Monday 23 June 2014

Iraq and Syria in the Crosshairs of US-NATO Sponsored Terrorism

middleeast
Jun21, 2014, Global Research
ISIS is a caliphate project of creating a Sunni Islamist state. It is not a project of the Sunni population of Iraq which is broadly committed to secular forms of government. The caliphate project is part of a US intelligence agenda.” -Professor Michel Chossudovsky, June 2014 [1]
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The Jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), alternatively known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has enjoyed spectacular successes overthrowing and controlling territory from northern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad in Iraq.
Previously referred to as Al Qaeda in the Islamic State of Iraq (AQI), the group got its name in April of 2013. For a group estimated to be composed of merely a few thousand militants, the organization has secured astonishing victories over much larger armed forces. [2]
The group’s first major military success was the conquest of Raqqa in Northern Syria in March of 2013. Since that victory, ISIS has successfully gained control of the Iraqi cities of Tal Afar, Tikrit, Suleiman Beg, and Fallujah. [3]
Perhaps their most impressive and shocking achievement to date, and the one that galvanized the attention of the world back to Iraq, was the conquest of Iraq’s second most populous city, Mosul. ISIS managed to not only secure this crucial trading post proximate to Syria, but they managed to get hold of weaponry and equipment abandoned when the Iraq security forces fled the city. [4]
How is it possible such a relatively small group of rebels could manage to outmaneuver a force presence of 30,000?
Michel Chossudovsky of the Centre for Research on Globalization has been tracking these developments. He contends that the rise of ISIS is not a miscalculation on the part of the US-NATO alliance, but is in fact a deliberate strategy to re-engineer the region to advance their imperial aims there. He explains his thesis in part one of the Global Research News Hour.
The recent elections in Syria have been described as “meaningless” and “a great big zero” by the US Secretary of State John Kerry. He argues given the state of conflict in the Middle Eastern country that “you can’t have an election where millions of your people don’t even have an ability to vote.” [5]
The final vote posted by the Speaker of the People’s Assembly announced that the incumbent President secured a land-slide victory of over 88% with a 73.42% voter turn-out. [6]
While a dictatorial power in a time of civil war might have the capacity to gerrymander election results to his satisfaction, is there any indication that this is in fact what happened?
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a Research Associate with the Centre for Research on Globalization and a published author. He served as an election observer during the recent Syrian elections and discloses in the second half hour of the Global Research News Hour why he believes the elections were above board, and what role these elections, particularly the perception of them being fraudulent, serves in the broader geo-political context.
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The Global Research News Hour airs every Friday at 1pm CT on CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg. The programme is also podcast at globalresearch.ca .
The show can be heard on the Progressive Radio Network at prn.fm. Listen in every Monday at 3pm ET.
Community Radio Stations carrying the Global Research News Hour:
CHLY 101.7fm in Nanaimo, B.C – Thursdays at 1pm PT
Boston College Radio WZBC 90.3FM NEWTONS  during the Truth and Justice Radio Programming slot -Sundays at 7am ET.
Port Perry Radio in Port Perry, Ontario – Thursdays at 1pm ET
Burnaby Radio Station CJSF out of Simon Fraser University. 90.1FM to most of Greater Vancouver, from Langley to Point Grey and from the North Shore to the US Border. It is also available on 93.9 FM cable in the communities of SFU, Burnaby, New Westminister, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Surrey and Delta, in British Columbia Canada. – Tune in every Saturday at 6am.
CFRU 93.3FM in Guelph, Ontario. Tune in Wednesdays from 12am to 1am.

Notes:
1) Michel Chossudovsky, June 14, 2014; “The Engineered Destruction and Political Fragmentation of Iraq. Towards the Creation of a US Sponsored Islamist Caliphate”; http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-destruction-and-political-fragmentation-of-iraq-towards-the-creation-of-a-us-sponsored-islamist-caliphate/5386998
2) RT.COM, June 20, 2014, “All you need to know about ISIS and what is happening in Iraq”; http://rt.com/news/166836-isis-isil-al-qaeda-iraq/
3) ibid
4) Guardian, June 12, 2014, “Iraq army capitulates to Isis militants in four cities”;http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/11/mosul-isis-gunmen-middle-east-states
5) Al Jazeera America, June 4, 2014; “Kerry calls Syrian presidential vote ‘meaningless’ “;http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/4/kerry-calls-syrianpresidentialvotemeaningless.html
6) SANA, June 4, 2014, “Dr. Bashar Hafez al-Assad wins post of President of Syria with sweeping majority of votes at 88.7%”; http://sana.sy/eng/393/2014/06/04/548613.htm
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