Tag: iraq

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: Infamous Terrorist And US Intelligence Asset

Ranked second only to Osama bin Laden, the US’s most notorious declared enemy during the so-called War on Terror was Jordanian jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).

But a closer examination of Zarqawi’s life and his impact on events in Iraq shows that he was likely a product and tool of US intelligence.

Neoconservative strategists within the administration of George W. Bush utilized Zarqawi as a pawn to justify the illegal US invasion of Iraq in 2003 to the American public.

Moreover, he was instrumental in fomenting internal discord within Iraqi resistance groups opposing the US occupation, ultimately instigating a sectarian civil war between Iraq’s Sunni and Shia communities.

Israel’s plan unfolds in Iraq

This deliberate strategy of tension in Iraq advanced Tel Aviv’s goal of perpetuating the country’s vulnerabilities, dividing populations along sectarian lines, and weakening its army’s ability to challenge Israel in the region.

It has long been known that the CIA created Al-Qaeda as part of its covert war on the Soviet Red Army in Afghanistan in the 1980s and supported Al-Qaeda elements in various wars, including in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Chechnya in the 1990s.

Additionally, evidence points to CIA support for Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups during the clandestine war in Syria launched in 2011 amid the so-called Arab Spring.

Despite this history, western journalists, analysts, and historians still take at face value that Zarqawi and AQI were sworn enemies of the US.

Without understanding Zarqawi’s role as a US intelligence asset, it is impossible to understand the destructive role the US (and Israel) played in the bloodshed inflicted on Iraq, not only during the initial 2003 invasion but in launching the subsequent sectarian strife as well.

It is also essential to understand the importance of current Iraqi efforts to expel US forces and rid the country of US influence moving forward.

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WHITE HOUSE FALSELY DECLARED IT WARNED IRAQ OF IMPENDING AIRSTRIKES

THE U.S. DID not notify the Iraqi government before conducting airstrikes in the country on Friday, contrary to an assertion by the White House that it did.

During a press call on Friday, White House national security spokesperson retired Adm. John Kirby saidOpens in a new tab, “We did inform the Iraqi government prior to the strikes occurring.”

On Monday, in response to questions from The Intercept, the White House said the Iraqis had not gotten advance warning of the strikes.

“For operational security, we did not provide any kind of official pre-notification with specific details on these strikes,” a National Security Council spokesperson acknowledged. 

During Monday’s State Department press briefing, spokesperson Vedant Patel also acknowledged the Iraqis had not gotten a warning. (The State Department had reffered The Intercept’s questions to the White House.)

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US Strikes Killed At Least 39, Including “Many Civilians,” As Iraq Warns Stability Is On “Brink Of The Abyss”

Widespread reports say at least 39 were killed in the Friday US airstrikes on Iran-linked targets across Western Iraq and Eastern Syria, which used over 125 bombs and precision munitions, according to a Pentagon statement.

There are reportedly civilians among the dead. The Baghdad government on Saturday said that 16 Iraqis, among them civilians, were killed – while on the other side of the border the Syrian Defense Ministry confirmed that both militants and civilians were killed but without providing a figure. The Syrian military said that “many civilian and military martyrs” died. The anti-Assad monitoring group, UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that the Syria strikes killed 23 militia fighters. 

The official readout by US Central Command (CENTCOM) described that “The facilities that were struck included command and control operations centers, intelligence centers, rockets, and missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups and their IRGC sponsors who facilitated attacks against U.S. and Coalition forces.”

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US troops should have left Syria and Iraq long ago

The death of three Americans in Jordan due to an attack by the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” was an avoidable tragedy. It should prompt the United States to speed up its exit from Syria and Iraq, something policy makers have been contemplating for some time. Washington must minimize its risks. To dig in and escalate would be a mistake that is likely to lead to more Americans killed. The mission that brought U.S. troops to Iraq and Syria – to destroy ISIS – has been accomplished. Residual policing of ISIS remnants can be undertaken from bases in Qatar, Kuwait and Turkey.

Hawks in Washington insist that by striking Iran directly and hard, the U.S. can bring security to its troops, the danger will subside because Iran understands force. But this analysis misunderstands the region and minimizes the dangers arrayed against U.S. troops. Iran has been committed to pushing U.S. troops out of Iraq and Syria, something its leaders articulated clearly following an earlier use of U.S. force, the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Suleimani in 2020. Iran will not back down if the U.S. assassinates more of its leaders or strikes infrastructure in Iran for the simple reason that it has the upper hand in the region.

But Iran is far from being the only government that wants U.S. troops out. Turkey, Iraq and Syria are equally determined to drive the U.S. from its bases. Every single government in the region is demanding that U.S. troops leave. Turkey has escalated its war against America, not by sending missiles and drones against U.S. bases, but by sending them against America’s allies in northeast Syria and the Kurdish region of Iraq. Turkey has assassinated dozens of YPG leaders and destroyed important infrastructure. It has mobilized Syrian opposition groups under its control to attack the Syrian Democratic Forces that Washington relies on. These attacks are designed to weaken the U.S. position in the region and eventually drive it from northeast Syria.

The Syrian government is also determined to drive Americans from its soil. It accuses Washington of illegally occupying 30% of its territory and stealing its oil to subsidize the quasi-independent territory the U.S. has established in northeast Syria. As a consequence, the majority of Syrians languish in poverty and must survive with only a few hours of electricity per day, while the economy remains paralyzed by U.S. sanctions. They want the U.S. out.

The Iraqi government is also demanding that U.S. troops leave. It was provoked into doing so by Washington’s January 4 assassination of Mushtaq al-Jawari, a leader of Harakat al-Nujaba, one of the Shi’a militias that belongs to the popular mobilization forces. Washington targeted him in retribution for an earlier attack on a U.S. base. Did this show of force cow the Harakat al-Nujaba or the popular mobilization forces? No. On the contrary, it led to an escalating drumbeat of missile and drone attacks on American bases.

But the militias were not the only forces to go on the offensive, the Iraqi government did as well. Because the popular mobilization forces are officially under Baghdad’s control, the U.S. found itself effectively at war with the central government. Prime Minister Sudani cannot ignore them. To save his government, Sudani had to ask U.S. forces to leave. Both he and Iraq’s president, as well as almost every Iraqi politician, insist that Iraq not be turned into a proxy battleground.

Striking Iran will not solve America’s problems in the region. Biden’s support for Israel’s war against the Palestinians has inflamed anti-American and anti-Western feelings across the entire Arab world. It has breathed new life into the resistance front. Only yesterday, most Arabs scoffed at it for being impotent and doing nothing to deter Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians. Because of Gaza, Arabs are once again rooting for resistance.

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Is A Huge War Coming? US & Israel Bomb Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Gaza & Lebanon While Threatening War With Iran

The brutal war that Israel is waging on Gaza is increasingly becoming a regional conflict.

Since October, the United States and Israel have bombed not only Gaza, but also Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

Now, the U.S. government is even threatening Iran with war. President Joe Biden sent the Iranian government a private message while the U.S. military was bombing Yemen on January 13. He said threateningly, “We’re confident, we’re well prepared”.

While this is happening, South Africa has introduced a case in the International Court of Justice, the top United Nations judicial authority, which accuses Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

South Africa’s case has garnered support from dozens of countries across the Global South.

This case has frightened Israel and its sponsors in Washington. They are apparently seeking to expand the conflict into a regional war, to try to win more sympathy and to turn attention away from what South Africa and many countries have referred to as a genocide in Gaza.

In fact, top UN experts have been warning precisely this for months: that the Palestinian people face “the risk of genocide in Gaza”, and that there has been a “failure of the international system to mobilise to prevent genocide”.

The Financial Times reported in December that, in just two months of Israeli bombing, Gaza had become one of the most heavily bombed areas in human history.

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Mysterious ‘Jellyfish’ UFO Video Released

A bizarre aerial object seen in leaked footage has been dubbed the ‘Jellyfish’ UFO. Said to be recorded using thermal imaging in 2017 at a US military base in Iraq, a Marine veteran, Michael Cincoski, told NewsNation that the object did not appear to be threatening and was eventually considered like a “ghost story” at the base.

Researcher and documentarian Jeremy Corbell, who said the footage was leaked to him, described the UFO as being submerged in water for 17 minutes before rapidly ascending.

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‘Unlikely’ that object in new UAP video is camera smudge: Expert

When Dr. Matthew Szydagis first saw new footage of a purported UAP in Iraq, it reminded him of a pop culture icon: a Star Wars droid.

“It is not a standard or common shape of UAP,” Szydagis said Tuesday on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”

The professor of physics at the University of Albany has authored a prodigious number of scientific publications on the topic, including one published in December.

The new video, released by journalist Jeremy Corbell, shows something that resembles a jellyfish flying in the sky, its tentacles dangling in the air. NewsNation has not independently verified the footage.

The video was apparently taken at a U.S. joint operations base in Iraq, and according to Corbell, the object is officially designated a UAP — unknown aerial phenomenon — by the Pentagon. The footage was taken with thermographic/forward-looking infrared radar.

The object’s color changes quickly throughout the video, indicating a temperature change. That’s notable, Szydagis said, because it’s not possible for any known objects to change temperature that fast.

“That implies either a camera artifact, that it’s not really changing temperature that quickly, or it implies some sort of signature management, which would then beg the question if you have that ability, why wouldn’t you just stay invisible?” Szydagis said. “It asks a lot of questions without very many answers right now.”

A “camera artifact” could be something like a smudge on the lens. Several replies to Corbell’s post on X suggest this may be the case here, but Szydagis said that’s unlikely for multiple reasons.

“That was one of my initial thoughts, but when you look at the video carefully, you can actually see that the object changes in size with the zoom,” he said. “You also see the camera reticle, sort of the central four marks on the camera, will be changing position relative to the object.”

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Newly Released Thermal Footage Captures Jellyfish-shaped UFO Intrusion at U.S. Joint Operations Base

New thermal video footage has been released, revealing an incursion of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) into a United States Joint Operations base.

The UAP was tracked by the U.S. and allied nations as part of an intelligence operation over Iraq in 2018.

Obtained by investigative journalists George Knapp and Jeremy Corbell and released in the first episode of a new TMZ docuseries named ‘UFO Revolution,’ the UAP resembles a jellyfish and reportedly demonstrated transmedium capabilities. 

The footage captures the object travelling over land, through the sensitive base. The video shows the UAP frequently changing from hot (black) to cold (white) as it moves over buildings and animals.

Speaking to Liberation Times, Corbell commented:

“I am happy to be able to share publicly this type of bizarre morphology associated with the UAP problem. This military filmed UAP footage represents an important reality often experienced and discussed in relation to military UAP encounters – an incursion within a critical defense installation.” 

According to sources who spoke to Jeremy Corbell and Liberation Times, the UAP, filmed using an optical platform and considered potentially hostile due to a potential payload, could not be locked onto, and the platform appeared to have been jammed.

Commenting on this alarming aspect of the incident, Corbell told Liberation Times:

“If UAP are able to penetrate our sensitive military installation with impunity – disabling our primary targeting and defense platforms – we must consider the role stigma and secrecy have played in corroding our ability to acknowledge and respond to such threats.”

According to witnesses who spoke to Corbell, during the incident, access to the footage was restricted from two U.S. allies, though the specific reason remains unknown.

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Biden Tells Congress He Launched Airstrikes in Iraq to ‘Deter’ Future Attacks

In a letter to Congress, President Biden said he launched Christmas Day airstrikes in Iraq to deter future attacks on US troops in Iraq and Syria, but the attacks have continued since then.

The Pentagon said the airstrikes targeted three facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah, one of the main Iran-aligned militias in Iraq, and came in response to an attack on a US base in Erbil that wounded three US troops. The Iraqi government slammed the US for carrying out the airstrikes, saying the bombings killed one serviceman and wounded 18 people, including civilians.

“On the night of December 25, 2023, at my direction, United States forces conducted discrete strikes against three facilities in Iraq used by Iran-affiliated groups for training, logistics support, and other purposes,” Biden said in his letter to Congress. “The strikes were taken to deter future attacks and were conducted in a manner designed to limit the risk of escalation and minimize civilian casualties.”

Al Mayadeen reported that since the US airstrikes were launched, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Shia militias, has claimed five more attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria. An attack on Wednesday again targeted US troops based in Erbil, Iraq.

Biden said the approximately 2,500 US troops based in Iraq are there under the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which was passed in the wake of 9/11. On paper, US troops are stationed in Iraq to assist the Iraqi government in its fight against ISIS, a group that did not exist when the 2001 AUMF became law. Biden also claimed that he could bomb Iraq using authorities granted to him by the Constitution.

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THE ARCHITECTS OF THE IRAQ WAR: WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

THE U.S. AND its allies invaded Iraq 20 years ago in Operation Iraqi Freedom. President George W. Bush’s press secretary Ari Fleischer twice accidentally referred to it as Operation Iraqi Liberation, which was definitely not its official name and would have generated an unfortunate acronym.

The men and women who launched this catastrophic, criminal war have paid no price over the past two decades. On the contrary, they’ve been showered with promotions and cash. There are two ways to look at this.

One is that their job was to make the right decisions for America (politicians) and to tell the truth (journalists). This would mean that since then, the system has malfunctioned over and over again, accidentally promoting people who are blatantly incompetent failures.

Another way to look at it is that their job was to start a war that would extend the U.S. empire and be extremely profitable for the U.S. defense establishment and oil industry, with no regard for what’s best for America or telling the truth. This would mean that they were extremely competent, and the system has not been making hundreds of terrible mistakes, but rather has done exactly the right thing by promoting them.

You can read this and then decide for yourself which perspective makes the most sense.

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