sells itself as the prophesied Islamic caliphate: that its victories are inevitable and divinely inspired. If it’s losing territory, then it needs to sell this narrative through other means. That means claiming “victory” over the West by hitting it with terrorist attacks.

“Much of ISIS’s ideological support and recruiting strength emanates from a narrative that it is victorious,” J.M. Berger, the co-author of ISIS: A State of Terror, explains via email. The Paris attack “changes the conversation from ‘ISIS is contained’ on November 12 to ‘ISIS is rampaging uncontrollably’ on November 14.”

Moreover, ISIS may believe that terrorist attacks are its best way of striking back against — and maybe, it believes, deterring — foreign attacks. That conclusion would likely be wrong, but ISIS may still believe it. The French are part of the US-led coalition bombing ISIS in Syria and Iraq. ISIS suicide bombers have also recently hidden in a civilian part of Beirut where Hezbollah, an ISIS enemy, is strong. The group is also suspected of bombing a Russian civilian airliner in Egypt.

From ISIS’s point of view, these kinds of attacks could be a way to warn off countries that are partly responsible for its territorial defeats. The more you fight ISIS, the more of a target you become — and ISIS won’t leave you alone until you leave it alone.

“I think it has made the calculation that it can no longer pursue its expansion strategy in Syria and Iraq without changing the calculations of the enemies currently halting its expansion,” McCants says. “These attacks would be a way of inflicting costs on them.”

Gartenstein-Ross sees a similar logic at work. “If you’re experiencing territorial losses, how do you make up for that? Well, pivoting to asymmetric warfare makes a lot of sense,” he says. “You can impose a cost on countries for being part of an effort to beat you back.”

It is ISIS’s status as both terrorist group and mini state that make it so dangerous: Until ISIS is defeated more thoroughly in its Iraqi and Syrian territory, it will have substantial resources at its disposal to plan and execute international terrorist attacks.

“ISIS is a state that has millions of dollars that it can spend on these kinds of operations,” McCants says. “We’re not talking about al-Qaeda hiding out in Pakistan. We’re talking about an actual government that has money to put behind plots and has very motivated people, many of them with European passports that can carry them out.”

That suggests a kind of grim irony to the ISIS war. In military terms, the campaign to defeat ISIS is going better than most people think. But in some ways, at least in the near term, that may be making ISIS more dangerous than ever.

 

By Tony Cartalucci

The terrorist attacks carried out in the heart of the French capital, either coincidentally or intentionally, have served as the perfect point of leverage for the West on the very eve of the so-called “Vienna talks” regarding Syria.

With its serendipitously strengthened hand and with France taking a more prominent role, the West is attempting to reassert not only its narrative, but its agenda regarding the ongoing conflict in Syria, an agenda that has – as of late – been derailed by Russia’s military intervention and recent gains made on the battlefield by Syrian military forces. The London Guardian stated in its article “Paris attacks galvanise international efforts to end Syria war” that:

The Isis attacks in Paris have galvanised international efforts to end the war in Syria, with a new deadline set for negotiations between the warring parties and for a country-wide ceasefire.

There is still no sign of agreement, however, on the key question of the future of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

It should seem extraordinary to the global public that even after the attacks in Paris, the West still insists on undermining the Syrian government toward its goal of “regime change,” which includes continued material support to armed militants – all of which are extremists, and many of which have either coordinated with, or fought under the banner of Al Qaeda and even the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” (ISIS).

This is also considering the fact that the Syrian government is now currently engaged in battle with ISIS in and around Aleppo, and is currently threatening to sever its supply lines leading out of NATO-member Turkey’s territory.

Regarding this point, the Guardian would even report:

It was clear, however, that Russia and the US have again had to agree to disagree about Assad. The Paris attacks “show that it doesn’t matter if you’re for Assad or against him,” said the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. “Isis is your enemy.”

However, to explain the West’s apparent failure to prioritize, the Guardian claims:

Isis, in their [the West’s] view, is a symptom of political failings in both Iraq and Syria. The Vienna participants are to meet in Paris before the end of the year to review progress toward a ceasefire and the selection of delegations for the Syrian talks.

In reality, ISIS is not a “symptom of political failings.” It is the result of concerted, immense, multinational state-sponsorship. Entire armies of the immense scale ISIS operates on do not rise out of “political failings,” they rise from huge, preexisting financial networks, region-wide logistical support, multinational political support, intelligence networking, and experienced military planning and organizational skills.

The West and its regional allies, namely Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, clearly constitute this immense multinational state-sponsorship ISIS has so far enjoyed. A look at any map depicting the Syrian conflict shows ISIS supply lines running directly out of NATO-member Turkey’s territory and in numerous reports, even out of the West’s most prominent papers, it is even admitted that ISIS is supplied in Syria, via Turkey.

It is clear then that “political failings” are not the “cause” of ISIS except only in the sense that the “failure” to exact regime change in Syria has prompted the West to continue propping up ISIS and other terrorist groups until the government in Damascus falls – and only when Damascus’ regional and global allies abandon it.

The West Got What it Wanted in Libya – And Created ISIS in the Process

The West’s claims during the Vienna talks that if only they get their way in Syria, the threat of ISIS will subside, is betrayed by the events surrounding the very rise of ISIS in Syria in the first place.

Just before the conflict reached critical mass in Syria during 2011, the US, UK, France, other NATO members, as well as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), were already in the process of fully dividing and destroying Libya in pursuit of regime change.

They insisted that regime change was the only way to end the bitter fighting that had swept the country – regime change that just so happened to fulfill the long-held desire by Washington and Europe to see Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi ousted from power.

Through arming what the West called “rebels,” and through direct military intervention which included large-scale, nationwide airstrikes, naval bombardments, and even special forces, NATO devastated the country and turned it over literally to Al Qaeda. The West’s “rebels” turned out to be sectarian extremists all along, and in fact – with NATO’s help – they promptly took their weapons, fighters, and cash to begin the invasion of northern Syria via Turkey later that year.

The Business Insider would report in its article, “REPORT: The US Is Openly Sending Heavy Weapons From Libya To Syrian Rebels,” that:

The administration has said that the previously hidden CIA operation in Benghazi involved finding, repurchasing and destroying heavy weaponry looted from Libyan government arsenals, but in October we reported evidence indicating that U.S. agents — particularly murdered ambassador Chris Stevens — were at least aware of heavy weapons moving from Libya to jihadist Syrian rebels.

There have been several possible SA-7 spottings in Syria dating as far back as early summer 2012, and there are indications that at least some of Gaddafi’s 20,000 portable heat-seeking missiles were shipped before now.

On Sept. 6 a Libyan ship carrying 400 tons of weapons for Syrian rebels docked in southern Turkey. The ship’s captain was “a Libyan from Benghazi” who worked for the new Libyan government. The man who organized that shipment, Tripoli Military Council head Abdelhakim Belhadj, worked directly with Stevens during the Libyan revolution.

Belhadj, it should be mentioned, was the commander of US State Department-listed foreign terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) – which is literally Al Qaeda in Libya – and was so before, during, and after the 2011 Libyan war. Belhadj was also reportedly aligned with ISIS as it officially established itself in the shattered North African state. Fox News would report in its article, “Herridge: ISIS Has Turned Libya Into New Support Base, Safe Haven,” that:

[Catherine] Herridge reported that one of the alleged leaders of ISIS in North Africa is Libyan Abdelhakim Belhadj, who was seen by the U.S. as a willing partner in the overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

“Now, it’s alleged he is firmly aligned with ISIS and supports the training camps in eastern Libya,” Herridge said.

It is clear that despite Western claims that regime change in Libya would be the beginning of the end for Libya’s violence and instability, it was only the end of the beginning – and not only for chaos in Libya – but for other nations across North Africa and in Syria itself.

Using Another 9/11 to Justify Creating Another Libya

NATO’s intervention and regime change in Libya did not avert a refugee crisis, it helped create one. NATO’s intervention and successful regime change in Libya did not make the region or the world safer, it turned the entire nation into a breeding ground for terrorist organizations with so-far unprecedented reach and operational capacity. NATO’s goals in Libya did not prevent the refugee crisis, it helped start it. And with all of this in mind, having seen this and taken full stock of Libya’s outcome, the West has nonetheless moved forward with precisely the same agenda in Syria.

In all reality, the West has no intention of bringing peace or stability to Syria. Their goal is to leave Syria as divided and destroyed as Libya, and to use the chaos and instability fostered there as a springboard for other targets of the West’s proxy warfare – most likely Iran, Russia, and targets deeper in Central Asia.

The West promises that it will end the chaos in Syria, just like they promised it would end in Libya. It will not end in either.

With Libya’s fate in mind, and a repeat performance clearly taking shape in Syria should the West get its way, it must be made clear that no matter how many innocent people are killed by terrorists the West itself helped create and perpetuate, they will not get an opportunity to turn Syria into the “Libya of the Levant,” no matter how convenient and well-timed these killings are, no matter how deep they are within the heart of Europe or North America, and no matter how tragic and regrettable the aftermath is.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine“New Eastern Outlook”.

18 November 2015

By Prof. Tim Anderson

The following Infographics is by Professor Tim Anderson

It summarizes detailed information regarding the ISIS, which is contained in a forthcoming book entitle The Dirty War on Syria

By John Chuckman

Mass murder, as that which just occurred in Paris, is always distressing, but that does not mean we should stop thinking.

Isn’t it rather remarkable that President Hollande, immediately after the event, declared ISIS responsible? How did he know that? And if he was aware of a serious threat from ISIS, why did he not take serious measures in advance?

Within days of Friday 13, French forces assaulted an apartment with literally thousands of bullets being fired, killing a so-called mastermind, Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Just how are you instantly elevated to the rank of “mastermind”? And if security people were previously aware of his exalted status, why did they wait until after a disaster to go after him?

Well, the ugly underlying truth is that, willy-nilly, France for years has been a supporter of ISIS, even while claiming to be fighting it. How do I know that? Because France’s foreign policy has virtually no independence from America’s. It could be described as a subset of American foreign policy. Hollande marches around with his head held stiffly up after getting off the phone at the Élysée Palace, having received the day’s expectations from Washington. He has been a rather pathetic figure.

So long as it is doing work the United States wishes done, ISIS remains an American protectorate, and regardless of Hollande’s past rhetoric, he has acted according to that reality. But something may just have changed now.

It is important to note the disproportionate attention in the West to events in Paris. I say disproportionate because there are equally ugly things going on in a number of places in the Middle East, but we do not see the coverage given to Paris. We have bombs in Lebanon and Iraq. We have daily bombings and shootings in Syria. We have cluster bombs and other horrors being used by Saudi Arabia in Yemen. And of course, there are the ongoing horrors of Israel against Palestinians.

We have endless interviews with ordinary people in Paris, people who know nothing factual to help our understanding, about their reaction to the terror, but when was the last time you saw personal reactions broadcast from Gaza City or Damascus? It just does not happen, and it does raise the suspicion that the press’s concern with Paris is deliberately out of proportion. After all, Israel killed about twenty times as many people in Gaza not very long ago, and the toll was heavily weighted with children, many hundreds of them. Events in Paris clearly are being exploited for highly emotional leverage.

Leverage against what? Arabs in general and Muslims in particular, just part of the continuing saga of deliberately-channeled hate we have experienced since a group of what proved (after their arrest) to be Israeli spies were reported on top of a truck, snapping pictures and high-fiving each other as the planes hit the World Trade Center in 2001. What those spies were doing has never been explained to the public. I’m not saying Israel is responsible for 9/11, but clearly some Israeli government interests were extremely happy about events, and we have been bombarded ever since with hate propaganda about Muslims, serving as a kind of constant noise covering the crimes Israel does commit against Palestinians and other neighbors.

It is impossible to know whether the attack in Paris was actually the work of ISIS or a covert operation by the secret service of an ISIS supporter. The point is a bit like arguing over angels on a pinhead. When you are dealing with this kind of warfare – thugs and lunatics of every description lured into service and given deadly toys and lots of encouragement to use them – things can and do go wrong. But even when nothing goes wrong in the eyes of sponsors for an outfit like ISIS, terrible things are still happening. It’s just that they’re happening where the sponsors want them to happen and in places from which our press carefully excludes itself. Terrible things, for example, have been happening in the beautiful land of Syria for four or five years, violence equivalent to about two hundred Paris attacks, causing immense damage, the entire point of which is to topple a popularly-supported president and turn Syria into the kind of rump states we see now in Iraq.

A covert operation in the name of ISIS is at least as likely as an attack by ISIS. The United States, Israel, Turkey, and France are none of them strangers to violent covert activities, and, yes, there have been instances before when a country’s own citizens were murdered by its secret services to achieve a goal. The CIA pushed Italian secret services into undertaking a series of murderous attacks on their own people during the 1960s in order to shake up Italy’s “threatening” left-wing politics. It was part of something called Operation Gladio. Operation Northwoods, in the early 1960s, was a CIA-planned series of terrorist acts on American civilians to be blamed on Cuba, providing an excuse for another invasion. It was not carried out, but that was not owing to any qualms in the CIA about murdering their own, otherwise no plan would have ever existed. The CIA was involved in many other operations inside the United States, from experiments with drugs to ones with disease, using innocent people as its subject-victims.

There have been no differences worth mentioning between Hollande’s France and America concerning the Middle East. Whatever America wants, America gets, unlike the days when Jacques Chirac opposed the invasion of Iraq, or earlier, when de Gaulle removed France’s armed forces from integration within NATO or bravely faced immense hostility, including a coup attempt undertaken by French military with CIA cooperation, when he abandoned colonialism in Algeria.

If anything, Hollande has been as cloyingly obsequious towards America’s chief interest in the Middle East, Israel, as a group of Republican Party hopefuls at a Texas barbecue fund-raiser sniffing out campaign contributions. After the Charlie Hebdo attack, Hollande honored four Jewish victims of the thugs who attacked a neighborhood grocery store with France’s highest honor, the Legion of Honor. I don’t recall the mere fact of being murdered by thugs ever before being regarded as a heroic distinction. After all, in the United States more than twenty thousand a year suffer that fate without recognition.

Israel’s Netanyahu at the time of the Charlie Hebdo attack actually outdid himself in manic behavior. He barged into France against a specific request that he stay home and pushed himself, uninvited, to the front row of the big parade down the Champs-Élysées which was supposed to honor free speech. He wanted those cameras to be on him for voters back home watching.

Free speech, you might ask, from the leaders of Egypt, Turkey, the UAE, and Israel, who all marched in front? Well, after the free-speech parody parade, the Madman of Tel Aviv raced around someone else’s country making calls and speeches for Jewish Frenchmen to leave “dangerous” France and migrate “home” to Israel. It would in fact be illegal in Israel for someone to speak that way in Israel to Israelis, but illegality has never bothered Netanyahu. Was he in any way corrected for this world-class asinine behavior? No, Hollande just kept marching around with his head stiffly up. I guess he was trying to prove just how free “free speech” is in France.

But speech really isn’t all that free in France, and the marching about free speech was a fraud. Not only is Charlie Hebdo, the publication in whose honor all the tramping around was done, not an outlet for free speech, being highly selective in choosing targets for its obscene attacks, but many of the people marching at the head of the parade were hardly representatives of the general principle.

France itself has outlawed many kinds of free speech. Speech and peaceful demonstrations which advocate a boycott of Israel are illegal in France. So a French citizen today cannot advocate peacefully against a repressive state which regularly abuses, arrests, and kills some of the millions it holds in a form of bondage. And Hollande’s France enforces this repressive law with at least as much vigor as Israel does with its own version, in a kind of “Look, me too,” spirit. France also has a law which is the exactly the equivalent of a law against anyone’s saying the earth is flat: a law against denying or questioning the Holocaust. France also is a country, quite disgracefully, which has banned the niqab.

Now, America’s policy in the Mideast is pretty straightforward: subsidize and protect its colony Israel and never criticize it even on the many occasions when it has committed genuine atrocities. American campaign finance laws being what they, politics back home simply permits no other policy. The invasion of Iraq, which largely was intended to benefit Israel through the elimination of a major and implacable opponent, has like so many dark operations backfired. I call the invasion a dark operation because although the war was as public as could be, all of America’s, and Britain’s, supposed intelligence about Iraq was crudely manufactured and the reasons for undertaking an act which would kill a million people and cripple an entire country were complete lies.

America’s stupid invasion created new room for Iran to exert its influence in the region – hence, the endless noise in Israel and Saudi Arabia about Iran – and it led directly to the growth of armed rabble groups like ISIS. There were no terrorists of any description in Saddam’s Iraq, just as there were no terrorists in Gadhafi’s Libya, a place now so infested with them that even an American ambassador is not safe.

Some Americans assert that ISIS happened almost accidentally, popping out of the dessert when no one was looking, a bit like Athena from the head of Zeus, arising from the bitterness and discontents of a splintered society, but that view is fatuous. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens by accident in this part of the world. Israel’s spies keep informed of every shadowy movement, and America always listens closely to what they say.

It is silly to believe ISIS just crept up on America, suddenly a huge and powerful force, because ISIS was easy for any military to stop at its early stages, as when it was a couple of thousand men waving AK-47s from the backs of Japanese pick-up trucks tearing around Iraq. Those pick-up trucks and those AK-47s and the gasoline and the ammunition and the food and the pay required for a bunch of goons came from somewhere, and it wasn’t from Allah.

A corollary to America’s first principle about protecting Israel is that nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in Israel’s neighborhood that is not approved, at least tacitly, by the United States. So whether,

in any given instance of supply and support for ISIS, it was Israel or Saudi Arabia or Turkey or America – all involved in this ugly business – is almost immaterial. It all had to happen with American approval. Quite simply, there would be hell to pay otherwise.

As usual in the region, Saudi Arabia’s role was to supply money, buying weapons from America and others and transshipping them to ISIS. Ever since 9/11, Saudi Arabia has been an almost pathetically loyal supporter of America, even to the extent now of often cooperating with Israel. That couldn’t happen before an event in which the majority of perpetrators proved to be Saudi citizens and which led to the discovery that large amounts of Saudi “go away” money had been paid to Osama bin Laden for years. But after 9/11, the Saudis feared for the continuation of their regime and now do what they are told. They are assisted in performing the banking function by Qatar, another wealthy, absolute state aligned with the United States and opposing the rise of any possibly threatening new forces in its region.

Of course, it wasn’t just the discoveries of 9/11 that motivated Saudi Arabia. It intensely dislikes the growing influence of Iran, and Iran’s Shia Muslim identity is regarded by Sunni sects in Saudi Arabia in much the way 17th century Protestantism was viewed by an ultramontane Catholic state like Spain. The mass of genuine jihadists fighting in Syria – those who are not just mercenaries and adventurers or agents of Israel or Turkey or the Saudis – are mentally-unbalanced Sunni who believe they are fighting godlessness. The fact that Assad keeps a secular state with religious freedom for all just adds to their motivation.

ISIS first achievement was toppling an Iraqi government which had been excessively friendly to Iran in the view of Israel, and thereby the United States. Iraq’s army could have stopped them easily early on but was bribed to run away, leaving weapons such as tanks behind. Just two heavy tanks could have crushed all the loons in pick-up trucks. That’s why there was all the grotesque propaganda about beheadings and extreme cruelty to cover the fact of modern soldiers running from a mob. ISIS gathered weapons, territory, and a fierce reputation in an operation which saw President al-Maliki – a man disliked by the United States for his associations with Iran and his criticism of American atrocities – hurriedly leave office.

From that base, ISIS was able to gain sufficient foothold to begin financing itself through, for example, stolen crude sold at a discount or stolen antiquities. The effective splitting up of Iraq meant that its Kurdish population in the north could sell, as it does today, large volumes of oil to Israel, an unheard of arrangement in Iraq’s past. ISIS then crossed into Syria in some force to go after Assad. The reasons for this attack were several: Assad runs a secular state and defends religious minorities but mainly because the paymasters of ISIS wanted Assad destroyed and Syria reduced in the fashion of Iraq.

Few people in the press seem to have noted that ISIS never attacks Israel or Israeli interests. Neither does it attack the wheezingly-corrupt rulers of Saudi Arabia, the Islamic equivalent of ancient Rome’s Emperor Nero. Yet those are the very targets a group of genuine, independent warrior-fundamentalists would attack. But ISIS is not genuine, being supplied and bankrolled by people who do not want to see attacks on Israel or Saudi Arabia, including, notably, Israel and Saudi Arabia. ISIS also is assisted, and in some cases led, by foreign covert operators and special forces.

There does seem to be a good deal of news around the idea of France becoming serious in fighting ISIS, but I think we must be cautious about accepting it at face value. Putin is reported as telling ship commanders in the Mediterranean to cooperate and help cover the French aircraft carrier approaching. Hollande keeps calling for American cooperation too, as Putin has done for a very long time, but America’s position remains deliberately ambiguous. A new American announcement of cooperation with Turkey in creating a “safe zone” across the border with northern Syria is a development with unclear intentions. Is this to stop the Kurds Erdogan so despises fighting in the north of Syria from establishing themselves and controlling the border or is it a method for continued support of ISIS along the that border? Only time will tell.

I do think it at least possible Hollande may have come around to Putin’s view of ISIS, but America has not, and the situation only grows more fraught with dangerous possibilities. I’ve long believed that likely America, in its typically cynical fashion, planned to destroy ISIS, along with others like al-Nusra, once they had finished the dirty work of destroying Syria’s government and Balkanizing the country. In any event, Israel – and therefore, automatically, America – wants Assad destroyed, so it would be surprising to see America at this point join honestly with Putin and Hollande.

America has until now refused Russia any real support, including such basic stuff as sharing intelligence. It cooperates only in the most essential matters such avoiding attacks on each other’s planes. It also has made some very belligerent statements about what Russia has been doing, some from the America’s Secretary of Defense sounding a lot like threats. Just the American establishment’s bully-boy attitude about doing anything which resembles joining a Russian initiative does not bode well.

After all, Putin has been portrayed as a kind of Slavic Satan by American propaganda cranking stuff out overtime in support of Ukraine’s incompetent coup-government and with the aim of terrifying Eastern Europe into accepting more American weapons and troops near Russia’s border, this last having nothing to do with any Russian threat and everything to do with America’s aggressive desire to shift the balance of power. How do you turn on a dime and admit Putin is right about Syria and follow his lead?

And there are still the daily unpleasant telephone calls from Israel about Assad. How do you manoeuvre around that when most independent observers today recognize Assad as the best alternative to any other possible government. He has the army’s trust, and in the end it is the Syrian army which is going to destroy ISIS and the other psychopaths. Air strikes alone can never do that. The same great difficulty for Hollande leaves much ambiguity around what he truly means by “going to war against ISIS.”

It is an extremely complicated world in which we live with great powers putting vast resources towards destroying the lives of others, almost killing thousands on a whim, while pretending not to be doing so. We live in an era shaped by former CIA Director Allen Dulles, a quiet psychopath who never saw an opportunity for chaos he did not embrace.

The only way to end terror is to stop playing with the lives of tens of millions in the Middle East, as America has done for so long, and stop supporting the behaviors of a repressive state which has killed far greater numbers than the madmen of ISIS could dream of doing, demanding instead that that state make peace and live within its borders. But, at least at this stage, that is all the stuff of dreams.

John Chuckman is former chief economist for a large Canadian oil company. He has many interests and is a lifelong student of history. He writes with a passionate desire for honesty, the rule of reason, and concern for human decency. John regards it as a badge of honor to have left the United States as a poor young man from the South Side of Chicago when the country embarked on the pointless murder of something like 3 million Vietnamese in their own land because they happened to embrace the wrong economic loyalties. He lives in Canada, which he is fond of calling “the peaceable kingdom.” He has been translated into at least ten languages and is regularly translated into Italian and Spanish. Several of his essays have been published in book collections, including two college texts. His first book was published, The Decline of the American Empire and the Rise of China as a Global Power, by Constable and Robinson, Lo
20 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org

By Ali Abunimah

Israeli occupation forces wrought death, injury and destruction this week as they carried out revenge demolitions of Palestinian homes and fired on protesters.

More than 85 Palestinians have been killed in escalated violence since 1 October, dozens in what human rights organizations and international monitors have condemned as summary executions.

Sixteen Israelis were slain in the same period.

More than 9,000 Palestinians and 133 Israelis were injured, according to the United Nations monitoring group OCHA.

On Thursday, a Palestinian and two Israelis were killed in a shooting attack near the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the occupied West Bank.

According to Israel’s Haaretz, a Palestinian driver opened fire toward cars near the settlement of Alon Shvut, killing three people.

The alleged assailant was arrested after he crashed his car into another vehicle.

Those killed in the attack have been identified as Shadi Arafa, a 24-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank city of Hebron; Ezra Schwartz, an 18-year-old US citizen; and Yaakov Don, a 49-year-old West Bank settler.

Earlier, two Israelis – 51-year-old Reuven Aviram and Aharon Yesayev, 32 – were killed in a stabbing attack at an office building in Tel Aviv.

The alleged assailant was taken into custody. He was identified as Riad al-Masalma, a Palestinian from Dura village near Hebron.

That occupied West Bank city has borne the brunt of recent Israeli violence, including 29 killings since the start of October.

Last Friday, two Israeli settlers – a father and his adult son – were killed after an unknown assailant opened fire on their car in southern West Bank.

Killings and revenge demolitions

Thursday’s killings follow a wave of Israeli violence against Palestinians.

Israeli forces blew up six homes in the occupied West Bank belonging to families of Palestinians who allegedly committed attacks against Israelis.

At least 16 additional homes in the same buildings or adjacent to those targeted were damaged or destroyed.

The demolitions made 47 people, including 20 children, homeless, from both the targeted and adjacent structures, according to OCHA.

Israel carried out the revenge demolitions after its high court rejected an appeal by human rights organizations.

Israel claims that the policy, used exclusively against Palestinians and never against Jews, deters attacks, but even its army has refuted this.

OCHA affirmed that the demolitions are “a form of collective punishment and as such are illegal under international law.”

“Vindictive”

Shortly after midnight on 16 November, Israeli forces invaded Qalandiya refugee camp, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, to destroy the family home of Muhammad Abu Shahin.

Abu Shahin is accused – though has not been convicted – of killing an Israeli in the West Bank last June.

Israeli forces “called on loudspeakers to the residents of nearby houses, instructing them to leave their homes and move about 100 meters away,” the human rights group B’Tselem reported. “When Abu Shahin’s apartment was blown up, the apartment on the floor below it was also damaged, as was an apartment in a nearby building that was home to four people, including two minors.”

Abu Shahin’s wife and children lived in the targeted house.

Palestinian residents confronted the Israeli forces invading the camp.

Israeli soldiers shot dead Laith Assad Manasra, 21, and Ahmad Abu al-Aish, 28, in the densely populated refugee camp.

Dozens more were injured, including 17-year-old Yousif Abu Latifa, who was critically wounded. Witnesses told the Ma’an News Agency that Israeli forces fired tear gas at ambulances attempting to reach the wounded.

On 14 November, Israeli forces used explosives to destroy four apartments in Nablus that were home to relatives of Palestinians accused, but not convicted, of killing two West Bank settlers on 1 October, leaving 14 people homeless, according to B’Tselem.

The force of the explosions destroyed six other apartments that were not targeted, making 16 more people homeless.

In the Ramallah-area village of Silwad, Israeli forces blew up the home of the mother and brother of Muaz Hamad, who Israel accuses of killing a West Bank settler in June.

The explosion damaged eight nearby houses, according to B’Tselem.

In addition to being illegal under international law, the group says that Israel’s policy of punitive demolitions is “a draconian, vindictive measure directed at entire families who have done nothing wrong nor are they suspected of any wrongdoing.”

Another 27 Palestinians, including 12 children, were also made homeless as Israeli forces demolished another 17 homes and other structures in across West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under the pretext that they lacked building permits, OCHA reported.

Killing and raids

On 17 November, Israeli forces killed 24-year-old Muhammad Saleh, from Aroura village, near Ramallah.

Israel stated that Saleh opened fire on a military jeep, but the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) notes that there “was no eyewitness to confirm or deny the Israeli claim.”

In what appears to be standard practice, Israeli forces prevented Palestinian medics from reaching Saleh, PCHR said.
In the last week, OCHA said more than 1,100 Palestinians, including 203 children, were injured amid ongoing confrontations with Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces raided almost 80 Palestinian communities in the West Bank and arrested more than 100 Palestinians, including 38 children, according to PCHR.

Slap on the wrist

Another event this week highlighted the stark contrast between the brutality Israel directs towards Palestinians and the impunity it affords its own citizens.

An Israeli Border Police officer convicted for the savage beating of Palestinian American teenager Tariq Abukhdeir was given a slap on the wrist – six weeks of community service.

The attack – in which one officer held the boy down while another methodically kicked and pummeled him in the head – was recorded on video.

This week two UN special rapporteurs called on Israel to end its policy of summary executions of Palestinians.

The independent human rights experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said that the current escalation of violence is “occurring within the existing context of policies and practices under the longstanding Israeli occupation which entail violations of Palestinian human rights.”

For their part, Israeli leaders continue to exploit the attacks in Paris by insisting that Palestinians are driven by the same motivations as the suspected Islamic State gunmen and bombers who killed 130 people last Friday.

Meanwhile Israel announced plans for 454 more settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem, a move even Israel’s staunch allies the United States and Germany criticized.

Ali Abunimah Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books. Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.

20 November, 2015
Electronicintifada.net

By Peter Van Buren

We Meant Well

Wars are expensive. The recruitment and sustainment of fighters in the field, the ongoing purchases of weapons and munitions, as well as the myriad other costs of struggle, add up.

So why isn’t the United States going after Islamic State’s funding sources as a way of lessening or eliminating their strength at making war? Follow the money back, cut it off, and you strike a blow much more devastating than an airstrike. But that has not happened. Why?

Donations

Many have long held that Sunni terror groups, ISIS now and al Qaeda before them, are funded via Gulf States, such as Saudi Arabia, who are also long-time American allies. Direct links are difficult to prove, particularly if the United States chooses not to prove them. The issue is exacerbated by suggestions that the money comes from “donors,” not directly from national treasuries, and may be routed through legitimate charitable organizations or front companies.

In fact, one person concerned about Saudi funding was then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who warned in a 2009 message on Wikileaks that donors in Saudi Arabia were the “most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.”

At the G20, Russian President Vladimir Putin said out loud what has otherwise not been publicly discussed much in public. He announced that he has shared intelligence with the other G20 member states which reveals 40 countries from which ISIS finances the majority of its terrorist activities. The list reportedly included a number of G20 countries.

Putin’s list of funders has not been made public. The G20, however, include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the European Union.

Oil

One source of income for ISIS is and has robustly been oil sales. In the early days of the air campaign, American officials made a point to say that the Islamic State’s oil drilling assets were high on the target list. Yet few sites have actually been targeted. A Pentagon spokesperson explained that the coalition has actually been trying to spare some of ISIS’s largest oil producing facilities, “recognizing that they remain the property of the Syrian people,” and to limit collateral damage to civilians nearby.

The U.S. only this week began a slightly more aggressive approach toward the oil, albeit bombing tanker trucks, not the infrastructure behind them. The trucks were destroyed at the Abu Kamal oil collection point, near the Iraqi border.

Conservative estimates are that Islamic State takes in one to two million dollars a day from oil sales; some see the number as high as four million a day. As recently as February, however, the Pentagon claimed oil was no longer ISIS’ main way to raise money, having been bypassed by those “donations” from unspecified sources, and smuggling.

Turkey

One of the issues with selling oil, by anyone, including ISIS, is bringing the stuff to market. Oil must be taken from the ground using heavy equipment, possibly refined, stored, loaded into trucks or pipelines, moved somewhere and then sold into the worldwide market. Large amounts of money must be exchanged, and one to four million dollars a day is a lot of cash to deal with on a daily basis. It may be that some sort of electronic transactions that have somehow to date eluded the United States are involved.

Interestingly, The Guardian reported a U.S.-led raid on the compound housing the Islamic State’s chief financial officer produced evidence that Turkish officials directly dealt with ranking ISIS members, including the ISIS officer responsible for directing the terror army’s oil and gas operations in Syria.

Turkey’s “open door policy,” in which it allowed its southern border to serve as an unofficial transit point in and out of Syria, has been said to be one of ISIS’ main routes for getting their oil to market. A Turkish apologist claimed the oil is moved only via small-diameter plastic irrigation pipes, and is thus hard to monitor.

A smuggled barrel of oil is sold for about $50 on the black market. This means “ several million dollars a day worth of oil would require a very large number of very small pipes.

Others believe Turkish and Iraqi oil buyers travel into Syria with their own trucks, and purchase the ISIS oil right at the refineries, transporting themselves out of Syria. Convoys of trucks are easy to spot from the air, and easy to destroy from the air, though up until now the U.S. does not seem to have done so.

So as is said, ISIS’ sources of funding grow curious and curiouser the more one knows. Those seeking to destroy ISIS might well wish to look into where the money comes from, and ask why, after a year and three months of war, no one has bothered to follow the money.

And cut it off.

Peter Van Buren spent a year in Iraq as a State Department Foreign Service Officer serving as Team Leader for two Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Now in Washington, he writes about Iraq and the Middle East at his blog, We Meant Well. His new book is We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People (The American Empire Project, Metropolitan Books).
© 2015 Peter Van Buren

19 November, 2015

 

By RT news

President Vladimir Putin says he’s shared Russian intelligence data on Islamic State financing with his G20 colleagues: the terrorists appear to be financed from 40 countries, including some G20 member states.

During the summit, “I provided examples based on our data on the financing of different Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) units by private individuals. This money, as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there are some of the G20 members among them,” Putin told the journalists.

Putin also spoke of the urgent need to curb the illegal oil trade by IS.

“I’ve shown our colleagues photos taken from space and from aircraft which clearly demonstrate the scale of the illegal trade in oil and petroleum products,” he said.

“The motorcade of refueling vehicles stretched for dozens of kilometers, so that from a height of 4,000 to 5,000 meters they stretch beyond the horizon,” Putin added, comparing the convoy to gas and oil pipeline systems.

It’s not the right time to try and figure out which country is more and which is less effective in the battle with Islamic State, as now a united international effort is needed against the terrorist group, Putin said.

Putin reiterated Russia’s readiness to support armed opposition in Syria in its efforts to fight Islamic State.

“Some armed opposition groups consider it possible to begin active operations against IS with Russia’s support. And we are ready to provide such support from the air. If it happens it could become a good basis for the subsequent work on a political settlement,” he said.

“We really need support from the US, European nations, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran,” the president added.

Putin pointed out the change in Washington’s stance on cooperation with Moscow in the fight against the terrorists.

“We need to organize work specifically concentrated on the prevention of terrorist attacks and tackling terrorism on a global scale. We offered to cooperate [with the US] in anti-IS efforts. Unfortunately, our American partners refused. They just sent a written note and it says: ‘we reject your offer’,” Putin said.

“But life is always evolving and at a very fast pace, often teaching us lessons. And I think that now the realization that an effective fight [against terror] can only be staged together is coming to everybody,” the Russian leader said.

According to Putin, first of all it should be decided which groups in Syria can be considered terrorist organizations and which can be attributed to an armed, but still legitimate part of the Syrian opposition.

“Our efforts must be concentrated on the battle with terrorist organizations.”

Putin also disagreed with Western criticism of Russia’s actions in Syria, where the country has been carrying out a large-scale air campaign against Islamic State and other terror groups since September 30.

“It’s really difficult to criticize us,” he said, adding that Russia has repeatedly asked its foreign partners to provide data on terrorist targets in Syria.

“They’re afraid to inform us on the territories which we shouldn’t strike, fearing that it is precisely where we’ll strike; that we are going to cheat everybody,” the president said.

“Apparently, their opinion of us is based on their own concept of human decency,” he added.

Putin told the media that Russia has already established contact with the Syrian opposition, which has asked Moscow not carry out airstrikes in the territories it controls.

Still no conclusion on what caused Sinai plane crash
It’s too early to make conclusions about the reasons for the crash of the Russian A321 jet over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in late October, as all possible reasons are still being considered by the investigators, Putin said.

“We know about all the possible scenarios, all of the scenarios are being considered. The final conclusion can only be made after the implementation and completion of the inspection,” he stressed.

“If there was an explosion, the traces of explosives would have remained on the liner’s cover and on the belongings of the passengers. It’s inevitable. And we have enough equipment and skilled, world class experts, capable of finding those traces. Only then would it be possible to speak about the reasons for this tragedy,” the president added.

With 224 people dying in the crash, Putin said that “it’s a huge emotional pain for all of us; for all Russian people, no matter what the cause of the crash was.”

16 November 2015

 

By Dr Gideon Polya

The appalling Paris atrocity – about 130 innocent civilians killed and 300 wounded – must be unequivocally condemned as utterly barbaric by all decent people throughout the world but also demands honest appraisal as evident “blowback” for the role of France under serial war criminal President Francois Hollande in the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI) –promoted US War on Muslims (13 million Muslim deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation since 1990). In the 21st century a US lackey, nuclear terrorist, New Vichy France has attacked or otherwise sent military forces to 13 substantially Muslim countries and is major backer of nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel.

The reality of France’s role in the ongoing, post-1990 US War on Muslims was incisively exposed at the time of the French invasion of Mali in 2013 when outstanding anti-racist Jewish American human rights activist, lawyer, author, investigative journalist and critic of western imperialism, Apartheid Israel and the US surveillance state, Glenn Greenwald, writing in the UK Guardian, stated: “As French war planes bomb Mali, there is one simple statistic that provides the key context: this west African nation of 15 million people is the eighth country in which western powers – over the last four years alone – have bombed and killed Muslims – after Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and the Philippines (that does not count the numerous lethal tyrannies propped up by the west in that region). For obvious reasons, the rhetoric that the west is not at war with the Islamic world grows increasingly hollow with each new expansion of this militarism. But within this new massive bombing campaign, one finds most of the vital lessons about western intervention that, typically, are steadfastly ignored” [1].

In January 2014 it was estimated that France had invaded about 80 countries since the time of Charlemagne, but that listing (now 82) requires an updating to more precisely include war criminal French military activities in 14 countries (13 substantially Muslim) in the 21st century under President Francois Hollande and his predecessor President Nicolas Sarkozy.

These 21st century 14 national victims of French state terrorism are highlighted in bold below in the list of 82 countries invaded by France together with the approximate dates for the entry of French forces [2]:

Western Europe – Austria (1805, 1809, 1945), Belgium (9th- 12th century, 15th -18th century, 1797), France (Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade, 1209-1229; Huguenot Massacres, 1572; French Revolution Reign of Terror, 1793-1794; Vichy French Jewish Genocide, 1941-1945), Germany (6th century, 800-814, 1812, 1919, 1945), Italy (800-814, 16th – 18th century, 1796-1815), Luxembourg (1797, 1866), Malta (1798), Netherlands (9th century, 14th – 15th century, 17th -18th century, 1672, 1794), Portugal (17th -18th century, 1807), Spain (18th century, 1808), Switzerland (9th-16th century, 1515), Britain (UK) (1066; Hundred Years War, 1337-1437).

Eastern Europe – Belarus (1812), Hungary (1919), Lithuania (1812), Poland (1807, 1812), Russia (1812, 1918-1920).

Non-Arab Africa – Benin (17th – 19th century slavery , 1863, 1891-1894, 1904, 1977), Burkina Faso (1805-1894, 2013), Cameroon (1916, 1919, 1946), Central African Republic (1897, 1979, 1997, 2013), Chad (1890, 1894, 1960, 1972, 1975, 2013), Comoros (1843, 1978), Congo (Brazzaville) (16th – 19th century slavery, 1880, 1880s-1930s, genocide by French), Congo (Zaire) (1960s -21st century, French peace keepers), Côte D’Ivoire (15th – 19th century slavery, 1842; 2002), Djibouti (1862, 1975 onwards), Equatorial Guinea (15th – 19th century slavery, 1900), Gabon (15th – 19th century slavery, 1885, 1964), Gambia (15th – 19th century slavery, 1867, 1981), Guinea (15th – 19th century slavery, 1849, 1886), Liberia ( 15th – 19th century slavery), Madagascar (1642, 1883, Mali (19th century, 1850, 2013), Mauritania (1858, 1903, 1920, 2013), Mauritius (1715-1810), Niger (1885, 1890s, 1922, 1946, 2013), Réunion (1638), Sao Tomé and Principe (15th – 19th century slavery), Senegal (1638, 1639, 1677, 1775-1783, 1854-1885) , Seychelles (1756), Sierra Leone (15th – 19th century slavery), Somalia (1862, 2009, 2013), Togo (16th – 19th century slavery, 1897, 1912-1918, 1992, 1946), Western Sahara (20th century, 1904).

North America – Canada (1534), United States (17th century).

Latin America – Dominica (16th century), Dominican Republic (1697, 1795), French Guiana (1604), Grenada (1674), Guadeloupe (16th century), Haiti (1697, 1801, 2004), Martinique (1635), Mexico (1861), Monserrat (16th century), Puerto Rico (16th century), Saint Lucia (1660), Turks and Caicos (17th century, 1764).

North Africa and Middle East – Algeria (1820s), Egypt (1798, 1956), Iraq (1991, 2014), Lebanon (11th – 13th century Crusades, 1861, 1916, 1919), Libya (1815, 1940 with UK , 2011), Morocco (1854), Palestine (11th – 13th century Crusades), Syria (11th – 13th century Crusades, 1916, 1920, 1941, 1945, 2014), Tunisia (1881, 1945).

Turkey , Central Asia – Afghanistan (2001), Turkey (1915).

South Asia – Bangladesh (16th -18th century), India (16th -18th century).

South East Asia – Cambodia (1854, 1863, 1945), Laos (1893, 1945), Vietnam (1860, 1945).

East Asia – China (1856), Korea (1950).

Pacific – French Polynesia (1840), New Caledonia (1853), New Zealand (Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior bombing, 1985), Vanuatu (19th century).

To reiterate, France in the 21st century has invaded or otherwise had military forces in 14 countries of which all but Haiti had substantial Muslim populations. Under serial war criminal President Francois Hollande, France is currently involved militarily in 11 substantially Muslim countries (and one supposes also reserves a France-UK-US (FUKUS) Alliance “right” to continue to bomb targets in Libya, a “right” currently being exercised by the US). This list does not include an uncertain number of countries in which France is involved in clandestinely, in military training or in arms dealing.

Military invasion, bombing, and military-backed neo-colonial hegemony will result in not only deaths from violence but also in avoidable deaths from war- or hegemony-imposed deprivation as analyzed in my book “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” [3]. Avoidable death, avoidable mortality, excess death, excess mortality, premature death, untimely death, death that should not have happened) is the difference between the observed deaths in a country and the deaths expected for a peaceful, decently governed country with the same demographics (i.e. the same birth rate and age distribution) [3]. Thus 1.3 billion people have died avoidably in the period 1950-2005, 1.2 million in the Developing World and 0.6 million in the Muslim World, a Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide 100 times greater than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed) or the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust in which the British with Australian complicity deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death for strategic reasons (genocidally racist White Australia was complicit by withholding food from starving Indian from its huge wartime grain stores) [4-7].

As summarized below, over 142 million people have died avoidably from deprivation since 1950 in countries occupied by France in the post-WW2 era. The most justifiably much-admired beauty and elegance of Paris, France, French high culture and French haute couture have come at an enormous price for Developing countries and Muslim countries in particular.

The following summary data is of post-1950 avoidable mortality/ 2005 population (both in millions, m) and expressed as a percentage (%) for France, for each country occupied by France in the post-1945 era, and as a total for all the countries subject to French occupation in that period. The asterisk (*) indicates a major occupation by more than one country in the post-WW2 era: France [3.275m/60.711m = 5.4%] – Algeria [7.167m/32.877m =21.8%], Benin [3.267m/7.103m = 46.0%], Burkina Faso [6.810m/13.798m = 49.4%], Cambodia* [5.852m/14.825m = 39.5%], Cameroon* [6.669m/16.564m = 40.3%], Central African Republic [2.274m/3.962m =57.4%], Chad [5.085m/9.117m = 55.8%], Comoros [0.204m/0.812m =25.1%], Congo (Brazzaville) [1.085m/3.921m = 27.7%], Côte d’Ivoire [6.953m/17.165m = 40.5%], Djibouti [0.265m/0.721m = 36.8%], Egypt* [19.818m/74.878m = 26.5%], French Guiana [0.010m/0.187m = 5.3%], French Polynesia [0.018m/0.252m = 7.1%], Gabon [0.504m/1.375m = 36.7%], Guadeloupe [0.025m/0.446m = 5.6%], Guinea [5.185m/8.788m = 59.0%], Haiti* [4.089m/8.549m = 47.9%], Laos* [2.653m/5.918m = 44.8%], Madagascar [7.098m/18.409m = 38.6%], Mali [6.808m/13.829m = 49.2%], Martinique [0.022m/0.397m = 5.5%], Mauritania [1.294m/3.069m = 42.2%], Mauritius [0.064m/1.244m = 5.18], Morocco* [8.202m/31.564m = 26.0%], New Caledonia [0.017m/0.237m = 7.2%], Niger [6.558m/12.873m = 50.9%], Réunion [0.047m/0.777m = 6.0%], Senegal [4.457m/9.393m = 47.5%], Syria* [2.198m/18.650m = 11.8%], Togo [1.950m/5.129m = 38.0%], Tunisia [1.582m/10.042m =15.8%], Vanuatu* [0.037m/0.222m = 16.7%], Vietnam* [24.015m/83.585m = 28.7%], Total = 142.291m/430.678m = 33.0% [3].

The 21st century French military involvements from Haiti to Afghanistan are summarized below with countries in alphabetical order together with data on (a) current population, (b) 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation [3], (c) current annual avoidable deaths in 2015 from deprivation, and (d) annual per capita GDP (noting that the annual per capita GDP for rich, peaceful and independent France is $41,000):

Afghanistan [32.5 million; (b) 16.6 million; (c) 149,000; (d) $1,900]. Remote Afghanistan has been repeatedly invaded by the British (19th century), the Russians (1979) and thence by the US Alliance including France (2001). 2,000 French combat troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2012 leaving 1,400 for training and logistics. The continuing US Alliance Afghan War (6 million Afghan deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation) [8, 9] was ostensibly about the presence in Afghanistan of Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden and their supposed responsibility for 9-11, an atrocity that numerous science, engineering, architecture, aviation, military and intelligence experts say was a US Government false flag operation, with some asserting Israeli involvement [10]. However Al Jazeera reported a recent interview with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai thus (2015): “On the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Afghan President Hamid Karzai joins Mehdi Hasan in UpFront’s Headliner segment. In this online preview, Karzai dismisses al-Qaeda’s presence in the country, calling it a “myth”. “[Al-Qaeda] is for me a myth … For us, they don’t exist.” “I don’t know if al-Qaeda existed and I don’t know if they exist,” said Karzai. “I have not seen them and I’ve not had any report about them, any report that would indicate that al-Qaeda is operating in Afghanistan.” Asked whether he believed Osama bin Laden carried out the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington DC and plotted them from Afghanistan, he responded: “That is what I have heard from our Western friends. That’s what the Western media says. There is no doubt that an operation, a terrorist operation was conducted in New York and in Washington.” Asked again by Hasan if he believed the 9/11 attacks were the responsibility of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the former president responded: “I neither believe nor disbelieve something that I don’t know about. I can tell you that Afghanistan was as much a victim of terrorism as was America, as were the people who were killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks” [11]. The horrendous death toll in Afghanistan (6 million Afghan deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation since 2001) indicate the appropriateness of the terms Afghan Holocaust and Afghan Genocide to describe the France-complicit US Afghan War [8, 9]. However one cannot ignore collateral damage from French-complicit Afghan genocide – 1 million people have died from opiate related causes globally due to the US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry from 6% of world market share in 2001 to 93% in 2007, the breakdown (as of 2015) including 280,000 Americans, 256,000 Indonesians, 68,000 Iranians, 25,000 British, 14,000 Canadians, 10,000 Germans, 5,000 Australians and 500 French [8].

Burkina Faso [(a) 18.1 million; (b) 6.8 million; (c) 109,000; (d) $1,700]. Burkina Faso was brutally colonized by the French in the period 1805-1894 [3, 12] and gained nominal independence in 1960 from France, which nevertheless retained neocolonial hegemony. French forces returned in 2013 as part of Operation Burkhane directed against Muslim rebels in the Sahel [13].

Central African Republic [(a) 4.9 million; (b) 2.3 million; (c) 55,000; (d) $600]. The Central African Republic was colonized brutally by France in the late 19th century and gained nominal independence in 1960 from France, which nevertheless retained neocolonial hegemony [3]. In the post-2013 Central African Republic (CAR) civil war after Seleka rebels led by Djotodia (a Muslim) seized the capital, Bangui, Christian and animist anti-balaka forces have targeted Muslims. 6,000 people have been killed, nearly all of the 436 mosques in the country have been destroyed, and Muslims are being targeted for forced conversion or expulsion. The UN reports that that 2.7 million people are in need of aid, and 1.5 million people were affected by food insecurity. The UNHCR reports that 0.5 million people out of a population of about 5 million have been displaced and 0.4 million have fled to neighbouring states [14, 15]. According to the Guardian: “France ordered the deployment of 1,200 additional soldiers, following a call for help from the interim government and a UN security council resolution. They joined 3,500 soldiers from a central African support mission. At the start of 2014, a quarter of the country’s entire population was internally displaced. International pressure forced [Muslim Seleka leader] Djotodia to step down, and soon the Séléka were retreating north, where they continued to target Christians. But as the anti-balaka made inroads elsewhere, villages emptied of their Muslim populations, with homes looted and mosques torched. In the capital, Bangui, the Muslim population dropped from up to 145,000 to just 900. Amnesty International called it ethnic cleansing and warned of a Muslim exodus of historic proportions. Many Muslims were left feeling resentful towards French peacekeepers and the new president, Catherine Samba-Panza, a Christian who studied in France and has two of her three children living there” [16].

Chad [(a) 14.0 million; (b) 5.1 million; (c) 147,000; (d) $2,600]. Chad was brutally colonized by France in the 1890s and gained nominal independence in 1960 from France, which nevertheless retained neocolonial hegemony [3] . French forces repeatedly intervened from the 1980s onwards against northern Muslim rebels. French forces returned in force in 2013 as part of Operation Burkhane directed against Muslim rebels in the Sahel [13].

Côte D’Ivoire [(a) 20.1 million; (b) 7.0 million; (c) 199,000; (d) $3,100]. Côte D’Ivoire was ravaged by French, British and Portuguese slave traders in the 15th – 19th centuries, was brutally colonized by the French in the period 1842-1944, and finally regained independence in 1960 but with brutal French repression of the socialist independence movement. The French re-invaded in 2002 and French forces have remained ever since [3], with the French now reinforcing their base at the capital, Abidjan, as a key part of their military and economic control over the region [13].

Djibouti [(a) 0.9 million; (b) 141,000; (c) 8,000; (d) $3,100]. Djibouti was seized by France in the 1860s but gained nominal independence in 1977 with a major, continuing French , US and British presence. Djibouti was the base for French participation in the 1990-1991 Gulf War. The French were involved in suppressing Affar rebellion in the period 1977-2002. In 2003 the French lackey government sought the expulsion of 0.1 million Ethiopians and Somalis [3]. France gave the former French Foreign Legion Camp Lemonnier to the government of Djibouti, which then leased it to the US in 2001. France maintains over 1,500 troops in Djibouti and French forces in Djibouti have taken part in operations in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Côte D’Ivoire [13].

Haiti [(a) 10.7 million; (b) 4.1 million; (c) 52,000, (d) $1,800]. Haiti was acquired by France in 1697 and was used for a slave-based plantation economy. A slave rebellion in 1789 led to British invasion in 1793. In 1804 an independent Haiti was declared but the new state was subject to repeated US intervention and invasion, culminating in decades of brutal rule in the 20th century by “Papa Doc” Duvalier. A democratically-elected Haitian Government under President Aristide was terminated in 2004 and Aristide was kidnapped and removed to Africa by the US. US lackey French forces were brought in as “peace keepers” but were later replaced by US lackey Latin American forces.

Iraq [(a) 36.4 million; (b) 5.3 million; (c) 47,000; (d) $15,300]. Iraq was invaded by the UK in 2014. The UK continued to repress Iraqi rebellion in Iraq up to and including WW2, notwithstanding ostensible Iraqi independence in 1932. France was involved in the Gulf War (1990-1991) in which 0.2 million Iraqis were killed and in the war criminal 1990-2003 Sanctions in which Iraqi deaths from imposed deprivation totalled 1.7 million. France was not directly involved in the 2003-2011 US Alliance Iraq War in which 2.7 million Iraqis died from violence (1.5 million) or from war-imposed deprivation (1.2 million). France became involved in US Alliance bombing of Iraq in 2014, intervention that may prolong war and civil war in Iraq for decades more. The Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide has, so far, been associated with 1.7 million violent deaths, 2.9 million avoidable deaths from war-imposed deprivation, 5-6 million refugees and 2 million under-5 infant deaths (90% avoidable and due to horrendous US Alliance war crimes in gross violation of the Geneva Convention) [9, 17].

Libya [(a) 6.3 million; (b) 0.8 million; (c) 8,000; (d) $15,900]. France was involved with the UK in attacking Libya in 1815. Libya was brutally occupied by Italy in the period 1911-1943 but was “liberated” and ruled by the UK and France until UN administration in 1949 and independence in 1951. Under Muammar Gaddafi (1969-2011) Libya became the most prosperous country in all of Africa. The 2011 France-UK-US (FUKUS) Alliance bombing campaign removed Gaddafi, splintered the country, killed 100,000 people and generated 1 million refugees. From zero annual avoidable deaths under Gaddafi, UN demographic data now indicate 8,000 avoidable deaths annually in a devastated Libya. The US continues to bomb Libya.

Mali [(a) 20.1 million; (b) 7.0 million; (c) 199,000; (d) $1,700]. Mali was brutally subdued by the French in the 19th century but secured independence in 1960. In 2013, France launched airstrikes against Tuareg rebels who had conquered the northern half of the country and finally defeated them in a so-called Operation Serval. France followed up Operation Serval with Operation Barkhane dedicated to killing Muslim rebels in the Sahel countries of Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.

Mauritania [(a) 17.6 million; (b) 1.3 million; (c) 123,000; (d) $4,300]. In the 14th and 15th centuries Mauritania was part of the Mali Empire but was increasingly subject to European (Portuguese, English, Dutch and French) incursion, In the 19th century the French invaded to consolidate French territory from Senegal to the Sudan. Mauritanian resistance was only finally overcome in the 1930s. Mauritania became formally independent in 1960 but was subject to French hegemony and interference. France’s Operation Barkhane involves thousands of air-supported French troops dedicated to killing Muslim rebels in the Sahel countries of Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.

Niger [(a) 19.9 million; (b) 6.6 million; (c) 111,000. (d) $1,100]. In the 17th century Niger was part of the Songhai Empire based on the River Niger. Niger was conquered by France in the late 19th century but became ostensibly independent in 1960 but under French hegemony. The French Operation Barkhane involves thousand of air-supported French troops dedicated to killing Muslim rebels in the Sahel countries of Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.

Somalia [(a) 10,8 million; (b) 5.6 million; (c) 91,000. (d) $600]. Somalia was repeatedly invaded by Italy in the 19th century and the 20th century. The British took over Somalia in WW2. Independence in 1960 was followed by war against Ethiopia and civil war, the effects of which were exacerbated by drought and famine. The US invaded in 1992 and after extensive civil war an Islamic administration assumed power in 2005. However the US backed an Ethiopian invasion in 2007 and thence a Kenyan invasion. In 2009 France and Germany invaded Somali waters to retake a French yacht which had been captured by Somali pirates. In 2013 French special forces from Djibouti failed in an operation to rescue French intelligence agent from Indigenous Somali al-Shabaab forces in the town of Buulo Mareer.

Syria [18.5 million; (b) 2.2 million; (c) 30,000; (d) $5,100]. French crusaders invaded Syria in the 11th and 12th centuries. Notwithstanding Arab participation in the British defeat of the Turks in WW2, secret deception by the Allies via the 1916 Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreement divided the Middle East between Britain and France. In 1920 Syria was put under a League of Nations mandate to France. In 1925 there was a Druze rebellion and the French bombarded Damascus. In 1926 Lebanon was separated from Syria by France and in 1936 Syria was granted autonomy. In 1941 British and Free French forces invaded to defeat pro-Nazi Vichy French forces. In 1944 Syria became independent and in 1945 Syria became a founding member of the UN. The last French forces left Syria in 1946. However French diplomatic, military, financial and nuclear assistance to Apartheid Israel ultimately enabled Apartheid Israel to occupy and largely ethnically cleanse the Golan Heights part of Syria in 1967 and to regularly bomb Syria with impunity since then. France (together with Turkey, the US, UK, Saudi Arabia and Qatar) has materially and diplomatically backed anti-Assad rebels in Syria since about 2011 and only a Russia/China veto at the UN Security Council prevented a France-UK-US (FUKUS) Alliance repeat in Syria of what FUKUS did to Libya. Assad’s Syria barely survives as a rare secular state in the Muslim world with Russian and Iranian support whereas US policy has destroyed secular regimes elsewhere in the Muslim world, notably in Afghanistan (1978), Iran ( 1953), Iraq (2003) and Libya (2011)[18]. Assad commenting after the Paris atrocity: “[France’s] mistaken policies… have contributed to the spread of terrorism… France has got to know what we live with in Syria…[ President Francois Hollande] should change his policy…The question that is being asked throughout France today is, was France’s policy over the past five years the right one? The answer is no” [19]. Indeed on 12 November 2012, precisely 3 years before the Paris attack, France became the first Western power to officially recognise Syria’s opposition coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people [20]. The Syrian Civil War has so far killed about 0.3 million people violently, possibly killed about 0.3 million people through war-imposed deprivation, and generated about 12 million refugees. Syria was once a haven of religious toleration [21] and a world leader per capita in providing haven for refugees, but has now been devastated in a France-, UK-, US- and Apartheid Israel-backed sectarian civil war and half of its population are now refugees themselves.

France has invaded about 82 countries (as compared to the UK 193, Australia 95, the US 70, the US 70, Germany 38, Japan 30, Russia 24, Canada 24, Apartheid Israel 12 and China 2) [2, 22-24 ], testament to an entrenched culture of French hubris, French imperialism, French racism and French state terrorism. Many throughout the world are quite rightly appalled by the Paris atrocity but ignore or excuse the continuing, horrendous record of French invasions of other countries, French state terrorism and war crimes such as those for which Nazi German generals were hanged after 1945.

Indeed the ongoing war criminal French invasion of other countries in the 21st century is regarded by many in the Orwellian, Zionist-perverted US Alliance Murdochracies, Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies as “peace keeping” or “responsibility to protect” (”R2P”) i.e. these egregious war crimes are not considered to be crimes at all but are regarded as noble humanitarian endeavours. This Mainstream media whitewashing of French war crimes reminds one of the words of great French playwright Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) in “Tartuffe ou L’Imposteur” (“Tartuffe or the Hypocrite”): “Le scandale du monde est ce que fait l’offence, Et ce n’est pas pécher que pécher en silence (It is public scandal that constitutes offence, and to sin in secret is not to sin at all)” [3].

People are rightly appalled by the Paris atrocities perpetrated against hundreds of unarmed and innocent civilians but ignore the Elephant in the Room reality that since the defeat of Napoleon by the Russians and thence by the British and Germans at Waterloo, the French have mostly directed their military prowess against effectively unarmed and impoverished people in the Americas (Mexico, Guiana and Haiti) , the northern half of Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia, East Asia (China) and the Pacific. Almost none of these victim countries have ever invaded other countries and then only with contiguous, neighbouring countries [3]. Indeed of the 14 countries bombed or occupied by France in the 21st century, only Iraq and Libya had invaded a neighbour (UK-created Kuwait and Chad, respectively). The annual per capita GDP of France’s 14 impoverished 21st century victims range from $600 (Central African Republic and Somalia) to $15,300 and $15,900 for oil-rich Iraq and Libya, respectively, as compared to $41,000 for serial-invader and Syrian terrorism-supporting France, $54,000 for serial invader and Syrian terrorism-supporting US, $137,000 for Syrian terrorism–supporting and Yemen-invading Qatar and $52,000 for Syrian terrorism-supporting and Yemen-invading Saudi Arabia [25].

Conclusions.

Decent people around the world will unreservedly condemn the appalling Paris atrocity involving about 130 innocent and unarmed civilians killed and 300 wounded. However this atrocity is evident “blowback” for the role of France under serial war criminal Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande in the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)–promoted US War on Muslims that amounts to a Muslim Holocaust and a Muslim Genocide (13 million Muslim deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation since 1990). Indeed ISIS has claimed responsibility for this atrocity, citing the French military involvement in Syria.

In the 21st century a US lackey, nuclear terrorist, New Vichy France has attacked or otherwise sent military forces to 13 substantially Muslim countries and is major backer of nuclear terrorist Apartheid Israel that is responsible for an ongoing Palestinian Genocide ( 2 million Palestinian deaths since 1936 from violence, 0.1 million, or from violently-imposed deprivation, 1.9 million [26]).

Decent people must wonder what they can do in the face of appalling non-state terrorism as exhibited by ISIS in this latest Paris atrocity and the vastly worse carnage wrought by French state terrorism, US state terrorism, UK state terrorism and Apartheid Israeli state terrorism in the Muslim world. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people who are utterly opposed to both non-state terrorism and state terrorism must (a) inform everyone they can, (b) urge and support urgent cease-fire, dialogue and compromise between all parties to prevent a worsening catastrophe in both Iraq and Syria, and (c) urge and apply Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against all people, parties, politicians, companies, corporations and countries disproportionately involved in militarism, violence, war, non-state terrorism and state terrorism.

Unfortunately in New Vichy France under serial war criminal Hollande, (a) there is a massive media ignoring, as in the rest of the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)–dominated West, of the horrendous realities of US Alliance state terrorism, (b) the rational course of urgent cease-fire, dialogue and compromise is dismissed in favour of endless high technology extermination, and (c) a recent French court ruling makes it now effectively illegal in France for pro-peace and pro-human rights activists to advocate Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against neo-Nazi apartheid states like Apartheid Israel and their racist supporters [27]. Decent French people must respond to the appalling Paris atrocity by recognizing the racist and murderous evil of state terrorism and its propensity to excite murderous non-state terrorism – they must get rid of Hollande and his ilk at the ballot box.

References.

[1]. Glenn Greenwald, “The bombing of Mali highlights all the lessons of western intervention”, Guardian, 15 January 2013: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/14/mali-france-bombing-intervention-libya .

[2]. Gideon Polya, “President Hollande And French Invasion Of Privacy Versus French Invasion Of 80 Countries Since 800 AD”, Countercurrents, 15 January, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya150114.htm .

[3]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes an avoidable mortality-related history of every country since Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on he web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html .

[4]. “Bengali Holocaust (WW2 Bengal Famine) writings of Gideon Polya”, Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/bengali-holocaust .

[5]. Gideon Polya (1998), “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability”, 2008 edition that is now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ .

[6]. Gideon Polya (1995) ” The Forgotten Holocaust – The 1943/44 Bengal Famine”: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com.au/2005/07/forgotten-holocaust-194344-bengal.html .

[7]. Gideon Polya (2011), “Australia And Britain Killed 6-7 Million Indians In WW2 Bengal Famine”, Countercurrents, 29 September, 2011: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya290911.htm .

[8]. “Afghan Holocaust Afghan Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .

[9]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .

[10]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .

[11]. “Preview: Hamid Karzai says al-Qaeda is a “myth’”, Al Jazeera, 10 September 2015: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/upfront/2015/09/preview-hamid-karzai-al-qaeda-myth-150910101842572.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=*AfPak%20Daily%20Brief ).

[12]. Sven Lindqvist, “Exterminate All The Brutes”.

[13]. Jeremy Bender, “France’s military is all over Africa”, Business Insider Australia, 23 January 2015: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/frances-military-is-all-over-africa-2015-1 .

[14]. Azzad Essa, “Muslims being “erased” from Central African Republic”, Al Jazeera, 31 July 2015: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/amnesty-muslims-erased-central-african-republic-150731083248166.html

[15]. UNHCR, “Central African Republic”: http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e45c156.html .

[16]. David Smith, “France’s poisoned legacy in the Central African Republic”, Guardian, 29 April 2015: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/29/france-poisoned-legacy-central-african-republic .

[17]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .

[18]. Gideon Polya, “Fundamentalist America Has Trashed Secular Governance, Modernity, Democracy, Women’s Rights And Children’s Rights In The Muslim World”, Countercurrents, 21 May, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya210515.htm

[19]. Imed Lamloun, “Syria’s Assad blames France as Arab world condemns Paris attacks”, Yahoo News, 14 November 2015: http://news.yahoo.com/syrias-assad-blames-france-arab-world-condemns-paris-193922961.html .

[20]. “Syria: France backs anti-Assad coalition”, BBC News, 13 November 2012: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-20319787 .

[21]. William Dalrymple, “From the Holy Mountain”.

[22]. Gideon Polya, “As UK Lackeys Or US Lackeys Australians Have Invaded 85 Countries (British 193, French 80, US 70)”, Countercurrents, 9 February, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya090215.htm .

[23]. Gideon Polya, “The US Has Invaded 70 Nations Since 1776 – Make 4 July Independence From America Day”, Countercurrents, 5 July, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya050713.htm .

[24]. Gideon Polya, “British Have Invaded 193 Countries: Make 26 January ( Australia Day, Invasion Day) British Invasion Day”, Countercurrents, 23 January, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya230115.htm .

[25]. “List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita .

[26]. “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .

[27]. Ali Abunimah, “France now more repressive of boycott calls than Israel”, Electronic Intifada, 4 November 2015: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-now-more-repressive-boycott-calls-israel .

Dr Gideon Polya has been teaching science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript

) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ). When words fail one can say it in pictures – for images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
16 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org

 

‘It is illegal under US and international law to transfer weapons to human rights abusers, or to forces that will likely use it to commit gross violations of human rights.’
By Sarah Lazare

The Pentagon announced on Monday that the U.S. has approved a $1.29 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, despite mounting evidence of the country’s mass atrocities and possible war crimes in neighboring Yemen.

The U.S. State Department on Friday approved the sale of over 10,000 bombs, munitions, and weapons parts produced by Boeing and Raytheon. This includes 5,200 Paveway II “laser guided” and 12,000 “general purpose” bombs. “Bunker Busters,” also included in the deal, are designed to destroy concrete structures.

“The proposed sale augments Saudi Arabia’s capability to meet current and future threats from potential adversaries during combat operations,” the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Defense, said in an announcement of the deal released Monday.

But Raed Jarrar, government relations manager for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), told Common Dreams: “Sending additional weapons to the Middle East will not stabilize the region or put an end to violence and extremism. Supporting proxy wars, interventions, and military occupations will only add fuel to the fire.”

“It’s also illegal under US and international law to transfer weapons to human rights abusers, or to forces that will likely use it to commit gross violations of human rights,” Jarrar continued. “There is documented evidence that such abuses have been committed by almost all of U.S. allies in the region.”

The U.S. statement indicates that the deal will, in part, be used to replenish arms for Saudi Arabia’s seven-month-long military assault on Yemen, which has killed at least 2,355 civilians and wounded 4,862, according to United Nations statistics.

With the backing of the U.S. and U.K., the Saudi-led coalition is responsible for the vast majority of these killings. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported in September that “almost two-thirds of reported civilian deaths had allegedly been caused by coalition airstrikes, which were also responsible for almost two-thirds of damaged or destroyed civilian public buildings.”

The approval came just a month after the U.S. approved an $11.25 billion sale of combat ships to Saudi Arabia, defying the international call for an arms embargo over war crimes concerns. What’s more, it continues a long-standing trend in which the U.S. is a major weapons supplier to the gulf state. The IHS Jane’s 360 report, released in March, found that Saudi Arabia was the primary “defense” trading partner with the United States in 2014.

In announcing this latest weapons deal, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said: “Providing these defense articles supports Saudi Arabian defense missions and promotes stability in the region… and enables Saudi Arabia to safeguard the world’s largest oil reserves.”

But experts warn that such sales, in fact, are driving instability and atrocities across the Middle East—far beyond Yemen.

In a statement released on Monday, Paul Shannon of the AFSC called on “the U.S., France and the west to cut off its support and vast weapons supplies to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies whose royal families have been responsible for the spread of the jihadist extremist ideology throughout the region.”

The arms deal will proceed unless Congress moves to block it in the next 30 days.

Sarah Lazare is a staff at commondreams.org

17 November 2015

By Prof. Shah Alam Khan

Elena Beaulieu (name changed), the twenty five year old student from Paris, was among the 80 people killed at the Bataclan Concert venue. Having been to Paris thrice, I could very well imagine the young girl in her bright pink lipstick, dancing excitedly to the tunes of the Eagles of Death Metal, unwary of the danger that lingered in the Parisian air like a poisonous gas. The mindless violence and murder appears to have a perennial occurrence on the streets of Paris now. Following the attacks on Charlie Hebdo this January, ‘Jihadi terror’ on the French soil became a reality.

But is it all about jihad? Is it all about radical Islam? Is it all about the ‘us’ versus ‘them’, where ‘us’ represents the triad of freedom, democracy and liberty and ‘them’, darkness and violence?

It is essential to abhor and condemn violence but it is also essential for the French to introspect. The origins of Friday’s attacks do not lie solely in the dusty lanes of Syria or the sleepy hamlets of Iraq. They reside very much in the zones de non-droit (lawless zones) of Paris and the une rues of Strasbourg. These areas with Muslim dominance have been fertile grounds for the cultivation of the jihadi who is willing to blow himself up amidst a group of innocent restaurant goers.

What have the French society done to its migrant population which compelled third and fourth generation children to fall for radical Islam? How does a third generation British Pakistani (Muslim) rise to represent the country’s cricket team while a third generation French Algerian happily straps a detonating belt across his waist in the name of jihad? The difference is not in their faiths or the migrant trajectories their forefathers have taken, the difference lies in the glue that integrates them to their respective societies. A paradox of liberal progress, which the French society so sadly represents.

It is strange that in Auberviliers, a northern suburb of Paris, Muslim children take an off from school for the Friday prayers. Strange, because it doesn’t happen in any other part of Europe!

It is but ironical that Islam is the religion of the ghettos of France. The segregation of Moroccan and Algerian Muslims is brazen in the present day France with Islamophobia governing every aspect of social consent building. In 2004, the National Consulting Committee on Human Rights of France asked its people how they feel about major religions. Half of the population thought positively about Christianity while a whopping 66% thought negatively of Islam! When asked, “what do you think when you hear the word Islam?” A good 83% responded-“terrorism”. A study in 2007 in France concluded that those resumes with a Muslim surname found it extremely difficult to get through the short-listing process for different jobs.

The colonial past of France digs its teeth in its present. The heavy immigration of Muslims from Algeria, Morroco, Tunisia and other North African nations is the conclusion of that process. Ghettoization, prejudice and a pan indifference to their problems render them vulnerable to divisive and violent ideologies.

It is thus important to know what radical Islam and the likes of ISIS can do to the peace of the French society but it also equally important to realize what the French society needs to do to prevent this radicalization. As they say, peace is not the absence of war; it is the presence of justice.

Prof. Shah Alam Khan AIIMS, New Delhi

16 November, 2015
Countercurrents.org