Archive for August 2011
Exploiting Norway’s Terror
Mr. and Mrs. Sikorski’s War on “Dangerous Emotions”
By Maidhc Ó Cathail
August 29, 2011
In the wake of any major terrorist event, it’s generally worth noting who is especially quick off the mark to exploit the tragedy.
Breivik’s Tangled Chechen Connection
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said that two Chechen teenagers who rescued a number of people during an attack on Norway’s Utøya summer camp deserve “recognition,” RIA Novosti reports.
Interestingly, Kadyrov is said to be a shareholder in the Far West private intelligence company, under one of whose directors Anders Breivik reportedly underwent paramilitary training in Belarus. Breivik’s “militant-terrorist” trainer has been named as Valery Lunev, who is also closely connected to Chechen Muslim separatists. Lunev, a former colonel of Belarusian special forces, converted to Islam after marrying a relative of Dzhokhar Dudayev, the first president of the unrecognised secessionist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
Norway’s Terror as Systemic Destabilization: Breivik, the Arms-for-Drugs Milieu, and Global Shadow Elites
By Peter Dale Scott
The Asia-Pacific Journal
August 22, 2011
Breivik’s Terror: Was It a Deep Event?
The most surprising aspect of the recent unexpected terrorist violence in Norway is that, in retrospect, it is not surprising. Our revived hopes after the end of the Cold War, that we might finally be emerging into a world of diminishing bloodshed, have been abundantly disabused. Events of seemingly random irrational violence, such as that which so shocked us when President Kennedy was assassinated, have become a predictable part of the world in which we live.
Whose Congress and State Department?
By Philip Giraldi
Antiwar.com
August 25, 2011
August is generally a quiet month for news, but riots in Britain, continuing conflict in Libya and Syria, and concerns that Israel and the United States might be preparing some military moves against Iran have generated a bit of unease. Israel has also decided to take advantage of the summer holidays to help along the peace process by building another 1,600 housing units in what used to be called Arab East Jerusalem. No surprise there, as the Israeli government announced its plans when peripatetic Vice President Joe Biden visited last year. You might recall that Joe got tough with the Israelis at that time by refusing to have dinner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who repaid the favor by dressing down the president and allowing Congress to grovel before him on a state visit in May.
Israeli Video Games in Gaza
Alison Weir reports on Israel’s targeted killing of children:
Death from a drone strike is not pretty. The small body is charred, ripped apart; internal organs are pouring out.
He had been riding with his father and uncle on a motorcycle in Gaza when the missile hit them. His 29-year-old father, a member of the Palestinian resistance, and 32-year-old uncle physician were also killed. Five bystanders, including a woman, were injured.
The missile was fired remotely by an Israeli sitting in front of a video screen and operating one of the many drones that periodically fly over Gaza and shoot Palestinians like fish in a fishbowl. The operators are usually female, the preferred group for this kind of desk job.
With friends like these, the Syrian people don’t need enemies
In light of the Iraq war debacle, a salutary motto for any American policymaker would be: “Beware of pro-Israelis bearing advice.” Even more so when it’s pretty much the same people that worked so hard to get the United States into that mess who are once again dispensing unsolicited counsel.
Carnage in Norway — Refreshing the Narrative
By Jeff Gates
Criminal State
August 19, 2011
So let us fight together with Israel, with our Zionist brothers against all anti-Zionists…”
— Manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik
(TEMPE, Ariz.) – War-making storylines tend to lose their steam. Sustained warfare requires more than just a plausible Evil Doer. A credible narrative is also essential. To remind us who to hate, who better than a murderous Nordic Muslim-hater?
Rick Perry and the Neocons
By Philip Giraldi
Antiwar.com
August 18, 2011
The only change anyone can believe in in Washington is that nothing ever changes. The choice between Republican and Democrat in 2012 will likely boil down to who will be making what kind of cuts in social programs to support continuous warfare overseas. Only Ron Paul stands out from the pack with his commitment to constitutionalism and nonintervention, but sustained efforts by establishment Republicans and the media to make his candidacy go away render him a long shot at best.
Unravelling Breivik’s Belarus Connection
Was Norwegian killer trained by oligarch-linked group?
By Maidhc Ó Cathail
August 17, 2011
Citing unnamed sources within Belarus’s “security organs,” a Belarusian opposition leader has claimed that Norwegian anti-Muslim extremist Anders Behring Breivik “underwent paramilitary training in Belarus.” Mikhail Reshetnikov, the head of the opposition Belarusian Party of Patriots, told the Russian Gazeta.ru online newspaper, “Breivik visited Belarus several times. This spring, as part of his preparations for his twin attacks, he visited Minsk, where he underwent training at a secret paramilitary field camp.” According to Reshetnikov, Breivik’s training under a former Belarusian special service officer included “sabotage-terrorism drills.” The Norwegian visitor, he added, was known to the Belarusian KGB by the codename “Viking.”
The Murdochs’ Casablanca Moment
By Leonard Levitt
NYPD Confidential
July 25, 2011
What lessons can New Yorkers draw from the Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal in England? What lessons can we draw about the NYPD?