(1) Russia explains to clueless US Public why Obama can't defeat ISIS (2) Israeli Colonel captured in Iraq with Islamic State terrorists (3) Israeli General Captured in Iraq Confesses to Israel-ISIS Coalition (4) Iraqis release photo of captured ISIS advisor Israeli Colonel Yusi Oulen Shahak (5) Islamic State warn Muslims in the West that they'll soon be unwelcome (6) Soros NGOs behind Syria refugee push into Europe (7) New Internationalist (Anarchist mag funded by Soros) sides with Syrian rebels (8) A resilient revolution, by Daniel Adamso for New Internationalist (9) Trots exchange criticism with New Internationalist magazine (10) New Internationialist credits Soros with donating millions to Progressive causes (1) Russia explains to clueless US Public why Obama can't defeat ISIS http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-18/russia-explains-clueless-us-public-why-obama-cant-defeat-isis http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/memo-to-jim-acosta-and-other-clueless-war-channel-correspondents-washington-cant-take-out-those-bastards-because-thats-not-its-goal/ Russia Explains To Clueless US Public Why Obama Can't Defeat ISIS Submitted by Tyler Durden on 11/18/2015 22:12 -0500 Earlier this week, CNN’s senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta asked President Obama the following question at a press briefing: "A lot of Americans have this frustration that they see the United States has the greatest military in the world, it has the backing of nearly every other country in the world when it comes to taking on ISIS. I guess the question is, and if you'll forgive the language, but why can't we take out these bastards?" Well Jim, the answer is quite simple and indeed, if you - or any other member of the mainstream media for that matter - would bother to look at things like the declassified Pentagon report that Judicial Watch turned up earlier this year, you’d be less confused. <http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Pg.-291-Pgs.-287-293-JW-v-DOD-and-State-14-812-DOD-Release-2015-04-10-final-version11.pdf> Allow us, once again, to provide you with the answers you seek, straight from the Pentagon ca. 2012: ...there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist Principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).” Translation: if Sunni extremists were to establish a proto-state in eastern Syria that would be great because it would destabilize Assad and cut off Iran from Hezbollah thus endangering the preservation of Tehran’s Shiite crescent. For those who need a still simpler formulation: ISIS started out no different than any of the other rebels the US supports in Syria. They likely received guns, money, and training if not directly from the US, then from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Washington seems to have had some idea that they would seek to capture and hold territory and as far as the Pentagon was concerned, that was just fine. Whether or not the CIA anticipated what would come next is up for debate, but make no mistake, US intelligence knew good and well this was a possibility and let it happen because ousting Assad was (and still is) the top priority. So when the Jim Costas of the world ask “why can’t we take out these bastards?”, the answer is that if if we did, one of the main forces destabilizing the Assad regime would be gone and not only that, the US would no longer have an excuse to be in Syria, which would leave the country’s political future entirely up to Russia and Iran and that is a decidedly unpalatable outcome not only for Washington, but for Riyadh and Doha as well. It’s Occam’s Razor Jim: look for the simplest possible explanation and go with that. Of course that explanation is simply too bad to be true for most Americans and so the public and the mass media will continue to exists in a state of perpetual bewilderment as to why 13 months of aerial bombardment hasn’t done anything to degrade the group. In case any of the above isn’t clear enough, Sergei Lavrov has commentary which may help to drive the point home, presented below without further comment: "Despite announcing ambitious plans for its coalition against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), the analysis of those [US-led] airstrikes during over a year lead to conclusion that they were hitting selectively, I would say, sparingly and on most occasions didn’t touch those IS units, which were capable of seriously challenging the Syrian army." “Apparently, it’s a kind of a ‘honey is sweet, but the bee stings’ situation: they want IS to weaken Assad as soon as possible to make him leave somehow, but at the same time they don’t want to overly strengthen IS, which may then seize power." "The US stance seriously weakens the prospects of Syria to remain a secular state, where the rights of all ethnic and religious groups will be provided and guaranteed,” "Russia’s assessment of the US-led anti-terror operation in Syria is based on observations of specific results and there are little results, not to say there are none – except the fact that during this period [since August 2014] the Islamic State has grown on the territories they control.” Clear enough? (2) Israeli Colonel captured in Iraq with ISIS terrorists From: Paul de Burgh-Day <pdeburgh@lorinna.net> Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2015 08:53:19 +1100 Subject: EXCLUSIVE: Israeli Colonel Leading ISIL Terrorists Captured in Iraq http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940730000210 Thu Oct 22, 2015 3:38 Israeli Colonel Leading ISIL Terrorists Captured in Iraq TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraqi security and popular forces have caught an Israeli colonel from Golani Brigade along with a number of ISIL terrorists, a commander disclosed on Thursday. "The security and popular forces have held captive an Israeli colonel," a commander of Iraq's popular mobilization forces said on Thursday. "The Zionist officer is ranked colonel and had participated in the Takfiri ISIL group's terrorist operations," he added. Noting that he was arrested along with a number of ISIL terrorists, the commander said, "The Israeli colonel's name is Yusi Oulen Shahak and is ranked colonel in Golani Brigade of the Zionist regime's army with the security and military code of Re34356578765az231434." He said that the relevant bodies are now interrogating the Israeli colonel to understand the reasons behind his fighting alongside the ISIL forces and the presence of other Zionist officers among ISIL terrorists. The Iraqi security forces said the captured colonel has already made shocking confessions. Several ISIL militants arrested in the last one year had already confessed that Israeli agents from Mossad and other Israeli espionage and intelligence bodies were present in the first wave of ISIL attacks on Iraq and capture of Mosul in Summer 2014, but no ranking Israeli agent had been arrested. Political and military experts told FNA that the capture of the Israeli colonel will leave a grave impact on Iraq's war strategy, including partnership with Israeli allies. In a relevant development in July, Iraqi volunteer forces announced that they had shot down a drone that was spying on the Arab country's security forces in the city of Fallujah, Western Iraq. Iraq's popular forces reported that they had brought down a hostile surveillance aircraft over the Southeastern Fallujah in Anbar Province. They said that the wreckage of the ISIL's spy drone carried 'Israel-Made' labels. This was not the first Israeli-made drone downed in Iraq. In August an Israeli Hermes drone was shot down in the vicinity of Baghdad Airport. (3) Israeli General Captured in Iraq Confesses to Israel-ISIS Coalition http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=711_1445523154 22/10/2015 General Shahak was captured by Shiite militia and is still being held in Iraq. His captors are keeping DESI informed, a European security organization with close ties to VT. The article below is based on questions we submitted to his captors this morning. We also inquired as to the conditions under which he is being held... USA Parliament (Intr) Foreign Minister and European Department for Security and Information Secretary General Ambassador Dr Haissam Bou Said exclusively confirms to VT that the Israeli Brigadier Yussi Elon Shahak captured by the Iraqi popular army confessed during the investigation that, “There is a strong cooperation between MOSSAD and ISIS top military commanders,” asserting that “there are Israeli advisors helping the Organization on laying out strategic and military plans, and guiding them in the battlefield.” The terrorist organization also has military consultants from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Saudi Arabia has so far provided ISIS with 30,000 vehicles, while Jordan rendered 4500 vehicles. Qatar and United Arab Emirates delivered funds for covering ISIS overall expenditure. The planes belonging to the aforesaid countries are still landing in the Mosel airport, carrying military aid and fighters, especially via the Jordanian borders. The Parliament and the DESI also confirm the Death of ISIS leader Abu Baker al Baghdadi, who received two bullets: one in the head and the other in the shoulder in a fire exchange. Two of his top aides were killed as well. It is believed that the CIA and MOSSAD are behind his death as he becomes a wasted commodity. Furthermore, Eight ISIS top commanders were killed in “Haith” in an Iraqi airstrike after two weeks of surveillance by the Iraqi military service. The report concluded that ISIS terrorist group recently arrested in Moscow came from Syria and Iraq through Ukraine. The perpetrators were planning to carry out subversive operations in railways and bus stations. The bombers are from Chechen, Caucasus, Iraqi, Syrian and Saudi nationalities. Ukraine became the hotbed of embracing terrorist activities in complicity with Putin’s arch enemies who want to break up Russia and then absorb it in revenge of his military intervention in Syria. (4) Iraqis release photo of captured ISIS advisor Israeli Colonel Yusi Oulen Shahak http://www.ashtarcommandcrew.net/forum/topics/iraqis-release-photo-of-captured-isis-advisor-israeli-colonel Posted by Malcolm on October 25, 2015 at 2:37pm Here's the photo of Israeli Colonel Yusi Oulen Shahak. Wow, he's young for someone of that rank!! http://api.ning.com:80/files/TJP9R5X7WndkWVOW1S7u6dwdLxdxUUJ-7PGcssuuyOXiWmuk03dkKRM8v3WnAzGHkMsaY2bcCaCm2sHSi-vHg2zY7JA4RF75/Yusi.png http://www.israelnetz.com/sicherheit/detailansicht/aktuell/eine-ente-namens-yusi-oulen-shahak-93832/ The Iraqi's are quoted as saying “the Israeli colonel’s name is Yusi Oulen Shahak and is ranked colonel in Golani Brigade of the [Israeli] zionist regime’s army with the security and military code of Re34356578765az231434.” Several ISIS militants arrested in the last one year had already confessed that Israeli agents from Mossad and other Israeli espionage and intelligence bodies were present in the first wave of ISIS attacks on Iraq and capture of Mosul in Summer 2014, but no ranking Israeli agent had been arrested. The Iraqi security forces said the captured colonel has already made shocking confessions. (5) Islamic State warn Muslims in the West that they'll soon be unwelcome https://theintercept.com/2015/11/19/french-muslims-resist-the-lure-of-fear/ French Muslims Resist the Lure of Fear Anna Lekas Miller Nov. 20 2015, 4:25 a.m. AS FRENCH POLICE continue to search for suspected terrorists, many of France’s 6 million Muslims have an additional anxiety. Not only are they reeling from Friday’s attacks, but many within the Muslim community anticipate a surge in racial profiling by the police, as well as hate crimes and violence by ordinary citizens. “The minute something like this happens, everyone thinks it is us,” said Nora Boukhari, a 39-year-old former police officer of Algerian descent living in the heavily North African 20th arrondissement of Paris. She talks animatedly, while continuously adjusting her white headscarf, and has wrapped an oversized brown woolen jacket over her black embroidered djellaba, a long, traditional Islamic dress, to protect herself from the cold. Although she was born in the north of France — and speaks only French — Boukhari’s Algerian roots run strong, and her Islamic faith is important to her. The aftermath of the November 13 attacks brought Boukhari back to 10 months ago, when masked gunmen stormed the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 11 members of its staff. After the attack, divisions within French society arose almost immediately, with those claiming solidarity with the slain journalists claiming “Je suis Charlie” and those critiquing the racist nature of the cartoons saying, “Je ne suis pas Charlie” — I am not Charlie. “There is no freedom of speech in this country,” Boukhari continued. “If you said, ‘I am not Charlie,’ you were immediately looked at like you were a terrorist.” Boukhari deliberately declined an invitation to a vigil for the victims of the attacks back in January. She said that if her religion was not respected and she could not pray as a Muslim and practice her faith freely in her workplace — something strictly forbidden under France’s strict legal separation of church and state — she would not honor a double standard and pray for others. Shortly thereafter, she was suspended from her position as a police officer. “Then it was ‘Je suis Charlie’ and ‘Je ne suis pas Charlie,’” she told me. “Now it is ‘Je suis Paris’ and ‘Je ne suis pas Paris.’” Despite Boukhari’s cynicism, this time around appears to be different from the January attacks in many ways. Although a mosque was soon vandalized in the north of France, and a halal butcher in the south was graffitied with the words “Wake up, France,” there have been no reported hate crimes directed against Muslims — and little divisive rhetoric over who is French and who is not. “It is not the same as the Charlie Hebdo attacks,” said Khalil Merroun, an imam in Évry-Courcouronnes, the sleepy suburb on the outskirts of Paris that is now making international headlines as the birthplace of Ismaël Omar Mostefaï — one of the four shooters who gunned down concertgoers in the Bataclan Theater on Friday night. While most of the town has every marking of an economically depressed Parisian suburb, with businesses that have been closed for months and little life on the street, Merroun’s mosque rises from its drab surroundings as a beautiful, traditionally tiled Islamic cultural center, inviting the neighborhood’s large Muslim community to meet and gather for cultural events, in addition to praying. Nearby are several halal butcheries, and grocery stores selling pickled lemons, brining olives, and other North African delicacies that aren’t available in French supermarkets. In addition to the Muslim community, Merroun makes a point of welcoming non-Muslims to visit the center, and ask him any questions about Islam. “This time the terrorists were targeting the diversity in French society — including French Muslims,” he continued. While the Charlie Hebdo attacks specifically targeted the content of the magazine — which was perceived to be indicative of larger issues of cultural racism within French society — Friday’s attacks went after the “Parisian way of life,” and were thus more collectively frightening. Among the dead were people of several different nationalities, walks of life, and religious backgrounds — including French citizens of North African descent. “They want to fracture us — and use extremism to make a division between who is Muslim and who is French,” Merroun continued. “But we won’t let them do that this time.” While Merroun is engaging in a massive public relations offensive — he spends most of his time these days in a small office inside of the mosque fielding questions from foreign journalists about whether or not he knew Ismaël Omar Mostefaï personally (he did not), and how he suspects Mostefaï became radicalized — his suspicions about diversity being the true target of the attacks have been confirmed by the Islamic State itself. In a statement published in its online magazine, Dabiq, in February, the militant group warned that Muslims in the West would soon find themselves unwelcome in their societies, and that their best alternative is to migrate to Syria and join the Islamic State. “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” it read. “Either you are with the crusade, or with Islam.” However, for many of France’s Muslims, negotiating their faith within the context of their country is not a new challenge. “It is true that more people look at you suspiciously, but they’re in shock and grieving,” a Moroccan-French mother of five who declined to give her name following the events told me outside of the Évry-Courcouronnes mosque. “Most Muslims are trying to wrap their heads around why anyone would do such a thing, just the way everyone else is.” While the Islamic State’s goal of creating animosity toward Muslim communities is working in other countries, it has been less effective in France. Though mosques in the United States and Canada have experienced threats, and arson attempts, damage to mosques in France has been minimal following last Friday’s attacks. As the United States attempts to use the attacks in Paris as an excuse to further limit entry to Syrian refugees seeking asylum, President Francois Hollande announced that in spite of the recent attacks he will honor his commitment to take in thousands more refugees — with extensive security checks — over the next two years. “Our country has a duty to uphold this promise,” the French president announced in an address on Wednesday. “We have to reinforce our borders while remaining true to our values.” (6) Soros NGOs behind Syria refugee push into Europe http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/11/19/jaccuse-those-responsible-for-friday-13-attacks-paris.html J’accuse: Those Responsible for the Friday the 13-th Attacks in Paris Wayne MADSEN | 19.11.2015 | 00:00 Almost immediately after the Friday the 13th Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist attacks in Paris that left 129 dead and 352 wounded - 100 severely - the chief enablers of the massive influx of Middle Eastern and North African migrants into Europe, which included jihadist «sleeper agents», proclaimed that casting blame for the attacks was outrageous at a time when people needed to mourn. The social media and propaganda operatives who are financed by George Soros’s global network of non-governmental organization (NGO) fronts were squarely behind the campaign to encourage mainly Syrian migrants in Turkey to storm into Europe from refugee centers in Turkey. The Soros gang’s griping about casting blame on any migrants for the terrorist attacks was a cynical attempt to divert attention away from the fact that it was Soros groups that enabled the terrorists to enter Europe by embedding themselves as Trojan horses inside the migrant stream. At a recent meeting in Istanbul, Soros called for the spending of 10 billion euros to facilitate the movement of more than a million Third World and mainly Muslim refugees into Europe. While most refugees, particularly women and children who want to enter Europe are legitimate political and economic migrants responding to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s blanket invitation, the Soros organization has cynically used the migrant issue to advance its own agenda. Integrated in the mass of humanity that swamped the Balkans refugee bridgehead were ISIL terrorists who were intent on carrying out exactly the type of terrorist attacks witnessed in Paris. However, in a display of sheer audacity and using their well-honed polarization skills and «divide-and-conquer» techniques, the Soros operatives said that anyone casting blame on the migrants were racists and xenophobes. In response, it is important to state that Soros and his operatives directly enabled the creation of Europe’s worst refugee crisis since the end of World War II are nothing more than aiders and abettors of jihadist terrorism. With their irresponsible methods of swamping Europe with uncontrollable streams of migrants, thus breaking down European security mechanisms, the Soros operatives have the blood of the innocent victims of ISIL’s attacks on their own duplicitous hands. Even after French authorities determined that one of the dead terrorists in Paris was, in fact, Ahmad Almohammad, a Syrian refugee from Idlib who entered Europe from Turkey on October 3 through the Greek isle of Leros with a Syrian passport, Soros’s operatives demanded that the refugee flow from the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa continue unabated despite the collapse of the Europe’s external borders and regional security. Almohammad transited from Greece to Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, and then into Germany and, ultimately, to France. One such call to maintain the current migratory status quo came from the Emergencies Director of Human Rights Watch, Peter Bouckaert. It should be emphasized that in 2010 Soros «leased» Human Rights Watch for $100 million over a ten-year period. Since that time, the NGO has served Soros’s sordid global interests, including undermining the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and concocting phony news reports about «barrel bombs» and chemical weapons attacks by Syria’s army. Bouckaert claimed the Syrian passport found on the dead terrorist migrant was fake. The claim turned out to be false. Because of pressure from groups like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Organization of Migration, and other Soros-financed geopolitical tools, the Syrian government relaxed its stringent passport renewal policies after it was criticized for doing nothing to help Syrians who had fled the civil war ravaging the country. In April 2015, Syrians abroad, even those who left the country illegally, members of exiled opposition groups, and Syrians who dodged the military draft, were permitted to renew their Syrian passports at Syrian consulates in Turkey, Greece, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. This was a direct concession by Assad to the Syrian opposition before peace talks were due to commence in Geneva. It was in Greece where the Friday the 13th Paris terrorist was issued his emergency Syrian passport, which Human Rights Watch misrepresented as counterfeit. Is Human Rights Watch perhaps trying to divert attention away from the fact that terrorists are obtaining valid passports to enter Europe? Two other Soros-financed groups that have facilitated the entry of jihadist refugees into Europe are W2EU (Welcome to European Union) and MigrationAid Hungary. W2EU has provided migrants with «Rough Guide» booklets written in Arabic that instruct migrants, now known to have included terrorists, on how to travel to Germany and Austria and ask for asylum, food, housing, and unemployment benefits. It is clear that these Soros groups have worked hand-in-glove with Merkel who shouted from her perch in Berlin for all refugees to come to Germany. Even when informed that there were jihadists among the refugee ranks, Merkel ordered that German borders remain open. She and her coalition government of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats also share in the blame for the Paris Friday the 13th massacre. Soros has also utilized NGOs such as the European Program for Integration and Migration (EPIM) to lobby for relaxed immigration controls by the European Union. One minute after the first news reports of the Friday the 13th attacks, a London-based cartoonist named Jean Jullien claimed he designed the peace symbol with the Eiffel Tower image. The symbol became the trademark for memorializing the attack. Just as with the Charlie Hebdo attacks, slick marketing images were immediately rolled out. In the case of the Charlie Hebdo operation, new signs proclaiming «Je suis Charlie» appeared all over Paris and on social media within minutes. In the latest attack, the Eiffel Tower peace symbol went viral on social media and signs proclaiming «Je suis Paris» not only spread on the Internet but began popping up throughout France almost immediately. As experienced with the themed revolution campaigns designed by Soros propaganda «majordomo» Gene Sharp, slick media production of emotion-laden symbols and slogans have become integral to Soros-linked social upheaval campaigns. Also culpable is U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, the neoconservative tool of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel Lobby, who presided over gavaging Greece with a series of destabilizing economic austerity measures. As part of the tag team Nuland undermined the government of Macedonia with a Ukrainian-style «color revolution» attempt. It was through Greece and Macedonia that the refugee invasion of Europe was launched. Neither country was in a position to defend its maritime and land frontiers. As also seen with the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks in Paris, Netanyahu’s Zionist power elites are again eager to make political capital out of any jihadist operation. Direct Israeli military and intelligence support for Syrian and Iraqi jihadist groups, including the Nusra Front and Al Qaeda, spans as common denominators two major jihadist attacks in Paris in 2015. Just a day before the Friday the 13th attack, Barack Obama stressed that ISIL needed no elimination but mere «containment» in Syria and Iraq, Clearly, Obama merely communicated of the desires of his Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan, who is long-rumored to be Wahhabist-oriented and who may well be the actual «Jihadi John». Incidentally, the U.S. claimed to have killed the video-documented «Jihadi John» just the day before the latest Paris attack. As usual which such blustering claims, as previously also seen with the «killing» of Osama bin Laden, the United States again failed to provide any solid proof that it killed the ISIL propagandist «Jihadi John». Obama’s and Brennan’s coddling of ISIL through Washington’s Saudi, Qatari, and Turkish proxies – Saudi King Salman, Qatar’s Al Thani ruling clique, and Turkey’s want-to-be Ottoman and Seljuk emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- enabled the self-proclaimed Islamic «caliphate» to take hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in Syria, Iraq, the Kurdish region, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, Sinai, Lebanon, Thailand, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Tunisia, France, and Turkey. The hands of Erdogan, the House of Saud, and the House of Thani are dripping with the blood of the victims of ISIL. Erdogan is believed by many Turks of having used ISIL to carry out the October 10, 2015 deadly twin suicide bombings of Kurdish political demonstrations near Ankara’s two train stations. Erdogan’s increasingly draconian regime benefited from the pre-election bombing as it enabled his party to gain a parliamentary majority. Erdogan blamed ISIL and the Kurdish PKK guerrilla group for the attack. Also noteworthy is the fact that two of the dead Friday the 13th terrorists in Paris were carrying altered Turkish passports. At the November 15 G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, Obama appeared to have taken a hiatus from seeking terrorism management advice from the ISIL-supporting Erdogan and, instead, was seen in private conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss battling the Islamic State. However, Obama’s posturing was too little and too late. Any meaningful plan to combat jihadism in coordination with Russia, France, China, Iran, Egypt, and other countries would mandate the prerequisite of firing Brennan as CIA director and cleansing the intelligence agency of its Saudi- and Israeli-supporting elements. The Islamic State is clearly not alone in having the blood of innocents on its hands. The trail of blood extends to Berlin, Riyadh, Doha, Ankara, as well as the White House and CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. (7) New Internationalist (Anarchist mag funded by Soros) sides with Syrian rebels https://digital.newint.com.au/issues/103 Syria’s good guys - Inside a forgotten revolution NI 485 - September, 2015 Nonviolent activists are holding out in Syria, despite the destruction. Do not abandon them, says Daniel Adamson. Syria – the good guys Daniel Silas Adamson for the New Internationalist co-operative. www.newint.org Before the war, the best way to enjoy Syria was in complete ignorance. That’s what I did in 2005, when I arrived in Damascus as a tourist. For two weeks I explored the country’s Roman ruins and medieval markets, enthusing about the sophistication of the food and the friendliness of the people. Syria, as my guidebook put it, was ‘the Middle East’s best kept secret’. It was not until the following year, when I returned to Damascus to live, that I started to see that Syria had secrets of its own. Buildings from which Syrians averted their eyes. Jails from which no one emerged. To walk these streets, as writer Rana Kabbani has said, was ‘to walk on pavements that were the ceilings of basements where political prisoners hung upside down by their feet’. As my naïveté diminished, so my admiration for the Syrian people increased. After they rebelled against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in 2011, I followed their progress closely through the blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds where activists debate the revolution, the war, and the ongoing struggle to build a better Syria. Their stories deserve to be far more widely known, and this magazine is a contribution towards that end. In putting it together, I have relied on the insight of Syrians far more expert than me, as well as the contributions of Syrian writers, artists and activists represented in these pages. My thanks and respect to them all. Elsewhere in the issue, French economist Edouard Tétreau urges Pope Francis to take a stand against ‘insane money and alienating technologies’ when he visits the UN headquarters later this month. (8) A resilient revolution, by Daniel Adamso for New Internationalist http://newint.org/features/special/2015/09/01/sept-keynote-syria-resilient-revolution/ A resilient revolution Daniel Adamson SEPTEMBER 2015 In the early days of the Syrian uprising, civil society blossomed for the first time in generations. Despite the destruction, it is still alive, says Daniel Adamson. In December 2011, a group of Syrian activists released 2,000 ping-pong balls onto a steeply sloping street in Damascus. On each one, they had written a single word: freedom. The activists belonged to Freedom Syria Days – a collective of revolutionary groups dismayed by Syria’s slide into war and desperate to hold on to the nonviolent, subversive spirit that had marked the first months of the uprising. Insisting that Assad’s regime could be crippled by civil disobedience, they instigated a general strike, closing shops and disrupting transport networks. They covered credit cards with glue and stuck them into ATMs. They poured red dye into the fountains of Damascus. There was nothing frivolous about this. The activists knew that Syrians had been tortured and killed for acts of creative resistance. What they could not have known, though, was that while they were releasing ping-pong balls, Assad was releasing known Islamist militants from Syria’s jails. The regime tried to disguise this within a general amnesty, to pass it off as part of a package of ‘reforms’. But Assad’s real intention, many analysts believe, was to transform a civil uprising into an Islamist insurgency that would both legitimize the crushing of the revolution and discourage the US from any thoughts of regime change.1 It took a long time for Syria’s revolutionaries to take up arms, and longer still before they were eclipsed by the ferocity of the Islamist militias. In the end, though, Assad’s selective release of prisoners, the army’s murderous assault on peaceful demonstrators and the meddling of foreign powers (see the article ‘Proxy War’) ensured that Syria was engulfed in a full-scale civil war. By 2013, the Sunni jihadist movement that had plagued Iraq for years had bled across the border and morphed into ISIS, a group even more nihilistic and vindictive than its progenitors. As Assad registered the growing alarm of the West, he must have been thrilled. He had always said Syria was dealing with terrorists, that his regime was the only bulwark against fanaticism. By 2014, with 200,000 people dead and the country in ruins, it was starting to sound plausible. Fear crumbles The regime’s willingness to set Syria ablaze was a desperate strategy, but not an irrational one. However frightening the prospect of a jihadist insurgency, Assad seemed even more terrified by the nonviolent uprising from which the ping-pong activists had emerged. What really worried him was the erosion of the fear which, for 40 years, had sealed Syria’s lips, suffocated its talent, and stifled its imagination. Fear was the mortar that held Assad’s Syria together. Now, under the pressure of the uprising, it was crumbling. As it disintegrated, Syrians found a voice that had been silenced for decades. They sang songs that mocked Assad and laughed at the fawning servility of those who surrounded him. (See ‘Singing in the kingdom of silence’ for our gallery of revolutionary art.) They tore down portraits that had intimidated people for years, and raised banners that gave voice to the hopes of ordinary Syrian men and women. Most important of all, they began to articulate a Syrian national identity in terms of opposition to the state. The regime had spent years weaving the cult of the Assads into the fabric of Syrian patriotism. Suddenly, this whole scheme was unravelling. Without firing a shot, the demonstrators had undermined the psychological basis of Assad’s rule. It was too late now to placate them with reforms or higher wages. ‘We don’t want your bread,’ the crowds chanted, ‘we want dignity.’ Fledgling civil society Wherever the regime was pushed from power, this outpouring of energy was converted into something that had never been allowed to flourish in Syria: a civil society. The people who had marched for freedom now ran hospitals and schools, documented violations and reported news. Some joined local councils. Others set up projects to train journalists or treat traumatized children. These initiatives were often shut down by fighting, or hampered by lack of funds or experience. But for all its flaws, the revolutionary movement was lit up by the courage of the Syrian people. Assad’s assault on this fledgling civil society is perhaps the saddest chapter in the tragedy of Syria’s war. In rebel-held towns, schools and hospitals were hit by a rain of barrel bombs that killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions more. (See ‘Rushing towards death’ for the civilian humanitarian response). In areas under regime control, security services detained anyone who showed too much independence of mind – web developers like Basel Khartabil, who campaigned for the freedom of information online; lawyers like Khalil Ma’touk, who defended Syria’s prisoners of conscience; humanitarians like Raed al-Tawil, who volunteered with the Red Crescent in Damascus. All three men vanished into the regime’s jails in 2012. Though al-Tawil was later released, Ma’touk and Khartabil have not been heard from since. No-one knows how many languish alongside them – perhaps as many as 150,000 – and few can imagine the horrors these people endure. It was not until 2014, when a forensic photographer defected from the Syrian military with 55,000 images on flash drives, that the world got its first glimpse into what goes on in these jails. The photos showed some 11,000 corpses bearing the marks of starvation, pipe beatings, cigarette and acid burns, electrocution, fingernail extractions, strangulation and stabbings. The arrest of so many lawyers, journalists and doctors has deprived the country of some of those who had the most to contribute to the creation of a more humane and open society. Many other have fled Syria. The optimism of 2011 and 2012 has been crushed by the sheer scale of destruction. Heroes abandoned Despite all this, though, Syria’s nonviolent resistance is still alive. Much of its energy has, by necessity, been directed towards emergency relief – pulling the wounded from the rubble, keeping clinics supplied, distributing food in areas under siege. But even under these conditions, there are activists working on the longer-term challenges of state building – creating a free press, educating women, advancing the notion of transitional justice. ‘On the news you see only blood and destruction,’ one woman told Human Rights Watch in 2014. ‘You don’t see that behind it, there are civilian groups doing things peacefully. We are still here.’ ‘On the news you see only blood and destruction,’ one woman told Human Rights Watch in 2014. ‘You don’t see that behind it, there are civilian groups doing things peacefully. We are still here’ In its neglect of these activists and its lurid fascination with ISIS, the media has played along with Assad’s narrative of a war against terrorists – a narrative that ignores Syria’s democrats and depicts Syrians as passive victims in a bloody game between Islamists and autocrats. After the fight that these people have put up and the sacrifices they have made, it is hard to imagine how dispiriting this must feel. No-one, at this stage, is naïve enough to think that a stable and prosperous democracy is about to bloom from the rubble. Half the country’s people are displaced, thousands have suffered or committed acts from which they are unlikely to ever fully recover, and a whole generation is growing up traumatized and illiterate in the refugee camps that cluster along Syria’s borders. In the early days of the revolution, a group of friends from a village called Kafranbel in Syria's northwest began to paint appeals for freedom and solidarity onto cotton banners and to draw satirical cartoons about the lack of international support. Written in English as well as Arabic, Kafranbel's weekly messages had a mix of idealism and snark that made them perfect in a social media age. They have now been seen by millions of people all over the world. Kafranbel Worse than naïve, though, would be to abandon the brave men and women who are still fighting to keep alive the hopes that were expressed so forcefully at the start of the uprising. To ignore these people, as the international community continues to do, is to deprive them of solidarity, to limit their access to funds and training, and to make sure that their voices are sidelined at the international negotiations on Syria’s future. In these pages we have space for only a few examples. Many heroic people cannot be featured here, and thousands more remain unknown. But despite these omissions, this edition of New Internationalist attempts to recognize and amplify the voices of some of the best and bravest revolutionaries in Syria. Many of them, when asked what the international community can do to help, converge on a single conclusion: Syrians need an internationally enforced No-Fly Zone to protect them from Assad’s barrel bombs. Beyond this specific appeal, these voices bear witness to the humanity, creativity, and imagination that has marked the Syrian revolution from its first day. ‘The Syrian people,’ wrote journalist Mazen Darwish in a letter smuggled out of a Damascus jail cell, ‘are children of life, capable of constructing a state built on dignity, freedom and justice.’ That is a judgment illustrated by every one of the contributors and interviewees here. Together, they offer a rebuke to any suggestion that the Syrian people might be receptive to the death cult of ISIS, or are better off under a dictator. 1. For details on the Syrian regime’s selective amnesty in which hundreds of nonviolent activists remained in jail while an unknown number of Salafist jihadists walked free, see Jean-Pierre Filui’s From Deep State to Islamic State – the Arab Counter-Revolution and its Jihadi Legacy (pp 200–205) and ISIS – Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan (pp 144–152). (9) Trots exchange criticism with New Internationalist magazine New Internationalist Takes Aim at Marxist Groups A couple of months ago this site took a potshot at New Internationalist, attacking their issue on political strategy, which was heavily indebted to John Holloway's book 'Change the World Without Taking Power'. Now NI has launched its own attack on revolutionary socialists (NI May 2004) entitled 'The Trots' - an unsigned article, unfortunately. The main targets are the SWP (UK), Resistance/DSP Australia and the Fourth International. The Trots Job: Promoting Worldwide Trotskyist Revolution Wherever Possible Reputation: The Real Revolutionaries New Internationalist May 2004 Whenever tragedy strikes, one thing can be counted on – the media will descend on the location like a plague of locusts. The, when all is done, the swarm unplugs microphones and laptops and moves on to the next disaster. Bewildered survivors are left to their fate as the media spotlight shines on the latest ‘horror of the month’. In the West, whenever an industrial dispute or popular protest erupts, one thing can be counted on – Trotskyist groups will descend to ‘organize’ the struggle. Then, when all is done, the comrades pick up their papers and pamphlets and move on to the next struggle. Disillusioned workers are left behind as groups like Britain’s Socialist Workers Party (SWP), Resistance in Australia and others breeze in to the latest ‘Protest of the Month’. The impact these groups have far outweighs their actual numbers. But what they lack in political imagination, creativity and mass base, they make up for in sheer organizing prowess. Consummate opportunists, they tirelessly weave their way into leadership positions of important social movements such as the anti-racist and anti-capitalist movements, and more recently, anti-war efforts. Often shunned by progressive groups, the Trots bounce back with new front groups such as the anti-capitalist tour operator Globalize Resistance – active in many countries in Europe – and pseudo Trot front group Act Now to Stop war and Racism (ANSWER) in the US. Where front groups fail, they also form alliances such as the Stop the War Coalition in Britain. They seek to assume leadership and assimilate diverse movements for their own partisan aims irrespective of the cause concerned. An Irish environmental festival, Dutch trade campaigners’ strategy meeting, Belgian protests against a business summit, a student network conference in Britain, anti-capitalist protests in Scandinavia, Australia and North America: all these have been targets of authoritarian socialist groups bent on securing leadership roles, gaining recruits and, of course, selling papers. Extremely hierarchical, they prefer top-down leadership bordering on authoritarianism rather than grassroots participatory organising. Their largely anti-democratic tendencies are well documented and often characterised by manipulating important organising meetings, forcing out dissenters and subverting key platform aims if these are deemed to be ‘counter-revolutionary’. They ‘represent’ the movements in the media, flooding demonstrations and placards promoting their own groups and socialist branding, and packing meeting rooms with their own members such that dissenting views drown in a sea of revolutionary rhetoric. Their classic vanguardist political philosophy is perhaps best described by themselves in the British Socialist Workers Party magazine, Socialist review: ‘Mass movements don’t get the political representation they deserve unless a minority of activists within the movement seek to create a political leadership, which means a political party that shares their vision of political power from below. Such a party will be much less than the movement numerically, but much more than the movement ideologically and organizationally.’ (1) The most disturbing current developments are Trotskyist efforts to control bodies like the World Social Forum and the European Social Forum (ESF). The ESF in Florence in 2002 was heavily dominated by the Fourth International, one of the oldest international Trotskyist groups. Already the preparations for the European Social Forum in London have been dominated by the classic assimilation tactics of the Socialist Workers Party and their front group Globalise Resistance. The situation has become so bad that activists determined to have a truly open and democratic forum have launched a campaign to ‘democratise the ESF’ calling themselves the ‘horizontals’. While the horizontals struggle to ensure another social forum is possible, the ‘verticals’ – the authoritarian Socialists – are not going away without a fight. As musician David Rovics humorously captures it: “’Cause I am the vanguard of the masses, and all of you should follow me. If you doubt my analysis, you must be in the petty bourgeoisie.” 1. Socialist Review, January 2000. (10) New Internationialist credits Soros with donating millions to Progressive causes http://newint.org/features/2000/01/01/moneymavericks/ Money Mavericks Issue 320 Economic thinkers who’ve dared to challenge the dominant view. JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES Life and times Cambridge-educated economist and member of London’s snooty Bloomsbury group in the 1920s and 1930s. Known for an astringent wit and biting intellect. His General Theory of Employment, Interest and Prices (1936) is probably the single most-influential work on economics this century. Widely- published academic and key figure behind the postwar international financial system hammered together at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in June 1944. Main ideas Admired and feared the power of the market system. Argued that capitalism would founder on its own greed and self-destruct. Instead he suggested that the state rein in market excesses and the capitalist system’s tendency to increase economic inequality. Also advocated government spending to stimulate the economy, increase employment and ‘prime the pump’ of consumer demand. His original Bretton Woods plan called for fixed exchange rates, tight controls on investment capital and relatively open trade in goods. The IMF was to be a true ‘lender of last resort’, managing a global system where capital flows were minimal and currencies easily convertible. Legacy Keynesian economics dominated the postwar era until 1973 when the US sabotaged the fixed-rate exchange system by allowing the dollar to float. Since then the volume of unregulated investment capital has exploded - bringing instability and financial collapse in its wake. JEFFREY SACHS Life and times Not yet 50, Sachs’s résumé runs to a dozen pages. The agency that books his speeches calls him ‘one of the most influential economists of his generation’. Director of the Center for International Development at Harvard. Top-level consultant to governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe and, infamously, the former Soviet Union. Has also worked for the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD and the UN Development Programme. Main ideas ‘Global capitalism is the most promising institutional arrangement for worldwide prosperity the world has ever seen.’ Chief advocate of economic ‘shock therapy’ - a disastrous plan to remake Russia’s moribund, Soviet-style ‘command economy’ into free-market system based on the American model. Recent about-face as trenchant critic of IMF solution for economic recovery in the Third World. Says the IMF is ‘deeply flawed’, ‘secretive’, ‘arrogant’ and ‘not technically up to the task’. Legacy Spectacular failure of Russia’s economic ‘transition’ - one of the greatest social and economic disasters in history (70 per cent of Russians now live below the poverty line). Has hardened his critique of the IMF and unregulated investment since Asian financial crisis - blaming rich-world governments for most of the mess. Says it defies logic that ‘1,000 economists in Washington control the economic conditions of 1.4 billion people in 75 developing countries’. Advises poor countries ‘not to wait for a new financial architecture’ but to limit short-term borrowing by immediately adopting controls on capital inflows. GEORGE SOROS Life and times Patrician financier, philanthropist and one of world’s richest men (estimated wealth $5 billion). Born 1930 in Budapest, later emigrated to Britain. Studied at the London School of Economics and came under influence of the humanist philosopher Karl Popper. Moved to US in 1956 where he developed the ‘hedge fund’. Launched Quantum Fund in 1969 in tax-free island of Curaçao. Made a billion dollars betting against the British pound in 1992; six years later lost $2 billion in Russia. His Open Society Institute donates millions of dollars to foster democratic political and social reforms. Main ideas Knows capitalism intimately and is not optimistic about what he sees. Blames ‘market fundamentalists’ for reducing human and social relations to the common denominator of money. Argues that unregulated markets, left alone, ignore common interest in favour of individual self-interest. Says this is recipe for social disintegration and political collapse ‘which may sweep away the global capitalist system itself’. Instead advocates ‘global system of political decision-making to stabilize and regulate a truly global economy’. Legacy Success as a capitalist has added weight to critique of economic globalization. Particularly agitated about the ‘inherent instability’ of financial markets. Calls for national controls to dampen speculation, yet his own fortune has been built on speculation in those same markets. Surprisingly also calls for tough regulations on hedge funds and bank lending, insisting that creditors ‘take the hit’ rather than be bailed out by public funds. Biggest legacy may be the millions he channels towards progressive causes. WALDEN BELLO Life and times Soft-spoken Filipino economist. Spent years in exile in the US as a critic of autocratic Marcos regime. Worked as researcher, activist and journalist documenting dark side of much-heralded Asian ‘tiger economies’. Eventually served as Director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy in San Francisco before resettling in Asia as Professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines and Co-director of the Bangkok-based policy think tank, Focus on the Global South. Main ideas Tireless opponent of economic globalization which he sees as profoundly destructive in both human and environmental terms. Harshly critical of IMF and World Trade Organization which he calls ‘Jurassic institutions’ impossible to reform because of ‘hegemonic influence’ of US and ‘deep neo-liberal indoctrination’. Says Bretton Woods institutions are the ‘linchpin’ of an international order that ‘systematically marginalizes the South’. Advocates radical vision of localized economies and regional co-operative arrangements to allow ‘internal economic transformation to take place with minimal disruption from external forces’. Better to ‘de-globalize’ domestic economy by looking to local resources and local markets instead of export-led growth. Legacy Clear analysis and impressive scholarship have made him one of Asia’s key progressive thinkers. Insistence on people-centred development grounded in ecological sustainability sets him apart from the élite consensus in Asia and is beginning to garner public support throughout the region. Believes people see failure of neo-liberal model and are searching for new democratic directions based on ‘community solidarity and security’. DAVID KORTEN Life and times Springs from mainstream, middle-America. Taught at Harvard School of Business and Public Health and worked at Ford Foundation and USAID in the Philippines. Asian experience forced him to question fundamentals of ‘development’ and to analyze the workings of the global economy. Middle-American image of integrity, honesty and plain-speaking helped him become leading critic of economic globalization and a fierce opponent of corporate-led growth. Main ideas Unflinching critic of capitalism. Says globalization is ‘triumph of privatized capital over markets and democracy’ and ‘triumph of the extremely wealthy over the remainder of humanity’. Laments ‘powerful, unfeeling global economic machine dedicated to the conversion of life into profit by depleting living capital’. Instead calls for ‘post-corporate world’ based on environmental balance and ‘democratic role for individual citizens in economic and political governance’. Legacy Arguments resound with indignation of an Old Testament prophet. Unbridled optimism has galvanized thousands of activists dissatisfied with the antihuman sweep of globalization. Economic critique appeals because it is intensely moral, rooted in personal spirituality and unbending faith in wisdom of humanity. Vision of globalizing civil society based on ‘openness, voluntary commitment and the ability to self-organize’. MAUDE BARLOW Life and times Was politicized by the women’s movement as young mother and homemaker. Quickly became indefatigable activist, eventually senior advisor on women’s issues to Canadian Prime Minister. Outraged by gutting of Canadian social programmes, she began organizing opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Later as head of Council of Canadians was leader in successful fight by global citizens’ groups against the Multilateral Agreement on Invest- ment (MAI). Main ideas Key strategist in fight against unaccountable ‘corporate rule’ and for basic rights of citizenship. Says narrow, money-centred agenda of private corporations and government supporters has hijacked democracy and created a ‘new royalty’ of global élites. Believes globalization and corporate rule are not inevitable. ‘To say that we have no choice is intellectual terrorism.’ Legacy Thorn in the side of corporate free-traders. Charges that trade liberalization benefits rich and powerful, undercuts national sovereignty and subverts public interest. Has raised concerns about corporate influence on public policy and erosion of postwar social contract by global free-trade agenda. Has also raised concerns about concentration of press ownership and dominant business influence on mass media in shaping public opinion. ----------- Peter Myers Australia website: http://mailstar.net/index.html |
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