USA Is Responsible For ISIS Weapons Arsenal, Study Concludes

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A damning new report by Amnesty International has named the USA as the primary nation culpable for indirectly arming the Islamic State, drawing the conclusion that the Pentagon is at least partly responsible for the terrorist group’s conception, growth and subsequent reign of terror in the Middle East.

ISIS have acquired many weapons through illegal trading with unknown countries and arms dealers, but the vast majority of their current arsenal was stolen from Iraq. Amnesty claims that this was only made possible by a series of systematic failures and incompetencies by the USA in the aftermath of the 2003 Iraq invasion.

The report states:

‘US-led forces failed to act decisively to prevent human rights abuses, control stockpiles, disarm Iraqi soldiers when the armed forces were disbanded, and safeguard against arms surpluses and imports getting into the hands of militias working as death squads or insurgents. This was compounded by a failure to adequately vet, monitor, train and hold to account the various Iraqi security forces in a manner consistent with international human rights and humanitarian law.’

The report quotes Army General John Abizaid, Commander of the US Central Command, who testified this before the US Senate in September 2003:

“There is more ammunition in Iraq than any place I’ve ever been in my life, and it’s not securable. I wish I could tell you that we had it all under control. We don’t. There are certainly not enough forces anywhere to guard the ammunition in Iraq.”

Yet despite Abizaid’s stark warning 12 years ago, nothing has changed.

This shocking Amnesty International investigation reveals: ‘Between 2003 to 2007, the USA and other coalition members transferred more than one million weapons to the Iraqi armed forces. This was ‘infantry weapons and pistols with millions of rounds of ammunition to the Iraqi armed forces, despite the fact that the army was poorly structured, corrupt and ill-disciplined. Hundreds of thousands of those weapons went missing and are still unaccounted for.’

Rather than take General Abizaid’s 2003 testimony as a wake-up call, the USA chose to ignore him and ship more weapons and tanks to Iraq. The total military expenditure increased from $614 million in 2004 to over $9.5 billion in 2014.

In 2008, there was an attempt to tighten US Department of Defense rules regarding subcontracting. Some vital measures were put in place to control the export and transfer of weapons into Iraq, but in 2014, the Pentagon was granted permission by Congress to waive these regulations and continue its arms transfers to Iraq. By 2014, the USA had delivered over $500 million dollars’ worth of small arms and ammunition to the Iraqi Government.

‘During the invasion and its aftermath, the US-led coalition’s decision to disband the Iraqi army, estimated at around 400,000 personnel, meant that many tens of thousands of individuals returned home or went into hiding with their weapons. In addition, Iraqi civilians and armed groups that emerged following the US invasion looted Iraqi military and police weapons caches as coalition forces struggled to maintain effective control of military stocks.’

Amnesty concludes:

‘Mistakes made during the US-led occupation led to the mass proliferation of small arms and light weapons which are feeding the conflict to this day. The quantity and range of IS stocks of arms and ammunition ultimately reflect decades of irresponsible arms transfers to Iraq and multiple failures by the US-led occupation administration to manage arms deliveries and stocks securely.’

ISIS have also acquired weapons from the Free Syrian Army, which is supported and armed by the USA and its allies in their fight to topple President Assad. Amnesty reports:

‘ISIS has also gained access to weapons from other sources – notably capture or sale of Syrian military stocks and arms supplied to armed opposition groups in Syria by countries including Turkey, the Gulf States, and the USA.’

“The vast and varied weaponry being used by the armed group calling itself Islamic State is a textbook case of how reckless arms trading fuels atrocities on a massive scale,” said Patrick Wilcken, the researcher on arms control, security trade and human rights at Amnesty International, in a statement.

This report is a public relations disaster for the Pentagon, and not only because of it reveals the USA’s terrible incompetencies. Amnesty International actually hints that ISIS simply wouldn’t exist at all if it weren’t for the disastrous 2003 Iraq war, during which terrible human rights abuses against Iraqi civilians and inside Abu Ghraib prison sparked a radical uprising against what were seen as the Western oppressors. They state:

‘Following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent fall of President Saddam Hussein, a number of insurgent armed groups composed largely of Sunni men emerged in opposition to the occupying forces and the Shi’a-dominated Iraqi government. The Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad group, set up by Jordanian national Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi in 2002, became a major force in the insurgency after declaring allegiance to al-Qa’ida and establishing al-Qa’ida in Iraq. After Abu Mussab al- Zarqawi was killed in a US air strike in 2006, al-Qa’ida in Iraq renamed itself Islamic State in Iraq.’

The USA is undoubtedly at fault, and must now do what it can to limit the damage caused by past mistakes and hold those responsible to account. However, the blame lies with the global arms trade in general: Amnesty International estimate that ISIS are using weapons made by no fewer than 30 different countries, including America’s allies Britain, Germany, and the Gulf States. Other countries that have indirectly armed the Islamic State include Italy, South Africa, the Balkans (Eastern European countries), Russia, Croatia, Belgium, China, and Austria.

As for black market arms trading, the investigation has uncovered ‘an illicit trade of weapons, ammunition and dual-use goods (civilian goods that may have military applications) over the Turkish border.’ They reveal that:

‘On 29 May 2015, the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet published photos and video footage of what it alleged was a convoy of trucks, leased by the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (MIT), carrying arms for rebel groups in Syria in January 2015. According to the report, the convoy was stopped and inspected by Turkish officials and was said to be carrying 1,000 mortars, 1,000 shells, 50,000 machine gun cartridges and 30,000 heavy machine gun cartridges, hidden under medical supplies. Turkish President Erdoğan and Prime Minister Davutoğlu denied that the trucks contained arms, claiming that they were carrying aid for people of Turkish decent in Syria.’

If Turkey’s President Erdogan, a strong ally to the West, is truly selling arms to the Islamic State, it will be the second ISIS-related bombshell in less than a month: he was recently accused of buying oil from the terrorist organization. It seems we in the West might want to re-think some of our cosy friendships.

In summary, the report backs up what most of us figured out a long time ago: you can’t possibly stop global terrorism if you’re not willing to stop selling arms to whichever psychotic group or government offers you good money. The politicians in the USA, the UK, Germany, and France who wax lyrical about the ‘moral’ reasons for going to war against the Islamic State in Syria should take a long hard look at the Amnesty report, and treat arms regulation as matter of urgency. Until the arms trade is kept in check, the bombs we are now dropping will have little effect.

‘This catastrophe is another wake-up call,’ Amnesty concludes. ‘All states must take a long view and conduct much deeper institutional risk assessments for arms export decisions and act with much greater precaution and restraint when transferring and managing arms.’

 

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First published here on December 14, 2015

This Is Huge: Evidence Emerges Linking Israel, Turkey To ISIS

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You might have seen accusations in the press this week* that the Islamic State is selling oil to Russia. Apparently, Turkish President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan claims that Putin is one of the key buyers in Syria’s dirty illegal oil trade. But don’t fall for it: the story now being peddled to us by the Western press is a panicked response to a major Russian exposé that first came to light last week. Actually, it’s our friend Turkey who has been caught buying oil from the terrorist organization…and that’s not all. Recent revelations point to evidence that:

• Erdogan’s son is dealing in illegal arms and oil with the Islamic State.
• Russian satellite images show three main oil smuggling routes to and from Turkey.
• Turkey shot down the Russian jet because it is defeating I.S and therefore interfering with Erdogan’s lucrative trade.
• Somehow, despite the scale of the operation, The USA seems to have missed all of this.
• There are also new claims about an Iraqi security team who have evidence of a top Israeli military officer fraternizing with members of the I.S.
• A journalist has uncovered evidence the USA is complicit in a Turkish terror campaign against a Kurdish village last March. He claims the Turkish army waged this war on civilians alongside Islamic jihadists.

You may remember Putin accusing the USA of creating and arming the Islamic State. In that interview, which we covered here, the Russian President claimed the White House knows exactly which of its allies are buying the oil that allows I.S to keep on growing.

We’ve had to wait a while to find out who he was referring to, and this is big news. But these revelations are at risk of being lost in a quagmire of lies, as Erdogan, backed by Western intelligence agencies and their media lapdogs, has inverted the truth to distract and confuse the public.

When a Russian jet was downed by Turkey in late November, Putin said:

“We have every reason to think that the decision to shoot down our plane was dictated by the desire to protect the oil supply lines to Turkish territory.”

Two days ago, the Russian Defense Ministry held a major briefing on new findings concerning IS funding in Moscow (see video). According to Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, up to 2,000 fighters, 120 tons of ammunition and 250 vehicles have been delivered to Islamic State and Al-Nusra militants from Turkish territory.

“Terrorism without money is an animal without teeth,” Antonov declared, saying Russia was determined to fight the Islamic State. He pointed out that attacking the source of their wealth is the logical key to defeating them. Antonov showed satellite evidence that Turkey is involved in a large-scale illegal smuggling campaign, and said:

“Today, we are presenting only some of the facts that confirm that a whole team of bandits and Turkish elites stealing oil from their neighbors is operating in the region.”

He claimed there are thousands of trucks and live oil pipelines involved.

“According to our data, the top political leadership of the country- President Erdogan and his family- is involved in this criminal business.”

“These [airstrikes] helped reduce the trade of the oil illegally extracted on the Syrian territory, by almost 50 per cent,” Antonov says, adding: “The income of this terrorist organization was about $3 million per day. After two months of Russian airstrikes their income was about $1.5 million a day.”

Turkey is certainly getting a lot of attention, but it has overshadowed other important news. A claim by the Iraqi security forces could point to Israel as a suspect in the terrorist group’s training and operations command.

In another massive revelation, FARS news agency reports that Iraqi security forces recently took an Israeli colonel hostage, along with the Islamic State militants he was accompanying. The Iraqi army commander told the agency that the Israeli militant “had participated in the ISIL group’s terrorist operations.”

The colonel was arrested along with the jihadists, and the Iraqi commander even specified the traitor’s name and dog collar number:

“The Israeli colonel’s name is Yusi Oulen Shahak and is ranked colonel in Golani Brigade with the security and military code of Re34356578765az231434.”

The Iraqi commander said it wasn’t the first time Israelis had been caught with Islamic State militants, but they had never before found a high ranking officer. Iraq also claims that I.S drones with Israeli-made labels have been shot down on two occasions.

Along with Israel’s Netanyahu, Reccep Tayyip Erdogan is far more of a tyrant than Vladimir Putin. His military is targeting Kurdish citizens, an ethnic group with their own language who are alienated in their own country. Most anti-Kurdish atrocities at the Turkish government’s hand have been ignored by the mainstream media, although a few independent journalists have uncovered clues that (like the downing of the Russian jet) Turkey’s actions have the USA’s approval.

President Erdogan has crushed civil liberties during his time in power, and responded with extreme violence during Turkish protests against his leadership. Other Western allies such as Qatar, Israel and Saudi Arabia are also known for their horrendous repression and human rights records, yet Putin- the only leader who is actually doing anything to crush the terrorist cell- always attracts the most criticism from the Western press.

Erdogan strongly denies Russia’s allegations, and has said he will resign if it can be proved he’s lying. Judging by the following image and Antonov’s statement in full, it the corrupt President should be packing his bags as we speak.

Russian satellite images of the ISIS oil hub with 3,000 trucks transporting oil to Turkey. Strangely enough, the USA hadn’t spotted it. Credit: RT/Russia

*First published December 4th 2015 here.

Venezuela, Oil, and U.S-led coups: Connecting the dots

American foreign policy is far more dangerous than Socialism…

Credit: Flickr, Riccardo Vásquez. Opposition activists hold signs saying they will fight for Venezuela rather than lose their country, as mediation talks begin.

Body of evidence

Earlier this month, it emerged that the U.S had created a ´Cuban Twitter´ in an attempt to stir social unrest and cause revolution in the communist country from the inside out. Incredibly, this was not a CIA operation, but rather ´a program paid for and run by the U.S Agency for International Development, best known for overseeing billions of dollars in U.S humanitarian aid.´ Aside from the obvious question (why is an aid organization carrying out a top-secret infiltration mission in Cuba?)- this news shouldn´t come as much of a surprise.

As far back as the 1950s, the CIA and British MI6 plotted to overthrow the government of newly-elected Mohamed Mossadegh, who had won a landslide victory in Iran and promised to nationalize the country´s oil, using the money to increase social wellbeing. Mossadegh was arrested for these ideals and replaced by a bloody dictatorship, whose CIA-trained security force would be condemned by Amnesty International in 1976 for having the ´worst human rights records on the planet.´

The Iranian coup d´etat was the first time America had paid so-called ´protesters´ to cause riots on the streets, but it wouldn´t be the last. The USA is the world´s self-styled bad cop: a role which involves disposing of any democratically elected governments which have the audacity to disagree with its neo-liberal capitalist view of the world. This is especially true, it seems, for those who dare to control their own oil and mineral reserves.

Violent Protests, Civilian Torture And Shady Agent Provocateurs: What’s Going On In Ukraine?

Ukrainian police face protesters. Credit: Flickr, Spoilt Exile

In light of Russia’s decision to launch a military operation against the Western-backed Ukrainian government, I’m re-posting an article written eight years ago on the events leading up to the Ukrainian conflict. It’s important to remind ourselves that this civil war has been raging for almost a decade, and is far more complex than the mainstream media would have you believe.

January 2014: This week four protesters died in Ukraine, the country at the centre of a political tug-of-war between Russia and Europe. More have allegedly been tortured by the state during anti-government protests which are spinning dangerously out of control.

Campaigners took to the streets in the capital Kiev in November, after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych decided not to go ahead with a planned treaty with the European Union. Many Ukrainians were hopeful that a new alliance with the great Western power would open up new trade deals, boost the economy and give them the benefit of free travel and work opportunities within the E.U once their membership was secured.

But Russia didn’t like this proposed alliance, putting pressure on Yanukovych to think twice about it. The two neighboring countries have a long and intertwined history, being strong allies allied and inextricably linked through the Soviet Union until its eventual collapse in 1991. Ukraine is a fertile country with a strong agricultural industry and is often known as ‘the breadbasket of Europe’. As the third largest grain exporter in the world, it’s not surprising that both Europe and Russia are in fierce competition to benefit from cheap trade deals. In the end though, Russia’s blackmailing of Ukraine over the E.U treaty – even offering them cheaper gas imports as a reward for continued loyalty to Moscow – worked well. Yanukovych bowed to Russian demands and declared he wouldn’t go ahead with the proposals (for now, at least).

First they came for the Roma: is history repeating itself for the forgotten victims of the Holocaust?

´Gypsy scum. Thieving tinkers. Workshy beggars. Child stealers´. A worrying program of ethnic cleansing is being carried out by governments across Europe. But while six centuries of negative stereotyping persists, who will defend Roma from further persecution?

Roma women and their babies are escorted from their camp by a policeman in France

In what looks increasingly like a pre-planned ´clean-up operation´, thousands of European Roma – usually referred to by the derogatory ´gypsies´- are being subjected to terrible treatment at the hands of the state, not to mention many vigilante mobs. But with so many deeply-entrenched negative feelings about this ethnic minority in the collective European mind, most people don´t care very much.

In Italy, violent evictions of Roma camps have been taking place since 2008, despite a ruling by Italy’s high court that these government crackdowns are unlawful. In France, Roma camp evictions began last year.70% of camps were razed in 2012, displacing over 12,000 Roma, and in one city locals took matters into their own hands and set fire to a settlement.

Thousands more Roma families have been displaced this year, and the trend looks set to continue- even French media are printing headlines about a ´Roma overdose´, and a facebook page called ´adopt a gypsy´ was at the center of another row about Roma rights in August, with one blogger speaking of ´eliminating´ the ethnic minority.

A Romany girl after a French camp eviction

In October, French students took to the streets to demand the return of a 15 year-old Romany schoolgirl who was detained and deported during a school trip. Leonarda Dibrani, of Kosovan heritage, had been studying in France while her family awaited news of their asylum claim It was rejected, so police stormed Leonarda´s school bus on a field trip, forcibly removing and arresting her. The handling of the case caused unnecessary public humiliation and trauma for everyone involved – even Leonarda´s teachers were distressed and crying.

The incident, and subsequent violent clashes on the streets between police and students (video) came after one French politician said that most of France´s 20,000 Roma do not want to integrate, and should go home.

Students protest against deportation

But how can they integrate when they are hated- and where is home anyway? As Leonarda told a Kosovan news agency (in French) after deportation: “I’m frightened, I don’t speak Albanian. My life is in France. I don’t want to go to school here because I don’t speak any of the local languages.”

The European financial crisis has fuelled racism and given rise to neo-fascism across the continent, providing governments with a convenient reason (amid widespread public support) for the toughening-up of immigration laws. Roma are an easy first target: by many, they are feared (and therefore hated). As a result, too many people lack the empathy and understanding to recognize how unjust the current wave of anti-Roma policies really are- or to ask themselves why Roma are living in camps in the first place.