Unlimited MENA Revolt Thread

[Cain]

Well it'll be covert in the sense we won't actually send an army.

Just the usual assortment of intelligence paramilitaries, "training", weapons shipments, mercenaries and so on.  Presumably we're doing this to get some kind of leverage over the rebels, so Saudi Arabia doesn't have a complete hold on the country by the time Assad gets bored of this/the Alawites get genocided.

Because, you know, that worked out so well with the Arab Mujahideen.  Terribly grateful as a rule, those Islamist jihadis.

[Junkenstein]

So this is how you run a war in a recession and still keep the consulting classes happy.

Interesting.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Sheesh. I don't think that's going to end well.

That's because you have no faith in the essential wisdom and benevolence of our intelligence community.  This implies that you have a dangerous level of sympathy toward terrorists¹, and are perhaps even LIBERAL.





¹  Admit it.  You have a Mullah Omar pin up in your closet.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Well it'll be covert in the sense we won't actually send an army.

Just the usual assortment of intelligence paramilitaries, "training", weapons shipments, mercenaries and so on.  Presumably we're doing this to get some kind of leverage over the rebels, so Saudi Arabia doesn't have a complete hold on the country by the time Assad gets bored of this/the Alawites get genocided.

Because, you know, that worked out so well with the Arab Mujahideen.  Terribly grateful as a rule, those Islamist jihadis.

You aren't expecting any level of "learning from mistakes", right?

Because I'm not.

[Cain]

Only for BAD terrorists.

Terrorists who fight for Saudi Arabian geopolitical interests are, on the other hand, VALIANT FREEDOM FIGHTERS.  Despite, you know, also having Mullah Omar pinups on their walls.

Only someone who hates America and freedom could fail to understand that.

[Junkenstein]

They must be communists.

[Juana]

Sheesh. I don't think that's going to end well.

That's because you have no faith in the essential wisdom and benevolence of our intelligence community.  This implies that you have a dangerous level of sympathy toward terrorists¹, and are perhaps even LIBERAL.





¹  Admit it.  You have a Mullah Omar pin up in your closet.

It's not even in my closet. It's right next to my "Lenin Sweeping the World Clean" poster, out in the open.

[Cain]

Sheesh. I don't think that's going to end well.

I know, right?  I mean, Seth MacFarlane is kinda a douchebag, but no more so than anyone else at the Oscars.

[Cain]

So, this is quite the admission:

he CIA has stepped up secret contingency planning to protect the United States and its allies as the turmoil expands in Syria, including collecting intelligence on Islamic extremists for the first time for possible lethal drone strikes, according to current and former U.S. officials.

President Obama has not authorized drone missile strikes in Syria, however, and none are under consideration.

The Counterterrorism Center, which runs the CIA's covert drone killing program in Pakistan and Yemen, recently shifted several targeting officers to improve intelligence collection on militants in Syria who could pose a terrorist threat, the officials said.

Reading between the lines, this says "should Assad fall, the civil war will continue".  And that message is being directed at Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Incidentally, the UK is still playing catchup.  "We don't know if the rebels or if Assad used chemical weapons, but either way ITS ASSAD'S FAULT."  So sayeth William Hague.  No, William, you're meant to say "this is why we need to start documenting the bad rebels for drone strikes once they collapse Assad".  Get with the program.

[Cain]

So, how about that covert support?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/us-army-veteran-charged-with-fighting-with-al-qaida-in-syria-using-weapon-of-mass-destruction/2013/03/28/33354c02-97d7-11e2-b5b4-b63027b499de_story.html

A U.S. Army veteran, who boasted on Facebook of his military adventures with Syrian rebels, was charged Thursday with firing rocket propelled grenades as part of an attack led by an al-Qaida group against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Eric Harroun, 30, of Phoenix, was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction — specifically, a rocket propelled grenade launcher — outside the U.S.

According to an FBI affidavit, Harroun, who served three years in the Army before being medically discharged, was engaged in military action in Syria, siding with rebel forces against the Syrian government, from January to March of this year.

Putting aside the question of what isn't a "WMD" if an RPG fits the category....very interesting.

And his father says he was passing information to the CIA.  Maybe, maybe not.  Harroun does have some rather...uncivil things to say about Jews, which suggests a certain adoption of the jihadist worldview...but then again, who better for the CIA to send to keep an eye on the rebels than someone who fits the profile of an international jihadist?

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Who did he piss off to get hauled in for that?

[Cain]

The wonderful thing about doing things in secret is that they're done in secret.

The FBI may have picked him up routinely, based on his activities, and the CIA for whatever reason decided not to tip their hand regarding him....if he is indeed theirs. 

In Italy, most of the false-flag terrorists had prison time and criminal records and were frequently picked up by local police, because the right hand did not inform the left hand of what it was doing.  Hell, we wouldn't know about Gladio if not for the Italian state investigating itself due to this need for secrecy on behalf of certain agencies, secrecy that meant not everyone in a position to investigate was informed or co-opted.

[Cain]

Syrian rebels likely used a chemical weapon:

The military's version of events is that the home-made rocket was fired at a military checkpoint situated at the entrance to the town. The immediate effects were to induce vomiting, fainting , suffocation and seizures among those in the immediate area.

A second source – a medic at the local civilian hospital – said that he personally witnessed Syrian army helping those wounded and dealing with fatalities at the scene. That Syrian soldiers were among the reported 26 deaths has not been disputed by either side.

The military source who spoke to Channel 4 News confirmed that artillery reports from the Syrian Army suggest a small rocket was fired from the vicinity of Al-Bab, a district close to Aleppo that is controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra – a jihadist group said to be linked with al-Qaeda and deemed a "terrorist organisation" by the US.

[Cain]

Iraq is sliding into civil war.  Again:

Iraqi leaders fear that the country is sliding rapidly into a new civil war which "will be worse than Syria". Baghdad residents are stocking up on rice, vegetables and other foodstuffs in case they are prevented from getting to the shops by fighting or curfews. "It is wrong to say we are getting close to a civil war," said a senior Iraqi politician. "The civil war has already started."

This is borne out by the sharp rise in the number of people killed in political violence in Iraq in April, with the UN claiming more than 700 people were killed last month, the highest monthly total for five years.

The situation has suddenly deteriorated since the killing of at least 36 Sunni Arab protesters at a sit-in in Hawijah on 23 April. An observer in Baghdad, who did not want to be named, said "ever since, Hawijah people are frightened of a return to the massacres of 2006". She added that Sunni and Shia were avoiding going into each others' areas. Signs of deteriorating security are everywhere. Al-Qa'ida showed its reach on Monday when five car bombs blew up in overwhelmingly Shia southern Iraq, leaving 21 dead. The Sunni fundamentalist group, which had a resurgence in 2012, is responsible for killing a majority of the almost 1,500 Iraqis who have died in political violence so far this year.

Its members are now able to roam freely in Anbar province where a year ago they were a secretive underground movement. In neighbouring Kirkuk, al-Qa'ida last week seized the town of Sulaiman Bec, shot the chief of police, stormed the police station and departed with their weapons after agreeing a truce with the Iraqi army.

Residents in Baghdad say that soldiers, whom they claim are Shia militiamen in uniform, have massed around Sunni enclaves in the city and are setting up checkpoints. Memories of the sectarian civil war in 2006 and 2007 when, in the worst months, some 3,000 people were butchered, may be exacerbating the sense of threat, but old fears are reawakening. Bombs have usually been directed against Shia in the past, but in recent weeks Sunni mosques and cafés are being targeted. "Before we could escape to Syria, but with the violence there where can we go?" asked one Iraqi. "There is no way out."

[Cain]

Looks like the Houthi rebels got bored of putting up a pretence and have now openly seized power, taking the Presidential palace in Sanaa in what is being described as a "coup".

The Houthis are Shiite, by the way, and strongly suspected to have Iranian backing.  Saudi Arabia's reaction will be brutal, I am sure.