On Friday (28/8/15) Turkey conducted it's first air-strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as part of Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR) as the US-led coalition is formally known. Beyond stating that these strikes occurred in Syria no information has been provided about the number of strikes, where they took place or what exactly was targeted.
However in that time period CJTFOIR did conduct two air-strikes against an ISIL artillery piece and an excavator in Al Hawl which sits around 35km (21 miles) east of the city of Hasakah and 12km (7 miles) west of Syria's border with Iraq. They also conducted four air-strikes that destroyed two ISIL ground units, three ISIL bunkers, an ISIL anti-aircraft gun, a mortar position and an rocket launcher in the vicinity of Hasakah city itself.
If Turkey was involved in these strikes it is somewhat alarming because Hasakah city marks the southern boundary of the 33,000km^2 (20,000mile^2) buffer zone that Kurdish forces have established across northern Syria and Iraq. Given the hostility between Turkey and Kurdish forces - particularly the Kurdish People's Protection Forces (YPG) which Turkey describes as a terrorist group this close proximity does seem to run a high risk of Turkish aircraft 'mistakenly' bombing YPG positions.
The US continues to remain tight-lipped on what this Turkish involvement will mean for the wider fight against ISIL. For example will aircraft from CJTFOIR now be free to fly from air-bases within Turkey such as United States Air Force (USAF) base Incirlik the use of which has long been blocked by the Turkish government. For their part Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) remain convinced that the air-strikes are just the first step in a plan that will eventually see Turkish forces invade Syria under the guise of creating a safe-haven.
Today the rather spectacularly named Mr Saleh Muslim who leads the YPG's political wing the Democratic Union Party (PYD) reminded the coalition that it is more then welcome to use the YPG established buffer zone to train anti-ISIL forces and provide a safe-haven for refugees. Unfortunately it would appear that not making use of this buffer zone is a pre-condition of Turkey's involvement in air-strikes.
Since Turkey launched it's air campaign against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq the popular metaphor used to describe it is that of an air-disaster. Sticking with that format Turkey's first strikes as part of CJTFOIR were marked by yet another air-crash at an air-show - this time at the New York Air Show around 115km (70 miles) north of New York City, US.
The type of aircraft involved in this crash was a Giles G-202 which is a very cheap type of aircraft that members of the public can buy in kit form and then assemble at home. Due to this non-professional manufacturing it is classed as an experimental aircraft despite this particular one having been in operation for the past 17 years.
As ISIL are largely formed of foreign fighters who were encouraged to travel from Europe to Syria as almost an experiment in overthrowing the Syrian government this seemed to be the US mocking the concerns raised by the UK and other European nations over Turkey's inclusion in CJTFOIR. Authorities in the US were quick to stress that despite the crash and the death of the pilot the show would go on.
This contribution from the US actually struck me as being so superficial it seemed that rather then attempting to have a serious discussion about the future and direction of the war against ISIL the US were almost trying to hype up talk of a clash between the US and the UK to boost the ratings of the UK season of Celebrity Big Brother (CBB) that launched the previous day (27/8/15).
Yesterday (30/8/15) there was yet another crash at an air-show - this time in Carinthia, Austria - which was much more serious in tone. Depending on who you talk to the name "Carinthia" either comes from the Celtic word "Carant" meaning friend or family or from the pre-historical Slavic word "Karanto" meaning stone or rock. Taken together it seems to indicate a rock solid friendship between Austria and the other European nations such as the UK, Germany and Switzerland who have expressed concerns over Turkey's actions.
There is also a company called Carinthia Military Systems who make clothing and equipment for Arctic/Alpine troops. That is exactly the sort of company you would want to call on if you were fighting a war whilst out in the diplomatic cold.
Amid certain circles the Carinthia region is reasonably famous because it has recently been plunged into a Greek-style debt crisis. This seems to be a reference to what has become known as the Balkan Route/Road for Syrian refugees that sees them cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece. From there they travel up through Macedonia and Serbia back into the European Union (EU) via Hungary. From there they travel onto other EU nations via Austria.
On Wednesday (26/8/15) the stench of death alerted Austrian police to a Hungarian registered refrigerated lorry parked by the side of the road. When they opened it they discovered decomposing human remains which they now believe were the bodies of 71 Syrian refugees - 58 men, 8 women and 4 children including an infant. Earlier on Sunday (30/8/15) Austrian police intercepted another van containing 26 refugees including several children who had to be hospitalised suffering from severe dehydration.
It is obvious that short of winning the war against ISIL there is nothing to be done to stop Syrians being forced out of their homeland. As such Austria is clearly concerned that Hungary's plan to build a razor-wire fence along it's border with Serbia will only force more refugees to risk their lives at the hands of people smugglers which is big business in poorer European nations such as Hungary and Romania. As a result Austria has begun to massively step up checks on all vehicles and trains entering the country from Hungary.
On September 11th (11/9/15) EU leaders will meet in a summit in an effort to introduce a much needed quota system that will see refugees fairly distributed throughout the EU. Alongside nations such as the UK, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark it is primarily eastern EU states such as Hungary and Romania that are opposed to this.
On a related note yesterday evening I had dinner with my younger brother who is recently back from a 10 day holiday that saw him travel from Slovenia to Croatia via Bosnia & Herzegovina. If this was a UK fact finding mission to discover how the current refugee crisis is affecting the delicately balanced politics in the former Yugoslavian nations that only a few years ago were producing a refugee crisis of their own then the UK probably picked the wrong man. Most of the over dinner conversation was about whether Bosnia & Herzegovina have split apart and whether Croatia is an EU member state or not.
I wonder if the US State Department can answer either of those questions without having to ask Google.
In case you were left in any doubt as to why ISIL are driving this current refugee crisis then today they released another video. It showed them chaining 4 prisoners of war to a children's swing set and burning them alive.
17:25 on 31/8/15 (UK date).
Monday 31 August 2015
Disappointment Mountain.
Today sees the start of a five day meeting of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bonn, Germany. This will be one the last opportunities to complete an agreement before the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) Summit in Paris, France at the end of the year. As a result you can probably guess what I am going to be doing for the rest of the week.
One of the big issues from the process is whether the US will sign up to any agreement. After all if the largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG's) fails to sign up it's had to argue that there is any point continuing with an agreement. It is very disappointing then that the US seems intent on disrupting the meeting.
For example last night saw the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA's). With Miley Cyrus hosting you would have expected me to pay this at least a little bit of attention. With not very much going on at the moment that old friend of the UNFCCC Rihanna was only nominated for the video with a social message award for that Obama supporting anthem "American Oxygen." The award was actually won by another song called "One Man Can Change the World" which is supportive of Obama's race war.
Over the next two days Obama will be hosting the Global Leadership in the Arctic Conference (GLACIER) in Alaska, US. To a domestic audience Obama is keen for this to be seen as him providing global leadership on the climate change issue. In reality it is intended to rival the Bonn meeting by addressing the long running issue of who owns which bits of the arctic. This is important because nations want to exercise the right to drill for oil and other ghg emitting fossil fuels in the region.
Staging rival negotiations that only a select group of nations are invited to is only going to disrupt the Bonn meeting by creating a group within a group.
If that wasn't disruptive enough Obama intends to open the GLACIER conference by announcing that he is circumventing Congress to re-name America's tallest mountain and glacier "Mount McKinley" as "Denali." The argument behind this is that it is undoing years of racist colonialism by returning the name to the one used by native Alaskans.
The problem with this is that there are numerous native Alaskan tribes who use various names for the mountain none of which are "Denali." That name is the result of a European explorer going; "I can't be bothered to learn all your names let alone you're languages so from now on the word you use for that mountain is Denali. As such that name itself is an example of colonialism.
Also the move means that the mountain is no longer named after William McKinley - the 25th American President - who was something of an early environmental activist establishing the National Parks system for conservation. He also fought for the Union against slavery during the American Civil War. With the Democrats supporting the Confederacy and slavery during that war McKinney was obviously a Republican and like that other famous Republican Abraham Lincoln McKinney was assassinated in 1901 by a radical left-wing activist.
As such along with the recent attempts to ban the Confederate flag the whole thing does seem like yet another example of Obama and the Democrats trying to re-write history so it is more forgiving to them.
Beyond that the jokes really write themselves because if you swap the last letters of "Denali" you get "Denial" which suggests that Obama might be moving there permanently. Then of course the mountain is brownish/black in colour but covered in white snow. Obama is no doubt outraged by this example of white privilege oppressing the darker colours.
I think the biggest joke though is that General Motors make a range of hugely polluting SUV's under the Denali brand. As such Obama seems to be signalling support for climate change against the glacier.
This indigenous rights issue is rather a big thing within climate change negotiations. One of my favourite examples is a mountain in Australia. The first settlers to climb it took one look at the view and said; "Well that's disappointing." So they named the thing "Mount Disappointment."
12:20 on 31/8/15 (UK date).
One of the big issues from the process is whether the US will sign up to any agreement. After all if the largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG's) fails to sign up it's had to argue that there is any point continuing with an agreement. It is very disappointing then that the US seems intent on disrupting the meeting.
For example last night saw the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA's). With Miley Cyrus hosting you would have expected me to pay this at least a little bit of attention. With not very much going on at the moment that old friend of the UNFCCC Rihanna was only nominated for the video with a social message award for that Obama supporting anthem "American Oxygen." The award was actually won by another song called "One Man Can Change the World" which is supportive of Obama's race war.
Over the next two days Obama will be hosting the Global Leadership in the Arctic Conference (GLACIER) in Alaska, US. To a domestic audience Obama is keen for this to be seen as him providing global leadership on the climate change issue. In reality it is intended to rival the Bonn meeting by addressing the long running issue of who owns which bits of the arctic. This is important because nations want to exercise the right to drill for oil and other ghg emitting fossil fuels in the region.
Staging rival negotiations that only a select group of nations are invited to is only going to disrupt the Bonn meeting by creating a group within a group.
If that wasn't disruptive enough Obama intends to open the GLACIER conference by announcing that he is circumventing Congress to re-name America's tallest mountain and glacier "Mount McKinley" as "Denali." The argument behind this is that it is undoing years of racist colonialism by returning the name to the one used by native Alaskans.
The problem with this is that there are numerous native Alaskan tribes who use various names for the mountain none of which are "Denali." That name is the result of a European explorer going; "I can't be bothered to learn all your names let alone you're languages so from now on the word you use for that mountain is Denali. As such that name itself is an example of colonialism.
Also the move means that the mountain is no longer named after William McKinley - the 25th American President - who was something of an early environmental activist establishing the National Parks system for conservation. He also fought for the Union against slavery during the American Civil War. With the Democrats supporting the Confederacy and slavery during that war McKinney was obviously a Republican and like that other famous Republican Abraham Lincoln McKinney was assassinated in 1901 by a radical left-wing activist.
As such along with the recent attempts to ban the Confederate flag the whole thing does seem like yet another example of Obama and the Democrats trying to re-write history so it is more forgiving to them.
Beyond that the jokes really write themselves because if you swap the last letters of "Denali" you get "Denial" which suggests that Obama might be moving there permanently. Then of course the mountain is brownish/black in colour but covered in white snow. Obama is no doubt outraged by this example of white privilege oppressing the darker colours.
I think the biggest joke though is that General Motors make a range of hugely polluting SUV's under the Denali brand. As such Obama seems to be signalling support for climate change against the glacier.
This indigenous rights issue is rather a big thing within climate change negotiations. One of my favourite examples is a mountain in Australia. The first settlers to climb it took one look at the view and said; "Well that's disappointing." So they named the thing "Mount Disappointment."
12:20 on 31/8/15 (UK date).
Saturday 29 August 2015
Celebrity Big Brother: Back For More.
On Thursday (27/8/15) the autumn season of Celebrity Big Brother (CBB) launched on Channel 5. I'm really not sure if I'll have the time to get into this as I have done in previous seasons.
However I should probably start by saying that I actually thought the previous winter season had all the ingredients to be a great show. It had a very strong theme that looked at the limits of free speech and the right to cause offence. This is a big topic within UK workplaces with ethnic and sexual minorities often making up claims of racism or homophobia in order to give themselves an advantage. This is certainly something that is common to colleagues of Vester Flanagan - the recent Virginia, US shooter.
Beyond that main theme though they also had an interesting mix of personalities. For example in Chloe Goodman, Jeremy Jackson, Callum Best and Cami Li there was plenty of potential for love triangles and rivalries. In Perez Hilton you had a very confident gay man whilst in Kavana you had a much less confident, recently out gay man. Added to that you had Michelle Visage who is a veteran of the gay cabaret circuit which tends to specialise in helping gay men like Kavana grow in confidence until they become more like Perez.
The series did suffer from the worst luck though launching on the day of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, France. This obviously massively increased the tension with the show's main theme of the limits of free speech and the right to offend being played out on the news channels with assault rifles and explosives.
This added tension seemed to send Jeremy Jackson a bit crazy and on the second night he ended up sexually assaulting Chloe Goodman. It was only a very mild sexual assault but it was a criminal offence committed live on TV which meant the police had to be involved and Jeremy had to be kicked off the show. After that no-one was in the mood for Ken Morely's cartoonish misogyny and he had to be kicked out on like the fourth night.
Producers tried rescuing the show by bringing in glamour model Katie Price who became famous under the stage name "Jordan." Shortly afterwards ISIL executed Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh. With British/Jordanian dual national actress Nadia Sawalha also featuring heavily by the time we got to the end of the season it was less about who'd won and more about who'd managed to stay alive.
Within CBB there is a long history of America sending over a faded celebrity as a sort of envoy to keep an eye on what they're British cousins are up too. In this season that has been the main theme with there being equal numbers of British and American contestants and it being billed as a battle between the US and the UK.
I have to say that I don't think this is a particularly strong theme because not even I encounter the cultural differences between the UK and the US on a regular basis. I suppose though in the UK we do consume a lot of American celebrity culture.
To hype up this clash between two nations the show borrows heavily from boxing with ring walks, over the top announcers etc. This invokes memories of the Rocky films particularly Rocky IV where the heroic US boxer did battle with the evil Soviet boxer.
Also the US contestants seem a bit thin. The big name is Daniel Baldwin who is one of the famous Baldwin brothers. He also featured in "Homicide: Life on Street" which is part of that group of US crime shows including "Oz" and "The Wire."
Then there is Austin Armacost who's probably best known for being in a US structured reality show about gay and bisexual men called "The A-List: New York." Although he has a camp on-screen persona you get the impression that off-screen you might struggle to realise that Austin is gay. Also he is married to a British man and lives in Yorkshire, UK so is obviously very familiar with the cultural differences between the US and the UK.
Beyond that though there's the likes of Jenna James who about 15 years ago was considered the world's most famous porn star. Since then though she's had two children and put on rather a lot of weight meaning that she can no longer really perform the role she's famous for. Then there's Farrah Abraham who I have never heard of before although I get the impression that I were to Google her name Google would immediately suggest "Sex Tape."
Less then 24 hours after launch this season of CBB was already causing controversy with US contestant Tila Tequila being kicked out after it emerged that she held very strong neo-Nazi views, praising Hitler and even posing for a photograph outside the Auschwitz death camp wearing a "sexy SS uniform." This point of view is a little surprising because the ex-porn star whose real name is Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen is not exactly Aryan. In fact being born in Singapore to Vietnamese parents she is distinctly Asian.
Support for Hitler and the Nazis amongst Asians is actually quite an interesting niche. In the first instance the Swastika symbol that has become synonymous with the Nazi actually comes from Hinduism where it is used as a symbol of well-being and good fortune. Being a bit obsessed with the occult and mysticism the Nazis simply stole it for their own purposes.
As a result amongst Hindus who aren't well informed about Hitler and the Nazis there is a tendency to look at pictures of people who use the Swastika on their flag and assume they're just great friends of Hindus. There is also a suspicion that better educated Muslims may also exploit that confusion to display their rampant anti-Semitism.
Then there is the Cold War. This was actually a war fought by proxy with the US backing Fascist movements across South America, Africa, Europe and Asia whilst the Soviets backed Communist movements. So for example in Turkey the US backed the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) through the Gladio movemenr while the Soviets backed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The main flashpoint of this was the Vietnam war with the Soviets backing the Communist north while the US supported Fascist forces in Vietnam and it's neighbours such as Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.
Probably the most current examples of this is in Burma/Myanmar because they're moving towards 'elections' before the end of the year. The difference between President Thein of Myanmar and Thien from CBB is little more then a typo.
As such I can't help but wonder if Tila Tequila's obsession with Nazism is simply the tax she's had to pay to make the transition from porn-star to mainstream reality-star.
I have to say though I that I am a bit worried that this US v UK theme is already starting to affect the fight against ISIL.
Through things like the Shoreham Air Crash it's pretty clear that the UK along with most of Europe are at the point where they want to smash Obama's face in. However through things like the Virginia shooting it seems that the US is still treating it all as a bit of a lark in support of a gameshow rather then the very serious business that war is.
17:35 on 29/8/15 (UK date).
However I should probably start by saying that I actually thought the previous winter season had all the ingredients to be a great show. It had a very strong theme that looked at the limits of free speech and the right to cause offence. This is a big topic within UK workplaces with ethnic and sexual minorities often making up claims of racism or homophobia in order to give themselves an advantage. This is certainly something that is common to colleagues of Vester Flanagan - the recent Virginia, US shooter.
Beyond that main theme though they also had an interesting mix of personalities. For example in Chloe Goodman, Jeremy Jackson, Callum Best and Cami Li there was plenty of potential for love triangles and rivalries. In Perez Hilton you had a very confident gay man whilst in Kavana you had a much less confident, recently out gay man. Added to that you had Michelle Visage who is a veteran of the gay cabaret circuit which tends to specialise in helping gay men like Kavana grow in confidence until they become more like Perez.
The series did suffer from the worst luck though launching on the day of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, France. This obviously massively increased the tension with the show's main theme of the limits of free speech and the right to offend being played out on the news channels with assault rifles and explosives.
This added tension seemed to send Jeremy Jackson a bit crazy and on the second night he ended up sexually assaulting Chloe Goodman. It was only a very mild sexual assault but it was a criminal offence committed live on TV which meant the police had to be involved and Jeremy had to be kicked off the show. After that no-one was in the mood for Ken Morely's cartoonish misogyny and he had to be kicked out on like the fourth night.
Producers tried rescuing the show by bringing in glamour model Katie Price who became famous under the stage name "Jordan." Shortly afterwards ISIL executed Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh. With British/Jordanian dual national actress Nadia Sawalha also featuring heavily by the time we got to the end of the season it was less about who'd won and more about who'd managed to stay alive.
Within CBB there is a long history of America sending over a faded celebrity as a sort of envoy to keep an eye on what they're British cousins are up too. In this season that has been the main theme with there being equal numbers of British and American contestants and it being billed as a battle between the US and the UK.
I have to say that I don't think this is a particularly strong theme because not even I encounter the cultural differences between the UK and the US on a regular basis. I suppose though in the UK we do consume a lot of American celebrity culture.
To hype up this clash between two nations the show borrows heavily from boxing with ring walks, over the top announcers etc. This invokes memories of the Rocky films particularly Rocky IV where the heroic US boxer did battle with the evil Soviet boxer.
Also the US contestants seem a bit thin. The big name is Daniel Baldwin who is one of the famous Baldwin brothers. He also featured in "Homicide: Life on Street" which is part of that group of US crime shows including "Oz" and "The Wire."
Then there is Austin Armacost who's probably best known for being in a US structured reality show about gay and bisexual men called "The A-List: New York." Although he has a camp on-screen persona you get the impression that off-screen you might struggle to realise that Austin is gay. Also he is married to a British man and lives in Yorkshire, UK so is obviously very familiar with the cultural differences between the US and the UK.
Beyond that though there's the likes of Jenna James who about 15 years ago was considered the world's most famous porn star. Since then though she's had two children and put on rather a lot of weight meaning that she can no longer really perform the role she's famous for. Then there's Farrah Abraham who I have never heard of before although I get the impression that I were to Google her name Google would immediately suggest "Sex Tape."
Less then 24 hours after launch this season of CBB was already causing controversy with US contestant Tila Tequila being kicked out after it emerged that she held very strong neo-Nazi views, praising Hitler and even posing for a photograph outside the Auschwitz death camp wearing a "sexy SS uniform." This point of view is a little surprising because the ex-porn star whose real name is Thien Thanh Thi Nguyen is not exactly Aryan. In fact being born in Singapore to Vietnamese parents she is distinctly Asian.
Support for Hitler and the Nazis amongst Asians is actually quite an interesting niche. In the first instance the Swastika symbol that has become synonymous with the Nazi actually comes from Hinduism where it is used as a symbol of well-being and good fortune. Being a bit obsessed with the occult and mysticism the Nazis simply stole it for their own purposes.
As a result amongst Hindus who aren't well informed about Hitler and the Nazis there is a tendency to look at pictures of people who use the Swastika on their flag and assume they're just great friends of Hindus. There is also a suspicion that better educated Muslims may also exploit that confusion to display their rampant anti-Semitism.
Then there is the Cold War. This was actually a war fought by proxy with the US backing Fascist movements across South America, Africa, Europe and Asia whilst the Soviets backed Communist movements. So for example in Turkey the US backed the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) through the Gladio movemenr while the Soviets backed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The main flashpoint of this was the Vietnam war with the Soviets backing the Communist north while the US supported Fascist forces in Vietnam and it's neighbours such as Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.
Probably the most current examples of this is in Burma/Myanmar because they're moving towards 'elections' before the end of the year. The difference between President Thein of Myanmar and Thien from CBB is little more then a typo.
As such I can't help but wonder if Tila Tequila's obsession with Nazism is simply the tax she's had to pay to make the transition from porn-star to mainstream reality-star.
I have to say though I that I am a bit worried that this US v UK theme is already starting to affect the fight against ISIL.
Through things like the Shoreham Air Crash it's pretty clear that the UK along with most of Europe are at the point where they want to smash Obama's face in. However through things like the Virginia shooting it seems that the US is still treating it all as a bit of a lark in support of a gameshow rather then the very serious business that war is.
17:35 on 29/8/15 (UK date).
Friday 28 August 2015
Operation Featherweight: Month 14, Week 1, Day 2.
At around this time last week I uttered the immortal phrase that the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was being relatively quiet.
As if fate had been tempted almost immediately afterwards a flurry of activity exploded that really took me until Wednesday (26/8/15) to deal with. As a result I've not got any further in researching how the fight in Iraq's Anbar province is progressing.
I gather though that some small progress has been made by the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). However with the offensive receiving almost no coverage whatsoever this is more of a rumour rather then something I can confirm let alone give details on.
In an incident that did receive some coverage though on Thursday (27/8/15) an ISIL Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) exploded within ISIL lines in Al-Jaraishi area to the north of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province around 100km (60 miles) west of Baghdad. This explosion killed the deputy head of the Anbar operational command and the head of the 10th Division that is fighting in the area.
Although the loss of these two Generals on its own will not be enough to defeat the ISF's Anbar operation the ISF does have a shortage of skilled and experienced officers and constantly having to replace them disrupts the planning and consistency of the operation.
Iraq's Kurdish Peshmerga having been having more success. On Wednesday (26/8/15) they launched an operation from Kirkuk - 120km (70 miles) south-east of Mosul and 265km (160 miles) north of Baghdad. This involved them clearing ISIL from villages and positions from Kirkuk's southern suburbs to the town of Daqouq around 30km (17 miles) to the south.
By Wednesday evening ISIL had been forced to withdraw from Daqouq following fighting which left 12 ISIL fighters dead and more then 30 wounded. The Peshmerga also managed to liberate the village of Diwayzat in the Makhmur region which is around 55km (33 miles) south west of Erbil and 70km (40 miles) north-west of Kirkuk.
The area between Kirkuk and Baiji 90km (50 miles) to the south-west remains a mess. The ISF control roughly three quarters of the Baiji itself and around one third of the oil refinery that sits on it's outskirts. However with ISIL continuing to find safe haven in the area Hawija district between Kirkuk and Baiji there exists a constant state of either the ISF or ISIL launching an attack that is repelled before the other side launches a counter attack that is also repelled.
One thing that has been hampering my progress in following the war is that the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR) as the US-led coalition is formally known continues to block me on Twitter. This is largely symbolic intended to send the message that while certain views such as Turkey's are welcome within the coalition others such as mine are not.
However it seems there has been little change in the nature of tempo of the air operation with roughly 25-30 air-strikes being carried out each day. For example yesterday CJTFOIR carried out 25 strikes in Iraq primarily around Baiji and 4 strikes in Syria. This was reported in the western media as a day long "pounding" of ISIL positions. With ISIL controlling an area of roughly 5000km^2 (3000mile^2) across Iraq and Syria describing 25 air-strikes as a "pounding" strikes me as a gross exaggeration.
On Thursday (27/8/15) the US confirmed that one of it's pinprick air-strikes had succeeded in killing a British born ISIL fighter - Junaid Hussain (AKA; Abu Hussain al-Britani) near the Syrian city of Raqqa on Tuesday (25/8/15). Hussain is well known as part of the so-called East London Network that also includes ISIL's self-styled executioner-in-chief Mohammed Emwazi (AKA; Jihadi John).
His main role within the organisation was to lead ISIL's online recruiting efforts both to encourage English speakers to travel to join the group and to carry out attacks in their homelands. The US accuse him of personally being responsible for directing the May 3rd (3/5/15) terror attack in Garland, Texas, US although they have offered scant evidence to support this bold propaganda claim.
Unlike US Special Forces raid in May which killed Fathi ben Awn ben Jildi Murad al-Tunisi (AKA; Abu Sayyaf) or last week's drone strike that killed Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali (AKA; Hajji Mutazz) the killing of Hussain is likely to significantly hinder ISIL's operations.
That's because his role of recruiter and public face of the group is heavily dependent on his personality and charisma making him much harder to replace. For example Trevor Noah may do extremely well as the new host of "The Daily Show" but you know that the program will never be quite the same again now that Jon Stewart is no longer involved.
The most interesting developments of the last week though don't actually involve either ISIL, the ISF nor CJTFOIR directly.
Along Syria's border with Lebanon in Latakia province the Syria government backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia have steadily been pushing the insurgent Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) back from the capital Damascus towards Idlib province. On Thursday (27/8/15) a 48 hour truce was negotiated between the factions in the villages of Fuaa, Kafraya and Zabadani which sits around 30km (18 miles) north-west of Damascus.
JAF appear to have used this truce as a way to concentrate it's efforts on advance down from Idlib province into Latakia province. Today they claim to have seized the entrance to Abu Duhur airport which is one of the last Syrian government positions within Idlib.
Also yesterday ISIL gained five villages and surrounded the town of Marea in Syria's Aleppo province just 20km (12 miles) from Syria's border with Turkey. Rather then being a cause for concern for Turkey this is a direct result of a decision on August 9th (9/8/15) by the Al Qaeda affiliated Al Nusra Front (ANF) part of the JAF coalition to withdraw from that area.
This was ordered by Turkey via the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant/Harakat Ahrar ash-Sham al-Islamiyya (FML) part of the JAF coalition in order to allow the US and the CJTFOIR coalition to support JAF. It was also hoped that ISIL's gaining of territory on the Turkish border would create panic causing the US to authorise Turkey's invasion of Syria in support of JAF.
This close co-ordination between Turkey, JAF and ISIL should been extremely worrying for the international community because if JAF are able to push down from Idlib into Latakia province and then make way for ISIL it will place ISIL directly on Lebanon's border.
At the best of times the Lebanese state exists at the brink of collapse. ISIL moving onto it's border and then across it's border to fight Hezbollah will likely cause the Lebanese state to finally collapse sparking a further refugee crisis and place ISIL directly on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea within striking distance of Europe.
In terms of negotiations between the US and Turkey over Turkey joining the CJTFOIR coalition on Tuesday (25/8/15) the US announced that a deal had been reached and Turkey would begin operations very soon. However they declined to elaborate further.
It seems though that the agreement will see Turkey's anti-ISIL air operations be absorbed into CJTFOIR's command structure - the Air Tasking Order (ATO). As Turkey seems to have no desire to carry out air-strikes against ISIL this seems to be something of a non-issue.
In what seems to be a critical failure by the US though Turkey will still be permitted to carry out air-strikes against Kurdish positions in both Syria and Iraq and those flights will not be included in the ATO nor will require permission from CJTFOIR.
Despite the recent, robust opposition to Turkey's strikes against the Kurds by other members of CJTFOIR the US' unwavering support has led to Turkey continue these strikes. On Tuesday evening they again struck Kurdish positions in Iraq's Dohuk region in what seemed to me as a celebration of the announcement by the US. Yesterday Turkey conducted over-flights of Dohuk but did not drop any bombs in what seemed to be a psychological operation intended to intimidate Iraq's Kurds.
Although officially Turkey is claiming that these air-strikes are against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which it has labelled as a terrorist group members of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) are claiming that Tuesday's strikes in particular were directed at members of the British and German intelligence services who training Iraq's Kurds.
In reality this is a nonsense but it gives further insight into the deranged and paranoid world the AKP and it's leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which everything - including former AKP Prime Ministers - is a vast conspiracy by foreign intelligence agencies to prevent Erdogan from exercising his god given right of ruling over Turkey for all eternity. Today Turkey has arrested two British journalists who were reporting on the Kurds fight against ISIL
The fact that the AKP thinks that it is acceptable to accuse German and the UK - as members of the NATO alliance - of waging war against Turkey and then launch air-strikes against those countries raises very serious questions as to whether an AKP-led Turkey can continue as a NATO member.
16:45 on 28/8/15 (UK date).
As if fate had been tempted almost immediately afterwards a flurry of activity exploded that really took me until Wednesday (26/8/15) to deal with. As a result I've not got any further in researching how the fight in Iraq's Anbar province is progressing.
I gather though that some small progress has been made by the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). However with the offensive receiving almost no coverage whatsoever this is more of a rumour rather then something I can confirm let alone give details on.
In an incident that did receive some coverage though on Thursday (27/8/15) an ISIL Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) exploded within ISIL lines in Al-Jaraishi area to the north of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province around 100km (60 miles) west of Baghdad. This explosion killed the deputy head of the Anbar operational command and the head of the 10th Division that is fighting in the area.
Although the loss of these two Generals on its own will not be enough to defeat the ISF's Anbar operation the ISF does have a shortage of skilled and experienced officers and constantly having to replace them disrupts the planning and consistency of the operation.
Iraq's Kurdish Peshmerga having been having more success. On Wednesday (26/8/15) they launched an operation from Kirkuk - 120km (70 miles) south-east of Mosul and 265km (160 miles) north of Baghdad. This involved them clearing ISIL from villages and positions from Kirkuk's southern suburbs to the town of Daqouq around 30km (17 miles) to the south.
By Wednesday evening ISIL had been forced to withdraw from Daqouq following fighting which left 12 ISIL fighters dead and more then 30 wounded. The Peshmerga also managed to liberate the village of Diwayzat in the Makhmur region which is around 55km (33 miles) south west of Erbil and 70km (40 miles) north-west of Kirkuk.
The area between Kirkuk and Baiji 90km (50 miles) to the south-west remains a mess. The ISF control roughly three quarters of the Baiji itself and around one third of the oil refinery that sits on it's outskirts. However with ISIL continuing to find safe haven in the area Hawija district between Kirkuk and Baiji there exists a constant state of either the ISF or ISIL launching an attack that is repelled before the other side launches a counter attack that is also repelled.
One thing that has been hampering my progress in following the war is that the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR) as the US-led coalition is formally known continues to block me on Twitter. This is largely symbolic intended to send the message that while certain views such as Turkey's are welcome within the coalition others such as mine are not.
However it seems there has been little change in the nature of tempo of the air operation with roughly 25-30 air-strikes being carried out each day. For example yesterday CJTFOIR carried out 25 strikes in Iraq primarily around Baiji and 4 strikes in Syria. This was reported in the western media as a day long "pounding" of ISIL positions. With ISIL controlling an area of roughly 5000km^2 (3000mile^2) across Iraq and Syria describing 25 air-strikes as a "pounding" strikes me as a gross exaggeration.
On Thursday (27/8/15) the US confirmed that one of it's pinprick air-strikes had succeeded in killing a British born ISIL fighter - Junaid Hussain (AKA; Abu Hussain al-Britani) near the Syrian city of Raqqa on Tuesday (25/8/15). Hussain is well known as part of the so-called East London Network that also includes ISIL's self-styled executioner-in-chief Mohammed Emwazi (AKA; Jihadi John).
His main role within the organisation was to lead ISIL's online recruiting efforts both to encourage English speakers to travel to join the group and to carry out attacks in their homelands. The US accuse him of personally being responsible for directing the May 3rd (3/5/15) terror attack in Garland, Texas, US although they have offered scant evidence to support this bold propaganda claim.
Unlike US Special Forces raid in May which killed Fathi ben Awn ben Jildi Murad al-Tunisi (AKA; Abu Sayyaf) or last week's drone strike that killed Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali (AKA; Hajji Mutazz) the killing of Hussain is likely to significantly hinder ISIL's operations.
That's because his role of recruiter and public face of the group is heavily dependent on his personality and charisma making him much harder to replace. For example Trevor Noah may do extremely well as the new host of "The Daily Show" but you know that the program will never be quite the same again now that Jon Stewart is no longer involved.
The most interesting developments of the last week though don't actually involve either ISIL, the ISF nor CJTFOIR directly.
Along Syria's border with Lebanon in Latakia province the Syria government backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah militia have steadily been pushing the insurgent Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) back from the capital Damascus towards Idlib province. On Thursday (27/8/15) a 48 hour truce was negotiated between the factions in the villages of Fuaa, Kafraya and Zabadani which sits around 30km (18 miles) north-west of Damascus.
JAF appear to have used this truce as a way to concentrate it's efforts on advance down from Idlib province into Latakia province. Today they claim to have seized the entrance to Abu Duhur airport which is one of the last Syrian government positions within Idlib.
Also yesterday ISIL gained five villages and surrounded the town of Marea in Syria's Aleppo province just 20km (12 miles) from Syria's border with Turkey. Rather then being a cause for concern for Turkey this is a direct result of a decision on August 9th (9/8/15) by the Al Qaeda affiliated Al Nusra Front (ANF) part of the JAF coalition to withdraw from that area.
This was ordered by Turkey via the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant/Harakat Ahrar ash-Sham al-Islamiyya (FML) part of the JAF coalition in order to allow the US and the CJTFOIR coalition to support JAF. It was also hoped that ISIL's gaining of territory on the Turkish border would create panic causing the US to authorise Turkey's invasion of Syria in support of JAF.
This close co-ordination between Turkey, JAF and ISIL should been extremely worrying for the international community because if JAF are able to push down from Idlib into Latakia province and then make way for ISIL it will place ISIL directly on Lebanon's border.
At the best of times the Lebanese state exists at the brink of collapse. ISIL moving onto it's border and then across it's border to fight Hezbollah will likely cause the Lebanese state to finally collapse sparking a further refugee crisis and place ISIL directly on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea within striking distance of Europe.
In terms of negotiations between the US and Turkey over Turkey joining the CJTFOIR coalition on Tuesday (25/8/15) the US announced that a deal had been reached and Turkey would begin operations very soon. However they declined to elaborate further.
It seems though that the agreement will see Turkey's anti-ISIL air operations be absorbed into CJTFOIR's command structure - the Air Tasking Order (ATO). As Turkey seems to have no desire to carry out air-strikes against ISIL this seems to be something of a non-issue.
In what seems to be a critical failure by the US though Turkey will still be permitted to carry out air-strikes against Kurdish positions in both Syria and Iraq and those flights will not be included in the ATO nor will require permission from CJTFOIR.
Despite the recent, robust opposition to Turkey's strikes against the Kurds by other members of CJTFOIR the US' unwavering support has led to Turkey continue these strikes. On Tuesday evening they again struck Kurdish positions in Iraq's Dohuk region in what seemed to me as a celebration of the announcement by the US. Yesterday Turkey conducted over-flights of Dohuk but did not drop any bombs in what seemed to be a psychological operation intended to intimidate Iraq's Kurds.
Although officially Turkey is claiming that these air-strikes are against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which it has labelled as a terrorist group members of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) are claiming that Tuesday's strikes in particular were directed at members of the British and German intelligence services who training Iraq's Kurds.
In reality this is a nonsense but it gives further insight into the deranged and paranoid world the AKP and it's leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan in which everything - including former AKP Prime Ministers - is a vast conspiracy by foreign intelligence agencies to prevent Erdogan from exercising his god given right of ruling over Turkey for all eternity. Today Turkey has arrested two British journalists who were reporting on the Kurds fight against ISIL
The fact that the AKP thinks that it is acceptable to accuse German and the UK - as members of the NATO alliance - of waging war against Turkey and then launch air-strikes against those countries raises very serious questions as to whether an AKP-led Turkey can continue as a NATO member.
16:45 on 28/8/15 (UK date).
Wednesday 26 August 2015
The Death of American News.
For years slightly nutty right-wing Americans have complained about a vast liberal conspiracy within the mainstream media. Recently though those paranoid ramblings have become a lot more credible.
The days, well these days the US media seems only capable of reporting on Donald Trump - nothing else. When they managed to break away from their obsession with Hillary Clinton's running mate for a few moments though they seem to be happy to just completely make things up.
A big area where this is a problem is the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The US media still insist on reporting on this as long oppressed Muslims rising up in popular revolt against dictatorial governments in both Syria and Iraq. In reality it is foreign invasion by Sunni Arab nations of Syria and Iraq in order to overthrow their Shia governments and destabilise the region.
The biggest symptom of the US' mis-reporting is the use of the term "ISIS." This means the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" but three quarters of the acronym is in English while the final quarter "Sham" is in Arabic. However the US media will often go so far to say that ISIS stands for the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria." This is an open and wanton lie intended to disguise ISIL's ideological purpose and avoid uncomfortable questions about why the US is supporting similar groups such as the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant (FML) under the guise of the 'moderate' opposition.
Then there is the civil war in Ukraine. According to the US media a popular revolution took place prompting Russia to invade to crush it. What actually happened is that Nazi groups like Svoboda violently overthrew Ukraine's elected government and announced they were going to cleanse the nation of the ethnically Russian minority. That minority then took up arms to defend themselves.
This complete detachment from reality has also become widespread in the reporting of domestic news within the US - particularly the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest movement. This began with the shooting of Micheal Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Almost universally the US media reported that Brown was shot in the back whilst holding his hands up in surrender. This coined the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot!" slogan.
However the reason why no-one was prosecuted over Brown's death is that this simply did not happen. All the witnesses to the shooting confirm that Brown was killed whilst charging at a police officer he'd attacked moments before in an attempt to escape after committing a robbery. Despite this - more then a year later - the US media are still reporting this fictional story of an unarmed black man being brutally murdered.
Things really descended into farce in March 2015 when protesters - who the media constantly refer to as peaceful and unarmed - opened fire on police officers in Ferguson. Rather then admitting that they'd done this the protesters instead invented a wild conspiracy theory about a police sniper carrying out the shooting in an effort to smear the protesters. The US media - CNN in particular - pretty much just reported this conspiracy theory as fact.
I remember watching an hilarious report by Don Lemon in which he stood at the point where the shots had been fired from and declared that a 9mm pistol couldn't possibly hit a target at that range of around 100 yards/metres. He then went on to claim that some sort of specially made 9mm rifle must have been used. CNN repeated this story for like two days before someone finally dragged them down to a gun range and showed them a 9mm pistol repeatedly hitting a target at a distance of 100 yards/metres.
Despite this the nonsense reporting has just continued. For example in the recent Sam Dubose case the deceased is constantly referred to as "Unarmed." This is completely untrue because he was armed with a car - a weapon that is frequently used in what are termed "Run-over terror attacks."
Following the recent sharp exchanges between the US and pretty much the rest of the world over the war against ISIL as I was going to bed last night CNN's reporters looked pretty heartbroken as if the fictional world they'd created for themselves had been torn away from them.
It should come as little surprise then that today in Virgina, US two journalists were shot and killed by what is being described as a "disgruntled employee."
Unfortunately for those who are keen to rush to use this call for more gun control just before hand in Indianapolis a man went on a knife and car rampage. Now doubt though people will still continue to claim that Sam Dubose was "unarmed."
It should come as little surprise then that US President Obama is being referred too in Pennsylvania as the White House intruder that law enforcement would very much like to shoot.
16:40 on 26/8/15 (UK date).
Edited at around 11:15 on 27/8/15 (UK date) to add;
The perpetrator of yesterday's shooting who later took his own life has been identified as Vester Flanagan - an extremely angry black, gay man with a long history of inventing accusations of homophobia and racism. At one point he had to be disciplined for wearing an Obama campaign badge to work in violation of the rule that journalists have to be politically impartial.
As such the man who killed American journalism is equally a metaphor for Obama himself. After all the current widespread bias in the American media is clearly a result of the media's support for Obama.
Immediately following the shooting Flanagan faxed a 23 page manifesto to ABC News. In this he ranted extensively about racism in America and claimed that he was carrying out the shooting as a way to punish white people for the Charleston shooting. In short he saw his actions as part of a race war.
Unlike with the attack on two New York City (NYC) police officers with an axe back in October 2014 by an ISIL supporter, the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France in January 2015 or the Chattanooga attack in July 2015 Obama did acknowledge the Virginia attack giving not one but two in depth interviews to the media. In these interviews Obama called for more gun control claiming that more Americans are killed by gun violence then by terrorism.
The problem with this is that with a clear political agenda the Virginia shooting wasn't an example of gun violence but an example of domestic terrorism. As such Obama's comments are further evidence of the fact that with both ISIL and BLM Obama simply cannot recognise terrorism when it happens. This is a serious failing in a man who is charged with fighting and defeating terrorists.
The days, well these days the US media seems only capable of reporting on Donald Trump - nothing else. When they managed to break away from their obsession with Hillary Clinton's running mate for a few moments though they seem to be happy to just completely make things up.
A big area where this is a problem is the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The US media still insist on reporting on this as long oppressed Muslims rising up in popular revolt against dictatorial governments in both Syria and Iraq. In reality it is foreign invasion by Sunni Arab nations of Syria and Iraq in order to overthrow their Shia governments and destabilise the region.
The biggest symptom of the US' mis-reporting is the use of the term "ISIS." This means the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" but three quarters of the acronym is in English while the final quarter "Sham" is in Arabic. However the US media will often go so far to say that ISIS stands for the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria." This is an open and wanton lie intended to disguise ISIL's ideological purpose and avoid uncomfortable questions about why the US is supporting similar groups such as the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant (FML) under the guise of the 'moderate' opposition.
Then there is the civil war in Ukraine. According to the US media a popular revolution took place prompting Russia to invade to crush it. What actually happened is that Nazi groups like Svoboda violently overthrew Ukraine's elected government and announced they were going to cleanse the nation of the ethnically Russian minority. That minority then took up arms to defend themselves.
This complete detachment from reality has also become widespread in the reporting of domestic news within the US - particularly the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest movement. This began with the shooting of Micheal Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Almost universally the US media reported that Brown was shot in the back whilst holding his hands up in surrender. This coined the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot!" slogan.
However the reason why no-one was prosecuted over Brown's death is that this simply did not happen. All the witnesses to the shooting confirm that Brown was killed whilst charging at a police officer he'd attacked moments before in an attempt to escape after committing a robbery. Despite this - more then a year later - the US media are still reporting this fictional story of an unarmed black man being brutally murdered.
Things really descended into farce in March 2015 when protesters - who the media constantly refer to as peaceful and unarmed - opened fire on police officers in Ferguson. Rather then admitting that they'd done this the protesters instead invented a wild conspiracy theory about a police sniper carrying out the shooting in an effort to smear the protesters. The US media - CNN in particular - pretty much just reported this conspiracy theory as fact.
I remember watching an hilarious report by Don Lemon in which he stood at the point where the shots had been fired from and declared that a 9mm pistol couldn't possibly hit a target at that range of around 100 yards/metres. He then went on to claim that some sort of specially made 9mm rifle must have been used. CNN repeated this story for like two days before someone finally dragged them down to a gun range and showed them a 9mm pistol repeatedly hitting a target at a distance of 100 yards/metres.
Despite this the nonsense reporting has just continued. For example in the recent Sam Dubose case the deceased is constantly referred to as "Unarmed." This is completely untrue because he was armed with a car - a weapon that is frequently used in what are termed "Run-over terror attacks."
Following the recent sharp exchanges between the US and pretty much the rest of the world over the war against ISIL as I was going to bed last night CNN's reporters looked pretty heartbroken as if the fictional world they'd created for themselves had been torn away from them.
It should come as little surprise then that today in Virgina, US two journalists were shot and killed by what is being described as a "disgruntled employee."
Unfortunately for those who are keen to rush to use this call for more gun control just before hand in Indianapolis a man went on a knife and car rampage. Now doubt though people will still continue to claim that Sam Dubose was "unarmed."
It should come as little surprise then that US President Obama is being referred too in Pennsylvania as the White House intruder that law enforcement would very much like to shoot.
16:40 on 26/8/15 (UK date).
Edited at around 11:15 on 27/8/15 (UK date) to add;
The perpetrator of yesterday's shooting who later took his own life has been identified as Vester Flanagan - an extremely angry black, gay man with a long history of inventing accusations of homophobia and racism. At one point he had to be disciplined for wearing an Obama campaign badge to work in violation of the rule that journalists have to be politically impartial.
As such the man who killed American journalism is equally a metaphor for Obama himself. After all the current widespread bias in the American media is clearly a result of the media's support for Obama.
Immediately following the shooting Flanagan faxed a 23 page manifesto to ABC News. In this he ranted extensively about racism in America and claimed that he was carrying out the shooting as a way to punish white people for the Charleston shooting. In short he saw his actions as part of a race war.
Unlike with the attack on two New York City (NYC) police officers with an axe back in October 2014 by an ISIL supporter, the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France in January 2015 or the Chattanooga attack in July 2015 Obama did acknowledge the Virginia attack giving not one but two in depth interviews to the media. In these interviews Obama called for more gun control claiming that more Americans are killed by gun violence then by terrorism.
The problem with this is that with a clear political agenda the Virginia shooting wasn't an example of gun violence but an example of domestic terrorism. As such Obama's comments are further evidence of the fact that with both ISIL and BLM Obama simply cannot recognise terrorism when it happens. This is a serious failing in a man who is charged with fighting and defeating terrorists.
Tuesday 25 August 2015
The US Position.
Yesterday (24/8/15) I went through a series of incidents that occurred in response to a Turkish air-strike against the Dohuk region of northern Iraq which Turkey claimed was targeting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). I touched on the US' contribution to this discussion but said that it needed to be covered in more detail.
On Monday (24/8/15) local time - Sunday (23/8/15) US time - there was an explosion at a US military base in Tokyo, Japan. This was reminiscent of the very large explosion that occurred in Tianjin, China on August 12th (12/8/15). Although it covered a range of issues the Tianjin explosion was primarily a reference to the inquiry that is being set up by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) into chemical weapon use in Syria - specifically the question of whether that inquiry will be allowed to consider the use of chemical weapons by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria and Iraq.
On Friday (21/8/15) the US confirmed what Germany amongst others had already established - ISIL had used Sulphur Mustard Gas against Kurdish positions in northern Iraq on August 11th (11/8/15). That same day ISIL again used Sulphur Mustard Gas against Kurdish positions.
On Saturday (21/8/15) there was another much smaller explosion at a chemical plant in Shangdong, China. Essentially this was China - as a permanent member of the UNSC - posing the question of if they tabled a resolution condemning ISIL's chemical weapons use would the US veto it?
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion in Tokyo there were rumours that nuclear material was being stored on the site prompting worries of a radiation leak. This seemed to be the US indicating that they view ISIL's use of chemical weapons as being a radioactive issue that they're in no rush to go anywhere near.
This suggests that much like the recent resolution on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 the US views the purpose of the UN inquiry as being a way to condemn the Syrian government rather then establish facts.
This is quite troubling because there are really three types of chemical weapons. In the top tier there are nerve agents such as Sarin and VX gas which attack the brain and nervous system. A very small amount of this type of weapon can very quickly kill a large number of people. The unwritten convention is that if a nerve agent is used then nuclear weapons will be used in response.
In the next tier there are blister agents such as Sulphur Mustard Gas and Nitrogen Mustard Gas. These attack the soft tissue in the skin, eyes and lungs stopping them from working properly. If you are exposed to large amounts of a blister agent you'll go blind or start bleeding into your lungs preventing you from breathing. This is extremely unpleasant but it requires a high concentration of the gas to cause any major health problems.
In the third tier there are pulmonary agents such as Chlorine gas and CS (tear) gas. These irritate the eyes and lungs in the same way that pollen does to hay-fever sufferers. Unless you have pre-existing condition such as asthma these are generally harmless. However if the gas is used in such high concentrations that it completely fills your lungs cutting off the supply of oxygen you can suffocate. However that is true of any gas, even inert ones.
Although the first task of the inquiry would be to look for evidence the Syrian government have only ever been accused of using Chlorine gas as a weapon. If the US is outraged by that but not by the use of a much more serious chemical weapon by ISIL then it is obvious that there is a clear double standard at work, in ISIL's favour.
Obviously the rumour of a radiation leak fed into the ongoing discussion within Japan over the use of nuclear power. Following the March 11th 2011 (11/3/11) earthquake and tsunami the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant went into meltdown forcing an 20km (12 mile) exclusion zone to be set up due to the risk of a large scale radiation leak.
In response the Japanese government ordered all of the countries 18 nuclear power plants to be shut down causing electricity shortages across the country. On August 11th (11/8/15) Japan re-opened the Sendai nuclear power plant for the first time amid protests and continuing safety concerns by a large section of the Japanese public.
The fact the explosion occurred at a US military base brought up everything that has ever been said about US military bases in Japan. Basically since the end of the second world war the US has maintained large military bases on Japan officially to protect Japanese who as punishment for the second world war aren't allowed a military of their own.
However due to the tendency for US military aircraft to crash along with the disruption caused by large numbers service personnel these military bases cause a lot of tension with the Japanese public. The Okinawa base has been a particularly long running area of dispute.
However as with the nuclear power issue this was more camouflage rather then an issue that was being seriously addressed.
The nuclear fears also touched on the current tensions between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (ROK/South Korea). Every year since the 1960's the US and South Korea hold joint military drills to deter an attack by North Korea. Every year this escalates tension which normally involves North Korea shooting something into the sea and then either the US or South Korea making some sort of concession - normally food aid - to North Korea.
As part of it's "Pivot Towards the Pacific" policy over the past few years the US has been encouraging North Korea to become more reckless and aggressive so the US can use it as a sort of bogeyman that everyone else in the region will look to the US to protect them from. As part of this in January 2014 North Korean President Kim Jong Un had his uncle Jang Song-thaek executed and purged his allies from government. Jang was really the main go-between with China helping the Chinese to moderate North Korea's behaviour.
As part of North Korea's more reckless and aggressive stance in July they started planting landmines in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) on the border between North and South Korea. On August 3rd (3/8/15) one these mines exploded seriously injuring two South Korean soldiers. In response South Korea set up giant banks of loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda messages across the border. This enraged North Korea making for a particularly tense exercise season.
On August 20th (20/8/15) North Korea fired into South Korea in an attempt to destroy one of these banks of loudspeakers. South Korea obviously returned fire. This prompted North Korea to put it's entire military on a war footing which included sending 50 of it's 70 submarines to sea and assembling landing craft on the maritime border. With North Korea possessing nuclear weapons this was a particularly alarming move.
Realising that they could no longer rely on China to help talk North Korea down the US promptly went into a panic temporarily suspending the military drills in what seemed to be a signal to South Korea that the US would be prepared to make any concession just to calm the situation down.
Fortunately having played this game numerous times before North and South Korea met up for marathon negotiations which saw South Korea agree to stop the broadcasts but keep the loudspeakers in place while North Korea expressed regret over the injuries to the South Korea soldiers. As a result North Korea has today begun to remove it's military from a war footing and South Korea is doing likewise.
What I found amusing was that shortly after the explosion at the US military base in Tokyo there was another explosion - this time at a steelworks near Tokyo's Haneda Airport. This seemed to be Japan indicating that although there are tensions with their neighbour they'd like to speak to China themselves rather then having the US speak on their behalf.
At around 17:55 on 25/8/15 (UK date) I haven't even got onto the tour bus crash in New York, US yesterday but being a Tuesday I think I'm done for the day.
Edited at around 19:10 on 25/8/15 (UK date) to add;
As I mentioned yesterday shortly after the explosion at the US military facility in Tokyo there was a security alert at San Francisco airport, US that was caused by a toy hand-grenade. This was obviously an attempt to mock the issues raised by the UK in the Shoreham air crash. After all who's afraid of a children's toy.
The US continued with the insults on Monday (24/8/15) with the crash of a tour bus into a building in the Queen's district of New York City. "Queen" is a slang term for a certain type of extremely camp and extremely bitchy gay man. For example you have a "Drag Queen." This stereotype of a gay man is so widely known that it is sometimes used as a homophobic insult - particularly when it is used against someone who is not gay.
The timing of that insult against the UK's position was particularly unfortunate because earlier in the day the UNSC held it's first ever session on gay rights. This focused particularly on ISIL's routine murder of people they suspect of being homosexual. This is of course an important issue alongside ISIL's routine murder of pretty much everyone else.
However it struck me as every accusation of homophobia that the US hurled at Russia during the 2014 Olympics in order to punish them for their opposition to ISIL being gathered up by the international community and thrown straight back in the US' face.
The UK is obviously ruled by an actual Queen so the US saying that the "Queen's House" has been destroyed is quite a strong statement.
The fact the incident involved a tour bus seems to be a reference to Rihanna's 2013 Diamond's World Tour. This was intended to remind the UK that it had no moral qualms being involved in that operation. It was also an opportunity for the US to further accuse me of wrecking the operation. I will happily wear that accusation with pride but I should point out that a plan that centred on a popstar being able to befuddle the nations that compete in the Eurovision Song Contest every year probably wasn't a great plan to begin with.
This specific tour bus was being operated by the "Resorts World Casino." This was a reference to the great casino of global stock markets and capitalism. I hope this wasn't the US indicating that it is prepared to overlook ISIL's crimes in order to preserve the US economy because part of the Tianjin explosion was China - as the US' main economic rival - pointing out that Obama's making a right mess of that too.
I've been spending most of the day trying to come up with an apt gambling metaphor for how badly Obama is doing but the best I've come up with is; "It's like he's playing roulette and always betting on blue."
Despite initial reports that is was a house that had been destroyed it was actually a mixed use building. On the top floors there were residential apartments whilst on the ground floor there was a small law firm. This invocation of the law could well have been a reference to the differing legal positions regarding ISIL.
People such as myself view UNSC resolution 2170 (2014) as prohibiting any nation *coughs* Turkey from providing any form of support to either ISIL or the Al Qaeda led Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition. I also see Article 2(4) of the UN Charter as prohibiting any nation *coughs* Turkey from using force to bring about regime change in Syria, Iraq or any other nation.
Obama clearly disagrees with me but if you look at the nonsense of his Black Lives Matter mob it's clear that for a law professor he has an extremely poor grasp on even the basic principles.
This reference to this type of small, likely family owned law practice could also be a reference to the lawyer who drew up the powers of attorney for my grandmother and in doing so possibly committed the crime against humanity of cruel and inhumane treatment by way of unlawful medical experimentation. I hope that wasn't the case though because if the people who are prepared to do that have looked at ISIL and gone; "They're taking things to far" whilst I - as the aggrieved party - am prepared to enter into a temporary and uneasy alliance with them against ISIL then surely it is sign that Obama is clearly on the wrong side of this argument.
In response to America's sulkies today in the UK there was a Chlorine gas leak at a swimming pool in Saint Andrews. Apparently this is a place in Scotland rather then my local Catholic Church. However 19 people were treated by paramedics after being exposed to the gas before being sent home.
After all the correct medical procedure for someone who has been exposed to Chlorine gas is to hook them up to a fancy machine that goes beep and shine a torch in their eyes a couple of times to convince them you're doing something medical before sending them home because there is absolutely nothing wrong with them.
Also in the UK a car crashed into a building on Poppyfields Way in Doncaster. In the UK the Poppy is used as a symbol to remember our war dead. That is because during the First World War 800,000 young British men were sent to die by their country with little choice in the matter. From the fields in which they fell thousands of blood red Poppies spontaneously grew once the guns fell silent. In the Second World War 450,000 were taken because simply it needed to be done.
Judging by the way he ran away from Iraq and tried to run away from the Poppy fields of Afghanistan Obama clearly doesn't have the courage for this type of fight. Therefore he should step aside and make room for someone who has.
20:15 on 25/8/15 (UK date).
On Monday (24/8/15) local time - Sunday (23/8/15) US time - there was an explosion at a US military base in Tokyo, Japan. This was reminiscent of the very large explosion that occurred in Tianjin, China on August 12th (12/8/15). Although it covered a range of issues the Tianjin explosion was primarily a reference to the inquiry that is being set up by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) into chemical weapon use in Syria - specifically the question of whether that inquiry will be allowed to consider the use of chemical weapons by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria and Iraq.
On Friday (21/8/15) the US confirmed what Germany amongst others had already established - ISIL had used Sulphur Mustard Gas against Kurdish positions in northern Iraq on August 11th (11/8/15). That same day ISIL again used Sulphur Mustard Gas against Kurdish positions.
On Saturday (21/8/15) there was another much smaller explosion at a chemical plant in Shangdong, China. Essentially this was China - as a permanent member of the UNSC - posing the question of if they tabled a resolution condemning ISIL's chemical weapons use would the US veto it?
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion in Tokyo there were rumours that nuclear material was being stored on the site prompting worries of a radiation leak. This seemed to be the US indicating that they view ISIL's use of chemical weapons as being a radioactive issue that they're in no rush to go anywhere near.
This suggests that much like the recent resolution on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 the US views the purpose of the UN inquiry as being a way to condemn the Syrian government rather then establish facts.
This is quite troubling because there are really three types of chemical weapons. In the top tier there are nerve agents such as Sarin and VX gas which attack the brain and nervous system. A very small amount of this type of weapon can very quickly kill a large number of people. The unwritten convention is that if a nerve agent is used then nuclear weapons will be used in response.
In the next tier there are blister agents such as Sulphur Mustard Gas and Nitrogen Mustard Gas. These attack the soft tissue in the skin, eyes and lungs stopping them from working properly. If you are exposed to large amounts of a blister agent you'll go blind or start bleeding into your lungs preventing you from breathing. This is extremely unpleasant but it requires a high concentration of the gas to cause any major health problems.
In the third tier there are pulmonary agents such as Chlorine gas and CS (tear) gas. These irritate the eyes and lungs in the same way that pollen does to hay-fever sufferers. Unless you have pre-existing condition such as asthma these are generally harmless. However if the gas is used in such high concentrations that it completely fills your lungs cutting off the supply of oxygen you can suffocate. However that is true of any gas, even inert ones.
Although the first task of the inquiry would be to look for evidence the Syrian government have only ever been accused of using Chlorine gas as a weapon. If the US is outraged by that but not by the use of a much more serious chemical weapon by ISIL then it is obvious that there is a clear double standard at work, in ISIL's favour.
Obviously the rumour of a radiation leak fed into the ongoing discussion within Japan over the use of nuclear power. Following the March 11th 2011 (11/3/11) earthquake and tsunami the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant went into meltdown forcing an 20km (12 mile) exclusion zone to be set up due to the risk of a large scale radiation leak.
In response the Japanese government ordered all of the countries 18 nuclear power plants to be shut down causing electricity shortages across the country. On August 11th (11/8/15) Japan re-opened the Sendai nuclear power plant for the first time amid protests and continuing safety concerns by a large section of the Japanese public.
The fact the explosion occurred at a US military base brought up everything that has ever been said about US military bases in Japan. Basically since the end of the second world war the US has maintained large military bases on Japan officially to protect Japanese who as punishment for the second world war aren't allowed a military of their own.
However due to the tendency for US military aircraft to crash along with the disruption caused by large numbers service personnel these military bases cause a lot of tension with the Japanese public. The Okinawa base has been a particularly long running area of dispute.
However as with the nuclear power issue this was more camouflage rather then an issue that was being seriously addressed.
The nuclear fears also touched on the current tensions between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (ROK/South Korea). Every year since the 1960's the US and South Korea hold joint military drills to deter an attack by North Korea. Every year this escalates tension which normally involves North Korea shooting something into the sea and then either the US or South Korea making some sort of concession - normally food aid - to North Korea.
As part of it's "Pivot Towards the Pacific" policy over the past few years the US has been encouraging North Korea to become more reckless and aggressive so the US can use it as a sort of bogeyman that everyone else in the region will look to the US to protect them from. As part of this in January 2014 North Korean President Kim Jong Un had his uncle Jang Song-thaek executed and purged his allies from government. Jang was really the main go-between with China helping the Chinese to moderate North Korea's behaviour.
As part of North Korea's more reckless and aggressive stance in July they started planting landmines in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) on the border between North and South Korea. On August 3rd (3/8/15) one these mines exploded seriously injuring two South Korean soldiers. In response South Korea set up giant banks of loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda messages across the border. This enraged North Korea making for a particularly tense exercise season.
On August 20th (20/8/15) North Korea fired into South Korea in an attempt to destroy one of these banks of loudspeakers. South Korea obviously returned fire. This prompted North Korea to put it's entire military on a war footing which included sending 50 of it's 70 submarines to sea and assembling landing craft on the maritime border. With North Korea possessing nuclear weapons this was a particularly alarming move.
Realising that they could no longer rely on China to help talk North Korea down the US promptly went into a panic temporarily suspending the military drills in what seemed to be a signal to South Korea that the US would be prepared to make any concession just to calm the situation down.
Fortunately having played this game numerous times before North and South Korea met up for marathon negotiations which saw South Korea agree to stop the broadcasts but keep the loudspeakers in place while North Korea expressed regret over the injuries to the South Korea soldiers. As a result North Korea has today begun to remove it's military from a war footing and South Korea is doing likewise.
What I found amusing was that shortly after the explosion at the US military base in Tokyo there was another explosion - this time at a steelworks near Tokyo's Haneda Airport. This seemed to be Japan indicating that although there are tensions with their neighbour they'd like to speak to China themselves rather then having the US speak on their behalf.
At around 17:55 on 25/8/15 (UK date) I haven't even got onto the tour bus crash in New York, US yesterday but being a Tuesday I think I'm done for the day.
Edited at around 19:10 on 25/8/15 (UK date) to add;
As I mentioned yesterday shortly after the explosion at the US military facility in Tokyo there was a security alert at San Francisco airport, US that was caused by a toy hand-grenade. This was obviously an attempt to mock the issues raised by the UK in the Shoreham air crash. After all who's afraid of a children's toy.
The US continued with the insults on Monday (24/8/15) with the crash of a tour bus into a building in the Queen's district of New York City. "Queen" is a slang term for a certain type of extremely camp and extremely bitchy gay man. For example you have a "Drag Queen." This stereotype of a gay man is so widely known that it is sometimes used as a homophobic insult - particularly when it is used against someone who is not gay.
The timing of that insult against the UK's position was particularly unfortunate because earlier in the day the UNSC held it's first ever session on gay rights. This focused particularly on ISIL's routine murder of people they suspect of being homosexual. This is of course an important issue alongside ISIL's routine murder of pretty much everyone else.
However it struck me as every accusation of homophobia that the US hurled at Russia during the 2014 Olympics in order to punish them for their opposition to ISIL being gathered up by the international community and thrown straight back in the US' face.
The UK is obviously ruled by an actual Queen so the US saying that the "Queen's House" has been destroyed is quite a strong statement.
The fact the incident involved a tour bus seems to be a reference to Rihanna's 2013 Diamond's World Tour. This was intended to remind the UK that it had no moral qualms being involved in that operation. It was also an opportunity for the US to further accuse me of wrecking the operation. I will happily wear that accusation with pride but I should point out that a plan that centred on a popstar being able to befuddle the nations that compete in the Eurovision Song Contest every year probably wasn't a great plan to begin with.
This specific tour bus was being operated by the "Resorts World Casino." This was a reference to the great casino of global stock markets and capitalism. I hope this wasn't the US indicating that it is prepared to overlook ISIL's crimes in order to preserve the US economy because part of the Tianjin explosion was China - as the US' main economic rival - pointing out that Obama's making a right mess of that too.
I've been spending most of the day trying to come up with an apt gambling metaphor for how badly Obama is doing but the best I've come up with is; "It's like he's playing roulette and always betting on blue."
Despite initial reports that is was a house that had been destroyed it was actually a mixed use building. On the top floors there were residential apartments whilst on the ground floor there was a small law firm. This invocation of the law could well have been a reference to the differing legal positions regarding ISIL.
People such as myself view UNSC resolution 2170 (2014) as prohibiting any nation *coughs* Turkey from providing any form of support to either ISIL or the Al Qaeda led Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition. I also see Article 2(4) of the UN Charter as prohibiting any nation *coughs* Turkey from using force to bring about regime change in Syria, Iraq or any other nation.
Obama clearly disagrees with me but if you look at the nonsense of his Black Lives Matter mob it's clear that for a law professor he has an extremely poor grasp on even the basic principles.
This reference to this type of small, likely family owned law practice could also be a reference to the lawyer who drew up the powers of attorney for my grandmother and in doing so possibly committed the crime against humanity of cruel and inhumane treatment by way of unlawful medical experimentation. I hope that wasn't the case though because if the people who are prepared to do that have looked at ISIL and gone; "They're taking things to far" whilst I - as the aggrieved party - am prepared to enter into a temporary and uneasy alliance with them against ISIL then surely it is sign that Obama is clearly on the wrong side of this argument.
In response to America's sulkies today in the UK there was a Chlorine gas leak at a swimming pool in Saint Andrews. Apparently this is a place in Scotland rather then my local Catholic Church. However 19 people were treated by paramedics after being exposed to the gas before being sent home.
After all the correct medical procedure for someone who has been exposed to Chlorine gas is to hook them up to a fancy machine that goes beep and shine a torch in their eyes a couple of times to convince them you're doing something medical before sending them home because there is absolutely nothing wrong with them.
Also in the UK a car crashed into a building on Poppyfields Way in Doncaster. In the UK the Poppy is used as a symbol to remember our war dead. That is because during the First World War 800,000 young British men were sent to die by their country with little choice in the matter. From the fields in which they fell thousands of blood red Poppies spontaneously grew once the guns fell silent. In the Second World War 450,000 were taken because simply it needed to be done.
Judging by the way he ran away from Iraq and tried to run away from the Poppy fields of Afghanistan Obama clearly doesn't have the courage for this type of fight. Therefore he should step aside and make room for someone who has.
20:15 on 25/8/15 (UK date).
Head. Bang. Wall.
You may remember that in mid-June I had to go from my annual blood tests. Basically the anti-depressants I'm prescribed can cause thyroid, kidney and liver problems in a very small number of cases. As a result once a year I have to go for a blood test to make sure that I'm not in that tiny minority. Essentially the whole thing's more about my doctor's malpractice insurance rather then anything to do with my health.
As you may have noticed about two weeks ago I decided to take some time off because frankly there are only so many videos of people blowing each other up you can watch before it starts to get tiring. This prompted my doctor to send out an ominous sounding letter demanding I make an appointment with them immediately to discuss the results of those blood tests. They also demanded that I gave them my cellphone number for their records. This struck me as an attempt to conduct a little research into my exhausted mental state. However it really annoyed me for two reasons.
Immediately after taking the blood test I walked out of the hospital to my doctors office next door to make an appointment in like a week or so to discuss the test results. I was then told that I couldn't make an appointment because all of that weeks appointments had gone so I needed to try again at the start of the next week. I tried this and I tried it again in the two weeks after. In the end in order to get my prescription renewed I had to have a telephone consultation. This involved the doctor calling me on my cellphone - a number that is very clearly on their records.
Knowing that appointments tend to go early in the week I phoned them up today to make an appointment. I was told they don't do that any more so instead I would have to phone them between 08:00 and 08:15 in the morning to make an appointment.
Although in a conversation with a medical receptionist I think it is impossible to be classed as "the rude one" I can't help but wonder how difficult it could possibly be to operate a system whereby a small percentage of appointments are reserved for people like me and with longterm conditions that need routine management such diabetes, high cholesterol, reproductive health etc that can be booked in advance. The rest of the appointments would be left to be booked by urgent cases on the day. After all if the ring-fenced appointments aren't pre-booked they can be opened up on the day to urgent cases.
So basically we're back to the problem of me being expected to run Croydon. For free.
16:30 on 25/8/15 (UK date).
As you may have noticed about two weeks ago I decided to take some time off because frankly there are only so many videos of people blowing each other up you can watch before it starts to get tiring. This prompted my doctor to send out an ominous sounding letter demanding I make an appointment with them immediately to discuss the results of those blood tests. They also demanded that I gave them my cellphone number for their records. This struck me as an attempt to conduct a little research into my exhausted mental state. However it really annoyed me for two reasons.
Immediately after taking the blood test I walked out of the hospital to my doctors office next door to make an appointment in like a week or so to discuss the test results. I was then told that I couldn't make an appointment because all of that weeks appointments had gone so I needed to try again at the start of the next week. I tried this and I tried it again in the two weeks after. In the end in order to get my prescription renewed I had to have a telephone consultation. This involved the doctor calling me on my cellphone - a number that is very clearly on their records.
Knowing that appointments tend to go early in the week I phoned them up today to make an appointment. I was told they don't do that any more so instead I would have to phone them between 08:00 and 08:15 in the morning to make an appointment.
Although in a conversation with a medical receptionist I think it is impossible to be classed as "the rude one" I can't help but wonder how difficult it could possibly be to operate a system whereby a small percentage of appointments are reserved for people like me and with longterm conditions that need routine management such diabetes, high cholesterol, reproductive health etc that can be booked in advance. The rest of the appointments would be left to be booked by urgent cases on the day. After all if the ring-fenced appointments aren't pre-booked they can be opened up on the day to urgent cases.
So basically we're back to the problem of me being expected to run Croydon. For free.
16:30 on 25/8/15 (UK date).
Monday 24 August 2015
The Shoreham Air Crash.
On July 24th (24/7/15) Turkey began conducting air-strikes against what it claimed were Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions in the Dohuk region of northern Iraq.
These strikes came to an end after a frantic week of diplomacy that saw members of Osama bin Laden's family being killed in a plane crash just outside London, UK and another air crash at the Carfest car show in Cheshire, UK the following day (1/8/15). During this period the US also sent a formal diplomatic communique to Turkey informing them that the strikes in Dohuk had endangered US troops who were in the area training Kurdish forces to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
On Thursday (20/8/15) Turkey again launched air-strikes in Dohuk. Two days later, on the Saturday (22/8/15) there was another significant air-crash in the UK this time at the Shoreham air-show in Sussex, South-East England. At present it has been confirmed that 7 people were killed in the crash but as wreckage is cleared from the crash site there are worries that the death toll to rise as high as 21.
In the first instance this crash created scenes that gave everyone in the UK a small taste of what we mean when we talk about an air-strike. I'm sorry if I sound heartless when talking about those killed but in the day since the crash I've heard of at least 110 people being killed in the war against ISIL and already I'm thinking about taking some time off again.
Obviously the crash also gave everyone ample opportunity to express their shock, horror and outrage at the incident.
In the immediate moments after the story broke reporters were keen to stress that the crash had taken place "beyond the bounds of the air-show." In part this was a way to emphasise that the aircraft hadn't crashed into the large crowd attending the show which undoubtedly would have resulted in a far higher death toll. Also within the UK incidents that occur within the bounds of the air-show are handled by the Civilian Aviation Authority (CAA) while incidents outside are handled by the Department of Transport (DoT).
Mainly though when English speakers talk about a person's behaviour being wrong they sometimes describe it as being "beyond the bounds of acceptable behaviour" or "beyond the bounds of the law."
The aircraft actually crashed into the A27 which is one of the main roads in the area that runs alongside Shoreham airport where the air-show was taking place. This obviously led to the route being immediately closed. If a course of action is no longer available to someone an English speaker may refer to it as "that route being closed off to them."
Beyond those headlines though there were also a lot of incredibly specific references contained in the incident;
Although the fireball created by the crash gave many people a small taste of what an air-strike looks like an expert would describe it as a very ineffective explosion. What everyone saw was diesel, gasoline and kerosene catching fire creating lots of smoke and flames rather then then type of invisible but highly destructive shockwave created when a bomb goes off. The scene did though very closely resemble a Napalm bomb exploding. Napalm essentially just being diesel.
On Friday (21/8/15) the US finally admitted that ISIL had used chemical weapons - specifically Sulphur Mustard Gas - against Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces on August 11th (11/8/15). While the US were doing that ISIL were actually again using Mustard Gas against the Peshmerga - this time on the Teleskof front-line just outside the city of Mosul.
Along with Friday's (21/8/15) terror attack on a train on the France/Belgium border the use of chemical weapons obviously provides a further example of why this war needs to be won sooner rather then later. However in terms of altering current battlefield tactics it shouldn't make much difference beyond making sure that troops on the ground have appropriate protective equipment such as chemical suits and gas-masks.
If the attacks continue though the US-led coalition could take the extreme approach of using incendiary bombs such as Thermite or Napalm against ISIL's chemical weapon units. This would utterly incinerate any dangerous chemicals rendering them harmless. However creating temperatures in excess of 1,400C anything within the bombed area would also be completely incinerated. If there is a single miss hitting a civilian area the propaganda victory to ISIL would be immense.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash the commentator on the air-display - in footage that has been widely repeated on various news channels - can be heard reassuring the assembled crowd to remain calm because there was nothing they can do and they should just standby and watch. In relation to the incident itself that is incredibly sound advice. However you wonder whether the international community such as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should remain so passive in the face of Turkey's aggression towards it's neighbours.
On August 20th (20/8/15) BBC News broadcast globally a short report on female PKK fighters in northern Iraq. Turkey was absolutely furious about this with the Foreign Ministry lodging a formal protest at the report showing the PKK fighters as protectors of human rights and women's rights against ISIL rather then as the brutal terrorists Turkey labels them.
I can only imagine what would have happened if Turkey had seen a similar France24 report that pointed out that there are only around 800 PKK fighters in northern Iraq and there's a lot of tension between them and the roughly 8000 Peshmerga. Not least because Turkey claims that it has already killed 771 PKK fighters.
On the day the BBC News report went out 8 Turkish soldiers were killed in a PKK roadside bomb. As a result a lot of the Turkish protests against the BBC took the form of demanding to know how the UK would react if 8 of it's citizens were killed in fiery explosion on a tarmacked road.
While the Shoreham air-crash was unfolding the head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) announced that the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) still existed although with a radically different purpose.
As I've mentioned before the PKK form part of a sort of arc of resistance with groups such as the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Palestine and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in Northern Ireland. However I think the differences between the INLA, the IRA and the PIRA is a rather niche area of knowledge. For example I don't think that even most people in the UK understand that what they think of as the IRA is actually the PIRA.
The UK responding to the Shoreham air-crash by launching air-strikes against County Meath in the Republic of Ireland makes about as much sense as Turkey conducting air-strikes against Dohuk in Iraq in response to the ISIL bombing of Kurds in Suruc, Turkey on July 20th (20/7/15).
The specific type of aircraft that crashed in Shoreham was the Hawker Hunter. This was introduced by Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1950 and has been used by roughly 20 other nations including Saudi Arabia and Iraq. However in remained in active service with the Lebanese air force until 2014 - last year.
I think that - in the west at least - Lebanon is probably most famous for Hezbollah. Amongst right-wing Israelis and Americans Hezbollah are thought of as simply a terrorist group. This may be true but within Lebanon they are much more then that accounting for 11% of MP's in Parliament and in many neighbourhoods take on the role of the state providing essential services such as electricity, refuse collection and medical care. Recently Hezbollah have sided with the Syrian government joining the fight in Lebanon's neighbour.
Due to the allegiance with Hezbollah and the historical distribution of religious minorities Syria's border with Lebanon has become of massive strategic importance to the Syrian government. The Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition that the US and Turkey amongst others have been backing to fight ISIL have instead been focused on fighting the Syrian government and Hezbollah in an effort to push down from Syria's Aleppo and Idlib provinces into the Latakia province which borders Lebanon.
US President Barack Obama still seems to be labouring under the delusion that the Syria conflict is an oppressed people rising up against an evil dictator. However anyone who follows the conflict in any level of detail can see quite clearly that it is a sectarian conflict with Sunni Muslims trying to wipe out Shia Muslims along with any other religious group such as Christians, Yazidi and Druze. These sectarian tensions have already begun to spill over into Lebanon with periodic outbreaks of fighting between Sunni and Shia groups.
Due to the increased sectarian tensions and the pressures created by the some 1 million refugees that have flooded into Lebanon from Syria the Lebanese Parliament has been unable to elect a President for the past year. Although the Lebanese people have a remarkable ability to seemingly muddle through any adversity people are now starting to get very annoyed as shown by this weekend's mass, violent protests.
At this point those protests are being driven by angry people who simply want their bins collected rather then by any wider political or sectarian issue. However given the history within Lebanon of religious groups taking over vital services they could soon morph into something much more serious.
If the Lebanese government falls or if the international support continues allowing JAF to take Latakia province it is unlikely they will stop there. Instead the border with Lebanon will simply disappear as the battle between Sunnis and Shias engulfs the country. If this happens it will immediately leave Lebanon's roughly 5 million people at the mercy of ISIL's violence. In response it is likely that many Lebanese will try and flee the country joining the flood of refugees across the Mediterranean making the current refugee crisis much worse and really leaving nothing between ISIL and the European Union (EU).
Shoreham is actually very close to my old stomping ground of Brighton. There are a vast number of contentious stories I can tell about my time in Brighton but the one that seems most relevant at the moment relates to my time working as a traffic warden. My training officer previously worked as a custody officer at the police's regional custody centre (jail, basically). This is a better paid job then traffic warden so one day I asked him why he quit and he told me the story.
It begins with the police being called to a car crashing into something stationary like a lamp-post. I would love to claim that this occurred on the Old Shoreham Road that crosses the A27 at the site of the plane crash. However it actually occurred where the Western Road becomes New Church road which runs parallel to the Old Shoreham Road. Arriving at the scene the police suspected the foreign driver was drunk so asked him to take a roadside breath test. He refused which is a separate offence that he was promptly arrest for.
Back at the custody centre the driver refused to give his name or indeed speak at all. So his fingerprints were taken and he was placed in a cell until his identity could be established. After a short while the police computer came back identifying him not only as a Turkish national but also as someone who was wanted in Turkey for deserting the Turkish Army. As a result regardless of what he'd done in the UK he was going to be deported back to Turkey for them to deal with.
The custody officers then went to the guy's cell to inform him of this. By the sounds of things it was at this point he decided that he was going to escape by fighting absolutely everybody in the jail. The way I was told the story it took not only all the custody officers and police officers in the building but also all of the police officers on duty in the county to restrain him and put him back in his cell. It was during this my training officer suffered a broken arm.
A short while later the police computer came back with another message. The guy had actually deserted from a Turkish Special Forces unit and therefore should only be approached with extreme caution. It was at that point my training officer decided that he could probably live with taking a pay cut.
At around 17:35 on 24/8/15 (UK date) I'll be back later to discuss Sunday's incidents.
Edited at around 19:00 on 24/8/15 (UK date) to tidy up and add;
On Sunday (23/8/15) there was another air-crash at an air-show - this time in the Swiss town of Dittengen near Basel - that involved the German civilian air-display team the "Grasshoppers." They are not to be mistaken with the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) air-display team of the same name.
In this incident two of the three performing aircraft flew too close together and plunged into a lake killing one of the pilots. The type of aircraft involved was the C42 Ikarus which is small German made machine that takes its name from Icarus - a character from Greek mythology.
In the story of Icarus his father Daedalus is imprisoned in the Labyrinth he'd built for King Minos on the island of Crete as punishment for helping Theseus defeat the Minotaur. Being a master craftsman in order to escape Daedalus builds himself and his son each a set of wings made out of wax and feathers allowing them to fly away.
Despite warnings from Daedalus in his youthful arrogance Icarus flies too close to the sun, his wings melt and he plunges into either the Mediterranean or Aegean Sea depending of which side of Crete he fell. In the legend FRONTEX - the EU's border force - is not on hand to rescue the drowning refugee.
The legend of Icarus functions as an allegory warning of the dangers of arrogance and hubris - both things that US President Obama and Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan can be accused of in the fight against ISIL. The American psychiatrist Henry Murray even proposed the disorder of "Icarus Syndrome" in which sufferers display a narcissistic personality disorder accompanied by wild delusions and an obsession with fire.
In my bulletin board days I used to talk regularly with a keen skydiver with the screen-name "Icarus." Then of course there is absolutely everything and anything that has been said or written about the story since its inception some 3000 years ago.
In 1974 Turkey invaded Cyprus triggering a rivalry with Greece that has become one of the bitterest and longest running disputes in European politics. Invoking the Legend of Icarus and therefore Greece's perceived cultural superiority is a spectacular way to point out that you are not at all happy with Turkey.
Unfortunately it seems that the US has gone in a different direction to the European nations. On Monday (24/8/15 local) there was an explosion at a US Military base in Japan. This invoked memories of the recent chemical explosions in Tianjin, China and Shangdong, China on Saturday (22/8/15) and was tangled up in tensions over US military bases in Japan, the Japanese anti-nuclear movement following the Fukushima disaster and the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
That last one in particular is an complex issue that I will have to deal with separately but in the immediate aftermath of the explosion there were worries that radioactive material may have been released. This was the US signalling to China in particular that the US views ISIL's use of chemical weapons as a radioactive issue and as such not one they're in any rush to go anywhere near.
Shortly afterwards there was a security alert at Terminal 2 of San Francisco airport in the US. It soon emerged that this had been caused by a toy hand grenade in someone's luggage. Rather like Brighton in the UK San Francisco is famous for being America's gay capital. Incidents like the Shoreham air crash can be described as metaphorical grenades that send diplomatic shrapnel off in all directions. The US' description of a toy grenade seems to indicate that the US childishly and militantly intends to defend Erdogan at all costs.
Hopefully now the marking's in it will reconsider that position because Obama is currently falling very far short of a passing grade.
20:00 on 24/8/15 (UK date).
These strikes came to an end after a frantic week of diplomacy that saw members of Osama bin Laden's family being killed in a plane crash just outside London, UK and another air crash at the Carfest car show in Cheshire, UK the following day (1/8/15). During this period the US also sent a formal diplomatic communique to Turkey informing them that the strikes in Dohuk had endangered US troops who were in the area training Kurdish forces to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
On Thursday (20/8/15) Turkey again launched air-strikes in Dohuk. Two days later, on the Saturday (22/8/15) there was another significant air-crash in the UK this time at the Shoreham air-show in Sussex, South-East England. At present it has been confirmed that 7 people were killed in the crash but as wreckage is cleared from the crash site there are worries that the death toll to rise as high as 21.
In the first instance this crash created scenes that gave everyone in the UK a small taste of what we mean when we talk about an air-strike. I'm sorry if I sound heartless when talking about those killed but in the day since the crash I've heard of at least 110 people being killed in the war against ISIL and already I'm thinking about taking some time off again.
Obviously the crash also gave everyone ample opportunity to express their shock, horror and outrage at the incident.
In the immediate moments after the story broke reporters were keen to stress that the crash had taken place "beyond the bounds of the air-show." In part this was a way to emphasise that the aircraft hadn't crashed into the large crowd attending the show which undoubtedly would have resulted in a far higher death toll. Also within the UK incidents that occur within the bounds of the air-show are handled by the Civilian Aviation Authority (CAA) while incidents outside are handled by the Department of Transport (DoT).
Mainly though when English speakers talk about a person's behaviour being wrong they sometimes describe it as being "beyond the bounds of acceptable behaviour" or "beyond the bounds of the law."
The aircraft actually crashed into the A27 which is one of the main roads in the area that runs alongside Shoreham airport where the air-show was taking place. This obviously led to the route being immediately closed. If a course of action is no longer available to someone an English speaker may refer to it as "that route being closed off to them."
Beyond those headlines though there were also a lot of incredibly specific references contained in the incident;
Although the fireball created by the crash gave many people a small taste of what an air-strike looks like an expert would describe it as a very ineffective explosion. What everyone saw was diesel, gasoline and kerosene catching fire creating lots of smoke and flames rather then then type of invisible but highly destructive shockwave created when a bomb goes off. The scene did though very closely resemble a Napalm bomb exploding. Napalm essentially just being diesel.
On Friday (21/8/15) the US finally admitted that ISIL had used chemical weapons - specifically Sulphur Mustard Gas - against Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces on August 11th (11/8/15). While the US were doing that ISIL were actually again using Mustard Gas against the Peshmerga - this time on the Teleskof front-line just outside the city of Mosul.
Along with Friday's (21/8/15) terror attack on a train on the France/Belgium border the use of chemical weapons obviously provides a further example of why this war needs to be won sooner rather then later. However in terms of altering current battlefield tactics it shouldn't make much difference beyond making sure that troops on the ground have appropriate protective equipment such as chemical suits and gas-masks.
If the attacks continue though the US-led coalition could take the extreme approach of using incendiary bombs such as Thermite or Napalm against ISIL's chemical weapon units. This would utterly incinerate any dangerous chemicals rendering them harmless. However creating temperatures in excess of 1,400C anything within the bombed area would also be completely incinerated. If there is a single miss hitting a civilian area the propaganda victory to ISIL would be immense.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash the commentator on the air-display - in footage that has been widely repeated on various news channels - can be heard reassuring the assembled crowd to remain calm because there was nothing they can do and they should just standby and watch. In relation to the incident itself that is incredibly sound advice. However you wonder whether the international community such as the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should remain so passive in the face of Turkey's aggression towards it's neighbours.
On August 20th (20/8/15) BBC News broadcast globally a short report on female PKK fighters in northern Iraq. Turkey was absolutely furious about this with the Foreign Ministry lodging a formal protest at the report showing the PKK fighters as protectors of human rights and women's rights against ISIL rather then as the brutal terrorists Turkey labels them.
I can only imagine what would have happened if Turkey had seen a similar France24 report that pointed out that there are only around 800 PKK fighters in northern Iraq and there's a lot of tension between them and the roughly 8000 Peshmerga. Not least because Turkey claims that it has already killed 771 PKK fighters.
On the day the BBC News report went out 8 Turkish soldiers were killed in a PKK roadside bomb. As a result a lot of the Turkish protests against the BBC took the form of demanding to know how the UK would react if 8 of it's citizens were killed in fiery explosion on a tarmacked road.
While the Shoreham air-crash was unfolding the head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) announced that the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) still existed although with a radically different purpose.
As I've mentioned before the PKK form part of a sort of arc of resistance with groups such as the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Palestine and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) in Northern Ireland. However I think the differences between the INLA, the IRA and the PIRA is a rather niche area of knowledge. For example I don't think that even most people in the UK understand that what they think of as the IRA is actually the PIRA.
The UK responding to the Shoreham air-crash by launching air-strikes against County Meath in the Republic of Ireland makes about as much sense as Turkey conducting air-strikes against Dohuk in Iraq in response to the ISIL bombing of Kurds in Suruc, Turkey on July 20th (20/7/15).
The specific type of aircraft that crashed in Shoreham was the Hawker Hunter. This was introduced by Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1950 and has been used by roughly 20 other nations including Saudi Arabia and Iraq. However in remained in active service with the Lebanese air force until 2014 - last year.
I think that - in the west at least - Lebanon is probably most famous for Hezbollah. Amongst right-wing Israelis and Americans Hezbollah are thought of as simply a terrorist group. This may be true but within Lebanon they are much more then that accounting for 11% of MP's in Parliament and in many neighbourhoods take on the role of the state providing essential services such as electricity, refuse collection and medical care. Recently Hezbollah have sided with the Syrian government joining the fight in Lebanon's neighbour.
Due to the allegiance with Hezbollah and the historical distribution of religious minorities Syria's border with Lebanon has become of massive strategic importance to the Syrian government. The Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition that the US and Turkey amongst others have been backing to fight ISIL have instead been focused on fighting the Syrian government and Hezbollah in an effort to push down from Syria's Aleppo and Idlib provinces into the Latakia province which borders Lebanon.
US President Barack Obama still seems to be labouring under the delusion that the Syria conflict is an oppressed people rising up against an evil dictator. However anyone who follows the conflict in any level of detail can see quite clearly that it is a sectarian conflict with Sunni Muslims trying to wipe out Shia Muslims along with any other religious group such as Christians, Yazidi and Druze. These sectarian tensions have already begun to spill over into Lebanon with periodic outbreaks of fighting between Sunni and Shia groups.
Due to the increased sectarian tensions and the pressures created by the some 1 million refugees that have flooded into Lebanon from Syria the Lebanese Parliament has been unable to elect a President for the past year. Although the Lebanese people have a remarkable ability to seemingly muddle through any adversity people are now starting to get very annoyed as shown by this weekend's mass, violent protests.
At this point those protests are being driven by angry people who simply want their bins collected rather then by any wider political or sectarian issue. However given the history within Lebanon of religious groups taking over vital services they could soon morph into something much more serious.
If the Lebanese government falls or if the international support continues allowing JAF to take Latakia province it is unlikely they will stop there. Instead the border with Lebanon will simply disappear as the battle between Sunnis and Shias engulfs the country. If this happens it will immediately leave Lebanon's roughly 5 million people at the mercy of ISIL's violence. In response it is likely that many Lebanese will try and flee the country joining the flood of refugees across the Mediterranean making the current refugee crisis much worse and really leaving nothing between ISIL and the European Union (EU).
Shoreham is actually very close to my old stomping ground of Brighton. There are a vast number of contentious stories I can tell about my time in Brighton but the one that seems most relevant at the moment relates to my time working as a traffic warden. My training officer previously worked as a custody officer at the police's regional custody centre (jail, basically). This is a better paid job then traffic warden so one day I asked him why he quit and he told me the story.
It begins with the police being called to a car crashing into something stationary like a lamp-post. I would love to claim that this occurred on the Old Shoreham Road that crosses the A27 at the site of the plane crash. However it actually occurred where the Western Road becomes New Church road which runs parallel to the Old Shoreham Road. Arriving at the scene the police suspected the foreign driver was drunk so asked him to take a roadside breath test. He refused which is a separate offence that he was promptly arrest for.
Back at the custody centre the driver refused to give his name or indeed speak at all. So his fingerprints were taken and he was placed in a cell until his identity could be established. After a short while the police computer came back identifying him not only as a Turkish national but also as someone who was wanted in Turkey for deserting the Turkish Army. As a result regardless of what he'd done in the UK he was going to be deported back to Turkey for them to deal with.
The custody officers then went to the guy's cell to inform him of this. By the sounds of things it was at this point he decided that he was going to escape by fighting absolutely everybody in the jail. The way I was told the story it took not only all the custody officers and police officers in the building but also all of the police officers on duty in the county to restrain him and put him back in his cell. It was during this my training officer suffered a broken arm.
A short while later the police computer came back with another message. The guy had actually deserted from a Turkish Special Forces unit and therefore should only be approached with extreme caution. It was at that point my training officer decided that he could probably live with taking a pay cut.
At around 17:35 on 24/8/15 (UK date) I'll be back later to discuss Sunday's incidents.
Edited at around 19:00 on 24/8/15 (UK date) to tidy up and add;
On Sunday (23/8/15) there was another air-crash at an air-show - this time in the Swiss town of Dittengen near Basel - that involved the German civilian air-display team the "Grasshoppers." They are not to be mistaken with the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) air-display team of the same name.
In this incident two of the three performing aircraft flew too close together and plunged into a lake killing one of the pilots. The type of aircraft involved was the C42 Ikarus which is small German made machine that takes its name from Icarus - a character from Greek mythology.
In the story of Icarus his father Daedalus is imprisoned in the Labyrinth he'd built for King Minos on the island of Crete as punishment for helping Theseus defeat the Minotaur. Being a master craftsman in order to escape Daedalus builds himself and his son each a set of wings made out of wax and feathers allowing them to fly away.
Despite warnings from Daedalus in his youthful arrogance Icarus flies too close to the sun, his wings melt and he plunges into either the Mediterranean or Aegean Sea depending of which side of Crete he fell. In the legend FRONTEX - the EU's border force - is not on hand to rescue the drowning refugee.
The legend of Icarus functions as an allegory warning of the dangers of arrogance and hubris - both things that US President Obama and Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan can be accused of in the fight against ISIL. The American psychiatrist Henry Murray even proposed the disorder of "Icarus Syndrome" in which sufferers display a narcissistic personality disorder accompanied by wild delusions and an obsession with fire.
In my bulletin board days I used to talk regularly with a keen skydiver with the screen-name "Icarus." Then of course there is absolutely everything and anything that has been said or written about the story since its inception some 3000 years ago.
In 1974 Turkey invaded Cyprus triggering a rivalry with Greece that has become one of the bitterest and longest running disputes in European politics. Invoking the Legend of Icarus and therefore Greece's perceived cultural superiority is a spectacular way to point out that you are not at all happy with Turkey.
Unfortunately it seems that the US has gone in a different direction to the European nations. On Monday (24/8/15 local) there was an explosion at a US Military base in Japan. This invoked memories of the recent chemical explosions in Tianjin, China and Shangdong, China on Saturday (22/8/15) and was tangled up in tensions over US military bases in Japan, the Japanese anti-nuclear movement following the Fukushima disaster and the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
That last one in particular is an complex issue that I will have to deal with separately but in the immediate aftermath of the explosion there were worries that radioactive material may have been released. This was the US signalling to China in particular that the US views ISIL's use of chemical weapons as a radioactive issue and as such not one they're in any rush to go anywhere near.
Shortly afterwards there was a security alert at Terminal 2 of San Francisco airport in the US. It soon emerged that this had been caused by a toy hand grenade in someone's luggage. Rather like Brighton in the UK San Francisco is famous for being America's gay capital. Incidents like the Shoreham air crash can be described as metaphorical grenades that send diplomatic shrapnel off in all directions. The US' description of a toy grenade seems to indicate that the US childishly and militantly intends to defend Erdogan at all costs.
Hopefully now the marking's in it will reconsider that position because Obama is currently falling very far short of a passing grade.
20:00 on 24/8/15 (UK date).
Saturday 22 August 2015
Operation Featherweight: Month 13, Week 4, Day 5.
Yesterday (21/8/15) Europe experienced another Islamist terrorist attack.
At around 16:00 (GMT) a man boarded a train from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Paris, France in the Belgium city of Brussels. Just as the train was preparing to cross the border between Belgium and France the man went into the toilet, removed his shirt and drew out a knife, a handgun and an AK-47 assault rifle with 10 x 30 round magazines. He then exited the toilet and proceeded to attack passengers at random.
Unfortunately for him the first carriage he decided to attack contained a US Airman and a US National Guardsman who were both on leave. Along with a US civilian they were travelling with and a British businessmen they tackled the gunman to the ground and disarmed him. The US Airman suffered a serious cut to his hand and another passenger was slashed across the neck. However due to their swift - and I would say heroic - actions a much more serious incident was prevented because the attacker clearly had a bullet for every person on that train.
The train was immediately diverted to the French town of Arras where the attacker was arrested by French police. Investigations are still ongoing but the attacker is believed to be a 26 year Moroccan national who has previously lived in Spain, France and Belgium. He is known to have been a supporter of numerous Islamist terrorist groups and may have travelled to Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). However with the investigation spanning 5 countries it will take time to determine exactly what groups he was a member of and whether this was part of a closely held terrorist attack or whether he was acting as a sort of self-radicalised lonewolf.
With disaster having been averted the first I heard about the incident was of a random stabbing on a train. This reminded me of an incident on August 10th (10/8/15) in which two Eritrean asylum seekers stabbed and killed two people whilst injuring a third at an IKEA store in Stockholm, Sweden. To this day idiots on the Internet are claiming that this was an Islamist terrorist attack but the authorities are covering up out of political correctness.
That is not the case. The authorities investigated and found that there was absolutely no link to terrorism and the attackers weren't even Muslims. They also found that the victims were not known to each other nor their attackers and there had been no confrontation in the store prior to the stabbing. They also found that the attackers were not suffering from any form of mental illness that would normally be associated with this type of random attack.
Instead it seems the attack was carried out by two people who realised that if they were caught having committed a serious crime such as murder they would be sentenced to a long period in prison rather then being sent back to the country they were claiming asylum from. The fact that people would rather spend life in a Swedish prison then be sent back to Eritrea says a lot about the current migrant crisis.
Crisis is certainly the right word to describe the current migrant situation across Europe because everyday there seems to be a new story. Towards the end of July and the start of August Britain and France - but mainly Britain - worked itself up into a complete frenzy over a couple of hundred migrants trying to cross via the Eurotunnel rail route. In fact just on Thursday (20/8/15) the UK and French Interior Ministers met up at Eurotunnel's Calais terminal to announce a package of joint measures to stop the migrants. Today the Italian Navy has been forced to rescue some 3000 migrants from 18 boats in the Mediterranean.
The big scandal of the last couple of days though has been Macedonia's decision to slam shut it's border with Greece in order to stop 4000 migrants following a railway track across the border into Macedonia every day. This clumsy decision by Macedonia - which has many of it's own internal problems involving it's Albanian minority - has created yet another choke-point in a well worn pipeline for refugees from ISIL.
After fleeing to Turkey or Lebanon many of them take boats across the Aegean Sea to Greece. From their they make their way north across Macedonia and Serbia into the European Union (EU) via Hungary. Once inside the EU they disperse themselves across the member states with a tiny minority ending up in places like France and Britain.
Therefore I make no apology for including the migrant crisis in a discussion about the war against ISIL because it is very clearly a product of the Islamist insurgencies both in Syria and in Libya. For example the situation in Syria has now got so bad that the EU automatically classifies irregular migrants from Syria as refugees because they are so clearly deserving of political asylum. Although itself has not been caught up in the violence of the so-called "Arab Spring" the flow of migrants from the other big contributing nation - Eritrea - has also been affected.
Located in east Africa between Sudan and the Red Sea Eritrea is perhaps one of the most oppressive nations of earth. For example it's government has an official policy of compulsory, life-long, unpaid military service which many observers would describe simply as slavery. What used to happen is that people fleeing from Eritrea would cross into Libya via Sudan. Despite the sanctions under Muammer Qaddafi Libya was a relatively rich and stable country so many of the Eritreans would simply set up home there. A smaller number would cross into the EU via Italy and then be dispersed between the member states with each nation taking a couple of hundred per year.
The overthrow of Qaddafi and the ongoing Islamist insurgency in the west has plunged the country into complete chaos. As a result the Eritreans who would have stayed in Libya are now crossing into Europe because Libya is simply too dangerous for them. With the northern EU states trying to dump the entire problem on the southern EU states such as Italy and Greece those nations, and their neighbours, are simply becoming overwhelmed causing the chaos we currently see.
As such I think it is vital that action is taken to solve the current migrant crisis. In the immediate term this will involve the European nations - not just EU members - agreeing to take in quotas of, particularly Syrian, refugees so the burden is shared equally. Mainly though the international community needs to stop p*ssing about and bring stability to Iraq, Syria and Libya by defeating ISIL as quickly as possible.
Whilst the European terror attack was taking place the US Department of Defence was embarking on an unusual - and some would say intentionally irritating - deluge of announcements right at the end of what most people consider the normal working week. The first of these is that battle field tests have confirmed that ISIL used a banned chemical weapons - Sulphur Mustard Gas - against Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the town of Makhmour - between the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk - on August 11th (11/8/15).
In itself this is hardly dramatic news because German field tests had already confirmed this and although no-one was prepared to carry out the necessary tests it is strongly suspected that ISIL used Mustard Gas against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in the Battle of Kobane and in multiple attacks against the town of Tel Brak and the city of Hasakah in late June. In the operation to liberate the city of Tikrit the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) reported discovering around a thousand ISIL Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's) that were designed to release Chlorine Gas.
So what is dramatic about yesterday's announcement is that is appears the US is no longer able to deny ISIL's use of banned chemical weapons.
The US then attempted to reassure us that everything is under control by confirming that Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali (AKA; Hajji Mutazz) was killed in a drone strike near Mosul on Tuesday (18/8/15). Unlike Fathi ben Awn ben Jildi Murad al-Tunisi (AKA; Abu Sayyaf) Mutazz is widely recognised as a senior figure within ISIL's leadership acting almost as the group's Finance Minister.
However Tuesday's strike did not lead to a large number of ISIL fighters being killed or captured and it did nothing to stem the flow of new recruits joining the organisation. Also it did not liberate any territory from ISIL nor did it destroy significant amounts of their resourcs. Therefore while Mutazz's death clearly hasn't helped the group it's impact is strictly limited because they'll simply promote a junior minister to take over.
As such this strike is little more then further evidence of the problem with US President Barack Obama's entire attitude to the conflict. Rather then taking the difficult decisions that are required to defeat ISIL militarily Obama thinks that all he needs to do is order the occasional drone strike or special forces raid to distract the voters and the entire humanitarian catastrophe can be ignored.
Finally as I mentioned yesterday on Thursday (20/8/15) Turkey again carried out air-strikes against Kurdish positions in northern Iraq in what was claimed to be retaliation for 8 Turkish soldiers being killed by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in a roadside bomb on Wednesday (19/8/15). These were the first air-strikes Turkey has carried out against Iraq really since a vintage British fighter jet crashed at an air-show in Cheshire, UK on August 2nd (2/8/15).
Today another vintage British fighter jet crashed onto the busy A27 Road just outside an air-show that was being held in East Sussex close to my old stomping ground of Brighton. Seven people were killed in the crash and one remains in hospital in a critical condition. Obviously I don't want to go into too much detail but it's clear this nasty air incident was "over the line" and although they will eventually re-open the one of the main roads in the county it's been made quite clear that "that route is definitely closed."
20:25 on 22/8/15 (UK date).
At around 16:00 (GMT) a man boarded a train from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Paris, France in the Belgium city of Brussels. Just as the train was preparing to cross the border between Belgium and France the man went into the toilet, removed his shirt and drew out a knife, a handgun and an AK-47 assault rifle with 10 x 30 round magazines. He then exited the toilet and proceeded to attack passengers at random.
Unfortunately for him the first carriage he decided to attack contained a US Airman and a US National Guardsman who were both on leave. Along with a US civilian they were travelling with and a British businessmen they tackled the gunman to the ground and disarmed him. The US Airman suffered a serious cut to his hand and another passenger was slashed across the neck. However due to their swift - and I would say heroic - actions a much more serious incident was prevented because the attacker clearly had a bullet for every person on that train.
The train was immediately diverted to the French town of Arras where the attacker was arrested by French police. Investigations are still ongoing but the attacker is believed to be a 26 year Moroccan national who has previously lived in Spain, France and Belgium. He is known to have been a supporter of numerous Islamist terrorist groups and may have travelled to Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). However with the investigation spanning 5 countries it will take time to determine exactly what groups he was a member of and whether this was part of a closely held terrorist attack or whether he was acting as a sort of self-radicalised lonewolf.
With disaster having been averted the first I heard about the incident was of a random stabbing on a train. This reminded me of an incident on August 10th (10/8/15) in which two Eritrean asylum seekers stabbed and killed two people whilst injuring a third at an IKEA store in Stockholm, Sweden. To this day idiots on the Internet are claiming that this was an Islamist terrorist attack but the authorities are covering up out of political correctness.
That is not the case. The authorities investigated and found that there was absolutely no link to terrorism and the attackers weren't even Muslims. They also found that the victims were not known to each other nor their attackers and there had been no confrontation in the store prior to the stabbing. They also found that the attackers were not suffering from any form of mental illness that would normally be associated with this type of random attack.
Instead it seems the attack was carried out by two people who realised that if they were caught having committed a serious crime such as murder they would be sentenced to a long period in prison rather then being sent back to the country they were claiming asylum from. The fact that people would rather spend life in a Swedish prison then be sent back to Eritrea says a lot about the current migrant crisis.
Crisis is certainly the right word to describe the current migrant situation across Europe because everyday there seems to be a new story. Towards the end of July and the start of August Britain and France - but mainly Britain - worked itself up into a complete frenzy over a couple of hundred migrants trying to cross via the Eurotunnel rail route. In fact just on Thursday (20/8/15) the UK and French Interior Ministers met up at Eurotunnel's Calais terminal to announce a package of joint measures to stop the migrants. Today the Italian Navy has been forced to rescue some 3000 migrants from 18 boats in the Mediterranean.
The big scandal of the last couple of days though has been Macedonia's decision to slam shut it's border with Greece in order to stop 4000 migrants following a railway track across the border into Macedonia every day. This clumsy decision by Macedonia - which has many of it's own internal problems involving it's Albanian minority - has created yet another choke-point in a well worn pipeline for refugees from ISIL.
After fleeing to Turkey or Lebanon many of them take boats across the Aegean Sea to Greece. From their they make their way north across Macedonia and Serbia into the European Union (EU) via Hungary. Once inside the EU they disperse themselves across the member states with a tiny minority ending up in places like France and Britain.
Therefore I make no apology for including the migrant crisis in a discussion about the war against ISIL because it is very clearly a product of the Islamist insurgencies both in Syria and in Libya. For example the situation in Syria has now got so bad that the EU automatically classifies irregular migrants from Syria as refugees because they are so clearly deserving of political asylum. Although itself has not been caught up in the violence of the so-called "Arab Spring" the flow of migrants from the other big contributing nation - Eritrea - has also been affected.
Located in east Africa between Sudan and the Red Sea Eritrea is perhaps one of the most oppressive nations of earth. For example it's government has an official policy of compulsory, life-long, unpaid military service which many observers would describe simply as slavery. What used to happen is that people fleeing from Eritrea would cross into Libya via Sudan. Despite the sanctions under Muammer Qaddafi Libya was a relatively rich and stable country so many of the Eritreans would simply set up home there. A smaller number would cross into the EU via Italy and then be dispersed between the member states with each nation taking a couple of hundred per year.
The overthrow of Qaddafi and the ongoing Islamist insurgency in the west has plunged the country into complete chaos. As a result the Eritreans who would have stayed in Libya are now crossing into Europe because Libya is simply too dangerous for them. With the northern EU states trying to dump the entire problem on the southern EU states such as Italy and Greece those nations, and their neighbours, are simply becoming overwhelmed causing the chaos we currently see.
As such I think it is vital that action is taken to solve the current migrant crisis. In the immediate term this will involve the European nations - not just EU members - agreeing to take in quotas of, particularly Syrian, refugees so the burden is shared equally. Mainly though the international community needs to stop p*ssing about and bring stability to Iraq, Syria and Libya by defeating ISIL as quickly as possible.
Whilst the European terror attack was taking place the US Department of Defence was embarking on an unusual - and some would say intentionally irritating - deluge of announcements right at the end of what most people consider the normal working week. The first of these is that battle field tests have confirmed that ISIL used a banned chemical weapons - Sulphur Mustard Gas - against Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the town of Makhmour - between the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk - on August 11th (11/8/15).
In itself this is hardly dramatic news because German field tests had already confirmed this and although no-one was prepared to carry out the necessary tests it is strongly suspected that ISIL used Mustard Gas against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in the Battle of Kobane and in multiple attacks against the town of Tel Brak and the city of Hasakah in late June. In the operation to liberate the city of Tikrit the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) reported discovering around a thousand ISIL Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's) that were designed to release Chlorine Gas.
So what is dramatic about yesterday's announcement is that is appears the US is no longer able to deny ISIL's use of banned chemical weapons.
The US then attempted to reassure us that everything is under control by confirming that Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali (AKA; Hajji Mutazz) was killed in a drone strike near Mosul on Tuesday (18/8/15). Unlike Fathi ben Awn ben Jildi Murad al-Tunisi (AKA; Abu Sayyaf) Mutazz is widely recognised as a senior figure within ISIL's leadership acting almost as the group's Finance Minister.
However Tuesday's strike did not lead to a large number of ISIL fighters being killed or captured and it did nothing to stem the flow of new recruits joining the organisation. Also it did not liberate any territory from ISIL nor did it destroy significant amounts of their resourcs. Therefore while Mutazz's death clearly hasn't helped the group it's impact is strictly limited because they'll simply promote a junior minister to take over.
As such this strike is little more then further evidence of the problem with US President Barack Obama's entire attitude to the conflict. Rather then taking the difficult decisions that are required to defeat ISIL militarily Obama thinks that all he needs to do is order the occasional drone strike or special forces raid to distract the voters and the entire humanitarian catastrophe can be ignored.
Finally as I mentioned yesterday on Thursday (20/8/15) Turkey again carried out air-strikes against Kurdish positions in northern Iraq in what was claimed to be retaliation for 8 Turkish soldiers being killed by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in a roadside bomb on Wednesday (19/8/15). These were the first air-strikes Turkey has carried out against Iraq really since a vintage British fighter jet crashed at an air-show in Cheshire, UK on August 2nd (2/8/15).
Today another vintage British fighter jet crashed onto the busy A27 Road just outside an air-show that was being held in East Sussex close to my old stomping ground of Brighton. Seven people were killed in the crash and one remains in hospital in a critical condition. Obviously I don't want to go into too much detail but it's clear this nasty air incident was "over the line" and although they will eventually re-open the one of the main roads in the county it's been made quite clear that "that route is definitely closed."
20:25 on 22/8/15 (UK date).
Friday 21 August 2015
Operation Featherweight: Month 13, Week 4, Day 4.
Recently the fight between the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been relatively quiet.
On July 27th (27/7/15) the YPG succeeded on liberating the town of Sarrin which sits on the banks of the Euphrates River at the western edge of the 33,000km^2 (20,000mile^2) buffer zone that Kurdish forces have created across northern Syria and Iraq all the way to Iraq's border with Iran. On August 1st (1/8/15) the YPG succeeded in repelling a 39 day ISIL assault on the city of Hasakah which makes up the southern boundary of the buffer zone some 55km (34 miles) from Syria's border with Iraq.
Following the completion of those two big operations both sides have really been licking their wounds and considering their next move. Contrary to allegations of ethnic cleansing made by Turkey civilians of all ethnic groups have slowly been returning to Sarrin now that it has been cleared of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's) left by ISIL and made safe.
The big uncertainty overshadowing operations in northern Syria remains Turkey's plan to invade the area to establish what it claims will be a buffer zone for civilians. As the US has yet to fully reject this plan negotiations of how to best put it into practice are ongoing. For example the US is making the entirely reasonable request that if Turkey wants to conduct air-operations in air-space controlled by the US-led coalition it will have to submit to the coalition's command and control structure.
In an effort to hustle the US into giving the plan to go ahead Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken to issuing numerous public statements announcing that a plan has been agreed and it could go into action at any day.
Likely as a way to show their frustration at the slow pace of negotiations Turkey yesterday (20/8/15) launched air-strikes against what they claim were Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) positions in the Dohuk are of northern Iraq. These were the first Turkish air-strikes against Iraq since the start of the month and seem to be a clear challenge to the international community to take action to stop Turkey acting unilaterally.
Of course Turkey will claim that the strikes were carried out in response to a PKK roadside bomb that killed 8 Turkish soldiers in Turkey's south-eastern province of Siirt on Wednesday (19/8/15). With Turkey using such PKK attacks as an excuse to launch attacks against Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq it can be quite difficult to explain why these attacks are continuing.
However in their more then 30 year quest for independence the PKK have secured something of a de facto Kurdish state in south-eastern Turkey where although it exists the writ of the Turkish state is not strong. Turkey's supposed crackdown on both the PKK and ISIL has largely involved swamping this Kurdish area with large numbers of security troops. As such the PKK - rightly or wrongly - feel that they need to carry out the type of ambush seen on Wednesday in order to stop the Turkish security forces establishing full control over the area weakening the PKK's position in any future peace negotiations.
The uncertainty over any potential Turkish involvement in the war in Syria is further complicated by the inevitable role that it will play in negotiations over the formation of a coalition government in Turkey or, as now seems inevitable, Turkey's upcoming election.
The mandate given to the Islamist Justice & Development Party (AKP) formally expires on Sunday (23/8/15). If AKP fail to form a coalition by then what should happen is that the second place Republican People's Party (CHP) are given an opportunity to form a coalition. However this seems unlikely because that coalition would have to include both the Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) and the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Due to the recent crackdown and the resumption of PKK attacks it provoked the MHP simply will not work with the HDP.
What the Turkish Parliament can do instead is meet to form a caretaker government made up of all the elected parties and call for fresh elections. The leader of the AKP and current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has today come out and declared that he will instead be ordering a fresh round of elections on November 1st (1/11/15). There is still some debate whether he has the authority to do this but with the HDP and MHP being unlikely to form a coalition it seems that regardless of whether proper Parliamentary procedure is followed Turkey will be holding a fresh election on November 1st.
In Syria's south-west the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad yesterday fired four rockets into the Israel occupied Golan Heights and beyond into Israel proper. Israel responded with artillery fire and air-strikes against Islamic Jihad positions in Syria. Due to the state of war that has existed between Israel and Syria since 1967 this is all technically legal.
This confrontation seems to stem from the case of Mohammed Allan - an Islamic Jihad member - who as been staging a 63-day hunger strike to protest against his detention without trial in Israel. Although due to taking time off I can't say I've been following the story in a huge amount of detail over the last week or so Allan's health deteriorated dramatically to the point where he slipped into a coma. Islamic Jihad responded to this by warning that if Allan died it would trigger a full military response by them against Israel. Following medical tests on Tuesday that show Allan to be brain damaged an Israeli Court today ruled that he is no longer a security threat and suspended his arrest warrant technically freeing him from detention.
In terms of what has been going on in the fight against ISIL in Iraq I am still largely in the dark. This is because unlike the YPG the Iraq government doesn't have a press office issuing regular updates and unlike with the Battle of Kobane I've not been able to build up a network of sources on the ground who have proved themselves to be trustworthy. Provided no new crisis emerges over the coming days I will endeavour to improve my understanding of the progress of the Anbar offensive.
This is unlikely to be made much easier by the fact the Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR) - the formal name for the US-led coalition - has decided that it doesn't want me reading it's Twitter updates so has once again taken the trouble to block me.
15:15 on 21/8/15 (UK date).
On July 27th (27/7/15) the YPG succeeded on liberating the town of Sarrin which sits on the banks of the Euphrates River at the western edge of the 33,000km^2 (20,000mile^2) buffer zone that Kurdish forces have created across northern Syria and Iraq all the way to Iraq's border with Iran. On August 1st (1/8/15) the YPG succeeded in repelling a 39 day ISIL assault on the city of Hasakah which makes up the southern boundary of the buffer zone some 55km (34 miles) from Syria's border with Iraq.
Following the completion of those two big operations both sides have really been licking their wounds and considering their next move. Contrary to allegations of ethnic cleansing made by Turkey civilians of all ethnic groups have slowly been returning to Sarrin now that it has been cleared of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's) left by ISIL and made safe.
The big uncertainty overshadowing operations in northern Syria remains Turkey's plan to invade the area to establish what it claims will be a buffer zone for civilians. As the US has yet to fully reject this plan negotiations of how to best put it into practice are ongoing. For example the US is making the entirely reasonable request that if Turkey wants to conduct air-operations in air-space controlled by the US-led coalition it will have to submit to the coalition's command and control structure.
In an effort to hustle the US into giving the plan to go ahead Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan has taken to issuing numerous public statements announcing that a plan has been agreed and it could go into action at any day.
Likely as a way to show their frustration at the slow pace of negotiations Turkey yesterday (20/8/15) launched air-strikes against what they claim were Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) positions in the Dohuk are of northern Iraq. These were the first Turkish air-strikes against Iraq since the start of the month and seem to be a clear challenge to the international community to take action to stop Turkey acting unilaterally.
Of course Turkey will claim that the strikes were carried out in response to a PKK roadside bomb that killed 8 Turkish soldiers in Turkey's south-eastern province of Siirt on Wednesday (19/8/15). With Turkey using such PKK attacks as an excuse to launch attacks against Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq it can be quite difficult to explain why these attacks are continuing.
However in their more then 30 year quest for independence the PKK have secured something of a de facto Kurdish state in south-eastern Turkey where although it exists the writ of the Turkish state is not strong. Turkey's supposed crackdown on both the PKK and ISIL has largely involved swamping this Kurdish area with large numbers of security troops. As such the PKK - rightly or wrongly - feel that they need to carry out the type of ambush seen on Wednesday in order to stop the Turkish security forces establishing full control over the area weakening the PKK's position in any future peace negotiations.
The uncertainty over any potential Turkish involvement in the war in Syria is further complicated by the inevitable role that it will play in negotiations over the formation of a coalition government in Turkey or, as now seems inevitable, Turkey's upcoming election.
The mandate given to the Islamist Justice & Development Party (AKP) formally expires on Sunday (23/8/15). If AKP fail to form a coalition by then what should happen is that the second place Republican People's Party (CHP) are given an opportunity to form a coalition. However this seems unlikely because that coalition would have to include both the Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) and the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Due to the recent crackdown and the resumption of PKK attacks it provoked the MHP simply will not work with the HDP.
What the Turkish Parliament can do instead is meet to form a caretaker government made up of all the elected parties and call for fresh elections. The leader of the AKP and current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has today come out and declared that he will instead be ordering a fresh round of elections on November 1st (1/11/15). There is still some debate whether he has the authority to do this but with the HDP and MHP being unlikely to form a coalition it seems that regardless of whether proper Parliamentary procedure is followed Turkey will be holding a fresh election on November 1st.
In Syria's south-west the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad yesterday fired four rockets into the Israel occupied Golan Heights and beyond into Israel proper. Israel responded with artillery fire and air-strikes against Islamic Jihad positions in Syria. Due to the state of war that has existed between Israel and Syria since 1967 this is all technically legal.
This confrontation seems to stem from the case of Mohammed Allan - an Islamic Jihad member - who as been staging a 63-day hunger strike to protest against his detention without trial in Israel. Although due to taking time off I can't say I've been following the story in a huge amount of detail over the last week or so Allan's health deteriorated dramatically to the point where he slipped into a coma. Islamic Jihad responded to this by warning that if Allan died it would trigger a full military response by them against Israel. Following medical tests on Tuesday that show Allan to be brain damaged an Israeli Court today ruled that he is no longer a security threat and suspended his arrest warrant technically freeing him from detention.
In terms of what has been going on in the fight against ISIL in Iraq I am still largely in the dark. This is because unlike the YPG the Iraq government doesn't have a press office issuing regular updates and unlike with the Battle of Kobane I've not been able to build up a network of sources on the ground who have proved themselves to be trustworthy. Provided no new crisis emerges over the coming days I will endeavour to improve my understanding of the progress of the Anbar offensive.
This is unlikely to be made much easier by the fact the Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR) - the formal name for the US-led coalition - has decided that it doesn't want me reading it's Twitter updates so has once again taken the trouble to block me.
15:15 on 21/8/15 (UK date).
Tuesday 18 August 2015
Putting the Bang! into Bangkok.
Yesterday (17/8/15) a bomb exploded in Thailand's capital Bangkok killing 21 people and injuring 120 more. Much to my annoyance in order to explain this properly I have to go back to Rihanna's 2013 "Diamonds" World Tour, particularly the third and final Asian leg.
At the time I explained in great detail what Rihanna's CIA handlers hoped to achieve from each stop on this tour - the so-called "Operation Misery." However if I had to pick one main theme it was the US' "Pivot Towards the Pacific" policy. This is a rather clumsy attempt to contain China's influence in the region mainly by building up the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea) into a bogeyman for the US to protect everyone from and opening up trade and diplomatic ties with China's neighbours.
So for example in their recent Trafficking in Persons report the US State Department decided to ignore the massive and destructive human trafficking route of Burmese Muslims (Rohingya) through Burma (Myanmar), Thailand and Malaysia because to acknowledge it would prevent the US from fast tracking trade negotiations with those nations.
Rihanna's role within this policy was to be the divisive issue which people would either rally around or oppose. This would give the US a clearer indication of where people in the region stood on a wider range of issues such as human rights, people trafficking and gender equality.
Despite not hosting a concert on the tour as a long term ally of the US - particularly during the Vietnam war - Thailand were granted an extra-special, front-row seat to events. After performing in China Rihanna took an unscheduled and rather secretive trip to Thailand. Following her concert in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which was really the most high pressure stop of the entire tour Rihanna again disappeared off-grid for another unscheduled trip to Thailand. This prevented her from spending more then a few hours in Israel despite the fact that Israel - at great effort to itself - only invited Rihanna to perform in the country to provide her with a safe space following the trip to the UAE.
With the entire plan being flawed from the start Rihanna's special visits to Thailand didn't provide the country with any special insight or advantage. Instead it ended up provoking an international outcry against Thailand when Rihanna was pictured posing with endangered animals such as the Slow Loris and Elephants which enraged animal rights activists. Whilst on holiday in her native Barbados Rihanna was recently pictured posing for similar photographs this time with a baby monkey which is likely to have triggered some bad memories for the Thais.
The Thai Monarchy were so disappointed by the gift of Rihanna that almost immediately afterwards their yellow shirted supporters took to the streets demanding the overthrow of the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra whose supporters were red shirts. After several months of tension between the two groups of protesters on the streets the Thai military felt comfortable enough in May 2014 to move in an stage a coup that removed the Yingluck government and replaced it with a junta backed by the Monarchy. That junta remains in place to this day and just a week before the explosion the junta introduced constitutional reforms in the form of a "National Strategic Reform and Reconciliation Committee" which would allow the junta to remain in place for the next five years.
Although there is a clear rivalry between the two nations and despite the US' best efforts this is not the Cold War so the US and China actually maintain extensive diplomatic ties. In fact on August 13th and 14th (13&14/8/15) China and the US were holding their annual bilateral meeting on human rights. This comes a few months after their annual bilateral meeting on the topics of economic strategy.
Both as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) China and the US have also recently been working closely together on the issues of Iran's nuclear program and the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). A recent point of tension between the US and pretty much the rest of the UNSC has been the adoption on August 7th (7/8/15) of a resolution to establish a tribunal to investigate and possibly prosecute the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
The US has been very resistant to this move because an independent tribunal will reveal that ISIL routinely use chemical weapons in both Syria and Iraq. This will make it much more difficult for the US to blame any and all chemical weapon attacks on the Syrian government.
Last Wednesday (14/8/15) there was a massive chemical explosion in Tianjin, China. Although this covers a range of issues the main one is ISIL's use of chemical weapons. After all on a practical level there is almost no difference between testing soil samples for chemical residues in the aftermath of an industrial accident and testing soil samples for chemical residues in the aftermath of a chemical weapons attack. In fact the clean up in Tianjin is being led by the division of the Chinese military that would respond in the event of a chemical weapons attack.
It is against this backdrop of intense negotiations between two of the three main regional powers that the Bangkok explosion took place. It seems to have been specifically aimed at Chinese tourists in order to show the US that Thailand shares its hatred of the Chinese while at the same time providing ample opportunity for the Thai junta to talk directly to the Chinese government rather then the US. The rest of the story plays out like a particularly gruesome game of bingo in which a complex geo-political issue is shouted out and everybody's forced to check if it matches an issue on their list.
For example the bombing occurred at Bangkok's Ratchaprasong junction. This practice of a military junta overthrowing an elected government is hardly new in Thailand. The last time it happened was in 2006 - the 11th coup in Thailand's 83 year history. In 2010 after 4 years of rule by a military junta the red shirted supporters of the deposed government took to the streets in mass protest calling for the restoration of democracy. On April 10th 2010 (10/4/10) the junta tried to put an end to these protests by sending combat troops to break up a protest camp at Ratchaprasong junction. This resulted in the death of 24 people and the wounding of some 800 more.
Yesterday's bomb actually targeted the Erawan Shrine which sits on Ratchaprasong junction. Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erodgan's family name is possibly more properly pronounced as "Erowan." With the US so far failing to withdraw support negotiations for Erdogan's plan to invade Syria under the pretence of establishing a safe-zone are really too finely balanced for me to comment on. However with the attack seeming to target Chinese tourists and Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha immediately coming out to say that the attack was intended to destroy; "Our economy, our tourism" there seems to be a particular interest in a recent apparent diplomatic spat between Turkey and China.
Back in June Erdogan falsely accused China of banning it's Muslim minority Uighurs from fasting during Ramadan. This prompted supporters of Erdogan's Islamist Justice & Development Party (AKP) to attack anyone vaguely Asian looking - South Koreans mainly - in retaliation. In response China issued a warning to its citizens to take extra care when travelling to Turkey. The Thais seem undecided as to whether this was China simply issuing sound advice in response to a credible threat or a discreet attempt to harm Turkey's tourism industry by discouraging visitors. I personally think that it was the former. Then of course there is the persistent suspicion that Erdogan is backing Islamist terrorists to attack western tourist in Turkey's Mediterranean rivals Egypt and Tunisia in order to help boost Turkey's own tourism sector.
The Erawan Shrine is actually a shrine to the Hindu god Brahma. Narendra Modi - the current Prime Minister of the region's other major power, India - has a reputation for being a Hindu Nationalist. Whilst he was Governor of India's Gujarat state in 2002 Hindu Nationalists rioted killing an estimated 900 to 2000 Muslims. Modi has long been dogged by allegations that he either caused or allowed the riots and prior to becoming Prime Minister was actually banned from the US for a long time as a result.
Needless to say Modi's election as Prime Minister has increased tensions between India's Hindus and Muslims and with India's Muslim neighbour Pakistan. For example Modi has recently launched a campaign to promote the Hindu pratice of Yoga as part of India's gift to the World. This has prompted attacks from Muslims who accuse Yoga of being part of a conspiracy to destroy Islam. On the day of the Bangkok explosion Modi was in the UAE on a diplomatic mission. Although the UAE are the most level-headed of the Gulf states the fact that it is a majority Muslim nation Modi's reputation would have made this a rather tense visit.
In the hours after the explosion Thai media started reporting that 27 people had been killed and were tersely slapped down by the junta who claimed that only 15 people had been killed. This could have been a genuine mistake in the chaotic aftermath but it could also have been a reference to the fact that in the aftermath of the Tianjin explosion that Chinese authorities removed some 55,000 web postings on the grounds that they were spreading false rumours.
Also on the day of the Bangkok bombing Egypt ratified a new anti-terrorism law which amongst other things created the offence for journalists of wilfully inflated the numbers of security personnel killed in terrorist attacks. Al Jazeera in particular have been utterly furious about this because in their efforts to overthrow the Egyptian government they routinely inflate the number of security personnel killed in terrorist attacks as a way to celebrate the terrorists. For example on July 1st (1/7/15) terrorist launched an attack in the Sinai Peninsula. Al Jazeera excitedly reported that in excess of 80 soldiers had been killed. In reality only 17 soldiers had been killed.
This issue of inflated death tolls is also hugely controversial in ISIL main area of operation - Syria. For example yesterday the US State Department issued a bizarre statement condemning the killing of more the 100 civilians in a Syrian government air-raid on a market place in the Damascus suburb of Douma. Everyone else is talking about 58 people being killed and the majority of them being inside the HQ of a insurgent group that regularly fires rockets and artillery into Damascus' other suburbs.
Although with their announcement of a yellow shirted suspect the Thai junta seem to be on the brink of admitting to the attack in the immediate aftermath they seemed happy to let everyone speculate that the attack had been carried out by Islamist terrorists. In fact there were reports that two other bombs had been defused by the heroic Thai security forces saving many lives. This story of three simultaneous bombs being placed brought back memories of the 2002 Bali bombing in which 202 people were killed whilst making the Bangkok attack seem much more dramatic then it actually was.
Not having a particularly large Muslim population and having being ruled by military dictatorship for most of it's history Thailand doesn't really have a strong Islamist terrorist movement. However it does have something of a separatist movement in the south which was really established as part of the Cold War. With Soviet sponsorship drying up some of these separatists have splinted into more Islamist rather then nationalist groups. Some of these groups have also hosted Indonesian groups such as the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Jemaah Islamiah (Islamic Congregation) which carried out the 2002 Bali bombings
This pattern is almost identical to the Philippines Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) which splintered into the poorly acronymed Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the much more radical Abu Sayyaf. As I mentioned in my post yesterday the US only seemed to raid the compound of ISIL fighter Fathi ben Awn ben Jildi Murad al-Tunisi because he had assumed the name "Abu Sayyaf." This raid took place just as US Secretary of State John Kerry was travelling to China in preparation for the annual bilateral on economic strategy.
Although previously being allied with Al Qaeda following ISIL's declaration of a Caliphate in the summer of 2014 Abu Sayyaf pledged allegiance to ISIL instead. Since then Abu Sayyaf have been recruiting fighters from across the region and sending them to fight in Syria and Iraq.
Due to it's large tourist industry which makes it something of a regional transport hub many of these fighters are travelling through Thailand which is obviously a concern for the Thai junta.
17:15 on 18/8/15 (UK date).
At the time I explained in great detail what Rihanna's CIA handlers hoped to achieve from each stop on this tour - the so-called "Operation Misery." However if I had to pick one main theme it was the US' "Pivot Towards the Pacific" policy. This is a rather clumsy attempt to contain China's influence in the region mainly by building up the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea) into a bogeyman for the US to protect everyone from and opening up trade and diplomatic ties with China's neighbours.
So for example in their recent Trafficking in Persons report the US State Department decided to ignore the massive and destructive human trafficking route of Burmese Muslims (Rohingya) through Burma (Myanmar), Thailand and Malaysia because to acknowledge it would prevent the US from fast tracking trade negotiations with those nations.
Rihanna's role within this policy was to be the divisive issue which people would either rally around or oppose. This would give the US a clearer indication of where people in the region stood on a wider range of issues such as human rights, people trafficking and gender equality.
Despite not hosting a concert on the tour as a long term ally of the US - particularly during the Vietnam war - Thailand were granted an extra-special, front-row seat to events. After performing in China Rihanna took an unscheduled and rather secretive trip to Thailand. Following her concert in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which was really the most high pressure stop of the entire tour Rihanna again disappeared off-grid for another unscheduled trip to Thailand. This prevented her from spending more then a few hours in Israel despite the fact that Israel - at great effort to itself - only invited Rihanna to perform in the country to provide her with a safe space following the trip to the UAE.
With the entire plan being flawed from the start Rihanna's special visits to Thailand didn't provide the country with any special insight or advantage. Instead it ended up provoking an international outcry against Thailand when Rihanna was pictured posing with endangered animals such as the Slow Loris and Elephants which enraged animal rights activists. Whilst on holiday in her native Barbados Rihanna was recently pictured posing for similar photographs this time with a baby monkey which is likely to have triggered some bad memories for the Thais.
The Thai Monarchy were so disappointed by the gift of Rihanna that almost immediately afterwards their yellow shirted supporters took to the streets demanding the overthrow of the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra whose supporters were red shirts. After several months of tension between the two groups of protesters on the streets the Thai military felt comfortable enough in May 2014 to move in an stage a coup that removed the Yingluck government and replaced it with a junta backed by the Monarchy. That junta remains in place to this day and just a week before the explosion the junta introduced constitutional reforms in the form of a "National Strategic Reform and Reconciliation Committee" which would allow the junta to remain in place for the next five years.
Although there is a clear rivalry between the two nations and despite the US' best efforts this is not the Cold War so the US and China actually maintain extensive diplomatic ties. In fact on August 13th and 14th (13&14/8/15) China and the US were holding their annual bilateral meeting on human rights. This comes a few months after their annual bilateral meeting on the topics of economic strategy.
Both as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) China and the US have also recently been working closely together on the issues of Iran's nuclear program and the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). A recent point of tension between the US and pretty much the rest of the UNSC has been the adoption on August 7th (7/8/15) of a resolution to establish a tribunal to investigate and possibly prosecute the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
The US has been very resistant to this move because an independent tribunal will reveal that ISIL routinely use chemical weapons in both Syria and Iraq. This will make it much more difficult for the US to blame any and all chemical weapon attacks on the Syrian government.
Last Wednesday (14/8/15) there was a massive chemical explosion in Tianjin, China. Although this covers a range of issues the main one is ISIL's use of chemical weapons. After all on a practical level there is almost no difference between testing soil samples for chemical residues in the aftermath of an industrial accident and testing soil samples for chemical residues in the aftermath of a chemical weapons attack. In fact the clean up in Tianjin is being led by the division of the Chinese military that would respond in the event of a chemical weapons attack.
It is against this backdrop of intense negotiations between two of the three main regional powers that the Bangkok explosion took place. It seems to have been specifically aimed at Chinese tourists in order to show the US that Thailand shares its hatred of the Chinese while at the same time providing ample opportunity for the Thai junta to talk directly to the Chinese government rather then the US. The rest of the story plays out like a particularly gruesome game of bingo in which a complex geo-political issue is shouted out and everybody's forced to check if it matches an issue on their list.
For example the bombing occurred at Bangkok's Ratchaprasong junction. This practice of a military junta overthrowing an elected government is hardly new in Thailand. The last time it happened was in 2006 - the 11th coup in Thailand's 83 year history. In 2010 after 4 years of rule by a military junta the red shirted supporters of the deposed government took to the streets in mass protest calling for the restoration of democracy. On April 10th 2010 (10/4/10) the junta tried to put an end to these protests by sending combat troops to break up a protest camp at Ratchaprasong junction. This resulted in the death of 24 people and the wounding of some 800 more.
Yesterday's bomb actually targeted the Erawan Shrine which sits on Ratchaprasong junction. Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erodgan's family name is possibly more properly pronounced as "Erowan." With the US so far failing to withdraw support negotiations for Erdogan's plan to invade Syria under the pretence of establishing a safe-zone are really too finely balanced for me to comment on. However with the attack seeming to target Chinese tourists and Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha immediately coming out to say that the attack was intended to destroy; "Our economy, our tourism" there seems to be a particular interest in a recent apparent diplomatic spat between Turkey and China.
Back in June Erdogan falsely accused China of banning it's Muslim minority Uighurs from fasting during Ramadan. This prompted supporters of Erdogan's Islamist Justice & Development Party (AKP) to attack anyone vaguely Asian looking - South Koreans mainly - in retaliation. In response China issued a warning to its citizens to take extra care when travelling to Turkey. The Thais seem undecided as to whether this was China simply issuing sound advice in response to a credible threat or a discreet attempt to harm Turkey's tourism industry by discouraging visitors. I personally think that it was the former. Then of course there is the persistent suspicion that Erdogan is backing Islamist terrorists to attack western tourist in Turkey's Mediterranean rivals Egypt and Tunisia in order to help boost Turkey's own tourism sector.
The Erawan Shrine is actually a shrine to the Hindu god Brahma. Narendra Modi - the current Prime Minister of the region's other major power, India - has a reputation for being a Hindu Nationalist. Whilst he was Governor of India's Gujarat state in 2002 Hindu Nationalists rioted killing an estimated 900 to 2000 Muslims. Modi has long been dogged by allegations that he either caused or allowed the riots and prior to becoming Prime Minister was actually banned from the US for a long time as a result.
Needless to say Modi's election as Prime Minister has increased tensions between India's Hindus and Muslims and with India's Muslim neighbour Pakistan. For example Modi has recently launched a campaign to promote the Hindu pratice of Yoga as part of India's gift to the World. This has prompted attacks from Muslims who accuse Yoga of being part of a conspiracy to destroy Islam. On the day of the Bangkok explosion Modi was in the UAE on a diplomatic mission. Although the UAE are the most level-headed of the Gulf states the fact that it is a majority Muslim nation Modi's reputation would have made this a rather tense visit.
In the hours after the explosion Thai media started reporting that 27 people had been killed and were tersely slapped down by the junta who claimed that only 15 people had been killed. This could have been a genuine mistake in the chaotic aftermath but it could also have been a reference to the fact that in the aftermath of the Tianjin explosion that Chinese authorities removed some 55,000 web postings on the grounds that they were spreading false rumours.
Also on the day of the Bangkok bombing Egypt ratified a new anti-terrorism law which amongst other things created the offence for journalists of wilfully inflated the numbers of security personnel killed in terrorist attacks. Al Jazeera in particular have been utterly furious about this because in their efforts to overthrow the Egyptian government they routinely inflate the number of security personnel killed in terrorist attacks as a way to celebrate the terrorists. For example on July 1st (1/7/15) terrorist launched an attack in the Sinai Peninsula. Al Jazeera excitedly reported that in excess of 80 soldiers had been killed. In reality only 17 soldiers had been killed.
This issue of inflated death tolls is also hugely controversial in ISIL main area of operation - Syria. For example yesterday the US State Department issued a bizarre statement condemning the killing of more the 100 civilians in a Syrian government air-raid on a market place in the Damascus suburb of Douma. Everyone else is talking about 58 people being killed and the majority of them being inside the HQ of a insurgent group that regularly fires rockets and artillery into Damascus' other suburbs.
Although with their announcement of a yellow shirted suspect the Thai junta seem to be on the brink of admitting to the attack in the immediate aftermath they seemed happy to let everyone speculate that the attack had been carried out by Islamist terrorists. In fact there were reports that two other bombs had been defused by the heroic Thai security forces saving many lives. This story of three simultaneous bombs being placed brought back memories of the 2002 Bali bombing in which 202 people were killed whilst making the Bangkok attack seem much more dramatic then it actually was.
Not having a particularly large Muslim population and having being ruled by military dictatorship for most of it's history Thailand doesn't really have a strong Islamist terrorist movement. However it does have something of a separatist movement in the south which was really established as part of the Cold War. With Soviet sponsorship drying up some of these separatists have splinted into more Islamist rather then nationalist groups. Some of these groups have also hosted Indonesian groups such as the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Jemaah Islamiah (Islamic Congregation) which carried out the 2002 Bali bombings
This pattern is almost identical to the Philippines Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) which splintered into the poorly acronymed Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the much more radical Abu Sayyaf. As I mentioned in my post yesterday the US only seemed to raid the compound of ISIL fighter Fathi ben Awn ben Jildi Murad al-Tunisi because he had assumed the name "Abu Sayyaf." This raid took place just as US Secretary of State John Kerry was travelling to China in preparation for the annual bilateral on economic strategy.
Although previously being allied with Al Qaeda following ISIL's declaration of a Caliphate in the summer of 2014 Abu Sayyaf pledged allegiance to ISIL instead. Since then Abu Sayyaf have been recruiting fighters from across the region and sending them to fight in Syria and Iraq.
Due to it's large tourist industry which makes it something of a regional transport hub many of these fighters are travelling through Thailand which is obviously a concern for the Thai junta.
17:15 on 18/8/15 (UK date).
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