This really should be read as a direct continuation of Monday's (19/6/17) post; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/operation-featherweight-mon-35-week-5.html
In that post I covered how the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have lost control of all of the Iraqi city of Mosul save for parts of the Old City district. I also covered how ISIL have lost control of the 28,000kmsq (16,800milesq) of territory between Mosul and Iraq's border with Syria to the west.
It almost goes without saying that ISIL have not taken this string of defeats in good grace.
As I've mentioned on May 19th (19/5/17) ISIL were being liberated from the Hay 17 Tammuz district of Mosul. Their response to this was to set fire to a building in which 8 civilian families made up of a total of 23 people were sheltering.
This served absolutely no military purpose and was done purely out of spite. Due to the ongoing fighting it took four days for those 23 bodies to be recovered and buried.
Due to that and other similar incidents the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) have shifted their tactics within Mosul.
When the operation began back in October 2016 the focus was on getting civilians to remain within their homes while the fighting raged around them. The ISF have recently been much more focused on raiding house to help the civilians escape before trying to fully oust ISIL from an area.
However even this has brought risk to Mosul's population. ISIL want to use these civilians as human shields so absolutely do not want them to escape. Therefore as the ISF have move towards evacuations ISIL have intensified their use of snipers to shoot down the civilians as they flee.
This is a tactic that ISIL have been using throughout the battle for Mosul. However a particularly nasty period occurred at the start of June. Here ISIL snipers murdered 70 civilians fleeing the Zanjili district in a five day period. The bodies were left rotting in the streets until Zanjili district was liberated on June 5th (5/6/17) allowing them to be recovered.
The threat to civilians from ISIL snipers within particularly the Zanjili district had become so bad that on June 3rd (3/6/17) that the New Zealand air force were forced to drop White Phosphorus bombs to create a smokesceen.
Igniting on contact with moisture in the air White Phosphorus is an extremely effective way of producing a smokescreen. However because it also ignites on contact with the moisture in the skin it produces truly horrific burns. Therefore to use White Phosphorus in a populated area is an extreme measure that can only be taken when the risk to civilians from snipers is higher than the risk of them coming into contact with White Phosphorus.
Sadly in response to their looming defeat in and around Mosul ISIL's vengeance against Iraq's civilians has not been limited only to Mosul.
On May 29th (29/5/17) twin bombings struck Baghdad. The first targeted the al-Fuqma Ice Cream Parlour in the Karrada district of this city. This bombing killed 15 people and wounded 75. The second bombing targeted the Pension Office in the Shawaka district of the city. This killed 14 and wounded 37.
The bombing of the al-Fuqma Ice Cream Parlour was particularly spiteful because it occurred just after sunset on the second night of Ramadan. During Ramadan Muslims fast throughout the day and as soon as the sun sets they start feasting. In a very hot country such as Iraq and particularly if you have young children the first thing you want to eat is ice cream.
So the al-Fuqma Ice Cream Parlour was absolutely packed at the time of the bombing and was chosen specifically to kill young families as they were celebrating Islam's most important religious festival.
To their credit the staff at the al-Fuqma Ice Cream Parlour were able to re-open and was once again packed with families celebrating Ramadan on June 3rd (3/6/17). Just five days after the bombing.
On June 9th (9/6/17) ISIL conducted two further bomb attacks close to Baghdad. The first of these targeted the Iman Husayn Shrine in Karbala around 100km (60 miles) south-west of Baghdad. This wounded 5. The second struck a market in the town of Musayib around 70km (40 miles) south of Baghdad. This killed 21 and wounded 30.
On June 10th (10/6/17) ISIL launched a marauding style attack on the town of Shargat. This sits around 130km (80 miles) south of Mosul along the Tigris River. 13 ISIL fighters went on the rampage inside the town before being killed by the ISF. There is no word on any civilian casualties.
As I've said within Mosul ISIL are now just limited to the Old City district. Their defences seem to be centred around the Grand Mosque of al-Nuri which sits just north of the al-Shaziani/Nineveh Street
junction.
Built in 1173 the al-Nuri Mosque is famous for its tilting Minaret which has been dubbed; "al-Hadba/The Hunchback." Some say that this 45 metre (148 feet) Minaret tilts because the Prophet Mohammad knocked into it as he was ascending to heaven. Others say it is bowing its head towards the tomb of the Virgin Mary which Iraqi Christians claim is in near-by Erbil.
The al-Nuri Mosque is considered of great importance to ISIL because it is where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gave his only public sermon after declaring ISIL to be an Islamic Caliphate and he to be its Caliph. Technically al-Baghdadi actually made the declaration of the Caliphate in private in Mosque in eastern Mosul.
On March 17th (17/3/17) the Federal Police element of the ISF entered the Old City district from the al-Tob neighbourhood to the south and the Corniche area to the east. The then proceeded to advance north along al-Shaziani Street and west along Nineveh Street towards the al-Nuri Mosque. By May 4th (4/5/17) the Federal Police had succeeded in surrounding the al-Nuri Mosque on three sides.
On Sunday (18/6/17) the Counter Terrorism Force (CTF/Golden Division) element opened up a new axis entering the Old City from the north-west. Since then they have made dramatic progress. By Tuesday (20/6/17) they had advanced east along Nineveh Street to around 30 metres/yards of the junction with al-Shaziani Street and the al-Nuri Mosque killing around 300 ISIL fighters in the process.
Yesterday (21/6/17) evening ISIL blew up the al-Nuri Mosque. They claim that it was hit by a US airstrike. However I have seen footage of the explosion and it clearly shows demolition charges placed within the building being detonated in sequence. The wrong sequence I may add.
ISIL's defence of Mosul and the Old City in particular has been entirely focused on the defence of the al-Nuri Mosque. The fact that they have now destroyed it shows that ISIL's understand that they have no chance of defending it and will soon be defeated.
In short ISIL have decided that if they can't have the al-Nuri Mosque then no-one can.
Despite this loss of nearly 850 years of Islamic culture the Golden Division have continued their advance on the site where the al-Nuri Mosque used to stands. They now said to just be one street away.
On May 18th (18/5/17) I said I wouldn't be making firm plans for that coming weekend because the destruction of a single building could cause ISIL's defences in Mosul to collapse completely. Although I didn't name it the building I was thinking of was the al-Nuri Mosque.
As such I think the announcement that the battle is over and Mosul has finally and fully been liberated will be coming in the next three to four days at most.
17:25 on 22/6/17 (UK date).
Thursday, 22 June 2017
Monday, 19 June 2017
Operation Featherweight: Month 35, Week 5, Day 2.
In the summer of 2014 the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) overran northern Iraq. This included the city of Mosul which has functioned as ISIL's de facto capital in the country every since.
On October 17th 2016 (17/10/16) an operation was launched to liberate Mosul from ISIL. This was intended as a combined operation.
The Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) were given the responsibility for securing the area surrounding Mosul. The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) had responsibility for liberating the city itself. All aspects of the operation are supported by the US-led coalition, Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve.
The first phase of the operation was to surround Mosul on three sides. The northern Tel Skuf Front, the eastern Kalak Front and the southern Qarrayah/Gwer Front. This was completed with the liberation of Hamman al-Alil on the Qarrayah front on November 7th 2016 (7/11/16).
The second phase was to liberate the area of Mosul that sits to the east of the Tigris River. This eastern half is sometimes referred to as; "The Left Bank." This phase was begun before the first phase had been completed with the ISF entering the al-Quds neighbourhood from the Gogjali neighbourhood on the Kalak Front on November 1st 2016 (1/11/16).
This second phase was completed with the liberation of all of the eastern half of Mosul on January 24th 2017 (24/1/17).
The third phase of the operation was to liberate the area of Mosul that sits to the west of the Tigris River. This western half is sometimes referred to as; "The Right Bank." Following a short and planned paused this third phase began on February 19th (19/2/17) with the ISF advancing north from Hamman al-Alil.
On February 23rd (23/2/17) the ISF entered western Mosul itself. They did this on two axis;
The Federal Police axis entered western Mosul from the Mosul International Airport/Ghazlani Military base at the southern most tip of the city. They then advanced north towards the Old City district of the city clearing neighbourhoods as they went.
The Counter-Terrorism Force (CTF/Golden Division) axis entered the city from the al-Rayyan neighbourhood at the south-western tip of the city. They then advanced north-east towards the Old City district of Mosul clearing neighbourhoods as they went.
On the southern axis by March 21st (21/3/17) the Federal Police had succeeded in liberating the al-Tob neighbourhood which sits directly to the south of the Old City district. They had also liberated the Corniche area that sits between the Old City district and the Tigris River between the al-Jamhuriya Bridge to the south and the Old Bridge to the north.
From there the Federal Police set about liberating the Old City district. They did this in two axis advancing north from the al-Tob neighbourhood along al-Shaziani Street while at the same time advancing west from the Corniche along Nineveh Street. In both directions the Federal Police cleared the buildings adjoining the streets as they advanced.
The Federal Police's primary objective within the Old City is the al-Nuri Mosque which sits just north of the al-Shaziani/Nineveh Street junction. As one of the places where ISIL's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the group to be an Islamic State this seems to be where ISIL have concentrated the majority of their fighters in Mosul.
As of May 4th (4/5/17) the Federal Police had succeeded in reaching the al-Nuri Mosque. They've surrounded it on three sides.
On the south-western axis as of April 20th (20/4/17) the Golden Division had established a line of control between the al-Nasr neighbourhood on the western outskirts of Mosul to the boundary of the Zanjili district which sits directly north of the Old City district.
On May 4th (4/5/17) the 9th Armoured Division and combined Rapid Reaction Force element of the ISF opened a third northern axis.
Entering from the Musaharrifah district on the northern outskirts its first objective was to sweep south placing a cordon around the 17 Tammuz, Hay al-Uraybi, Hay ar-Rabi, Hay ar-Rafi and Zanjili districts. These are the five districts remaining under ISIL's control north of the Old City district.
On May 9th (9/5/17) the Golden Division and northern axis combined on the boundary of the Hay al-Rabi district. This meant that the western side of the cordon had been established. Progress in establishing the eastern side of the cordon has been much slower with the western side of the Third Bridge not being liberated until May 22nd (22/5/17).
However this did not stop the ISF moving to liberate the areas inside where the cordon had already been established.
On May 13th (13/5/17) the Hay ar-Rabi district along the Third Bridge road had been liberated. On May 19th (19/5/17) the Hay al-Uraybi district directly adjacent to the Hay ar-Rabi district had been liberated.
On May 20th (20/5/17) the Hay ar-Rafi district between the Hay al-Uraybi district and the Tigris River was liberated. This left ISIL in control of just the Zanjili district, the Old City district and parts of the 17 Tammuz district. It also marked the completion of the Golden Division's offensive mission within Mosul.
On May 21st (21/5/17) the entire 17 Tammuz district was completely liberated.
Having liberated the western side of the Third Bridge on May 22nd (22/5/17) the northern axis then launched an operation to liberate the al-Jamhuri hospital complex directly to the south of the Third Bridge. This operation was successfully completed on May 23rd (23/5/17).
Following a short pause on May 27th (27/5/17) the northern axis then pushed deep into Zanjili district from the hospital complex and from the Qahib al-Ban neighbourhood which was liberated by the Rapid Reaction Force on March 30th (30/3/17).
The Zanjili district is actually made up of several neighbourhoods.
There is the Zanjili neighbourhood itself. Then there is the Saha neighbourhood which is dominated by the hospital complex. The Shifa neighbourhood which sits of the Saha neighbourhood. Finally there is the Bab Sinjar neighbourhood which sits south of the Shifa neighbourhood directly on the boundary with the Old City district.
On June 7th (7/6/17) the Zanjili neighbourhood was liberated. This left ISIL in control of just the Shifa neighbourhood and the Bab Sinjar neighbourhood along with the Old City district.
On June 11th (11/6/17) an operation to liberate Shifa and Bab Sinjar neighbourhoods was launched. On June 15th (15/6/17) the ISF succeeded in liberating Bab Sinjar neighbourhood. On June 17th (17/6/17) the ISF succeeded in liberating Shifa neighbourhood.
This leaves ISIL in control of only the Old City district of Mosul.
Due to the advances of the Federal Police axis it actually means ISIL are really only in control of the areas of the Old City district between Nineveh Street to the south and the Fifth Bridge road to the north. Although the actual line of control is more jagged then that and constantly shifting.
Having completed their offensive mission in Mosul on May 20th (20/5/17) the Golden Division have been having a little bit of a break. However yesterday (18/6/17) they've found a new mission. The Golden Division have entered the Old City district from the north-west from the junction of the Fifth Bridge road and Ibrahim al-Athir Street.
I know that for more then a month now I've been saying that we are on the brink of the total liberation of Mosul. However now we really are. ISIL are limited to just a handful of streets and buildings within the Old City.
As I've been saying from the start one of the main problems with the Mosul operation has been to only surround the city on three sides. The entire area to the west of Mosul designated; "The Falls Road" was left open in order to allow ISIL fighters to flee to Syria and from Syria up the Garvaghy Road to Turkey and the rest of the World.
Fortunately the PMF stepped in. On October 29th 2016 (29/10/16) they opened a western front advancing from the southern Qarrayh Front to the town of Tal Afar which sits about 80km (48 miles) west of Mosul on the H47 Highway between Mosul and Iraq's border with Syria.
The PMF completed this western front sealing the Falls Road with the liberation of Tal Afar airport on November 16th 2016 (16/11/16). This is known as; "The Qarrayah-Tal Afar Line." Frustratingly Iraq's neighbour Turkey has forbidden the PMF from liberating Tal Afar itself.
On February 26th 2017 (26/2/17) the PMF along with the ISF's 9th Armoured Division moved to tighten the western cordon on Mosul. They did this by advancing from the town of Tal Zalat around 20km (12 miles) west of Mosul to the town of Badush around 12km (7 miles) north-west of Mosul.
The establishment of what is known as; "The Tal Zalat-Badush Line" was completed on March 26th (26/3/17) with the liberation of Badush. It is this which allowed the ISF's 9th Armoured Division to open the northern axis within Mosul.
Since then the PMF have focused their efforts on liberating everything between the Qarrayah-Tal Afar line and Iraq's border with Syria.
On April 25th (25/4/17) the PMF launched an operation to liberate the entire Hadar/Hatra district. This covers roughly 16,800kmsq (10,000milesq) south-west of Mosul to the rough line between Baiji in Iraq and Al Mayadin in Syria. At its heart it has a vast archaeological site dating back to the 2nd Century BC.
On April 26th (26/4/17) the PMF succeeded in liberating the Hadar/Hatra district which it must be said is largely uninhabited desert. Although it is not glamorous work it is work that needs to be done.
After liberating the Hadar/Hatra district the PMF set about liberating the al-Qairawan district. This is really the middle third of the area between Mosul and the Iraq/Syria border. At really its northern most tip of its centre you have the now infamous town of Sinjar/Shingal.
The PMF set about liberating the al-Qairawan district on May 12th (12/5/17). On May 14th (14/5/17) they had succeeded in separating Sinjar/Shingal from the al-Qairawan district. On May 23rd (23/5/17) the PMF fully liberated al-Qairawan district.
Following the liberation of al-Qairawan district set about liberating the al-Ba'aj district. This sits between the al-Qairawan district and the Iraq/Syria border. The PMF began this operation on May 25th (25/5/17).
On May 29th (29/5/17) the PMF reached the Iraq/Syria border along the H47 Highway. On June 4th (4/6/17) the PMF liberated the town of al-Ba'aj - the main town in the al-Ba'aj district.
On June 7th (7/6/17) the PMF liberated the village of Tal Safuq which sits directly on the Iraq/Syria border.
With the exception of Tal Afar the liberation of Tal Safuq marks the completion of the PMF's operations in the Falls Road. An operation that has seen them liberate some 28,000kmsq (16,800milesq) of territory.
At around 17:55 on 19/6/17 (UK date) I will have to pick this up after dinner or possibly tomorrow.
On October 17th 2016 (17/10/16) an operation was launched to liberate Mosul from ISIL. This was intended as a combined operation.
The Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) were given the responsibility for securing the area surrounding Mosul. The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) had responsibility for liberating the city itself. All aspects of the operation are supported by the US-led coalition, Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve.
The first phase of the operation was to surround Mosul on three sides. The northern Tel Skuf Front, the eastern Kalak Front and the southern Qarrayah/Gwer Front. This was completed with the liberation of Hamman al-Alil on the Qarrayah front on November 7th 2016 (7/11/16).
The second phase was to liberate the area of Mosul that sits to the east of the Tigris River. This eastern half is sometimes referred to as; "The Left Bank." This phase was begun before the first phase had been completed with the ISF entering the al-Quds neighbourhood from the Gogjali neighbourhood on the Kalak Front on November 1st 2016 (1/11/16).
This second phase was completed with the liberation of all of the eastern half of Mosul on January 24th 2017 (24/1/17).
The third phase of the operation was to liberate the area of Mosul that sits to the west of the Tigris River. This western half is sometimes referred to as; "The Right Bank." Following a short and planned paused this third phase began on February 19th (19/2/17) with the ISF advancing north from Hamman al-Alil.
On February 23rd (23/2/17) the ISF entered western Mosul itself. They did this on two axis;
The Federal Police axis entered western Mosul from the Mosul International Airport/Ghazlani Military base at the southern most tip of the city. They then advanced north towards the Old City district of the city clearing neighbourhoods as they went.
The Counter-Terrorism Force (CTF/Golden Division) axis entered the city from the al-Rayyan neighbourhood at the south-western tip of the city. They then advanced north-east towards the Old City district of Mosul clearing neighbourhoods as they went.
On the southern axis by March 21st (21/3/17) the Federal Police had succeeded in liberating the al-Tob neighbourhood which sits directly to the south of the Old City district. They had also liberated the Corniche area that sits between the Old City district and the Tigris River between the al-Jamhuriya Bridge to the south and the Old Bridge to the north.
From there the Federal Police set about liberating the Old City district. They did this in two axis advancing north from the al-Tob neighbourhood along al-Shaziani Street while at the same time advancing west from the Corniche along Nineveh Street. In both directions the Federal Police cleared the buildings adjoining the streets as they advanced.
The Federal Police's primary objective within the Old City is the al-Nuri Mosque which sits just north of the al-Shaziani/Nineveh Street junction. As one of the places where ISIL's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the group to be an Islamic State this seems to be where ISIL have concentrated the majority of their fighters in Mosul.
As of May 4th (4/5/17) the Federal Police had succeeded in reaching the al-Nuri Mosque. They've surrounded it on three sides.
On the south-western axis as of April 20th (20/4/17) the Golden Division had established a line of control between the al-Nasr neighbourhood on the western outskirts of Mosul to the boundary of the Zanjili district which sits directly north of the Old City district.
On May 4th (4/5/17) the 9th Armoured Division and combined Rapid Reaction Force element of the ISF opened a third northern axis.
Entering from the Musaharrifah district on the northern outskirts its first objective was to sweep south placing a cordon around the 17 Tammuz, Hay al-Uraybi, Hay ar-Rabi, Hay ar-Rafi and Zanjili districts. These are the five districts remaining under ISIL's control north of the Old City district.
On May 9th (9/5/17) the Golden Division and northern axis combined on the boundary of the Hay al-Rabi district. This meant that the western side of the cordon had been established. Progress in establishing the eastern side of the cordon has been much slower with the western side of the Third Bridge not being liberated until May 22nd (22/5/17).
However this did not stop the ISF moving to liberate the areas inside where the cordon had already been established.
On May 13th (13/5/17) the Hay ar-Rabi district along the Third Bridge road had been liberated. On May 19th (19/5/17) the Hay al-Uraybi district directly adjacent to the Hay ar-Rabi district had been liberated.
On May 20th (20/5/17) the Hay ar-Rafi district between the Hay al-Uraybi district and the Tigris River was liberated. This left ISIL in control of just the Zanjili district, the Old City district and parts of the 17 Tammuz district. It also marked the completion of the Golden Division's offensive mission within Mosul.
On May 21st (21/5/17) the entire 17 Tammuz district was completely liberated.
Having liberated the western side of the Third Bridge on May 22nd (22/5/17) the northern axis then launched an operation to liberate the al-Jamhuri hospital complex directly to the south of the Third Bridge. This operation was successfully completed on May 23rd (23/5/17).
Following a short pause on May 27th (27/5/17) the northern axis then pushed deep into Zanjili district from the hospital complex and from the Qahib al-Ban neighbourhood which was liberated by the Rapid Reaction Force on March 30th (30/3/17).
The Zanjili district is actually made up of several neighbourhoods.
There is the Zanjili neighbourhood itself. Then there is the Saha neighbourhood which is dominated by the hospital complex. The Shifa neighbourhood which sits of the Saha neighbourhood. Finally there is the Bab Sinjar neighbourhood which sits south of the Shifa neighbourhood directly on the boundary with the Old City district.
On June 7th (7/6/17) the Zanjili neighbourhood was liberated. This left ISIL in control of just the Shifa neighbourhood and the Bab Sinjar neighbourhood along with the Old City district.
On June 11th (11/6/17) an operation to liberate Shifa and Bab Sinjar neighbourhoods was launched. On June 15th (15/6/17) the ISF succeeded in liberating Bab Sinjar neighbourhood. On June 17th (17/6/17) the ISF succeeded in liberating Shifa neighbourhood.
This leaves ISIL in control of only the Old City district of Mosul.
Due to the advances of the Federal Police axis it actually means ISIL are really only in control of the areas of the Old City district between Nineveh Street to the south and the Fifth Bridge road to the north. Although the actual line of control is more jagged then that and constantly shifting.
Having completed their offensive mission in Mosul on May 20th (20/5/17) the Golden Division have been having a little bit of a break. However yesterday (18/6/17) they've found a new mission. The Golden Division have entered the Old City district from the north-west from the junction of the Fifth Bridge road and Ibrahim al-Athir Street.
I know that for more then a month now I've been saying that we are on the brink of the total liberation of Mosul. However now we really are. ISIL are limited to just a handful of streets and buildings within the Old City.
As I've been saying from the start one of the main problems with the Mosul operation has been to only surround the city on three sides. The entire area to the west of Mosul designated; "The Falls Road" was left open in order to allow ISIL fighters to flee to Syria and from Syria up the Garvaghy Road to Turkey and the rest of the World.
Fortunately the PMF stepped in. On October 29th 2016 (29/10/16) they opened a western front advancing from the southern Qarrayh Front to the town of Tal Afar which sits about 80km (48 miles) west of Mosul on the H47 Highway between Mosul and Iraq's border with Syria.
The PMF completed this western front sealing the Falls Road with the liberation of Tal Afar airport on November 16th 2016 (16/11/16). This is known as; "The Qarrayah-Tal Afar Line." Frustratingly Iraq's neighbour Turkey has forbidden the PMF from liberating Tal Afar itself.
On February 26th 2017 (26/2/17) the PMF along with the ISF's 9th Armoured Division moved to tighten the western cordon on Mosul. They did this by advancing from the town of Tal Zalat around 20km (12 miles) west of Mosul to the town of Badush around 12km (7 miles) north-west of Mosul.
The establishment of what is known as; "The Tal Zalat-Badush Line" was completed on March 26th (26/3/17) with the liberation of Badush. It is this which allowed the ISF's 9th Armoured Division to open the northern axis within Mosul.
Since then the PMF have focused their efforts on liberating everything between the Qarrayah-Tal Afar line and Iraq's border with Syria.
On April 25th (25/4/17) the PMF launched an operation to liberate the entire Hadar/Hatra district. This covers roughly 16,800kmsq (10,000milesq) south-west of Mosul to the rough line between Baiji in Iraq and Al Mayadin in Syria. At its heart it has a vast archaeological site dating back to the 2nd Century BC.
On April 26th (26/4/17) the PMF succeeded in liberating the Hadar/Hatra district which it must be said is largely uninhabited desert. Although it is not glamorous work it is work that needs to be done.
After liberating the Hadar/Hatra district the PMF set about liberating the al-Qairawan district. This is really the middle third of the area between Mosul and the Iraq/Syria border. At really its northern most tip of its centre you have the now infamous town of Sinjar/Shingal.
The PMF set about liberating the al-Qairawan district on May 12th (12/5/17). On May 14th (14/5/17) they had succeeded in separating Sinjar/Shingal from the al-Qairawan district. On May 23rd (23/5/17) the PMF fully liberated al-Qairawan district.
Following the liberation of al-Qairawan district set about liberating the al-Ba'aj district. This sits between the al-Qairawan district and the Iraq/Syria border. The PMF began this operation on May 25th (25/5/17).
On May 29th (29/5/17) the PMF reached the Iraq/Syria border along the H47 Highway. On June 4th (4/6/17) the PMF liberated the town of al-Ba'aj - the main town in the al-Ba'aj district.
On June 7th (7/6/17) the PMF liberated the village of Tal Safuq which sits directly on the Iraq/Syria border.
With the exception of Tal Afar the liberation of Tal Safuq marks the completion of the PMF's operations in the Falls Road. An operation that has seen them liberate some 28,000kmsq (16,800milesq) of territory.
At around 17:55 on 19/6/17 (UK date) I will have to pick this up after dinner or possibly tomorrow.
I See Brexit Negotiations Have Begun.
On June 23rd 2016 (23/6/16) Britain voted to exit the European Union (EU) - The "Brexit."
Today (19/6/17) negotiations between Britain and the EU over the terms of Brexit have begun.
In between the Brexit vote and today low-ranking Members of Parliament (MP's) known as backbenchers and opposition MP's of particularly the Liberal Democrats (LibDems) and Labour parties have been extremely angry about Brexit. That's because it highlights to voters just how irrelevant and powerless they actually are.
Any negotiation is not so much about what you want as what the other - in this case 27 - parties are prepared to give you. In order to stand the best chance of being given what you want you have to start by being really clear amongst yourselves what it is you want.
In preparation for today's start of negotiations the UK called a General Election for June 8th 2017 (6/8/17). The objective was to give the governing Conservative Party a large majority in order to silence the more extreme Brexit voices and allow the UK to present a united front within Brexit negotiations.
On May 21st (21/5/17) this was all going well.
Then on May 22nd (22/5/17) an Islamist terrorist attack was carried out in the UK city of Manchester. Amongst other things this bombing was carried out to give the Labour Party a boost at the General Election. The Labour Party wasted no time in coordinating their campaign with the attackers.
On June 3rd (3/6/17) there was a second Islamist terror attack. This time a run-over attack in the London Bridge area of the UK capital London. Again this was carried out to give the Labour Party a boost at the General Election. Again Labour wasted no time in coordinating their campaign with the attackers.
The sad news is that the terror attacks and Labour's exploitation of them worked.
At the General Election a large swing in votes to the Labour Party meant the Conservatives lost their majority forcing them into an informal alliance with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). This leaves the UK technically without a government and means that it's Brexit strategy is going to be determined by a group of people who don't believe in dinosaurs.
It turns out the Labour Party weren't finished there though. Over the night of Tuesday (13/6/17) into Wednesday (14/6/17) they set fire to the Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West housing estate in the Kensington area of London, the UK capital city.
The Grenfell Tower fire is full of little hooks to issues that may well come up in the Brexit negotiations. For example the issue of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change which the UK has signed as part of the EU. It also touches on the August 2011 riots. As I've said Britain doesn't want to turn the negotiations into a contest of who the EU like more, them or me.
The Labour Party have immediately used the Grenfell Tower fire to exert bottom up pressure on the government. The hope is this will combine with top down pressure from the EU as some of the issues raised by the fire come up in Brexit negotiations.
The Labour Party's hope is that the government will somehow become crushed by this pincer movement of pressure.
That will leave them unable to properly punish the Labour Party for its role in the fire. Going unpunished by the 2022 General Election Labour will have built a replacement to Grenfell Tower containing even more voters allowing the to secure the marginal 20 vote majority Parliamentary seat.
At around midnight this morning (19/6/17) there was another run-over terror attack. This time on the Seven Sisters Road close to the Finsbury Park Mosque in the Finsbury Park area of London.
The twist in this attack is that the victims seem to be seven Muslim Sisters will the attacker appears to be someone with an anti-Muslim agenda.
I'm sure it won't be long until someone mentions groups like the English Defence League (EDL) and the National Action group that splintered off from them. Due to its historical links to terrorist mastermind Abu Hamza al-Masri Finsbury Park Mosque has long served as a highly effective recruiting tool for groups of that type.
In an attempt to explain rather than justify British society has long functioned according to John Locke's concept of a Social Contract.
Even if they don't recognise the jargon all British citizens recognise the terms of the deal. We give the state some of our freedom and some of our money. In return the state protects its citizens.
When the social contract breaks down such as in a terrorist attack it is important that the state is seen to protect its citizens and punish the guilty. Otherwise the citizenry get scared and start taking matters into their own hands. Invariably they make a mess of this.
A prime example of this would be National Action member Zack Davies who attacked Dr Sarandev Bhambra with machete in a supermarket in Mold on January 14th 2015 (14/1/15). Davies claimed he carried out the attack to prevent a repeat of the May 22nd 2013 (22/5/13) Islamist attack on British Soldier Lee Rigby.
The thing is Dr Sarandev Bhambra isn't a Muslim. He's a Sikh. Not only are Sikhs not Muslims traditionally Sikhs and Muslims really do not like each other.
So Britain's opening gambit in the Brexit negotiations is the question of whether the Crown needs to do more to protect the British public from the Labour Party?
I would've thought that was a question the Crown could answer for itself without seeking international advice.
11:05 on 19/6/17 (UK date).
Edited at around 14:30 on 20/6/17 (UK date) to add;
More details have emerged of the man accused over Monday's (19/6/17) events at Finsbury Park Mosque. This is where things get interesting.
The man has been identified as Darren Osborne a 47 year old British/Singaporean dual national. A city state Singapore is surrounded on three sides by the Muslim Kingdom of Malaysia and the World's most populous Muslim nation of Indonesia on its fourth. Immediately prior to his arrest Osborne was living in Cardiff, Wales.
It has emerged that at that home in Wales Osborne has a number of Muslim friends and neighbours including Khadijh Sherazi and the clearly very devout western convert Saleem Naema. Due to the number of Mosques in Cardiff I strong suspect that a number of Osborne's Muslim friends worship at the Jalalia Mosque in Riverside.
Amongst people involved in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups Cardiff's Jalalia Mosque is well known. It has produced at least three ISIL fighters including most famously Reyaad Khan.
Reyaad Khan was killed in a British airstrike in ISIL's de facto capital of Raqqa in August 2015. This was controversial at the time because British forces did not have Parliamentary authority to operate within Syria. The British government justified its actions on the grounds that being an ISIL planner preparing imminent attacks within the UK the killing of Khan was justified under the doctrine of pre-emptive self-defence.
News of Reyaad Khan's death only became public when the Iman at the Jalalia Mosque announced it in a sermon praising Khan's Martyrdom.
So of the three attacks that have occurred in the UK in the past month the Finsbury Mosque attack is the only one that can be tied directly to a known ISIL attack planner.
If you have been following the wars in Syria and Iraq you would need no explanation of why ISIL and their associates would attack a Mosque. It's almost a daily event. However there reasons are really twofold;
Some Muslims and particularly Islamist terrorists place great importance on the ideology of Martyrdom. This means that they view the suffering of their own people as form of victory in itself. To see this in action you only need to look at the way groups like the Al Qaeda affiliated White Helmets pass around pictures of suffering children like Omar Daqneesh almost as a form of currency.
I would say they're appealing for the sympathy vote but the truth is the ideology runs even deeper then that.
This mentality was particularly on display during the 2014 Gaza war. At the risk of sounding like a Magen David Adom commercial it is frequently said that Palestinians value death in the same way that Israelis value life. Based on my experience I have say that sadly there is some truth to that.
Secondly it has long been a core part of Al Qaeda's ideology that has recently been adopted by ISIL to conduct attacks to destroy the space in which Muslims and non-Muslims coexist. The intention being to force Muslims and non-Muslims into their respective corners and radicalise them into a war against each other.
Launching a false flag attack on a Mosque allows ISIL to claim to western Muslims such as Reyaad Khan, Junaid Hussein and his convert wife Sally Jones that the so-called; "Crusader Nations" are against them. Therefore they had best join up and conduct attacks on behalf of ISIL and their associates.
This Islamist strategy has long been known about. In fact it's featured in the plot to the 2010 movie "Four Lions." There the roughly 50 year old convert to Islam keeps wanting to launch a false flag attack against a Mosque. His reasoning being that it will force mainstream Muslims to join what he considers Jihad.
Long term readers may remember that before the fight against ISIL and their associates began in 2014 I had to endure a seemingly annual Court appearance.
In 2013 this was to answer an accusation that I had criminally damaged property belonging to a Grenfell Tower style Labour Party affiliated housing association. Not only was I acquitted of this allegation the case was actually dismissed at Court because the prosecution were unable to produce sufficient evidence to even question my innocence. This type of prosecution is properly described as malicious.
In the six months while this case was dragging on between my arrest and final Court appearance Abu Qatada al-Filistini was finally deported to Jordan. Also it was frequently suggested the housing association had simply damaged their own property in the hope of blaming me. An example of a false flag attack.
In these discussions the frequently used euphemism was; "Bomb the Mosque" in reference to the movie Four Lions.
15:25 on 20/6/17 (UK date).
Today (19/6/17) negotiations between Britain and the EU over the terms of Brexit have begun.
In between the Brexit vote and today low-ranking Members of Parliament (MP's) known as backbenchers and opposition MP's of particularly the Liberal Democrats (LibDems) and Labour parties have been extremely angry about Brexit. That's because it highlights to voters just how irrelevant and powerless they actually are.
Any negotiation is not so much about what you want as what the other - in this case 27 - parties are prepared to give you. In order to stand the best chance of being given what you want you have to start by being really clear amongst yourselves what it is you want.
In preparation for today's start of negotiations the UK called a General Election for June 8th 2017 (6/8/17). The objective was to give the governing Conservative Party a large majority in order to silence the more extreme Brexit voices and allow the UK to present a united front within Brexit negotiations.
On May 21st (21/5/17) this was all going well.
Then on May 22nd (22/5/17) an Islamist terrorist attack was carried out in the UK city of Manchester. Amongst other things this bombing was carried out to give the Labour Party a boost at the General Election. The Labour Party wasted no time in coordinating their campaign with the attackers.
On June 3rd (3/6/17) there was a second Islamist terror attack. This time a run-over attack in the London Bridge area of the UK capital London. Again this was carried out to give the Labour Party a boost at the General Election. Again Labour wasted no time in coordinating their campaign with the attackers.
The sad news is that the terror attacks and Labour's exploitation of them worked.
At the General Election a large swing in votes to the Labour Party meant the Conservatives lost their majority forcing them into an informal alliance with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). This leaves the UK technically without a government and means that it's Brexit strategy is going to be determined by a group of people who don't believe in dinosaurs.
It turns out the Labour Party weren't finished there though. Over the night of Tuesday (13/6/17) into Wednesday (14/6/17) they set fire to the Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West housing estate in the Kensington area of London, the UK capital city.
The Grenfell Tower fire is full of little hooks to issues that may well come up in the Brexit negotiations. For example the issue of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change which the UK has signed as part of the EU. It also touches on the August 2011 riots. As I've said Britain doesn't want to turn the negotiations into a contest of who the EU like more, them or me.
The Labour Party have immediately used the Grenfell Tower fire to exert bottom up pressure on the government. The hope is this will combine with top down pressure from the EU as some of the issues raised by the fire come up in Brexit negotiations.
The Labour Party's hope is that the government will somehow become crushed by this pincer movement of pressure.
That will leave them unable to properly punish the Labour Party for its role in the fire. Going unpunished by the 2022 General Election Labour will have built a replacement to Grenfell Tower containing even more voters allowing the to secure the marginal 20 vote majority Parliamentary seat.
At around midnight this morning (19/6/17) there was another run-over terror attack. This time on the Seven Sisters Road close to the Finsbury Park Mosque in the Finsbury Park area of London.
The twist in this attack is that the victims seem to be seven Muslim Sisters will the attacker appears to be someone with an anti-Muslim agenda.
I'm sure it won't be long until someone mentions groups like the English Defence League (EDL) and the National Action group that splintered off from them. Due to its historical links to terrorist mastermind Abu Hamza al-Masri Finsbury Park Mosque has long served as a highly effective recruiting tool for groups of that type.
In an attempt to explain rather than justify British society has long functioned according to John Locke's concept of a Social Contract.
Even if they don't recognise the jargon all British citizens recognise the terms of the deal. We give the state some of our freedom and some of our money. In return the state protects its citizens.
When the social contract breaks down such as in a terrorist attack it is important that the state is seen to protect its citizens and punish the guilty. Otherwise the citizenry get scared and start taking matters into their own hands. Invariably they make a mess of this.
A prime example of this would be National Action member Zack Davies who attacked Dr Sarandev Bhambra with machete in a supermarket in Mold on January 14th 2015 (14/1/15). Davies claimed he carried out the attack to prevent a repeat of the May 22nd 2013 (22/5/13) Islamist attack on British Soldier Lee Rigby.
The thing is Dr Sarandev Bhambra isn't a Muslim. He's a Sikh. Not only are Sikhs not Muslims traditionally Sikhs and Muslims really do not like each other.
So Britain's opening gambit in the Brexit negotiations is the question of whether the Crown needs to do more to protect the British public from the Labour Party?
I would've thought that was a question the Crown could answer for itself without seeking international advice.
11:05 on 19/6/17 (UK date).
Edited at around 14:30 on 20/6/17 (UK date) to add;
More details have emerged of the man accused over Monday's (19/6/17) events at Finsbury Park Mosque. This is where things get interesting.
The man has been identified as Darren Osborne a 47 year old British/Singaporean dual national. A city state Singapore is surrounded on three sides by the Muslim Kingdom of Malaysia and the World's most populous Muslim nation of Indonesia on its fourth. Immediately prior to his arrest Osborne was living in Cardiff, Wales.
It has emerged that at that home in Wales Osborne has a number of Muslim friends and neighbours including Khadijh Sherazi and the clearly very devout western convert Saleem Naema. Due to the number of Mosques in Cardiff I strong suspect that a number of Osborne's Muslim friends worship at the Jalalia Mosque in Riverside.
Amongst people involved in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups Cardiff's Jalalia Mosque is well known. It has produced at least three ISIL fighters including most famously Reyaad Khan.
Reyaad Khan was killed in a British airstrike in ISIL's de facto capital of Raqqa in August 2015. This was controversial at the time because British forces did not have Parliamentary authority to operate within Syria. The British government justified its actions on the grounds that being an ISIL planner preparing imminent attacks within the UK the killing of Khan was justified under the doctrine of pre-emptive self-defence.
News of Reyaad Khan's death only became public when the Iman at the Jalalia Mosque announced it in a sermon praising Khan's Martyrdom.
So of the three attacks that have occurred in the UK in the past month the Finsbury Mosque attack is the only one that can be tied directly to a known ISIL attack planner.
If you have been following the wars in Syria and Iraq you would need no explanation of why ISIL and their associates would attack a Mosque. It's almost a daily event. However there reasons are really twofold;
Some Muslims and particularly Islamist terrorists place great importance on the ideology of Martyrdom. This means that they view the suffering of their own people as form of victory in itself. To see this in action you only need to look at the way groups like the Al Qaeda affiliated White Helmets pass around pictures of suffering children like Omar Daqneesh almost as a form of currency.
I would say they're appealing for the sympathy vote but the truth is the ideology runs even deeper then that.
This mentality was particularly on display during the 2014 Gaza war. At the risk of sounding like a Magen David Adom commercial it is frequently said that Palestinians value death in the same way that Israelis value life. Based on my experience I have say that sadly there is some truth to that.
Secondly it has long been a core part of Al Qaeda's ideology that has recently been adopted by ISIL to conduct attacks to destroy the space in which Muslims and non-Muslims coexist. The intention being to force Muslims and non-Muslims into their respective corners and radicalise them into a war against each other.
Launching a false flag attack on a Mosque allows ISIL to claim to western Muslims such as Reyaad Khan, Junaid Hussein and his convert wife Sally Jones that the so-called; "Crusader Nations" are against them. Therefore they had best join up and conduct attacks on behalf of ISIL and their associates.
This Islamist strategy has long been known about. In fact it's featured in the plot to the 2010 movie "Four Lions." There the roughly 50 year old convert to Islam keeps wanting to launch a false flag attack against a Mosque. His reasoning being that it will force mainstream Muslims to join what he considers Jihad.
Long term readers may remember that before the fight against ISIL and their associates began in 2014 I had to endure a seemingly annual Court appearance.
In 2013 this was to answer an accusation that I had criminally damaged property belonging to a Grenfell Tower style Labour Party affiliated housing association. Not only was I acquitted of this allegation the case was actually dismissed at Court because the prosecution were unable to produce sufficient evidence to even question my innocence. This type of prosecution is properly described as malicious.
In the six months while this case was dragging on between my arrest and final Court appearance Abu Qatada al-Filistini was finally deported to Jordan. Also it was frequently suggested the housing association had simply damaged their own property in the hope of blaming me. An example of a false flag attack.
In these discussions the frequently used euphemism was; "Bomb the Mosque" in reference to the movie Four Lions.
15:25 on 20/6/17 (UK date).
Sunday, 18 June 2017
Grenfell Tower and Climate Change.
This is really just a quick note.
Over the night of Tuesday (13/6/17) into Wednesday (14/6/17) a massive fire tore through the Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West housing estate in the Kensington area of London, the UK capital city.
At the time I said that this had set off a lot of alarm bells with a great number of people. This includes parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). That only represents all of the 194 nations on Earth.
In the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire much of the focus has been on the cladding on the outside of the building.
As if they'd decided on their campaign strategy before the fire had started the UK Labour Party have claimed that this cladding had been fitted for cosmetic reasons. In short Labour are claiming that rich Londoners simply don't want to look at poor Londoners.
This is simply a lie.
The reason that the cladding had been fitted is to provide heat insulation. What you do is attach ideally a mineral insulation foam to the exterior brickwork of the building. You then attach a metal panel to the insulation foam.
This metal panel may well look prettier than the exterior brickwork but it's primary purpose is to protect the insulation foam from the elements and simply stop it falling off the side of the building.
The purpose of fitting insulation cladding is to reduce energy waste and by extension reduce Green House Gas (ghg) emissions. As such insulation cladding is something that gets discussed a lot at UNFCCC meetings.
At this very early stage of the investigation we don't actually know whether this insulation cladding played a role in the fire. The fire is said to have burnt in excess of 800C. At these temperatures both Graphite - i.e a mineral - and Steel not only melt but actually catch fire. So technically nothing is ever truly fireproof.
I suspect though that as the investigation progresses there is going to be a lot of focus on the legal limits of liability withing the Public, Private Partnership (PPP/PFI) responsible for the operation of Grenfell Tower. This sees the local government - the public sector - own Grenfell Tower with it being administered by a private corporation - the Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO).
I do seem to remember tangling with a barrister from Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan's chambers in Court on just this issue of the limits of liability within PPP/PFI's. He successfully argued that neither the local government nor the private corporation that employed him have any legal liability.
With the signing of the Paris Agreement the UNFCCC's COP21 Summit ended the possibility of a market based mechanism to fund action to combat climate change. Instead it placed all responsibility for funding action to combat climate change on exactly this type of PPP/PFI arrangement.
On June 1st 2017 (1/6/17) the leaders of France, Germany and Italy signed a letter condemning US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement.
The UK's Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May refused to sign this letter. The leader of the UK Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn condemned Prime Minister May for not supporting the Paris Agreement.
So I can only strongly recommend that the UK Labour Party decline from politicising the Grenfall Tower fire any further.
16:20 on 18/6/17 (UK date).
Over the night of Tuesday (13/6/17) into Wednesday (14/6/17) a massive fire tore through the Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West housing estate in the Kensington area of London, the UK capital city.
At the time I said that this had set off a lot of alarm bells with a great number of people. This includes parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). That only represents all of the 194 nations on Earth.
In the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire much of the focus has been on the cladding on the outside of the building.
As if they'd decided on their campaign strategy before the fire had started the UK Labour Party have claimed that this cladding had been fitted for cosmetic reasons. In short Labour are claiming that rich Londoners simply don't want to look at poor Londoners.
This is simply a lie.
The reason that the cladding had been fitted is to provide heat insulation. What you do is attach ideally a mineral insulation foam to the exterior brickwork of the building. You then attach a metal panel to the insulation foam.
This metal panel may well look prettier than the exterior brickwork but it's primary purpose is to protect the insulation foam from the elements and simply stop it falling off the side of the building.
The purpose of fitting insulation cladding is to reduce energy waste and by extension reduce Green House Gas (ghg) emissions. As such insulation cladding is something that gets discussed a lot at UNFCCC meetings.
At this very early stage of the investigation we don't actually know whether this insulation cladding played a role in the fire. The fire is said to have burnt in excess of 800C. At these temperatures both Graphite - i.e a mineral - and Steel not only melt but actually catch fire. So technically nothing is ever truly fireproof.
I suspect though that as the investigation progresses there is going to be a lot of focus on the legal limits of liability withing the Public, Private Partnership (PPP/PFI) responsible for the operation of Grenfell Tower. This sees the local government - the public sector - own Grenfell Tower with it being administered by a private corporation - the Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO).
I do seem to remember tangling with a barrister from Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan's chambers in Court on just this issue of the limits of liability within PPP/PFI's. He successfully argued that neither the local government nor the private corporation that employed him have any legal liability.
With the signing of the Paris Agreement the UNFCCC's COP21 Summit ended the possibility of a market based mechanism to fund action to combat climate change. Instead it placed all responsibility for funding action to combat climate change on exactly this type of PPP/PFI arrangement.
On June 1st 2017 (1/6/17) the leaders of France, Germany and Italy signed a letter condemning US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement.
The UK's Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May refused to sign this letter. The leader of the UK Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn condemned Prime Minister May for not supporting the Paris Agreement.
So I can only strongly recommend that the UK Labour Party decline from politicising the Grenfall Tower fire any further.
16:20 on 18/6/17 (UK date).
Saturday, 17 June 2017
The 2017 Marawi Emergency.
On May 22nd (22/5/17) an Islamist suicide bomber attacked the Manchester Evening News Arena (MENA) in the UK city of Manchester.
Specifically they attacked the end of a concert by US popstar Ariana Grande which was being performed as part of her Dangerous Woman Tour (DWT). In part this target was chosen in reference to popstar Rihanna's highly political Diamonds World Tour (DWT).
However the MENA bombing was not the only terrorist outrage to occur that day.
In the Philippines which is seven hours ahead of the UK Islamist gunmen seized control of the city of Marawi on the island of Mindanao. They occupied the city's military base, the city hall, the city jail and the city university. They also attacked the city's Catholic Cathedral and seized control of a Catholic Church and a number of Church run schools.
This very closely resembled a specific incident that happened during Rihanna's DWT.
The main objective of Rihanna's DWT was to cause her to suffer some sort of nervous breakdown of similar psychiatric emergency whilst she was performing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on October 19th 2013 (19/10/13). For reasons that are best just accepted rather than questioned this was supposed to serve as a US apology for Rihanna's role in causing the 2011 Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.
With this being the main aim of the tour the issue of Islam and different aspects of Islam ran like a constant thread throughout Rihanna's DWT. For example the April 15th 2013 (15/4/13) Boston Marathon bombings touched on the issue of Islamist terrorism.
Rihanna opened every show with the song; "Mother Mary." This could be taken as a reference to the Virgin Mary - mother of Jesus Christ - a revered figure within particularly Catholic Christianity. She performed on a set that resembled the type of stained glass windows you often find in Christian Churches.
This was intended to promote discussion about encouraging Muslims to convert to Christianity. A criminal offence in a handful of the nations Rihanna visited.
The "Mother Mary" the Rihanna song was actually referencing was the drug Marijuana. The issue of Marijuana use is actually quite an interesting one within Islam. The Qu'ran forbids the use of alcohol and there is a near constant debate whether that prohibition applies only to alcohol or all mind altering substances like Marijuana which might inhibit you ability to communicate with God.
I think it is fair to say that there is nothing about Rihanna's style of dress either in the tour costumes on in life more generally that adheres to Muslim modesty standards.
It turns out that all of the World's roughly 1.7bn Muslims aren't in fact all the same person. Therefore different Muslims have different opinions about different issues. This is often determined by where they live. So Rihanna's World Tour was a bit of a fishing expedition about Muslims attitudes towards the aforementioned issues in North America, Europe, the Middle-East, North Africa etc.
The World's most populous Muslim nation is not in the Middle-East, North Africa (MENA) region at all. Instead it is the nation of Indonesia in the Asia region. Indonesia shares a land border with Papua New Guinea (PNG). That is a nation closely linked to its neighbour and member of the UK Commonwealth Realm - Australia.
There has long been a large illegal drug and irregular migrant route running from Myanmar (Burma) on the border with Bangladesh through South East Asia to Australia. In order to curb this migrant flow Australia opened two immigration processing centres in PNG in 2001. The objective is to deter irregular migrants but stopping them from ever setting foot in Australia.
For whatever reason Rihanna was not able to arrange a concert in either Indonesia or PNG during the DWT. So instead a concert was arranged in the Philippines for September 19th 2013 (19/9/13). The intention being that the Philippines would stand in for its neighbours to examine the issues of Islam, irregular migration and illegal drug flows in South East Asia.
Rather than being a nation in the traditional sense the Philippines is actually an archipelago made up of around 7,500 separate islands.
Traditionally the residents in the southern islands have been Sunni Muslims while the residents in the northern islands have been Catholic Christians. In the 1930's the Catholics began to move into the southern islands diluting the area's Muslim identity.
Since the late 1960's a group called the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have been fighting an insurgency to turn the islands of Mindanao, Sulu, Palawan and Sabah into an independent nation which they wish to call the "The Bangsamoro Nation."
On September 11th 2013 (11/9/13) - 8 days before Rihanna's concert the MNLF launched an attack on Mindanao island. Following an amphibious assault they raised their flag over the city hall in Zamboanga City and declared all of Mindanao island to be part of the independent Bangsamoro Nation. This prompted 20 days of fighting before the Filipino military finally restored control over the city.
This massively complicated the security plan for Rihanna's concert in the Philippines. Although the capital Manila where Rihanna was performing is around 1000km (625 miles) away from Mindanao island and not considered part of the Bangsamoro Nation the terrorist activity created concerns that the MNLF would use the concert to boost publicity for their cause either by bombing the venue or attempting to kidnap Rihanna herself.
Prior to the start of the DWT Rihanna had been forced to hire former US Secret Service agents to provide her with security. The fighting in Mindanao meant those bodyguards suddenly had to devise a plan to either defend Rihanna in situ or evacuate her from the Philippines in the event of a terror attack.
As Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift discovered on May 22nd 2017 (22/5/17) evacuating a popstar from the scene of a terror attack requires a bit of planning
Although they are Muslims the MNLF's cause is a nationalist one rather than an Islamist one. That means they which to establish a nation state rather than and Islamic state.
However in the late 1980's Al Qaeda under Osama bin Laden funded the establishment of a Filipino Islamist group called Abu Sayyaf. This created a spilt within the MNLF leading to the creation of the spectacularly acronymed Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). They wish to establish an Islamic state.
In 2013 MILF splintered again leading to the creation of another Islamist group known as; "The Maute Group" which is run by the two Maute brothers.
The current fighting in Marawi is being carried out by a mixture of Islamist fighters from the Maute Group and Abu Sayyaf.
The MENA bombing was carried out by a Libyan by the name of Salman Abedi. He was acting on the orders of the nation state of Qatar.
Amongst other things this attack was carried out in an attempt to intimidate the UK into ending its calls for an area to the Syria/Turkey border known as; "Garvaghy Road" to be sealed militarily. This area is used by fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to escape from Syria via Turkey and on to the rest of the World.
Qatar wants Garvaghy Road open so those ISIL fighters can escape to Libya to assist Qatar in seizing control of that nation and its vast oil reserves. However ISIL has attracted fighters from across the globe including Asian nations such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Many members of the Maute Group and Abu Sayyaf have fought for ISIL. Those fighters are likely to return to Asia rather than travel to Libya.
With the Marawi Emergency beginning at almost exactly the same time as the MENA bombing there was an obvious suspicion that the two events were coordinated. This would serve as double threat by showing that not only were terrorists able to attack the UK mainland they were also able to threaten members of the UK Commonwealth Realm such as Australia.
On June 1st (1/6/17) a gunman burst into the Resorts World hotel complex in Manila. After opening fire on TV's and gaming machines he set fire to the building. This created scenes that were very similar to the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India. It was exactly the sort of security situation we had to plan for ahead of Rihanna's 2013 concert in Manila.
Rather than being a terror attack events at Resorts World have been blamed on robbery gone wrong. It was actually directed by British intelligence. Although following the Grenfell Tower fire the UK isn't really in a position to lecture anyone the assumption seemed to be that setting fire to a few gaming tables would not lead to an inferno that ended up killing 35.
The UK's reasons for doing this were twofold.
Firstly Ariana Grande decided to return to Manchester for the "One Love Manchester" charity concert on June 4th (4/6/17). This led to concern amongst the UK security services that this would paint a target on the UK's back inciting another terror take. They wanted to express their displeasure to the US. Due to the June 3rd (3/6/17) London Bridge terror attack those concerns seem well founded.
Secondly the UK wanted to call my attention to the Marawi Emergency. I am very much Britain's go-to-guy when it comes to Rihanna. Particularly when it intersects with the Philippines and Islamist terrorism.
It actually turns out that the Marawi Emergency was inadvertently triggered by the Filipino military. Following intelligence they'd moved into arrest the Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon in Marawi.
However they'd underestimated Abu Sayyaf's strength and appeared to have no knowledge that the Maute Group were active in the city. So the failed raid triggered the emergency as part of Abu Sayyaf and the Maute Group's counter-attack.
Although it was just a coincidence the fact that both Abu Sayyaf and the Maute Group have now grown much stronger does serve to underline the urgent need for Garvaghy Road to be sealed otherwise we'll be chasing ISIL around the globe for decades to come.
21:20 on 17/6/17 (UK date).
Specifically they attacked the end of a concert by US popstar Ariana Grande which was being performed as part of her Dangerous Woman Tour (DWT). In part this target was chosen in reference to popstar Rihanna's highly political Diamonds World Tour (DWT).
However the MENA bombing was not the only terrorist outrage to occur that day.
In the Philippines which is seven hours ahead of the UK Islamist gunmen seized control of the city of Marawi on the island of Mindanao. They occupied the city's military base, the city hall, the city jail and the city university. They also attacked the city's Catholic Cathedral and seized control of a Catholic Church and a number of Church run schools.
This very closely resembled a specific incident that happened during Rihanna's DWT.
The main objective of Rihanna's DWT was to cause her to suffer some sort of nervous breakdown of similar psychiatric emergency whilst she was performing in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on October 19th 2013 (19/10/13). For reasons that are best just accepted rather than questioned this was supposed to serve as a US apology for Rihanna's role in causing the 2011 Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.
With this being the main aim of the tour the issue of Islam and different aspects of Islam ran like a constant thread throughout Rihanna's DWT. For example the April 15th 2013 (15/4/13) Boston Marathon bombings touched on the issue of Islamist terrorism.
Rihanna opened every show with the song; "Mother Mary." This could be taken as a reference to the Virgin Mary - mother of Jesus Christ - a revered figure within particularly Catholic Christianity. She performed on a set that resembled the type of stained glass windows you often find in Christian Churches.
This was intended to promote discussion about encouraging Muslims to convert to Christianity. A criminal offence in a handful of the nations Rihanna visited.
The "Mother Mary" the Rihanna song was actually referencing was the drug Marijuana. The issue of Marijuana use is actually quite an interesting one within Islam. The Qu'ran forbids the use of alcohol and there is a near constant debate whether that prohibition applies only to alcohol or all mind altering substances like Marijuana which might inhibit you ability to communicate with God.
I think it is fair to say that there is nothing about Rihanna's style of dress either in the tour costumes on in life more generally that adheres to Muslim modesty standards.
It turns out that all of the World's roughly 1.7bn Muslims aren't in fact all the same person. Therefore different Muslims have different opinions about different issues. This is often determined by where they live. So Rihanna's World Tour was a bit of a fishing expedition about Muslims attitudes towards the aforementioned issues in North America, Europe, the Middle-East, North Africa etc.
The World's most populous Muslim nation is not in the Middle-East, North Africa (MENA) region at all. Instead it is the nation of Indonesia in the Asia region. Indonesia shares a land border with Papua New Guinea (PNG). That is a nation closely linked to its neighbour and member of the UK Commonwealth Realm - Australia.
There has long been a large illegal drug and irregular migrant route running from Myanmar (Burma) on the border with Bangladesh through South East Asia to Australia. In order to curb this migrant flow Australia opened two immigration processing centres in PNG in 2001. The objective is to deter irregular migrants but stopping them from ever setting foot in Australia.
For whatever reason Rihanna was not able to arrange a concert in either Indonesia or PNG during the DWT. So instead a concert was arranged in the Philippines for September 19th 2013 (19/9/13). The intention being that the Philippines would stand in for its neighbours to examine the issues of Islam, irregular migration and illegal drug flows in South East Asia.
Rather than being a nation in the traditional sense the Philippines is actually an archipelago made up of around 7,500 separate islands.
Traditionally the residents in the southern islands have been Sunni Muslims while the residents in the northern islands have been Catholic Christians. In the 1930's the Catholics began to move into the southern islands diluting the area's Muslim identity.
Since the late 1960's a group called the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) have been fighting an insurgency to turn the islands of Mindanao, Sulu, Palawan and Sabah into an independent nation which they wish to call the "The Bangsamoro Nation."
On September 11th 2013 (11/9/13) - 8 days before Rihanna's concert the MNLF launched an attack on Mindanao island. Following an amphibious assault they raised their flag over the city hall in Zamboanga City and declared all of Mindanao island to be part of the independent Bangsamoro Nation. This prompted 20 days of fighting before the Filipino military finally restored control over the city.
This massively complicated the security plan for Rihanna's concert in the Philippines. Although the capital Manila where Rihanna was performing is around 1000km (625 miles) away from Mindanao island and not considered part of the Bangsamoro Nation the terrorist activity created concerns that the MNLF would use the concert to boost publicity for their cause either by bombing the venue or attempting to kidnap Rihanna herself.
Prior to the start of the DWT Rihanna had been forced to hire former US Secret Service agents to provide her with security. The fighting in Mindanao meant those bodyguards suddenly had to devise a plan to either defend Rihanna in situ or evacuate her from the Philippines in the event of a terror attack.
As Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift discovered on May 22nd 2017 (22/5/17) evacuating a popstar from the scene of a terror attack requires a bit of planning
Although they are Muslims the MNLF's cause is a nationalist one rather than an Islamist one. That means they which to establish a nation state rather than and Islamic state.
However in the late 1980's Al Qaeda under Osama bin Laden funded the establishment of a Filipino Islamist group called Abu Sayyaf. This created a spilt within the MNLF leading to the creation of the spectacularly acronymed Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). They wish to establish an Islamic state.
In 2013 MILF splintered again leading to the creation of another Islamist group known as; "The Maute Group" which is run by the two Maute brothers.
The current fighting in Marawi is being carried out by a mixture of Islamist fighters from the Maute Group and Abu Sayyaf.
The MENA bombing was carried out by a Libyan by the name of Salman Abedi. He was acting on the orders of the nation state of Qatar.
Amongst other things this attack was carried out in an attempt to intimidate the UK into ending its calls for an area to the Syria/Turkey border known as; "Garvaghy Road" to be sealed militarily. This area is used by fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to escape from Syria via Turkey and on to the rest of the World.
Qatar wants Garvaghy Road open so those ISIL fighters can escape to Libya to assist Qatar in seizing control of that nation and its vast oil reserves. However ISIL has attracted fighters from across the globe including Asian nations such as Indonesia and the Philippines. Many members of the Maute Group and Abu Sayyaf have fought for ISIL. Those fighters are likely to return to Asia rather than travel to Libya.
With the Marawi Emergency beginning at almost exactly the same time as the MENA bombing there was an obvious suspicion that the two events were coordinated. This would serve as double threat by showing that not only were terrorists able to attack the UK mainland they were also able to threaten members of the UK Commonwealth Realm such as Australia.
On June 1st (1/6/17) a gunman burst into the Resorts World hotel complex in Manila. After opening fire on TV's and gaming machines he set fire to the building. This created scenes that were very similar to the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India. It was exactly the sort of security situation we had to plan for ahead of Rihanna's 2013 concert in Manila.
Rather than being a terror attack events at Resorts World have been blamed on robbery gone wrong. It was actually directed by British intelligence. Although following the Grenfell Tower fire the UK isn't really in a position to lecture anyone the assumption seemed to be that setting fire to a few gaming tables would not lead to an inferno that ended up killing 35.
The UK's reasons for doing this were twofold.
Firstly Ariana Grande decided to return to Manchester for the "One Love Manchester" charity concert on June 4th (4/6/17). This led to concern amongst the UK security services that this would paint a target on the UK's back inciting another terror take. They wanted to express their displeasure to the US. Due to the June 3rd (3/6/17) London Bridge terror attack those concerns seem well founded.
Secondly the UK wanted to call my attention to the Marawi Emergency. I am very much Britain's go-to-guy when it comes to Rihanna. Particularly when it intersects with the Philippines and Islamist terrorism.
It actually turns out that the Marawi Emergency was inadvertently triggered by the Filipino military. Following intelligence they'd moved into arrest the Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon in Marawi.
However they'd underestimated Abu Sayyaf's strength and appeared to have no knowledge that the Maute Group were active in the city. So the failed raid triggered the emergency as part of Abu Sayyaf and the Maute Group's counter-attack.
Although it was just a coincidence the fact that both Abu Sayyaf and the Maute Group have now grown much stronger does serve to underline the urgent need for Garvaghy Road to be sealed otherwise we'll be chasing ISIL around the globe for decades to come.
21:20 on 17/6/17 (UK date).
Friday, 16 June 2017
London Or Aleppo?
Over the night of Tuesday (13/6/17) into Wednesday (14/6/17) a massive fire tore through the Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West housing estate in the Kensington area of the UK capital London.
Due to the way that embers reignite this fire is technically still not out. Therefore at this very early stage anything anybody has to say is really just speculation.
However I think the closest thing in recent British history the Grenfell Tower can be compared to his the 1988 Piper Alpha Disaster.
On July 6th 1988 (6/7/88) the Piper Alpha oil and gas drilling platform in the North Sea caught fire. This resulted in the deaths of 167 people including 2 rescuers. The bodies of 30 of those killed have never been recovered.
Obviously the scenes from Grenfell Tower are utterly appalling. However due to the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups in Iraq and Syria they are scenes that have become so common to me I seem to have become desensitised to them.
As I've mentioned on May 19th (19/5/17) ISIL were being forced from the 17 Tammuz district of Mosul in Iraq. Out of nothing but spite ISIL responded to this by setting fire to a building in which 8 families were sheltering burning them alive.
It took four days and the complete liberation of the district for the 23 bodies of those 8 families to be recovered. They were then buried together in a mass grave because there simply wasn't the time or resources to give them each individual funerals.
As ISIL have become restricted to small but densely populated areas of Mosul the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) priority has become evacuating civilians.
However as they do this ISIL use snipers to kill the fleeing civilians. In one five day period at the start of June ISIL snipers killed 70 fleeing civilians. Due to the ongoing combat their bodies were left to lie rotting in the streets.
ISIL's slaughter of civilians has become so bad that on June 3rd (3/6/17) the New Zealand were forced to use White Phosphorus to create a smokescreen to protect civilians from the snipers. When used as a weapon White Phosphorus is extremely nasty so to use it as a smokescreen in a densely populated civilian area is an extreme measure that is not taken lightly.
The situation is Syria is even more horrific. That's because you have a group called the White Helmets supporting the Al Qaeda led Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition.
Officially the White Helmets function as the Army of Conquest's emergency service. They provide fire and rescue services and participate in executions which the Army of Conquest consider to be; "law enforcement."
However from their inception the White Helmets true purpose has been to create what is known as; "Atrocity Propaganda."
This often involves them destroying a civilian building either by arson or through the use of a weapon known as a; "Hell Cannon" to mimic an airstrike in order to kill and wound as many people as possible. They then film and photograph the aftermath and circulate it widely.
This serves two purposes. The first is fuel anger against the government they are trying to overthrow. The second is to try and garner sympathy for themselves by showing them heroically rescuing civilians and gathering humanitarian aid in warehouses.
For the last couple of days my Twitter timeline has been a strange mix of footage from Grenfell Tower and footage from Iraq and Syria. I frequently find myself having to do a double take to work out which is which.
In my slightly darker moments I'm tempted to start a Twitter game of; "London Or Aleppo." I show you a picture and you have to guess whether it comes from London or Aleppo?
Amongst the sort of people who would play that game it seems widely acknowledged that the May 22nd (22/5/17) and June 3rd (3/6/17) terror attacks on the UK were planned to assist the campaign of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party at the UK's June 8th (8/6/17) General Election.
Since that election there has been a lot of speculation what ISIL and their associates are going to do next to assist Jeremy Corbyn and the UK Labour Party.
A lot of people have been thinking that they would produce something similar to the April 4th (4/4/17) Sarin attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Army of Conquest controlled Syria.
This would allow Corbyn to reject the notion of airstrikes helping to disguise the fact that there seems to be a relationship of mutual aid between the UK Labour Party and Islamist terror groups.
Meanwhile vast sums of money would continue to flow from UK Labour Party activists like Brendan Cox to those Islamist terror groups. In particular the White Helmets and the Army of Conquest.
The Grenfell Tower fire has certainly given the Labour Party a lot of martyrs. Jeremy Corbyn in particular has wasted absolutely no time in trying to exploit these martyrs for his campaign against the British government.
London's Metropolitan Police are currently on stand-by for serious rioting tonight connected to the Labour Party's call for anti-government protests over the fire.
Meanwhile London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan is still refusing to use his powers to assist the survivors of the fire. It seems those victim's suffering is extremely valuable to the Labour Party in terms of political capital.
The Grenfall Tower fire fits with the tactics used by Islamist terror groups. It also fits with the objectives of Islamist terror groups. Therefore the obvious next question is whether Islamist terror groups had the opportunity to set the fire.
This is a complicated question to answer.
Emergency services can only estimate the number of residents of Grenfell Tower as between 400 and 600. 30% or 200 people is a pretty huge margin of error. Added to the number of residents you also have all the people who simply had access to building over of a timeframe of several days. This produces a huge pool of people who needed to accounted for.
The first person to be identified as killed in the fire is Mohammad Alhajali a 23 year old refugee from Deraa, Syria. Initially I thought he had been brought to the UK from a refugee camp as a properly vetted refugee. However it has since been confirmed that he travelled along the well worn Balkan migrant route arriving in the UK without proper security checks.
Alhajali was also studying construction engineering at a London university. This makes him particularly well placed to understand the role that insulation cladding played in creating a chimney effect in the February 21st 2015 (21/2/15) Torch Tower fire, the January 1st 2016 Address Downtown Tower fire and the March 28th 2016 (28/3/16) fire at the Ajam One Tower.
All of those fires occurred in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). You may remember that one of the June 3rd (3/6/17) London Bridge attackers had; "EMIRATES" scrawled across his chest while he was carrying out the attack. This seems to have played a role in the UAE joining Saudi Arabia placing Qatar under economic blockade on June 5th (5/6/17).
As a construction engineering student Alhajali would also be well placed to understand the similar chimney effect caused by the stairwell ventilation system at Grenfell Tower.
I think it is probably best that I don't write an online guide of how to get away with arson. However the UK authorities seem to be laying the groundwork for blaming the Grenfell Tower fire on a well known trick involving fridges.
My first instinct was not that the Grenfell Tower fire was an Islamist terror attack. I certainly don't consider Mohammed Alhajali to be a suspect. However there are so many questions here that I think the UK's Counter-Terrorism Command need to be leading the investigation.
Amongst the missing and the dead there are a number of foreign nationals. This means that the UK's Foreign Office and Diplomatic service are heavily engaged in the events surrounding Grenfell Tower.
Alhajali is from an area of Syria where UK Special Operations Forces (SOF's) are currently active. The fact that he has travelled through Turkey and the Balkan migrant route means that Britain's foreign intelligence service is also heavily involved. If MI6 are involved in something that has happened within the UK then the domestic intelligence service MI5 is also involved.
In my experience this is all well above the pay grade of you typical PC Plod. Fire Officers have got absolutely no chance.
The other advantage of Counter-Terrorism Command leading the investigation is they are the best resourced and most skilled of Britain's police departments. They also have experience in complex multi-agency, multi-national investigations.
What we've got though is London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan insisting that there will be no criminal investigation. Instead he wants a Public Inquiry.
Public Inquiries have a deservedly poor reputation in the UK for taking a long time and producing no justice.
Following the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster the Cullen Public Inquiry was called. This did not report until 1990 and led to no criminal prosecutions.
In 1989 there was the Hillsborough stadium disaster. The led to the setting up the Taylor Public Inquiry. This was completed quickly in 1990 but produced a pack on lies.
In fact there was a second Hillsborough Inquiry to look at the failure of the Taylor Inquiry. This lasted for another two years only ending in 2016. There have still been no criminal prosecutions.
Then of course there is the Savile Public Inquiry. This looked at the events of January 30th 1972 in London/Derry Northern Ireland - "Bloody Sunday." This did not report until 2010 - 38 years after the events.
Although many of those involved in Bloody Sunday have now died of old age there are ongoing attempts to bring prosecutions.
However Jeremy Corbyn's cunning, stunning victory at the June 8th (8/6/17) election the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will now likely block those prosecution attempts.
16:20 on 16/6/17 (UK date).
Due to the way that embers reignite this fire is technically still not out. Therefore at this very early stage anything anybody has to say is really just speculation.
However I think the closest thing in recent British history the Grenfell Tower can be compared to his the 1988 Piper Alpha Disaster.
On July 6th 1988 (6/7/88) the Piper Alpha oil and gas drilling platform in the North Sea caught fire. This resulted in the deaths of 167 people including 2 rescuers. The bodies of 30 of those killed have never been recovered.
Obviously the scenes from Grenfell Tower are utterly appalling. However due to the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups in Iraq and Syria they are scenes that have become so common to me I seem to have become desensitised to them.
As I've mentioned on May 19th (19/5/17) ISIL were being forced from the 17 Tammuz district of Mosul in Iraq. Out of nothing but spite ISIL responded to this by setting fire to a building in which 8 families were sheltering burning them alive.
It took four days and the complete liberation of the district for the 23 bodies of those 8 families to be recovered. They were then buried together in a mass grave because there simply wasn't the time or resources to give them each individual funerals.
As ISIL have become restricted to small but densely populated areas of Mosul the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) priority has become evacuating civilians.
However as they do this ISIL use snipers to kill the fleeing civilians. In one five day period at the start of June ISIL snipers killed 70 fleeing civilians. Due to the ongoing combat their bodies were left to lie rotting in the streets.
ISIL's slaughter of civilians has become so bad that on June 3rd (3/6/17) the New Zealand were forced to use White Phosphorus to create a smokescreen to protect civilians from the snipers. When used as a weapon White Phosphorus is extremely nasty so to use it as a smokescreen in a densely populated civilian area is an extreme measure that is not taken lightly.
The situation is Syria is even more horrific. That's because you have a group called the White Helmets supporting the Al Qaeda led Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) coalition.
Officially the White Helmets function as the Army of Conquest's emergency service. They provide fire and rescue services and participate in executions which the Army of Conquest consider to be; "law enforcement."
However from their inception the White Helmets true purpose has been to create what is known as; "Atrocity Propaganda."
This often involves them destroying a civilian building either by arson or through the use of a weapon known as a; "Hell Cannon" to mimic an airstrike in order to kill and wound as many people as possible. They then film and photograph the aftermath and circulate it widely.
This serves two purposes. The first is fuel anger against the government they are trying to overthrow. The second is to try and garner sympathy for themselves by showing them heroically rescuing civilians and gathering humanitarian aid in warehouses.
For the last couple of days my Twitter timeline has been a strange mix of footage from Grenfell Tower and footage from Iraq and Syria. I frequently find myself having to do a double take to work out which is which.
In my slightly darker moments I'm tempted to start a Twitter game of; "London Or Aleppo." I show you a picture and you have to guess whether it comes from London or Aleppo?
Amongst the sort of people who would play that game it seems widely acknowledged that the May 22nd (22/5/17) and June 3rd (3/6/17) terror attacks on the UK were planned to assist the campaign of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party at the UK's June 8th (8/6/17) General Election.
Since that election there has been a lot of speculation what ISIL and their associates are going to do next to assist Jeremy Corbyn and the UK Labour Party.
A lot of people have been thinking that they would produce something similar to the April 4th (4/4/17) Sarin attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Army of Conquest controlled Syria.
This would allow Corbyn to reject the notion of airstrikes helping to disguise the fact that there seems to be a relationship of mutual aid between the UK Labour Party and Islamist terror groups.
Meanwhile vast sums of money would continue to flow from UK Labour Party activists like Brendan Cox to those Islamist terror groups. In particular the White Helmets and the Army of Conquest.
The Grenfell Tower fire has certainly given the Labour Party a lot of martyrs. Jeremy Corbyn in particular has wasted absolutely no time in trying to exploit these martyrs for his campaign against the British government.
London's Metropolitan Police are currently on stand-by for serious rioting tonight connected to the Labour Party's call for anti-government protests over the fire.
Meanwhile London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan is still refusing to use his powers to assist the survivors of the fire. It seems those victim's suffering is extremely valuable to the Labour Party in terms of political capital.
The Grenfall Tower fire fits with the tactics used by Islamist terror groups. It also fits with the objectives of Islamist terror groups. Therefore the obvious next question is whether Islamist terror groups had the opportunity to set the fire.
This is a complicated question to answer.
Emergency services can only estimate the number of residents of Grenfell Tower as between 400 and 600. 30% or 200 people is a pretty huge margin of error. Added to the number of residents you also have all the people who simply had access to building over of a timeframe of several days. This produces a huge pool of people who needed to accounted for.
The first person to be identified as killed in the fire is Mohammad Alhajali a 23 year old refugee from Deraa, Syria. Initially I thought he had been brought to the UK from a refugee camp as a properly vetted refugee. However it has since been confirmed that he travelled along the well worn Balkan migrant route arriving in the UK without proper security checks.
Alhajali was also studying construction engineering at a London university. This makes him particularly well placed to understand the role that insulation cladding played in creating a chimney effect in the February 21st 2015 (21/2/15) Torch Tower fire, the January 1st 2016 Address Downtown Tower fire and the March 28th 2016 (28/3/16) fire at the Ajam One Tower.
All of those fires occurred in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). You may remember that one of the June 3rd (3/6/17) London Bridge attackers had; "EMIRATES" scrawled across his chest while he was carrying out the attack. This seems to have played a role in the UAE joining Saudi Arabia placing Qatar under economic blockade on June 5th (5/6/17).
As a construction engineering student Alhajali would also be well placed to understand the similar chimney effect caused by the stairwell ventilation system at Grenfell Tower.
I think it is probably best that I don't write an online guide of how to get away with arson. However the UK authorities seem to be laying the groundwork for blaming the Grenfell Tower fire on a well known trick involving fridges.
My first instinct was not that the Grenfell Tower fire was an Islamist terror attack. I certainly don't consider Mohammed Alhajali to be a suspect. However there are so many questions here that I think the UK's Counter-Terrorism Command need to be leading the investigation.
Amongst the missing and the dead there are a number of foreign nationals. This means that the UK's Foreign Office and Diplomatic service are heavily engaged in the events surrounding Grenfell Tower.
Alhajali is from an area of Syria where UK Special Operations Forces (SOF's) are currently active. The fact that he has travelled through Turkey and the Balkan migrant route means that Britain's foreign intelligence service is also heavily involved. If MI6 are involved in something that has happened within the UK then the domestic intelligence service MI5 is also involved.
In my experience this is all well above the pay grade of you typical PC Plod. Fire Officers have got absolutely no chance.
The other advantage of Counter-Terrorism Command leading the investigation is they are the best resourced and most skilled of Britain's police departments. They also have experience in complex multi-agency, multi-national investigations.
What we've got though is London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan insisting that there will be no criminal investigation. Instead he wants a Public Inquiry.
Public Inquiries have a deservedly poor reputation in the UK for taking a long time and producing no justice.
Following the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster the Cullen Public Inquiry was called. This did not report until 1990 and led to no criminal prosecutions.
In 1989 there was the Hillsborough stadium disaster. The led to the setting up the Taylor Public Inquiry. This was completed quickly in 1990 but produced a pack on lies.
In fact there was a second Hillsborough Inquiry to look at the failure of the Taylor Inquiry. This lasted for another two years only ending in 2016. There have still been no criminal prosecutions.
Then of course there is the Savile Public Inquiry. This looked at the events of January 30th 1972 in London/Derry Northern Ireland - "Bloody Sunday." This did not report until 2010 - 38 years after the events.
Although many of those involved in Bloody Sunday have now died of old age there are ongoing attempts to bring prosecutions.
However Jeremy Corbyn's cunning, stunning victory at the June 8th (8/6/17) election the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will now likely block those prosecution attempts.
16:20 on 16/6/17 (UK date).
Thursday, 15 June 2017
A Pattern and Pratice of Behaviour.
Yesterday (14/6/17) several Republican members of the US Congress and their staff were practising for the Congressional Baseball Game for Charity at the Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, Virginia.
At around 11:00 (07:00 local) they came under fire prompting a roughly ten minute gun battle between the attacker and the Congressmen's police security detail. This gun battle left four people wounded including Republican Majority Whip Steve Scalise who appears to have been the intended target of the attack.
The gunman who was wounded at the scene and later died has been identified as James Hodgkinson a 67 year old originally from Illinois.
Hodgkinson had previously worked on the campaign of 2016 Democrat Party Presidential primary candidate Bernie Sanders. His Facebook page is full of angry tirades against the Republican Party and Donald Trump in particular. This includes being a member of a; "Terminate the Republican Party" group.
So although James Hodgkinson is white and does not appear to be a Muslim this unlawful use of violence in furtherance of political objective is a clear example of domestic terrorism. Sadly this is something we've come to expect from the US Democrat Party.
You may remember that in the summer of 2016 Democrat Party Presidential primary candidate and eventual nominee Hillary Clinton was under investigation by the FBI over allegations of espionage against the US.
On July 5th 2016 (5/7/16) then FBI Director James Comey announced that Hillary Clinton had in fact committed 110 offences of espionage against the US but inexplicably decided not to seek her prosecution.
This triggered a series of Congressional hearings in which the Republican Party demanded an explanation of why Hillary Clinton was not being prosecuted.
However Democrats attempted to disrupt proceedings by accusing the Republicans of racism and demanding to know what the FBI was doing to investigate the killing by police officers of two black men- Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
On July 5th 2016 (5/7/16) police in Baton Rogue, Louisiana were called to reports that Alton Sterling had been threatening people with a gun. Upon their arrival Alton Sterling attacked the police whilst wielding that gun and was shot and killed by the police. Cases of the lawful use of force do not come clearer.
On July 6th 2016 (6/7/16) police officers stopped Philando Castile in St Anthony, Minnesota. Castile responded to this armed traffic stop by refusing the police's lawful instructions repeatedly shouting; "I've got a gun" while reaching into his pockets. This resulted in him being shot and wounded in the arm.
What caused Philando Castile to lose his life was that his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds blocked the police's attempts to give him life saving medical aid. Instead she chose to film Castile's death on her cellphone. This was very similar to the Martyrdom video produced by Larossi Abballa on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Magnanville, France on June 13th 2016 (13/6/16).
Fuelled by the Democrats' rhetoric during the hearings on Hillary Clinton's criminality both the Alton Sterling and Philando Castile cases sparked largescale violent protests across the US under the well worn banner of; "Black Lives Matter."
At one of those Black Lives Matter gatherings in Dallas, Texas on July 7th (7/7/16) a Black Lives Matter activist Micah Johnson opened fire on the police killing five and wounding 11.
On July 17th 2016 (17/6/17) another Black Lives Matter activist - Gavin Long - ambushed police officers in Baton Rogue, Louisiana killing three and wounding three. This came 10 days after police in Louisiana had arrested four other Black Lives Matter activists who'd stolen firearms in an effort to conduct a similar attack against police.
Hillary Clinton was of course defeated in the November 8th 2016 (8/11/16) Presidential Election by Donald Trump.
Since then the Democrats seem to have abandoned the Black Lives Matter brand in favour of accusing President Trump of being linked to Russia and holding seemingly endless Congressional hearings on the matter. These Congressional hearings have really not been going well for the Democrats.
June 8th 2017 (8/6/17) was unofficially designated as; "Comey Day." This saw Democrat supporters across the nation take the day off work and gather around TV's to watch James Comey's testimony before Congress.
Their hope was that Comey would accuse President Trump of obstructing the Russia investigation triggering impeachment proceedings. It didn't turn out like that.
The main takeaways from Comey's testimony were;
CNN who'd been counting down the seconds to Comey's testimony for three whole days were then forced to spend the rest of the day they'd dedicated to the event desperately trying to pretend that Comey hadn't given testimony and nothing had been said.
I don't think CNN have ever covered a UK election in as much detail as the UK election the results of which started emerge some three hours after Comey's testimony.
Tuesday (13/7/17) saw current Attorney General Jeff Sessions give testimony to Congress on the Russia investigation. The sole allegation against Sessions is that he met the Russian Ambassador while part of President Trump's November 2016 to January 2017 transition team. This is the entire point of Ambassadors.
So by accusing Sessions of wrongdoing for having a perfectly normal meeting with a foreign Ambassador the Democrats seem to be saying that Hillary Clinton's election defeat was worse then the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. A pretty bold claim.
Immediately before the start of Session's testimony Hillary Clinton herself Tweeted out a message about healthcare reform. This attempt to change the subject seemed intended to signal to the Democrats to drop the Russia conspiracy theories which are making them look seriously foolish.
The actions of Bernie Sanders campaign worker yesterday (14/6/17) have triggered a wave of unity between Republicans and Democrats. We will see if the Democrats will drop their rantings in order to continue this spirit of bipartisanship.
Under James Comey the FBI failed for two whole days to investigate the December 2nd 2015 (2/12/15) terror attack in San Bernardino, California as a terror attack. The FBI have never investigated the Dallas terror attack, the Baton Rogue terror attack or the December 14th 2014 (14/12/14) New York City terror attack as terrorist attacks.
James Comey of course has been fired and the FBI is now under the control of acting Director Andrew McCabe.
It was under Andrew McCabe that the FBI leaked vital information regarding the May 22nd 2017 (22/5/17) bombing of the Manchester Evening News Arena (MENA) in Manchester, UK obstructing Britain's attempts to investigate that terror attack. So basically McCabe is currently wanted in the UK for terrorism offences.
Andrew McCabe of course was also the lead investigator in the Hillary Clinton espionage investigation. During that time he received almost USD1million in payments from the Democrat Party. This includes a payment from Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.
Under McCabe the FBI has so far failed to investigate yesterday's terror attack as a terror attack. Instead they have chosen to echo Governor McAuliffe's claim that it is nothing more then random gun violence that only the Democrats can save America from.
So I think it is fair to assume that Andrew McCabe time with the FBI is going to end very soon.
This has prompted the Washington Post newspaper to try and leap to McCabe's aid. Last night they cited those famous 'anonymous sources' to claim that President Trump is in fact under investigation for obstructing the Russia investigation.
It is obvious that the Washington Post have published this false story in the hope that when Andrew McCabe does get fired they can try and convince readers that it's President Trump trying to obstruct the Russia investigation.
However the reasons why someone may have fed the Washington Post an entirely false story are potentially much more interesting.
Events in Virginia yesterday were of course immediately preceded by the fire at the Grenfell Tower in the Kensington area of London, UK. At the time I said that this had set off a lot of alarm bells.
For example it seems to have prompted a much smaller fire at a World Cup 2018 stadium under construction in the Russian city of Volgograd.
Much of the British leftwing media have latched onto Russian activist Alexi Navalny. This is particularly true of the Independent newspaper which is owned by Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev. They are Navalny's main backers because they have a long running business dispute with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In turn Navalny has latched onto a current protest movement in the Russia capital Moscow against plans to tear down crumbling Soviet-era apartment blocks. Grenfell Tower is built in the same horrible Soviet inspired Brutalist style of architecture.
The newly elected Labour MP for Kensington Emma Dent Coad is something of an expert in Totalitarian architecture. She did her doctoral thesis on Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. The guy who fought against the Republican International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.
Both German and Belgium have enquired as to whether anyone on the terrorism watchlist had access to Grenfell Tower prior to the fire. Or whether anyone with access to Grenfell Tower should have been on the terrorism watchlist.
The British police did not investigate a possible link between the UK Labour Party and the massive arson that occurred in their key target set of Croydon Central during the August 2011 riots.
However the British police were not the only law enforcement or intelligence agency which protected delegations at the 2012 London Olympics.
You remember. The one in which Rihanna and Jay Z performed "Run This Town" whilst surrounded by fire during the Closing Ceremony.
London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for a public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire. Under his pressure Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May has granted that public inquiry.
Public Inquiries are what British politicians use to obstruct criminal investigations.
At this early stage of the Grenfell Tower investigation the question is not whether the authorities have any evidence indicating it was arson but whether they have any evidence conclusively prove it WASN'T arson.
As James Comey's mishandling of the San Bernardino terror attack demonstrates delaying the opening of an investigation makes it very easy for vital evidence to be lost or destroyed.
17:55 on 15/6/17 (UK date)
At around 11:00 (07:00 local) they came under fire prompting a roughly ten minute gun battle between the attacker and the Congressmen's police security detail. This gun battle left four people wounded including Republican Majority Whip Steve Scalise who appears to have been the intended target of the attack.
The gunman who was wounded at the scene and later died has been identified as James Hodgkinson a 67 year old originally from Illinois.
Hodgkinson had previously worked on the campaign of 2016 Democrat Party Presidential primary candidate Bernie Sanders. His Facebook page is full of angry tirades against the Republican Party and Donald Trump in particular. This includes being a member of a; "Terminate the Republican Party" group.
So although James Hodgkinson is white and does not appear to be a Muslim this unlawful use of violence in furtherance of political objective is a clear example of domestic terrorism. Sadly this is something we've come to expect from the US Democrat Party.
You may remember that in the summer of 2016 Democrat Party Presidential primary candidate and eventual nominee Hillary Clinton was under investigation by the FBI over allegations of espionage against the US.
On July 5th 2016 (5/7/16) then FBI Director James Comey announced that Hillary Clinton had in fact committed 110 offences of espionage against the US but inexplicably decided not to seek her prosecution.
This triggered a series of Congressional hearings in which the Republican Party demanded an explanation of why Hillary Clinton was not being prosecuted.
However Democrats attempted to disrupt proceedings by accusing the Republicans of racism and demanding to know what the FBI was doing to investigate the killing by police officers of two black men- Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
On July 5th 2016 (5/7/16) police in Baton Rogue, Louisiana were called to reports that Alton Sterling had been threatening people with a gun. Upon their arrival Alton Sterling attacked the police whilst wielding that gun and was shot and killed by the police. Cases of the lawful use of force do not come clearer.
On July 6th 2016 (6/7/16) police officers stopped Philando Castile in St Anthony, Minnesota. Castile responded to this armed traffic stop by refusing the police's lawful instructions repeatedly shouting; "I've got a gun" while reaching into his pockets. This resulted in him being shot and wounded in the arm.
What caused Philando Castile to lose his life was that his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds blocked the police's attempts to give him life saving medical aid. Instead she chose to film Castile's death on her cellphone. This was very similar to the Martyrdom video produced by Larossi Abballa on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Magnanville, France on June 13th 2016 (13/6/16).
Fuelled by the Democrats' rhetoric during the hearings on Hillary Clinton's criminality both the Alton Sterling and Philando Castile cases sparked largescale violent protests across the US under the well worn banner of; "Black Lives Matter."
At one of those Black Lives Matter gatherings in Dallas, Texas on July 7th (7/7/16) a Black Lives Matter activist Micah Johnson opened fire on the police killing five and wounding 11.
On July 17th 2016 (17/6/17) another Black Lives Matter activist - Gavin Long - ambushed police officers in Baton Rogue, Louisiana killing three and wounding three. This came 10 days after police in Louisiana had arrested four other Black Lives Matter activists who'd stolen firearms in an effort to conduct a similar attack against police.
Hillary Clinton was of course defeated in the November 8th 2016 (8/11/16) Presidential Election by Donald Trump.
Since then the Democrats seem to have abandoned the Black Lives Matter brand in favour of accusing President Trump of being linked to Russia and holding seemingly endless Congressional hearings on the matter. These Congressional hearings have really not been going well for the Democrats.
June 8th 2017 (8/6/17) was unofficially designated as; "Comey Day." This saw Democrat supporters across the nation take the day off work and gather around TV's to watch James Comey's testimony before Congress.
Their hope was that Comey would accuse President Trump of obstructing the Russia investigation triggering impeachment proceedings. It didn't turn out like that.
The main takeaways from Comey's testimony were;
- President Trump is not under investigation over ties to Russia.
- President Trump has in no way attempted to obstruct any ongoing investigation.
- No member of President Trump's staff or his Republican Party has in anyway attempted to obstruct any ongoing investigation.
- US Attorney General Loretta Lynch did obstruct the investigation into Hillary Clinton's espionage.
CNN who'd been counting down the seconds to Comey's testimony for three whole days were then forced to spend the rest of the day they'd dedicated to the event desperately trying to pretend that Comey hadn't given testimony and nothing had been said.
I don't think CNN have ever covered a UK election in as much detail as the UK election the results of which started emerge some three hours after Comey's testimony.
Tuesday (13/7/17) saw current Attorney General Jeff Sessions give testimony to Congress on the Russia investigation. The sole allegation against Sessions is that he met the Russian Ambassador while part of President Trump's November 2016 to January 2017 transition team. This is the entire point of Ambassadors.
So by accusing Sessions of wrongdoing for having a perfectly normal meeting with a foreign Ambassador the Democrats seem to be saying that Hillary Clinton's election defeat was worse then the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. A pretty bold claim.
Immediately before the start of Session's testimony Hillary Clinton herself Tweeted out a message about healthcare reform. This attempt to change the subject seemed intended to signal to the Democrats to drop the Russia conspiracy theories which are making them look seriously foolish.
The actions of Bernie Sanders campaign worker yesterday (14/6/17) have triggered a wave of unity between Republicans and Democrats. We will see if the Democrats will drop their rantings in order to continue this spirit of bipartisanship.
Under James Comey the FBI failed for two whole days to investigate the December 2nd 2015 (2/12/15) terror attack in San Bernardino, California as a terror attack. The FBI have never investigated the Dallas terror attack, the Baton Rogue terror attack or the December 14th 2014 (14/12/14) New York City terror attack as terrorist attacks.
James Comey of course has been fired and the FBI is now under the control of acting Director Andrew McCabe.
It was under Andrew McCabe that the FBI leaked vital information regarding the May 22nd 2017 (22/5/17) bombing of the Manchester Evening News Arena (MENA) in Manchester, UK obstructing Britain's attempts to investigate that terror attack. So basically McCabe is currently wanted in the UK for terrorism offences.
Andrew McCabe of course was also the lead investigator in the Hillary Clinton espionage investigation. During that time he received almost USD1million in payments from the Democrat Party. This includes a payment from Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.
Under McCabe the FBI has so far failed to investigate yesterday's terror attack as a terror attack. Instead they have chosen to echo Governor McAuliffe's claim that it is nothing more then random gun violence that only the Democrats can save America from.
So I think it is fair to assume that Andrew McCabe time with the FBI is going to end very soon.
This has prompted the Washington Post newspaper to try and leap to McCabe's aid. Last night they cited those famous 'anonymous sources' to claim that President Trump is in fact under investigation for obstructing the Russia investigation.
It is obvious that the Washington Post have published this false story in the hope that when Andrew McCabe does get fired they can try and convince readers that it's President Trump trying to obstruct the Russia investigation.
However the reasons why someone may have fed the Washington Post an entirely false story are potentially much more interesting.
Events in Virginia yesterday were of course immediately preceded by the fire at the Grenfell Tower in the Kensington area of London, UK. At the time I said that this had set off a lot of alarm bells.
For example it seems to have prompted a much smaller fire at a World Cup 2018 stadium under construction in the Russian city of Volgograd.
Much of the British leftwing media have latched onto Russian activist Alexi Navalny. This is particularly true of the Independent newspaper which is owned by Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev. They are Navalny's main backers because they have a long running business dispute with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In turn Navalny has latched onto a current protest movement in the Russia capital Moscow against plans to tear down crumbling Soviet-era apartment blocks. Grenfell Tower is built in the same horrible Soviet inspired Brutalist style of architecture.
The newly elected Labour MP for Kensington Emma Dent Coad is something of an expert in Totalitarian architecture. She did her doctoral thesis on Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. The guy who fought against the Republican International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War.
Both German and Belgium have enquired as to whether anyone on the terrorism watchlist had access to Grenfell Tower prior to the fire. Or whether anyone with access to Grenfell Tower should have been on the terrorism watchlist.
The British police did not investigate a possible link between the UK Labour Party and the massive arson that occurred in their key target set of Croydon Central during the August 2011 riots.
However the British police were not the only law enforcement or intelligence agency which protected delegations at the 2012 London Olympics.
You remember. The one in which Rihanna and Jay Z performed "Run This Town" whilst surrounded by fire during the Closing Ceremony.
London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for a public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire. Under his pressure Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May has granted that public inquiry.
Public Inquiries are what British politicians use to obstruct criminal investigations.
At this early stage of the Grenfell Tower investigation the question is not whether the authorities have any evidence indicating it was arson but whether they have any evidence conclusively prove it WASN'T arson.
As James Comey's mishandling of the San Bernardino terror attack demonstrates delaying the opening of an investigation makes it very easy for vital evidence to be lost or destroyed.
17:55 on 15/6/17 (UK date)
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