"But not a word of criticism or of disapproval have I heard of Hitler. He is as immune from criticism as a king in a monarchical country. He is something more. He is the George Washington of Germany—the man who won for his country independence from all her oppressors." I talked to Hitler by the Right Honourable David Lloyd George Daily Express, September 17, 1936, pp. 12-17 (Not a primary source)
"If we see that Germany is winning, we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning, we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible, although I don’t want to see Hitler victorious in any circumstances." Harvard Crimson, wiki, Politico (No Primary source)
"In economics, before the war, and to a large extent still, its eggs are, so to speak, in two baskets, the one tin, and the other rubber. Very fortunate it is for this country that those baskets are there, because they have very largely supported the standard of living of the people of this country and the sterling area ever since the war ended; what we should do without Malaya, and its earnings in tin and rubber, I do not know… . I am sure also that it is essential to diversify the economy of rural Malaya, to go in more for mixed farming, for internal fish farms—not merely sea fisheries—to grow more and diverse cash crops, such as cocoa, palm oil and the rest. We must get away from this utter reliance on tin and rubber, because we are too much in the hands of other people and we have seen the difficulties caused by the United States' staying out of the market and what it has meant to the price of tin and rubber" THE SITUATION IN MALAYA
"Mr. W Hamilton: Sharethis specific contribution asked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations and the Colonies why he consented to the military attack on the township of Harib in tie Yemen Republic on 28th March; how many lives were lost; what damage was caused to property; and what representations have been received from the Government of the Yemen about the incident.
Mr. Fisher: Sharethis specific contribution
I would refer the hon. Member to the Prime Minister's full statement on 9th April.There was no attack on the township of Harib. We do not know how many casualties were suffered by Yemeni military personnel in Harib fort. We regret any loss of life which may have occurred despite the warning given by leaflet. Most of the upper storey of the fort was damaged and some damage was also caused to the lower storey, and to certain guns. Representations have been received from the Yemeni Republican authorities." Harib Fort (Raf Attack) Volume 693: debated on Tuesday 14 April 1964
"The Subcommittee found that the Contra drug links included: Involvement in; narcotics trafficking by individuals associated with the Contra movement. Participation of narcotics traffickers in; Contra supply operations through business relationships with Contra organizations. Provision of assistance to the Contras by narcotics traffickers, including cash, weapons, planes, pilots, air supply services and other materials, on a voluntary basis by the traffickers. Payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in; some cases; after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies. These activities were carried out in; connection with Contra activities in; both Costa Rica and Honduras" DRUGS, LAW ENFORCEMENT AND FOREIGN POLICY A REPORT; PREPARED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, NARCOTICS AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERS'TY JUNE 30th 1989 Page 36
Now, when this crisis came on and the thing was about to collapse, we violated our normal criteria and among the other things we did, we provided the army immediately on an emergency basis, blankets, boots, uniforms, electric generators, and medical supplies that permitted and created the atmosphere in which they could support the Shah … The guns that they had in their hands, the trucks that they rode in, the armored cars that they drove through the streets, and the radio communications that permitted their control, were all furnished through the military defense assistance program" Hearings in 1954 before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on “The Mutual Security Act of 1954” Page 503, 569-570
"Some of the equipment needed for Iran's enormous contribution to defence has come from Britain. It is also a source of pride that British contractors are going to build the new military industrial complex at Isfahan; and have helped to construct the dockyard at Bandarabbas. Defence sales generate employment in Britain, which we badly need. Iran's purchases of British fighting vehicles provide many thousands of jobs throughout our engineering industries. Thanks largely to the growth of the Iranian economy, trade between us has increased enormously in Recent years. Iran has become by far our largest market in the Middle East. Counting the “invisibles” , our sales to Iran now amount to more than £1 billion a year. We should like to do even better." 1978 Apr 29Margaret Thatcher Speech to Irano-British Chamber of Commerce
"But all 21 of the CIA items posted today (in addition to 14 previously unpublished British documents — see Sidebar), reinforce the conclusion that the United States, and the CIA in particular, devoted extensive resources and high-level policy attention toward bringing about Mosaddeq's overthrow, and smoothing over the aftermath." CIA Confirms Role in 1953 Iran Coup No. 435 Posted – August 19, 2013
"The Yamamah deal became mired in a long-running controversy over allegations that BAE, Britain’s biggest arms dealer, made huge illicit payments to Saudi royals to land the contract. In 2006, Tony Blair’s government abruptly halted a Serious Fraud Office investigation into the allegations following pressure from the Saudis and the firm. In 2010, BAE agreed to pay almost £300m in penalties, to settle an investigation by US and UK authorities into alleged corruption in its deals with the Saudis and other countries… With the enthusiastic backing of British arms companies, Thatcher apologised to King Fahd for hostile comments about Saudi Arabia in the British press… Intriguingly, the letter has been redacted just before a passage in which Thatcher says she agrees that “no publicity whatever” should be given to the negotiations over the arms deal. Thatcher bowed to the Saudi demands for secrecy. “You may be confident of our complete discretion”, Thatcher told King Fahd in January 1985." Margaret Thatcher’s lobbying of Saudi royals over arms deal revealed The Guardian Wed 15 Jul 2015
"One of Al Yamamah's achievements has been the training and equipping of the Royal Saudi Air Force by Britain. Both training and aircraft were put to the test of wartime combat far sooner than anyone expected. As we now know, both the aircraft and their RSAF pilots performed superbly in Operation Desert Storm. The Al Yamamah programme has continued steadily since the conflict. When this year's new order of a further 48 Tornado aircraft for the RSAF has been executed it will be safe to say that Saudi Arabia will have one of the strongest and most effective Air Forces in the world. Those who argue that arms sales to Middle Eastern Countries are in themselves dangerous because they increase the likelihood of future conflicts are totally misguided." Margaret Thatcher Speech Archives, ‘Margaret Thatcher Speech to Chatham House Conference on Saudi Arabia’, 4 October 1993.
Financial Times , ‘Ministers cite security in effort to block details of Saudi deal’, 28 May 2015 - Financial Times , ‘UK-Saudi contract details can stay secret, tribunal rules’, 24 July 2015
"Whilst we have agreements and Treaties of Friendship of various descriptions with all GCC countries, the only formal treaty obligation we have which explicitly commits us to the defence of a country is with the United Arab Emirates, in the form of a Defence Co-operation Accord signed in 1996 ... All of the GCC countries have an expectation that we would assist them in times of crisis, as we did in 1990, and as the continuing deployment of British troops in the region has shown we are prepared to do. Many of the GCC countries do not feel the need for an agreement because we have continually assured them of our commitment to the stability of the region, and a formal treaty could be construed as a limitation on the UK's preparedness to assist by setting out defined limits on when and where the UK would help out. Nevertheless, the UK should remain open to requests for such treaties from GCC states" House of Commons Select Committee on Defence, ‘Thirteenth Report 1999/2000’, 26 July 2000, paragraph 7
"Our military training teams and loan service personnel, and the courses which Arab soldiers, sailors and airmen attend at UK training establishments, are obvious manifestations of our commitment to enhancing the military capability of the region. These contacts help to build bridges. But they also enhance and make more credible the ability of the Gulf States to deter would-be aggressors. This is a direct contribution to regional stability, and one that I believe the British Armed Forces are uniquely qualified to make" House of Commons Select Committee on Defence, ‘Thirteenth Report 1999/2000’, 26 July 2000, paragraph 66
"An important element of defence relations is defence sales and there is undoubtedly a link between the commitment countries are prepared to make in offering military assistance to friendly nations and their ability to sell defence equipment to those nations. The Secretary of State was reluctant to accept that there was a direct correlation between the two but this probably reflects the rather ambivalent attitude the UK has to defence sales, compared with our more up-front allies, such as France and the US. The impression we gained during our visit was that host countries have great respect for the UK's approach in keeping military assistance separate from defence sales and it is obvious that there is a delicate line to tread here. Decisions about defence procurement, in the Gulf countries as elsewhere, are frequently political decisions. The MoD should be prepared, on occasions, to be more direct in linking the promotion of UK equipment to military assistance. Otherwise it risks the UK defence industry being disadvantaged to the benefit of our less coy allies and competitors." House of Commons Select Committee on Defence, ‘Thirteenth Report 1999/2000’, 26 July 2000, paragraph 68
"The two-page report is a 1977 record of a talk between a British official and Ian Henderson, a senior British security chief who advised Bahrain for decades after its independence… The passages were classified "on the grounds that international relations could be damaged were it to be released. Those grounds still exist," Edward Oakden, the Foreign Office's Middle East director, argued in the case." Reuters, ‘Classified document on Bahrain rankles Britain decades later’, 21 May 2015
"UK military assistance projects in Saudi Arabia include a British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabian National Guard, providing advice on such issues as officer training and developing basic military skills, and in more specialised areas such as anti-terrorism. In addition, a separate, specialised team is assisting in the procurement and commissioning of a new communications system for the National Guard. A small Royal Navy liaison team provides support to the King Fahd Naval Academy at Jubail.[140] Joint exercises between UK and Saudi forces are not a regular occurrence but HMS Illustrious took part in exercises with Saudi vessels when the Carrier Task Group was in the region earlier in the year." House of Commons Select Committee on Defence, ‘Thirteenth Report 1999/2000’, 26 July 2000, paragraph 65
"The Middle East is an area where we all have much at stake. It is in our own interests, as well as in the interests of the people of that region, that they build on their own deep religious traditions. We do not wish to see them succumb to the fraudulent appeal of imported Marxism" Margaret Thatcher Speech Archive, ‘Margaret Thatcher Speech to the Foreign Policy Association on The West in the World Today’, 18 December 1979
"Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs that the American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahideen in Afghanistan six months before the Soviet intervention. Is this period, you were the national security advisor to President Carter. You therefore played a key role in this affair. Is this correct?
Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahideen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan on December 24, 1979. But the reality, closely guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention [emphasis added throughout].
Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into the war and looked for a way to provoke it?
B: It wasn’t quite like that. We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
Q : When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against secret US involvement in Afghanistan , nobody believed them . However, there was an element of truth in this. You don’t regret any of this today?
B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, essentially: “We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war." Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war that was unsustainable for the regime , a conflict that bought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported Islamic fundamentalism, which has given arms and advice to future terrorists?
B : What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Q : “Some agitated Moslems”? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today...
B: Nonsense! It is said that the West has a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid: There isn’t a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner, without demagoguery or emotionalism. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is t h ere in com m on among fundamentalist Saudi Arabia , moderate Morocco, militarist Pakistan, pro-Western Egypt, or secularist Central Asia? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries…" The Brzezinski Interview with Le Nouvel Observateur (1998), University Of Arizona
"Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians" Robin Cook, ‘The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means’, Guardian , 8 July 2005
"We can do a lot of damage to the Soviet Union," Casey said, according to Mohammed Yousaf, a Pakistani general who attended the meeting… Casey's visit was a prelude to a secret Reagan administration decision in March 1985, reflected in National Security Decision Directive 166, to sharply escalate U.S. covert action in Afghanistan, according to Western officials. Abandoning a policy of simple harassment of Soviet occupiers, the Reagan team decided secretly to let loose on the Afghan battlefield an array of U.S. high technology and military expertise in an effort to hit and demoralize Soviet commanders and soldiers. Casey saw it as a prime opportunity to strike at an overextended, potentially vulnerable Soviet empire." Washington Post , ‘Anatomy of a Victory: CIA’s Covert Afghan War’, 19 July 1992.
"CIA operations officers helped Pakistani trainers establish schools for the mujaheddin in secure communications, guerrilla warfare, urban sabotage and heavy weapons, Yousaf and Western officials said… The first antiaircraft systems used by the mujaheddin were the Swiss-made Oerlikon heavy gun and the British-made Blowpipe missile, according to Yousaf and Western sources. When these proved ineffective, the United States sent the Stinger. Pakistani officers traveled to the United States for training on the Stinger in June 1986 and then set up a secret mujaheddin Stinger training facility in Rawalpindi, complete with an electronic simulator made in the United States. The simulator allowed mujaheddin trainees to aim and fire at a large screen without actually shooting off expensive missiles, Yousaf said. The screen marked the missile's track and calculated whether the trainee would have hit his airborne target" Washington Post , ‘Anatomy of a Victory: CIA’s Covert Afghan War’, 19 July 1992.
"In Ken Connor's Ghost Force: The Secret History of the SAS, it is claimed that the elite regiment actually trained Afghan fighters in remote locations in Scotland. In Afghanistan itself, the services of Keenie-Meenie Services were used. This was an offshoot of British security firm Control Risks, mainly comprising ex-SAS members and former members of Rhodesian and South African special forces. It took its name from the Swahili word for the movement of a snake through grass. KMS later played a role in the Oliver North, Iran-Contra affair of 1987." Guardian , ‘Blowback Chronicles’, 15 September 2001.
"Mr. Campbell-Savours: To ask the Prime Minister on what occasions since 1979 representatives of Her Majesty's Government discussed the use of Keenie Meenie Services or Saladin Security with Colonel Oliver North; and if she will make a statement.
The Prime Minister: It has been the practice of successive Governments not to answer questions about the details of discussions which may have taken place with foreign Governments" Hansard, ‘Margaret Thatcher, Saladin Security and Keenie Meenie Services’, 1 December 1987.
"The CIA Developed Important Information on BCCI, and Inadvertently Failed to Provide it to Those Who Could Use it. U.S and Foreign Intelligence Agencies, and Former Intelligence Officials had a Broad Range of Contacts With and Links to BCCI and BCCI Shareholders. In the Spring and Summer of 1991, the CIA Originally provided Inaccurate and Incomplete Information to the Subcommittee Concerning its Relationship With BCCI, Which Was Only Corrected After BCCI's Closure. By early 1985, the CIA knew more about BCCI's goals and intentions concerning the U.S. banking system than anyone else in government, and provided that information to the U.S. Treasury and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, neither of whom had the responsibility for regulating the First American Bank that BCCI had taken over. The CIA failed to provide the critical information it had gathered to the correct users of the information — the Federal Reserve and the Justice Department. After the CIA knew that BCCI was as an institution a fundamentally corrupt criminal enterprise, it continued to use both BCCI and First American, BCCI's secretly held U.S. subsidiary, for CIA operations" Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, ‘The BCCI Affair: A Report by Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown’, December 1992 Page 6
"Osama bin Laden, the United States' prime suspect in last week's attacks on New York and Washington, could escape an American revenge mission in Afghanistan by hiding in tunnels that he built with funds from the CIA.
At the height of the Afghan mojahedin's war against the Soviet invaders, the CIA provided money for a very ambitious project. A series of defence tunnels was built in 1986 near the town of Khost in the mountains of Paktiya province, a few miles from the border with Pakistan. The aim was to store weapons and create an underground field hospital as well as to provide shelter against Russian air attack." Bin Laden may flee in tunnels: underground escape routes funded by CIA’, 18 September 2001.
"SUSPICIONS about a deal between the Reagan campaign and Iran over the hostages have circulated since the day of President Reagan's inaugural, when Iran agreed to release the 52 American hostages exactly five minutes after Mr. Reagan took the oath of office. Later, as it became known that arms started to flow to Iran via Israel only a few days after the inauguration, suspicions deepened that a secret arms-for-hostages deal had been concluded… In the course of hundreds of interviews, in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East, I have been told repeatedly that individuals associated with the Reagan-Bush campaign of 1980 met secretly with Iranian officials to delay the release of the American hostages until after the Presidential election. For this favor, Iran was rewarded with a substantial supply of arms from Israel" New York Times , ‘The Election Story of the Decade’, 15 April 1991 Gary Sick (National Security Advisor to Carter)
"For nine years Jamshid Hashemi helped MI6 to set up deals with Iran, including the purchase of Silkworm missiles from China. He also contributed thousands of pounds to the Conservative Party... His counsel, Alun Jones QC, described him as a "go-between between the UK and Iran". References were made in court to statements by witnesses, known only as A to H. These were Hashemi's MI6 case officers… The agent - known to Hashemi only as Michael and who spoke Farsi and once served at the British embassy in Tehran - asked him to pass on details of Iran's shopping list for arms and other equipment… Hashemi had been approached by dealers acting for China to supply the anti-ship missiles to Iran. In 1985 MI6 sent an undercover female agent to China, ostensibly acting as Hashemi's secretary, to help arrange the deal, codenamed the "October contract… MI6 also sanctioned the supply to Iran of 15 British-made motorboats reinforced to carry heavy machine guns. The boats, exported via Greece, were used against civilian shipping in the "tanker war" in the Gulf in the mid-1980s. MI6 also allowed Hashemi to buy a batch of Portuguese 155mm ammunition for sale to Iran." Guardian , ‘Jailed go-between on UK–Iran arms deals is freed to keep MI6 secrets out of court’, 6 February 1999.
"A senior delegation from the Taleban movement in Afghanistan is in the United States for talks with an international energy company that wants to construct a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan. A spokesman for the company, Unocal, said the Taleban were expected to spend several days at the company's headquarters in Sugarland, Texas. Unocal says it has agreements both with Turkmenistan to sell its gas and with Pakistan to buy it" Taliban in Texas for talks on gas pipeline’, 4 December 1997
"Saudi Arabia has been a major source of financing to rebel and terrorist organisations since the 1970s. These were some of the conclusions of a 2006 report issued by the U.S. Department of State titled International Narcotics Control Strategy Report - Money Laundering and Financial Crimes (U.S. Department of State, 2006). Since the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia and Saudi-based private actors (i.e. wealthy businessmen, bankers, charitable organisations ) have been providing financial and relief assistance to Muslim communities affected by natural calamities or conflicts. It has been estimated that Saudi Arabia has invested more than $ 10 billion to promote its Wahhabi agenda through charitable foundations. Some of the most influential charitable organisation operating in South and Southeast Asia are: the Islamic International Relief Organisation (IIRO), the Al Haramain Foundation, the Medical Emergency Relief Charity (MERC) and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). These organisations have provided funds to build educational and religious facilities, as well as hospitals, in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines, just to mention some.
Nevertheless, it is believed that some of the money destined to charitable activities has been diverted toward rebel and terrorist organisations throughout the region including Al Qaeda, the Haqqani network and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). This was possible because during the 1990s Al Qaeda and JI filled leadership positions in several Islamic charities with some of their most trusted men (Abuza, 2003). Al Qaeda and JI’s operatives were than diverting about 15-20 percent of the funds to finance their operations. In some cases, like the Philippines, such percentage could reach even 60 percent.
The paragraphs that follow will analyse Saudi sponsorship to terrorist/rebel groups in South and Southeast Asia, with case studies on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines. The case studies of Afghanistan and Pakistan will be treated together considering the strong interlink (also known as AfPak) they share due to cross border activities of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters" European Parliament, ‘The Involvement of Salafism/Wahhabism in the support and supply of arms to rebel groups around the world’, Directorate-General for External Policies, June 2013, Page 5
"During the 1980s, the IIRO and the MWL were used by the Saudi intelligence to transfer money to mujahedeen, while the IIRO is also known to have directly funded six training camps in Afghanistan (Abuza, 2003, p. 24). At the same time, Bin Laden used to rely on a network of Saudi and Gulf-based sponsors known as the Golden Chain (Blanchard, 2008). According to the 9/11 Commission Report report, the Golden Chain provided Bin Laden with financial support to rebuilt Al Qaeda’s assets in Afghanistan following his departure from Sudan in 1996" European Parliament, ‘The Involvement of Salafism/Wahhabism in the support and supply of arms to rebel groups around the world’, Directorate-General for External Policies, June 2013, Page 5
"The International Court of Justice has rejected claims of genocide by Serbia and Croatia against each other during the Croatian war of secession from Yugoslavia."
"Robert Frasure, a US diplomat working as an international representative, reported to Washington that Miloševic would not accept a peace map unless the safe areas were ceded to the Serbs. His boss, Anthony Lake, the US national security adviser, favoured a revised map that ceded Srebrenica, and the US policy-making Principals Committee urged that UN troops “pull back from vulnerable positions” – ergo, the safe areas.
France and Britain agreed, with UK defence secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind arguing that the safe areas were “untenable”, as defended in 1995. As Mladic’s troops advanced on Srebrenica, the west failed to heed warnings of the town’s imminent fall. Once it had, says General Van der Wind of the Dutch defence ministry, in an exclusive interview with the Observer, the UN provided 30,000 litres of petrol, used by the Serbs to drive their quarry to the killing fields and plough their bodies into mass graves. As the killing hit full throttle, top western negotiators met Mladic and Miloševic but did not raise the issue of mass murder, even though unclassified US cables show that the CIA was watching the killing fields almost “live” from satellite planes." Guardian , ‘Revealed: the role of the West in the run-up to Srebrenica’s fall’, 4 July 2015.
"At first arms were sent to Bosnia via Croatia, but the Croats were reluctant to arm the Bosnian army with sophisticated weapons, so America took it upon itself to deliver arms directly to the Bosnian Muslim Army - the ABiH.
Covert drops by the US. These covert air drops began at the start of 1995. The most well-documented were the drops at Tuzla in the north of Bosnia, where they were observed by members of the UN Nordic Battalion stationed close to the dropping zone. The drops contained vital, high value supplies: Anti-tank guided weapons to counter Bosnian Serb armour, Stinger surface-to-air missiles to ward off helicopters, night vision goggles and, most importantly, Motorola radio sets to allow the ABiH to operate more efficiently in large scale offensive operations.
However these air drops took place in the face of Operation Deny Flight, the UN-imposed and Nato-policed no-fly zone over Bosnia. Faced with sighting reports from the UN on the ground Nato denied that any such activity had taken place and launched an investigation whose conclusions rubber-stamped this…
They were deployed not only in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) but in UN civilian and military agencies as well. This intelligence-gathering was aimed as much at the UN as the Serbs, and intelligence was passed directly on to the Bosnian Government.
This information was often used to ratchet up the pressure on UN commanders to launch punitive air strikes on the Serbs.The scope of these activities included bugging UN Commanders and diplomats.Lt General Sir Michael Rose (ret'd) Former UN Commander in Bosnia General Sir Michael Rose was aware that the Americans were secretly bugging his office:
"We were always very careful in what we said in that office. And if we did say something, it was with deliberate intent." BBC Online, ‘Allies and Lies’, 22 June 2001.
"Now we have the full story of the secret alliance between the Pentagon and radical Islamist groups from the Middle East designed to assist the Bosnian Muslims - some of the same groups that the Pentagon is now fighting in "the war against terrorism". Pentagon operations in Bosnia have delivered their own "blowback"... The result was a vast secret conduit of weapons smuggling though Croatia. This was arranged by the clandestine agencies of the US, Turkey and Iran, together with a range of radical Islamist groups, including Afghan mojahedin and the pro-Iranian Hizbullah. Wiebes reveals that the British intelligence services obtained documents early on in the Bosnian war proving that Iran was making direct deliveries.
Arms purchased by Iran and Turkey with the financial backing of Saudi Arabia made their way by night from the Middle East. Initially aircraft from Iran Air were used, but as the volume increased they were joined by a mysterious fleet of black C-130 Hercules aircraft. The report stresses that the US was "very closely involved" in the airlift. Mojahedin fighters were also flown in, but they were reserved as shock troops for especially hazardous operations." Guardian , ‘America used Islamists to arm the Bosnian Muslims’, 22 April 2002.
"There were further reports that five Libyan-trained terrorists had arrived in the United States to assassinate the President and some of his aides. Mr. Reagan publicly endorsed those reports. ''We have the evidence and he knows it,'' he told newsmen, referring to Qaddafi. ACCORDING TO KEY sources, there was little doubt inside Clark's task force about who was responsible for the spate of anti-Qaddafi leaks - the C.I.A., with the support of the President, Haig and Clark. ''This item stuck in my craw,'' one involved official recalls. ''We came out with this big terrorist threat to the U.S. Government. The whole thing was a complete fabrication.'' New York Times , ‘Target Gaddafi’, 22 February 1987
"British intelligence paid large sums of money to an al-Qaeda cell in Libya in a doomed attempt to assassinate Colonel Gadaffi in 1996 and thwarted early attempts to bring Osama bin Laden to justice.The latest claims of MI6 involvement with Libya's fearsome Islamic Fighting Group, which is connected to one of bin Laden's trusted lieutenants, will be embarrassing to the Government, which described similar claims by renegade MI5 officer David Shayler as 'pure fantasy'...
According to journalist Guillaume Dasquié and Jean-Charles Brisard, an adviser to French President Jacques Chirac, British and US intelligence agencies buried the fact that the arrest warrant had come from Libya and played down the threat. Five months after the warrant was issued, al-Qaeda killed more than 200 people in the truck bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania." Chirac’s adviser was Jean-Charles Brisard. Observer , ‘MI6 halted bid to arrest bin Laden’, 10 November 2002.
"Mr Shayler joined MI5 in 1994, as part of the G9 section dealing with Libya. At a joint meeting on Libya with the SIS he heard of an agent known as Tunworth. Also at the meeting was PT16B, who controlled Tunworth and detailed Tunworth's collaboration with an extremist group in Libya trying to kill Colonel Gaddafi. However the CX Report, circulated to officals, GCHQ and the Foreign Office, did not say that Tunworth was actively involved in the plot. Mr Shayler later learned that as the assassination plot gathered pace, about £100,000 was given to Tunworth.
'Extremists killed'
In February 1996 a bomb was planted under Gaddafi's motorcade, but it exploded under the wrong car. Several bodyguards were killed and in the ensuing gunbattle three extremists were reportedly killed.Mr Shayler spoke of his surprise when told of the alleged plot…
No political authority
Mr Urban obtained evidence that meetings did take place with PT16B, that Britian had advance knowledge of the attempt on Gaddafi's life and that Tunworth was a go-between with Islamic militant groups in Libya. However, Foreign Office ministers at the time of the affair said they had not given any authorisation for a murder attempt. Mr Urban concluded that one answer was that security services had acted without any political authority. He said that the BBC had obtained other evidence of SIS activities, but these were withheld for security reasons." BBC Online, ‘BBC screens Shayler interview’, 8 August 1998.
"American officials have acknowledged over the years that the evidence that prompted President Clinton to order the missile strike on the Shifa plant was not as solid as first portrayed. Indeed, officials later said that there was no proof that the plant had been manufacturing or storing nerve gas, as initially suspected by the Americans, or had been linked to Osama bin Laden, who was a resident of Khartoum in the 1980's. But Washington still has not ruled out the possibility that El Shifa did, in fact, have some link to chemical weapons production." New York Times , ‘Look at the Place! Sudan Says, “Say Sorry,” but U.S. Won’t’, 20 October 2005.
"WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia remains the world’s leading source of money for Al Qaeda and other extremist networks and has failed to take key steps requested by U.S. officials to stem the flow, the Bush administration’s top financial counter-terrorism official said Tuesday.
Stuart A. Levey, a Treasury undersecretary, told a Senate committee that the Saudi government had not taken important steps to go after those who finance terrorist organizations or to prevent wealthy donors from bankrolling extremism through charitable contributions, sometimes unwittingly.
“Saudi Arabia today remains the location where more money is going to terrorism, to Sunni terror groups and to the Taliban than any other place in the world,” Levey said under questioning." Los Angeles Times , ‘Saudis faulted for funding terror’, 2 April 2008.
"Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, LeT, and other terrorist groups, including Hamas, which probably raise millions of dollars annually from Saudi sources, often during Hajj and Ramadan" US embassy cables: Hillary Clinton says Saudi Arabia “a critical source of terrorist funding”’, Guardian, 5 December 2010, WIKI Leaks
"While the GOK has demonstrated a willingness to take action when attacks target Kuwait, it has been less inclined to take action against Kuwait-based financiers and facilitators plotting attacks outside of Kuwait. Al-Qa'ida and other groups continue to exploit Kuwait both as a source of funds and as a key transit point." US embassy cables: Hillary Clinton says Saudi Arabia “a critical source of terrorist funding”’, Guardian, 5 December 2010, WIKI Leaks
"Qatar has adopted a largely passive approach to cooperating with the U.S. against terrorist financing. Qatar's overall level of CT cooperation with the U.S. is considered the worst in the region." a critical source of terrorist funding”’, Guardian, 5 December 2010, WIKI Leaks
"Enter Qatar, a tiny but wealthy Gulf state with a penchant for coddling up to Islamist movements from Palestinian Hamas and Libyan Islamist militias to the Afghan Taliban. In March, Department of the Treasury Under Secretary David Cohen singled out Qatar as an especially "permissive jurisdiction" for terrorist financing. Qatari oversight is so lax, Cohen noted, that "several major Qatar-based fundraisers act as local representatives for larger terrorist fundraising networks that are based in Kuwait." Not wanting to expose sensitive intelligence, Cohen pointed to press reports that Qatar not only supports Hamas but also extremist groups operating in Syria. "To say the least," he concluded, "this threatens to aggravate an already volatile situation in a particularly dangerous and unwelcome manner." The Hill , ‘Qatar’s not-so-charitable record on terror finance’, 24 September 2014
"Wolfowitz said we [have] learned we can intervene militarily in the Middle East with impunity... We’ve got about five to ten years to take out these old Soviet “surrogate” regimes - Iraq, Syria, and the rest before the next superpower comes along to challenge us in the region." W. Clark, Don’t Wait for the Next War Paul Wolfowitz (Neocon Official) to General Wesley Clark
"A former Pakistani diplomat has told the BBC that the US was planning military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban even before last week's attacks. Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October" BBC Tuesday, 18 September, 2001, US 'planned attack on Taleban
Al-Jazeera, ‘Headliner: Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai’, 12 November 2015.
"A bizarre political statement by Saddam Hussein has earned Iraq a windfall of hundreds of million of euros. In October 2000 Iraq insisted on dumping the US dollar - 'the currency of the enemy' - for the more multilateral euro…
Almost all of Iraq's oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme have been paid in euros since 2001. Around 26 billion euros (£17.4bn) has been paid for 3.3 billion barrels of oil into an escrow account in New York… At the time of the change the UN issued a report saying that the move could cost Iraq up to £270 million. Independent experts questioned the value of buying into a plummeting currency.
'It was seen as economically bad because the entire global oil trade is conducted in dollars,' says Fadhil Chalabi, executive director of the Centre for Global Energy Studies." The Guardian Iraq nets handsome profit by dumping dollar for euro’, 16 February 2003.
"However, I am afraid that there is such a person and he cannot be allowed access to those weapons. If we can possibly find the means of removing him, we will." Hansard Iraq Volume 322: debated on Thursday 17 December 1998 Tony Blair
"In terms of complicity with 9/11, absolutely none," Tenet says. "It never made any sense. We could never verify that there was any Iraqi authority, direction and control, complicity with al Qaeda for 9/11 or any operational act against America. Period."
"The president, in October of 2002, quote: 'We need to think about Saddam Hussein using al Qaeda to do his dirty work.' Is that what you're telling the president?" Pelley asks.
"Well, we didn't believe al Qaeda was gonna do Saddam Hussein's dirty work," Tenet says.
"January '03, the president again, [said] quote: 'Imagine those 19 hijackers this time armed by Saddam Hussein.' Is that what you're telling the president?" Pelley asks.
"No," Tenet says." CBS News, ‘George Tenet: At the Centre of the Storm’, 25 April 2007. (Ex CIA Director)
"by 2020 we could be dependent on imported energy for three quarters of our total primary energy needs… Of the worlds leading industrial nations only two - Canada and the UK are net energy exporters." Department of Trade and Industry, ‘Our Energy Future – Creating a Low Carbon Economy’, Energy White Paper, February 2003 Page 9 Foreward by Tony Blair
"promote conditions for foreign direct investment through stable financial regimes, transparent legal frameworks, predictable domestic energy policies and predictable foreign investment terms. Promoting the liberalization of energy markets including through the World Trade Organization" Department of Trade and Industry, ‘Our Energy Future – Creating a Low Carbon Economy’, Energy White Paper, February 2003 Page 83
August 2013 Rabaa massacre - "(Cairo) – The systematic and widespread killing of at least 1,150 demonstrators by Egyptian security forces in July and August 2013 probably amounts to crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said today in a report based on a year-long investigation. In the August 14 dispersal of the Rab’a al-Adawiya sit-in alone, security forces, following a plan that envisioned several thousand deaths, killed a minimum of 817 people and more likely at least 1,000." August 12, 2014 Egypt: Rab’a Killings Likely Crimes against Humanity No Justice a Year Later for Series of Deadly Mass Attacks on Protesters. Human Rights Watch
"In an television interview in Pakistan, Mr Kerry said: "The military was asked to intervene by millions and millions of people, all of whom were afraid of a descendance into chaos, into violence. "And the military did not take over, to the best of our judgement - so far. To run the country, there's a civilian government. In effect, they were restoring democracy." BBC Online, ‘Egypt army restoring democracy says John Kerry’, 1 August 2013.
"Tony Blair has agreed to advise the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who came to power in a military coup last year, as part of a programme funded by the United Arab Emirates that has promised to deliver huge "business opportunities" to those involved, the Guardian has learned… In April, Blair singled out the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists as the enemy that the west and east should unite against and hailed Morsi's overthrow as "the absolutely necessary rescue of a nation" Guardian , ‘Tony Blair to advise Egypt president Sisi on economic reform’, 2 July 2014.
"The United Arab Emirates threatened to block billion-pound arms deals with the UK, stop inward investment and cut intelligence cooperation if David Cameron did not act against the Muslim Brotherhood, the Guardian has learned.
Internal UAE government documents seen by the Guardian show that the crown prince of Abu Dhabi was briefed to complain to the prime minister about the Muslim Brotherhood in June 2012, when one of its leading members, Mohamed Morsi, became Egyptian president.In the briefing notes it was suggested that the crown prince demand Cameron rein in BBC coverage. In return, Cameron was to be offered lucrative arms and oil deals for British business which would have generated billions of pounds for the jet divisions of BAE Systems and allowed BP to bid to drill for hydrocarbons in the Gulf." Guardian , ‘UAE told UK: crack down on Muslim Brotherhood or lose arms deals’, 6 November 2015.
"The leaders also discussed how they could boost trade co-operation between the two countries and the opportunities for British business to invest in Bahrain, particularly in the infrastructure sector." UK Prime Minister’s Office, ‘Statement on the PM’s meeting with King of Bahrain’, 12 December 2011
"According to sensitive information available to this these individuals, Qaddafi's government holds 143 tons of gold, and a similar amount in silver… This gold was accumulated prior to the current rebellion and was intended to be used to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar. This plan was designed to provide the Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French.franc (CFA). (Source Comment: According to knowledgeable individuals this quantity of gold and silver is valued at more than $7 billion. French intelligence officers discovered this plan shortly after the current rebellion began, and this was one of the
factors that influenced President Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to commit France to the attack on Libya. According to these individuals Sarkozy's plans are driven by the following issues:
a. A desire to gain a greater share of Libya oil production,
b. Increase French influence in North Africa,
c. Improve his intemai political situation in France,
d. Provide the French military with an opportunity to reassert its position in the world,
e. Address the concern of his advisors over Qaddafi's long term plans to supplant France as the dominant power in Francophone Africa)" U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05779612 Date: 12/31/2015, Email Between Hillary Clinton And Sidney Blumenthal, April 2, 2011
"The episode and others like it, the officials said, reflect a Libyan culture rife with corruption, kickbacks, strong-arm tactics and political patronage since the United States reopened trade with Colonel Qaddafi’s government in 2004. As American and international oil companies, telecommunications firms and contractors moved into the Libyan market, they discovered that Colonel Qaddafi or his loyalists often sought to extract millions of dollars in “signing bonuses” and “consultancy contracts” — or insisted that the strongman’s sons get a piece of the action through shotgun partnerships." New York Times , ‘Shady dealings helped Gaddafi build fortune and regime’, 24 March 2011
"TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Russia agreed to cancel $4.5 billion of Libyan debt on Thursday, unlocking big military and civilian export orders in the face of fierce Western competition for the former outcast state's booming market." Reuters THU APR 17, 2008 Russia, Libya seal debt accord, eye arms deals
"The rebels feel no loyalty to the truth in shaping their propaganda, claiming nonexistent battlefield victories, asserting they were still fighting in a key city days after it fell to Qaddafi forces, and making vastly inflated claims of his barbaric behavior." 21st of March 2011 NYT, Hopes for a Qaddafi Exit, and Worries of What Comes Next
"Reporter: Is there any evidence he actually fired on his own people.
Gates: we've seen the press reports but no confirmation.
Mullen: That is correct absolutely no confirmation whatsoever" Department of Defense, ‘News Briefing with Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen from the Pentagon’, 1 March 2011 Min 13-15
"As mercenaries, reputedly from Chad and Mali fight for him, a million African refugees and thousands of African migrant workers stand the risk of being murdered for their tenuous link to him. One Turkish construction worker told the BBC "We had 70–80 people from Chad working for our company. They were cut dead with pruning shears and axes, attackers saying, ‘You are providing troops for Gaddafi.’ The Sudanese were also massacred. We saw it for ourselves.” 25 February 2011 BBC African viewpoint: Colonel's continent?
Los Angeles Times , ‘Libyan rebels appear to take leaf from Kadafi’s playbook’, 24 March 2011 - CBS ‘AU: Libya rebels killing black workers’, 29 August 2011 - Daily Telegraph ‘Gaddafi’s ghost town after the loyalists retreat’, 11 September 2011
"A high ranking official on the National Libyan Council states that factions have developed within it. In part this reflects the cultivation by France in particular of clients among the rebels. General Abdelfateh Younis is the leading figure closest to the French, who are believed to have made payments of an unknown amount to him. Younis has told
others on the NLC that the French have promised they will provide military trainers and arms. So far the men and materiel have not made an appearance. Instead, a few "risk
assessment analysts" wielding clipboards have come and gone. Jabril, Jalil and others are impatient. It is understood that France has clear economic interests at stake. Sarkozy's occasional emissary, the intellectual self-promoter Bernard Henri-Levy, is considered by those in the NLC who have dealt with him as a semi-useful, semi joke figure." U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05779612 Date: 12/31/2015, Email Between Hillary Clinton And Sidney Blumenthal, April 2, 2011
"Reporter: Do you have any requests from rebel leaders for airstrikes from Nato. Have you heard any of that?
"The group's capture is a major embarrassment to the British government and could potentially undermine the rebels' claims that the revolution, which has rippled through Libya for the past fortnight, has had solely domestic roots. Officials in Benghazi's organising committee, which is trying to organise civilian and military affairs, criticised the British team's decision to make a clandestine entry to the country, claiming it had fuelled doubts about their intentions." Guardian , ‘SAS and MI6 officers released by Libya’s rebel commanders’, 7 March 2011
"There is no evidence that Libyan military forces are being given Viagra and engaging in systematic rape against women in rebel areas, US military and intelligence officials told NBC News on Friday. Diplomats said Thursday that US Ambassador Susan Rice told a closed-door meeting of officials at the UN that the Libyan military is using rape as a weapon in the war with the rebels and some had been issued the anti-impotency drug. She reportedly offered no evidence to backup the claim.
While rape has been a weapon of choice in many other African conflicts, the US officials say they've seen no such reports out of Libya. Several U.N. diplomats who attended the closed-door Security Council meeting on Libya told Reuters that Rice raised the Viagra issue" NBC, ‘US Intel: no evidence of Viagra as weapon in Libya’, 30 April 2011
"RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany (AFNS) -- Airmen from Qatar, the newest member to the coalition supporting the enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, flew their first operational sortie March 25 in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn. A Qatari Emiri Air Force Mirage 2000-5 flew alongside a French Mirage 2000-5 as part of a formation patrolling one sector of the airspace to prevent the Moammar Gadhafi regime from attacking Libyan citizens. Qatar officials deployed six Mirages and two C-17As to Europe supporting the Franco-Qatari detachment and delivering humanitarian assistance as part of their participation in the operation focused on protecting the Libyan people.
Qatar joins the growing coalition enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya. The other nations directly involved in enforcing the no-fly zone are Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States. United Arab Emirates officials announced on March 24 intention to join the coalition, but is not yet flying aircraft." Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn Public Affairs, ‘New coalition member flies first sortie enforcing no-fly zone over Libya’, 25 March 2011.
"The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats… The United States, which had only small numbers of C.I.A. officers in Libya during the tumult of the rebellion, provided little oversight of the arms shipments. Within weeks of endorsing Qatar’s plan to send weapons there in spring 2011, the White House began receiving reports that they were going to Islamic militant groups. They were “more antidemocratic, more hard-line, closer to an extreme version of Islam” than the main rebel alliance in Libya, said a former Defense Department official." New York Times , ‘US-Approved Arms for Libya Rebels Fell into Jihadis’ Hands’, 5 December 2012
"WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency has inserted clandestine operatives into Libya to gather intelligence for military airstrikes and to contact and vet the beleaguered rebels battling Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces, according to American officials. While President Obama has insisted that no American military ground troops participate in the Libyan campaign, small groups of C.I.A. operatives have been working in Libya for several weeks as part of a shadow force of Westerners that the Obama administration hopes can help bleed Colonel Qaddafi’s military, the officials said.
In addition to the C.I.A. presence, composed of an unknown number of Americans who had worked at the spy agency’s station in Tripoli and others who arrived more recently, current and former British officials said that dozens of British special forces and MI6 intelligence officers are working inside Libya. The British operatives have been directing airstrikes from British jets and gathering intelligence about the whereabouts of Libyan government tank columns, artillery pieces and missile installations, the officials said."
"An extremely sensitive source added that the rebels are receiving direct assistance and training from a small number of Egyptian Special Forces units, while French and British Special Operations troops are working out of bases in Egypt, along the Libyan border. These troops are overseeing the transfer of weapons and supplies to the rebels… Sarkozy is also concerned about continuing reports that radical/terrorist groups such as the Libyan Fighting Groups and Al Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are infiltrating the NLC and its military command. Accordingly, he asked sociologist who has long established ties to Israel, Syria, and other nations in the Middle East, to use his contacts to determine the level of influence AQIM and other. terrorist groups have inside of the NLC. Sarkozy also asked for reports setting out a clear picture of the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the rebel leadership." Department of State, ‘F-2014–20439 Doc No. C05782401’, 27 March 2011. March 27, 2011
"Qatar has admitted for the first time that it sent hundreds of troops to support the Libyan rebels who overthrew Muammar Gaddafi's regime. The Gulf state had previously acknowledged only that its air force took part in Nato-led attacks. The revelation came as Qatar hosted a conference on the post-Gaddafi era that was attended by the leader of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, who described the Qataris as having planned the battles that paved the way for victory." Qatar admits sending hundreds of troops to support Libya rebels’, 26 October 2011
"Qatar has recognised Libya’s rebel council as the legitimate representatives of the Libyan people, a day after the group announced an oil contract with the Gulf state. The move on Monday makes Qatar only the second country to formally recognise the Libyan rebel council, but has been backed by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC)... “We contacted the oil company of Qatar and thankfully they agreed to take all the oil that we wish to export and market this oil for us,” said Ali Tarhouni, a rebel official in charge of economic, financial and oil matters." Al-Jazeera, ‘Qatar recognises Libyan rebels after oil deal’, 28 March 2011.
"The government has admitted that the international development minister, Alan Duncan, took part in meetings between officials operating a Whitehall cell to control the Libyan oil market and Vitol – a company for which Duncan has previously acted as a consultant. The "Libyan oil cell" involved a group of officials working in the Foreign Office since May waging a quiet campaign against Muammar Gaddafi's regime by controlling the flow of oil in the country." Guardian , ‘Government admits Alan Duncan’s links to company in Libyan oil cell’, 1 September 2011
"The starting pistol for British firms to pursue contracts in Libya has been fired by the new defence secretary, Philip Hammond, who urged companies to "pack their suitcases" and head there to secure reconstruction contracts. As Nato announced that it plans to wind up operations in Libya, Hammond said that great care had been taken during the campaign to avoid destroying critical infrastructure.
"Libya is a relatively wealthy country with oil reserves, and I expect there will be opportunities for British and other companies to get involved in the reconstruction of Libya," he told the BBC in an interview. "I would expect British companies, even British sales directors, [to be] packing their suitcases and looking to get out to Libya and take part in the reconstruction of that country as soon as they can," said Hammond, who replaced Liam Fox as defence secretary a week ago.
He added that after a "hugely successful" British mission in Libya, Britain now needed "to support the Libyans to turn the liberation of their country into a successful stabilisation so that Libya can be a beacon of prosperity and democracy in north Africa going forward… The success of British contractors in the country – which could see billions of pounds spent on reconstruction over the next decade – will be seen as a huge victory for prime minister David Cameron, who visited Tripoli and NTC members last month, along with Nicolas Sarkozy." Guardian , ‘British firms urged to pack suitcases in rush for Libya business’, 21 October 2011.
"The French newspaper Liberation reported this week that Libyan rebels had sent a letter in April offering France control over 35 percent of Libya's oil in exchange for French support for the insurgents. But transitional council officials and France's foreign minister denied any such offer." CBS, ‘Foreign oil, gas firms returning to Libya’, 2 September 2011.
"During mid-September 2011 French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron traveled to
Tripoli to meet with and express support for the leaders of the new government of Libya under the National Transitional Council (NTC). According to knowledgeable individuals, as part of this effort, the two leaders, in private conversations, also intend to press the leaders of the NTC to reward their early support for the rebellion against Muammar al Qaddafi. Sarkozy and Cameron expect this recognition to be tangible, in the form of favorable contracts for French and British energy companies looking to play a major role in the Libyan oil industry.
According to this source, Sarkozy feels, quite strongly, that without French support there would have been no revolution and that the NTC government must demonstrate that it realizes this fact. For his part, Cameron appears most concerned that despite British support for the rebels during the fighting, certain members of the NTC remain focused on the fact that the British government and oil industry had good relations with the Qaddafi regime, particularly the firm British Petroleum (BP). At the same time, this source indicates that the government of France is carrying out a concerted program of private and public diplomacy to press the new/transitional government of Libya to reserve as much as 35% of Libya's oil related industry for French firms, particularly the major French energy company TOTAL.
Sources with access to the highest levels of Libya's ruling NTC, as well as senior advisors to Sarkozy, stated in strict confidence that while much of this pressure is being exerted at very senior diplomatic and political levels, the French external intelligence service (Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure/General Directorate for External Security --DGSE) is using sources with influence over the NTC to press the French position. At present, as NTC leaders are consolidating their positions in Tripoli, they are attempting to balance the interests of the new government and the Libyan people against the need to recognize the support provided to them by France and other major powers in their struggle with Muammar al Qaddafi…
(Source Comment: NTC President Jalil continues to favor awarding foreign business agreements on a case by case basis, and has stated privately that he is reluctant to support entering into a comprehensive agreement of any kind with France, or any other country or entity. He is, however, prepared to favor firms from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States in specific cases, based on the support they provided for the NTC during the rebellion. He and his advisors are somewhat hostile toward the position of the Italian government and the Italian energy firm ENI, based on their past support for Qaddafi and their caution in coming to terms with the NTC before the fall of the previous government. Jalil harbors similar sentiments toward the UK government and British Petroleum (BP) but does recognize that they moved away from Qaddafi to support the NTC after France began active involvement in the Libyan uprising. Interestingly, although Jalil and Prime Minister Mahmoud Jebril have begun a low key power struggle within the NTC, they agree on these points regarding foreign business contracts.
A separate source added that the French government in general and the DGSE in particular privately harbor a degree of mistrust toward Jalil based on intelligence indicating that he was responsible for the assassination of NTC military commander General Abdul Fatah Younes in July 2011. Younes was extremely well connected to the DGSE and the French military.)
In the opinion of these sources the NTC leadership is more comfortable dealing with large private firms that are, in turn, well connected to friendly governments. To this end, and in addition to the GUNVOR and TOTAL contracts, the NTC has signed agreements with the Swiss energy firm GLENCORE, as well as VITOL of Qatar to service and ship oil as the fighting dies down across the country. These sources add that both firms provided active support to the NTC during the rebellion and are held in high regard by Jalil, Jabril and the rest of the leadership. During early September 2011 sources with excellent access to the highest levels of major Western European governments stated in confidence that, despite the stepped up fighting in recent weeks, there has been an unusually low level of damage to the infrastructure of the Libyan oil industry. This is true even in the western portion of the country and around town of Sirte, which remained under the control of forces loyal to Qaddafi. The NTC is already shipping approximately 300mm barrels of oil per day, primarily via GLENCORE and VITOL. The level of production is expected to increase when the fighting begins to die down in those areas still loyal to Qaddafi"
"DARNA, Libya—Two former Afghan Mujahedeen and a six-year detainee at Guantanamo Bay have stepped to the fore of this city's military campaign, training new recruits for the front and to protect the city from infiltrators loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi. The presence of Islamists like these amid the opposition has raised concerns, among some fellow rebels as well as their Western allies, that the goal of some Libyan fighters in battling Col. Gadhafi is to propagate Islamist extremism." Wall Street Journal , ‘Ex-Mujahedeen Help Lead Libyan Rebels’, 2 April 2011
"Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime. In an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, Mr al-Hasidi admitted that he had recruited "around 25" men from the Derna area in eastern Libya to fight against coalition troops in Iraq. Some of them, he said, are "today are on the front lines in Adjabiya".
Mr al-Hasidi insisted his fighters "are patriots and good Muslims, not terrorists," but added that the "members of al-Qaeda are also good Muslims and are fighting against the invader"
"Many Libyans believe that the unrest is part of a plan to overthrow Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and that its leader is Col. Khalifa Haftar, of a contra-style group based in the United States called the Libyan National Army, the travelers said." UNREST REPORTED IN EASTERN LIBYA The Washington Post 1996
“The key thing is to put pressure on the regional powers who really hold the tap of weapons and money,” Cordone said. “Unfortunately there’s plenty of money in Libya so that’s difficult leverage to use. And I know efforts are being made in that respect as well.” He did not specify which countries were supplying weapons, but said that there were four countries that might be able to put political pressure on either side.
“Everybody knows that the key countries that have influence on Libya’s factions are on one side the (United Arab) Emirates and Egypt and on the other side Qatar and to some extent Turkey,” he said. “These guys, if they really put pressure on the Tobruk parliament or on the other side to come to an agreement, that would give greater chance of achieving that agreement.” Reuters, ‘UN tells backers of Libya’s rival sides to pressure them for peace’, 25 March 2015.
“I am going to tell you something. I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business. I met with top British officials, who confessed to me, that they were preparing something in Syria… This was in Britain not in America. Britain was organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer Minister of Foreign Affairs, if I would like to participate. Naturally, I refused, I said I am French, that does not interest me… This operation goes way back. It was prepared, preconceived and planned… in the region it is important to know that this Syrian regime has a very anti-Israeli stance” Roland Dumas (Ex French Minister), “Top British Officials Confessed to Syria War Plans Two Years before Arab Spring”’,16 June 2013, video
"The ministry might find it an opportunity to exchange support with the United Kingdom, where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would support the candidacy of the United Kingdom to the membership of the council for the period 2014-2015 in exchange for the support of the United Kingdom to the candidacy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
"With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad , according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders. The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.
As it evolved, the airlift correlated with shifts in the war within Syria, as rebels drove Syria’s army from territory by the middle of last year. And even as the Obama administration has publicly refused to give more than “nonlethal” aid to the rebels, the involvement of the C.I.A. in the arms shipments — albeit mostly in a consultative role, American officials say — has shown that the United States is more willing to help its Arab allies support the lethal side of the civil war… From offices at secret locations, American intelligence officers have helped the Arab governments shop for weapons, including a large procurement from Croatia, and have vetted rebel commanders and groups to determine who should receive the weapons as they arrive, according to American officials speaking on the condition of anonymity. The C.I.A. declined to comment on the shipments or its role in them. . . ." New York Times , ‘Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid from CIA’, 24 March 2013
"American officials have been trying to understand why hard-line Islamists have received the lion’s share of the arms shipped to the Syrian opposition through the shadowy pipeline with roots in Qatar, and, to a lesser degree, Saudi Arabia. The officials, voicing frustration, say there is no central clearinghouse for the shipments, and no effective way of vetting the groups that ultimately receive them" New York Times , ‘Rebel Arms Flow Is Said to Benefit Jihadists in Syria’, 14 October 2012.
"Syria is [Qatar’s] backyard, and they have their own interests they are pursuing. Said one administration official" New York Times , ‘Taking Outsize Role in Syria, Qatar Funnels Arms to Rebels’, 29 June 2013.
"all the Gulf intelligence agencies are competing in Syria and everyone is trying to get the lion’s share of the Syrian revolution"
"We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.
Q So you're confident it’s somehow under -- it's safe?
THE PRESIDENT: In a situation this volatile, I wouldn’t say that I am absolutely confident. What I’m saying is we’re monitoring that situation very carefully. We have put together a range of contingency plans. We have communicated in no uncertain terms with every player in the region that that’s a red line for us and that there would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front or the use of chemical weapons. That would change my calculations significantly." August 20, 2012 Remarks by the President to the White House Press Corps
"The Qatari prime minister also said Syrian President Bashar Assad is testing the international community and crossing red lines, starting with Scud missile attacks on his people. You know we put a lot of red lines. Scud, he used Scud. Chemicals, he used chemicals. And there is evidence," Thani said. "But he used it in pockets, small pockets. He wants to try your reaction. No reaction? He will escalate."
And the longer the conflict in Syria drags on, the Qatari prime minister warned, the more the extremists will gain ground."The United States has to do more," he said. "I believe that if we stopped this one year ago, we will not see the bad people you are talking about."
But while Qatar is asking the Obama administration to do more, Wittes of the Brookings Institution says the White House had its own concerns to raise about various funding streams for the Syrian opposition. "There seems to be a tendency by different actors to back different factions on the ground in a way that exacerbates conflict between the elements of the Syrian opposition, when what the United States is very focused on right now is trying to bring that opposition together," she says." NPR, ‘US Wary as Qatar Ramps Up Support of Syrian Rebels’, 26 April 2013
"Unidentified snipers have opened fire on a convoy of UN experts investigating suspected chemical weapons attacks in Syria's capital, the UN has said. One car was shot at "multiple times", forcing the convoy to turn back… The US said there was little doubt that Syrian forces used chemical weapons in the attacks, which reportedly killed more than 300 people in rebel-held areas. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad dismissed the accusation as "an insult to common sense" and warned the US against military intervention. "If someone is dreaming of making Syria a puppet of the West, then this will not happen,"
A year ago, US President Barack Obama said the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government would be "a red line" that could trigger US military action. Washington has recently bolstered its naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, and military leaders from the US, UK and their allies are meeting in Jordan.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC that action could be taken without UN approval if there was "great humanitarian need" in Syria. His French counterpart Laurent Fabius suggested the UN Security Council could be bypassed "in certain circumstances" BBC Online, ‘Syria crisis: UN inspectors’ convoy hit by sniper fire’, 26 August 2013
"Three days before the rockets fell outside Damascus, a team of Syrian specialists gathered in the northern suburb of Adra for a task that U.S. officials say had become routine in the third year of the country’s civil conflict: filling warheads with deadly chemicals to kill Syrian rebels… Unknown to Syrian officials, U.S. spy agencies recorded each step in the alleged chemical attack, from the extensive preparations to the launching of rockets to the after-action assessments by Syrian officials. Those records and intercepts would become the core of the Obama administration’s evidentiary case linking the Syrian government to what one official called an “indiscriminate, inconceivable horror” — the use of outlawed toxins to kill nearly 1,500 civilians, including at least 426 children… While unusually detailed, the assessment does not include photographs, recordings or other hard evidence to support its claims. Nor does it offer proof to back up the administration’s assertion that top-ranking Syrian officials — possibly including President Bashar al-Assad — were complicit in the attack." Washington Post ‘More than 1,400 killed in Syrian chemical weapons attack, US says’, 30 August 2013.
"German troops involved in a coalition training mission in Iraq have reported that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) fighters have used chemical weapons on a Kurdish militia. The German commanders, who have been mentoring the Kurds on Isil’s front lines in northern Iraq, sent an urgent message to the German defence ministry in Berlin after hearing that the Kurds had been attacked on Wednesday. The Kurdish fighters, whose militia is known as the Peshmerga, told the Germans that some had suffered severe burns to their bodies, while others had difficulty breathing." Daily Telegraph , ‘ISIL used chemical weapons against Kurds in Iraq, say German troops’, 14 August 2015.
"There is a growing belief within the US government that the Islamic State militant group is making and using crude chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria, a US official has told the BBC. The US has identified at least four occasions on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border where IS has used mustard agents, the official said." BBC Online, ‘US official: IS making and using chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria’, 11 September 2015.
"A team of four to six rebels will each be given a Toyota Hi-Lux pickup, outfitted with a machine gun, communications gear and Global Positioning System trackers enabling them to call in airstrikes. The fighters will also be given mortars, but the administration hasn’t decided whether to provide the teams with more sophisticated antitank weapons" Wall Street Journal , ‘US to Give Some Syria Rebels Ability to Call Airstrikes’, 17 February 2015.
"The aim of the group is to replace the regime with an Islamic state following Salafi principles. Jabhat al-Nusra has taken responsibility for several suicide attacks in civilian neighbourhoods and is viewed by Al-Qaeda as its favored Salafi-jihadi group. It portrays itself as the Sunni community’s defender against the “Alawite enemy” and the “Shiite agents”. Its fighters have operated many times alongside FSA formations on the battlefield earning public praise from prominent rebel leaders and local activists…
Many Salafis are believed to fight also within FSA units but these rebel formations portray the uprising as a national struggle against an oppressive dictatorship rather than as a Sunni jihad against an Alawite regime. At the same time differences between the FSA and independent Salafi groups (including Jabhat al-Nusra) have not thwarted their collaboration in the battlefield. As an International Crisis Group report underlines: “mainstream rebel groups eager for more effective weapons and tactics likely find that benefits of such collaboration outweigh any long-term political and ideological concerns, particularly as prospects for Western military intervention seem remote” (International Crisis Group, 2012)." European Parliament, ‘The Involvement of Salafism/Wahhabism in the support and supply of arms to rebel groups around the world’, Directorate-General for External Policies, June 2013, Page 16-17
"NBC News on Wednesday revised its account of the 2012 kidnapping of its chief foreign correspondent, Richard Engel, saying it was likely that Mr. Engel and his reporting team had been abducted by a Sunni militant group, not forces affiliated with the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. In a statement posted on the NBC News website Wednesday evening, Mr. Engel said that a review of the episode — prompted by reporting from The New York Times — had led him to conclude that “the group that kidnapped us was Sunni, not Shia.” He also wrote that the abductors had “put on an elaborate ruse to convince us they were Shiite shabiha militiamen.” New York Times , ‘NBC News Alters Account of Correspondent’s Kidnapping in Syria’, 15 April 2015
"The British government is waging information warfare in Syria by funding media operations for some rebel fighting groups, in the foreign front of what David Cameron has called “the propaganda war” against Islamic State.The campaign aims to boost the reputation of what the government calls the “moderate armed opposition”, a complex and shifting alliance of armed factions.Deciding which factions to support is risky for the government because many groups have become increasingly extremist as the five-year civil war grinds on.
Contractors hired by the Foreign Office but overseen by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) produce videos, photos, military reports, radio broadcasts, print products and social media posts branded with the logos of fighting groups, and effectively run a press office for opposition fighters.Materials are circulated in the Arabic broadcast media and posted online with no indication of British government involvement.
The UK’s propaganda effort for the Syrian armed opposition began after the government failed to persuade parliament to support military action against the Assad regime. In autumn 2013, the UK embarked on behind-the-scenes work to influence the course of the war by shaping perceptions of opposition fighters. Contract documents seen by the Guardian show the government appears to view the project as a way to maintain a foothold in the country until there can be greater British military involvement, offering “the capability to expand back into the strategic space as and when the opportunity arises”.
Through its Conflict and Stability Fund the government is spending £2.4m on private contractors working from Istanbul to deliver “strategic communications and media operations support to the Syrian moderate armed opposition” (MAO). The contract is part of a broader propaganda effort focused on Syria, with other elements intended to promote “the moderate values of the revolution” and help mould a Syrian sense of national identity that will reject both the Assad regime and Isis." Guardian , ‘How Britain funds the propaganda war against ISIS in Syria’, 3 May 2016;
"The prosecution of a Swedish national accused of terrorist activities in Syria has collapsed at the Old Bailey after it became clear Britain’s security and intelligence agencies would have been deeply embarrassed had a trial gone ahead, the Guardian can reveal. His lawyers argued that British intelligence agencies were supporting the same Syrian opposition groups as he was, and were party to a secret operation providing weapons and non-lethal help to the groups, including the Free Syrian Army." Guardian , ‘Terror trial collapses after fears of deep embarrassment to security services’, 1 June 2015.
Traditional terrorist financing sources have also helped fuel the ongoing conflict in Syria. Over the past few years, charitable fundraising networks in the Gulf have collected hundreds of millions of dollars through regular fundraising events held at homes or mosques and through social media pleas. These networks then use couriers, wire transfers, hawalas, and exchange houses to move those funds to Syria, often to extremists… But a number of fundraisers operating in more permissive jurisdictions – particularly in Kuwait and Qatar – are soliciting donations to fund extremist insurgents, not to meet legitimate humanitarian needs. The recipients of these funds are often terrorist groups, including al-Qa’ida’s Syrian affiliate, al-Nusrah Front, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the group formerly known as al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI).
The influx of funds to these groups in Syria poses a serious challenge. Apart from their highly destabilizing role in the ongoing conflict there, these well-funded and well-equipped groups may soon turn their attention to attacks outside of Syria, particularly as scores of newly radicalized and freshly trained foreign recruits return from Syria to their home countries." Department of the Treasury, ‘Remarks of Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen before the Center for a New American Security on Confronting New Threats in Terrorist Financing’, 4 March 2014
But there are countries in the region that could be doing much more. Our ally Kuwait has become the epicenter of fundraising for terrorist groups in Syria. A number of Kuwaiti fundraisers exploit the charitable impulses of unwitting donors by soliciting humanitarian donations from both inside and outside the country, cloaking their efforts in humanitarian garb, but diverting those funds to extremist groups in Syria. Meanwhile, donors who already harbor sympathies for Syrian extremists have found in Kuwait fundraisers who openly advertise their ability to move funds to fighters in Syria… There have been some encouraging conversations recently, but the appointment of Nayef al-Ajmi to be both Minister of Justice and Minister of Islamic Endowments (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs is a step in the wrong direction. Al-Ajmi has a history of promoting jihad in Syria. In fact, his image has been featured on fundraising posters for a prominent al-Nusrah Front financier. And following his appointment, the Ministry of Awqaf announced it would allow non-profit organizations and charities to collect donations for the Syrian people at Kuwaiti mosques, a measure we believe can be easily exploited by Kuwait-based terrorist fundraisers." Department of the Treasury, ‘Remarks of Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen before the Center for a New American Security on Confronting New Threats in Terrorist Financing’, 4 March 2014
"BEIRUT (Reuters) - Leaders of Syria's Nusra Front are considering cutting their links with al Qaeda to form a new entity backed by some Gulf states trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad, sources said. Sources within and close to Nusra said that Qatar, which enjoys good relations with the group, is encouraging the group to go ahead with the move, which would give Nusra a boost in funding." Reuters, ‘Insight: Syria’s Nusra Front may leave Qaeda to form new entity’, 4 February 2015
"Syria's killing of a top commander of the Nusra Front comes at a time when the jihadist group is rethinking its allegiance to al-Qaeda, in a move allegedly partly engineered by Qatar.It has been frequently claimed that Qatar has relatively close ties, probably through intermediaries, with the Nusra Front. The Qatar foreign ministry has denied this, and proof is, unsurprisingly, difficult to find.
But such an accusation has increasingly cropped up, particularly in terms of Qatar's prolific record of resolving hostage situations in Syria. Thirteen Greek orthodox nuns, an American journalist, and 45 Fijian peacekeepers are just some who have been released in the last 18 months with Qatar's and, it appears, often the Nusra Front's help." BBC Online, ‘Is Qatar bringing the Nusra Front in from the cold?’, 6 March 2015
The White Helmets (Syria Civil Defence)
"the White Helmets, who survive on modest financing from the United States, Britain and private donors… The White Helmets, also known as the Syrian Civil Defense, are campaigning to pressure President Assad to stop dropping so-called barrel bombs, which are full of shrapnel and take a tremendous toll on civilians. They argue that the West is so focused on the Islamic State that it is ignoring the far greater killing by Assad. “We can only ease the suffering of our people,” says Raed Saleh, the chief of the White Helmets. “Only you in the international community can end it.”" New York Times , ‘Unpaid, Unarmed Lifesavers in Syria’, 14 February 2015
“People are so used to it, they know from the sound,” said Hatem Abu Marwan, 29, a rescue worker with the White Helmets civil defense organization, a note of exasperation creeping into his voice when asked to explain. “We know the sound of a helicopter that goes to a low height and drops a barrel. Nobody has aircraft except the regime… Frustrated with the Security Council’s impasse over the issue, rescue workers and doctors are now working to bring evidence of chlorine gas attacks directly to the French, British and American governments for testing. The aim is to give states a solid basis for action against the attacks, in the Security Council or through quieter diplomatic pressure, said James Le Mesurier, the British director of a nonprofit group, Mayday Rescue, that trains and equips the White Helmets, Syrian volunteers supported by the British, Danish and Dutch governments… They have plenty of cases to work with. Since March 16, in Idlib alone, the White Helmets have documented 14 attacks with 26 suspected chlorine barrels that sickened scores of people." New York Times , ‘Syria Is Using Chemical Weapons Again, Rescue Workers Say’, 6 May 2015
"A key focus of the visit was the conflict in Syria, with the Foreign Secretary starting the trip in Istanbul where he met the Syrian Opposition and members of the Syria Civil Defence. Commonly known as the White Helmets, the Civil Defence is the most successful rescue organisation working in opposition-controlled areas of Syria." Foreign Secretary on first official visit to Turkey From:
''I believe that what we should try to do is not let them think that we are going to give up and go away or lighten up,'' Admiral Boyce said in an interview. ''The squeeze will carry on until the people of the country themselves recognize that this is going to go on until they get the leadership changed.'' A NATION CHALLENGED: THE STRATEGY; ALLIES PREPARING FOR A LONG FIGHT AS TALIBAN DIG IN NYT Oct. 28, 2001 Admiral Michael Boyce
"And many did not go far before making the link between President Sall's recent announcement that Saudi Arabia would invest heavily in the government development programme known as Programme Senegal Emergent 2035 (PSE), and the decision to send troops to the kingdom. A well-known columnist went as far as saying that "the blood of the jambars will be funding the PSE". Senegal, a majority Sunni Muslim country, is the only non-Arabic country to join the Saudi-led coalition." BBC Online, ‘Why is Senegal sending troops to Saudi Arabia?’, 5 May 2015
"It remains our assessment that Iran does not exert command and control over the Houthis in Yemen" April 2015, the United States National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan Testimony March 9, 2017 Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Resolving the Conflict in Yemen: U.S. Interests, Risks, and Policy
"Local militias backed by Saudi Arabia, special forces from the United Arab Emirates and al Qaeda militants all fought on the same side this week to wrest back control over most of Yemen’s second city, Aden, from pro-Iranian Houthi rebels, according to local residents and Houthi forces… Meanwhile, Saudi-backed militias are spearheading efforts to roll back Houthi gains and reinstate the government that the rebels drove into exile in neighboring Saudi Arabia. But they have turned to Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, for help, according to local residents and a senior Western diplomat. This puts the U.S.-allied Gulf kingdom on the same side as one of the world’s most notorious extremist groups.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman couldn’t be reached for comment…
I’m confused over who has captured Aden, seeing al Qaeda flags flying in some parts [of the city] and on dozens of armored vehicles,” said a resident. Another resident living in Crater, a neighborhood in Aden just south of the city’s airport, described the scene similarly. “We were surprised to see some fighters raising al Qaeda flags and dragging some rebels on the streets of Crater tonight,” said the second resident." Wall Street Journal , ‘Al-Qaeda Fights on Same Side as Saudi-Backed Militias in Yemen’, 16 July 2015.
"An example of an extreme version of the change described above would be the creation of new Islamic states that impose Sharia Law with outright support to terrorism. A powerful Sunni Islamic state may prove even more troublesome than Iran, especially in its support for SJ. The more militarily and economically powerful the state, the more potentially dangerous the situation would be…
If regional Arab governments are strengthening their institutions and delivering better services to their citizens, this approach would be more feasible because the national jihadists might sense that time was not on their side and that cutting a deal with the United States to sever all links with transnational jihadists might be their best chance of retaining some influence. By the same reasoning, this trajectory would also become more feasible if public opinion in the Arab and Muslim worlds were to swing heavily against violent jihad. Here too the national jihadists might sense time turning against them and begin to contemplate policies that would move them away from the transnational jihadists… the United States as an actor with genuine political capital to draw on would be seen by many of the national jihadist groups as a powerful force that could deliver some benefits to those groups in exchange for reductions, or perhaps cessation, of terrorist activity in their respective countries. In some cases, U.S. diplomacy could secure amnesty for former jihadists; in others it could work to bring former jihadists into their national political processes as a peaceful political party. Without much legitimacy, the United States would find it difficult to move into the trajectory.In this trajectory, the decision to focus on the transnational jihadists would be the result of evidence that al-Qaeda and its affiliates pose a much greater threat to international security than the sum of that posed by local jihadist group" RAND Corporation, ‘Unfolding the Future of the Long War: Motivations, Prospects, and Implications for the US Army’, RAND Arroyo Center, 2008 Page 48,49,68
"Divide and Rule would be the obvious strategy choice for the “Narrow-ing of Threat” trajectory. As various nationalist jihadist groups turned against al-Qaeda and its affiliates, the United States and its local allies could use the nationalist jihadists to launch proxy IO campaigns to discredit the transnational jihadists in the eyes of the local populace. In some instances, the United States and the host nation could even help the nationalist jihadists execute a military campaign to stamp out al-Qaeda elements that are present locally." RAND Corporation, ‘Unfolding the Future of the Long War: Motivations, Prospects, and Implications for the US Army’, RAND Arroyo Center, 2008 Page 104
"Divide and Rule at the strategic level would be an inexpensive way of buying time for the United States and its allies until the United States can return its attention fully to the long war. In order to compensate for the diversion of resources to the new geopolitical crises unfolding elsewhere in the world, the United States could choose to use diplomacy and economic incentives to attempt to create divisions in the jihadist camp. Today in Iraq such a strategy is being used at the tactical level, as the United States now forms temporary alliances with nationalist insurgent groups that it has been fighting for four years by exploiting the common threat that al-Qaeda now poses to both parties and providing carrots in the form of weapons and cash. In the past, these nationalists have cooperated with al-Qaeda against U.S. forces. The Divide and Rule strategy may not provide quick results, but could provide enough room for U.S. forces to reduce their effort in one region to focus on another." RAND Corporation, ‘Unfolding the Future of the Long War: Motivations, Prospects, and Implications for the US Army’, RAND Arroyo Center, 2008 Page 113
“But as time went on, every time there was a problem in the camp, he was at the centre of it,” Abu Ahmed recalled. “He wanted to be the head of the prison – and when I look back now, he was using a policy of conquer and divide to get what he wanted, which was status. And it worked.” By December 2004, Baghdadi was deemed by his jailers to pose no further risk and his release was authorised. “He was respected very much by the US army,” Abu Ahmed said. “If he wanted to visit people in another camp he could, but we couldn’t. And all the while, a new strategy, which he was leading, was rising under their noses, and that was to build the Islamic State. If there was no American prison in Iraq, there would be no IS now. Bucca was a factory. It made us all. It built our ideology.” Guardian , ‘ISIS: The Inside Story’, 11 December 2014
"As Isis has rampaged through the region, it has been led by men who spent time in US detention centres during the American occupation of Iraq – in addition to Bucca, the US also ran Camp Cropper, near Baghdad airport, and, for an ill-fated 18 months early in the war, Abu Ghraib prison on the capital’s western outskirts. Many of those released from these prisons – and indeed, several senior American officers who ran detention operations – have admitted that the prisons had an incendiary effect on the insurgency.
“I went to plenty of meetings where guys would come through and tell us how well it was all going,” said Ali Khedery, a special aide to all US ambassadors who served in Iraq from 2003-11, and to three US military commanders. But eventually even top American officers came to believe they had “actually become radicalising elements. They were counterproductive in many ways. They were being used to plan and organise, to appoint leaders and launch operations…
We had so much time to sit and plan,” he continued. “It was the perfect environment. We all agreed to get together when we got out. The way to reconnect was easy. We wrote each other’s details on the elastic of our boxer shorts. When we got out, we called. Everyone who was important to me was written on white elastic. I had their phone numbers, their villages. By 2009, many of us were back doing what we did before we were caught. But this time we were doing it better" Guardian , ‘ISIS: The Inside Story’, 11 December 2014
"Now there is more security and freedom, no arrests, no harassment, no concrete barriers and no checkpoints where we used to spend hours to get into the city" New York Times , ‘Offering Services, ISIS Digs in Deeper in Seized Territories’, 16 June 2015
"Yet despite brutal punishments for those who break the laws, many Syrian businessmen see Isil as the only option when compared to the anarchy that prevails in areas controlled by other rebels, including Western-backed groups… Teachers may continue to work, providing they agree to instruct the new curriculum, which bans subjects such as English and science, and is heavy on Sharia. Doctors and engineers, particularly those managing the Isil-controlled oilfields, are paid handsomely – at least double, and often several fold the salaries offered in other parts of the country.
With the zakat offices run by locals, they “know how much wealth their neighbours have”, and so they can insist on the “correct” tax percentage said one Raqqa resident… Hassan, a satellite installation engineer in Raqqa who only came to Turkey last month after he was wounded in a regime air strike said: “If you have some money, and can keep your mouth shut, living there is OK.”
For most Syrians, the price paid for this modicum of stability is repression.The jihadists' extreme version of Sharia law imposes a culture that is inimical to that of most Syrians, whose Sunni population overwhelmingly subscribe to a moderate interpretation of Islam." Daily Telegraph , ‘Why business is booming under Islamic State one year on’, 8 June 2015
"The ongoing civil war in Syria was a significant factor in driving worldwide terrorism events in 2014. The rate of foreign terrorist fighter travel to Syria – totaling more than 16,000 foreign terrorist fighters from more than 90 countries as of late December – exceeded the rate of foreign terrorist fighters who traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, or Somalia at any point in the last 20 years. Many of the foreign terrorist fighters joined ISIL, which, through intimidation and exploitation of political grievances, a weak security environment in Iraq, and the conflict in Syria, secured sufficient support to conduct complex military operations in an effort to seize contiguous territory in western Iraq and eastern Syria for a self-declared Islamic caliphate. ISIL routinely and indiscriminately targeted defenseless civilians, including religious pilgrims, while engaging in violent repression of local inhabitants." BUREAU OF COUNTERTERRORISM Country Reports on Terrorism 2014 Report US State Department
"Doubts are growing about the authenticity of an edict attributed to the Sunni Islamist group Isis controlling the Iraqi city of Mosul about female genital mutilation (FGM). A top UN official quoted from a statement saying that Isis wanted all females aged between 11 and 46 in the northern city to undergo the procedure. Jacqueline Badcock said the decree was of grave concern. But media analysts say the decree seen on social media may be a fake. It has typos and language mistakes and is signed by "The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant", a name the group no longer uses, instead referring to itself as the Islamic State." BBC Online, ‘Doubts grow over ISIS FGM edict in Iraq’, 24 July 2014.
"At present we are unaware of any specific, credible imminent threat to the homeland [from ISIS]" Francis Taylor’s testimony. Countering Violent Islamist Extremism: The Urgent Threat of Foreign Fighters and Home-grown Terror : Hearing Before the Committee on Homeland Security, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, First Session, February 11, 2015
"Americans should be braced for a long battle against the brutal terrorist group Islamic State that will test U.S. resolve — and the leadership of the commander in chief, says Leon Panetta, who headed the CIA and then the Pentagon as Al Qaeda was weakened and Osama bin Laden killed. I think we're looking at kind of a 30-year war," he says, one that will have to extend beyond Islamic State to include emerging threats in Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and elsewhere." USA Today , ‘Panetta: 30-year war and a leadership test for Obama’, 6 October 2014.
"Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.
Iraqi doctors in Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the battle for Fallujah between US troops and insurgents."Independent , ‘Toxic Legacy of US Assault on Fallujah Worse Than Hiroshima’, 24 July 2010
"Philip Hammond said: I’m delighted to have signed this arrangement with HE Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister, in the presence of HRH the Crown Prince. This will guarantee the presence of the Royal Navy in Bahrain well into the future. The expansion of Britain’s footprint builds upon our 30year track record of Gulf patrols and is just one example of our growing partnership with Gulf partners to tackle shared strategic and regional threats.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon added: This new base is a permanent expansion of the Royal Navy’s footprint and will enable Britain to send more and larger ships to reinforce stability in the Gulf. We will now be based again in the Gulf for the long term." UK-Bahrain sign landmark defence agreement Foreign & Commonwealth Office and The Rt Hon Philip Hammond 5 December 2014
"A Ministry of Defence spokesperson confirmed Mr Fallon had visited the country. The spokesperson said: “During these talks he reiterated the importance of working together to deal with global threats, including countering the poisonous ideology of Daesh, and regional instability.” The Independent , ‘Defence Secretary Michael Fallon pays low-key visit to Saudi Arabia to discuss military cooperation’, 29 March 2016
"He said the new facility would be one of the most important Royal Navy bases in the world and would be used for a "whole host of things" including supporting UK operations in Iraq, where RAF jets have been attacking targets as part of a US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS) militants… He also said the threat of IS may have made Gulf monarchies "content to invite British forces to set up on their soil" BBC Online, ‘UK to establish £15 million permanent Mid East military base’, 6 December 2014
"Security assistance has been withheld since 2011, when the Gulf state put down mass Shia-led protests. But US State Department spokesman John Kirby said that Bahrain had made progress on human rights, including the release of political prisoners. Bahrain is home to the US Navy's Fifth fleet and has flown airstrike missions over Syria as part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State (IS)." BBC Online, ‘US resumes aid to military in Bahrain’, 29 June 2015
"As I've said in the debate, it's frankly all of our partners and allies who were pursuing that contract, not just Canada. So this is a deal frankly with a country, and notwithstanding its human rights violations, which are significant, this is a contract with a country that is an ally in the fighting against the Islamic State. A contract that any one of our allies would have signed," he said. We expressed our outrage, our disagreement from time to time with the government of Saudi Arabia for their treatment of human rights, but I don't think it makes any sense to pull a contract in a way that would only punish Canadian workers instead of actually expressing our outrage at some of these things in Saudi Arabia." CBC, ‘How Saudi Arabia, and a $15B armoured vehicle deal, became an election issue’, 26 September 2015
"there were several things that surprised us about [the Islamic State], the degree to which they were able to form their own coalition... the military capability they exhibited’... "yeah, in those initial days, there were a few surprises." Washington Post , ‘The US’s big intelligence problem’, 28 May 2015 Martin Dempsey Chairman of joint chief of staff
"A RADICAL plan by Al-Qaeda to take over the Sunni heartland of Iraq and turn it into a militant Islamic state once American troops have withdrawn is causing alarm among US intelligence officials. A power struggle has emerged between the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq, an organisation with ambitions to become a state which has been set up by Al-Qaeda, and more moderate Sunni groups. They are battling for the long-term control of central and western areas which they believe could break away from Kurdish and Shi'ite-dominated provinces once the coalition forces depart. According to an analysis compiled by US intelligence agencies, the Islamic State has ambitions to create a terrorist enclave in the Iraqi provinces of Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Salah al-Din, Nineveh." The Times , ‘Al-Qaeda planning militant Islamic state within Iraq’, 13 May 2007
"AQI supported the Syrian opposition from the beginning, ideologically and through the media.. AQI conducted a number of operations in several Syrian cities under the name Al Nusra, one of its affiliates… If the situation unravels there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria. And this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want in order to isolate the Syrian regime" Department of Defense, ‘Information Report 14-L-0552/DIA), August 2012 Judicial Watch
"former DIA chief Michael Flynn – who had been in the post at the time the report was circulated in 2012 and remained there until 2014 – quite remarkably not only confirmed in a July 2015 Al-Jazeera interview that the report had crossed his desk but also explained that he ‘paid very close attention... the intelligence was very clear.’ When asked if the US government’s decision to ignore the intelligence was deliberate or accidental he then stated: ‘I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a wilful decision.’ As if this was not enough, when the incredulous interviewer asked Flynn to clarify whether he meant there was a decision in the US government knowingly to support such extremist groups, the former DIA chief doubled down by confirming ‘it was a wilful decision to do what they’re doing.’ Moreover, when he was then asked why he did not try to stop arms transfers to the Salafist principality while in office he replied: ‘I hate to say this... but it’s not my job" Al-Jazeera, ‘Head to Head: Who is to blame for the rise of ISIL?’, 29 July 2015 Michael T Flynn, the former head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, on how to deal with ISIL and Iran (Section from the book with actual quotes from the interview minute 11-13)
"According to the Washington Post's security blog, some of America's spooks believed that shooting a fake video of Saddam cavorting with a teenage boy might destabilise his regime in the runup to the US-led invasion in 2003. "It would look like it was taken by a hidden camera. Very grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex session," the Washington Post quoted one former CIA official as saying." CIA’s secret Iraq weapon revealed: a Saddam gay sex tape The Guardian Wed 26 May 2010
"After a seven-hour debate, MPs voted for military action by 524 votes to 43." BBC Online, ‘MPs support UK air strikes against IS in Iraq’, 26 September 2014
"SCHIEFFER: But whatever else you want to say about Iraq, every single gain that ISIS has made seems to have come as a surprise to the United States government. Is that a fair statement?
BRENNAN: No, I think that we -- I went back over the intelligence of last week, taking a look at what we knew and when we knew it about ISIS and its movements inside of Iraq and Syria. We saw a growing strength. There are a lot of factors that come to play in terms of what gains they're able to make on the ground and as has been discussed, sometimes there are different Iraqi units that either don't have the leadership, the logistic support that they need in order to counter ISIS…
SCHIEFFER: Well, nobody plays down how difficult this is. It's an enormously difficult task, but what do you need to be doing or what needs to be done that hasn't been done? Because I see -- it seems to me that ISIS is getting stronger, not getting weaker.
BRENNAN: Well, I think we can look at both Iraq and Syria; we need to make sure that we're able to maintain military pressure on the battlefield against ISIS, against Nusra, the other terrorist extremist elements there… This is going to be a long fight. I don't see this being resolved anytime soon. We need to turn back ISIS, we will turn back ISIS, I have no doubt about it. But I think there is going to be unfortunately a lot of bloodshed between now and then." CBS, ‘Face the Nation: Transcripts of Jeb Bush, John Brennan’, 31 May 2015
"BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq has told President Barack Obama's envoy that the U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State needs to do more to help Iraq defeat the jihadists controlling large areas of the north and west of the country.
Parliament speaker Selim al-Jabouri said he delivered the message in a closed meeting with retired U.S. Marine General John Allen, who visited Baghdad this week for talks with Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi's government. "Until now our feeling is that the international support is not convincing," Jabouri told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. "We might see participation here or there, but it is not enough for the tough situation we are passing through."
…A former US official recently described the White House's approach to Iraq as " passive tough love" - not allowing the United States to get to drawn into Iraq, but still helping the country defeat Islamic State." Reuters, ‘Iraq says US-led coalition not doing enough against Islamic State’, 14 January 2015
"The crisis in the Gulf provoked by Islamic State could last for 10 to 15 years, says Sir John Jenkins, Britain's former ambassador to Saudi Arabia." BBC Online, ‘UK ambassador: Gulf crisis could last 10-15 years’, 5 February 2015
"In the case of an event like these, the United States might seek to counter the Salafi-jihadist movement by trying to use just the minimum level of military resources necessary to keep the jihadist movement from spreading. In this vision, the United States might turn to some of its allies to conduct a significant portion of the global direct action effort against al-Qaeda and its affiliates. The inclusion of these allies might be facilitated by a growth in an anterior threat that would necessitate U.S. actions elsewhere for the good of others. The United States might try to bring significant contingents of European SOF (British, French, etc.) into its global anti–al-Qaeda campaign in order to free up capabilities to combat the conventional threat… Contain and React is also an option for this trajectory. The United States could deploy ISR perimeters around areas where there are concentrations of transnational jihadists and periodically launch air/missile strikes against high-value targets Host nation security forces would have more freedom to help in this mission, since they would no longer have to be concerned about national jihadist forces. If the transnational jihadists were ever to attempt to expand their area of sanctuary, the United States could respond with additional increments of long-range, standoff firepower and SOF." RAND Corporation, ‘Unfolding the Future of the Long War: Motivations, Prospects, and Implications for the US Army’, RAND Arroyo Center, 2008 Page 82,104
"BAIJI, Iraq — On the front lines of the battle against the Islamic State, suspicion of the United States runs deep. Iraqi fighters say they have all seen the videos purportedly showing U.S. helicopters airdropping weapons to the militants, and many claim they have friends and relatives who have witnessed similar instances of collusion. Ordinary people also have seen the videos, heard the stories and reached the same conclusion — one that might seem absurd to Americans but is widely believed among Iraqis — that the United States is supporting the Islamic State for a variety of pernicious reasons that have to do with asserting U.S. control over Iraq, the wider Middle East and, perhaps, its oil." Washington Post , ‘Iraqis think the US is in cahoots with the Islamic State, and it is hurting the war’, 1 December 2015.
"Iraqi and coalition jets offered limited assistance. The Americans weren’t really that serious in hitting ISIS to help us… I don’t think all the airstrikes and attacks on ISIS in the past year and half have degraded any of the ISIS capacity. In fact, ISIS is getting stronger and has weapons that we don’t have." Rudaw (Kurdish), ‘The stunning story of the fall of Ramadi’, 24 May 2015 A shocking betrayal, waves of suicide attacks, days hiding in the desert. This is a first-hand account by a top Kurdish commander in the Iraqi armed forces about what really happened – and what happens next – in Ramadi, Anbar and Iraq.
Wahda Al-Jumaili: The fall of Al-Anbar came as a surprise. It was a shock to us all. This points to a lack of a clear security strategy, or to the lack of preparedness by the security forces, or even by the high command of the security forces, with the aim of vanquishing terrorism. ISIS has taken over the supplies of the Iraqi army and security forces that fled. I am very sorry to say this. This will go down in history as a great defeat. Whether this was the result of treason, neglect, or conspiracy, or a regional or international plot… Even the international coalition has played a bad role. People saw the international coalition dropping weapons for ISIS. They dropped heavy weaponry to the forces of terrorism in Ramadi. This is an act of treason by the international coalition forces" Wahda Al-Jumaili, Advisor to Iraqi Parliament Speaker: Int'l Coalition Dropped Weapons, Which Enabled ISIS Takeover of Ramadi
"the foremost threat to Iraq’s long-term stability and the broader regional equilibrium is not the Islamic State, it is Shia militias, many backed by – and some guided by – Iran" Washington Post , ‘Five thoughts Petraeus has about the future of the Middle East’, 20 March 2015
"U.S-led coalition forces bombing Islamic State in Syria and Iraq carried out their latest raids near the city of Kobani close to Turkey and Syria's northeastern Hasaka province, but did not hit Aleppo and surrounding areas.
"(Islamic State) are heading to the Turkish border...If this happens I don't know who will be able to explain why the coalition is not bombing (them)," said Abo Abdo Salabman, a member of a rebel brigade which is not part of Levant Front but is fighting in the area. "It's one thing that they don't bomb the regime because of some international circumstances they need to take into account. However, failure to bomb ISIS on that particular front is not going to go down well with the rebels," he said, warning that people were more likely to join hardline groups as a result." Reuters, ‘Islamic State drives back Syria insurgents near Turkey’, 31 May 2015
"82 percent said they believe the Islamic state was created by the United States and its allies. The Syria study was conducted by ORB International, a UK Market Research firm" Washington Post , ‘One in five Syrians say Islamic State is a good thing, poll says’, 15 September 2015
"Now events may be forcing a rethink. The Obama administration is taking “an extremely hard look” at its approach, in the words of an unnamed official who declared in the wake of the fall of Ramadi: “You’d have to be delusional not to take something like this and say ‘what went wrong, how do you fix it and how do we correct course to go from here?’”
Robert Gates, the former US defence secretary, put it even more bluntly: “We don’t really have a strategy at all. We’re basically playing this day by day.” The urgent delivery of new anti-tank missiles for the Iraqi army has been one short-term response. But larger military and political questions are still unanswered." Guardian , ‘Seizure of Palmyra and Ramadi by ISIS reveal gaping holes in US jihadi strategy’, 21 May 2015
"The U.S. watched Islamic State fighters, vehicles and heavy equipment gather on the outskirts of Ramadi before the group retook the city in mid-May. But the U.S. did not order airstrikes against the convoys before the battle started. It left the fighting to Iraqi troops, who ultimately abandoned their positions. U.S. intelligence and military officials told me recently, on the condition of anonymity, that the U.S. had significant intelligence about the pending Islamic State offensive in Ramadi. For the U.S. military, it was an open secret even at the time.
The Islamic State had been contesting territory in and around Ramadi for more than a year and had spoken of the importance of recapturing the city. The U.S. intelligence community had good warning that the Islamic State intended a new and bolder offensive on Ramadi because it was able to identify the convoys of heavy artillery, vehicle bombs and reinforcements through overhead imagery and eavesdropping on chatter from local Islamic State commanders. It surprised no one, one U.S. intelligence official told me."
…The operations on Ramadi have been ongoing for 16 months," said Derek Harvey, a former intelligence adviser to David Petraeus when he commanded the counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq. Harvey said many observers had seen the Islamic State's series of probing attacks and psychological operations aimed at the Iraqi army and local tribes: "Everyone knew that Ramadi for some reason was a major focus." He conceded that he did not know the exact timing of the Ramadi offensive beforehand and acknowledged that he was surprised at how effective the operations were.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, had also been warning in policy papers that the Islamic State had set its eyes on Ramadi. Kim Kagan, the think tank's president, told me her institute "assessed that ISIS would undertake tactical offensives in different areas of Iraq in April and May in order to disperse the Iraqi Security Forces and prevent them from consolidating their gains after the fall of Tikrit." She said that "ISIS began alternating attacks between Anbar and the Baiji oil refinery in mid-April," which prompted General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to say in Congressional testimony that the U.S. was prioritizing the defense of Baiji over Ramadi. Kagan said the Islamic State's attack on Ramadi was not a "strategic surprise." Bloomberg , ‘US Saw Islamic State Coming, Let It Take Ramadi’, 28 May 2015
"That makes the reported attempts by senior military officials to alter the conclusions of rank-and-file intelligence officers particularly alarming. The Defense Department’s inspector general is investigating whether senior Centcom officials have sought to distort the assessments of military intelligence analysts to paint a positive picture of the war on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Those assessments are considered along with others produced by civilian agencies; conclusions from various assessments are then distilled and presented to the president and top policy makers. Gen. Lloyd Austin, the commander of Centcom, said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that he would take “appropriate actions,” once the inspector general’s office concludes its investigation. He told lawmakers that despite some setbacks, “progress is being made” in the military campaign. But his startling responses to questions from senators offered no reason to believe that is true" New York Times , ‘The Elusive Truth About War on ISIS’, 17 September 2015
"We could do a very significantly increased level of activity without going anywhere near putting combat troops on the ground. And one of the points that I make in the essay is that if you look at the average rate of international air strikes since last August into Syria and Iraq, it's about 10 per day. If you compare that to Libya in 2011, it was 45 per day. In Afghanistan in 2001, it was 83 per day. And in the Kosovo campaign, which people may remember from 1999, was 250 per day. So without even going close to putting troops on the ground, we could be doing a very significantly greater amount to deal with the Islamic State" ABC (Australia), ‘Islamic State look increasingly like a state warns expert’, 18 May 2015 David Kilcullen (Ex- US Official)
"Russian military jets have, at times, been carrying out more sorties in a day in Syria than the US-led coalition has done in a month." Independent , ‘War in Syria: Russia’s rustbucket military delivers a hi-tech shock to West and Israel’, 30 January 2016
"It was described as one the biggest heists in the history of bank robbery: more than $400m reportedly stolen from Mosul financial institutions by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, known as Isis, as it seized control of Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul last month. But Iraqi bankers in Mosul and the capital, Baghdad, are saying the robbery never took place and that the cash remains inside the vaults of the city’s banks… “We speak to the banks there all the time. We have been informed that all are guarded from the outside by their own guards and that nothing has been removed from the premises of any banks, not even a piece of paper.”
Reports that Isis had stolen 500bn Iraqi dinars ($430m) from Mosul financial institutions as the Islamist group and its Sunni insurgent allies seized control of the city more than a month ago raised alarm bells in the west and throughout the region, amid concern over the ambitions and growing capacity of extremist Islamists.
Iraq officials, including one-time CIA asset and lawmaker Ahmed Chalabi, described the alleged bank heist in comments cited by Iraqi and international media.
But Atheel al-Nujaifi, governor of Nineveh province, which includes Mosul, rejects the stories of vast sums of money being taken away by militants.“Nobody until now has confirmed that story,” he said in a telephone interview from Erbil. Not a single witness account has emerged of the Isis members making off with any money, and executives and employees from among the 20 private banks and 15 or so government bank branches in Mosul say there is no evidence that militants stole any money from the banks, many of which continue to operate." Financial Times , ‘Biggest bank robbery that never happened – $400m ISIS heist’, 17 July 2014
"The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) may be gaining ground across Syria and Iraq but the Chairman of Jordan's Capital Bank, Bassem Al-Salem, says it's business as usual. "ISIS are in Mosul and we are hearing a lot about them," the Al-Salem told CNBC. "(But) we have a branch in Mosul and we feel that it is not affecting the lifestyle of the people or the business transaction...we don't feel it, let's put it this way." CNBC, ‘Capital Bank says it’s business as usual in Mosul’, 22 May 2015
"the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove. Prince Bandar told him: "The time is not far off in the Middle East, Richard, when it will be literally 'God help the Shia'. More than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of them."... He does not doubt that substantial and sustained funding from private donors in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to which the authorities may have turned a blind eye, has played a central role in the Isis surge into Sunni areas of Iraq. He said: "Such things simply do not happen spontaneously." Independent , ‘Iraq crisis: How Saudi Arabia helped ISIS take over the north of the country’, 13 July 2014
[U.S. Navy Admiral and NATO Supreme Commander James Stavridis] "These rich Arabs are like what 'angel investors' are to tech start-ups, except they are interested in starting up groups who want to stir up hatred," said Stavridis, now the dean of the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University. "Groups like al-Nusrah and ISIS are better investments for them. The individuals act as high rollers early, providing seed money. Once the groups are on their feet, they are perfectly capable of raising funds through other means, like kidnapping, oil smuggling, selling women into slavery, etc."... Stavridis and other current U.S. officials suggest that the biggest share of the individual donations supporting ISIS and the most radical groups comes from Qatar rather than Saudi Arabia, and that the Qatari government has done less to stop the flow than its neighbors in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. One U.S. official said the Saudis are "more in line with U.S. foreign policy" than the Qataris" NBC, ‘Who’s Funding ISIS? Wealthy Gulf Angel Investors, Officials Say’, 21 September 2014
"As of late 2013, Al-Harzi was ISIL's Amir of suicide bombers and a key figure in an ISIL facilitation network that played a central role in ISIL's suicide and vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) attacks in Iraq. In his capacity as leader of ISIL’s suicide bomber facilitation pipeline, AL-Harzi worked with other ISIL members to facilitate the travel of individuals from Syria into Iraq. In October 2013, he requested suicide bombers for operations in Iraq from a Syria-based associate. Al-Harzi also worked to provide material support to ISIL by procuring and shipping weapons with his brother from Libya to Syria for ISIL.
Al-Harzi worked to help raise funds from Gulf-based donors for ISIL. In September 2013, he arranged for ISIL to receive approximately $2 million from a Qatar-based ISIL financial facilitator, who required that Al-Harzi use the funds for military operations only. The Qatar-based ISIL financial facilitator also enlisted Al-Harzi’s assistance with fundraising efforts in Qatar." Department of the Treasury, ‘Treasury Designates Twelve Foreign Terrorist Fighter Facilitators’, 29 September 2014
"Ransom increasingly fills the coffers of Islamic extremist groups in the Middle East and North Africa, U.S. and other Western officials said, with the payments often coming from a Persian Gulf or Western European government… Many diplomats spoke of a role by Qatar in securing hostage releases. The small Gulf emirate has long used gifts from its oil wealth as an instrument of foreign policy and to help in mediating regional problems. It also proudly highlights its mediation role in winning freedom for kidnapped Westerners and Arabs. Qatari diplomats often publicly receive freed hostages, while European and Arab officials appear on TV thanking the emirate.
Besides its public role, Qatar sometimes plays a more private one, according to Britain's Mr. Burt and to several Western, Arab and other diplomats and officials involved in hostage releases. In March, when Syria's radical Islamist al-Nusra Front freed 13 nuns and three other captive women in a deal brokered by Qatar and Lebanon, Qatar paid a $16 million ransom, according to a Lebanese official."Wall Street Journal , ‘Al Qaeda-Linked Groups Increasingly Funded by Ransom’, 29 July 2014
"Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley Clark explains that the existence of the Islamic State helps Sunni countries Turkey and Saudi Arabia geostrategically, by countering the shi'ite powers: Iran, Iraq and Syria."All along there’s always been the idea that Turkey was supporting ISIS in some way… Someone’s buying that oil that ISIS is selling, it’s going through somewhere, it looks to me like it’s probably going through Turkey, but the Turks haven't acknowledged that." “Let’s be very clear: ISIS [ISIL] is not just a terrorist organization, it is a Sunni terrorist organization. It means it blocks and targets Shia, and that means it’s serving the interests of Turkey and Saudi Arabia even as it poses a threat to them,” Clark said" CNN, ‘Wesley Clark: ISIS Serving Interests of Turkey and Saudi Arabia’, 25 November 2015
"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," Mr Putin said at a news conference in Paris on Monday. He said Russia had received more information to show that IS oil was passing through Turkish territory." BBC Online, ‘Russia says Turkey shot down plane for IS oil’, 1 December 2015
"ISTANBUL (AP) — Kurdish forces have discovered a 400-meter (440-yard) long tunnel dug by Islamic State group militants near the Turkish border with Syria, a spokesman for the militia said Monday. Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, discovered the half-completed tunnel after they captured the border town of Tal Abyad last week, spokesman Redur Khalil said. He said it wasn’t clear whether it was eventually meant to lead into Turkey as the tunnel splits into two different directions at one point." Associated Press, ‘Kurds find ISIS tunnel near Turkish border’, 26 June 2015
"the Kurdish Workers Party poses a primary threat [to Turkey], whereas the Daesh is the secondary threat." CNN, ‘Erdogan: Without Russia and Iran, Assad will fall in 24 hours’, 7 September 2015 Min 5
"Serena Shim, who worked for Iran's state-owned Press TV as Turkey correspondent, died in the city of Suruc after the car in which she was travelling reportedly collided with a 'heavy vehicle'. Shim's death came just days after she spoke on camera of her fears of being arrested, claiming Turkish intelligence agents had accused her of spying after one of her reports suggested ISIS militants were being smuggled back and forth over the Syrian border in the back of aid vehicles… In the short interview she alleged that she had been approached and accused of spying after a report in which he said she claimed to have received images of Islamic State terrorists being smuggled over the Turkey-Syria in vehicles belonging to the World Food Organization and other aid groups." Daily Mail , ‘Mystery of American journalist killed in car crash in Turkey... just days after she claimed intelligence services had threatened her over her coverage of siege of Kobane’, 20 October 2014 - Press TV
"Two Turkish journalists face life in prison over a story alleging that the Turkish government was arming Islamist militants in Syria. Cumhuriyet newspaper's editor-in-chief Can Dundar and its Ankara representative Erdem Gul have been charged with espionage. Prosecutors accuse them of working with a US-based cleric to discredit the government. The harsh punishment being sought has intensified press freedom concerns. EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said he was "shocked" at the severity of the sentence sought by prosecutors." BBC Online, ‘Turkish journalists face life in jail over Syria report’, 26 January 2016
“Turkey paved the way for us. Had Turkey not shown such understanding for us, the Islamic State would not be in its current place. It [Turkey] showed us affection. Large number of our mujahedeen [jihadis] received medical treatment in Turkey,” he said. "Jerusalem Post , ‘Islamic State fighter: Turkey paved the way for us’, 30 July 2014
"Defection to the jihadists has now been going on for years. Mahmoud, a former prisoner of the regime who used to work for the FSA, now runs safe houses in Turkey for foreign fighters looking to join Jabhat al-Nusra and Isil. He said he wasn't an extremist, just practical. "Many of my friends are doing the same now," he said. "Isil is the only solution for us. If Obama had given support to the FSA things would have been different. "The most important thing now though is to remove the regime and Isil are the strongest group. I will do whatever it takes."Daily Telegraph , ‘Fears that US weapons will fall into al-Qaeda’s hands as Syrian rebels defect’, 11 November 2014
"In the wake of the raid that killed Abu Sayyaf, suspicions of an undeclared alliance have hardened. One senior western official familiar with the intelligence gathered at the slain leader’s compound said that direct dealings between Turkish officials and ranking Isis members was now “undeniable”. “There are hundreds of flash drives and documents that were seized there,” the official told the Observer. “They are being analysed at the moment, but the links are already so clear that they could end up having profound policy implications for the relationship between us and Ankara.” Guardian , ‘Turkey sends in jets as Syria’s agony spills over every border’, 26 July 2015
“This is a question we’ve been asking our neighbors,” Faily said. “How could these brand new trucks... these four wheel drives, hundreds of them -- where are they coming from?” ISIS propaganda videos show gunmen patrolling Syrian streets in what appear to be older and newer model white Hilux pick-ups bearing the black caliphate seal and crossing Libya in long caravans of gleaming tan Toyota Land Cruisers. When ISIS soldiers paraded through the center of Raqqa, more than two-thirds of the vehicles were the familiar white Toyotas with the black emblems. There were small numbers of other brands including Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Isuzu. “Regrettably, the Toyota Land Cruiser and Hilux have effectively become almost part of the ISIS brand,” said Mark Wallace, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations" ABC, ‘US Officials Ask How ISIS Got So Many Toyota Trucks’, 6 October 2015
"In the emails, the Emirati diplomats frankly acknowledge their government was shipping arms to its Libyan allies in violation of the United Nations embargo — a policy they say is overseen at the “head of state level” — and they strategize about hiding the shipments from a United Nations monitoring panel. Answering questions and complying with procedures required by the United Nations resolution “will expose how deeply we are involved in Libya,” Mr. Qasimi wrote, adding, “We should try to provide a cover to lessen the damage.” New York Times , ‘Leaked Emirati Emails Could Threaten Peace Talks in Libya’, 12 November 2015
"An important part of this policy has been guided by the determination of the Qatari authorities to take control of the hydrocarbon resources of an emergent state of Azawad on the Malian territory. French media haven’t produced more evidence of these allegations, but an increasing number of reports have pointed out the visible impacts on the ground of the Qatari-Saudi competition" European Parliament, ‘The Involvement of Salafism/Wahhabism in the support and supply of arms to rebel groups around the world’, Directorate-General for External Policies, June 2013, Page 29
"Seven months later, the drone flights have dwindled, many of the advisers have gone home and not one of the kidnapped girls has been found… In Washington, that fleeting moment of cooperation between Nigeria and the United States in May has now devolved into finger-pointing and stoked the distrust between the two countries’ militaries. Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States has accused the Obama administration of failing to support the fight against Boko Haram, prompting the State Department to fire back with condemnations of the Nigerian military’s dismal human rights record." New York Times , ‘With Schoolgirls Taken by Boko Haram Still Missing, US-Nigeria Ties Falter’, 31 December 2014
"The Arab Spring is a timely reminder of the appeal our values and their institutions have beyond our borders. There are no placards on the streets of Benghazi or Damascus demanding “State Capitalism” or “Managed Democracy”, nor are they burning British or American flags. Instead, these people, many of them young, are demanding what we have, and want them to have too: jobs, security, political choice.
So, this is the third area on which the transatlantic alliance must rapidly agree a basis for common action: the spread of capitalist democracy. I was fortunate enough to be working in the British Foreign Office for then Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd when the Berlin Wall came down and change swept Europe. Now, as then, we must match the moment with a generous and farsighted offer to the people of the Middle East" Foreign Office, ‘Transatlantic relations in the 21st century and the UK’s policy toward Europe and NATO, transcript of speech by David Lidington’, 5 April 2011
"BP today announced that it has signed the final agreements of the West Nile Delta project to develop 5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas resources and 55 million barrels (mmbbls) of condensates with an estimated investment of around $12 billion by BP and its partner. The project underlines BP’s commitment to the Egyptian market and is a vote of confidence in Egypt’s investment climate and economic potential." BP finalises deal to develop Egypt’s West Nile Delta gas fields 6 March 2015
“I think for the first time … in my memory you have a leadership in Egypt that understands the modern world, is prepared to take the measures that are relevant to the modern world, and wants Egypt connected to the modern world in the right way,”
… For Blair, the trade-off between democracy and stability does not appear to be a difficult one. “Look, I’m absolutely in favour of democracy and I think that, in the end, all countries as they develop will go to a situation in which the citizens elect the government,” he reassured the conference. “But I also think you’ve got to be realistic sometimes about the path of development, and that sometimes you will have a country [with] not what we would call 100% western-style democracy but [that], on the other hand, is going in a direction of development that’s really important." Sharm el-Sheikh rumbles with grand promises of the international elite Jack Shenker in Sharm
Unverified Sources
"our key tasks are first of all to increase trade, open up [Yugoslavian] markets and help them with economic progress, to intensify the integration with European structure… we must increase their ties with NATO in order to make sure that they do have a greater sense of security and we must take a stronger part in their security" New Statesman , ‘The New Statesman Interview – Robin Cook’, 5 July 1999.
"the assumptions on which the rules of WTO are based are grossly unfair... those rules reflect an agenda that serves only to promote dominant corporate interests that already monopolize the arena of international trade."
UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, ‘The realization of economic, social and cultural rights; globalization and its impact on the full enjoyment of human rights’, Preliminary report, 52nd session, 15 June 2000, p. 6
"so-called FSA is just a footnote... let’s be clear here, we’re talking about jihadists, most of the opposition groups are jihadists." Sky News, ‘Interview with David Cameron and former British ambassador to Syria Peter Ford’, 5 October 2015.
"based on the analysis here of other estimated income, such as tax, the selling of looted antiquities and confiscated property, set against the estimated maximum operational costs of the group, which I believe to be well over $2 billion per year, it would appear that the Islamic State’s income from private donors is far larger than previously estimated" Foreign Affairs Subcommittee, ‘ISIL Financing Inquiry: Written Evidence from Luay al-Khatteeb, Executive Director of Iraq Energy Institute’, 8 March 2016.