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MOON OF ALABAMA
Dateline: November 28, 2015
Ryadh is the most likely paymaster for the Wahabi crazies, of which ISIL is the most notorious, and Washington knows it.
Charles Lister, a propagandist at Brookings Doha which is financed by the Wahhabi regime of Qatar, has been tasked to sell Islamist radical head choppers in Syria as “moderate” rebels. He isn’t good at it but the “western” media love him as a talkative”expert” from a formerly reputable think tank.
The mask comes off when Lister has to find the 70,000 “moderates” the British Premier Cameron promised to support by waging war on Syria. He finds those by ignoring a word’s literal meaning. Here is Lister’s new Orwellian definition of “moderate”:
As diplomatic efforts for Syria gain pace and as Saudi Arabia prepares to host a major conference bringing together 60-80 representatives of a broad spectrum opposition, the definition of “moderate” has been shifting. The most effective definition now must be based upon a combined assessment of (a) what groups are acknowledged as being opposed to ISIL and (b) what groups our governments want, or need to be involved in a political process.
He says that a group is “moderate” when:
- it dislikes ISIS for whatever reason
- some government wants or needs the group to be categorized as “moderate”
The first fits for everyone who claims to be not ISIS including al-Qaeda. The second part is just dependent on who the sponsor of a specific groups is. If Saudi Arabia sponsors al-Qaeda and wants it “moderate”, al-Qaeda is “moderate”. If Turkey sponsors the Turkistan Islamic Party its head-choppers are “moderate”. The Lister definition is completely independent of the observable actions of these groups and of the believes or plans such groups openly or secretly hold. It is bollocks.
Lister goes on to lists two handful of groups, some existing, some mere fantasy, and adds imaginary numbers of how many fighter belong to each of the various groups. Add them up and there you have the 70,000 Cameron was trolling about.
Lister lists, for example, Asala wa-al-Tanmiya with 5,000 fighters as “moderate”. It is an Islamist gang sponsored by Saudi Arabia. Its main allies on the battlefield, according to its Wiki entry, are the Islamic Front and the al-Nusra Front. But they do fight the Islamic State and have a government backing them. Thus these al-Qaeda allies are now “moderate”.
Lister’s original “moderate” table tweeted by him here (backup) even includes Jaish al-Islam with allegedly 12,500 fighters and Ahrar al-Sham with 15,000 fighters. Both of these groups follow the same ideology as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda and commit (incl. video) similar atrocities:
The largest Islamist rebel group “Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham” has posted a video on their multiple social media accounts that show their fighters mutilating the head of a wounded militant from the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) in the northern Aleppo countryside.
Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham has attempted to promote themselves as a “moderate” rebel group after their Op-Ed in the Washington Post; however, their behavior and their numerous crimes in northern Syria have made them appear closer to ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra in ideology, rather than a “moderate” Islamist group that is simply fighting for the interests of the Syrian people.
These literal head choppers are “moderates” on Lister’s list.
Support for al-Qaeda and similar groups is illegal under several UN resolutions. U.S. law is even more stringent. Al-Qaeda allies like the groups Lister lists as “moderate” would surely be guilty under 18 U.S. Code § 2339A – Providing material support to terrorists. The “material” as defined by that law includes “intangible, or service” and “expert advice or assistance”. How far from those categories are Lister’s propaganda pieces and actions?
Lister ones worked as analyst at IHS Janes, a well known military journal, and did a decent job. He then followed the smell of Qatari money to Brookings Doha and threw away his reputation. It can only go downwards from there.
Posted by b on November 28, 2015 at 02:12 PM | Permalink
=COMMENTS=
There exists a great determination to expel Assad and break apart Syria at any cost. Syria must be one of the “seven countries in five years” marked for destruction that General Silver Hair was talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
Posted by: fast freddy | Nov 28, 2015 2:27:01 PM | 1
What is this b, are you suggesting that the guiding ethical principle of the United States is “if it get us what we want, we do it”?
Here’s where we were on Sept 11th, 2014:
U.S. Pins Hope on Syrian Rebels With Loyalties All Over the Map
President Obama’s determination to train Syrian rebels to serve as ground troops against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria leaves the United States dependent on a diverse group riven by infighting, with no shared leadership and with hard-line Islamists as its most effective fighters.
After more than three years of civil war, there are hundreds of militias fighting President Bashar al-Assad — and one another. Among them, even the more secular forces have turned to Islamists for support and weapons over the years, and the remaining moderate rebels often fight alongside extremists like the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.
“You are not going to find this neat, clean, secular rebel group that respects human rights and that is waiting and ready because they don’t exist,” said Aron Lund, a Syria analyst who edits the Syria in Crisis blog for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It is a very dirty war and you have to deal with what is on offer.”
It’s clear things have only gotten worse in these regards. Hence the fact that every US news outlet divides the Syrian War factions into “Government”, “ISIS”, and “Rebel” groups – they are forced to blur any distinction between the al Qaeda and their moderates for the simple fact that there is none.
The US: from Global War on the Terrorists to Global War with the Terrorists in just over a decade. There hasn’t been an American switch of allegiance that fast since we rehabilitated the Nazi war criminals in our efforts to destroy our Soviet allies following the Second World War.
Posted by: guest77 | Nov 28, 2015 3:51:45 PM | 2
Please bear in mind that if the US and its vassals deviate from their position that their support is for “moderate rebels” and not for the jihadist or Al Qaeda-associated forces, world opinion would compel them to support the Syrian Army (and therefore, the arch-enemy, Russia) as the ONLY force opposing ISIS.
Posted by: chet | Nov 28, 2015 4:08:56 PM | 3
The only moderate opposition exists in western propaganda. In Syria itself there is none.
Posted by: Casowary Gentry | Nov 28, 2015 4:19:38 PM | 4
Perhaps this Charles Lister is a scion of the British Lister clan.
In the 19th Century, a US chemist named a new germicidal solution after Joseph Lister, aka “1st Baron Lister”, a renowned pioneer in antiseptic surgery.
This product named for an icon eventually became the iconic “Listerine” mouthwash, a popular commercial success to this day.
Here, Young Charles appears to be manufacturing a new kind of Listerine: a brainwash.
Posted by: Ort | Nov 28, 2015 4:24:18 PM | 5
@5 Here is some info on Charles. One wonders if he has discussed the insurgency with the Syrian government.
http://www.brookings.edu/experts/listerc
Posted by: dh | Nov 28, 2015 4:32:48 PM | 6
So much propaganda and so little time… the picture sums it up perfectly.. those are the kind of ”moderates” the usa and the west are in favour of.. if the west profit off arms sales to these same ”moderates” all will continue to be well… people are seeing thru the msm’s smoke and mirrors..
Posted by: james | Nov 28, 2015 4:53:39 PM | 7
@2 The UK and US started working against the Soviets from about 1941/42. They withheld information gained from german POWs about pending German military strikes against Soviet positions. The position was to use the two to destroy each other.
Posted by: Yonatan | Nov 28, 2015 4:55:56 PM | 8
@8 That was true until the reversal at Stalingrad. After that the British furnished Stalin with a lot of useful information via Lucy. Date and time of Kursk battle for instance.
Posted by: dh | Nov 28, 2015 4:58:41 PM | 9
@2 guest
The Great Wager on Terrorism. It’s their last, desperate bet. It’s failing, in any case. I’m encouraged by Tulsi Gabbard’s and Austin Scott’s rumored anti-Asad-War bill. I say rumored because the vile media never give a bill number when ‘reporting’, on it, ensuring that we cannot actually read the bill and find our what it actually says. Nonetheless, in a desperate, not-so-Great Wager against Terrorism of my own, I sent them a letter of encouragement, and I humbly suggest that all of you – regardless your nationality – do so as well. Reduced to last, desperate wagers as we are. As Blaise Pascal said of desperate bets, Whaddawe got to lose? compared to what we got to gain.
Posted by: jfl | Nov 28, 2015 5:13:51 PM | 10
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