Alexander Mezyaev (SCF) : In July 2014 the activities of Boko Haram – a terrorist group operating in Nigeria – intensified activities on a broader scale. Skirmishes with the government troops turned into real battles. Terrorist acts became much more frequent and the fighting has gone beyond the state borders. The Boko Haram terrorist group appears to become an international organization.
Boko Haram (1) (usually translated as “Western education is a sin”), is a Salafi militant Islamist organization based in northern Nigeria and influenced by Wahhabi movement. (2)
Formally it was founded in 2009 to periodically stage local terrorist acts and attack Christian shrines. With every passing year their activities were becoming more frequent and well-planned encompassing the whole country. The group abruptly intensified actions including the neighboring Cameroon.
This April Chibok kidnapping took place with over 280 schoolgirls snatched by the militants. The group wanted all its members behind bars to be set free. The government refused. Then the action was followed by a string of attacks against populated areas and police stations. Officials and many civilians lost their lives. In June a blast took place in the port of Lagos, the wave of terror hit the oil-rich shores of the Niger River. The end of July was real hot: terrorist acts became a routine matter. On July 27 – Kaduna bombing with the death toll of 50, on July 30 – at least six people have been killed in a suicide bombing at a college in northern Nigeria’s biggest city, Kano. (3) On July 27 Boko Haram militants attacked the northern Cameroon town of Kolofata and seized several people including the wife of Cameroon’s Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali. The official was taken away from the place by his guards. The mayor and his family were taken hostage. The clashes with the Cameroon army lasted for a few days…
How do the international community, Africa and Nigeria respond to the disastrous unfolding of the events?
First, the United Nations Security Council has started to react. In 2014 the Council’s chairman has made a number of condemning statements. But there has been no resolution and it makes ask questions. In July the names of Boko Haram leaders (especially Abubakar Shekau) were blacklisted under the U.N. al Qaeda sanctions list. It means the United Nations considers Boko Haram to be part of Al Qaeda.
Second, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger agreed to provide troops in order to stamp out Boko Haram. With each country contributing 700 troops each the force is strong enough. (4) Finally the United States State Department has listed Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization. This decision gives publicity to the group serving as a kind of advertisement to attract more recruits.
The fact that Boko Haram has become an internationally known organization. This fact could be considered from two angles of view.
The internal aspect is related to complicated state system of Nigeria with the population of hundreds of ethnic groups and clans living in 36 states. The structure is the legacy of British rule which had rich experience of drawing dividing (5) and coercively uniting borders to make live together the peoples who had a long history of animosity towards each other. The independent Nigeria has faced the consequences of the British colonial policy a number of times. For instance, Biafra, officially the Republic of Biafra, was a secessionist state in south-eastern Nigeria that existed from 30 May 1967 to 15 January 1970, taking its name from the Bight of Biafra (the Atlantic bay to its south). The inhabitants were mostly the Igbo people who led the secession due to economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions among the various peoples of Nigeria. The creation of the new state that was pushing for recognition was among the causes of the Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian-Biafran War that took, according to different estimates, the lives of 1-3 million people.
The aspiration for an independent Biafra is still alive. Before his death in late 2013 Chinua Achebe, the world-wide known Nigerian novelist, who was Igbo by nationality, devoted his last book which was called with obvious meaning There Was a Country. The book is in fact a lament for Biafra and the decline of Nigeria, which he relates directly to the Biafran war. It offers a future outlook.
Half of a Yellow Sun is a novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche. Published in 2006 by Knopf/Anchor, it tells the story of the Biafran War. The author also belongs to the people of Igbo. She wrote about the existence of a special Sun that shines not from the sky but from the banner of Biafra. The book has received many awards, including in Great Britain. It has just been translated into Russian – that’s good news…
The external aspect is to great extent defined by the role of the International Criminal Court which is conducting an official investigation of the Boko Haram activities. Jonathan of Nigeria, the President of Nigeria, is invited as a witness. We believe it to be a grave mistake. Other countries have also faced the situation Nigeria has to tackle today. They have involved the International Criminal Court. For instance, Cote D’Ivoire has invited the Court to make an investigation. Now the President of the country Laurent Gbagbo is in Hague put behind bars. The same thing may be in store for Nigeria. For instance, the recent report by International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda says the crimes in Nigeria are committed not only by Boko Haram but also by government troops often in violation of human rights while fighting terrorists. The insinuation is clear, President Goodluck should simulate the fight but he will not be allowed to hold a real victory. The International Criminal Court is an instrument of global governance. Boko Haram and other terrorist organizations have a mission to destabilize Africa to prevent it from leaving behind the economic backwardness.
What is the reason for making the activities of terrorists in Nigeria and in West Africa more vibrant? Many say it’s due to the system of clans. There are three major ethnic groups in Nigeria (6) and a lot of smaller ones. The groups come to power in rotation. The fragile pattern was broken after former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Hausa by origin, suddenly died in 2010 (being only 58). As a result then Vice President Jonathan Goodluck (Yoruba) stepped in as an interim President to win the next presidential election. In 2015 the country will hold another presidential election. Goodluck is among the hopefuls. The intensification of terrorist activities could be a way to pressure him into rejecting his office in favor of someone who belongs to the Hausa tribe. There are attempts made to make people believe that a Hausa Muslim could tackle the problem of Boko Haram. (7) The religious and ethnic aspects do play some role but not the decisive one.
We believe the main reason for the deterioration of the situation in Nigeria is abruptly stated rapid economic growth.
It’s worth to note that the terrorist activities intensified at the time of Nigeria becoming the leading economy in Africa (at the start of 2014) leaving behind the main competitor – the economically strong South Africa. It may not suit the plans of those who stand in the way of progress.
The Boko Haram escalated its activities right at the time the situation in Africa started to seriously deteriorate. The regime of global governance has reasons for concern: the Africa’s GDP growth (8) has been 5, 6 % during the recent ten years against 3, 8% in the world. (9) It was only 1, 1% in eurozone. The economic reasons give rise to the new wave of destabilization in Africa.
In 2013 such countries as Mali, the Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Somalia, Kenia and some other stares faced great difficulties. No matter that, the growth of Africa’s GDP was 5, 7% by far exceeding the world average of 4, 1%. It means the pressure on Africa will grow including terrorist activities.
In 1984 the book Nigeria on Fire in Russian written by former President of the country Olusegun Obasanjo hit the bookstore shelves in 1984. The book describes the war in Biafra, the operations of federal troops and the aid provided by the Soviet Union. Thirty years have passed. Nigeria is hit by fire again. The fire has spread to other countries and is threatening the whole continent. Though the continent is an intermediate goal, Boko Haram fights to make the whole world a caliphate without any borders.
(1) The group’s official name in Arabic is والجهاد للدعوة السنة أهل جماعة, Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’Awati Wal-Jihad, a.k.a. Jama’atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda’Awati Wal Jihad, a.k.a. Jama’atu Ahlus-Sunna Lidda’Awati Wal Jihad, meaning “People Committed to the Prophet’s Teachings for Propagation and Jihad” The official website of the organization says Christian infidels give a wrong translation like “Western education is a sin”), in reality it’s not a sin, it’s something forbidden by Islam, like pork, for instance. » (http://bokoharam.net/).
(2) Nigerian imams flatly refuse to consider this group as an Islamic one, saying Boco Haram uses Islam as a cover while pursuing quite different goals in reality.
(4) Letter dated 18 June 2014 from the Permanent Representative of Nigeria and from the Chargé d’affaires. of the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council.// UN document : S/2014/425, June 19, 2014
(5) For instance, the largest people of Nigeria – Yoruba was divided between Nigeria, Benin and Togo.
(6) Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo
(7) The Boko Haram leaders themselves say they get funds from some governors of northern states populated by Hausa.
(8) The countries of tropical Africa to the south of Sahara desert.
Alexander Mezyaev – Alexander Mezyaev is the Head of the Chair of the Academy on International Law and Governance in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia. Alexander Mezyaev is a frequent contributor to international print and online media. His to the point and precise articles are deconstructing social constructionism, scapegoating and positioning in international politics, governance, conflict and law.
With the recent slaughter of Palestinians taking place on television screens across the world, only the grossly misinformed would believe that Israel’s Palestinian extermination program is actually “self-defense.”
Yet for all of Israel’s whining about how it is being targeted by “Islamic extremists” and “terrorists,”(which should be translated to mean Palestinians, Iran, or any other secular or nationalist Arab government in the region) there is a curious and deafening silence when it is confronted with actual terrorists and Muslim fanatics such as ISIS, al-Nusra, and the myriad of other fundamentalist groups waging jihad in Syria and Iraq.
This bizarre silence has yet to raise the eyebrows of the somnambulant general public.
Of course, Israel’s lack of concern regarding legitimate terrorist groups is not bizarre at all when one understands the perspective and goals held by the settler state toward its neighbors in the region or its connections to the very groups who espouse Israel as their number one enemy.
But while Israel does not respond with its usual apoplectic frothing of victimhood and danger regarding these terrorist groups that have now so infested the Middle East as to make the entire region a general war zone, it is important to point out that these same terrorist groups do not launch coordinated military attacks in Tel Aviv, they launch them in Damascus and Mosul – cities belonging to secular nations seen by Israel as the enemy.
The question then is “Why?” Why does Israel not share the concern it has over Palestinians, Iranians, Syrians, and Lebanese with al-Nusra, ISIS, and al-Qaeda? Why do these groups wage jihad against Israel’s enemies but not against Israel itself?
Indeed, this curious fact was also raised by Nabil Na’eem, the former al-Qaeda commander who recently gave an interview to Al-Maydeen where he stated that these organizations of Islamic terror were in fact controlled by the CIA. Na’eem stated in regards to Issam Hattito,
For instance, Issam Hattito, head of Muslim Brotherhood responsible for leading the battles against Bashar Assad, where does he reside? Is he in Beirut? Riyadh or Cairo? He’s residing in Tel Aviv.
Ahmad Jarba, does he stay in Riyadh, Cairo or Tehran? He’s moving between New York, Paris and London, his employers, who pay his expenses . . .
Na’eem is right to point out these odd bedfellows because it provides one small piece of a larger puzzle – that Israel, along with its cohorts in the West (the United States and Europe) are not victims of Islamic terror, they are sponsors of it.
From providing medical aid, military training, and outright military assistance, the so-called state of Israel has been a much better friend to Muslim terrorists than any of the regimes it claims as its enemy.
For instance, it has been well-known for quite some time that Israel has been providing wounded Syrian rebels with medical treatment inside Israel so that they can continue the Jihad against the secular government of Bashar al-Assad. According to Colum Lynch of The Cable (the news wing of the Council on Foreign Relations Foreign Policy),
In the past three months, battle-hardened Syrian rebels have transported scores of wounded Syrians across a cease-fire line that has separated Israel from Syria since 1974, according to a 15-page report by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the work of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). Once in Israel, they receive medical treatment in a field clinic before being sent back to Syria, where, presumably, some will return to carry on the fight.
U.N. blue helmets responsible for monitoring the decades-old cease-fire report observing armed opposition groups “transferring 89 wounded persons” from Syrian territory into Israel, where they were received by members of the Israel Defense Forces, according to the report. The IDF returned 21 Syrians to armed opposition members back in Syria, including the bodies of two who died.
Later in the article, the writer mentions the fact that Israel has provided such medical assistance to Syrian rebels since at least as far back as February. Realistically, however, such assistance was being provided even further back. Lynch writes that Israel provided the medical treatment for at least a year.
Indeed, in February, 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actually visited one of the medical facilities in which the Syrian rebels were being treated and even posed for a photo op shaking hands with a death squad fighter.
More notable than even the medical services, is the fact that Israel has provided military support to the terrorist death squads in the form of artillery and air force bombing campaigns. These attacks have generally come after the Assad government seems to be making considerable gains on the ground against the Western-backed fighters.
For instance, on October 30, 2013, Israel attacked and completely destroyed a Syrian air defense base in Snobar Jableh, Syria which is located near Latakia, a port city on the coast of the Mediterranean. The base was alleged to have housed a surface to air missile battery.
Of course, this was not the only time where Israel inflicted an injury against the enemies of Islamic extremists during the course of the Syrian conflict. It is known that Israel launched attacks against Syrian forces and military convoys at least four times prior to the October 30 attack.
As recently as June, 2014, Israel launched a series of airstrikes against Syrian military positions under the pretext of retaliation for a cross-border attack which was almost certainly initiated by death squad fighters whose logistical inadequacy spilled over into Israeli occupied territory in the Golan Heights. Given the questionable circumstances surrounding the justifying incident – the killing of yet another Israeli teenager by an alleged anti-tank missile – one would be justified in questioning the Israeli story.
While the occasional attack on Syrian territory is bad enough, the fact is that Israel has apparently coordinated these attacks with the death squad directors on the ground so as to provide cover fire and diversions for death squad “swarming” and jihadist invasions.
For instance, in May 2013, WABC host and best-selling author Aaron Klein stated that an Israeli airstrike in Syria was closely coordinated with Turkey which, in turn, helped coordinate the death squad attacks to occur at the exact same time as the Israeli airstrikes. The sources speaking to Klein came from Jordanian and Egyptian intelligence agencies.
Israel’s air strike in Syria today was coordinated with Turkey, which in turn coordinated rebel attacks throughout Syria timed to coincide with the Israeli strike, according to Egyptian and Jordanian intelligence sources speaking to KleinOnline. The sources said the rebels did not know about the Israeli strike in advance but instead were given specific instructions for when to begin today’s major assaults against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. “Almost the moment the Israel Air Force departed was the moment the rebel advance began,” added the Egyptian intelligence source. Multiple reports have noted how the Syrian rebels consist in large part of al-Qaida-linked jihad groups. The Egyptian and Jordanian sources described how immediately after today’s Israeli air strike the jihadist rebels used access roads to advance toward Damascus and began heavy clashes with Syrian military forces throughout the country.
Israel was even documented in 2011 as hosting and directing a terrorist mercenary training camp inside the country in order to produce mercenaries tailor-made to be used in the Arab world.
What’s more, the Israeli establishment does not seem to feel the need to hide its support for terrorism which, in this specific instance, tends to take the form of mercenaries. Indeed, the Israeli terrorist trainers actually appear to be quite open about their efforts.
In a 2011 report conducted by The Media Line,[1] an international news organization which focuses on the Middle East, Arieh O’Sullivan was able to film an Israeli-run terrorist mercenary training camp, complete with interviews, on-scene narration, and ample video footage of actual training taking place.
As the report begins, one can see a multicultural group of men –Arabs, Africans, Europeans, etc. – dressed in typical Arab clothing, riding camels, and taking part in tactical training.
“The men on these camels have been training for the past week to operate in the Arab world,” O’Sullivan says. “They dress as Arabs, even take a ride on a desert Ferrari [camel] and learn rudimentary phrases that will allow them to do their job. They have come to Israel to learn from former members of the country’s secret services.”
The report continues by saying,
On this training base, run by the International Security Academy Israel, they are tapping into Israel’s unique experience in dealing with these threats and learning counterterrorism techniques in convoy and [VIP? ] protection. The changes in the Middle East may be dubbed the Arab Spring but, to continue with another metaphor, it’s about to get hot.
Out here far away from prying eyes, a group of personal protection specialists have come to Israel to learn about the Israeli tactics. Their background is diverse – from police to military officers – even a former French Legionnaire. They will go on to work for governments and private security contractors.
In an interview with one of the “students,” the future mercenary stated, “Only the best can train here with the best. I have this feeling that I was . . . something like was bringing me here . . . something was like ‘Go. Go and do it now.’”
Another mercenary who was interviewed, stated, “Well, I learn a lot because Israel have bring up a standard of training that everyone in the world will have to emulate from them. And, with this, as I’m going back, I think I will take what I have learned in Israel, to impart on my fellow colleagues.”
The narrator then adds, “But it’s an expensive program, costing upwards of $2,000 Euros a week. But this can be a lucrative profession, earning thousands of Euros a day. Just don’t call them mercenaries.” Still, O’Sullivan ends by saying, “This line of work is one of the oldest in the world. Still, it seems like it is always in demand.”
A mercenary who appeared to be from Singapore, named Venky Raman, also chimed in. “Some of those dictatorships governments have fallen basically. And that’s going to create new chaos and confusion in the market. And that’s also going to create some instability in the market. So that’s why I think we’re getting more of these incidents and terrorist attacks and such going to happen.”
While the individuals seen in the clip mentioned above are largely mercenaries who train the dupes and deviants who take on the role as cannon fodder for Jihad, only engaging in limited combat operations themselves, it is clear the only allegiance they have is to the almighty dollar.
Ironically, however, the individuals who make up the bulk of death squad invasions across the Arab world – religious fanatics, savages, and the criminally insane – maintain an open hatred for Israel. That is, those death squad members at the bottom who are either ignorant of the fact that Israel itself is a major backer of their own movement or those wholly incapable of understanding anything other than what their faction leader has told them are caught somewhere between tragedy and farce.
Yet Israel is not only involved in directed and implementing Islamic terrorism in other countries. On its own soil, Israel has been documented as creating “fake” al-Qaeda groups to justify its treatment of the Palestinian people.
Israel’s arch nemesis, Hamas, was created by Israel itself for the purpose of splitting the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) and Fatah, the leading outfit for the Palestinian freedom and resistance movement.
In the decades before 9/11, hard-core activists and organizations among Muslim fundamentalists on the far right were often viewed as allies for two reasons, because they were seen a fierce anti-communists and because the opposed secular nationalists such as Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, Iran’s Mohammed Mossadegh.
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In Syria, the United States, Israel, and Jordan supported the Muslim Brotherhood in a civil war against Syria. And … Israel quietly backed Ahmed Yassin and the Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank and Gaza, leading to the establishment of Hamas.
Amid all the howls of pain and gnashing of teeth over the triumph of Hamas in the Palestinian elections, one fact remains relatively obscure, albeit highly relevant: Israel did much to launch Hamas as an effective force in the occupied territories. If ever there was a clear case of “blowback,” then this is it. As Richard Sale pointed out in a piece for UPI:
Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years. Israel ‘aided Hamas directly – the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization),’ said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic [and International] Studies.Israel’s support for Hamas ‘was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative,’ said a former senior CIA official.
In addition to hoping to turn the Palestinian masses away from Arafat and the PLO, the Likud leadership believed they could achieve a workable alliance with Islamic, anti-Arafat forces that would also extend Israel’s control over the occupied territories.
In a conscious effort to undermine the Palestine Liberation Organization and the leadership of Yasser Arafat, in 1978 the government of then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin approved the application of Sheik Ahmad Yassin to start a “humanitarian” organization known as the Islamic Association, or Mujama. The roots of this Islamist group were in the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, and this was the seed that eventually grew into Hamas – but not before it was amply fertilized and nurtured with Israeli funding and political support.
It is important to note here that the Muslim Brotherhood, in addition to this close connection to the predecessor of Hamas and thus Mossad and other forms of Israeli intelligence, also contains close and historical ties to Western intelligence, most notably the British and the American versions.
With that in mind, Raimondo’s article continues by stating that,
Begin and his successor, Yitzhak Shamir, launched an effort to undercut the PLO, creating the so-called Village Leagues, composed of local councils of handpicked Palestinians who were willing to collaborate with Israel – and, in return, were put on the Israeli payroll. Sheik Yassin and his followers soon became a force within the Village Leagues. This tactical alliance between Yassin and the Israelis was based on a shared antipathy to the militantly secular and leftist PLO: the Israelis allowed Yassin’s group to publish a newspaper and set up an extensive network of charitable organizations, which collected funds not only from the Israelis but also from Arab states opposed to Arafat.
Ami Isseroff, writing on MideastWeb, shows how the Israelis deliberately promoted the Islamists of the future Hamas by helping them turn the Islamic University of Gaza into a base from which the group recruited activists – and the suicide bombers of tomorrow. As the only higher-education facility in the Gaza strip, and the only such institution open to Palestinians since Anwar Sadat closed Egyptian colleges to them, IUG contained within its grounds the seeds of the future Palestinian state. When a conflict arose over religious issues, however, the Israeli authorities sided with the Islamists against the secularists of the Fatah-PLO mainstream. As Isseroff relates, the Islamists
Encouraged Israeli authorities to dismiss their opponents in the committee in February of 1981, resulting in subsequent Islamisation of IUG policy and staff (including the obligation on women to wear the hijab and thobe and separate entrances for men and women), and enforced by violence and ostracization of dissenters. Tacit complicity from both university and Israeli authorities allowed Mujama to keep a weapons cache to use against secularists. By the mid 1980s, it was the largest university in occupied territories with 4,500 students, and student elections were won handily by Mujama.
Again, the motive was to offset Arafat’s influence and divide the Palestinians. In the short term, this may have worked to some extent; in the longer term, however, it backfired badly – as demonstrated by the results of the recent Palestinian election.
***
Israel’s relentless offensive against its perceived enemies – first Fatah, now Hamas and Islamic Jihad – has created a backlash and solidified support for fundamentalist extremist factions in the Palestinian community.
What Raimondo refers to as “backlash”, however, has revealed itself to be more of a cleverly written script designed to play out years later.
Still, The Wall Street Journal concurred with Raimondo’s analysis in an article published in 2009. In this article, entitled “How Israel Helped To Spawn Hamas,” Andrew Higgins wrote (my emphasis added),
“Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation,” says Mr. Cohen, a Tunisian-born Jew who worked in Gaza for more than two decades. Responsible for religious affairs in the region until 1994, Mr. Cohen watched the Islamist movement take shape, muscle aside secular Palestinian rivals and then morph into what is today Hamas, a militant group that is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Instead of trying to curb Gaza’s Islamists from the outset, says Mr. Cohen, Israel for years tolerated and, in some cases, encouraged them as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its dominant faction, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah. Israel cooperated with a crippled, half-blind cleric named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, even as he was laying the foundations for what would become Hamas. Sheikh Yassin continues to inspire militants today; during the recent war in Gaza, Hamas fighters confronted Israeli troops with “Yassins,” primitive rocket-propelled grenades named in honor of the cleric.
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When Israel first encountered Islamists in Gaza in the 1970s and ’80s, they seemed focused on studying the Quran, not on confrontation with Israel. The Israeli government officially recognized a precursor to Hamas called Mujama Al-Islamiya, registering the group as a charity. It allowed Mujama members to set up an Islamic university and build mosques, clubs and schools. Crucially, Israel often stood aside when the Islamists and their secular left-wing Palestinian rivals battled, sometimes violently, for influence in both Gaza and the West Bank.
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When it became clear in the early 1990s that Gaza’s Islamists had mutated from a religious group into a fighting force aimed at Israel — particularly after they turned to suicide bombings in 1994 — Israel cracked down with ferocious force. But each military assault only increased Hamas’s appeal to ordinary Palestinians. The group ultimately trounced secular rivals, notably Fatah, in a 2006 election supported by Israel’s main ally, the U.S.
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In Gaza, Israel hunted down members of Fatah and other secular PLO factions, but it dropped harsh restrictions imposed on Islamic activists by the territory’s previous Egyptian rulers.
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The Muslim Brotherhood, led in Gaza by Sheikh Yassin, was free to spread its message openly. In addition to launching various charity projects, Sheikh Yassin collected money to reprint the writings of Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian member of the Brotherhood who, before his execution by President Nasser, advocated global jihad. He is now seen as one of the founding ideologues of militant political Islam.
Mr. Cohen, who worked at the time for the Israeli government’s religious affairs department in Gaza, says he began to hear disturbing reports in the mid-1970s about Sheikh Yassin from traditional Islamic clerics. He says they warned that the sheikh had no formal Islamic training and was ultimately more interested in politics than faith. “They said, ‘Keep away from Yassin. He is a big danger,’” recalls Mr. Cohen.
Instead, Israel’s military-led administration in Gaza looked favorably on the paraplegic cleric, who set up a wide network of schools, clinics, a library and kindergartens. Sheikh Yassin formed the Islamist group Mujama al-Islamiya, which was officially recognized by Israel as a charity and then, in 1979, as an association. Israel also endorsed the establishment of the Islamic University of Gaza, which it now regards as a hotbed of militancy.
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Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who took over as governor in Gaza in late 1979, says he had no illusions about Sheikh Yassin’s long-term intentions or the perils of political Islam. As Israel’s former military attache in Iran, he’d watched Islamic fervor topple the Shah. However, in Gaza, says Mr. Segev, “our main enemy was Fatah,” and the cleric “was still 100% peaceful” towards Israel. Former officials say Israel was also at the time wary of being viewed as an enemy of Islam.
Mr. Segev says he had regular contact with Sheikh Yassin, in part to keep an eye on him. He visited his mosque and met the cleric around a dozen times. It was illegal at the time for Israelis to meet anyone from the PLO. Mr. Segev later arranged for the cleric to be taken to Israel for hospital treatment. “We had no problems with him,” he says.
In fact, the cleric and Israel had a shared enemy: secular Palestinian activists. After a failed attempt in Gaza to oust secularists from leadership of the Palestinian Red Crescent, the Muslim version of the Red Cross, Mujama staged a violent demonstration, storming the Red Crescent building. Islamists also attacked shops selling liquor and cinemas. The Israeli military mostly stood on the sidelines. [emphasis added]
***
A leader of Birzeit’s Islamist faction at the time was Mahmoud Musleh, now a pro-Hamas member of a Palestinian legislature elected in 2006. He recalls how usually aggressive Israeli security forces stood back and let conflagration develop. He denies any collusion between his own camp and the Israelis, but says “they hoped we would become an alternative to the PLO.”
A year later, in 1984, the Israeli military received a tip-off from Fatah supporters that Sheikh Yassin’s Gaza Islamists were collecting arms, according to Israeli officials in Gaza at the time. Israeli troops raided a mosque and found a cache of weapons. Sheikh Yassin was jailed. He told Israeli interrogators the weapons were for use against rival Palestinians, not Israel, according to Mr. Hacham, the military affairs expert who says he spoke frequently with jailed Islamists. The cleric was released after a year and continued to expand Mujama’s reach across Gaza.
Taking into consideration the fact that Israel has provided military and medical support to the most bloodthirsty and brutal Islamic extremist terrorists in the world and the fact that it has created Hamas from the very beginning, the answer to the question of “Why aren’t organizations like Nusra, al-Qaeda, and ISIS attacking Israel?” is quite simple – because Israel is partly responsible for funding and directing them.
With all of this in mind, any claims of victimhood by Israel should immediately be discarded. Indeed, this portrayal of self-defense and endangerment should especially be discarded when one considers the history of the state itself.
Israel has made its own enemies by virtue of its colonial nature, its foreign and domestic policy, and even by direct organization and funding. It is thus wholly accurate to say that Israel’s enemies are literally those of its own making.
In the end, the information presented in this article is simply one more window into the realm of the Anglo-European-American-Israeli intelligence apparatus and the depths to which the rabbit hole goes in terms of international terrorism. The script which is being acted out across the Middle East and the rest of the world is clearly being directed by a force unseen by the vast majority of the world’s population.
Still, the players act out their roles according to the predetermined narrative provided to them, despite the fact that they have no idea they are actually acting out the will of a shadowy “other” who does not have their best interests at heart.
In this game, virtually all of those acting out their parts on the ground are merely players unaware of their roles.
Notes:
[1] “Arab & Western Mercenaries Train at an Israeli Security Academy.” YouTube. Posted by AnonMI SR. Posted on December 30, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ZWijzG6qQ
(INTELLIHUB) — According to a new bombshell report by the AP, young Latin operatives were actually deployed into Cuba under direction from the Obama Administration to recruit anti-government protestors and rally a rebellion. Shockingly, the covert operation was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, which was also instrumental in the development of a Cuban Twitter style social media network.
According to internal documents obtained by the AP and interviews in six countries, USAID’s young operatives posed as tourists, visited college campuses and used a ruse that could undermine USAID’s credibility in critical health work around the world: An HIV-prevention workshop one called the “perfect excuse” to recruit political activists, according to a report by Murillo’s group. For all the risks, some travelers were paid as little as $5.41 an hour.
The travelers program was launched during a time when newly inaugurated President Barack Obama spoke about a “new beginning” with Cuba after decades of mistrust, raising questions about whether the White House had a coherent policy toward the island nation.
There’s no evidence that the program advanced the mission to create a pro-democracy movement against the government of Raul Castro. Creative Associates declined to comment, referring questions to USAID.
USAID would not say how much the Costa Rica-based program cost. In response to questions from the AP, the agency issued a statement that said, “USAID and the Obama administration are committed to supporting the Cuban people’s desire to freely determine their own future. USAID works with independent youth groups in Cuba on community service projects, public health, the arts and other opportunities to engage publicly, consistent with democracy programs worldwide.”
In a statement late Sunday, USAID said the HIV workshop had a dual purpose: It “enabled support for Cuban civil society while providing a secondary benefit of addressing the desire Cubans expressed for information and training about HIV prevention.”
The entire goal of the operation was to essentially stir up rebellion in Cuba from within, a goal all so common to the United States.
Pentagon intentionally withholds information on Kiev’s indiscriminate use of ballistic missiles in populated areas. July 30, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci – LD) – CNN has reported that the regime in Kiev launched several short-range ballistic missiles into eastern Ukraine – each missile containing warheads of up to 1,000 lbs (450 kg). The missiles fired were OTR-21 Tochka also known by their NATO reporting name as SS-21 Scarabs and are considered far from “precision” weapons.
While smaller than the infamous “Scud” missile, SS-21s are similarly inaccurate and their use in combat against an enemy entrenched in populated areas is almost guaranteed to cause indiscriminate mass casualties. In fact, when Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi allegedly fired Scuds at NATO-backed Al Qaeda terrorists, according to the Telegraph in its article, “Col Gaddafi fires scud missile at rebel territory as Nato braces itself for final violent showdown,” one Western official claimed:
That it didn’t hit anything or kill anyone is not the point. It’s a weapon of mass destruction that Col Gaddafi is willing to train on his own people.
Clearly the West’s conscience has shifted and now weapons of mass destruction Ukraine is willing to train on its own people appears more than acceptable.
The US Department of Defense admittedly holds information regarding Kiev’s use of the ballistic missiles but is refusing to disclose it, only confirming that indeed the weapons have been used. In the CNN report, Major General James A. “Spider” Marks claimed that the reasoning behind the Pentagon’s decision was because “Ukraine has a right to defend itself,” before admitting that SS-21s are used offensively ahead of an invasion or other armed incursion.
What it appears the West is doing by admitting to what is otherwise a crime against humanity by their own definition, is acclimatizing what is left of their impressionable audiences to an increasingly brutal campaign of indiscriminate violence against the whole of eastern Ukraine in an effort to not only break armed resistance, but the civilian population that has rejected Kiev’s authority. The use of such weaponry, just as the Telegraph and others noted before the fall of Libya, hints at tactical weakness and impending strategic defeat – and while the West covers for Kiev’s numerous and multiplying atrocities, the fact that Kiev must resort to increasingly brutal and indiscriminate measures indicates a failure no amount of Western support can undo.
Graham Phillips, an RT contributor covering the conflict in eastern Ukraine, was detained for a second time, and has been deported to Poland, following his arrest at Donetsk airport. The gov’t in Kiev have a policy of targeting journalists who are reporting uncomfortable aspects of the gov’t siege of E. Ukraine, as Kiev continues – with the full blessing of Washington and London, to use its military against its own people. http://www.21stcenturywire.com
Russia’s Defense Ministry has stated that “fake” satellite images of alleged shelling of Ukraine from Russian territory were created by US counselors “with close links to Ukraine’s Security Council.”
The authenticity of the images is impossible to prove, the ministry added.
The Defense Ministry stated that the images posted by the US ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt on his Twitter account, allegedly proving the shelling of Ukraine from Russian territory, are “fake,” ITAR-TASS reports.
“These materials were posted to Twitter not by accident, as their authenticity is impossible to prove – due to the absence of the attribution to the exact area, and an extremely low resolution. Let alone using them as ‘photographic evidence’,” Igor Konashenkov, the official representative of the ministry, stated.
“Pictures” like this, the general continued, “have also been provided by Kiev representatives as an excuse for the usage of heavy artillery and other weaponry by the Ukrainian army – against the country’s civilian population.”
“Last Friday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Valery Geletey again tried to add a sensational side to photo collages like this in the Ukrainian media – in vain. But on Sunday, the US ambassador to the Ukraine joined in, posting those satellite images on his Twitter page, which secured him the attention of the loyal Ukrainian media,” the Russian ministry said.
This scheme is called “an informational merry-go-round,” Konashenkov added, using an expression commonly uttered in Russia relating to feeding the information to the media.
“It’s no secret to anyone that fakes like this are made by a group of US counselors staying in the Kiev building of the Security Council, led by General Randy Kee,” he noted.
The general outlined the cycle as follows: the US counselors in the Kiev feed the disinformation to the Ukrainian media, with the news being taken by the Washington official representatives and presented as statements.
Afterwards, the Ukrainian media cite the US authorities and publish articles like as “objective.”
The killing of innocent civilians in Eastern Ukraine resulting from the conduct of major bombing and shelling operations by US supported Kiev regime is not newsworthy. According to official sources, Four hundred and seventy-eight civilians, including seven children were killed and 1392 were wounded in Eastern Ukraine since the outset of the Kiev government’s military crackdown. (See RT, July 1o, 2014)
The casualty figures were released on the 10th of July 2014 by Ukraine’s Ministry of Health.
“The amount on civilian casualties is, unfortunately, greater than the military ones,” Vasily Lazoryshynets, deputy health minister, …
“In the area of the operation in eastern Ukraine, 478 civilians have died, including 30 women and seven children,”he said.
According to Lazoryshynets , a further 1,392 people were injured in the fighting, with 104 women and 14 children among them.
“Two hundred and seventy-nine currently remain in hospital,” he added. (Ibid)
There has been virtually no Western media coverage concerning this human tragedy. The deaths of innocent children resulting from Kiev’s “counter-terrorism operation” have been casually categorized as “collateral damage”.
In early June, according to figures of Ukraine’s National Security Council “200 soldiers and law enforcement officers had been killed and over 600 injured during the so-called “anti-terrorist operation.” (Ibid). The Ministry of Defense reported the same figure of 200 deaths pertaining to soldiers on July 11.
Is the official count of civilian casualties reliable? On June 11, following the release of the figures on casualties by the Ministry of Health, Ukraine’s General Prosecutor Vitali Yarema confirmed that the government was to establish a data bank of persons killed and insured:
“Every death, every physical injury, every body of an unidentified individual found will be entered into the unified register of pre-trial investigations, and each case will be investigated as much as possible,” (quoted by AP, July 11, 2014)
The above figures on civilian casualties are consistent with a ‘leaked” Ministry of Internal Affairs report (July 15, 2014): 496 civilians killed and 762 wounded (updated with data of casualties collected in the period extending from 9-15 July). (see below)
According to this “leaked” MIA document, the death toll of soldiers in the Ukraine Armed Forces would have increased from 200 in early July (reported on July 10th by the Ministry of Health) to 1600 in mid-July (MIA, leaked report, see table below, dated July 15). These rounded up figures suggest that the Kiev government’s figures on soldiers “killed in action” are rough estimates.
The table below which includes the figures of civilian and military casualties included those wounded reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (sent to Global Research by a source in Ukraine) are as follows:
Killed in Action: 1600
Wounded in Action: 4723
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) and its Anti-Terrorism Organization (ATO) oversees the military operation in Lugansk and Donetsk in liaison with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The information was officially released on July 15, 2014 bearing the signature of the Arsen Avakov (Minister of Internal Affairs) and V. Gritsak (Head of ATO [Anti-Terrorism Organization]
The authenticity, reliability and source of this leaked report remains to be fully assessed. These figures have not been made public and they are not the object of media commentary. They are, however, compatible with a report published by the Central News Agency Novorossia, Novorus.info (Russian) based on figures of the rebel Donbass forces which point to major military losses by the Kiev regime.
The MIA figures pertain to soldiers “Killed in Action”. They do not address the number of soldiers taken prisoner and/or the number of soldiers who have deserted the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In contrast, the Novorossia figures do not provide a breakdown of “killed, wounded, prisoners”. According to Central News Agency Novorossia, Novorus.info (Russian):
Total losses in Donbass inflicted to Kiev “punitive operatives” [in Russian каратели] 2 May – 11 July 2014 is 4994 soldiers [ in Russian persons, человек] [killed, wounded, prisoners]
What the MIA leaked report as well as the Novorossia figures convey is the conduct of a large scale military operation by Ukrainian Forces resulting in significant casualties incurred by Kiev government forces. None of this has been reported by the corporate media.
The leaked MIA report suggests heavy losses of military equipment by Kiev forces including a large number of tanks and armored vehicles which have either been captured or destroyed.
The rebels (according to MIA figures) have downed seven aircraft. This information was “leaked” 2 days before the MH17 crash. The reliability of these figures emanating from government sources remained to be determined.
The data from rebel sources cited Novorus.info also indicate sizable losses of military hardware including tanks and armored cars.
TOTAL UKRAINIAN LOSSES [MIA leaked document]
Killed in Action: 1600
Wounded in Action: 4723
Tanks: 35
Armoured Battle Vehicles: 96
Artillery: 38
Aircraft: 7
Helicopters: 2
Automobiles: 104
While the reliability of these figures emanating from the government remains to be determined, they nonetheless point to the failure of the Kiev led anti-terrorism operation confirming earlier reports to the effect that government forces have been repealed in Donetsk and Lugansk.
July 18, 2014 – Official Ukrainian Military Accounting of Losses for July 9-15, 2014 ((1) Ukrainian Version; (2) Translation)
TOTAL UKRAINIAN LOSSES
Killed in Action: 1600
Wounded in Action: 4723
Tanks: 35
Armoured Battle Vehicles: 96
Artillery: 38
Aircraft: 7
Helicopters: 2
Automobiles: 104
TOTAL MILITIA LOSSES
Killed in Action: 48
Wounded in Action: 64
Tanks: 2
Armoured Battle Vehicles: 0
Artillery: 5
Automobiles: 8
TOTAL CIVILIAN LOSSES
Killed: 496
Wounded: 762
SIGNED & SUBMITTED BY: Arsen Avakov (Minister of Internal Affairs) and V. Gritsak (Head of ATO)
Shepard 
The killing of innocent civilians in Eastern Ukraine resulting from the conduct of major bombing and shelling operations by US supported Kiev regime is not newsworthy. According to official sources, Four hundred and seventy-eight civilians, including seven children were killed and 1392 were wounded in Eastern Ukraine since the outset of the Kiev government’s military crackdown. (
PN 