Saturday, October 29, 2016

Robert Parry — The De Facto US/Al Qaeda Alliance

Buried deep inside Saturday’s New York Times was a grudging acknowledgement that the U.S.-armed “moderate” rebels in Syria are using their U.S. firepower to back an Al Qaeda offensive, reports Robert Parry.
Consortium News
The De Facto US/Al Qaeda Alliance
Robert Parry

17 comments:

Ryan Harris said...

Do you think the reports of North African US drone base are true, or should we believe the Tunisian denials?

Tom Hickey said...

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/drones-just-where-are-us-bases-northern-africa-2142422444

https://theintercept.com/2016/09/29/u-s-military-is-building-a-100-million-drone-base-in-africa/

Ryan Harris said...

Oh good grief. It's even worse than WAPO reported.

Tom Hickey said...

Military is going full-on high tech and robotic. Huge investments being made by the major weapons suppliers. US, Russia, China, etc are all going big into it, along with space and cyberspace.

Gives "disruptive technology" new meaning.

Anonymous said...

Music video 'Turn it around':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0F8DdT0Fuw&feature=youtu.be

Ignacio said...

Military is going full-on high tech and robotic.

This is super dangerous, when the leverage the population has over politicians is decreased due to the ability to wage automatised war without contempt of the population disappears we will be entering a new era, this change is as (if not more) important as the change from/to fiat to commodity-based monetary regimes.

Thankfully we are far away from a really autonomous combat capable unit, but we can see that drone ops can be carries out by smaller commitments of military and intelligence (CIA) operatives already, and the results of that are catastrophic.

Tom Hickey said...

The other really scary thing is that this capability is being transferred to domestic security forces because "terrorism," where anyone that opposes elite authority is a "terrorist."

Coupled with total information awareness the national security state together with the surveillance state became the totalitarian state.

This is Orwell's 1984 on steroids unless "we the people" can get a leash on the elite.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belling_the_cat

Matt Franko said...

Maybe they have a study indicating that the pipeline must go thru so MENA can have enough energy product to continue to be able to trade for food... otherwise they starve...

So if you take the Syrian/Russian side in this then you are advocating for starvation of millions of Arab/Muslims...

Tom Hickey said...

I'm sure that have at least one study justifying the things as necessary.

On the other hand the oil and gas comes from Qatar. Does anyone actually expect the elite to pass any proceeds or benefits to the people of MENA based on the record? Seems farfetched.

Tom Hickey said...

Police Are Shooting Down Aerial Drones Over Standing Rock

Tom Hickey said...

For anyone that hasn't yet noticed. The overall US strategy is to create chaos so as to impose order because American exceptionalism and the need for American leadership as the indispensable nation.

This strategy is overall in that it is both foreign and domestic.

Welcome to global totalitarian corporatism.

Ryan Harris said...

I think people are allowed to use private airspace for drones now, if the police officers who damaged the drone could be identified, the drone owner could file a complaint to seek damages in small claims court with little cost to himself.

The officer would probably claim the drone was a threat but... being that there is a video camera on the drone, that specious argument wouldn't hold up.

If the protesters have been camping and trespassing on private property though, their rights are diminished as that is evidence they are engaged in criminality and actually are a threat.

Tom Hickey said...

If the protesters have been camping and trespassing on private property though

The issue is over who actually owns the land.

The state claims imminent domain and the tribes claim sovereignty.

Matt Franko said...

Tom the countries it traverses thru they take a % to run it thru.... that's what Ukraine was doing and it was all oakie dokie until it went to $13 and the drunk Russians reneged...

Now it's $2 and Vlad looks like an idiot and is having to go all beligerant to save face ...

Tom Hickey said...

The proposed pipeline goes from Qatar thru Saudi Arabi, thru Syria and then through Turkey to Europe through the Balkans. Most of the line runs in the Middle East goes through SA and Turkey. I don't see much of the fees benefitting the people of MENA.

Ignacio said...

Matt going belligerent to keep control over the routes (which would be beneficial both from a financial and strategic pov) not to save face, as there is no one he needs to save face with internally, is not HRC we are talking about, he has huge support both from the population and the military, nothing to worry about.

Furthermore, the Russian population is probably fine with what he is doing (and he is 'winning' so far, so, all the best). And the oligarchs are fine too, at least those in the energy export business, all the best for them.

Matt Franko said...

Well nobody is going to deal with him as well as Venezuela who did the same thing with oil...

so its sanctions with Russia and hands off Venezuela while they circle the toilet bowl...

You cant renege....

If they had term limits, then the new person could patch things up as there would be no old baggage... but Putin has been there forever and wont leave he is like Brezhnev in the Soviet days... they are all probably breaking out the vodka again...

If Trump wins he would be a new person and I assume will structure a new deal for Russia... if they dont take it, then that is going to get interesting...