Against themselves mainly.
It seems that the American disease of Black Lives Matter is continuing to infect the UK.
Today a number of protesters have targeted transport links in a number of British cities. Most notably tram/trolley car routes in Nottingham and roads into Britain's main Heathrow International Airport on the outskirts of the capital London.
Unlike in the US police in the UK are routinely unarmed. Last year the small proportion who are armed fired just 7 bullets. That doesn't mean that seven people were killed or even that seven people were shot. It means that just 7 bullets were fired. In a country of around 65 million people.
As such these Black Lives Matter protests in the UK seem intentionally ridiculous.
The spectacle seems to have been constructed to coincide with tonight's spectacle of the 2016 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony which is to be held in Brazil.
The histories of Brazil and the United States are closely intertwined. Particularly on the issue of slavery.
During the 1860's the US fought a civil war between the pro-Slavery Democrats of Jefferson Davis and the abolitionist Republicans of Abraham Lincoln.
Following their defeat the Democrats did not give up on slavery. Instead many of them simply moved their plantations and slaves to South American nations. Brazil being the last nation in the Americas to outlaw slavery in 1888.
Due to this shared history both Brazil and Democrat run cities and states in the US continue to share the problem of extremely violent, drug-ridden ghettos.
Through Black Lives Matter and its relentless war against the very concept of law and justice the US Democrats particularly under current President Barack Obama seem intent on turning the entire US in to one big extremely violent, drug-ridden ghetto.
Conversely as part of their efforts to move from an economically developing to a first world developed nation the Brazilians have been working very hard to eradicate their ghettos which are known locally as "Favelas."
Britain will assure you that a key event in Brazil's development was the shooting of Brazilian national Jean Charles de Menezes on July 22nd 2005 (22/7/05) in London, UK. Coming the day after the failed July 21st (21/7/16) terror attacks on London de Menezes was mistaken for a suicide bomber and shot and killed by the police.
Following de Menezes' death the Brazilian government protested the killing of one of its citizens extremely loudly to the British government over a number of years. The British government simply pointed out that at the time Brazilian police were actually being paid a bonus for every suspect they killed rather than arresting. It all got a bit bad tempered.
As I'm sure Britain will tell you it was their protests and their protests alone that forced the Brazilian government to change this policy of extra-judicial killing. This change in policy has been central in Brazil's attempts to eradicate their ghettos by what is known as; "Neighbourhood Pacification."
Rather than being an established doctrine Neighbourhood Pacification is really a new idea that the Brazilians are still trying to perfect.
Basically though it involves aggressively policing ghettos to expel the drugs gangs that occupy them. This almost combat phase is supposed to be followed up by social spending on things like neighbourhood police stations, hospitals, schools and utilities (electricity, sewers, etc) in order to reconnect the ghetto residents with mainstream society.
The success or failure of Neighbourhood Pacification is likely to be a big talking point at the Olympics. Unfortunately a lot of people are starting to think that it is starting to look more like a failure than a success.
The reason for this is simply the Olympics.
In order to get Rio de Janerio ready for the 2016 games Brazilian authorities have been forced to attempt to pacify more neighbourhoods than they've got the resources to deal with.
Due to the cost of the staging the Olympics those resources have reduced meaning that they often can't afford the social spending phase that needs to follow the combat phase.
Again I think I'll be boycotting these Olympics.
14:15 on 5/8/16 (UK date).
Friday, 5 August 2016
Thursday, 4 August 2016
The Latest Russell Square Terror Attack.
At around 21:30 (GMT) last night a man randomly attacked people with a knife/bladed article in Russell Square in London, UK.
This of course is the site where Hasib Hussein detonated his bomb aboard a bus killing 26 during the Al Qaeda terror attacks in London on July 7th 2005 (7/7/05).
Prior to being overpowered by the police last night's attacker succeeded in killing a 60 year old American woman and wounding five others. These included another American, an Israeli and two Australians.
The attack has since been identified as Zakaria Bulhan - a 19 year old Norwegian of Somali origin. It seems that at the time of his arrest Bulhan was displaying clear signs of a serious psychiatric disorder.
This latest attack seems to be in a similar mould as the December 5th 2015 (5/12/15) terror attack at Leytonstone Underground Rail (Metro) station also in London, UK. Here Muhaydin Mire - a Muslim of Somali origin who suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia randomly started attacking passers-by wounding three. Despite Mire attempting to behead one of his victims nobody was killed in the attack.
The Leytonstone attack occurred against the backdrop of the December 2nd 2015 (2/12/15) vote in the UK Parliament on whether to authorise military force against Islamist terror groups in Syria as well as Iraq. This debate was obviously covered extensively in the British media and atmosphere around the discussion was extremely poisonous. For example a number of Members of Parliament (MP's) who supported military action reported receiving death threats.
Therefore it seems that the public debate over the Parliamentary vote combined with Mire's mental illness to inspire or radicalise him into launching his attack.
Having been convicted on June 8th 2016 (8/6/16) of attempted murder Mire was sentenced on Monday (1/8/16). This was obviously widely covered in the British media including soft-interviews with his victims on the breakfast shows.
London's Metropolitan Police seemed to capitalise on Mire's sentencing to publicly unveil its newly formed, highly militarised counter-terrorism specialist firearms unit yesterday (3/8/16). Both in referring to Mire's sentencing and yesterday's unveiling the Metropolitan Police Commissioner repeatedly warned the public and any near-by TV camera that the threat of the next terror attack against the UK was not a question of if but when.
Therefore it again seems as though the public debate over Mire's sentencing and the nation's counter-terrorism preparations combined with Bulhan's mental illness to inspire or radicalise him into launching his attack.
As I discussed extensively in relation to the recent terror attacks in Munich, Reutlingen and Ansbach in Germany some type of mental illness is such a common element of the profile of an Islamist terrorist you could almost say that it is a pre-requisite.
Although he was found to be sane as per the M'Naughten rules of criminal responsibility a large part of the discussion during Mire's sentencing was his Schizophrenia. The argument was over whether he should be sent to prison for a fixed term or committed to a psychiatric hospital for a non-fixed term. In the end the Judge compromised by sentencing him to a lenient 8.5 year prison term. The first part of which was to be served in a psychiatric hospital.
This discussion really had its roots in the May 22nd 2013 (22/5/13) murder of Lee Rigby in the Woolwich area of London. This was committed by two men - Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.
Adebolajo is simply unpleasant however Adebowale who acted more as a sidekick rather than a full conspirator also suffered from a severe form of Schizophrenia.
As a result during sentencing a lot of people with experience of mental health issues felt that Adebowale should have been committed to a psychiatric hospital. However under political and public pressure he was instead sent to prison. After about two weeks in prison Adebowale became so ill had to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital anyway.
Quite apart from avoiding a repeat of that apparent miscarriage of justice there also seemed to be quite a desire for Mire to be sent to a hospital rather than prison. After all there is a certain propaganda value to someone who stands up in Court claiming to be a brave soldier of Islam protecting innocent Syrians having it pointed out to them by a Judge that they are in fact delusional.
Today the police have come out and announced that they're found no evidence linking Bulhan to any known terrorist group and therefore are considering his mental illness the main motivator behind the attack.
This has somehow been translated by the media as; "Not a Terrorist Attack" prompting quite a backlash on social media.
This is an issue that has long irritated my sense of pedantry.
Under British law Terrorism is defined by the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 which encompasses a number of previous acts. This creates a number of specific offences such as being a member of a banned or proscribed terrorist group or fundraising for such a group.
However there is no offence of "Terrorist Murder." There is simply the common law offence of "Murder." Even the making and setting off of bombs is covered by the Explosive Substances Act of 1883.
Therefore in a cases such as this whether or not it is classed as terrorism relates only to the investigation. Not any prosecutions that investigation may lead to.
The first thing the police did in investigating last night's attack was to place an embargo on it being reported.
Unlike a ban this is strictly voluntary rather than legally enforceable although journalists who want to maintain a good relationship with the police would be wary of violating the embargo. It was around this time that I noticed the "Moments" and "Trends" function on my Twitter account suddenly stopped working.
Before the embargo was lifted some five hours later the police had interviewed Bulhan, searched his home and electronic devices and interviewed his known associates like his family. As such the attack was most definitely investigated as an act of terrorism.
That terrorism investigation revealed that there was no indication that Bulhan had acted as part of wider network that posed an ongoing threat to the public. That investigation is still ongoing even if the police now consider mental illness to be the main motive.
There is of course also a significant political reason to downplay the fact that the UK has once again come under Islamist terror attack - albeit a small and isolated one.
Tomorrow (5/8/16) the Summer Olympics open in Brazil.
This has already been marred by attempts to have Russia banned as punishment for its longstanding opposition to Islamist terrorism. That effort has been led by British Parliamentarian Sebastian Lord Coe who has joined the British Olympic team for their preparations.
Admitting that the UK had suffered another Islamist terror attack just days before the start of the Olympics would really serve to underline just what a nasty piece of work Lord Coe is.
20:00 on 4/8/16 (UK date).
This of course is the site where Hasib Hussein detonated his bomb aboard a bus killing 26 during the Al Qaeda terror attacks in London on July 7th 2005 (7/7/05).
Prior to being overpowered by the police last night's attacker succeeded in killing a 60 year old American woman and wounding five others. These included another American, an Israeli and two Australians.
The attack has since been identified as Zakaria Bulhan - a 19 year old Norwegian of Somali origin. It seems that at the time of his arrest Bulhan was displaying clear signs of a serious psychiatric disorder.
This latest attack seems to be in a similar mould as the December 5th 2015 (5/12/15) terror attack at Leytonstone Underground Rail (Metro) station also in London, UK. Here Muhaydin Mire - a Muslim of Somali origin who suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia randomly started attacking passers-by wounding three. Despite Mire attempting to behead one of his victims nobody was killed in the attack.
The Leytonstone attack occurred against the backdrop of the December 2nd 2015 (2/12/15) vote in the UK Parliament on whether to authorise military force against Islamist terror groups in Syria as well as Iraq. This debate was obviously covered extensively in the British media and atmosphere around the discussion was extremely poisonous. For example a number of Members of Parliament (MP's) who supported military action reported receiving death threats.
Therefore it seems that the public debate over the Parliamentary vote combined with Mire's mental illness to inspire or radicalise him into launching his attack.
Having been convicted on June 8th 2016 (8/6/16) of attempted murder Mire was sentenced on Monday (1/8/16). This was obviously widely covered in the British media including soft-interviews with his victims on the breakfast shows.
London's Metropolitan Police seemed to capitalise on Mire's sentencing to publicly unveil its newly formed, highly militarised counter-terrorism specialist firearms unit yesterday (3/8/16). Both in referring to Mire's sentencing and yesterday's unveiling the Metropolitan Police Commissioner repeatedly warned the public and any near-by TV camera that the threat of the next terror attack against the UK was not a question of if but when.
Therefore it again seems as though the public debate over Mire's sentencing and the nation's counter-terrorism preparations combined with Bulhan's mental illness to inspire or radicalise him into launching his attack.
As I discussed extensively in relation to the recent terror attacks in Munich, Reutlingen and Ansbach in Germany some type of mental illness is such a common element of the profile of an Islamist terrorist you could almost say that it is a pre-requisite.
Although he was found to be sane as per the M'Naughten rules of criminal responsibility a large part of the discussion during Mire's sentencing was his Schizophrenia. The argument was over whether he should be sent to prison for a fixed term or committed to a psychiatric hospital for a non-fixed term. In the end the Judge compromised by sentencing him to a lenient 8.5 year prison term. The first part of which was to be served in a psychiatric hospital.
This discussion really had its roots in the May 22nd 2013 (22/5/13) murder of Lee Rigby in the Woolwich area of London. This was committed by two men - Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.
Adebolajo is simply unpleasant however Adebowale who acted more as a sidekick rather than a full conspirator also suffered from a severe form of Schizophrenia.
As a result during sentencing a lot of people with experience of mental health issues felt that Adebowale should have been committed to a psychiatric hospital. However under political and public pressure he was instead sent to prison. After about two weeks in prison Adebowale became so ill had to be transferred to a psychiatric hospital anyway.
Quite apart from avoiding a repeat of that apparent miscarriage of justice there also seemed to be quite a desire for Mire to be sent to a hospital rather than prison. After all there is a certain propaganda value to someone who stands up in Court claiming to be a brave soldier of Islam protecting innocent Syrians having it pointed out to them by a Judge that they are in fact delusional.
Today the police have come out and announced that they're found no evidence linking Bulhan to any known terrorist group and therefore are considering his mental illness the main motivator behind the attack.
This has somehow been translated by the media as; "Not a Terrorist Attack" prompting quite a backlash on social media.
This is an issue that has long irritated my sense of pedantry.
Under British law Terrorism is defined by the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 which encompasses a number of previous acts. This creates a number of specific offences such as being a member of a banned or proscribed terrorist group or fundraising for such a group.
However there is no offence of "Terrorist Murder." There is simply the common law offence of "Murder." Even the making and setting off of bombs is covered by the Explosive Substances Act of 1883.
Therefore in a cases such as this whether or not it is classed as terrorism relates only to the investigation. Not any prosecutions that investigation may lead to.
The first thing the police did in investigating last night's attack was to place an embargo on it being reported.
Unlike a ban this is strictly voluntary rather than legally enforceable although journalists who want to maintain a good relationship with the police would be wary of violating the embargo. It was around this time that I noticed the "Moments" and "Trends" function on my Twitter account suddenly stopped working.
Before the embargo was lifted some five hours later the police had interviewed Bulhan, searched his home and electronic devices and interviewed his known associates like his family. As such the attack was most definitely investigated as an act of terrorism.
That terrorism investigation revealed that there was no indication that Bulhan had acted as part of wider network that posed an ongoing threat to the public. That investigation is still ongoing even if the police now consider mental illness to be the main motive.
There is of course also a significant political reason to downplay the fact that the UK has once again come under Islamist terror attack - albeit a small and isolated one.
Tomorrow (5/8/16) the Summer Olympics open in Brazil.
This has already been marred by attempts to have Russia banned as punishment for its longstanding opposition to Islamist terrorism. That effort has been led by British Parliamentarian Sebastian Lord Coe who has joined the British Olympic team for their preparations.
Admitting that the UK had suffered another Islamist terror attack just days before the start of the Olympics would really serve to underline just what a nasty piece of work Lord Coe is.
20:00 on 4/8/16 (UK date).
Wednesday, 3 August 2016
Operation Featherweight: Month 25, Week 2, Day 4.
In my post yesterday I covered the liberation of the Iraqi city of Fallujah by the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
I commented on how this marks the beginning of the end for ISIL in Iraq and how their senior leaders seem to have accepted this. They are now rumoured to be preparing to flee not only Iraq but also Syria for Libya and beyond.
ISIL's main escape route is likely to be a roughly 100km (60 mile) area of Syria's border with Turkey which has become dubbed either "Erdogan's Pocket" or "Garvaghy Road." This really stretches from the town of Azaz to the west to the Euphrates River in the east and Aleppo City to the south. This has long functioned as ISIL's main supply route between Turkey and ISIL's de facto capital in Syria - Raqqa.
As such sealing this area should always have been a high priority for the US-led anti-ISIL coalition - Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR). However now that it is likely to become an escape route for ISIL sealing it should be the number one priority for anti-ISIL forces.
Fortunately in recent months Erdogan's Pocket has been coming under growing pressure from two different groups of forces. Both to south and to the east.
From the east Erdogan's Pocket has come under pressure from an operation to liberate the city of Manbij. This sits almost directly on the western bank on the Euphrates River around 25km (16miles) north-west of Tishrin Dam and 35km (22 miles) south of the border town of Jarabulus.
The operation to liberate Manbij is being conducted by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD). Formed in October 2015 this is a coalition of the Kurdish People' Protection Units (YPG) along with local Arab tribal forces and Arab and Assyrian militias.
The operation to liberate Manbij has been painfully slow. It was launched on May 31st (31/5/16) in two directions from Tishrin which was liberated by the QSD in December 2015 and from Sarrin which sits on the eastern bank of the Euphrates almost directly opposite Manbij.
The first objective was to lay siege to Manbij by cutting the main roads north to Jarabulus, west to Aleppo City and south to Raqqa liberating the surrounding villages and countryside in the process. It was only on June 21st (21/6/16) that the QSD were able to enter Manbij itself.
During that time ISIL forces inside of Manbij have been repeatedly able to break the siege of. Most notably on June 13th (13/6/16) and June 15th (15/6/16). ISIL have also been able to launch attacks from Jarabulus in an effort to break the siege. Particularly on June 28th (28/6/16) and July 1st (1/7/16).
Some nine weeks into the operation the QSD have so far only succeeded in liberating around 70% of a city which is only home to around 100,000 and only roughly 8km^2 (5miles^2) in size.
At this rate it will be around February 2019 before Erdogan's Pocket is sealed and ISIL are denied their supply/escape route.
The sole reason for this agonising lack of progress is simply the US' refusal to commit itself to the objective of shutting down Erdogan's Pocket.
In warfare what you aim to do is to deploy the largest force you can muster to quickly and completely overwhelm your opponent. Ideally what you want to do is intimidate them to the extent that they simply surrender before you even have to fire a shot.
In the Manbij operation the US is flatly refusing to allow the QSD to do this. Instead it is imposing ridiculous conditions on the operation seemingly in order to drag it out for as long as possible if not cause it to fail completely.
For example at the demand of Turkey the US is refusing to allow the YPG part of the QSD coalition to play a leading role in the operation. The problem with this is that the YPG make up around 85% of the QSD strength of around 70,000. They are also the most longstanding, best trained and most experienced force within the QSD.
Turkey has also demanded that a Turkmen Brigade are assigned to the operation. Meanwhile in Aleppo City other Turkmen Brigades are actively trying to wipe out the YPG.
Likewise the US appear to be strictly rationing the ammunition being supplied to the QSD. The rumour has it that the US is only supplying the QSD with ammunition on an operation-by-operation, day-to-day basis.
That means that if the QSD liberate a village from ISIL as they did Ezam on June 6th (6/6/16) they then need to stop, carefully calculate what their next objective will be, request the ammunition and wait for US approval.
This obviously completely destroys the momentum of the operation and leaves the QSD extremely vulnerable to ISIL counter-attack.
The US' refusal to give the QSD the tools needed to do the job seem to stem from US President Barack Obama's apparent deep love affair with longterm ISIL collaborator Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Rather than simply telling Erdogan that his pocket is to be sealed and his support for ISIL is going to end the US seem to be trying to slow the Manbij operation down into a series of creeps and peeps. Simply the QSD are allowed to creep forward a few kilometres before the US forces them to wait to see if Erdogan is going to raise any objections.
Obama's cowardice in the Manbij operation is costing people their lives unnecessarily. Include European and American citizens who have gone to fight alongside the QSD.
In June Portuguese fighter Mario Nunes was killed in battle. On July 14th (14/6/16) the American Levi Shirley gave his life to defeat ISIL. On July 21st (21/7/16) Dean Evans from the UK was killed while on July 27th (27/7/16) Slovenian Martin Gruden made the ultimate sacrifice. These are just some of the 214 QSD fighters killed in the agonisingly slow operation.
To the south Erdogan's Pocket has come under pressure from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to the north of Aleppo City.
It is something of a misnomer that Aleppo City was ever fully captured from the Syrian government.
In 2012 a number of Islamist terror groups including Al Qaeda's affiliate the Al Nusra Front (ANF), the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant/Harakat Ahrar ash-Sham Islamiyya (Ahrar al-Sham) and the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam (JAI) invaded the city. They went on to form the Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition.
At most the JAF have only ever been able to control around 50% of Aleppo City. However they have largely been confined to 20-30% of the north-east of the city with the SAA controlling around 50% and the YPG in control of the remaining 20%.
In order to sustain their occupation of Aleppo City the Army of Conquest coalition have relied on the "Erdogan's Pocket" supply line. Erdogan's Pocket runs south along two main roads from Azaz including the Highway 214. These roads enter Aleppo City via a ring-road called "Castello Road."
On June 25th (25/6/16) the SAA launched a long expected operation to liberate the northern portion of the Castello Road and the surrounding area.
By July 7th (7/7/16) the SAA had secured what is termed "fire control" over the Castello Road. Essentially this meant they could block all traffic on the road by firing on it. On July 17th (17/7/16) the SAA had taken physical control of Castello Road.
By July 27th (27/7/16) declared that they were in full control of the both the road and the surrounding area meaning that Aleppo City had been completely sealed off from Erdogan's Pocket.
At around 16:50 on 3/8/16 (UK date) I am still not quite 100%. I will try and pick this up after dinner my most likely in a seperate post tomorrow.
I commented on how this marks the beginning of the end for ISIL in Iraq and how their senior leaders seem to have accepted this. They are now rumoured to be preparing to flee not only Iraq but also Syria for Libya and beyond.
ISIL's main escape route is likely to be a roughly 100km (60 mile) area of Syria's border with Turkey which has become dubbed either "Erdogan's Pocket" or "Garvaghy Road." This really stretches from the town of Azaz to the west to the Euphrates River in the east and Aleppo City to the south. This has long functioned as ISIL's main supply route between Turkey and ISIL's de facto capital in Syria - Raqqa.
As such sealing this area should always have been a high priority for the US-led anti-ISIL coalition - Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR). However now that it is likely to become an escape route for ISIL sealing it should be the number one priority for anti-ISIL forces.
Fortunately in recent months Erdogan's Pocket has been coming under growing pressure from two different groups of forces. Both to south and to the east.
From the east Erdogan's Pocket has come under pressure from an operation to liberate the city of Manbij. This sits almost directly on the western bank on the Euphrates River around 25km (16miles) north-west of Tishrin Dam and 35km (22 miles) south of the border town of Jarabulus.
The operation to liberate Manbij is being conducted by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD). Formed in October 2015 this is a coalition of the Kurdish People' Protection Units (YPG) along with local Arab tribal forces and Arab and Assyrian militias.
The operation to liberate Manbij has been painfully slow. It was launched on May 31st (31/5/16) in two directions from Tishrin which was liberated by the QSD in December 2015 and from Sarrin which sits on the eastern bank of the Euphrates almost directly opposite Manbij.
The first objective was to lay siege to Manbij by cutting the main roads north to Jarabulus, west to Aleppo City and south to Raqqa liberating the surrounding villages and countryside in the process. It was only on June 21st (21/6/16) that the QSD were able to enter Manbij itself.
During that time ISIL forces inside of Manbij have been repeatedly able to break the siege of. Most notably on June 13th (13/6/16) and June 15th (15/6/16). ISIL have also been able to launch attacks from Jarabulus in an effort to break the siege. Particularly on June 28th (28/6/16) and July 1st (1/7/16).
Some nine weeks into the operation the QSD have so far only succeeded in liberating around 70% of a city which is only home to around 100,000 and only roughly 8km^2 (5miles^2) in size.
At this rate it will be around February 2019 before Erdogan's Pocket is sealed and ISIL are denied their supply/escape route.
The sole reason for this agonising lack of progress is simply the US' refusal to commit itself to the objective of shutting down Erdogan's Pocket.
In warfare what you aim to do is to deploy the largest force you can muster to quickly and completely overwhelm your opponent. Ideally what you want to do is intimidate them to the extent that they simply surrender before you even have to fire a shot.
In the Manbij operation the US is flatly refusing to allow the QSD to do this. Instead it is imposing ridiculous conditions on the operation seemingly in order to drag it out for as long as possible if not cause it to fail completely.
For example at the demand of Turkey the US is refusing to allow the YPG part of the QSD coalition to play a leading role in the operation. The problem with this is that the YPG make up around 85% of the QSD strength of around 70,000. They are also the most longstanding, best trained and most experienced force within the QSD.
Turkey has also demanded that a Turkmen Brigade are assigned to the operation. Meanwhile in Aleppo City other Turkmen Brigades are actively trying to wipe out the YPG.
Likewise the US appear to be strictly rationing the ammunition being supplied to the QSD. The rumour has it that the US is only supplying the QSD with ammunition on an operation-by-operation, day-to-day basis.
That means that if the QSD liberate a village from ISIL as they did Ezam on June 6th (6/6/16) they then need to stop, carefully calculate what their next objective will be, request the ammunition and wait for US approval.
This obviously completely destroys the momentum of the operation and leaves the QSD extremely vulnerable to ISIL counter-attack.
The US' refusal to give the QSD the tools needed to do the job seem to stem from US President Barack Obama's apparent deep love affair with longterm ISIL collaborator Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Rather than simply telling Erdogan that his pocket is to be sealed and his support for ISIL is going to end the US seem to be trying to slow the Manbij operation down into a series of creeps and peeps. Simply the QSD are allowed to creep forward a few kilometres before the US forces them to wait to see if Erdogan is going to raise any objections.
Obama's cowardice in the Manbij operation is costing people their lives unnecessarily. Include European and American citizens who have gone to fight alongside the QSD.
In June Portuguese fighter Mario Nunes was killed in battle. On July 14th (14/6/16) the American Levi Shirley gave his life to defeat ISIL. On July 21st (21/7/16) Dean Evans from the UK was killed while on July 27th (27/7/16) Slovenian Martin Gruden made the ultimate sacrifice. These are just some of the 214 QSD fighters killed in the agonisingly slow operation.
To the south Erdogan's Pocket has come under pressure from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to the north of Aleppo City.
It is something of a misnomer that Aleppo City was ever fully captured from the Syrian government.
In 2012 a number of Islamist terror groups including Al Qaeda's affiliate the Al Nusra Front (ANF), the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant/Harakat Ahrar ash-Sham Islamiyya (Ahrar al-Sham) and the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam (JAI) invaded the city. They went on to form the Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition.
At most the JAF have only ever been able to control around 50% of Aleppo City. However they have largely been confined to 20-30% of the north-east of the city with the SAA controlling around 50% and the YPG in control of the remaining 20%.
In order to sustain their occupation of Aleppo City the Army of Conquest coalition have relied on the "Erdogan's Pocket" supply line. Erdogan's Pocket runs south along two main roads from Azaz including the Highway 214. These roads enter Aleppo City via a ring-road called "Castello Road."
On June 25th (25/6/16) the SAA launched a long expected operation to liberate the northern portion of the Castello Road and the surrounding area.
By July 7th (7/7/16) the SAA had secured what is termed "fire control" over the Castello Road. Essentially this meant they could block all traffic on the road by firing on it. On July 17th (17/7/16) the SAA had taken physical control of Castello Road.
By July 27th (27/7/16) declared that they were in full control of the both the road and the surrounding area meaning that Aleppo City had been completely sealed off from Erdogan's Pocket.
At around 16:50 on 3/8/16 (UK date) I am still not quite 100%. I will try and pick this up after dinner my most likely in a seperate post tomorrow.
Tuesday, 2 August 2016
Operation Featherweight: Month 25, Week 2, Day 3.
On June 26th (26/6/16) the city of Fallujah was liberated from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) by the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF).
A city of around 275,000 people Fallujah represented the last major population centre occupied in Iraq's vast south-western Anbar province. It sits around 45km (25 miles) east of Ramadi and around 40km (25 miles) west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
The operation to liberate Fallujah actually began back on February 1st (1/2/16) when ISF troops moved to cut ISIL's supply lines between the Khalidiya Island region to the west and Fallujah. On February 15th (15/2/16) the ISF began another operation to cut ISIL's supply lines to the north centred around the town of Karma.
The objective of these twin operations was to lay siege to Fallujah.
The Battle of Fallujah itself didn't begin until May 23rd (23/5/16) when Karma was finally liberated with ISF forces not entering the city until May 30th (30/5/16). It then took another 27 days of fierce fighting for the battle to be won.
My main concern about the operation is that although it was significantly better co-ordinated than the Ramadi operation there was still a rush to enter the city itself before the siege had been fully put into place.
For example it wasn't until two weeks after ISF troops had entered Fallujah that the ISF moved to liberate the Fallujah dam on June 14th (14/6/16). During this time high value ISIL fighters were free to flee in that direction with weapons and equipment. Likewise it wasn't until two days later on June 16th (16/6/16) that the ISF attempted to enter the west of Fallujah from Falahat cutting down another ISIL escape route.
Laying an effective siege to a city before you attempt to liberate is almost essential to the success of that liberation because it carries with it a number of advantages.
Obviously it prevents fresh troops and supplies being brought into the city to reinforce its defences.
It also prevents troops and supplies being evacuated from the city where they can be used to fight another battle. Due to the failure to properly enforce siege conditions in Fallujah it's reported that senior ISIL commanders were able to escape to Mosul carrying with them some USD8million worth of cash an jewellery. Those resources with now likely be deployed in the defence of Mosul making the operation to liberate that city that little bit more difficult.
Perhaps more critically laying an effective siege to a city prior to its liberation allows the liberating force to much better control the city. This lets them build up vital intelligence of where the occupiers are focusing their defences and how those defences are supposed to operate. It also allows the liberating force to attack from multiple directions giving them a much better chance of overwhelming the occupiers defences.
This was a particular problem in Fallujah because having failed to properly secure the outskirts the ISF were forced to attack from only one direction in the south. This allowed ISIL concentrate all their forces on repelling that southern column. A day after the ISF launched their assault it had already ground to a halt on June 1st (1/6/16) raising the very real possibility that the ISF would have to retreat amid heavy casualties.
Fortunately the ISF recovered and were able to liberate the Namiyah district by June 5th (5/6/16). However it wasn't really until a second front was opened from the west on June 16th (16/6/16) that ISIL's defence of Fallujah fully started to crumble and the liberation picked up pace.
My other particular area of concern was the response that the liberation of Fallujah was met with from a number of western self-described humanitarian groups. Particularly the American Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Having secured enough to the south of the city to do so on June 12th (12/6/16) the ISF opened a humanitarian corridor under the supervision of the Norwegian Refugee Council to allow civilians to flee the fighting. As is standard practise the civilians fleeing through this corridor were stopped and searched to make sure that they were in fact civilians rather than ISIL fighters. As per the Geneva convention the particular focus was on men and boys of military age (15 years plus).
Human Rights Watch however decried this standard practise as a gross violation of human rights. They went on to demand that the practise immediately be stopped, an investigation launched and those responsible be prosecuted.
On the first day of the humanitarian corridor being opened the ISF managed to captured 546 ISIL fighters who were trying to flee Fallujah. Human Rights Watch presumably wanted those men to be set free to again take up arms in different parts of Iraq and Syria.
The liberation of Fallujah has been a devastating blow to ISIL. It has immediately removed a population of around 275,000 from the groups 'taxation' significantly damaging the groups finances.
Due to the failure to properly enforce a siege of Fallujah prior and during the liberation I am concerned that ISIL fighters have been able to re-group in the areas south and west of the Euphrates. As such I not yet happy to say that all of Anbar province has been liberated. However ISIL camps in that vast desert area can be dealt with through airstrikes and commando-style raids rather than large scale operations against urban areas.
Likewise due to the failure to properly complete the Tikrit operation prior to the start of the Anbar operation I am concerned that there remains a significant ISIL presence in Saladin and Diyala provinces. Particularly in the Hawija area between Baiji, Tikrit and Kirkuk. Dislodging ISIL from those towns and villages is going to be significantly more difficult than defeating them in the deserts of Anbar. However it will certainly be a lot easier than liberating a major city such as Fallujah or Ramadi.
Once the southern areas of Anbar along with Saladin and Diyala provinces have been fully secured work can begin on liberating Mosul - ISIL's de facto capital in Iraq. Once Mosul has been liberated ISIL will effectively have been completed ousted from Iraq and forced back into Syria.
With their complete removal from Iraq looming large ISIL have come under immense pressure to prove to their supporters that they remain a potent force.
They have largely attempted to do this through a series of bomb attacks in predominately Shia districts of Baghdad. The most significant of these occurred on July 3rd (3/7/16) in the Karrada district of the city and targeted families gathering to celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Here the initial explosion triggered a series of fires in the surrounding buildings killing more than 275 people making it the worst terror attack in Iraq's history.
Although none of them were that lethal prior to the liberation of Ramadi and then Fallujah ISIL bomb attacks against Baghdad's Shias were common place. Then the purpose seemed to be to inflame tensions between Shias and Sunnis in order to prevent the Shia militias collectively known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) being used in the predominately Sunni Anbar province. Thus making it more difficult for an underpowered ISF to defeat ISIL in those areas.
The operation to liberate Fallujah was hailed as a way to end these bomb attacks on Baghdad. At the start of July the ISF made a big point of how they had been able to dismantle an ISIL bomb factory within Fallujah.
As such the attacks on Baghdad following the liberation of Fallujah seem intended to undermine confidence in the Iraq's government's claim that the operation will increase security for Baghdad's civilians. They come at a time when prominent Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is leading Baghdad's Shia residents in protests against the government.
Therefore it seems that ISIL are now trying to trick Baghdad's Shia's into joining al-Sadr's protests. Ultimately I think that ISIL want to bring down the Iraqi government so there is no-one to fight them. Failing that they seem to want to force the government into deploying more troops to guard Baghdad. Those troops then can't be used to defeat ISIL elsewhere in the country.
In a similar vein on Sunday (31/7/16) ISIL launched twin attacks against oil facilities in Kirkuk. One against the AB2 station some 15km (10 miles) north-west of Kirkuk and the other against Bai Hassan station 40km (25 miles) north-west of Kirkuk. Both of these attacks were extremely small in nature involving no more than four ISIL fighters in each case and were quickly repelled.
Obviously the majority of the Iraqi government's revenues come from oil production. Therefore any disruption to their oil facilities will effect the national budget to some extent. However I don't think that on this occasion oil production was the main target.
Despite having large reserves of natural gas Iraq doesn't really have a domestic supply network bring gas to people's homes. As a result many Iraqis have to rely on bottled gas particularly for cooking. Those gas bottles are filled and distributed from facilities such as the AB2 station which seems to have been the main target of Sunday's (31/7/16) attack.
Therefore rather than attacking the national oil revenues ISIL instead seemed to be focused on making life more difficult for ordinary Iraqis by trying to stop the supply of bottled gas. After all when people are unable to cook their dinner they're much more likely to get angry at their government.
Sunday's attacks were of course very small and located close to ISIL's de facto Iraqi capital of Mosul rather than Baghdad. This along with the fact they know seem to be relying on the Iraqi people fighting the Iraqi government rather than being able to fight it themselves indicates to me that these attacks were actually a sign of ISIL's growing weakness in Iraq.
Despite their efforts to appear big and strong to their supporters it seems that following the liberation of Fallujah ISIL's leadership know that the end is coming for them. There have been persistent rumours that senior commanders have been ordered to prepare to abandon not only Iraq but also Syria and head for Libya via Turkey.
This obviously places a huge importance on the roughly 100km (60 mile) wide, 55km (35 mile) deep stretch of the Syria/Turkey border that has become known as "Erdogan's Pocket" or "Garvaghy Road". This stretches from Azaz in the west to the Euphrates River in the east and Aleppo City to the south.
17:15 on 2/8/16 (UK date).
A city of around 275,000 people Fallujah represented the last major population centre occupied in Iraq's vast south-western Anbar province. It sits around 45km (25 miles) east of Ramadi and around 40km (25 miles) west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
The operation to liberate Fallujah actually began back on February 1st (1/2/16) when ISF troops moved to cut ISIL's supply lines between the Khalidiya Island region to the west and Fallujah. On February 15th (15/2/16) the ISF began another operation to cut ISIL's supply lines to the north centred around the town of Karma.
The objective of these twin operations was to lay siege to Fallujah.
The Battle of Fallujah itself didn't begin until May 23rd (23/5/16) when Karma was finally liberated with ISF forces not entering the city until May 30th (30/5/16). It then took another 27 days of fierce fighting for the battle to be won.
My main concern about the operation is that although it was significantly better co-ordinated than the Ramadi operation there was still a rush to enter the city itself before the siege had been fully put into place.
For example it wasn't until two weeks after ISF troops had entered Fallujah that the ISF moved to liberate the Fallujah dam on June 14th (14/6/16). During this time high value ISIL fighters were free to flee in that direction with weapons and equipment. Likewise it wasn't until two days later on June 16th (16/6/16) that the ISF attempted to enter the west of Fallujah from Falahat cutting down another ISIL escape route.
Laying an effective siege to a city before you attempt to liberate is almost essential to the success of that liberation because it carries with it a number of advantages.
Obviously it prevents fresh troops and supplies being brought into the city to reinforce its defences.
It also prevents troops and supplies being evacuated from the city where they can be used to fight another battle. Due to the failure to properly enforce siege conditions in Fallujah it's reported that senior ISIL commanders were able to escape to Mosul carrying with them some USD8million worth of cash an jewellery. Those resources with now likely be deployed in the defence of Mosul making the operation to liberate that city that little bit more difficult.
Perhaps more critically laying an effective siege to a city prior to its liberation allows the liberating force to much better control the city. This lets them build up vital intelligence of where the occupiers are focusing their defences and how those defences are supposed to operate. It also allows the liberating force to attack from multiple directions giving them a much better chance of overwhelming the occupiers defences.
This was a particular problem in Fallujah because having failed to properly secure the outskirts the ISF were forced to attack from only one direction in the south. This allowed ISIL concentrate all their forces on repelling that southern column. A day after the ISF launched their assault it had already ground to a halt on June 1st (1/6/16) raising the very real possibility that the ISF would have to retreat amid heavy casualties.
Fortunately the ISF recovered and were able to liberate the Namiyah district by June 5th (5/6/16). However it wasn't really until a second front was opened from the west on June 16th (16/6/16) that ISIL's defence of Fallujah fully started to crumble and the liberation picked up pace.
My other particular area of concern was the response that the liberation of Fallujah was met with from a number of western self-described humanitarian groups. Particularly the American Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Having secured enough to the south of the city to do so on June 12th (12/6/16) the ISF opened a humanitarian corridor under the supervision of the Norwegian Refugee Council to allow civilians to flee the fighting. As is standard practise the civilians fleeing through this corridor were stopped and searched to make sure that they were in fact civilians rather than ISIL fighters. As per the Geneva convention the particular focus was on men and boys of military age (15 years plus).
Human Rights Watch however decried this standard practise as a gross violation of human rights. They went on to demand that the practise immediately be stopped, an investigation launched and those responsible be prosecuted.
On the first day of the humanitarian corridor being opened the ISF managed to captured 546 ISIL fighters who were trying to flee Fallujah. Human Rights Watch presumably wanted those men to be set free to again take up arms in different parts of Iraq and Syria.
The liberation of Fallujah has been a devastating blow to ISIL. It has immediately removed a population of around 275,000 from the groups 'taxation' significantly damaging the groups finances.
Due to the failure to properly enforce a siege of Fallujah prior and during the liberation I am concerned that ISIL fighters have been able to re-group in the areas south and west of the Euphrates. As such I not yet happy to say that all of Anbar province has been liberated. However ISIL camps in that vast desert area can be dealt with through airstrikes and commando-style raids rather than large scale operations against urban areas.
Likewise due to the failure to properly complete the Tikrit operation prior to the start of the Anbar operation I am concerned that there remains a significant ISIL presence in Saladin and Diyala provinces. Particularly in the Hawija area between Baiji, Tikrit and Kirkuk. Dislodging ISIL from those towns and villages is going to be significantly more difficult than defeating them in the deserts of Anbar. However it will certainly be a lot easier than liberating a major city such as Fallujah or Ramadi.
Once the southern areas of Anbar along with Saladin and Diyala provinces have been fully secured work can begin on liberating Mosul - ISIL's de facto capital in Iraq. Once Mosul has been liberated ISIL will effectively have been completed ousted from Iraq and forced back into Syria.
With their complete removal from Iraq looming large ISIL have come under immense pressure to prove to their supporters that they remain a potent force.
They have largely attempted to do this through a series of bomb attacks in predominately Shia districts of Baghdad. The most significant of these occurred on July 3rd (3/7/16) in the Karrada district of the city and targeted families gathering to celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Here the initial explosion triggered a series of fires in the surrounding buildings killing more than 275 people making it the worst terror attack in Iraq's history.
Although none of them were that lethal prior to the liberation of Ramadi and then Fallujah ISIL bomb attacks against Baghdad's Shias were common place. Then the purpose seemed to be to inflame tensions between Shias and Sunnis in order to prevent the Shia militias collectively known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) being used in the predominately Sunni Anbar province. Thus making it more difficult for an underpowered ISF to defeat ISIL in those areas.
The operation to liberate Fallujah was hailed as a way to end these bomb attacks on Baghdad. At the start of July the ISF made a big point of how they had been able to dismantle an ISIL bomb factory within Fallujah.
As such the attacks on Baghdad following the liberation of Fallujah seem intended to undermine confidence in the Iraq's government's claim that the operation will increase security for Baghdad's civilians. They come at a time when prominent Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is leading Baghdad's Shia residents in protests against the government.
Therefore it seems that ISIL are now trying to trick Baghdad's Shia's into joining al-Sadr's protests. Ultimately I think that ISIL want to bring down the Iraqi government so there is no-one to fight them. Failing that they seem to want to force the government into deploying more troops to guard Baghdad. Those troops then can't be used to defeat ISIL elsewhere in the country.
In a similar vein on Sunday (31/7/16) ISIL launched twin attacks against oil facilities in Kirkuk. One against the AB2 station some 15km (10 miles) north-west of Kirkuk and the other against Bai Hassan station 40km (25 miles) north-west of Kirkuk. Both of these attacks were extremely small in nature involving no more than four ISIL fighters in each case and were quickly repelled.
Obviously the majority of the Iraqi government's revenues come from oil production. Therefore any disruption to their oil facilities will effect the national budget to some extent. However I don't think that on this occasion oil production was the main target.
Despite having large reserves of natural gas Iraq doesn't really have a domestic supply network bring gas to people's homes. As a result many Iraqis have to rely on bottled gas particularly for cooking. Those gas bottles are filled and distributed from facilities such as the AB2 station which seems to have been the main target of Sunday's (31/7/16) attack.
Therefore rather than attacking the national oil revenues ISIL instead seemed to be focused on making life more difficult for ordinary Iraqis by trying to stop the supply of bottled gas. After all when people are unable to cook their dinner they're much more likely to get angry at their government.
Sunday's attacks were of course very small and located close to ISIL's de facto Iraqi capital of Mosul rather than Baghdad. This along with the fact they know seem to be relying on the Iraqi people fighting the Iraqi government rather than being able to fight it themselves indicates to me that these attacks were actually a sign of ISIL's growing weakness in Iraq.
Despite their efforts to appear big and strong to their supporters it seems that following the liberation of Fallujah ISIL's leadership know that the end is coming for them. There have been persistent rumours that senior commanders have been ordered to prepare to abandon not only Iraq but also Syria and head for Libya via Turkey.
This obviously places a huge importance on the roughly 100km (60 mile) wide, 55km (35 mile) deep stretch of the Syria/Turkey border that has become known as "Erdogan's Pocket" or "Garvaghy Road". This stretches from Azaz in the west to the Euphrates River in the east and Aleppo City to the south.
17:15 on 2/8/16 (UK date).
Friday, 29 July 2016
Operation Featherweight: Month 25, Week 1, Day 6.
On Thursday July 21st
(21/7/16) the apparently now 61 nations dedicated to the defeat of the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups met for a conference
in Washington D.C, US.
This conference
really began on the Tuesday (19/7/16) with US Secretary of State John Kerry's
visit to the UK for a meeting with Arab Gulf states. There was also a day of
pre-meetings on the Wednesday (20/7/16).
This was the first
such conference of the ISIL coalition since the June 12th (12/6/16) terror
attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, US and the July 1st (1/7/16)
terror attack against the Holey Artisan Bakery in Bangladesh. As a result the
issue of my personal safety and security was legitimately on the agenda.
So on Wednesday July
20th (20/7/16) news broke that a Royal Air Force (RAF) serviceman had been
involved in a security incident at the RAF Marham base in Norfolk, UK.
Whilst
out jogging the serviceman was accosted by two men Middle-Eastern/South Asian
appearance who threatened him with a knife and attempted to drag him into a
waiting car. Fortunately the serviceman fought back and the attackers fled.
Obviously I don't
want to discourage anyone from helping the police with their enquiries into
this incident. However I suspect that if they were desperate to arrest the
individuals involved the Security Service MI5 would know exactly where to look.
This is the type of
security issue that I have to be acutely aware of. After all if ISIL can launch
lonewolf knife attacks against train passengers in Wurzberg, Germany or Church
goers in Normandy, France they can certainly launch a knife attack against me
in my home.
The problem is made
more acute by the fact the area in which I live has a very high Muslim
population that is both British born and recently migrated from countries such
as Pakistan and Somalia. The main street running through my local area was
recently featured on the national news at the street in all of Britain most
affected by the influx of irregular migrants/refugees.
There was actually a
series of incidents during the Battle of Kobane in the early part of 2015 when
a group of local British Muslim men of the profile of ISIL recruits took to
gathering outside my house in what seemed like an attempt at intimidation.
Fortunately a bunch of Kurdish refugees came and chased them off.
Obviously the fact my
own government has been trying to kill me for much of the last 16 years means
that this is the type of threat I'm attuned to and used to living with. As
always though legal access to firearms and other protective equipment would be
a huge reassurance.
The other security
headache facing me comes from US President Barack Obama and his Black Lives
Matter thugs. This really dates back to 2013 when I was heavily involved in
Rihanna's Diamonds World Tour.
Somewhere along the
way global black culture has come to mean Black American trash culture.
So
during 2013 the UK's black population really started to side with Obama and
Rihanna against me for the simple reason they're black and I'm white. This is
despite the fact I was largely working to protect Rihanna from both her own and
Obama's stupidity.
Since then Obama has
really embraced the idea frequently urging Britain's black population to harass
and intimidate me through his calls for them to; "Find Their Park." I
live very close to a public park. So close in fact people have been known to
confuse my private property with that public area.
So on Tuesday July
19th (19/7/16) someone urged members of London's black community to gather for
an illegal music festival in Hyde Park.
In order to throw a public music
festival you first need to get permission from the landowner along with a
safety certificate and public liability insurance to make sure no-one if hurt
or killed during the party.
The gathering in Hyde Park had none of those things
so the police moved into confiscate the sound system and disperse the crowd.
This prompted a riot in which I think several police officers were injured
including one who was stabbed in the hand.
This riot really started around
19:00 (GMT) and with shops being looted on near-by Oxford Street was still
going on as I went to bed around 01:00 (GMT).
With rioters chanting
"Black Lives Matter!" as they hurled bricks at the police this really
helped to highlight the security problem that Obama presents both to me
personally and the UK in general when he riles up his thugs and urges them to
find their park.
Knowing that this
topic would be on the agenda the US prepared its defence.
On Wednesday July
20th (20/7/16) video was released of an incident on Monday July 18th (18/7/16)
in south Florida. The video showed an unarmed black man - Charles Kinsey -
being shot in the leg by police as he was lying on the ground with his hands
up.
Let's just say that this isn't the first time I've heard a story about
someone being shot in the leg.
At the time he was
shot Kinsey claims that he was protecting a white/hispanic man with Autism as
he was having a crisis and threatening suicide. Putting aside the Kinsey scale
on human sexuality one of the stranger rumours told about me is that I suffer
from Autism.
Therefore this was the US trying to argue that Obama and his Black
Lives Matter thugs weren't posing a threat to me but trying to protect me.
The fact that the
incident was so obviously staged also prompted discussion about the July 6th
(6/7/16) shooting of Philando Castile.
It is really my next
task but the big development in Syria since the end of June/start of July is
that Syrian government forces have mounted a successful operation to liberate
the Castello Road which runs from Aleppo City through Azaz to the Turkish
border.
As a result the liberation of Castello Road cuts the last main supply route to ISIL and
ISIL affiliated fighters in Aleppo City.
The shooting of
Philando Castile during a traffic stop came just as the operation to liberate
Castello Road was gathering momentum.
The way that his
girlfriend Diamond Reynolds chose to livestream his death on Facebook rather
than allow the police to administer medical aid was extremely reminiscent of
the way that Larossi Abballa livestreamed his murder of two police officers in
Magananville, France on June 13th (13/6/16). Minnesota where the Castile
shooting occurred is famous for providing US recruits to ISIL.
Therefore the Castile
shooting is something the US authorities would want to investigate in great
detail. However the Obama administration is continuing to block such an
investigation.
With the US' defence
failing to find traction on Thursday July 21st (21/7/16) they were forced into
making a dramatic admission.
This took the form of
an American Airlines flight to Philadelphia being evacuated at Palm Beach
airport on south Florida following a leak of hydraulic fluid.
The admission being
made was that Hillary Clinton's faction within the Democrat Party had leaked
sensitive information about my plans for July 1st (1/7/16) to ISIL. This
allowed ISIL to plan and carry out the Dhaka terror attack in which 24 people
were murdered.
With Hillary Clinton
having leaked sensitive information to ISIL there can be no suggestion that she
can become elevated to the role of US President and therefore
Commander-in-Chief of the fight against ISIL.
With the Democratic
National Convention (DNC) scheduled to open in Philadelphia on Monday July 25th
(25/7/16) the admission demanded that the US took immediate action to prevent
Hillary Clinton being nominated.
With no action being
forthcoming from the US the UK decided to turn up the pressure in the very
early hours of Monday (25/7/16) morning.
This took the form of
a shooting at a reggae themed pool party in Headingly in Surrey, UK. That
obviously carried with it connotations of the McKinney, Texas, US pool party
that was broken up by the police on June 5th (2015). Much to the chagrin of
Obama's Black Lives Matter thugs.
The flyer for the
Surrey pool party urged people to head to the Bungalow. My much disputed
grandmother's house which sits inside my residential compound is in fact a
bungalow. The organisers of the party are based in Streatham, London where I
went to school. The murdered man lived in Coulsdon which is really the next
borough over from where I live.
As such the entire
incident demonstrated the level of risk I'm faced with every time the
Democrats call their thugs to the streets.
In response the US
decided to set Hillary Clinton and the Democrats an integrity test.
This took the form of
a mass shooting at a black nightclub in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, US. The Club
Blu Bar & Grill where the shooting took place has a very Mardi Gras, New
Orleans, Louisiana theme to it.
The integrity test
being to see whether Hillary Clinton and the Democrats would rally in protest
about these black people being shot as they rallied following the lawful
killing of Alton Sterling by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on July 5th
(5/7/16)].
Or would
Hillary Clinton and the Democrats simply remain silent.
Thus proving that they're only interested in Black Lives
when it gives them an opportunity to rally the mob to prevent Hillary Clinton
going to prison for those 110 offences of espionage against the US.
It almost goes
without saying that Hillary Clinton and the Democrats failed that integrity
test.
The outgoing Chair of
the Democrat Party Debbie Wasserman-Schultz did try and raise the issue of Club
Blu shooting prior to the start of the convention but was shouted down. This
seemed to lead to her being replaced at the podium by Stephanie Rawlings-Blake –
the Mayor of Baltimore synonymous with the Freddie Grey case and the riots that
followed.
Wasserman-Schulz had
already announced that she would be resigning at the end of the DNC to be
replaced by the aggressively anti-police Donna Brazile. This was driven by the
work of the mythical computer hacker “Guccifer 2” which is simply a device for
the Democrats to provide the media with controversial information.
It’s the equivalent of;
“I didn’t make those offensive comments. My Twitter account was hacked.”
It was so predictable
that Hillary Clinton and the Democrats would fail it led some to protest against setting yet another integrity
test. Particularly one that would last for four days at a time when new terror
attacks are occurring on a near daily basis.
Lead amongst the
protests was Japan. After all alongside Italy which saw 9 of its citizens
killed the 7 Japanese dead meant that Japan was the main victim of the July 1st
(1/7/16) Dhaka terror attack that Hillary Clinton helped ISIL organise.
Japan's protest took
the form of Tuesday's (26/7/16) knife massacre at a care home for the disabled in
Sagamihara near Tokyo in which 19 people were killed - the worst such massacre
in Japan's modern history.
The fact that this
was a knife attack obviously destroys Hillary Clinton and the Democrats oft
repeated mantra that the only way to stop such massacres is stricter gun
control.
Due to the 110
offences of espionage against the US along with the fact that she'd provided
sensitive information to ISIL leading to a terror attack Hillary Clinton will
never obtain security clearance to handle sensitive information from the US'
allies. Let alone the US government itself
As such if by some
miracle Hillary Clinton is elected President her inability to obtain security
clearance will provide an impediment to her actually taking up office. As such
the Vacancy & Disability clause 6 of the US Constitution will apply.
I think it's quite
clear that at least one Japanese thinks the Disabled should be killed off
sooner rather than later.
Despite these clear
warnings the Democrats pressed ahead and nominated Hillary Clinton as their
candidate on Tuesday (26/7/16). Effectively declaring that they will not be
contesting the 2016 Presidential election.
Prior to DNC rollcall
vote in which Hillary Clinton was formally nominated an unmarked police car
crashed into a restaurant in Kentish Town. This is a very Jewish and very Irish
area of London, UK where I hear they do a fantastic waltz.
The particular restaurant
the police car crashed into was an artisanal pizza restaurant. A clear reminder
of Hillary Clinton's role in organising the July 1st (1/7/16) Dhaka terror
attack.
As such I think it
should be obvious to all that a Hillary Clinton Presidency will destroy the US'
standing in the World in a way Donald Trump never could.
12:25 on 29/7/16 (UK date).
Wednesday, 27 July 2016
Another Day. Another Terror Attack.
Over the past two weeks Europe has experienced a rash of Islamist terrorist attacks.
This began on July 14th (14/7/16) when Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a truck through revellers celebrating Bastille day in Nice, France. He murdered 84 people.
On July 18th (18/7/16) Riaz Khan Ahmadzai (AKA; "Muhammad Riyad") - a 17 year old refugee from Afghanistan - attacked passengers aboard a train in Wurzburg, Bavaria, Germany with an axe. He seriously injured four people.
On July 22nd (22/7/16) Ali David Sonboly - a German/Iranian dual national - went on a shooting rampage in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. He murdered 9 people.
On July 24th (24/7/16) an as yet named illegal immigrant from Syria who'd been refused refugee status attacked passers-by with a machete on the street in Reutlingen, Baden-Wuttemberg, Germany. He murdered a pregnant Polish woman.
Also on July 24th (24/7/16) another illegal immigrant from Syria who been refused refugee status attempted to carry out a suicide bombing at an open air music festival attended by some 2,500 in Ansbach, Bavaria, Germany. Having been denied entry to the festival he detonated his bomb at a near-by bar. Fortunately he only succeeded in killing himself although he did injure 15.
In response to all of these attacks I've spoken at length about how Al Qaeda have long had a strategy of using terrorism to destroy the secular space in which Muslims and non-Muslims coexist. Due to the growing community tensions caused by the migrant crisis the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seem to have adopted this tactic having identified a fracture point they can exploit.
Yesterday (25/7/16) the was yet another terrorist attack. This time in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France.
Here two attackers burst into a Catholic Church taking a Priest, three Nuns and two Church goers hostage at knifepoint. They filmed themselves forcing the 84-year Priest to kneel before the altar before beheading him and sending the video to ISIL. They were then both shot and killed by police marksmen.
ISIL view it as their mission to purge the World of everybody who does not follow their perversion of Islam. This includes Sunni Muslims put particularly Shia Muslims, Christians, Druze and Yezidi. As such the spectacle of ISIL fighters storming into a Church and beheading Priests and slaughtering Christians is an all too common one.
However if people in the west were being told the truth of what is happening in Syria, Iraq and beyond there would be riots through the streets and western politicians would be torn limb from limb. As such a huge effort has gone in from both the media and politicians to hide the horrors of the Middle-East from the public.
With it being impossible to hide the beheading of a Priest in a Church in France yesterday's terror attack was extremely shocking to people who don't know that this is happening everyday and has been happening every day for the past five years.
It was intended to be seen as a direct threat to Europe's Christian's and its secular way of life by Muslims. The idea being to create a backlash by non-Muslims against Muslims. Particularly Muslim immigrants.
The attack also seemed to be a personal one against the Pope - the head of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church is currently holding its biannual youth camp.
This sees young Catholics from around the World gather together for what is essentially a weeklong social festival. It is often dubbed; "The Catholic Woodstock." The highlight is World Youth Day which is today where the Pope attends the festival to address the crowds.
This year the World Youth Camp is being held in Krakow, Poland.
The European Union's (EU) ability to respond to the migration crisis has been severely hampered by two of its members - Hungary and Poland - refusing to implement an agreement that would see refugees shared out in quotas amongst member states.
The Polish Law & Justice Party (PiS) government of Beata Syzdlo in particular has made it quite clear that it does not want to accept a single Muslim refugee because it wants to preserve Poland's pure, Catholic identity from which the party takes much of its power.
The Pope - as the head of the Catholic Church - has much disagreed with the Polish government on this point. So when PiS has said that you cannot allow Muslim refugees into a Catholic nation the Pope responded by taken Muslim refugees into his home in the Vatican City - the ultimate Catholic nation.
As a result the Pope's trip to Poland today for World Youth Day was always going to be extremely tense. Unusually for a supposedly Catholic party the PiS are refusing the recognise the Pope's visit as an official state one with all the respect that affords.
Therefore yesterday's attack on a Catholic Church coming so soon after the terrorist murder of a Polish woman seems intended to weaken the Pope and strengthen the PiS' position on the migration issue.
After all by creating a weakness in the EU's response to ISIL the PiS are ISIL's biggest ally in Europe.
It also seems to have been an attack on me personally.
In response to the June 12th (12/6/16) terror attack against the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, US I spoke about the psychological effects of traumatic shock that occur during this type of situation. Using an example from my own life I mentioned an older Irish woman who'd been in a Catholic Church when the congregation was attacked by a naked swordsman. I mentioned this again in response to the Wurzburg train attack.
Therefore by carrying out what was effectively a sword attack on a Catholic Church I think the attackers were also trying to trigger off some sort of traumatic memory in me. The hope being that would take me out of the game preventing me from going after ISIL.
As such I should probably explain. I wasn't actually in the Church during the sword attack. In fact it was the way that this woman was randomly telling me about this guy's penis that had me nodding my head and thinking; "Yep. That's traumatic shock."
In terms of the psychological effects of this relentless parade of slaughter obviously it does have an effect on me.
Although it wasn't directly linked to ISIL the July 7th (7/7/16) terror attack in Dallas, Texas made for an extremely long and unpleasant day from me. This really lasted until the memorial service on July 13th (13/7/16). I really then had one day off before the Nice attack. It's been non-stop since then.
So even as far back as Saturday (23/6/16) was scheduling yesterday evening to go off an deal it. For obvious reasons I don't to share my particular process but generally it is just a matter of accepting that these things do affect you and coming to peace with it.
I could really have done without the mother of Sandra Bland appearing at the Democratic National Convention yesterday though. After all she is extremely offensive to anyone with knowledge of genuine Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray was very obviously the work of a small, largely self-directed ISIL cell.
The reason why it was so quickly indentified at as such is that one of the attackers - 19 year old Adel Kermiche - had previously served 10 months in prison for attempting to join ISIL in Syria. At the time of the attack he was released from prison on license/parole and was wearing an electronic monitoring tag.
The fact that despite being a known ISIL sympathiser Kermiche was free to commit the attack has obviously prompted a backlash against the French security services. However I should point out that cases such as these put them in an extremely difficult position.
When we talk about Muslim citizens being a nations first line of defence against terror we are not being politically correct. It is simply the truth.
The reason why the French authorities knew that Kermiche was an ISIL sympathiser is because his own mother and sister informed them that they were worried he was becoming radicalised. If the French authorities react to that by putting the son in prison for the rest of his life no other mother is going to come forward.
This will create a situation like the one you have in Molenbeek, Brussels, Belgium. Here not only don't local residents inform the authorities of members of the community who have become radicalised they actively shelter terrorists as they did with Saleh Abdeslam. As Lahouaiej Bouhlel demonstrates it is the threats the authorities don't know about that are the most dangerous.
That said though in other cases where people have been convicted of serious terrorist offences that haven't been uncovered by community intelligence should remain in prison until ISIL have been defeated. Those who have already been released from prison should be immediately recalled indefinitely as a threat to society.
What I am much more concerned about though is the French government's failure to combat the threat of ISIL at the international diplomatic and political level.
On May 10th 2016 (10/5/16) Russia tabled a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution to designate both the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant/Harakat Ahrar ash-Sham al-Islamiyya (Ahrar al-Sham) and the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam (JAI) as terrorists groups.
These two groups are key parts of the Al Qaeda led Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition in Syria. They regularly fight alongside ISIL - particularly during the spring of 2015 when the JAF's Northwestern offensive was co-ordinated with ISIL's capture of Palmyra. Therefore the designation of Ahrar al-Sham and JAI as terror groups is vital to the defeat of ISIL.
However France along with the US and the UK vetoed the Russian resolution. This allows nations such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia to continue supplying Ahrar al-Sham and JAI with weapons which are then passed on to ISIL. It also grants unwarranted legitimacy to ISIL claim that they are simply protecting Muslims from oppression.
Although I need to deal with it as a separate issue the big development over the past few weeks in Syria is that the Syrian government has succeeded in liberating the Castello Road.
Along with Highway 214 which is a crucial part of what I term "Erdogan's Pocket" or "Garvaghy Road." It's liberation cuts the supply line between Turkey and Army of Conquest forces occupying Aleppo City. As such the liberation of the Castello Road is a massive step forward in the efforts to force ISIL and their associates from Syria entirely.
Curiously though on Monday (25/7/16) the UNSC held a session on the liberation of Castello Road. Rather than celebrating this victory the French Ambassador joined with the US, the UK and others condemning this defeat of the terrorists. They then called on the Syrian government to hand the terrorists supply line back to them.
So if ISIL is at war with France as French President Hollande said in response to the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray attack he really needs to hurry up and decide which side he's on;
France's or ISIL's.
17:05 on 27/7/16 (UK date).
This began on July 14th (14/7/16) when Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a truck through revellers celebrating Bastille day in Nice, France. He murdered 84 people.
On July 18th (18/7/16) Riaz Khan Ahmadzai (AKA; "Muhammad Riyad") - a 17 year old refugee from Afghanistan - attacked passengers aboard a train in Wurzburg, Bavaria, Germany with an axe. He seriously injured four people.
On July 22nd (22/7/16) Ali David Sonboly - a German/Iranian dual national - went on a shooting rampage in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. He murdered 9 people.
On July 24th (24/7/16) an as yet named illegal immigrant from Syria who'd been refused refugee status attacked passers-by with a machete on the street in Reutlingen, Baden-Wuttemberg, Germany. He murdered a pregnant Polish woman.
Also on July 24th (24/7/16) another illegal immigrant from Syria who been refused refugee status attempted to carry out a suicide bombing at an open air music festival attended by some 2,500 in Ansbach, Bavaria, Germany. Having been denied entry to the festival he detonated his bomb at a near-by bar. Fortunately he only succeeded in killing himself although he did injure 15.
In response to all of these attacks I've spoken at length about how Al Qaeda have long had a strategy of using terrorism to destroy the secular space in which Muslims and non-Muslims coexist. Due to the growing community tensions caused by the migrant crisis the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seem to have adopted this tactic having identified a fracture point they can exploit.
Yesterday (25/7/16) the was yet another terrorist attack. This time in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, France.
Here two attackers burst into a Catholic Church taking a Priest, three Nuns and two Church goers hostage at knifepoint. They filmed themselves forcing the 84-year Priest to kneel before the altar before beheading him and sending the video to ISIL. They were then both shot and killed by police marksmen.
ISIL view it as their mission to purge the World of everybody who does not follow their perversion of Islam. This includes Sunni Muslims put particularly Shia Muslims, Christians, Druze and Yezidi. As such the spectacle of ISIL fighters storming into a Church and beheading Priests and slaughtering Christians is an all too common one.
However if people in the west were being told the truth of what is happening in Syria, Iraq and beyond there would be riots through the streets and western politicians would be torn limb from limb. As such a huge effort has gone in from both the media and politicians to hide the horrors of the Middle-East from the public.
With it being impossible to hide the beheading of a Priest in a Church in France yesterday's terror attack was extremely shocking to people who don't know that this is happening everyday and has been happening every day for the past five years.
It was intended to be seen as a direct threat to Europe's Christian's and its secular way of life by Muslims. The idea being to create a backlash by non-Muslims against Muslims. Particularly Muslim immigrants.
The attack also seemed to be a personal one against the Pope - the head of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church is currently holding its biannual youth camp.
This sees young Catholics from around the World gather together for what is essentially a weeklong social festival. It is often dubbed; "The Catholic Woodstock." The highlight is World Youth Day which is today where the Pope attends the festival to address the crowds.
This year the World Youth Camp is being held in Krakow, Poland.
The European Union's (EU) ability to respond to the migration crisis has been severely hampered by two of its members - Hungary and Poland - refusing to implement an agreement that would see refugees shared out in quotas amongst member states.
The Polish Law & Justice Party (PiS) government of Beata Syzdlo in particular has made it quite clear that it does not want to accept a single Muslim refugee because it wants to preserve Poland's pure, Catholic identity from which the party takes much of its power.
The Pope - as the head of the Catholic Church - has much disagreed with the Polish government on this point. So when PiS has said that you cannot allow Muslim refugees into a Catholic nation the Pope responded by taken Muslim refugees into his home in the Vatican City - the ultimate Catholic nation.
As a result the Pope's trip to Poland today for World Youth Day was always going to be extremely tense. Unusually for a supposedly Catholic party the PiS are refusing the recognise the Pope's visit as an official state one with all the respect that affords.
Therefore yesterday's attack on a Catholic Church coming so soon after the terrorist murder of a Polish woman seems intended to weaken the Pope and strengthen the PiS' position on the migration issue.
After all by creating a weakness in the EU's response to ISIL the PiS are ISIL's biggest ally in Europe.
It also seems to have been an attack on me personally.
In response to the June 12th (12/6/16) terror attack against the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, US I spoke about the psychological effects of traumatic shock that occur during this type of situation. Using an example from my own life I mentioned an older Irish woman who'd been in a Catholic Church when the congregation was attacked by a naked swordsman. I mentioned this again in response to the Wurzburg train attack.
Therefore by carrying out what was effectively a sword attack on a Catholic Church I think the attackers were also trying to trigger off some sort of traumatic memory in me. The hope being that would take me out of the game preventing me from going after ISIL.
As such I should probably explain. I wasn't actually in the Church during the sword attack. In fact it was the way that this woman was randomly telling me about this guy's penis that had me nodding my head and thinking; "Yep. That's traumatic shock."
In terms of the psychological effects of this relentless parade of slaughter obviously it does have an effect on me.
Although it wasn't directly linked to ISIL the July 7th (7/7/16) terror attack in Dallas, Texas made for an extremely long and unpleasant day from me. This really lasted until the memorial service on July 13th (13/7/16). I really then had one day off before the Nice attack. It's been non-stop since then.
So even as far back as Saturday (23/6/16) was scheduling yesterday evening to go off an deal it. For obvious reasons I don't to share my particular process but generally it is just a matter of accepting that these things do affect you and coming to peace with it.
I could really have done without the mother of Sandra Bland appearing at the Democratic National Convention yesterday though. After all she is extremely offensive to anyone with knowledge of genuine Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray was very obviously the work of a small, largely self-directed ISIL cell.
The reason why it was so quickly indentified at as such is that one of the attackers - 19 year old Adel Kermiche - had previously served 10 months in prison for attempting to join ISIL in Syria. At the time of the attack he was released from prison on license/parole and was wearing an electronic monitoring tag.
The fact that despite being a known ISIL sympathiser Kermiche was free to commit the attack has obviously prompted a backlash against the French security services. However I should point out that cases such as these put them in an extremely difficult position.
When we talk about Muslim citizens being a nations first line of defence against terror we are not being politically correct. It is simply the truth.
The reason why the French authorities knew that Kermiche was an ISIL sympathiser is because his own mother and sister informed them that they were worried he was becoming radicalised. If the French authorities react to that by putting the son in prison for the rest of his life no other mother is going to come forward.
This will create a situation like the one you have in Molenbeek, Brussels, Belgium. Here not only don't local residents inform the authorities of members of the community who have become radicalised they actively shelter terrorists as they did with Saleh Abdeslam. As Lahouaiej Bouhlel demonstrates it is the threats the authorities don't know about that are the most dangerous.
That said though in other cases where people have been convicted of serious terrorist offences that haven't been uncovered by community intelligence should remain in prison until ISIL have been defeated. Those who have already been released from prison should be immediately recalled indefinitely as a threat to society.
What I am much more concerned about though is the French government's failure to combat the threat of ISIL at the international diplomatic and political level.
On May 10th 2016 (10/5/16) Russia tabled a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution to designate both the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of the Levant/Harakat Ahrar ash-Sham al-Islamiyya (Ahrar al-Sham) and the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam (JAI) as terrorists groups.
These two groups are key parts of the Al Qaeda led Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition in Syria. They regularly fight alongside ISIL - particularly during the spring of 2015 when the JAF's Northwestern offensive was co-ordinated with ISIL's capture of Palmyra. Therefore the designation of Ahrar al-Sham and JAI as terror groups is vital to the defeat of ISIL.
However France along with the US and the UK vetoed the Russian resolution. This allows nations such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia to continue supplying Ahrar al-Sham and JAI with weapons which are then passed on to ISIL. It also grants unwarranted legitimacy to ISIL claim that they are simply protecting Muslims from oppression.
Although I need to deal with it as a separate issue the big development over the past few weeks in Syria is that the Syrian government has succeeded in liberating the Castello Road.
Along with Highway 214 which is a crucial part of what I term "Erdogan's Pocket" or "Garvaghy Road." It's liberation cuts the supply line between Turkey and Army of Conquest forces occupying Aleppo City. As such the liberation of the Castello Road is a massive step forward in the efforts to force ISIL and their associates from Syria entirely.
Curiously though on Monday (25/7/16) the UNSC held a session on the liberation of Castello Road. Rather than celebrating this victory the French Ambassador joined with the US, the UK and others condemning this defeat of the terrorists. They then called on the Syrian government to hand the terrorists supply line back to them.
So if ISIL is at war with France as French President Hollande said in response to the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray attack he really needs to hurry up and decide which side he's on;
France's or ISIL's.
17:05 on 27/7/16 (UK date).
Monday, 25 July 2016
The Munich, Reutlingen and Ansbach Terror Attacks. Pt.2
This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 1; http://watchitdie.blogspot.in/2016/07/the-munich-reutligen-and-ansbach-terror.html
In that part I explained how Ali David Sonboly had attacked a target that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had called on their supporters to attack in June 2016. I also explained how Sonboly attack targeted ISIL's main objectives of the Olympics and community tensions in Europe caused by the migration crisis.
As such it should be clear that Sonboly's attack bore all the hallmarks of an ISIL-style Islamist terror attack.
However the German government really doesn't want to admit that it has failed to uphold its part of social contract which obligates it to protect its citizens. As a result it immediately went into cover-up mode.
As part of this effort much has been made of the fact that Sonboly suffered from the sort of mental health problems associated with troubled teenagers in many western societies.
Firstly I should point out that this is exactly the profile of an ISIL recruit.
Unlike Al Qaeda which has historically been very committed to liberating the holy Mosques of Mecca from the Saudi Monarchy ISIL is not an Islamic group. Instead it is a nihilistic group.
Simply put nihilism is a philosophy of despair and destruction. For ISIL all these grand claims such re-establishing the Islamic Caliphate etc are simply a cover for the appalling violence they hope will help save them from their own sense of worthlessness.
Mohamed Lahouaie-Bouhlel who carried out the June 14th (14/7/16) in Nice, France had a similar history of being treated for psychological problems.
Likewise probably ISIL's most famous member Mohammed Emwazi (AKA: "Jihadi John") had a long history of depression and psychosis for which he was under a doctors care prior to his departure to Syria. In his emails to the Daily Mail newspaper Emwazi spoke extensively about his psychological problems in an attempt to garner sympathy.
As for the claim that Munich couldn't possibly be an Islamist terror attack because Muslims were amongst the victims. In Nice 1 in every 3 people killed were Muslims. In Saturday's (23/7/16) attack in Kabul, Afghanistan 100% of the victims were Muslims. Today 17 people were killed in an ISIL suicide bombing in Khalis, Iraq. They were all Muslims.
Secondly this overlap between the nihilism of ISIL and the light nihilism of teenage rebellion is something that has been talked about on the fringes of anti-ISIL efforts for a while now. So much so it's even appear as a storyline in the US TV Show "NCIS."
Made primarily for the syndication market it is extremely easy to mock NCIS. They have to churn out 24 episodes a year. Each one of those episodes has to be almost completely self-contained with a crime being committed, a crime being investigated and a crime being solved. All within the space of 40 minutes plus commercials. In those episodes sex and violence can only be alluded to and swearing is absolutely forbidden.
Despite these laborious restrictions on their creativity in one or two episodes every season NCIS manages to absolutely smash it out of the park. The long running Mossad liaison officer character "Ziva David" certainly won them lots of extremely well connected fans.
The stand out moments from the current season of NCIS (Season 12) revolve around a mysterious Islamist terror group known simply as; "The Calling." Although no-one is named specifically their membership includes a character who is suspiciously like Kayla Mueller and they were formed in Syria before moving on to invade Iraq.
What The Calling does is troll some of the darker websites on the Internet such as pro-suicide sites, pro-Anorexia sites and what are generally termed "Hate Sites" - think 4Chan. There they recruit trouble teenagers and manipulate their angst to get them to carry out terror attacks without them realising that they are part of an Islamist terror group.
The advantage for The Calling of operating in this way is that local authorities dismiss these attacks as isolated acts by maladjusted teenagers rather than the work of a Islamist terrorist network. As a result they never bother investigate the wider Islamist terror network leaving it free to conduct ever more brutal attacks.
In the show the investigators liken The Calling's action to "Peter Pan's" attempts to recruit "The Lost Boys." You may remember that aside from the tribute to the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony featured a sequence dedicated to Peter Pan. Just before they did that strange sequence about healthcare policy.
To give you an idea of how much NCIS is talked about in certain circles although he did cut his visit short following the July 7th (7/7/16) Black Lives Matter terrorist attack in Dallas, Texas US President Obama could not leave before he visited a US Naval base in Rota, Spain. That Naval base features very heavily in the NCIS "Port-to-Port Killer" storyline.
The first episode in The Calling storyline was broadcast in the UK last Saturday (16/7/16). On the Monday (18/7/16) there was an incident in Jerusalem, Israel when a man was stopped from carrying a bomb in a backpack aboard a trolley bus/tram. I don't want to give away spoilers but if you've seen the NCIS episode that would seem extremely familiar.
Also much has been made of the strange spectacle of the Muslim son of a refugee screaming racist abuse about Muslims and refugees as he carried out his attack.
I should start by pointing out that this seems to have been extremely overstated. It seems mainly based on a video of an exchange between a member of the public and Sonboly as Sonboly was reloading his gun.
During that exchange the member of the public unleashed an impressive stream of verbal abuse against Sonboly. I recognise some of the German phrases used even if Google refuses to translate them for me. Therefore this seems likely to just be Sonboly reacting to the accusations being levelled against him by a man who was too far away to shoot.
The attack did though occur on the fifth anniversary of Norwegian neo-Nazi Anders Breivik's shooting rampage in 2011.
Seeming to bow to the Twitter campaign by much of the European left German police did initially claim that Sonboly was in possession of a copy of Breivik's manifesto although they have now retracted that claim. Likewise I understand the person who claimed to the media that Sonboly had used a picture of Breivik in his Snapchat profile has since been arrested as an accessory to the crime.
I think though there are two important details to remember about this aspect of the attack;
The first is that one of the primary objectives of the attack was to increase racial tension and division. Particularly by portraying the west as anti-Muslim in order to produce more western recruits for ISIL.
Secondly people - particularly terrorists - will lie to get what they want.
This issue of when we can call a terrorist attack a terrorist attack is an extremely hot issue within US politics. As with Black Lives Matter it also seems to have infected European politics.
Personally I think it goes back to Obama's fundamental misconception about ISIL.
Obama seems to genuinely believe that ISIL are some sort of heroic civil rights protest group battling the oppression of the Syrian government rather than a group of genocidal terrorists active from California in the US right across Europe, Africa and the Middle-East all the way into South-East Asia and even Australia.
The issue was really ignited by the February 10th 2015 (10/2/15) shooting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Here three members of a Mosque that was under Federal investigation for links to ISIL were shot and killed in an unrelated parking dispute. Seizing on the opportunity to take some of the pressure of the counter-terrorism investigation off them the Mosque demanded that this be labelled an act of anti-Muslim terrorism.
Unfortunately Obama fell for it hook, line and sinker.
Now every time there's a terrorist attack or mass shooting anywhere in the World Obama supporters take to Twitter to tell us that because we're all homophobic, Islamaphobic racists whenever the attacker's a Muslim we label it terrorism, whenever the attacker's black we label them a thug but when the attacker's white we simply put it down to mental illness.
Obviously Obama supporters very much want to avoid a legitimate discussion about when attacks are classed as terrorism.
After all that would involve some very difficult questions about the December 20th 2014 (20/12/14) Black Lives Matter attack on police in New York City. The March 12th 2015 (12/3/15) Black Lives Matter attack on police in Ferguson, Missouri. The July 7th 2016(7/7/16) Black Lives Matter attack on police in Dallas, Texas. The July 17th (17/7/16) Black Lives Matter attack on police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
It would also explain why there is absolutely no criminal case for Dylann Roof to answer over the events in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17th 2015 (17/6/15).
In short such a discussion could only conclude that Barack Obama and his associates have to go to prison for waging a terrorist war against the United States.
Apart from igniting those arguments I think that ISIL as a nominally Sunni organisation were hoping to boost recruitment by showing how the west refuse to open a terrorist investigation when the attacker is a Shia. Therefore as they will tell their recruits it is obvious that the west is backing Shia terrorists to destroy them. All good Sunnis must join ISIL to fight back.
Also I think that the terrorist were hoping that Germany would try and cover up Friday's (22/7/17) attack in Munich in the way that they did. The German's efforts so far have been so offensive to anyone with even half a brain cell that this will lead to a backlash further destroying the space in which Muslims and non-Muslims coexist and further destabilising Germany.
Based on the way they have behaved these past three days I think it is now going to be impossible for Germany to get Hungary and Poland to agree to a refugee deal. Therefore if Turkey decides to once again flood the continent with migrants the EU is - I believed the correct technical term is; "F*cked."
As I said on Sunday (24/7/16) the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held its meeting on whether to expel Russia from the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In an extremely rare display of moral courage they declined to expel Russia. However they failed to expel the IAAF from the Olympic movement and left other sports federations free to ban Russian competitors.
Despite this it took little more than an hour for Islamist terrorists to launch revenge attacks against Germany.
The first of these took place in Reutlingen in the north-western state of Baden-Wuttemberg.
Here a Syrian illegal migrant who had been refused refugee status twice but had not been taken into custody or deported launched a machete attack at a kebab stall. He injured two and murdered a pregnant Polish woman before being subdued and arrested. No doubt he's already out on bail.
The second of these took place in Ansbach which is in Bavaria.
Here another Syrian man who had been denied refugee status but had not been taken into custody or deported tried carrying a backpack bomb into an open air music festival attended by roughly 2,500 people that was being held in the town square.
Having been refused entry to the music festival for not having a valid ticket he instead chose to detonate his bomb at a near-by bar. Fortunately he only succeeded in killing himself although he did injure 15.
Following the attack in Reutlingen the German authorities did exactly what they did following the Munich attack. They denied that it was terrorist related and tried to make us feel bad for hurting the poor terrorists feelings.
Following the Ansbach attack the German authorities again tried to cover it up by denying that a bombing had taken place and trying to pass it off as a gas explosion. However the local Mayor called the Federal authorities out by confirming to the media that it was a bombing.
It has since been discovered that the prior to the bombing the attacker had recorded a video on his mobile phone which he sent to ISIL claiming the attack in the groups name declaring it to be an unspecified act of revenge.
Despite this the best the German authorities can come out with is a statement that' "We cannot rule out a link to ISIL at this time."
I find this strategy of denial and cover up on the part of the German authorities alarming and frankly dangerous.
I like to think that my hard-left credentials are beyond reproach. After all I have been banned from Germany because of them. However at this point even I think that the far-right and even the neo-Nazis are making a lot more sense than Merkel's government.
Imagine what people without my level of political experience are thinking.
21:10 on 25/7/16 (UK date).
In that part I explained how Ali David Sonboly had attacked a target that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had called on their supporters to attack in June 2016. I also explained how Sonboly attack targeted ISIL's main objectives of the Olympics and community tensions in Europe caused by the migration crisis.
As such it should be clear that Sonboly's attack bore all the hallmarks of an ISIL-style Islamist terror attack.
However the German government really doesn't want to admit that it has failed to uphold its part of social contract which obligates it to protect its citizens. As a result it immediately went into cover-up mode.
As part of this effort much has been made of the fact that Sonboly suffered from the sort of mental health problems associated with troubled teenagers in many western societies.
Firstly I should point out that this is exactly the profile of an ISIL recruit.
Unlike Al Qaeda which has historically been very committed to liberating the holy Mosques of Mecca from the Saudi Monarchy ISIL is not an Islamic group. Instead it is a nihilistic group.
Simply put nihilism is a philosophy of despair and destruction. For ISIL all these grand claims such re-establishing the Islamic Caliphate etc are simply a cover for the appalling violence they hope will help save them from their own sense of worthlessness.
Mohamed Lahouaie-Bouhlel who carried out the June 14th (14/7/16) in Nice, France had a similar history of being treated for psychological problems.
Likewise probably ISIL's most famous member Mohammed Emwazi (AKA: "Jihadi John") had a long history of depression and psychosis for which he was under a doctors care prior to his departure to Syria. In his emails to the Daily Mail newspaper Emwazi spoke extensively about his psychological problems in an attempt to garner sympathy.
As for the claim that Munich couldn't possibly be an Islamist terror attack because Muslims were amongst the victims. In Nice 1 in every 3 people killed were Muslims. In Saturday's (23/7/16) attack in Kabul, Afghanistan 100% of the victims were Muslims. Today 17 people were killed in an ISIL suicide bombing in Khalis, Iraq. They were all Muslims.
Secondly this overlap between the nihilism of ISIL and the light nihilism of teenage rebellion is something that has been talked about on the fringes of anti-ISIL efforts for a while now. So much so it's even appear as a storyline in the US TV Show "NCIS."
Made primarily for the syndication market it is extremely easy to mock NCIS. They have to churn out 24 episodes a year. Each one of those episodes has to be almost completely self-contained with a crime being committed, a crime being investigated and a crime being solved. All within the space of 40 minutes plus commercials. In those episodes sex and violence can only be alluded to and swearing is absolutely forbidden.
Despite these laborious restrictions on their creativity in one or two episodes every season NCIS manages to absolutely smash it out of the park. The long running Mossad liaison officer character "Ziva David" certainly won them lots of extremely well connected fans.
The stand out moments from the current season of NCIS (Season 12) revolve around a mysterious Islamist terror group known simply as; "The Calling." Although no-one is named specifically their membership includes a character who is suspiciously like Kayla Mueller and they were formed in Syria before moving on to invade Iraq.
What The Calling does is troll some of the darker websites on the Internet such as pro-suicide sites, pro-Anorexia sites and what are generally termed "Hate Sites" - think 4Chan. There they recruit trouble teenagers and manipulate their angst to get them to carry out terror attacks without them realising that they are part of an Islamist terror group.
The advantage for The Calling of operating in this way is that local authorities dismiss these attacks as isolated acts by maladjusted teenagers rather than the work of a Islamist terrorist network. As a result they never bother investigate the wider Islamist terror network leaving it free to conduct ever more brutal attacks.
In the show the investigators liken The Calling's action to "Peter Pan's" attempts to recruit "The Lost Boys." You may remember that aside from the tribute to the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony featured a sequence dedicated to Peter Pan. Just before they did that strange sequence about healthcare policy.
To give you an idea of how much NCIS is talked about in certain circles although he did cut his visit short following the July 7th (7/7/16) Black Lives Matter terrorist attack in Dallas, Texas US President Obama could not leave before he visited a US Naval base in Rota, Spain. That Naval base features very heavily in the NCIS "Port-to-Port Killer" storyline.
The first episode in The Calling storyline was broadcast in the UK last Saturday (16/7/16). On the Monday (18/7/16) there was an incident in Jerusalem, Israel when a man was stopped from carrying a bomb in a backpack aboard a trolley bus/tram. I don't want to give away spoilers but if you've seen the NCIS episode that would seem extremely familiar.
Also much has been made of the strange spectacle of the Muslim son of a refugee screaming racist abuse about Muslims and refugees as he carried out his attack.
I should start by pointing out that this seems to have been extremely overstated. It seems mainly based on a video of an exchange between a member of the public and Sonboly as Sonboly was reloading his gun.
During that exchange the member of the public unleashed an impressive stream of verbal abuse against Sonboly. I recognise some of the German phrases used even if Google refuses to translate them for me. Therefore this seems likely to just be Sonboly reacting to the accusations being levelled against him by a man who was too far away to shoot.
The attack did though occur on the fifth anniversary of Norwegian neo-Nazi Anders Breivik's shooting rampage in 2011.
Seeming to bow to the Twitter campaign by much of the European left German police did initially claim that Sonboly was in possession of a copy of Breivik's manifesto although they have now retracted that claim. Likewise I understand the person who claimed to the media that Sonboly had used a picture of Breivik in his Snapchat profile has since been arrested as an accessory to the crime.
I think though there are two important details to remember about this aspect of the attack;
The first is that one of the primary objectives of the attack was to increase racial tension and division. Particularly by portraying the west as anti-Muslim in order to produce more western recruits for ISIL.
Secondly people - particularly terrorists - will lie to get what they want.
This issue of when we can call a terrorist attack a terrorist attack is an extremely hot issue within US politics. As with Black Lives Matter it also seems to have infected European politics.
Personally I think it goes back to Obama's fundamental misconception about ISIL.
Obama seems to genuinely believe that ISIL are some sort of heroic civil rights protest group battling the oppression of the Syrian government rather than a group of genocidal terrorists active from California in the US right across Europe, Africa and the Middle-East all the way into South-East Asia and even Australia.
The issue was really ignited by the February 10th 2015 (10/2/15) shooting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Here three members of a Mosque that was under Federal investigation for links to ISIL were shot and killed in an unrelated parking dispute. Seizing on the opportunity to take some of the pressure of the counter-terrorism investigation off them the Mosque demanded that this be labelled an act of anti-Muslim terrorism.
Unfortunately Obama fell for it hook, line and sinker.
Now every time there's a terrorist attack or mass shooting anywhere in the World Obama supporters take to Twitter to tell us that because we're all homophobic, Islamaphobic racists whenever the attacker's a Muslim we label it terrorism, whenever the attacker's black we label them a thug but when the attacker's white we simply put it down to mental illness.
Obviously Obama supporters very much want to avoid a legitimate discussion about when attacks are classed as terrorism.
After all that would involve some very difficult questions about the December 20th 2014 (20/12/14) Black Lives Matter attack on police in New York City. The March 12th 2015 (12/3/15) Black Lives Matter attack on police in Ferguson, Missouri. The July 7th 2016(7/7/16) Black Lives Matter attack on police in Dallas, Texas. The July 17th (17/7/16) Black Lives Matter attack on police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
It would also explain why there is absolutely no criminal case for Dylann Roof to answer over the events in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17th 2015 (17/6/15).
In short such a discussion could only conclude that Barack Obama and his associates have to go to prison for waging a terrorist war against the United States.
Apart from igniting those arguments I think that ISIL as a nominally Sunni organisation were hoping to boost recruitment by showing how the west refuse to open a terrorist investigation when the attacker is a Shia. Therefore as they will tell their recruits it is obvious that the west is backing Shia terrorists to destroy them. All good Sunnis must join ISIL to fight back.
Also I think that the terrorist were hoping that Germany would try and cover up Friday's (22/7/17) attack in Munich in the way that they did. The German's efforts so far have been so offensive to anyone with even half a brain cell that this will lead to a backlash further destroying the space in which Muslims and non-Muslims coexist and further destabilising Germany.
Based on the way they have behaved these past three days I think it is now going to be impossible for Germany to get Hungary and Poland to agree to a refugee deal. Therefore if Turkey decides to once again flood the continent with migrants the EU is - I believed the correct technical term is; "F*cked."
As I said on Sunday (24/7/16) the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held its meeting on whether to expel Russia from the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In an extremely rare display of moral courage they declined to expel Russia. However they failed to expel the IAAF from the Olympic movement and left other sports federations free to ban Russian competitors.
Despite this it took little more than an hour for Islamist terrorists to launch revenge attacks against Germany.
The first of these took place in Reutlingen in the north-western state of Baden-Wuttemberg.
Here a Syrian illegal migrant who had been refused refugee status twice but had not been taken into custody or deported launched a machete attack at a kebab stall. He injured two and murdered a pregnant Polish woman before being subdued and arrested. No doubt he's already out on bail.
The second of these took place in Ansbach which is in Bavaria.
Here another Syrian man who had been denied refugee status but had not been taken into custody or deported tried carrying a backpack bomb into an open air music festival attended by roughly 2,500 people that was being held in the town square.
Having been refused entry to the music festival for not having a valid ticket he instead chose to detonate his bomb at a near-by bar. Fortunately he only succeeded in killing himself although he did injure 15.
Following the attack in Reutlingen the German authorities did exactly what they did following the Munich attack. They denied that it was terrorist related and tried to make us feel bad for hurting the poor terrorists feelings.
Following the Ansbach attack the German authorities again tried to cover it up by denying that a bombing had taken place and trying to pass it off as a gas explosion. However the local Mayor called the Federal authorities out by confirming to the media that it was a bombing.
It has since been discovered that the prior to the bombing the attacker had recorded a video on his mobile phone which he sent to ISIL claiming the attack in the groups name declaring it to be an unspecified act of revenge.
Despite this the best the German authorities can come out with is a statement that' "We cannot rule out a link to ISIL at this time."
I find this strategy of denial and cover up on the part of the German authorities alarming and frankly dangerous.
I like to think that my hard-left credentials are beyond reproach. After all I have been banned from Germany because of them. However at this point even I think that the far-right and even the neo-Nazis are making a lot more sense than Merkel's government.
Imagine what people without my level of political experience are thinking.
21:10 on 25/7/16 (UK date).
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