Day: September 8, 2014

Propaganda Vs Propaganda

Remember Mad Magazine’s Spy vs Spy?  Something was going to go wrong with either the ‘white” spy or the “black”……..

Well the US has a new plan of action to employ in its fight with ISIS/ISIL/IS (you choose…I am tired of trying to keep up with the acronyms)……..the US will fight IS propaganda with US propaganda…….

Newser) – A new YouTube video depicts ISIS in all its brutality, but this time ISIS isn’t responsible—bizarrely, the US State Department is, the Washington Post reports. Mock recruitment video “Welcome to ISIL-Land” is 69 seconds of graphic violence meant to undermine the abundance of ISIS online propaganda. The message: ISIS casually kills innocent Muslims and they’ll kill you, too. Using footage shot by the group—including mosques blown up by suicide bombers, crucified bodies, severed heads, whippings, and executions, as per the New York Daily News—the video is aimed at young and disaffected Western Muslims, who are “potential recruits, potential sympathizers,” says a department spokeswoman. Some 100 Americans have already joined ISIS, adds CNN.

So far, the video hasn’t proven popular, with only 42,000 views since July—far less than the execution of journalist James Foley. But ISIS is a formidable online adversary, proving itself “successful and effective … at using propaganda, particularly social media,” one terrorism expert tells the Post. And then there’s this problem—potential ISIS recruits are “enthused by videos of executions and suicide bombings, not deterred by them,” says one expert. The YouTube video is part of a wider campaign to battle ISIS on those platforms, the US posting opposing messages on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr in various languages. The department acknowledges the latest video’s flaws: “We poke holes in their narrative, try to turn the tables. You’re not going to get a knockout blow,” says an official.

By modern definition… propaganda is lies used to sway the person to a certain way of thinking…….does that mean that the US will be lying to change minds?

Will this work?  Or is it just a limp wrist (no pun intended) approach?

Your thoughts please.

ISIS: Narrative To War

Opinion from the desk of the Editor:

 

I have been studying war for many years and yes that makes me an old fart…..I got interested in the study of conflict after my return from Vietnam and enter into my studies of international relations…….I studied the histories, the tactics and the results of many wars over the years at university and in that time one tactic stood out, especially in more modern wars…..that one tactic was propaganda…..a narrative to justify the aggression.

By narrative one could say the “lies” to justify a war.  Let’s look at recent conflicts gulf war one….George 1 used it by a narrative of Israel in danger, nuke possibilities and atrocities committed by the Saddam army….it worked….we went to war and the public was behind it….well a majority…there well always be those anti-war protesters

Fast forward to George 2…..he used a similar tactic…Saddam was harboring AQ and after 9/11 that was a no no, he was seeking nukes for aggression and of course those non-existent CWs……any way it worked….the public was solidly behind the war against Saddam.  Of course, all built on lies.

I bring all this up because it appears that the US and Obama is quickly working on its narrative for a further aggression in Iraq.

First, it was the humanitarian crisis of those people trapped on a mountain…..the problem was that there were not as many trapped as reported and then that became a non-story and we scrambled to find another narrative……..

Next there was the report that there were a least a 100 Americans fighting with ISIS and the possibility of them returning home and continuing their ‘jihad”…they must be stopped….the problem is the report comes out that there are about a dozen Americans there…..but the narrative is still the hundred figure…….

That did not seem to generate the concern or the popularity of another prolonged war….so the scramble is on for a deeper more disturbing narrative…….

And then yesterday an opening appeared….BAM!

Our ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, came up with a new more disturbing narrative……

The United States is concerned that the Islamic State group and other terrorists could get hold of chemical weapons if Syria is hiding any stockpiles, US Ambassador Samantha Power said Thursday.

Power said the US is concerned not only that President Bashar Assad’s regime still has chemical weapons but that any stockpiles left behind could end up in the hands of the Islamic State group, which has seized large swaths of Syria and Iraq.

“Certainly if there are chemical weapons left in Syria, there will be a risk that those weapons fall into ISIL’s hands. And we can only imagine what a group like that would do if in possession of such a weapon,” Power said, referring to the militant group by one of its known acronyms.

There you have it…..the newest narrative is a well used one from the past……WMDs!  The only thing missing this time is the “mushroom cloud” comment from before.

As usual the war hawks hit the screen on the Sunday talk shows…….everybody has a 2 cents they want to throw out there……..

(Newser) – With President Obama’s speech outlining his ISIS “game plan” coming Wednesday, there was no shortage of opinion today on the talk shows about what he should do. “What we ought to have is a directed, concerted, overwhelming campaign to take them out,” Ted Cruz told ABC. “The focus should be Iraq, but the real focus should be taking out ISIS. Within Syria, it should not be our objective to try and resolve the civil war.” Cruz dinged Obama for not “taking ISIS seriously,” and added that “the American people in 2014 and also November 2016 are going to be looking for leaders who want to work to restore America’s leadership in the world.” Which, coincidentally, “increases my interest in doing everything I can to change the direction we’re on,” vis a vis a 2016 run, notes Politico. More from your Sunday dial, as per Politico:

  • Henry Kissinger: “When an American is murdered on television for the purpose of terrorizing Americans, there should be a response that you cannot, you would not, analyze in terms of a normal response to provocation. Something has to crystallize out of this violence and it won’t happen without our leadership.”
  • Mitt Romney: Obama “is so out of touch with reality that he hasn’t taken the kind of action necessary to prevent very bad things from happening,” like the rise of ISIS. “I don’t know if you can’t see reality from the fairway.”
  • Dianne Feinstein: “I want to congratulate the president. He is now on offense. It is overdue, but the president is now there. I think it is the right thing for America. Time’s a-wasting. We’ve now said that we’re going to go on the offensive. It’s time for America to project power and strength.”
  • Mike Rogers: Obama should “lay out a very certain case” for action against ISIS, and “engage Congress, the American people on what exactly we’re going to do here.”

Now they wait to see if this will increase the support for further Iraqi aggression……..if not then the hunt for the perfect narrative to war will continue until the best one is found.

I will wait to see just how gullible the American public is going to be….this time.

Terrorism: Jealousy Is An Ugly Thing

Opinion from the desk of the Editor:

 

I am not talking about the atrocities these animals perpetrate on innocent people….not the beheading, executions, suicide bombers the whole list of despicable tactics…..NO the ugly I am speaking of in this piece is the…..JEALOUSY!

Yes, the terrorist of the different organizations are starting to get jealous over the press one is getting over the other.  It appears that some of these groups are pretending to be the defender of Islam and are committing crimes in the name of the religion knowing this will feed the hate and in turn make there acts ‘newsworthy’.

Thanks to the press ISIS has gotten all the free press lately, at least for the last couple of months….their quick rise to prominence, the beheading, the crimes like executions, kidnapping and selling women for profit….the press has gone all out to emphasize their crimes.

ISIS is drawing lots of attention from the other groups wanting the fame and notoriety…..and the groups are starting to throw everything into their trip back to the ‘top’…………like al-Qaeda………

With an even more brutal group of Islamic extremists capturing the world’s attention, is al-Qaeda feeling neglected? In what analysts see as an effort to grab the spotlight from ISIS, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has announced the formation of an Indian branch of the terror network that will “raise the flag of jihad” across the region, reports Al Jazeera. In a 55-minute video posted online, Zawahri called the new entity the “fruit of a blessed effort of more than two years to gather the mujahedeen in the Indian subcontinent” and vowed to bring Islamic law to the entire region.

Al-Qaeda disowned ISIS early this year, and while Zawahri didn’t mention the former affiliate by name, he appeared to be taking swipes at it with comments like “Discord is a curse and torment, and disgrace for the believers and glory for the disbelievers,” reports Reuters. Three Indian states with high Muslim populations have been placed on alert, though it’s not clear how much of a threat the new entity is. Al-Qaeda “is struggling for its legitimacy in the eyes of the radicalized Muslim world,” a top Indian security analyst tells the AP. Osama bin Laden is dead, and al-Qaeda’s “entire top leadership, apart from Zawahri and a few others, one by one have been decimated by the American drone attacks,” the analyst says.

Since the death of Osama the group has lost some of its luster and now they are tring to climb back on top and this could be their start or opening salvo, if you will.

AQ is not the only jealous group……remember back months ago and we were introduced to Boko Haram after they kidnapped a bunch of young girls….well since then they have continued their reign of terror in Nigeria with more kidnappings, the random killing of innocent civilians, attacks on military units and in all that time their leader has said that if there was going to be a caliphate then he would be the one to establish it…..

Thousands of refugees are fleeing northeast Nigeria into Cameroon, the U.N. refugee agency reported Wednesday, as extremists pursue a new strategy to hold land they are calling an “Islamic caliphate.”

Hundreds of Cameroonians also are abandoning their homes since Nigerian Islamic extremists last week began attacking villages in the neighboring country, UNHCR spokeswoman Helene Caux told The Associated Press.

In one instance Boko Haram fighters slit the throats of three people found in a Catholic Church in the Cameroonian village of Assighassia, she said. That also is a new tactic for Boko Haram, which previously had only kidnapped Cameroon citizens for ransom.

As you can see the major groups are jockeying for position as the world’s most brutal terrorist organization…..jealousy is an ugly thing…..and especially when it is between terrorist groups trying to out brutal each other all in a desperate need for the world’s attention.

Obama and Biden as well as other world leaders have thumped their chest and said that they will “destroy ISIS”….a lovely promise but the problem is that once destroyed there will be another to take it’s place and we start this whole exercise all over again.

The cycle will remain unbroken.

The Roots Of The Islamic State

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Islam and IS

 

By now every American is an expert on ISIS or ISIL or IS, whichever acronym you choose to use….but the fact is they know very little or nothing at all.  Sure they are or at least claim to be an Islamic organization and that one point can be argued…..from what I have learned of Islam they are NOT…the word is NOT…..an Islamic anything….they are an authoritarian group of thugs and brutes….but that is an argument for another day……

The question should be….where did IS get their ideals…..what drives them to do unspeakable things in the name of a religion that wants NOTHING to do with them?

IS, AQ and Boko Haram have their beginnings in a sect of Islam known as wahhabism which is not the mainline Islam faith but has become a strong contender….now you may ask what is wahhabism?

This movement, commonly known as the Wahhabi movement, grew out of the scholarship and preaching of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, a scholar of Islamic jurisprudence who had studied in Mesopotamia and the Hijaz before returning to his native Najd to preach his message of Islamic reform.

Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab was concerned with the way the people of Najd engaged in practices he considered polytheistic, such as praying to saints; making pilgrimages to tombs and special mosques; venerating trees, caves, and stones; and using votive and sacrificial offerings. He was also concerned by what he viewed as a laxity in adhering to Islamic law and in performing religious devotions, such as indifference to the plight of widows and orphans, adultery, lack of attention to obligatory prayers, and failure to allocate shares of inheritance fairly to women.

Under the Wahhabis, however, the ban extended to all intoxicating drinks and other stimulants, including tobacco. Modest dress is prescribed for both men and women in accordance with the Quran, but the Wahhabis specify the type of clothing that should be worn, especially by women, and forbid the wearing of silk and gold, although the latter ban has been enforced only sporadically. Music and dancing have also been forbidden by the Wahhabis at times, as have loud laughter and demonstrative weeping, particularly at funerals.

The Wahhabi emphasis on conformity makes of external appearance and behavior a visible expression of inward faith. Therefore, whether one conforms in dress, in prayer, or in a host of other activities becomes a public statement of whether one is a true Muslim. Because adherence to the true faith is demonstrable in tangible ways, the Muslim community can visibly judge the quality of a person’s faith by observing that person’s actions. In this sense, public opinion becomes a regulator of individual behavior. Therefore, within the Wahhabi community, which is striving to be the collective embodiment of God’s laws, it is the responsibility of each Muslim to look after the behavior of his neighbor and to admonish him if he goes astray.

There you have a quick and simple explanation of the religious extremism that IS is functioning under…..you see Islam has its extremist adherents just like Christianity….the actions of IS are no more typical of Islam than the snake handlers are typical of all Christians…….but these far out religious nuts will be used to fuel the hate for all things Muslim.  Ant that is truly sad and just a bit pathetic.

I keep hearing that the Saudis need to step up and work with the West in their attempts to de-nut IS…..I have a problem with that.  I do not trust the Saudis to be good faith partners in the attempt to control IS……now you want to know why, right?

Chatham House professor Paul Stevens says: “For a long time, there was an unwritten agreement … whereby al-Qaida’s presence was tolerated in Saudi Arabia, but don’t piss inside the tent, piss outside.” Coates Ulrichsen warns that Saudi policy on Syria could be “Afghanistan on steroids”, as elements of the regime have turned a blind eye to where funding for anti-Assad rebels ends up.

Although Saudi Arabia has given $100m (£60m) to the UN anti-terror programme and the country’s grand mufti has denounced Isis as “enemy number one”, radical Salafists across the Middle East receive ideological and material backing from within the kingdom. According to Clinton’s leaked memo, Saudi donors constituted “the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide”.

Saudis connection with funding extreme groups will make them an unreliable partner…..they will throw money at the problem but only to stay on the good side of the US……..I think if everyone is truly serious about beheading IS then there must be some pull back from Saudi Arabia……for they are all talk and will be useless in the fight against IS.