Yemen: Saudi-led Attack an Ideological Debacle

"These constant reports that the Houthis are working for the Iranians are nonsense, but the view is right out of the neocon playbook. The Israelis have been touting this line that we lost Yemen to Iran. That’s absurd. The Houthis don’t need Iranian weapons. They have plenty of their own. And they don’t require military training. They’ve been fighting Al-Qaeda since at least 2012, and they’ve been winning. Why are we fighting a movement that’s fighting Al-Qaeda?” — Michael Horton, Yemen expert

Since March of 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies have been bombing Houthi forces in Yemen. Their intent was to reinstall a democratically elected President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.

However, the idea was bad from the beginning and despite supplying logistics and intelligence, the US was not an active player in the 9-state Arab coalition.

Overall, the consensus is that the Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen have killed mostly women and children. Political interference from Saudi Arabia has led to the failed Geneva peace talks, recently concluded on June 19, 2015.

However, the important thing to remember is that the US only provides logistics and intelligence to the coalition of 9 Arab states involved in one of the biggest humanitarian crises since the mainstream media labeled the 2011 Libya Civil War a humanitarian crisis.

Libya gives us an idea of the aftermath of that foreign policy. However it is a unique situation and different from the situation in Syria and Yemen, both of which have the perceived ideological threat of Iran and Hezbollah to Saudi Arabian government hegemony.

Yet the situation in Syria is different from Libya because the Assad government is also perceived as an economic threat. Four years after Arab Spring, Syria still has a functioning government.

According to what I have read online about the Yemen attack, the Saudi-led coalition attacked Yemen while implementing Riyadh's foreign policy in the Middle East. Its strategy is to attack a perceived threat, and to let other nations handle the fallout once the enemy turns out to be a formidable opponent.

Meanwhile it continues a propaganda campaign against the enemy and sends in militants loyal to Riyadh to terrorize the threat. When peace talks occur, the Saudi Arabian government will use its influence to frustrate a peace deal.

However, no foreign policy analyst or diplomat in the West is buying the idea that Iran and Hezbollah are as equal a threat as the Islamic State.

Here are recent events of note for June 2015:

According to a news report from Tehran as of June 9, 2015, Saudi Arabia is deploying pro Hadi extremists near border areas with Yemen. These extremists are purportedly in the guise of Bahraini soldiers. Additionally, the Saudi government is bribing Najran sheikhs to dissuade support for Yemeni forces.

On June 14, the Tehran source cites a UAE news website that Saudi Arabia is facing few options in Yemen which shall force them to accept Ansarullah's rule over Sana'a, the capitol of Yemen. Ansarullah is the Shiite movement which overthrew the Saudi-backed Yemen government of President Hadi, who was ousted out of power back in January 2015.

Recently on June 19, Press TV reported that Yemen's Ansarullah — aka the Houthis — said that its demands were not met in Geneva peace talks, due to interference by Saudi Arabia.

What good is peace talks when Saudi Arabia runs interference to prevent Ansarullah from getting what it wants from the peace deal, all because it fears Iran's influence in Yemen? Yet it is doubtful that Iran is in Yemen.

As well, the IRIB French Radio reported on June 19 that Iran and Russia advocate the immediate end of attacks against Yemen.

Both Russia and Iran support the Geneva peace talks on Yemen, and demand the military attacks end immediately so that the ceasefire may be established to enable sending humanitarian aid to Yemen.

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Timeline on the 2014-2015 Yemeni Coup D'état (based on mainstream media reports, via wikipedia)

Back in January 2015, the Houthis, a Shi'ite Muslim minority group, had radicalized to the point where they ousted the Saudi-backed Yemen government of President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi. At that point, the US government was still in talks with them.

After the situation deteriorated further, Saudi Arabia decided to launch an attack on Yemen.

When the Al Saud attack on Yemen to bring Hadi back to power began in March 2015, the US provided logistics and intelligence to the coalition of Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations (Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan).

That coalition was deployed to prevent Yemen from becoming a Shi'a dominated state. This problem started back in September 2004 when Saudi feared that the Shi'a Muslim Houthi movement could become a problem in Yemen and used force to assassinate its leader, Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi.

Originally al-Houthi was a member of the Yemeni Zaydi political party Al-Haqq (The Truth). After the party supported South Yemen separatism, they were targeted by the Yemeni government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, an ally of Iraq's Saddam Hussein. In response, the al-Houthi family (al-Houthi, his father Badr al-Din Tabatabai, and his younger brother Abd al-Malik) fled Yemen, first to Syria, and eventually settled in Qom, Iran. Reportedly al-Houthi formed a relationship with Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, and Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader.

In the 1990s Hussein established the Believing Youth (BY) movement to promote a Zaidi revival in Saada to counter the dominance by Saudi-backed Yemeni regime since unification. Originally the BY movement was a moderate theological movement which preached tolerance with a broad-minded view of Yemeni people. After 1995, over 17,500 students had attended BY summer camps, which included lectures by Lebanese Shiite scholar Mohammed Hussein Fadhlallah and Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Lebanon's Hezbollah Party.

Then 911 happened.

As a result of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Ansarullah was radicalized by the influence of Hussein al-Houthi. Youths affiliated with Believing Youth chanted anti-American and anti-Jewish slogans in the Saleh Mosque in the Yemen capitol city of Sana'a after Friday Prayers. This attracted the attention of the Yemeni authorities who were worried of the extent of the al-Houthi movement's influence.

So they arrested 800 BY supporters in Sana'a in 2004. Then Yemen President Saleh issued an invitation to Hussein al-Houthi to a meeting in the capitol which Hussein declined. In response, Saleh ordered Hussein's arrest in June 2004. This resulted in an anti-government insurgency by al-Houthi, which led to his death in September 2004.

Most of the insurgency was over by 2010 when both the Houthis and the Yemen government agreed to a cease-fire. Arab Spring in 2011 led to the 2011 Yemeni Revolution and the ensuing National Dialogue Conference, both of which Houthis were a participant. Yet their rejection of the provisions of the Gulf Cooperation Council deal meant that the revolution was not over.

Meanwhile, President Saleh is deposed in 2011 and his Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi is made President in 2012.

By May 2012 the Houthis control most of Saada, Al Jawf and Hajjah governates, and have also gained access to the Red Sea. By the end of 2014 they control most of Sana'a and other towns such as Rada'. In response, a strong challenge for control of the region is made by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

At this point it is apparent that Iran was giving aid to the Houthis and that Saudi Arabia was aiding various militant groups such as AQAP and Islamic State.

In January 2015 the Houthis seized the presidential palace in Sana'a. During this takeover, President Hadi was present in the palace but left unharmed. By February, the Houthi Revolutionary Committee dissolved parliament and declared itself the acting authority in Yemen.

In retaliation, March 2015 saw the al-Badr and al-Hashoosh mosques come under suicide attack during midday prayers by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (now Islamic State).

On March 25, 2015 Saudi Arabia and a coalition of nine Arab states begin airstrikes in neighbouring Yemen.

Finally on April 21, 2015, the operation is declared over. However, the aftermath is still ongoing.

Behind the scenes, it turns out that former President Saleh is working as one of the leaders of the Yemeni coup d-etat led by the Shi'a Muslim Houthi militants. Tribesmen and government forces aligned with Saleh have allied with the Houthis.

Saudi Arabian diplomats failed to persuade Russia to abandon its support for the Assad government in Syria, and Riyadh is now containing a potential media fallout over its exposure.

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References:

Background on Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabian-led_intervention_in_Yemen
Background on Yemen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemen
Background on Ansarullah aka Houthis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houthis
Background on al-Houthi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_Badreddin_al-Houthi
Background on Saleh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Abdullah_Saleh
Background on Hadi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_Rabbuh_Mansur_Hadi
Background on South Yemen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Yemen
Background on North Yemen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Yemen
Background on Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda_in_the_Arabian_Peninsula
Background on ISIS/ISIL/IS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant

US generals: Saudi intervention in Yemen ‘a bad idea’: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/4/17/us-generals-think-saudi-strikes-in-yemen-a-bad-idea.html

The Huthis: from Saada to Sana'a: http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/iraq-iran-gulf/yemen/154-the-huthis-from-saada-to-sanaa.aspx

Pentagon: US officials in communication with Yemen’s Houthis: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/americas/16668-pentagon-us-officials-in-communication-with-yemens-houthis

U.S. Backs Saudi-Led Yemeni Bombing With Logistics, Spying: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-26/yemeni-bombing-led-by-saudis-is-backed-by-u-s-logistics-spying

Saudi Arabia is deploying pro Hadi extremists near border areas with Yemen: https://piazzadcara.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/riyadh-deploys-pro-hadi-extremists-near-border-areas-in-guise-of-bahraini-soldiers-saudi-govt-bribing-najran-sheikhs-to-dissuade-support-for-yemeni-forces/

UAE Website: S. Arabia Facing Few Options in Yemen Forced to Accept Ansarullah: https://piazzadcara.wordpress.com/2015/06/14/uae-website-s-arabia-facing-few-options-in-yemen-forced-to-accept-ansarullah/

Yemen's Ansarullah says its demands not met in Geneva peace talks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0_833cJBlE

Yemen’s Ansarullah, Political Factions: Saudi Derailed Geneva Peace Talks
http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?fromval=1&cid=23&frid

Iran and Russia advocate the immediate cessation of attacks against Yemen (French):
http://french.irib.ir/info/moyen-orient/item/373318-l%E2%80%99iran-et-la-russie-pr%C3%B4nent-l%E2%80%99arr%C3%AAt-imm%C3%A9diat-des-attaques-contre-le-y%C3%A9men

Deprived of Checkbook Diplomacy in Yemen and Syria, Saudi Arabia Flounders:
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/06/26/deprived-of-checkbook-diplomacy-in-yemen-and-syria-saudi-arabia-flounders/

When Good Men Failed To Act (satire)

IMO 911 happened is because nobody from the CIA to the FBI to the POTUS acted on information to stop it from happening.

Instead they let it happen, so that they could invade Afghanistan and Iraq, illegally detain terrorists at Gitmo and other highly questionable acts, all in the name of fighting terrorism.

Yet there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Thank you very much for the smoke and mirrors, Bush and Cheney.

Now, Obama is using drones to kill terrorists in Pakistan and Yemen, including US citizens because that is cheaper than capturing them and subjecting them to a trial.

Soon the world would become a sousveillance world where those in power will control who can use cameras and when they can be used.

As well, children are being surreptitiously "trained" to act before a camera on Younow so that they will either parlay it into a broadcasting career or failing that, a webcam career.

Our privacy rights are constantly threatened, and yet everyone who catches the bug wants to broadcast, giving up their right to privacy for fame and to make a quick buck.

All because good men in high place fail to act!

Now they plan to make up for it in Canada by proposing a law that has the potential to create a massive surveillance network in Canada.

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Originally posted on May 23, 2014 1:26 AM PDT

Reference:

Sousveillance: plusmagazine.com/2014/10/07/sousveillance-surveillance-kind-future-want/

Bill C-51 Would Create a Massive Surveillance Network Affecting All Canadians: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/bill-c-51-surveillance-network-2015-03-18

Dear Feminists (satire)

To me horror is viewed as a tragic comedy. This is because a movie isn't as scary as reality is.

Unless it is happening in the Middle East, I might not care about a horror movie since what's happening there is purely horrific. Sometimes children and women are oppressed there by their fathers, brothers and male cousins daily.

For it is a man's world there, still.

That's why certain feminists need to moderate their unbridled criticism about US military in the Middle East and especially about the West in Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan.

Feminists, your job is to facilitate change through dialogue, rather than just criticize the American government's gunboat democracy in the Middle East.

Look what happened to America when it forced Japan to open up trade in 1853: it led to the Japanese military bombing Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Why? Because a bunch of elites wanted to amass a fortune, whilst letting the Japanese military turn Japan into a militant society in the 1930s.

Today we need feminists to bring change to how we deal with the Middle East.

Even if it means 16 FA-18 jets and 300 Canadian personnel in Kuwait. This was a done deal in Ottawa, thanks to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and was made without consultation with the federal Liberal, NDP and Green Parties" elected representatives, most of whom still went along with the deal.

Even if it means crazy young males might turn into jihadi cult members overnight and cause trouble. In two recent cases, the so-called jidhadis were actually mentally ill men whose actions may look like homegrown terrorism.

It is by dialogue that war is prevented.

While horror movies amuse me, the Islamic State horrifies me enough to accept the increased military presence of America and Canada in northern Iraq.

However I am thankful that most feminists are involved in the growing dialog on the War on Terror. I hope their voices can be heard over the increasing call for military presence in the Middle East.

posted from Bloggeroid

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Reference:

Criticism of the War on Terror: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_War_on_Terror

The Cat Has Rabies (satire)

Meeting with President Bush in 2001, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, an ally of Saddam Hussein at the time, offered to mediate a resolution between the United States and Iraq. There is an Arab proverb, the New York Times reported the Yemeni president as saying. If you put a cat into a cage, it can turn into a lion. Mr. Bush responded that he had no intention of reconciling, a senior administration official said.

"This cat has rabies," Mr. Bush said, referring to Mr. Hussein, and then added with a bluntness that was said by officials in the room to have shocked Mr. Saleh, "The only way to cure the cat is to cut off its head."

My opinion is the cat was given rabies in the form of military aid by America and earlier the UK. This is a pattern of UK and later American involvement in the Middle East that is tied to oil.

Indeed, Big Oil in the hands of the West and dominated by America is thus a threat to the Middle East and Muslim nations in Africa, according to Al Qaeda. Hence the ISIS' takeover of oil assets in Syria. This also explains the rebels in Libya, their takeover of oil assets in three ports, and the North Korean oil tanker.

NATO's limited role in the Libyan Civil War in 2011 and the failure of the US State Department to secure its embassy in Benghazi a year later are directly related to the current troubles in Libya today. Libya itself is slowly breaking up with not only ethnic tension arising from the Berber community of western Libya but also among Arab tribal clans based on the three classical provinces of ancient Libya: Tripolitania in the west, Cyrenaica in the east and Fezzan in the south.

With rebels holding wells in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, the situation has deteriorated due to political infighting due to the machinations of the Muslim Brotherhood. Due to decades of the Qaddafi regime playing tribes against each other, and bribing a tribe to achieve political dominance here and there, the Libyan people are extremely weary of dictatorships. Their peaceful demonstrations in Tripoli had only turned violent due to militants' presence in the protests earlier last month.

Meanwhile, the military aid given to Israel by America to ensure its survival has resulted in criticism in the Middle East by Muslim nations and is a direct cause of the rise of pan-Arab nationalism and later pan-Muslim nationalism within the region and other hotspots both in Africa, South Asian and Southeast Asia.

Both the Afghanistan and Iraq situation only led to the rise of the al Qaeda armn ISIS to be established in Iraq, only to be exported to Syria after Arab Spring went horribly wrong there. In the case of Syria, the corruption of the Assad regime is well known, especially its exploitation of the Lebanese Civil War in the 1970s and invasion of part of south Lebanon by Israel. Indeed, Syria impoverished Lebanon during that time until it left in 2005.

Thus Assad may consider himself the savior of the Levant, yet he is only the protector of corruption and extortion. It would be interesting to see how Lebanon deals with the many Syrians who automatically became Lebanese citizens between 1980 and 2000, seeing as their citizenship was illegal due to Syrian dominance of northern Lebanon.

Back in Yemen, the "rehabilitation" of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula consists of using the militia to rout out Sunni militancy in south Yemen that favors pan-Arabian nationalism over the republican ideals of the central hegemony in Sana'a. Yemeni government uses oil dollars to bribe tribal clans in northern Yemen. In this way, the Shi'a north is placated to moderate militancy while the Sunni south is forced to accept al Qaeda ideology (pan-Muslim nationalism) at gunpoint.

Here is what the difference between pan-Arab nationalism and pan-Muslim nation is: the former is a united Arab organization that is nominally Muslim but promotes a secular government (think of the failed UAR of Egypt and Syria) while the latter is a worldwide caliphate which considers the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan to be a dupe of America, promoting Sharia law based on tribal customs rather than on the Quran.

Given that Al Qaeda has submitted authority to the Taliban, and that the Taliban originate in Pakistan, it is interesting to note that Yemen is the hotbed of al Qaeda militants due to the drone attacks there. For it is they who aid the ISIS forces in Iraq and in Syria, along with militants from the Maghreb and elsewhere in the world.

Ah, the karma of Cold War politics in Afghanistan is biting us in the ass!

Hey! CIA: You Caused 911! (satire)

According to rumor, without a shred of verifiable evidence, Obama's rise to power is seen as a CIA inside job.

Decades ago, the CIA stated in the past that the best way to overthrow a targeted nation is through use of American expressions of mainstream media such as music. It worked in the Soviet Union i.e. when American product was sold on the black market.

However, the US government is making mistakes in the Muslim world because of the tendency to create client states according to American foreign policy. During the Cold War, this meant protecting the world from Communism. Once the Cold War thawed out after 1991, the Soviet threat was no longer valid.

After 911, the new threat became Muslim insurgents in al Qaeda. Yet there was still rivalry between Russia and America. Daily, the American military industrial complex profits from turning Afghanistan and Iraq into client states.

Even so, anti-American protests in the Muslim world are justifiable in the Middle East. Ditto for Occupy Wallstreet.

Originally, the CIA trained the Mujahideen to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan circa 1989 as part of the Cold War. The US government had to pretend it had nothing to do with their training. They were CIA assets.

Rhetoric by America led to the Iraq-Kuwait War, which led to a US bases in Ridayh, Saudi Arabia, compromising its sovereignty. However, it peeved Osama bin Laden and other men in the leadership of al Qaeda that America had placed a military base on Arab soil.

This eventually led to 911.

In a sense, 911 was like America shooting itself in its own foot. Foreign intelligence sources were ignored by the America government. What could anyone do to America?

It is likely that US diplomat Barbara Bodine's spat with FBI agent John P O'Neill over the USS Cole investigation shows the politics played between the CIA, which viewed Yemen as an asset and the FBI, which viewed Yemen as full of terrorists.

In the months preceding 911, rivalry between the CIA, the FBI and the NSA led to communications problems with the White House. Various messages from German secret service indicating an imminent terrorist threat sent to the US government were ignored.

Then it happened: al Qaeda operatives hijacked three passenger jets. While one jet missed its target and crash-landed killing all aboard, this was due to a heroic effort by passengers to overcome the hijackers. However, it was the two jets that destroyed the Twin Towers that supposedly led to the invasion on Afghanistan and later, Iraq.

In 2008 the US Presidency was passed on from a Republican war-bird to a Democrat who represented a new hope for America and the world.

When Barack Obama won the election, Americans hoped things would change. America would get out of Afghanistan and Iraq, and both nations would become strong once more.

However, the invasion of Iraq led al Qaeda there. Once there, they began blowing up funerals, kidnap humanitarian personnel for ransom and sometimes execute them. As well, they would pay families for their disabled sons and daughter to use them as suicide bombers and blow them up by remote control.

Initially America's time in Iraq was successful as long as military personnel were kept on the ball. Any fatalities can be attributed to leaving an occupation force rather than a fully deployed army that is always on the alert. However, al Qaeda demanded a lot of the American forces.

Both Afghanistan and Iraq were won over by the US military through dialog and retraining of troops to deal with local customs and IEDs.

Of course, the stress of living in a war zone took its toll on people. In one case, a soldier cracked and murdered a family, acting like a serial killer. Yet the propaganda machine of America, its mainstream media, kept the details out of the news. By the time the world knew about it and the early embarrassment of Abu Ghraib, it was time to bring the troops home.

This happened before Obama was re-elected in 2012 and is continuing now.

With al Qaeda, America was not dealing with an enemy that plays by the rules. They had taken Salafi ideology and mixed it with rhetoric to glorify killing innocent people while claiming that any one who is an unbeliever is worth only of death and that only they are the true believers, and all other Muslims are akin to unbelievers and only worthy of death.

So the rumor goes.

This rumor is probably based in fact, unlike the rumor that the CIA caused 911 and the even more preposterous one that claims that America paid militants to fly two passenger jet into the Twin Towers and one jet into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Indeed this rumor is false and only conspiracy theorists will rant about it.

After Osama bin Laden was supposedly captured and killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, his body buried at sea, a few members of his leadership were later killed by drones and bombs sent by the Americans. Supposedly Osama was buried at sea to prevent violence at his funeral. This is not a rumor, and it is most likely true.

As well as bin Laden, a few of his leadership were assassinated over the years. Their deaths left a power vacuum.

In their place rose a man whose charisma could convince naive young men to become jihadis eager to kill in the name of Allah. He was leader of al-Jihad Organization which allied itself with al Qaeda. His name is Doctor al-Zawahiri. Currently it is said he is based somewhere in Iraq.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, after being captured and detained in prison in Cairo circa 1995, Dr. Sayyid Imam al-Sharif penned his book, Document for Guiding Jihad in Egypt and the World to help reform the imprisoned Islamist Group (IG) militants in 1997 and the al-Jihad Organization militants in 2007.

A former al-Jihad member from 1987-1993, Imam al-Sharif wrote his book while in prison circa 1995 as his way of revising his militant Islamism into a somewhat gentler Salafi ideology that gave up violence.

After IG reformed it help lead al-Jihad to reform too. However, there are a few men who still keep in contact with al-Qaeda, and is it likely not all of al-Jihad will reform. The radical members of al-Jihad still pose a potential threat to the Muslim world. It is likely some of them have joined al Qaeda or have formed their own terrorist cells in Egypt and possibly elsewhere.

The de-radicalization that happened in 2007 in Egypt has spread to "Algerian, Saudi, Yemeni, Jordanian, Tajik, Malaysian, and Indonesian armed Islamist movements, factions and individuals", according to De-Radicalization of Jihad? The Impact of Egyptian Islamist Revisionists on Al-Qaeda
by Omar Ashour.

It is quite likely deradicalization may have led to Arab Spring. However, not all of its participants have been associated with militants.

In Bahrain's case, the 15 protesters arrested after participating in protests in 2011 were given prison sentences. However, they are no terrorists. Rather they were part of a minority of the Shi'a middle class who work under Sunni and Shi'a employers in the service, computer and other industries. As well, Bahrain is run by the Sunni al-Khalifa dynasty, which dates back to 1783.

Arab Spring in Bahrain began in May 2011 and lasted for about a year. It seems that the last incident which might be related to Arab Spring involved four Bahraini men who tweeted a message in December 2012 that appeared to insult King al-Khalifa.

In contrast, Arab Spring in Syria evolved into an on-going three way war that began in March 2011 between Bashar al-Assad's Syrian government forces versus the Free Syrian Army (FSA) which is controlled by the Syrian National Council currently based in Turkey.

In December 2012, Brigadier General Salim Idris took over control of FSA from Riad al-Asaad who had formed the FSA in August 2011. Free Syrian Army formed in reaction to military hardliners in the government army trying to summarily execute Syrian soldier who refused to shoot civilians. The FSA is composed of former soldiers who defect to defend the people of Syria.

Currently two-thirds of FSA are Muslim Brotherhood (Sunni), and the rest are Christians and mainly Kurds.

Originally founded in 2011, Syrian National Council makes up 22 seats of the Syrian National Coalition which was founded in November 2012. Approximately two-thirds of SNC are Muslim Brotherhood, which will be represented in the Syrian Interim Government.

Looking at the list of 20 nations recognizing the Syrian National Coalition, I was surprised not to see Canada on the list. It is unknown what ties Canada has to the government of al-Assad before September 2011 but is currently sanctioning Syria. Canada is also supporting covert war efforts and also funding an al Qaeda affiliate. Indeed, Canada may be complicit in war crimes in Syria by helping to found the Friends of Syria Group (FSG),

While stating that its end goals were “to support the struggle of the Syrian people for freedom, equal citizenship and democracy”6, the practical purpose of the FSG was to launch a covert war against the sovereign state of Syria by recruiting, arming, funding, infiltrating, and supporting an army of up to 120,000 mercenaries to fight inside Syria for regime change. To that end, a division of labour was established at that founding conference. The deep pockets of the Qatari and Saudi Arabian monarchies were to fund the operation. The front-line states of Turkey and Jordan were to provide base and training camps for the mercenaries, safe (although illegal) passage into Syria, as well as services for the inevitable flood of Syrian refugees.

In essence, this is how Canada's Harper Government is supporting covert war.

It also turns out that Mohamed Dirie, one of the convicted Toronto 18 (read supposed home-grown terrorist) was one of the 100 Canadian Muslims sent as a mercenary to fight again the al-Assad regime.

Canada is also complicit in anti-Assad propaganda such as making "statements castigating the Syrian president and government, meeting representatives of the foreign-backed opposition, closing the Syrian embassy and breaking off of diplomatic relations and blaming the Assad government for the August 2013 chemical weapons incident.

Here is the propaganda Foreign Minister of Canada Hon. John Baird said on December 17, 2011:
"As you know, the Government of Canada has reacted with a strong condemnation of Assad’s campaign of terror.

"These sanctions, in concert with those of our international partners, have isolated the regime and are having a noticeable impact.

"The measures we put in place are not meant to bring further hardship to the Syrian people but to send a message to Assad and his thugs that their actions are absolutely unacceptable. Canada supports the efforts of all peoples to secure basic freedoms, and we look toward the horizon to a new Syria, one that lives in peace with its neighbours and respects the rights of its people.

"Pressure on the Assad regime is not coming just from the West. We have seen Syria’s neighbours and former partners in the Arab League take a strong and commendable stand by formally suspending Syria from the Arab League and imposing tough sanctions on the country. The writing on the wall could not be more clear. The Assad regime has lost all legitimacy and its abhorrent behaviour will not be tolerated."

Most likely, the Houla Massacre on May 25, 2012 was committed by covert mercenaries associated with al Qaeda militants.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL and also called Daesh among Arab League members) is fighting with the Syrian government and the Syrian Free Army (Shi'a). The al Nusra Front (Sunni) - deployed by al Qaeda to Srya - is most likely fighting the government. However, it may also be fighting against ISIL too. Both of these Sunni militias are seeking to carve out small Sharia areas in Syria.

100 fighters from Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham brigade were shot dead by other al-Qaeda militants on or before January 18.

Some of the armed groups in Syria appear to be depending on Captagon, an illegal stimulant. They now have illegal drug labs making the drug.

I'm not sure what this means, but the drug is seen to be safer than amphetamines. Also known as fenethylline, the drug "is metabolized by the body to form two drugs amphetamine (24.5% of oral dose) and theophylline (13.7% of oral dose), both of which are active stimulants".

It is most likely Captagon tablets in Syria are a combination of fenethylline and other amphetamines. In the future, FSA may trade captagon for weapons and munitions.

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Original post: June 4, 2013 4:34 PM

Reference:

De-radicalization of Jihad
http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/36/html

al-Khalifah and Bahrain: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/king-hamad-bin-isa-al-khalifa

Death of Osama bin Laden: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Osama_bin_Laden‎

Syrian Free Army: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Syrian_Army

Syrian National Council: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_National_Council

Syrian National Coalition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Coalition_for_Syrian_Revolutionary_and_Opposition_Forces

Syria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria

Canadian Sanction against Syria: http://canadagazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2011/2011-06-08/html/sor-dors114-eng.html

Canada's Harper Government supporting covert war and funding al Qaeda affiliate: http://www.globalresearch.ca/canadas-harper-government-supports-covert-mercenary-war-on-syria-funds-al-qaeda-afiliated-rebels/5357781

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant‎

Al-Nusra Front: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Nusra_Front‎

100 Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham brigade dead: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/01/report-al-qaeda-syria-unit-executes-rivals-201411312819723199.html

Captagon pills keep Syria rebels awake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rex2HkKiXns

Syria's civil war being fought with fighters high on drugs:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10567021/Syrias-civil-war-being-fought-with-fighters-high-on-drugs.html

Captagon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captagon

Barbara Bodine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Bodine

Arab League: http://www.arableagueonline.org/

Daesh adopted as alternate name to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant by France and the US: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/daesh-adopted-as-new-name-for-isis-by-u-s-france-1.2861108

Mujahideen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mujahideen

Power Corrupts Absolutely (satire)

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." — Lord Acton, letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887

"When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses." — John F Kennedy, remarks at Amherst College, October 26, 1963

Thus to prevent a great man from being corrupted by power, it is imperative to remain modest even when temptation leads a great man to fall. It matters not if he is the President of the United States or the leader of al-Qaeda, nor does it matter if he comes from a privileged family or has crawled out of the depth of poverty and despair.

Where a great man will seek power, he does so declaring that it is done for the sake of other people. Those people who cherish his words forget that power corrupts absolute. Thus even greater men have resisted temptation and turned their back on the quest for power.

I cannot say which man is greater, but I do know that great men of power are well known in history, be it Julius Caesar, Plato, Ashoka, Genghis Khan, Lord Tokugawa, the Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad, and many more men. The same cannot be said for my father, my grandparents, the villagers who die in famines, the people who died when America dropped bombs on them in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many other people who suffer due to the corrupt of great men.

For almost all great men are also bad men, be it Obama or Osama bin Laden. Yet Obama is left off the hook because of his supporters believe they can only do good.

When bombs dropped in Kabul, only the al-Qaeda knew who signed the order to drop them. When the rebels in Syria suffered heavy losses, only the al-Qaeda knew who favored them (and it was not God).

While the reason for the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq is known only to the Bush administration, it was the propaganda by the mainstream media which blamed the Taleban and weapons of mass destruction in Afghanistan and Iraq respective. Other propagandists blamed 911 on these invasions of sovereign nations.

However, the reason why Afghanistan was invaded was to fulfill American foreign policy. Since the Taleban had refused to ratify a pact that would allow an oil pipeline to run through the country, Congress signed the order to invade it. Thus it was for profit that Afghanistan was invaded.

Likewise, the invasion of Iraq was to fulfill foreign policy, which is to profit by deposing Saddam Hussein, who was not a threat to America at al. For there were no weapons of mass destruction.

Therefore, a great man became a bad man by calling for war.

It is small wonder that a lady serving under Jean Chretien called that bad man "a moron."

To the Children of the West (satire)

Dear Children of the West:

Can you ask the leader of your country to stop the War on Terrorism because it's not working?

The 3,000 deaths in the most symbolic form of terrorism ever called the 9-11 attack on the Twin Towers in NYC was, is and never will be worth the 100,000+ deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Those terrorists even missed the most vital nerve center of the West: the Stock Exchange backup servers. Had that been hit, we would have had the Crash. America's recovery could have been delayed, and the mortgage crunch in 2008 might have dragged on, leading to more poverty and homelessness for Middle Class America.

America would have been left unable to fund Israel, and the terrorists would have wiped it out by 2010.

By 2059, most terrorist bombings would have rendered most cities in the West inhospitable. By 2060, Islam would have had more forced converts and sharia law would have been imposed beyond Dearborn and Birmingham. The end result would not be pretty: by 2100, Muslims (4 billion) would outnumber Christians and Buddhists (3.5 billion) combined in a world with almost 8 billion people

So, I am saying 911 was better than the worst-case scenario. Unfortunately, 100,000+ people dead in the Middle East will never be worth the War on Terrorism, because it has never been 911 that was the real reason for invading Afghanistan and Iraq.

It has always been natural resources of the Middle East. Anyone telling you different on FOX is a CIA dupe. Wake up!

Now it is up to you, Children of the World, to call on your leaders to make war no more.

This public message is not endorsed or funded by the New Left or any other anti-war activist group. You may return to your regular diet of pop and corn chips to play your stupid XBOX game.

Al-Qaeda are Actually Home-Grown Terrorists in Their Home Country

Both the war in Afghanistan and in Iraq are viewed by Muslims as a religious war, as they were originally viewed in Washington by then-president GW Bush.

Denying this is the privilege of the politically correct.

Yet as long as the Obama administration refuses to admit the religious side of this war on terrorism, they will only continue to be viewed by Muslims in the Middle East as oppressors, rather than as emancipators trying to bring democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq.

The freeing of al-Qaeda terrorists from Iraq prisons cannot be blamed on Iraq police, because the prisons they were housed in were not immune to attack as the attackers had at least one collaborator on the inside.

Yet at the same time, most of the al-Qaeda warriors in Syria are actually on the US payroll.

IMO the reason why al-Qaeda in Iraq were imprisoned had more to do with their refusal to be bribed by America to fight in its proxy war in Syria. It is also why America bombed Yemen, because Al-Qaeda there refuses to be a pawn in America's proxy wars in Libya, Egypt, and other parts of the Middle East.

Yet it is well know that al-Qaeda was originally trained by Pakistan ISI officials using US money through the CIA during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

It's not hard to conclude then that Chechen rebels in Russia might have been employed by a black-ops cell set up by the CIA to destabilize Russia.

However, it is more likely that the Chechens have a bone to pick with Moscow regarding their treatment by Russians in Chechyna and in Russia itself.

When you marginalize a minority be it Yemeni tribesmen in the clans not related to the one backing the Yemeni regime or Chechens in Russia, shit is bound to happen.

This is why Russia has Muslim terrorists: because of a racist policy regarding the Chechen including moving them to Siberia.

Originally, al-Qaeda are home-grown terrorists within their home countries, be it Chechen rebels, Iraq al-Qaeda,Yemen al-Qaeda or even Libyan al-Qaeda.

Yet America's problem with al-Qaeda is that not all of them are so easy to bribe. Yemen is proof of that.

War Against Terrorism Musings

Sadly we may be in denial and mislead into believing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had to do with 9-11.

America was ready to fight Iraq since the mid 1990s, Iraqi-American Ahmed Chalabi was already collaborating with a NY Times reporter to inject propaganda with false claims of WMD, which still have yet to be proven.

Thus the War on Iraq consists of the invasion of a sovereign nation under the guise of War of Terrorism, purportedly to depose Saddam Hussein.

In actual fact, Iraq was invaded to control its natural resources, primarily its oil.

In the case of Afghanistan, America was poised to depose the Taleban because of human rights violations and unwillingness to negotiate a diplomatic solution and stick with it.

Today we have the Department of Homeland Security protecting America including airport checks, which shows fascism appearing like cracks on the facade of democracy.

Even though I realize all of this about the War on Terrorism, I also have found mass media to be like a fair weather friend.

Before the War on Terrorism, they published propaganda about WMD in Iraq. Now they vilify Bush for his false claims of WMD, claims which were first reported in the NY Times.

So, if 9-11 had to do with the War on Terrorism, then mass media propaganda has done its job. For it is simpler to believe that than to connect the dots.

---

Engineering consent: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5931.htm

War on Terror Manufactures Consent for Big Brother Laws

On December 9, 2001, I wrote the following article, which criticizes Seth Stevenson for attributing the "war on terrorism" to 9-11, when in fact the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were planned months earlier in an attempt to make it easier to get oil to Western markets without having both the Taleban and Saddam Hussein to deal with...

Seth Stevenson tries to pretend the "war on terrorism" is due to 4000 people getting killed at the WTC and the Pentagon, ignoring the fact that American foreign policy has affect more people's lives since WW 2.

Indeed, Stevenson tries not to analyze the real war on Afghanistan from its origins in the invasion by the Soviets to America's involvement in bin Laden's training as freedom fighter.

Other sources in mass media pretend that Pakistan's involvement in Afghanistan and the training of terrorists it supports is news to them.

It turns out that a recent report put out prior to 9/11/2001 stated that MOSSAD is quite capable of making an attack on American assets look like the Arabs did it.

Remember that originally bin Laden said that he had no clue who was behind the 9/11 attacks, but later started taking credit for the attacks when Bush began to press for his capture -- no compromises, no negotiations.

Then bin Laden's news videos started getting radical, with him provoking the militant freedom fighters - fighting to be free of American influence - known as terrorists while eventually admitting to the WTC/Pentagon attacks.

Now the war on Afghanistan continues on, due to America's machination, and the War on Terrorism will not end with the capture of Saddam Hussein, but continues on to destroy people's lives. Yet the Americans still hadn't caught their manufactured mastermind, Usama/Osmaine bin Laden. (On May 2, 2011 bin Laden was supposedly killed and buried at sea.)

What they did do was manufacture consent for stealing our freedom with Big Brother laws... — Reference: http://slate.msn.com/?id=2059487

Why Benghazi Was Underprotected

Benghazi fell because Libyan policy before after Gadaffi fell from power was this: "you may bomb Gadaffi but never set foot in Libya".

Why was this the case? Because no Muslim likes an occupation army in his country. This resentment for European and American presence is tempered by oppressive French and British rule during their colonial foray at emùpire-building, which now is continued by America's aggressive economic empire building.

It can also be seen in how the UN voted for Palestine's presence as non-member observer: America, and its main trade partner Canada, and a handful of Latin American nations friendly to the US due to tourist dollars. In contrast, the rest of the world backed Palestine, thanks to the work of pro-Palestine organizations and people both in Canada and around the world.

Returning to Benghazi, I am thankful to Paula Broadwell for whistle-blowing regarding the cover-up by Obama, falsely attributing the loss of American lives at the embassy on an anti-Muslim movie by Coptic Christians eager to engage Salafi oppressors in their home nation of Egypt.


The fact still remains that America complied by Libyan demands to not place an occupation force to guard its national asset in Benghazi.

My guess is, Libya feared exposure of munitions recovered from Gadaffi stockpiles making its way into Syria through the Qaeda network to replenish Qaeda militants in Syria, whose job is to attack both Syrian rebels and the Assad government troops so as to prepare the country for the Muslim Brotherhood to rule as it had in Egypt.

It would be embarassing for America to realize that Libya fought this civil war, not just because Gadaffi was oppressive during his regime but because he dared to share the oil wealth in a socialist manner in the Alberta tar sand way, by giving every Libyan a share of oil profits. Additinally Gadaffi wanted to create an Arab gold currency standard. However, Libya fell to rebel troops who most likely had moral support from Big Oil interests through their lobbyists in DC.

So the propaganda in the article below is interesting in pretending America had no interest in Libya. It's stupid for mass media to continue to deny that America's interest in Iraq, and even in Libya, is due to Big Oil pressuring Washington to feed America's hunger for oil.

As for Afghanistan, the reason there is murky but the invasion caused heroin exports to Europe and the US to rise, along with the other cash crop, cannabis. So most likely it was to increase funds for black-ops in the region. ;)

---

Reference:

analysis of Obama's Light Footprint in Middle East: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/world/middle-east-challenges-obamas-light-footprint.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0

PressTV's Propaganda or News Facts?

I've viewed PressTV and find myself amused by the spin they take.

I hope they interview that Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram about her songs for children, and her assuming modesty after her early years as entertainer, showing off her beauty. PressTV would perfectly play the clown for a classroom of middle school students.

Its content is easy enough for children 12 and up to understand to get a feel for Shi'a propaganda as opposed to the Salafi-influenced Egyptian and Hamas rhetoric and the civil war in Iraq between Salafi Sunni who were once the ruling minority and Shi'a majority (which actually now has become internal conflict within Iraqi parliament.

It is sad that Assad's Syria consists of the same demographics as Iraq but is not surprising as Iraq and Syra have been under Baathist dictatorships since 1966. Thus, the struggle in Syria is related to the NATO-backed Salafi Sunnis and the rebel Shi'a nationalists of Iraq, many of whom love the Iranian moral support but crave more munitions be diverted from Iran, rather than the infrequent trickle of today.

However, don't rely on my one-sided monologue. Check out PressTV to see why it's called propaganda.

9-11 Was Never the Reason for "war on terrorism"

Afghanistan wasn't invaded because of 9-11. It was invaded to get Osama bin Laden for terrorist plots in America predating 9-11.

After initial denial on Sept 16, 2001, Osama waited 3 years before claiming responsibility for 9-11, on Oct. 18, 2004. This date is important because it was over 6 months since Lt. General Petraeus had pulled out of Iraq, leaving behind a Stryker force and a small command centre at Mosul. By then Iraq was in the middle of a civil war that Petraeus couldn't stop when he left in February 2004.

Why? Because the rebels loyal to Saddam Hussein were defending their homeland from an unprovoked invasion based on the rumor that Iraq had caches of WMD, none of which were ever found.

This fabrication of WND was helped by one of Iraqi American Ahmed Chalabi's contacts in his Iraq National Congress (founded in 1992 as a front to funnel US money into Chalabi's hands). It is possible part of this money was used in the $32 million offer to bank customers bilked of money in the 1970s when Petra Bank in Jordan failed to pony up 1/3 of its money in the Central Bank and Chalabi fled the country with his clients' money.

Since 1998 INC collaborated with Judith Miller of NY Times to plant stories of WMD in Iraq. This propaganda helped to convince the UN to go to war in 2003, not 9-11.

Other journalists that helped Chalabi include American Enterprise Institute's Iraq specialist Danielle Pletka, whoi defended him; and the Irish scriptwriter and commentator Eoghan Harris, who coached him on presentation techniques i.e. how to act in front of a camera.

However when Lt. General Petraeus left Iraq in February 2004, Chalabi commented on the WMD controversy, "We are heroes in error. As far as we're concerned, we've been entirely successful. That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important. The Bush administration is looking for a scapegoat."

I guess executing Hussein wasn't enough for the Americans, so they went after a fraudster who's friends with DC, a Shi'ite Muslim who had a few papers on advanced algebra as graduating as a mathematician and a loyal Iraqi-American.

YES, 9-11 HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE IRAQ WAR or the AFGHANISTAN WAR!

Afghanistan was invaded to get Osama bin Laden, and to eliminate Qaeda militants.

Iraq was invaded to get its oil.

Why America Invaded Iraq

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Lobby#Governmental_influence

Various scandals involving prominent politicians have drawn attention to the close links between the Energy Lobby and the U.S. government, particularly the influence wielded by the Energy Lobby in the Bush administration. In June 2005, documents emerged that revealed that the Bush administration had consulted Exxon regarding its stance on the Kyoto protocol. According to The Guardian "In briefing papers given before meetings to the US under-secretary of state, Paula Dobriansky, between 2001 and 2004, the administration is found thanking Exxon executives for the company's 'active involvement' in helping to determine climate change policy, and also seeking its advice on what climate change policies the company might find acceptable."

In November 2005, documents revealed that Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force met with executives from large oil companies, although chief executives of those companies denied involvement before the Senate Energy and Commerce committees. Environmentalists were not allowed access to the Energy Task Force’s activities, which was responsible for developing a national energy policy.

Oil companies also participated with Cheney's task force in a discussion of Iraqi oilfields, refineries and other energy infrastructure, and two charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts." The documents are dated two years before the Invasion of Iraq.

The invasion of Iraq circa AD 2003 had to do with making oil and water a commodity to be bought and sold, mainly to profit Big Business.

Indeed, there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There were no Iraqis who participated in or endorsed 9-11. All there was was the inaction of good men so that they may later profit from the sacrifice of over 3,000 lives, and countless lives more.

Not surprisingly, the newsmedia only quietly mentioned the energy lobby's role in the War on Terrorism, and focused on the war and the world after 9-11.

For the War on Terrorism was and is a marketable commodity in the world of news and Big Business.

Alcohol consumption preceded rape-murder in Iraq

A soldier cited in U.S. court documents as the first witness told investigators that Green and three others drank alcohol and discussed rape. They then told the soldier to keep watch on the radio as they set off for the house, some in civilian clothes.

This once again shows that alcohol aided in the reduction of inhibition to commit rape and murder.

However, this does not excuse any of the five participants in this crime.

Nor does Green's "personality disorder" excuse him by reason of insanity.

Yet his antipathy towards Iraqis showed that with enough "courage" he might incite such a crime.

Men such as Green are not only a threat to families in foreign lands, but also to one third of all female troops.

Maybe it's time to water down the hooch.

What Scares One Iraqi (fiction)

This is a work of fiction and accordingly is not realistic about Iraqis and Japanese. However, it is influenced by manga about modern day warrior women.

"What is it about America that scares me?" asked Sayyid, looking at me through the rear view mirror of his old Buick. We were speeding down a street thick with Iraqi men and women.

It was over a decade after George W. Bush's invasion back in March of 2003. On this particular day, a hot April morning in the year 2014, I was one of the first migrant workers to arrive by El Air from Haifa, returning after a previous stint as military nurse working with Iraqi medical staff.

Only a week ago, President Hilary Clinton had signed executive order pulling out troops from the occupation army left in Baghdad after the official coalition pull-out four years ago on November 12, 2010.

In those four years, the US made good its promise under former President Bush to hand over control to an Iraqi parliament fully under its thumb.

Baath subversives had been selectively culled over the past five years, rounded up into American-run interrogation camps. Nominally Baath Muslims and Baaths with a noticeably violent reaction to seemingly oppressive military occupation were placed together, resulting in only a handful of the uncommitted 'converting' to an Islamic fundamentalism that combined a fear mongering regarding Jewish conspiracies with a rigid mindset that negated the open-minded optimism of Sufi reforms.

Sayyid dodges a bearded man to back up on the curb of the road, shock leaving him mute while his fellow country men and women chant.

"Hilary!"

"No, how does America scare you?" I ask, grinning. Sayyid smiles broadly.

"I need not say. The crowd says who my heart fears most."

"Why, Sayyid? It was Bush who ruined Iraq and readied it while you were a child. Don't you fear the Bushes?"

"Yes, but when we asked to nationalize our oil and he refused, he sealed his fate. We had to use democracy in America to lobby earnestly for change."

I pondered Sayyid's word in momentary silence.

"The crowd is too thick." He shifted the old car into park, and then turned off the ignition. The Buick was black, the windows tinted gray.

"It is ok, Sayyid. Please tell me why you fear Hilary."

Sayyid smile, but kept his silence closed behind gold-fleck teeth.

"She has mastered Arabic and knows the Koran well, it is true." The young Iraqi stopped grinning, his dark face wrinkling into a scowl.

"But all this business wasn't stopped by her husband Bill when he came to power."

Instead, there were rumors the US military built biochem warfare munitions and sold it to Iraq via middlemen, at first openly when George Bush Sr. was CIA chief, and perhaps secretly during later administrations.

That was what had lost Iraq's confidence since every bomb meant less money to take care of children, the elderly and especially women.

Yet Hilary's administration supported a pull-out and worked towards that goal.

Saying as much, Sayyid merely said "Hilary wants the best for us."

"Why fear her?"

Shrugging his muscular shoulders, the Iraqi smiled.

"I know that this is sexist," he said, looking me in the eye. "She is a strong woman, but we Iraqi men fear her power over us because we have to treat her like an equal in a country where Baath influence has evaporated leaving a dirty feeling about women leading men."

I looked at Sayyid, and smiled. "I guess you hate women being on top, too."

Laughing, Sayyid replied "Not if she's my wife and emancipated." He winked at me.

With my left hand I reached out and put it on his shoulder.

In Iraqi, I said sweetly "So, let's get to the priest to bless this marriage, my dearest."

"Yes, my dear Sachiko!"


We drove slowly through Baghdad, following the crowds of people. To any prying eyes, they only saw a fellow Iraqi driving an Iraqi car with a woman in the familiar hajib, her face hidden as is the custom for unmarried Muslim women. When anyone threatening edged closer than comfortable, Sayyid would scowl and touch the Ruger in his lap.

Once a disheveled man, his beard spotted with gray and his eyes wild, rapped on the passenger window to attract my attention. Though my head dropped to my lap, Sayyid caught the bearded man's eye. Then he fingered his Ruger. When I looked up, no one was there.

"I would feel safer when we make it to the government office, my love."

Smiling broadly, Sayyid clasped my hand, his first firm affection semi-privately displayed outside of our apartments in the dormitory inside the Baghdad hospital compound.

A young girl in Western attire watched us through the front windshield, her eyes taking us both in. As we drove by, she flashed the sign for victory. Sayyid stopped the car and backed up. "That's the signal."

He cracked the window open, and shouted.

"Pardon Miss!" he said. "I'm taking my betrothed to the government office for official matrimony. Are you our guide?"

The girl smiled, and crowded close to his window. Men, who should have tried to attract her attention, and perhaps drag here away, never appeared. Instead, Sayyid waited for the crowd of men and women to thin out and motioned the girl to get in beside me.

"Hello, I am Aisha," she said, in Darmune dialect. "One of the moderns." As she turned to hug me in greeting, I noticed a small Roxana handgun, made of gray ceramics, gas-powered, popular among the young women.

"Sachiko," I murmured, only to see her eyes light up in surprise.

"My cousin, how is it that a foreigner has caught your heart?" she said, abruptly, her face a mirror of Sayyid’s scowl.

"My beloved was a nurse at the hospital in 2005."

For a moment Aisha's scowl became a puzzled frown. "Cousin, I was only a child then..."

"Think back, Aisha. You two have met."

Slowly, the young girl's frown melted into a smile.

"Saichi?" she said, warily. I squeezed her hand, smiling, tears in my eyes.

"Ai-chan, I am back."

It's funny how memories come back to tell us something about the past, especially warm ones.


Months after I fell for Sayyid, he'd taken me on the only visit to his village near Fallujah, where the Darmune tribe had achieved total dominance over the past 1000 years through revenge killings and technically illegal activities. That a doctor was once a thug is in itself a miraculous story. Even more stranger is that the doctor is so well respected in Fallujah of 2005 that he can escort a foreigner, female and under threat by violence by citizen and American troops. Yet I was young but not naive.

A child of eight had greeted us, and peppered me all kinds of questions. My grasp of Iraqi was inadequate then. Still, we bonded, Aisha and me.

As long as I wore the clothes other Iraqi women wore, my foreignness was hidden. Muteness and occasional Japanese exclamations could be explained as being simply mad. She taught me much of the Iraqi I needed to deal with Iraqi nurses and with vendors outside the hospital compound.


"Saichi-chan, my friend, I missed you. Because of our previous bond nine years ago, I regret my earlier outburst."

"Aisha-chan, I too missed you. Let's make today another adventure."

Sayyid smiled, and for a moment his face was free of scowls. Then the facade returned, his scowl matched by his right hand moving towards his gun.

"We're here. The marriage office."

To Aisha, he asked, "The priest is aware of Saichi not being Darmune, nor of any tribe?"

"He only cares for the American dollars to grease his palm, cousin." She smirked, and winked at me.

"Saichi-chan, has your dear Sayyid trained you with a Roxana?"

It was my turn to smirk, and rather than answer, I placed Aisha's hand on my right thigh, to feel the tanto in its sheath.

"Oh what good is a big knife with an AK-47 pointed at you?"

"Aisha-chan, you'd be surprised of my surgical precision!"


After the wedding we went out separate ways. Aisha melted into the crowd of roving men and women. We managed to get back to the hospital before Dyncorp mercs came on duty for the dusk to dawn shift. The UN observer troops nodded to us. At least one of them could credit either of us with saving their hides after a fire-fight with rebel troops who strayed too far from Fallujah.

Morning caught us in the operation theatre attending to another casualty of the civil war now dying out. Hilary might scare Sayyid, but to me she symbolizes a new way with the world. It's doubtful what she'd make of a Japanese nurse who's as handy with a tanto blade as with the autoclave.

After surgery, Sayyid takes me into his arms. "Well done, nurse!" he says. He smiles broadly, looking into my eyes.

"Now that we are husband and wife, my love, am I merely your nurse?" I ask.

"In the hospital, yes. As for our home in the dorm..."

My breath catches at the implication of his promises.


Later that night, I lay there as Sayyid snores. His trusty Ruger is on his nightstand, my tanto under my pillow. Outside, the gunfire is faint. More casualties in the morning, hopefully the blood bank will be resupplied...

Then my thoughts return to Hilary and what Sayyid said about her.

I know what scares Sayyid, but the only thing that scares me is losing Sayyid. With our security precautions makeshift and mainly for our peace of mind, we rely on corporate mercenaries at night time inside the compound with the UN troops guarding the perimeter.

No one here trusts the Dyncorp security officers. They seem too slow to respond to the rare security breaches, sometimes insulting the Asian medical staff and mostly trying to out think the quick witted Iraqi staff. We have documented the pilferage of drug supplies and sent our inventory lists to UN HQ encrypted. The master list is entrusted to the UN.

Despite all of this worry and complications, Hilary isn't big on my list of fears as the loss of the man I love dearly.


In the morning Sayyid nudges me. "Sachiko Hattori, wife of Sayyid the doctor... Awaken, princess..." I feign sleep, mumbling, "Please, sir, let me rest." My Iraqi has this Japanese accent, I am sure.

To the UN troops and Dyncorp merc, Sayyid is Doctor Sid. To me, he is Sayyid Muhammad-as-Darmune, a reformed juvenile delinquent who escaped petty tribalism to become a skilled surgeon, putting broken bodies of military men back together in a triage center in Baghdad.
To the rest of the world we are both unknown, except to our immediate families.

A year passes. Once I was visiting my mother at the mausoleum of our home city's crematorium. Now I am back at ho

"Oh Mother, your pride and joy, surgical nurse, first of the volunteer wave of Japan's finest medical staff, outsourced to Iraq due to our military commitments to NATO, is married."

Then I returned to Iraq.

Since 2010 Father never writes, his body a frail husk in the old age home. I'm not even sure where his mind is these days. All my hard earned cash after local expenses gets sent electronically to my bank in Tokyo. The old age home takes out their legally proscribed amount and the rest of my funds accumulate interest.

If I were to die tomorrow, then SDF will notify next of kin, arrange the funeral expenses, and travel costs will be taken out of my estate.

If Sayyid dies tomorrow, his staff would start arrangements alien to me, with Aisha taking care of details of customs so alien to me. As of yesterday I am the spouse of an important citizen of the Iraqi Commonwealth of Tribal States, a Japanese national with a father who does not worry about me and a mother who never will.

And still I am scared of losing Sayyid to death. I have seen death countless times at the surgery bed, but am afraid of waking up from my matrimonial happiness to discover him gone forever.

Yet Sayyid is still afraid of President Hilary and what her policies imply for Iraq. The civil war, the violence, the corruption... This doctor-soldier, who has seen blood outside as well as inside this hospital, is my husband.

Yet he reaches for his gun when the gunfire is too near.

And what of Aisha? Will her Roxana fail her in the middle of a sticky situation, brokering a ceasefire in a country not noted for women warriors such as her?


I open my eyes and look up. Sayyid’s smile is reflected in mine. He's dressed in doctor's scrubs, with his Ruger hidden in a pack on his back.

"Still afraid of Hilary?" I ask.

Sayyid’s smile fades, and he scowls. "Only what she represents."

"What about me with my big knife?" I ask.

"Run from knife, rush gun." He grins, his dark face beaming. His close cropped hair suits him. I get up. My scrubs are all neatly laid out on the divan.

Out of the shower, I restrap the sheath to my thigh, neatly sliding the tanto into it. Sayyid is on his cell phone, his voice loud and booming.

"Tell the Dyncorp pig to leave my staff alone," he bellows.

Recently the security guards have made a game of cornering a nurse and rubbing up against her. Respecting decorum, none of them have aggressively asserted themselves, save for the younger ones who clearly state in English, "Please leave me alone." One orderly, Sayyid’s cousin from Fallujah, even reported the incidents to the UN commander.

So Sayyid took matters into his own hands, being the doctor with the most seniority here. He has been negotiating with the Dyncorp executive in Baghdad over the past month to reprimand the supervisor guarding our hospital complex. Negotiating, because the idiot didn't see a problem with this sick game of cat and mouse played by bored, lonely men. Lately, the negotiation gets strained.

As I get the scrubs on, Sayyid utters an expletive, a curse implying revenge for dishonored relatives. He's hung up the cell phone minutes ago, but is upset.

"Dear one, ready and reporting for work!" I shout as I join him in hall leading to the exit from our dorm.

The electronic lock on the door of our room had clicked shut when I left. When we leave the building it's just a quick jaunt from there to the shuttle car driven by a Dyncorp mercenary, his beady eyes ogling me. Reluctantly, Sayyid ignores this impropriety and just scowls. I can smell the decayed sweat on the guard's body, and feel nauseated. But as a precaution I make a mental note to visit the Obs ward. Jasmeen wants me to take a pregnancy test.

Was it weeks ago that I returned?

Later on today, I also have to return to the Nanotech ward, where Doctor Noguchi wants me to take a refresher course on Iraqi while nanobots restructure my short term memories and the language centres of my brain.

Being pregnant or injected with nanobots doesn’t scare me as much as losing Sayyid, I tell myself.

And he's just worried about a woman president of America!

Noguchi's nanobots and I worrying over my positive test at Obs gets me nauseous. However, I'm breathing deeply now, in the gym, keeping my reflexes sharp as this tanto blade whistling through the air. No Dyncorp merc spying on me, only a UN trooper outside the building, protecting me from corrupt corporate lackeys of America.

Hey Hilary! I yell in Japanese. Think you can take me one-on-one!

Quickly I spin, and kick to block the imaginary thrust of Hilary, the both of us naked. Her breaths are short, gasping. Her katana easily misses me. I dodge and feint, my nausea forgotten.

You scare my husband! I yell, sliding my blade up to slide the length of her blade, burying it deeply in her heart.

Spent, I return to reality around me. No Hilary, just me alone in the gym. I wonder what the UN trooper from Canada thinks of this crazy Asian broad. As I dress, the nausea grips me. I rush to the showers, vomit, and clean myself up.

Later, Jasmeen is monitoring my blood. "It's the nanobots, Sachiko. All he's done is shift your dialect to match Sayyid’s. But there are markers I have never seen before."

"Things used to be simpler before the UN repeal of gene technology in 2009."

That was when Hilary felt the itch to be president. By 2012, she had the job. A lot of countries also had female leaders, due to the glitch in 2010 when world leader, all of them male, made the foolish decision to prove the first batch of nanobots safe by taking them, and ended up like my father, senile and drooling.

It is only in the third world countries that men were spared, but the women of privilege survived those experiments to be quicker witted and the equal of their male peers.

Nanotech senility was traced to an engineering glitch, in spite of the rumors of a feminist agenda. How laughable! Nanotech just affects men and women differently.

Maybe that's why Hilary scares Sayyid. Nanobots, the nanotech senility. Obs had me donate eggs, in vitro, a cloning. Sayyid is even afraid nanobots can burrow through latex.

Still, I am afraid of losing him. I lost my father to nanobots.

All Hilary is a symbol of the ascendancy of women in the aftermath of the failed decade of peace that ended in 2010.

As I vomit in the bathroom of our dorm room, this epiphany comes to me...

What scares one Iraqi pales before the fear of one woman who loses the most important male figure in her life.

It makes me wonder how Bill is doing in that geriatric clinic, drooling and nodding off while his wife conquers the world...