Category Archives: Russia

Commanders of ISIS: European Masters of Caliph Al-Baghdadi?………

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On an unusual surreal day early last summer a man I had never heard of before climbed a podium in Mosul, Iraq. He was dressed in presumably 7th century Arab attire, accurate enough to make Hollywood proud. In hindsight, he may have been playing a role selected for him. He declared the recreation of the Islamic Caliphate (meaning the state run by the heirs and followers of the Prophet Mohammed). He declared himself the new Caliph; to wit, public ruler and religious leader of Muslims- non-Wahhabis need not apply.

Then this character Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi (reportedly  Ibrahim Awwad Al Samarrai) disappeared from view. No more public pronouncements, no appearances. Gradually we have been getting reports, photos, and videos of others, of less swarthy men with red and blond beards dominating the Wahhabis in Syria and Iraq. Chechens (Shishan, or Shishani in Arabic), from Russian Chechnya, have been reported to be in Syria and Iraq for a couple of years. Now they seem to have been flooding the place, if some media reports are accurate. The most famous media face is that of Omar Al-Shishani: his real name is reported to be Batirashvili, which means he originally hails from Georgia (I think any name ending in –Shvili is Georgian, just like one Dzhugashvili who became known as Stalin). They are alleged to be the mainstay of the street fighting, the sharpshooters of city and town warfare. They also presumably have women there, as sharpshooters and as, er, companions and entertainers of the Jihadis when they are not blowing up Iraqi civilians or taking Syrians as hostages and slaves.

That probably explains the extreme bloodiness of their treatment of the captives. That is a typically European practice as we know from the history of the past two centuries. From Germany to Russia (including Chechnya) to the Balkans. The Chechnya rebellion was typically praised in the West, until the inevitable happened, just as it has happened in Syria. The inevitable is that the Wahhabi outsiders with a lot of money and a hateful message, both imported, took over the Chechen rebellion, just as they did the initial Syrian uprising. The Chechens took up chopping heads and hands and stoning quickly in their Caucasus homeland, with the zeal of the converted. Now they are in our region, likely the new European masters of the Caliphate.

One should not exaggerate: there are no doubt Arab commanders as well. We know some of the names, noms de guerre, many others are not known. This reliance on foreign military prowess has normally happened in Islamic history in the declining years of previous Caliphates and Sultanates. It was a practice from Baghdad to Cairo to Istanbul. Often the imported ‘help’, usually imported former slaves, ended up in effective command.

But there are also other ‘Europeans’ involved. This new brief Caliphate, like other Islamic Caliphates before it has fallen to reliance on the imported help. Reliance on the particular Europeans with the bloodiest recent memories and lessons of massacres and mass killings and genocide.


Is this just a repeat blast from past Islamic history? Is this Al Baghdadi (al Samarrai) a hapless figurehead for the real strongmen of the Islamic State?………….

Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum


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Cold War Relics: from Ukraine to Cuba………

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Pundits and columnists in the West have been recently mentioning that Vladimir Putin seems to be going back to a Cold War stance (speaking especially of the Ukraine crisis). That Putin is following aggressive Soviet-like policies toward his neighbors that are similar to those of the Cold War days that ended around 1991. Mr. Putin has been in power for about 13 years. His new image of the aggressive cold warrior is more recent, a function of his recent strong objections to European Union attempts at expansion into what Russians consider their traditional sphere of influence.

Which made me think quickly of that other, more enduring even more ridiculous relic of the old Cold War.  The foreign policy relic that never went away, that will likely remain in place as long as the “Cuban vote” is important for winning Florida. The unilateral and senseless U.S. economic blockade of Cuba that has been around for more than half a century, longer than the original Cold War. It will almost certainly survive Fidel Castro, it might even survive the last of the Castro brothers.
Cheers
Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Sticks and Stones: the Brilliant Red Senator and the Russian Thug………..


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“Sticks and stones may break my bones
But words will never hurt me………”
(senatorial nursery rhyme)

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), was asked by the moderator of “Meet the Press” what Obama should have done about Ukraine-Russia dispute.

His reply? “He didn’t call Putin the thug that he is………..

He seemed truly offended that the President of the United States, POTUS himself, Leader of the Free World, wouldn’t call the leader of the Russian Federation “a thug”.

Brilliant……….

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

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The Angry Euro-Centric International Community: Torn Between Ukraine and Gaza…….


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Headline today in the Huffington Post: “Global” anger at Russia grows……..

Odd: I look around the globe, the media in several languages, and I don’t see worldwide intense anger. There is sympathy and a desire to uncover the culprit(s), but no anger. I see some regional real anger and some regional pretend anger, and I see mostly some politics mixed with anger, and it is focused on a particular part of the globe. In recent years, it seems that the world has gone back to the old Euro-centric order, just as it did during the eighteenth and nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Apparently when the angry “international community” or “the world” is mentioned the acronyms that matter are NATO and EU. Forget about UNO and BRICS and PIGS and TRICKS and SCO and WTF and the rest.

No wonder the angry “international community” is never angry when third world airlines are shot down, especially when shot down by NATO missiles (Iran Air 655, Libyan Air).

I guess “global” here means the West: “European Union” or “North American”. The Rest Of the World, almost 85% of it,  are just that, ROW, and not part of the “global community”, since we don’t see much if any of the same “outrage” across Asia (outside Malaysia) or Africa or Latin America, or the Middle East. The same applies to “The International Community” that we often see in Western headlines. The Int’l Community is often angry at someone or the other (Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Freedonia, etc). The “Int’l Community” is never ever angry at the European Union or the USA or Canada. And why should they?

Now speaking of “global” outrage, and speaking of Gaza……….

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

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Are All Airliner Shootings Deliberate Massacres? It Depends on Who Shoots and Who Gets Shot Down……


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Poor Malaysians, they seem so unlucky with their airline this year. Still, if it had not been for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the struggle for Eastern Europe, this disaster would not have been so important. Still, not all airline disasters are equal. Let us look at a few cases when commercial civilian airliners have been shot down by military forces of governments:

1973: A Libyan Airlines Boeing 727-200 plane was shot down by Israeli fighters in Egypt’s Sinai Desert on 21 February, 1973. It was believed that the pilots got lost due to bad weather and equipment failure over northern Egypt, resulting in the plane entering Israeli-controlled airspace over the Sinai desert. Israeli fighter jets shot down the plane. Out of 113 people on board, only five, including the co-pilot, survived.
So, an Arab airliner shot down by Israel over occupied Arab land.

1983: A Korean Air flight was brought down by the USSR on 1 September 1983. The Boeing 747 civilian airliner from New York to Seoul was shot down by a Soviet jet just west of the Russian island of Sakhalin killing all 269 passengers and crew, including US congressman Larry McDonald. The Russians believed it was a US military surveillance plane and fired tracer rockets as a warning but it did not respond, the Soviet fighter pilot later said. US president, Ronald Reagan called the shoot down “a massacre“.
So, shot down over Soviet/Russian territory.

1988: On 3 July 1988 the US warship USS Vincennes, in the Persian Gulf, fired a surface-to-air missile to shoot down Iran Air flight 655 travelling from Bandar Abbas in Iran to Dubai. All 290 passengers, mostly Iranians on a pilgrimage to Mecca, and all the crew were killed. US Navy officials later said the Vincennes’ crew believed they were firing at an Iranian F14 jet fighter, claiming the plane was off the ‘usual’ commercial route and did not respond to requests to change course. Iran, perhaps echoing Ronald Reagan, called it “a barbaric massacre“.
So, an Iranian airliner shot down by a U.S. navy ship. Not over the Gulf of Mexico, nor within sight of Manhattan. In the ‘Persian’ Gulf, right in Iran’s own backyard. 

2001: Ukrainian military shot down a Russian passenger jet containing 78 people on 4 October 2001 as it flew over the Black Sea travelling from Tel Aviv in Israel to Novosibirsk in Russia. Russian crash investigators concluded the Tu-154 was hit by a Ukrainian ground-to-air missile despite the fact it was on its flight plan on an international airway which did not fall under any restrictions imposed by Ukraine. It exploded in mid-air, sparking speculation it was downed accidentally by Ukranian military on exercises in Crimea.

So is it a crime to shoot down a civilian airliner? You may be shocked to find out that it depends, but you shouldn’t. Apparently it mainly all depends on two factors: (1) Who does the shooting; (2) Who is shot down.

Generally third world airliners, when shot down by anyone but especially by Western missiles, are not much lamented or compensated. The Iran Air 655 victims were ignored in the West. If it had been an Iranian missile shooting down a Western airliners, Tehran would have been invaded, with full UN approval. Iran would have been blackmailed and forced to pay extortion in billions of dollars in compensation for the Western victims, who tend to be much more valuable as victims than others are. No such compensation was offered or paid, as far as I know, for Iran Air 655 victims or the Libyan victims.

Third world victims are always deemed to be worth less than Western victims. That is a fact; too bad you can’t take it to the bank, though. But I admit it is sometimes a self-made valuation suggested by unrepresentative and repressive governments.

Cheers

Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

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Ukraine Fallout on an Arizona Gas Station: Union of Sanctioned Pariah States……

      


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“Even as the crisis in Ukraine continues to defy easy resolution, President Obama and his national security team are looking beyond the immediate conflict to forge a new long-term approach to Russia that applies an updated version of the Cold War strategy of containment. Just as the United States resolved in the aftermath of World War II to counter the Soviet Union and its global ambitions, Mr. Obama is focused on isolating President Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia by cutting off its economic and political ties to the outside world, limiting its expansionist ambitions in its own neighborhood and effectively making it a pariah state………………”

A pariah state: it sounds ominous. The list is already long and can get longer. Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, etc. Now the mother of all sanctions: a possible creeping economic blockade of the huge Eurasian mass of Russia, with spillover into other countries. Mr. Putin may be excused if someday he makes a famous Reagan-esque speech outside the IMF building, with a great sound bite: “Mr. Obama (or Mrs Clinton or Mr. Bush III) tear down this blockade………” 

Provided he can get a visa to get to the IMF building. And it would be more effective if he could keep his shirt on during that speech.


Yet
 a
 blockade against Russia invites blockades against many others, if the Iranian example is to be imitated. Russia is huge; it is still that ‘other’ world (bigger than an Arizona gas station). Many countries, from Asia through Latin America and Africa, and even Europe, will not go along with sanctions against (Mother) Russia. But even if they do, we will have two new definitions of nations. Now we have: First World and Third World, Developed World and Underdeveloped World, Industrial and non-Industrial World (the last one is not as sharp anymore). SCO (Shanghai) countries are highly unlikely to comply. Countries like India and China and Brazil may straddle the two as they are partially blockaded by the “international community”, meaning by the Western powers of North America and Europe. Of course, India and China represent many more people than all of the “international community” of North America and Europe.  


Soon
we may have new blocs of nations: Sanctioned or Blockaded Nations and Non-blockaded Nations; Blockading nations and Blockaded Nations, etc. Sounds almost like a new Cold war of “beggar they neighbors across the vast oceans”.

Cheers
mhg

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After Crimea: Will a Lonely Star Opt to Live with Mexico? How about the GCC?………

      


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“This wouldn’t be the first time Crimea has changed hands, though. The peninsula became part of Ukraine only in 1954, and before that it had a bewildering number of owners, including the ancient Greeks, the Scythian Empire, Rome, the Goths, the Huns, the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, Venice, Genoa, Imperial Russia, Soviet Russia, and, briefly, Nazi Germany. Still, for the last 60 years it has been part of Ukraine, and having it ripped away would be quite shocking…………. Like Crimea, Texas has been part of many other nations and was once its own sovereign republic — the six flags at the famous Texas-based amusement park represent those various countries: Spain, France, Mexico, the U.S., the Confederate States of America, and of course the Republic of Texas. And although 97 percent of Texans wouldn’t vote to secede from the U.S. today, the Lone Star State has a sizable separatist movement. Texas and Crimea are also both situated at the bottom middle of their respective nations, and in similar proportion.………..”

The Mexicans are unlikely to do a Putin and storm across the Río Bravo del Norte to reclaim Texas. At least not in the same way. Although the governor of Texas has been threatening secession, again, and the history of Texas tells us the Lonely Star state would be seeking another domestic partner to shack up with again. And who is there in a convenient location to open their arms (not weapons) and welcome it back? The Mexican oligarchs and ruling classes may not want that. They probably know they’ll screw it up just as they have their other states from Chiapas to Baja California: soon Austin may look like Tijuana.

Speaking of a partner to shack up with: the Saudi king is perennially seeking new additions to the Gulf GCC. If he ever got wind of the restlessness of Texas, the potential of a Lonely Star, he might come a-courting. Seeking to get it to join the Gulf GCC (not the Gulf of Mexico, that other Gulf).

Cheers
mhg

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Nuclear Campaign 2016: Hillary Clinton Covering her Right Flank, Smilin’ Joe Biden………

      


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“Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed doubt about the possibility of reaching a deal to eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities, one of the only instances in which she has not given her full-throated support to President Obama since leaving her post early last year. “The odds of reaching that comprehensive agreement are not good,” Clinton said in an address at the American Jewish Congress gala, according to the Washington Post. “I am also personally skeptical…………….”


It might be just a precaution, in case the nuclear talks somehow fail. Then a loud: “I told you so!” at the Iowa debates. Odd how the U.S. has pushed harder for solutions to issues with Iran, Israel, and Palestine now that Clinton is out of the State Department. Could be partly the political changes inside Iran. It would have been impossible for Obama to take a call from Ahmadinejad as he sped out of New York City (‘Oh, by the way Mr. Obama, I did not really mean all that stuff about the Holocaust‘). I don’t hold much hope for the Israel-Palestine approach at this time, but the Iran issue seems to be moving smoothly. Seems to be making a lot of progress. It must take more than ‘celebrity star power’ to deal with world problems.
 
Fresh from calling Vladimir Putin a new ‘Hitler’, or was it ‘like Hitler’? (Silly cliches always make it to the evening news). The Russians must be getting wary of Hillary (well, Gillary in Russian, not even Khillary). She is only covering her ‘right flank’ for 2016. Republicans will keep squawking “Benghazi, Benghazi!”, and Hillary will keep calling for tighter screws on Iranian thumbs as she tries to cover her right flank with the Democrat war bloc for the primaries and with others for the general elections. (The Democrats are missing a left flank for now: Bernie Sanders is not even in the Party). Like two kids, toddlers playing around each other rather than with each other. Interesting debate that will be, it already is, no?
Then there is “Smilin’ Joe” Biden, her main fear and worry right now. So far possibly the most qualified man (or woman) in the potential presidential field. So far. That includes both parties: Democrat, Republican, plus Communists and even AJC.

Cheers
mhg

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A Russian Gas Station? Senator Unwittingly Disses Sputnik and Many OPEC Countries………

      


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“Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country,” McCain told Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It’s kleptocracy, it’s corruption, it’s a nation that’s really only dependent upon oil and gas for their economy.”………………..”

I must admit it is a great sound bite. He is right about the corruption and kleptocracy and the funny political game that keeps Putin and his sidekick Medvedev in power forever. But, ah, Senator McCain, suppose next time you fly into Riyadh or Doha or a couple of other cities in our region and you are asked about this funny statement? I mean especially about that oil and gas station and the corruption and kleptocracy?

Masquerading as a country? Which reminds me of a long history, of a few dead gentlemen and ladies like Peter the Great and Catherine the Great and Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and Pushkin and Turgenyev and Borodin and Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov and Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin (look him up) and Valentina Tereshkova (look her up), and some others. And a few places that probably suffered more than any other places in the last century: Stalingrad, Leningrad, Crimea (when it was Russian), Smolensk, etc, etc.……..
And then there were the soldiers who liberated Auschwitz: they were not from the EU (many of those were helping round up the victims) or from France or Saudi Arabia.
Then there was the Okhrana and the Gulag. And there was Stalin, but he was not Russian, he was a Georgian. No, not Dixie or CSA, the other Georgia, the one Senator McCain said “We are all Georgians” about.

Cheers
mhg

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Sanctions and Corruption: From Ukrainian Oligarchs to Pure Princes………

      


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Speaking of Russia and Ukraine and imposing selective sanctions on select individuals. The Western power (the U.S. and maybe the EU) will basically do the following: they will sanction and freeze the assets of former (corrupt) Ukraine officials in order to support current (corrupt) Ukraine leaders who used to be former (corrupt) Ukraine officials. Cute, no? So what about the assets of certain Middle East princes and potentates who have accumulated ill-gotten fortunes that dwarf anything some Ukrainian or even Russian oligarchs could boast about? How come they don’t get sanctioned for selective corruption as well?

Cheers
mhg

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