Posted on24
March 2016.
NOVANEWS
America
Created Al-Qaeda and the ISIS Terror Group
Global Research
Incisive
article originally published by GR in September 2014
Much
like Al Qaeda, the Islamic State (ISIS) is made-in-the-USA, an instrument of
terror designed to divide and conquer the oil-rich Middle East and to counter
Iran’s growing influence in the region.
The fact
that the United States has a long and torrid history of backing terrorist
groups will surprise only those who watch the news and ignore history.
The CIA
first aligned itself with extremist Islam during the Cold War era. Back then,
America saw the world in rather simple terms: on one side, the Soviet Union and
Third World nationalism, which America regarded as a Soviet tool; on the other
side, Western nations and militant political Islam, which America considered an
ally in the struggle against the Soviet Union.
The
director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan, General William
Odom recently remarked, “by any measure the U.S. has long used terrorism. In
1978-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism –
in every version they produced, the lawyers said the U.S. would be in
violation.”
During the
1970′s the CIA used the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as a barrier, both to
thwart Soviet expansion and prevent the spread of Marxist ideology among the
Arab masses. The United States also openly supported Sarekat Islam against
Sukarno in Indonesia, and supported the Jamaat-e-Islami terror group against
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan. Last but certainly not least, there is Al
Qaeda.
Lest we
forget, the CIA gave birth to Osama Bin Laden and breastfed his organization
during the 1980′s. Former British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, told the House of
Commons that Al Qaeda was unquestionably a product of Western intelligence
agencies. Mr. Cook explained that Al Qaeda, which literally means an
abbreviation of “the database” in Arabic, was originally the computer database
of the thousands of Islamist extremists, who were trained by the CIA and funded
by the Saudis, in order to defeat the Russians in Afghanistan.
America’s
relationship with Al Qaeda has always been a love-hate affair. Depending on
whether a particular Al Qaeda terrorist group in a given region furthers
American interests or not, the U.S. State Department either funds or
aggressively targets that terrorist group. Even as American foreign policy
makers claim to oppose Muslim extremism, they knowingly foment it as a weapon
of foreign policy.
The Islamic
State is its latest weapon that, much like Al Qaeda, is certainly backfiring.
ISIS recently rose to international prominence after its thugs began beheading
American journalists. Now the terrorist group controls an area the size of the
United Kingdom.
In order to
understand why the Islamic State has grown and flourished so quickly, one has
to take a look at the organization’s American-backed roots. The 2003 American
invasion and occupation of Iraq created the pre-conditions for radical Sunni
groups, like ISIS, to take root. America, rather unwisely, destroyed Saddam
Hussein’s secular state machinery and replaced it with a predominantly Shiite
administration. The U.S. occupation caused vast unemployment in Sunni areas, by
rejecting socialism and closing down factories in the naive hope that the
magical hand of the free market would create jobs. Under the new U.S.-backed Shiite
regime, working class Sunni’s lost hundreds of thousands of jobs. Unlike the
white Afrikaners in South Africa, who were allowed to keep their wealth after
regime change, upper class Sunni’s were systematically dispossessed of their
assets and lost their political influence. Rather than promoting religious
integration and unity, American policy in Iraq exacerbated sectarian divisions
and created a fertile breading ground for Sunni discontent, from which Al Qaeda
in Iraq took root.
The Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) used to have a different name: Al Qaeda in Iraq.
After 2010 the group rebranded and refocused its efforts on Syria.
There are
essentially three wars being waged in Syria: one between the government and the
rebels, another between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and yet another between America
and Russia. It is this third, neo-Cold War battle that made U.S. foreign policy
makers decide to take the risk of arming Islamist rebels in Syria, because
Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, is a key Russian ally. Rather
embarrassingly, many of these Syrian rebels have now turned out to be ISIS
thugs, who are openly brandishing American-made M16 Assault rifles.
America’s
Middle East policy revolves around oil and Israel. The invasion of Iraq has
partially satisfied Washington’s thirst for oil, but ongoing air strikes in
Syria and economic sanctions on Iran have everything to do with Israel. The
goal is to deprive Israel’s neighboring enemies, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and
Palestine’s Hamas, of crucial Syrian and Iranian support.
ISIS is not
merely an instrument of terror used by America to topple the Syrian government;
it is also used to put pressure on Iran.
The last
time Iran invaded another nation was in 1738. Since independence in 1776, the
U.S. has been engaged in over 53 military invasions and expeditions. Despite
what the Western media’s war cries would have you believe, Iran is clearly not
the threat to regional security, Washington is. An Intelligence Report
published in 2012, endorsed by all sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies, confirms
that Iran ended its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Truth is, any Iranian
nuclear ambition, real or imagined, is as a result of American hostility
towards Iran, and not the other way around.
America is
using ISIS in three ways: to attack its enemies in the Middle East, to serve as
a pretext for U.S. military intervention abroad, and at home to foment a
manufactured domestic threat, used to justify the unprecedented expansion of
invasive domestic surveillance.
By rapidly
increasing both government secrecy and surveillance, Mr. Obama’s government is
increasing its power to watch its citizens, while diminishing its citizens’
power to watch their government. Terrorism is an excuse to justify mass
surveillance, in preparation for mass revolt.
The
so-called “War on Terror” should be seen for what it really is: a pretext for
maintaining a dangerously oversized U.S. military. The two most powerful groups
in the U.S. foreign policy establishment are the Israel lobby, which directs
U.S. Middle East policy, and the Military-Industrial-Complex, which profits
from the former group’s actions. Since George W. Bush declared the “War on
Terror” in October 2001, it has cost the American taxpayer approximately 6.6
trillion dollars and thousands of fallen sons and daughters; but, the wars have
also raked in billions of dollars for Washington’s military elite.
In fact,
more than seventy American companies and individuals have won up to $27 billion
in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the last three
years, according to a recent study by the Center for Public Integrity.
According to the study, nearly 75 per cent of these private companies had
employees or board members, who either served in, or had close ties to, the
executive branch of the Republican and Democratic administrations, members of
Congress, or the highest levels of the military.
In 1997, a
U.S. Department of Defense report stated, “the data show a strong correlation
between U.S. involvement abroad and an increase in terrorist attacks against
the U.S.” Truth is, the only way America can win the “War On Terror” is if it
stops giving terrorists the motivation and the resources to attack America.
Terrorism is the symptom; American imperialism in the Middle East is the
cancer. Put simply, the War on Terror is terrorism; only, it is conducted on a
much larger scale by people with jets and missiles.
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