The Covert Origins of ISIS

[seemslikeadream]

are we talking about this guy?

For western elites, another savior of Israel: Benny Gantz
Israel/Palestine Ofer Neiman on November 23, 2015 1 Comments

Former Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz Former Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz

Ofer Neiman responds on Facebook to a report in the Israeli press on the growing political appeal of Benny Gantz: A poll showing that Israel’s most recent ex-army chief Benny Gantz would defeat Benjamin Netanyahu “if a race for the prime ministership were held today… [with Gantz] at the head of a center-left party.”

As expected, Israel’s growing isolation does not pass unnoticed by the Israeli public. A savior is needed, and contrary to fear-mongering, the Israeli public does not necessarily prefer one of the fascists to the right of Netanyahu.

Poster boy (and Gaza war criminal) Benny Gantz, who is both:

1. Ashkenazi

2. a former IOF Chief of Staff,

is the leading candidate. He’s the only one who is preferred to Netanyahu, according to this poll.

The other centrist candidates, who do not meet both of the above criteria, trail behind Netanyahu.

The test of Palestine solidarity folks all over the world: Keeping Israel isolated under BDS and convincing the Israeli public that Israel is a pariah state even with someone like Benny Gantz, who speaks softly, and can easily be easily endorsed by Western political elites.

Otherwise, this will be just another stage in the cycle:

Nominal right wing in power ->Israeli public gets fed up -> Israeli public elects a “centrist”, who kills Palestinians just like the right wing and sustains apartheid-> The “centrist”leader is accused of being “soft on Palestinian terror”, and the public grows frustrated with his “weakness” -> The public elects another nominally right wing prime minister.->etc etc.

The list, in order:

Benny Gantz > Benjamin Netanyahu > Yair Lapid > Yuval Diskin (former head of the Shabak, “mastermind” of the so-called “targeted assassination doctrine” > Gabi Ashkenazi (He’s apparently Mizrahi, not Ashkenazi) > Isaac Herzog

It is 1997 all over again– because it’s reminiscent of the Ehud Barak campaign which began in 1997-98, then culminated with the personality cult of the ’99 elections, withour commando hero, against the bad primitive Likudnik Israelis.

- See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/11/western-a ... urqcB.dpuf

[backtoiam]

Solace wrote:

But then gain, Iran said it so who needs to fact check for truth when it's against Israel. Right, Alice and other dupes?

We were under the mistaken impression that Israel was in a pissing match with the rest of the Middle East. Please forgive our ignorance.

[solace]

Solace wrote:

But then gain, Iran said it so who needs to fact check for truth when it's against Israel. Right, Alice and other dupes?

We were under the mistaken impression that Israel was in a pissing match with the rest of the Middle East. Please forgive our ignorance.

Facts are facts and bullshit is bullshit and dupes are dupes regardless whatever it is you are trying to say here. Perhaps you all have just answered that question: Is Rigor compatible with Intuition? Answer being: not here.

[seemslikeadream]

is it a fact that Israel does or does not have nuclear weapons

[seemslikeadream]

The truth about Israel's secret nuclear arsenal
Israel has been stealing nuclear secrets and covertly making bombs since the 1950s. And western governments, including Britain and the US, turn a blind eye. But how can we expect Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions if the Israelis won't come clean?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/j ... ar-arsenal

Israel has 115 nuclear weapons, says US think tankNew report alleges Israel produced some 660 kg of plutonium at Dimona nuclear facility over past 50 years
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-has ... hink-tank/

[stillrobertpaulsen]

Wasn't sure which ISIS thread this would be best to put in. Has anyone else seen this?

Chilling Video May Show NATO Member State Greeting and Providing Refuge to ISIS Militants
Amateur video taken at the Turkish-Syrian border appears to show Turkish soldiers greeting ISIS militants with open arms.
By Jay Syrmopoulos / The Free Thought Project
December 2, 2015


Photo Credit: screenshot via YouTube/bloodburgerearth

A video that seemingly bolsters Russian claims of Turkish government complicity with the Islamic State, highlights the casual relations between the terror group and Turkish officials.

Turkey has been accused of being one of the main benefactors of the ISIS terror group, accused of providing logistics, financing and military hardware. These accusations are particularly startling as Turkey is a member of NATO, a collective security group obligated to go to war if a member state is attacked. It would be a seemingly dangerous proposition to allow a state that basically props up the Islamic State, which then uses the group as a geopolitical weapon, to be in such a strategically important group.

The amateur footage reportedly shows ISIS militants and Turkish border guards holding a relaxed conversation near the Syrian city of Kobane, according to the Daily Mail. The amateur footage, taken near Zarova Hill on the outskirts of Kobane, was uploaded to YouTube on October 28, 2014.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atBhAv07kLc

According to the report in the Daily Mail:

It appears to show two heavily armed militants wandering nonchalantly up to the Turkish border fence – displaying shocking bravado as they smile and wave at the camera.

They are met by what appears to be a military vehicle full of security officials who, despite carrying weapons themselves, do little more than break into conversation with the jihadis, who eventually wander off back into Syria while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’…

The clip begins with the two apparent jihadists lighting fires near a group of cars, which are believed to have been abandoned by desperate Kurdish families who fled Kobane in recent weeks when ISIS militants stepped up their attacks on the city.

After appearing to realise they are being filmed from inside Turkey, the pair start walking towards the border fence, stopping only to mockingly wave at the amateur filmmaker.

As they reach the border fence, an armoured military vehicle belonging to Turkish border guards speeds up to meet them. Heavily armed officials jump out the back of the car and – after briefly talking on their radios, simply engage the men in conversation.

At one point the situation appears tense and a border guard scampers towards the militants with his gun briefly raised, but he stops seconds later and also begins talking to the men.

After several minutes chatting, the militants wander off, defiantly raising their index finger to the sky to represent jihadism while chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ – a phrase that translates as ‘God is the greatest’.

The Turkish government has repeatedly been accused of being one of the largest state sponsors of the Islamic State.

International security expert, Dr. Nafeez Ahmed, has repeatedly documented the fact that Turkey acts as a state sponsor of ISIS.

According to a report in Insurge Intelligence by Dr. Ahmed:

Earlier this year, the Turkish daily Meydan reported citing an Uighur source that more than 100,000 fake Turkish passports had been given to ISIS…

A senior Western official familiar with a large cache of intelligence obtained this summer from a major raid on an ISIS safehouse told the Guardian that “direct dealings between Turkish officials and ranking ISIS members was now ‘undeniable.’” The same official confirmed that Turkey, a longstanding member of NATO, is not just supporting ISIS, but also other jihadist groups, including Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria…

Turkey has also played a key role in facilitating the life-blood of ISIS’ expansion: black market oil sales. Senior political and intelligence sources in Turkey and Iraq confirm that Turkish authorities have actively facilitated ISIS oil sales through the country…

Last summer, Mehmet Ali Ediboglu, an MP from the main opposition, the Republican People’s Party, estimated the quantity of ISIS oil sales in Turkey at about $800 million — that was over a year ago.

By now, this implies that Turkey has facilitated over $1 billion worth of black market ISIS oil sales to date.

Turkey is a neo-Islamist regime bent on taking out the Assad government in Syria through the use of terrorist proxies and is working to defend their terrorist allies in Syria.

After the downing of the Russian fighter jet, Russian President Vladimir Putin very succinctly laid out what has been taking place, placing blame directly on the Turkish government for the continued growth of the Islamic State.

“We have long been recording the movement of a large amount of oil and petroleum products to Turkey from Isis-occupied territories. This explains the significant funding the terrorists are receiving. Now they are stabbing us in the back by hitting our planes that are fighting terrorism. This is happening despite the agreement we have signed with our American partners to prevent air incidents, and, as you know, Turkey is among those who are supposed to be fighting terrorism within the American coalition…

If Isis is making so much money – we are talking about tens or maybe even hundreds of millions, possibly billions of dollars – in oil trade and they are supported by the armed forces of an entire state, it is clear why they are being so daring and impudent, why they are killing people in such gruesome ways, why they are committing terrorist attacks all over the world, including in the heart of Europe,” Putin said.

The fact that NATO continues to allow membership by Turkey, after their blatant support of the Islamic State, should raise serious questions as to who we call our “allies.”

If the U.S. truly wants to stop the Islamic State then it would seem logical to call Turkey out for its immense and continued state support of ISIS/Daesh.

The fact remains that Turkey is one of the biggest supporters of global terrorism and a member of NATO.

Will the Western world really allow itself be dragged into a potential global war due to an alliance with the Turkish government who refuses to cease their support for the Islamic State?

[Editor's note: According to the Daily Mail, which reported on this story on October 28, the video in question has not been independently verified.]

[seemslikeadream]

I saw that earlier and got distracted with the shooting ...I wanted to get back to it..thanks

[seemslikeadream]

A newly declassified Pentagon report provides startling high-level confirmation that the US-led strategy in Syria contributed directly to the rise of the Islamic State (IS).

The secret US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) document, obtained by Washington DC law firm Judicial Watch, reveals that the emergence of an “Islamic State” across Iraq and Syria was foreseen by the Pentagon, as early as three years ago.

According to the internal report, which was distributed throughout the US intelligence community, this was seen as a likely consequence of the West’s efforts to destabilise Bashir al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

Despite that, Western governments continued to coordinate financial, military and logistical support to largely Islamist militant rebel groups in Syria, through allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Jordan and Turkey, among others.
...

Subsidising ISIS

So what did the Pentagon do in response to this information?

It escalated the strategy.

Even assuming the validity of Cole’s unilateral redaction of “the West” from the “supporting powers” behind the rebels, the implication is unchanged: in 2012, the Pentagon knew that its own allies, who were supplying arms to the rebels with CIA approval, wanted to see the emergence of an Islamist-Salafist political structure in eastern Syria.

Despite this, and despite ongoing intelligence updates proving that their allies were not funding "moderates" – instead supporting their favoured Islamist terrorists – US and European intelligence advisers on the ground simply continued on the same course.

No sooner had al-Qaeda and ISIS rebels conquered the eastern Syrian oil fields in Hasaka and Deir Ezzor in April 2013, they received direct Western financial support: the European Union voted to ease an embargo on Syria to allow the oil to be sold on international markets to European companies, with transactions approved by the FSA’s political overseers, the Syrian National Coalition.

“The logical conclusion from this craziness is that Europe will be funding al-Qaeda,” said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma.

Unsurprisingly, these al-Qaeda and ISIS inspired rebels supported by the Western-led coalition had an authoritarian theocratic agenda, distinct from the “many civilian activists, protesters and aid workers who had hoped the uprising would create a civil, democratic Syria.”

By September 2014, the EU’s ambassador to Iraq, Jana Hybaskova, complained to the Foreign Affairs Committee that “several EU member states have bought oil from the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist organisation that has been brutally conquering large portions of Iraq and Syria”.

So from early 2013 to late 2014, the West was bankrolling the jihadist-run "Salafist Principality" in eastern Syria through oil imports, fully cognisant that this entity posed a “grave danger” of galvanising the rise of an Islamic State across Iraq and Syria.

The Pentagon cannot pretend it didn’t know the consequence of its strategy. Indeed, it doesn’t.

When asked repeatedly by journalist and ex-US marine Brad Hoff to dispel claims that the West aligned itself with IS or ISIS at some point in Syria, the DIA’s official response was telling: “No comment.”
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/pe ... pLfwt.dpuf

Exclusive: Journalist Dr. Nafeez Ahmed Explains Media Blackout on DIA – ISIS Report
By Joshua Cook -Jun 1, 2015
Nafeez Ahmed ISIS Report

A newly declassified Defense Intelligence Agency report confirmed what Truth In Media has been reporting for the last two years: the U.S. and its allies contributed to the rise and success of ISIS.

Senator and Presidential candidate Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told Morning Joe that the Republican “war hawks” essentially helped create the rise of ISIS.

Perhaps more disturbing than the report was the complete media blackout of this important document.

Was there a notice that was sent out to the U.K. media that ordered them not to report on this section because of national security concerns?

Nafeez Ahmed is an award winning journalist who wrote about the DIA report last week and spoke to a major U.K. newspaper who was interested the DIA section, but delayed in reporting it.

SPOKE TO NATIONAL NEWSPAPER INTERESTED IN STORY-THEY CONCLUDED IT WAS TOO 'DIFFICULT' TO RUN 'AT THIS LATE STAGE' HTTPS://T.CO/B5AHWC4BYI

— DR NAFEEZ AHMED (@NAFEEZAHMED) MAY 23, 2015

Truth In Media’s Joshua Cook asked Dr. Ahmed in an exclusive interview why the media was ignoring the issue of the DIA report and its implications of aiding ISIS.

“I spoke to a major national newspaper here in the U.K. and what was interesting was they were quite sympathetic to the line of inquiry, but just felt like they couldn’t cover it. And it wasn’t that they were told they couldn’t cover it. The journalist that I spoke to who is a senior journalist that I have a lot of respect for was very sympathetic to what I was saying. He literally said to me look — I actually could sense that there was this fear that I shouldn’t be talking about this, this is going to far — is the document really strong enough? He didn’t feel confident,” said Ahmed.

“There is almost like an unspoken recognition I think in the mainstream media that there are certain things we are not allowed to say. The idea that something as despicable as ISIS could actually been foreseen or facilitated deliberately, which is really what is implied by this report quite clearly,” he said.

“It’s almost too much,” he said. “It goes against the grain of so much we take for granted. So many assumptions about not just American, but Western kind of supremacy and the benevolence of our government that we would never do anything like this … it’s a big kind of leap.”

“On the one hand I think that journalists are scared and worried about pushing boundaries to that extent. It does raise a concern that there is an absolute silence on this issue, especially in the English speaking media. It raises real questions about what is behind that silence?”

Read Ahmed’s update on the DIA report regarding ISIS here. Find his original article on the DIA report here.



Nafeez Ahmed PhD is an investigative journalist, international security scholar and bestselling author who tracks what he calls the ‘crisis of civilization.’ He is a winner of the Project Censored Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for his Guardian reporting on the intersection of global ecological, energy and economic crises with regional geopolitics and conflicts. He has also written for The Independent, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Scotsman, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, Quartz, Prospect, New Statesman, Le Monde diplomatique, New Internationalist. His work on the root causes and covert operations linked to international terrorism officially contributed to the 9/11 Commission and the 7/7 Coroner’s Inquest.

[Nordic]

I found this to be very interesting in that it was from Clark and actually on CNN.

[seemslikeadream]

DECEMBER 3, 2015
ISIS Oil
by VIJAY PRASHAD

On December 2, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Defense Anatoly Antonov made a strong statement about Turkish complicity with ISIS. The charge sheet is long and detailed. It mentions many aspects, but the most incendiary is the accusation about “ISIS oil.”

ISIS controls Iraqi oil fields near Mosul. They have been making millions of dollars each day by selling oil from these fields. How does ISIS get the oil from the fields in Mosul to the market?

What ISIS has done is to use the old networks that have smuggled oil from the Kurdish Regional Government without any consideration given to Baghdad’s sovereignty over that oil. This had been a point of contention for decades, since the Kurdish region began to exercise autonomous control of the north. Kurdish oil was sold to smugglers who would cart them in tankers across the border into Turkey. In Turkey the trucks would run the length of the country to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. From Ceyhan, which is a port run by the Turkish government, the oil is purchased by transporters whose ships go to Malta, where the oil is transshipped to destinations such as Ashdod (Israel). This has long been a bone of contention between the Iraqi government, the Kurdish Regional Government and the Turkish government. It was documented by Tolga Tanış in his book Potus ve Beyefendi (2015). Tanis accuses Berat Albayrak, son-in-law of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of involvement in this illegal scheme. ISIS has merely replaced the Kurdish Regional Government in the new arrangement.

How does ISIS do it? ISIS sells the oil to smugglers who cart it to Ceyhan. But now the story gets interesting. Who is involved inside Turkey with the oil? The Russians have accused the BMZ Group of being a major agent for the transport of the oil. It turns out that one of the owners of BMZ is Bilal Erdoğan, son of the president. BMZ Group has – according to the Financial Times – purchased two new tankers this last month. Its volume of oil has increased. Is this ISIS oil? What the Russians allege would need to be investigated further. In the UK parliament, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said, “We need to know which banks and countries are in on ISIS oil smuggling.” This is the most important question. It is being ignored.

Much of this is well-known in Turkey, where journalists have been bravely writing about the Turkish government’s role along the porous Turkish-Syrian border. That is why the government of Erdoğan has so ruthlessly gone after the media. The arrest of Cumhuriyet editor Can Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül is only one part of this crackdown. Dündar and Gül had the temerity to publish pictures that showed Turkish resupplying of extremists in Syria. Erdoğan went after the New York Times’ Ceylan Yeginsu when she reported on ISIS recruitment centers in Turkey. There is zero tolerance for press freedom on these issues. If one names these names – Bilal Erdoğan, Berat Albayrak, Ahmet Çalık – there is danger of prosecution. Çalık holds the keys to the kingdom at the Cehyan refinery – through which, it is alleged, ISIS oil travels. Will there be an impartial investigation of this? Unlikely. Too much is at stake. Erdoğan has said that he would resign if any such link were proven. It is likely no such link will be demonstrated.

That the Russians have made these allegations will only increase tensions between Ankara and Moscow. Indeed, on December 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that retaliation for the downed jet has not yet come. The tempo of threats has risen.

Stunningly Ceyhan Port is a few hours drive from the Incirlik Air Base, from where the US jets have been hitting targets in Syria. It is literally under the noses of the US planes that the ISIS oil has been transported. For the fourteen months that the US has been hitting ISIS targets, it has avoided striking at the oil tankers. US officials say that they did not strike ISIS oil tankers for fear of “collateral damage.” In fact, when the US did hit the oil tankers last month, they did so after warning the drivers by leaflets. This was a very noble gesture, but also out of character. The US generally does not warn its targets. It only began to hit the oil tankers after Russian jets struck them.

Did the US begin its strike on the tankers so as not to be shown up by the Russians? When I put this question to a US state department official, she demurred. She said that the US was merely building up intelligence on the tanker routes and it was now prepared to hit the convoys. That it came after the Russian bombings of the tankers, she said, is mere

[AlicetheKurious]

For once, solace may actually have a point. Several elements in that William Engdahl article don't seem very credible. But neither does the article solace posted. Both rather cavalierly mix truth and falsehoods and baseless claims.

Bullshit, again.

Crazy conspiracy
Spoiler: Benny Gantz wasn’t captured by Iraqi forces
Official Iranian mouthpiece and others claim former IDF chief caught while aiding Islamic State. Er, no
By Judah Ari Gross October 28, 2015, 8:24 pm 10

Rumors that a high-ranking IDF officer had been captured while working alongside Islamic State forces began circulating on the Internet last week, beginning on assorted websites dedicated almost solely to starting and perpetuating conspiracy theories and later being picked up by the Iranian government’s official mouthpiece Fars news.

That's not true. The news originated with Fars, first in Farsi, then in Arabic and finally in English, and was subsequently picked up and circulated on the internet. The Fars News article in English can be found here

An Israeli brigadier general or colonel — the reports vary — from the Golani Brigade named Yussi Elon Shahak was allegedly caught by Iraqi forces, the websites claim.

“The Zionist officer is ranked colonel and had participated in the Takfiri ISIL group’s terrorist operations,” the Fars News Agency claimed an Iraqi commander said.

The assertion was backed up with a photograph of the offending officer and turned into a readily sharable graphic, which was promptly shared on Facebook and Twitter.

In fact, the photograph does not show a brigadier general or a colonel, the man in it is not named Yussi Shahak and all of the so-called proof offered falls apart almost immediately when held up to any level of scrutiny.

The Fars News article never claimed he was a brigadier general. From the beginning, he was described as a colonel from the Golani Brigade named Yusi Oulen Shahak, but no photograph was posted with the article.

While no discerning person could believe the bogus claim, for the sake of thoroughness The Times of Israel has broken down the allegations, as presented by the conspiracy theorizers, fact by fact for your enlightenment and entertainment:

Look closely at this man, his name is Yussi Elon Shahak.

No, it’s not. His name is Benny Gantz. He served as IDF Chief of the General Staff for four years from 2011-2015.

He is Jewish Israeli officer.

True! Benny Gantz is absolutely Israeli and Jewish. Though he left the IDF in February 2015, he is still considered a reserve officer.

His rank is brigadier.

Gantz has not been a brigadier general since 1998, when he rose to the rank to become the commander of the Etgar Division, a now defunct reservist unit that was a part of the IDF’s Northern Command until 2004.

His military number is Re34356578765Az231434.

No, it’s not. This is the wrong format for Israeli army ID numbers. Every soldier does indeed get a “personal number,” as it’s called, but these are quite a bit shorter than the 21-digit alphanumeric sequence listed. IDF personal numbers are a mere seven digits long.

Looking carefully at that "military number", it does seem like a fake, something that someone would make up in a hurry. Note how repetitive the numbers are:

Re 343 565 787 65 Az 231 434

He was captured by the Iraqi popular Army.

The Iraqi Popular Army (note the capitalization) dissolved in 1991 with the First Gulf War; however, perhaps the creator of this graphic was referring to some other military force that is currently all the rage among the residents of Iraq.

Actually, he was reportedly captured by the "قوات الحشد الشعبي" (pronounced qowat el hashd el-shaabi), which translates as "People's Mobilization" or "Popular Mobilization" Forces, which is currently the most broad-based and by far the most effective Iraqi force fighting against "ISIS"/Daesh and registering some impressive successes.

He is commanding ISIS terrorists.

Benny Gantz is currently the chairman of a high-tech company called “Fifth Dimension,” which is developing advanced artificial intelligence. Just last month he gave a speech in Washington, DC about Israeli national security.

Some other websites carrying this story, including the official Iranian government mouthpiece Fars News, allege that the Israeli officer in question was a former Golani Brigade colonel, and not a brigadier general.

Gantz, however, did not serve in Golani. A quick search through former commanders of the Golani Brigade shows that none of them is named Yussi Elon Shahak; almost all of the recent colonels from the infantry brigade are either still in the army in high-ranking and highly public capacities or are in equally public positions in civilian society. Or else they are well into their seventies and not likely to be dropping into war zones.

This a a red herring. No photo was published with the original article, neither Gantz' nor anybody else's.

This information is confirmed by the Foreign Affairs High Representative at the USA Parliament.

The United States has a congress, not a parliament. A parliament is by definition the leading governing body of a country, above the executive branch. In Israel, for example, the Knesset is a parliament, above the powers of the president. A congress, meanwhile, is on the same level as the executive. The two have distinct and separate legal powers.

The United States government also does not have a position of Foreign Affairs High Representative, though the European Union does. Its high representative is currently Frederica Mogherini.

And confirmed by the Secretary General of the “DESI” European Department for Security and Information

The European Department for Security and Information is not an official body in any European country. Its raison d’être appears to be the propagation of fantastic conspiracy theories.

And confirmed by Ambassador Dr. Haissam Bou-Said.

This man’s name can only be found on websites of the lowest repute. He has claimed to be an ambassador to multiple countries, including Liberia, Guinea-Bissau and Lebanon. His alleged medical degree comes from the Open International University of Alternative Medicine, a diploma mill, which for a small fee awards degrees for passing a single examination.

This does indeed sound like made-up nonsense, but it wasn't included in the original Fars News article, and it bears no direct relevance to the question of whether an Israeli colonel was indeed captured while fighting with takfiri terrorists in Iraq, by Iraqi forces .

Now think…Why is Israel behind IS?

Considering the recent release of two videos by the Islamic State — one which applauded the stabbing attacks against Israeli civilians, police and soldiers and another, directly threatening Israelis that once IS terrorists begin operating in Israel “not one Jew will be left alive” — it is more than likely that Israel is not in fact behind the terror organization.

Actually, the author is trying to get you NOT to think, and lying by omission. In fact, other than some perfunctory applauding and threatening (and we know what Daesh/"ISIS" is capable of a lot more than that), Daesh/"ISIS" is rather a perfect tool for Israeli purposes:

1) It kills Arabs and Muslims wholesale, terrorizing them into becoming refugees (anybody remember Deir Yassin?) thus fragmenting Arab countries along sectarian/ethnic lines exactly according to longstanding Zionist plans, tries to provoke armed Sunni-Shi'a conflict, and conducts a suspiciously slick and very professional campaign to market the worst Zionist calumnies about Islam and "sharia";

2) It is economically draining the Arab states to the tune of billions of dollars every month, and plundering Arab resources, to Israel's advantage (see below);

3) Israel has profited greatly, not least by its access to copious quantities of very cheap stolen oil from Iraq and Syria transported first to its allies in Kurdistan and then from there to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, from which it is shipped to Haifa by Israel's good friend Bilal Erdogan;

And last but not least,

4)

Israel to annex Golan Heights after 'billion barrel' oil find
Jonathan Cook / Middle East Eye

15th November 2015

After a massive oil find in Syria's Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967, Israel is asking President Obama to recognise its annexation of the territory, writes Jonathan Cook. To consolidate its hold, plans are afoot to quadruple Israeli settler numbers to 100,000.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took advantage of a private meeting last week with Barack Obama - their first in 13 months - to raise the possibility of dismembering Syria.

According to Israeli officials, Netanyahu indicated that Washington should give its belated blessing to Israel's illegal annexation of the Golan Heights, captured from Syria during the 1967 war.

Sources close to the talks told the Haaretz newspaper that Netanyahu claimed Syria was no longer a functioning state, allowing for "different thinking". Since 2011 the government of Bashar al-Assad has faced off against rebel factions that include al-Qaeda-affiliated groups and the Islamic State (IS).

On Wednesday an unnamed White House official confirmed that Netanyahu had raised the matter. The official said: "I think the president didn't think it warranted an answer. It wasn't clear how serious he [Netanyahu] was about it."

However, it appears Netanyahu's comments to Obama are part of a coordinated effort by Israeli officials over several months to shift thinking in Washington.

The day before Netanyahu's meeting at the White House, Michael Oren, Israel's former ambassador to the US, published a commentary on CNN's website urging Obama to consider Israeli sovereignty over the Golan.

Had Israel handed back the area to Syria in earlier peace talks, he wrote, it "would today have placed [the Lebanese militia] Hezbollah directly above Israeli cities and villages in northern Galilee" and Islamic State (ISIS) "would be dug in on the Sea of Galilee's eastern shore."

'Billions of barrels' of oil

Neither Oren nor presumably Netanyahu highlighted another reason why Israel might be anxious to gain US approval of its effective annexation of the Golan in 1981, when it passed the Golan Heights Law extending Israeli law and administration throughout the territory, in violation of international law.

Last month Afek, an Israeli subsidiary of Genie Energy, a US oil company, announced that it had found considerable reserves of oil under the Golan. Genie's chief geologist in Israel, Yuval Bartov, said the company believed the reservoir had the "potential of billions of barrels". International law experts say any proceeds from such a find in the Golan should revert to Syria, but Israel has so far indicated it will ignore its legal obligations.

The Israeli energy and water ministry has licensed Afek to drill 10 experimental wells over three years in a 400-square kilometre area, about a third of the Golan's total territory. Afek claims that the discoveries it has identified in its first year could make Israel energy independent, satisfying Israel's consumption of 100 million barrels a year for the foreseeable future.

That would be on top of Israel's recent finds of huge quantities of natural gas off its Mediterranean coast, offering it the chance to become a gas exporter.

Were the US to recognise Israel's illegal annexation of the Golan, it would likely clear the way for Israel to plunder any economically viable reserves located there.

Netanyahu appears to have long harboured an interest in tapping the Golan's potential for oil. In 1996, in his first term as prime minister, he granted approval for drilling in the Golan by the Israeli National Oil Company. International pressure meant the permit had to be withdrawn soon afterwards.

Resources plundered

Today, 22,000 Syrian Druze live in five villages, alongside a similar number of Jews in 30 illegal settlements.

A 2010 investigation by Haaretz revealed that Israel had carried out systematic expulsions of some 130,000 Syrians in 1967 and destroyed 200 villages. The Druze alone were allowed to stay so as not to upset Israel's own Druze citizens.

Nizar Ayoub, director of Marsad, a Druze human rights centre based in the Golan, told Middle East Eye that Israel had long taken resources from the Golan: "Israel has always treated the Golan as a territory to be exploited and plundered, from its water to farming and tourism. Israel has simply ignored its obligations under international law."

Rainwater from the Golan feeds into the Jordan River, supplying a third of Israel's needs. The fertile volcanic soil allows Israel to cultivate vineyards and orchards, and graze cattle. And the mountain terrain has also made it a magnet for holidaying, including skiing on Mount Hermon. In recent years Israel has also approved the construction of a series of large wind farms (see photo).

Ayoub said Israel had taken advantage of the conflict in Syria to advance oil exploration in the Golan, but such a move was rejected by the local Druze population: "Even if Netanyahu could persuade the Americans to agree [about recognition], it is not their decision to make. The only people who can decide to change the sovereignty of the Golan are the Syrian people."

Quadrupling Jewish settlers to 100,000

Officials close to Netanyahu have been promoting a change of status in the Golan since the early summer.

In June Naftali Bennett, leader of the pro-settler party Jewish Home and the education minster in Netanyahu's current coalition, raised the question of the Golan's future at the Herzliya conference, an annual meeting of Israel's political, academic and security elites. The conference is also attended by senior US officials.

Bennett urged the international community "to demonstrate their ethics" by recognising Israeli sovereignty in the Golan. He added: "To this day, no state in the world has recognised the Golan as part of Israel, including our friend, the United States of America. It is time the world stand by the right side - Israel's side." Israel would try to quadruple the Golan's settler population to 100,000 using financial incentives, he said.

A month later Zvi Hauser, Netanyahu's former cabinet secretary, wrote a commentary in Haaretz arguing that Israel should seize its first chance since 1967 "to conduct a constructive dialogue with the international community over a change in Middle Eastern borders." Recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Heights could, he said, be presented as serving a "global interest in stabilising the region."

Hauser added that Israel should demand the Golan as "compensation" for Obama's recent nuclear agreement with Iran. Such a claim could be based, he said, on a 1975 "pledge" from US President Gerald Ford recognising Israel's "need to remain on the Golan Heights, even in peacetime".

In his CNN piece last Sunday, Oren, a widely respected figure in Washington, asserted that, without Israeli sovereignty over Golan, Iran and Hezbollah would become a base from which to launch armed attacks on Israel. "For the first time in more than 40 years, the Golan could again become a catalyst for war", he wrote.

He added that Israel had "transformed this once-barren war zone into a hub of high-tech agriculture, world-class wineries and pristine nature reserves." He did not mention the recent oil find.

Israel's 'solidified grip'

Before fighting took hold in Syria, polls showed between 60% and 70% of Israelis rejected returning the Golan to Syria, even if doing so would secure peace with Damascus. The percentages are likely to be higher now.

The White House official told Haaretz that recognition of Israel's annexation would disrupt US policy by suggesting that Syrian opposition forces supported by the US were "allies with people who want to give up the Golan".

However, a recent commentary by Frederic Hof, a Syria expert in the State Department under Hillary Clinton, hinted that US officials might yet change their view. He said US efforts before 2011 and the outbreak of fighting to pressure Israel to give up the Golan, as part of talks over a peace treaty with Assad, had been proven "so wrong". Instead, the war in Syria had "solidified Israel's grip" on the Golan.

On its website, Genie's subsidiary Afek claims that its drilling in the occupied Golan Heights will extract "Israeli oil". The two companies include figures who have close personal ties to Netanyahu and high-level influence in Washington.

Genie's founder, Howard Jonas, an American Jewish millionaire, made political contributions to Netanyahu's recent campaign for the Likud party's primaries. Its 'strategic advisory board' includes Dick Cheney, the US vice-president under George Bush and widely regarded as the architect of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch is also an adviser. He controls large sections of the rightwing English-language media, including his most influential outlet, the US TV news station Fox News. In September, Genie added Larry Summers, a senior official under Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Obama, and James Woolsey, a former CIA director who became a neo-conservative cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq.

The chairman of Afek, Genie's Israeli subsidiary, is Effi Eitam, a far-right former general and cabinet minister who lives in an illegal settlement in the Golan. His far-right views include demands to expel both Palestinians from the occupied territories and the large minority of Palestinian citizens from Israel.

After Eitam exited the Israeli parliament in 2009, Netanyahu sent him as a "special emissary" to US campuses as part of a "caravan for democracy".

International law violated

Hala Khoury Bisharat, an international law professor at Carmel Academic College, near Haifa, said it would be hard to persuade the US to recognise Israel's illegal annexation of the Golan. "International law is clear that it is never admissable to acquire territory through war", she told MEE. "It would be very problematic for the US to do this."

She added that Israel, as an occupier, was obliged by the 1907 Hague regulations to "safeguard the capital" of the occupied party's natural resources and was not entitled to exploit any oil in the Golan for its own benefit.

The prime minister's office was unavailable to comment about Netanyahu's discussions with Obama, or respond to accusations that the operations in the Golan were violating international law.

Since its establishment, Israel has drilled some 530 exploratory wells, but none has produced commercially viable quantities of oil. Israel briefly had access to significant quantities of oil after the 1967 war, when fields it occupied in the Sinai supplied two-thirds of domestic needs. Israel was eventually forced to hand the wells back to Egypt.

Meanwhile, Israel has discovered large natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean, stoking tensions with neighbouring countries, especially Lebanon, which has claimed that Israel is drilling in areas where maritime borders are disputed.

The Israeli courts are unlikely to place any obstacles in the way of drilling operations in the Golan. In a ruling in late 2011, Israel's supreme court created a new principle of "prolonged occupation" to justify the theft of Palestinian resources, such as quarried stone, in the West Bank. The precedent could be extended to the Golan.

The only opposition so far has come from Israeli environmental groups. They have expressed concern that extraction of the oil, especially if fracking is used, could pollute aquifers or trigger earthquakes in a seismically unstable region.

Yuval Arbel, a ground water expert with EcoPeace Middle East (formerly Friends of the Earth Middle East), said the Golan's deposits were likely to be in the form of 'tight oil', making it difficult to extract. Israel would probably have to set up a grid of drills every half kilometre.

He told MEE that would increase the chances of oil spillages that could leak into the nearby Sea of Galilee, threatening Israel's main source of drinking water.Link

It's true I should have checked more carefully before referencing the particular article that I linked to. Did the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq capture an Israeli colonel working with Daesh/"ISIS"? Possibly. We don't know enough to be sure.

But there can be no question that Israel has very close relations with the most extreme foreign-sponsored terrorists in Syria, including Daesh/"ISIS". It's far from inconceivable that they do the same in Iraq.

New UN report reveals collaboration between Israel and Syrian rebels
The new documents show that Israel has been doing more than simply treating wounded Syrian civilians in hospitals.
By MAYA SHWAYDER \ 12/07/2014 22:40

NEW YORK – The Syrian ambassador to the UN has long complained of a Zionist conspiracy working with the Syrian rebels to overthrow President Bashar Assad.

Now, a report from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) reveals that Israel has been working closely with Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights and have kept close contact over the past 18 months. The report was submitted to the UN Security Council at the beginning of the month.

The documents show that Israel has been doing more than simply treating wounded Syrian civilians in hospitals. This and a few past reports have described transfer of unspecified supplies from Israel to the Syrian rebels, and sightings of IDF soldiers meeting with the Syrian opposition east of the green zone, as well as incidents when Israeli soldiers opened up the fence to allow Syrians through who did not appear to be injured.

At one point, a small tent city was erected around 300 meters away from the Israeli sector for about 70 families of Syrian deserters, the report said.

The Syrian army then sent a letter of complaint to UNDOF, warning them to evacuate the camp or it would be considered a target, and claiming that terrorists were using the camp to cross into Israel.

Israel’s health ministry says around 1,000 Syrians have received treatment in Golan hospitals, but maintains that only civilians are treated. The UNDOF report, on the other hand, says they have seen Israelis treating civilians as well as insurgents, including members of al-Qaida and Islamic State.

The report said UNDOF “observed at least 10 wounded persons being transferred by armed members of the opposition from the Bravo side across the cease-fire line.”

UNDOF has monitored the Golan Heights buffer zone between Israel and Syria since 1974. Six countries contributed to the 1,200-strong brigade.

UNDOF peacekeepers have been the target of kidnappings and attacks carried out by al-Qaida on the Syrian side since September, causing hundreds of troops to withdraw to across Israeli border. Link

But then again, Iran said it so who needs to fact check for truth when it's against Israel. Right, Alice and other dupes?

No, I don't care to be anybody's dupe, and again, I should have checked more carefully before linking to Engdahl's article. What about you, solace? Do you fact-check and use critical thinking when Israel says so, and it's for Israel?

[stillrobertpaulsen]

I found this to be very interesting in that it was from Clark and actually on CNN.

Thank you very much for this, Nordic. That look of alarm in the interviewer's eyes was palpable and priceless!

[AlicetheKurious]

That look of alarm in the interviewer's eyes was palpable and priceless!

I don't think he looked in the least alarmed. Why should he? Clark dutifully recited all the talking points he was supposed to. Even the part about Turkey supporting "ISIS"; now that the cat is out of the bag and the whole world knows (thanks to Russia, no thanks to the likes of Wesley Clark), it's time for a limited hangout. Erdogan has been useful, but as with all the Zio-American empire's assets, he is definitely expendable, if and when he's outlived his usefulness.

It was the US, whose satellites remained stubbornly 'blind' for years to the "ISIS"/Daesh convoys, and to the 24-hour transport of stolen Syrian oil to the Turkish border and beyond. It was the US who apparently can't trace the movement of billions of dollars in illicit cash flowing to the terrorists. It was the US that directly supervised the terrorists' training in Jordan and elsewhere. It was the US that kept dropping ("oops!") weapons and equipment by mistake, so that "ISIS"/Daesh never lacked for American arms or ammunition or anything else. Wounded "ISIS"/Daesh terrorists were quickly evacuated to hospitals either in Turkey or Israel. Until Russia started its own campaign, the US-led "coalition" had been "fighting ISIS" for nearly one and a half years, during which "ISIS"/Daesh grew exponentially in power and numbers and operated in the open, rapidly advancing across Syria. Thanks to the Russians' air support to the Syrian Army, it's been pretty much decimated.

NATO's Turkey sure wasn't acting alone, in receiving, training, arming and transporting those "ISIS"/Daesh recruits. And it isn't acting alone now, as thousands of terrorists escape the Russian bombing in Syria into Turkey and are being transferred to NATO's next terrorist base, in Libya.

Word to the wise: things are about to get really, really interesting in Libya.

[Nordic]

The link in the OP is down.

This is one very good reason to cut and paste entire articles here. You never know when a source will vanish.

[Nordic]

That look of alarm in the interviewer's eyes was palpable and priceless!

I don't think he looked in the least alarmed. Why should he? Clark dutifully recited all the talking points he was supposed to. Even the part about Turkey supporting "ISIS"; now that the cat is out of the bag and the whole world knows (thanks to Russia, no thanks to the likes of Wesley Clark), it's time for a limited hangout. Erdogan has been useful, but as with all the Zio-American empire's assets, he is definitely expendable, if and when he's outlived his usefulness.

It was the US, whose satellites remained stubbornly 'blind' for years to the "ISIS"/Daesh convoys, and to the 24-hour transport of stolen Syrian oil to the Turkish border and beyond. It was the US who apparently can't trace the movement of billions of dollars in illicit cash flowing to the terrorists. It was the US that directly supervised the terrorists' training in Jordan and elsewhere. It was the US that kept dropping ("oops!") weapons and equipment by mistake, so that "ISIS"/Daesh never lacked for American arms or ammunition or anything else. Wounded "ISIS"/Daesh terrorists were quickly evacuated to hospitals either in Turkey or Israel. Until Russia started its own campaign, the US-led "coalition" had been "fighting ISIS" for nearly one and a half years, during which "ISIS"/Daesh grew exponentially in power and numbers and operated in the open, rapidly advancing across Syria. Thanks to the Russians' air support to the Syrian Army, it's been pretty much decimated.

NATO's Turkey sure wasn't acting alone, in receiving, training, arming and transporting those "ISIS"/Daesh recruits. And it isn't acting alone now, as thousands of terrorists escape the Russian bombing in Syria into Turkey and are being transferred to NATO's next terrorist base, in Libya.

Word to the wise: things are about to get really, really interesting in Libya.

The world may know this but Americans did not. In America IMO it's a big freaking deal because to have this hit the mainstream means we're one step away from the realization here that our country is literally supporting and funding ISIS. This is pure treason and if Americans ever figure this out it could get really interesting.

Then suddenly instead of dots being connected what do we get here? An "ISIS ATTACK" in the city named for the Patron Saint of advertising!!!

We're gonna have more and more of this. Anything to keep the public convinced that ISIS is the enemy and not their governments own creation.