Is The Biden Administration Capable of Hunting Down Terrorists?

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Monday August 30, 2021 14:47 by Gary Jordan thecovid19illusion at protonmail dot com

Or Is It More Likely To Prop Them Up?

Joe Biden's history with terrorist organisations tells us what we can expect from his Presidency in regards to combatting Islamic militants.

After the loss of 13 US service members in Kabul, Afghanistan last week, US President Joe Biden claimed that he would hunt down the terrorists responsible for their deaths.

It’s worth remembering that he was once Vice President of an administration that - far from hunting down terrorists - actively recruited, trained, armed and funded them for many years.

He even admitted as much at one point. Speaking at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in October 2014 about the flow of weapons and money into the Middle East courtesy of his allies in the Arab League, he said:

"Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria. The Turks... the Saudis, the [United Arab] Emirates, etc, etc ... They were so determined to take down Assad, and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, what did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad - except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra, and al-Qaeda, and the extremist elements of jihadis who were coming from other parts of the world.”

An obscure, amateurish outfit named Islamic State, for example, morphed into an efficient, bloodthirsty, well-armed, militarized killing machine in the blink of an eye, thanks to the support and assistance of Biden and his associates. When arms such as rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft missiles were shipped from Libya via the CIA to the Free Syrian Army in 2012 there was very little doubt about where they would ultimately end up - especially when we consider that the very same weapons had been specially delivered to Libyan-based Al-Qaeda militants prior to their shipment to Syria. When Gaddafi’s fall was complete, the weapons trade was adjusted so that Syrian rebel forces became the benefactors. Simultaneously, they received additional weapons from Europe when nations such as Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Serbia provided a huge supply of AK47s, mortar shells and machine guns. It didn’t take long until large stashes of these weapons were subsequently sold onwards by the US-backed rebels in Syria to terrorist organizations such as Al-Nusra and ISIS. With the newly purchased weapons ISIS was able to grow in size and strength and in August 2013 scored a huge victory when they took over the Menagh Air Base just outside Aleppo.

The initial success of ISIS generated great interest and enthusiasm among the rebels of the Free Syrian Army and they would soon abandon their posts to join the extremists. Having spent months providing weapons to ISIS, they now officially became part of it, leading to worldwide headlines that should have put Joe Biden and then-President Barack Obama to shame. Instead, the leaders of the United States buried their heads in the sand and ignored what was happening.

The Washington Post covered the Obama administration disaster with the following story:

“The terrorists fighting us now? We just finished training them”

“In the East of Syria, there is no Free Syrian Army any longer. All Free Syrian Army people [there] have joined the Islamic State,” says Abu Yusaf, a high-level security commander of the Islamic State……“When the Iraqi Army fled from Mosul and the other areas, they left behind all the good equipment the Americans had given them,”

Abu Saleh, who is originally from a town close to Benghazi, said he and a group of other Libyans received training and support in their country from French, British, and American military and intelligence personnel — before they joined the Al Nusra Front or the Islamic State. Western and Arab military sources interviewed for this article, confirmed Abu Saleh’s account that “training” and “equipment” were given to rebels in Libya during the fight against the Gadhafi regime.

Abu Saleh left Libya in 2012 for Turkey and then crossed into Syria. “First I fought under what people call the ‘Free Syrian Army’ but then switched to Al Nusra. And I have already decided I will join the Islamic State when my wounds are healed……Sometimes I joke around and say that I am a fighter made by America……Now many of the FSA people who the West has trained are actually joining us,” he said, smiling.”

The failures of Obama and Biden were catastrophic, as Sunni radicals in terrorist organisations boasted that they were fighting their war using American-trained soldiers and American weapons.

Obama and Biden could not say they weren’t warned though. A couple of years prior, General Michael Flynn completed a report alerting them to the rise of Jihadi soldiers in the Middle East. He correctly stated that weapons and funding provided by the US, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were benefiting Salafists in Iraq and Syria and would lead to the creation of a caliphate by the Islamic State with much support coming from the Sunni populations of both nations. As it turns out, Flynn was spot on in his predictions. What is most noteworthy though is that the report insinuated that the rise of such a caliphate would benefit US strategic interests and could help facilitate the ousting of Syrian President and US nemesis, Bashar al-Assad. It is perhaps then predictable that Obama and Biden did nothing to prevent a Salafist principality from being established in the region. Shortly after the report was released, Flynn was ousted from his position in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

Turkey has also played its part in the rise of ISIS and it is well known that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to the extremists in return for oil. On top of this, Turkish demolition companies entered into business arrangements with their fellow Sunnis, providing ISIS with the necessary tools needed to manufacture powerful improvised explosive devices.

With Turkey providing finances and Americans providing state-of-the-art weapons, the only need ISIS had was decent health care. Evidence shows that this was provided by America’s closest ally, Israel. As explained by the Daily Mail;

“….on the very edge of Syria, lies an unconscious man wrapped like a doll in a blood-drenched duvet. The commandos unlock the fence, open a section of it and drag him onto Israeli soil. But this wounded man is not an Israeli soldier, or even an Israeli citizen. He is an Islamic militant. And his rescue forms part of an extraordinary mission that is fraught with danger and has provoked deep controversy on all sides….

The casualty – who doesn't look older than 20 – is losing blood fast. He has been shot in the intestines and the liver, and has a deep laceration in his left ankle. After putting him on an emergency drip, the commandos stretcher him back to the armoured car and head back to Israel. Almost every night, Israeli troops run secret missions to save the lives of Syrian fighters……

Israel insists that these treacherous nightly rescues are purely humanitarian, and that it can only hope to 'win hearts and minds' in Syria. But analysts suggest the Jewish state has in fact struck a deadly 'deal with the devil' – offering support to the Sunni militants who fight the Syrian ruler Assad in the hope of containing its arch enemies Hezbollah and Iran.”

With all of this support behind them, ISIS dominated the region and took control of major cities in Iraq, such as Ramadi and Fallujah in brutal fashion. Pressure mounted on Obama and Biden to take immediate action. Christians across the Middle East were been heinously murdered by the regime and Kurds were slaughtered. Helpless spectators all over the world implored the US to intervene. They failed to do so. Even when Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Miliki, called on them to bomb ISIS training camps in his nation, no action was forthcoming. Instead, Obama insisted that ISIS was no threat at all and, in a now-infamous quote, compared them to a junior varsity basketball team putting on LA Lakers jerseys in an effort to play like Kobe Bryant.

An unstoppable ISIS continued to prevail and the city of Mosul in Iraq was soon in their hands. In their conquest of the city, they also gained US$1 billion worth of American weapons, including 2,300 Humvees, 74,000 machine guns and 40 M1A1 tanks. Incredibly, if we are to believe the dubious tales of the establishment and their mainstream media lackeys, an army of 800 ISIS fighters had overcome an American-trained Iraqi army of 30,000 men, most of whom simply removed their uniforms and left the scene when the terrorists approached. ISIS would later use their creative skills and began to convert the abandoned American Humvees into one of their most deadly weapons - suicide vehicle bombs. Haunting visions of their fighters driving through Iraq and Syria in American-made Humvees and murdering their enemies with American-made weapons was enough to give anyone nightmares and finally provided Obama and Biden with enough reason to take notice.

However, even when they did so, they were criticized for their poor efforts. Firstly, they continued to allow the oil trade that Turkey had in place with ISIS and made no attempt to cease this operation until late into 2015, enabling the terrorists to thrive financially. Plus, their bombing campaigns were mainly aimed at locations in the North West. These were sufficient in supporting the Free Syrian Army allies but neglectful of the remainder of Syria where ISIS continued to run rampant. The strategic locations that Obama and Biden should have been targeting were left untouched in both Iraq and Syria. For example, as explained in a New York Times article;

“American intelligence analysts have identified seven buildings in downtown Raqqa in eastern Syria as the main headquarters of the Islamic State. But the buildings have gone untouched during the 10-month allied air campaign………

“The international alliance is not providing enough support compared with ISIS’ capabilities on the ground in Anbar,” said Maj. Muhammed al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi officer in Anbar Province, which contains Ramadi. “The U.S. airstrikes in Anbar didn’t enable our security forces to resist and confront the ISIS attacks,” he added. “We lost large territories in Anbar because of the inefficiency of the U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.” "

Many will argue that the supply of weapons and funds to ISIS by the Obama administration was no accident. Others will also argue that its failure to eliminate the group in a timely manner was intentional. Considering the DIA openly admitted in their 2012 report that a destabilized Iraq and Syria was tantamount to carrying out their main agendas in the Middle East, then we can concur that these are strong arguments.

We can only expect therefore that, judging by his track record, the Biden of today will be more of a help to Islamic terrorists than a hindrance.

But perhaps, like before, that is exactly how it is planned.

Gary Jordan

thecovid19illusion@protonmail.com

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The COVID-19 Illusion; A Cacophony of Lies
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