From the very beginning, USA’s battle against Daesh (a terrorist group banned in Russia) looked strange to say the least. Having put together a coalition of more than 60 countries and conducted thousands of combat missions, the “valiant” U.S. Army actually allowed militants from the aforementioned organization to substantially increase the territory under their control. And when the black flag of the caliphate was about the be raised over Damascus, Russia’s military intervention in Syria saved this country from the “Black Death”.
Washington has been using radical Islam and terrorists as a tool for quite some time now. Chechen political analyst Islam Saidaev, a former militant and ideologist of the secessionist government of the Chechen Republic, has described, based on his experience, how U.S. intelligence agencies operate:
“While it was beneficial for the United States, they called us insurgents and provided us with financial support. But once we had been defeated and fled to the Pankisi Gorge, we were labelled terrorists and arrested. And there was a motive behind such actions. For instance, a militant is behind bars in Guantanamo, then he is released and ends up in Libya commanding a unit that is fighting for democracy against the “tyrant Muammar Gaddafi”. All the rebels arrested by Georgian, British and U.S. security services sooner or later show up in Iraq, Syria and Libya with new cover stories, funds and heroic past. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the caliph of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also has a similar background,” elaborated the Chechen expert.
Several years after Saddam Hussein and his government had been ousted by the U.S.-led coalition, as if by “sheer coincidence” (?!), former Iraqi servicemen and members of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party with substantial military experience were released from jails by Americans and left with no means to support themselves financially. In the meantime, a terrorist organization was forming in the Levant, which subsequently began a battle with the aim of establishing a global caliphate.
And although several Western analysts still think that the collaboration between former Iraqi (and not only!) servicemen and terrorist groups, such as Al-Qaeda and subsequently Daesh (banned in Russia and many other countries of the world), started spontaneously, no one could argue with the fact that once Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became the leader of these units, recruitment of former Ba’ath Party members turned into a deliberate strategy. What is especially noteworthy is that there is even incontrovertible evidence (including photographs published by many Western media outlets in 2013) of face-to-face contact between former U.S. Senator John McCain, famous for his varied plans aimed at changing the world order, and “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as well as Mohammad Nour, a leading member of the Northern Storm brigade (a unit of Al-Nusra Front, i.e. al-Qaeda in Syria, also banned in Russia and a number of other nations).
Nowadays, Western media outlets openly admit to the fact that many Daesh leaders were imprisoned in U.S. jails. For instance, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Daesh (a terrorist organization banned in Russia), was detained at the Camp Bucca military facility in Iraq, and was subsequently released in 2006. Another military leader of this terrorist group, Abu Ayman al-Iraqi (a former lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi Army), was also freed from a U.S. detention camp in Iraqi territory. Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, a Syrian by birth and a former official spokesperson for ISIL responsible for Islamic State propaganda for quite some time, was released from prison five years after he had been arrested in 2005 while residing in Iraq.
It is also noteworthy that, during this period, U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration introduced a policy of “creative destruction” aimed at inciting violence on religious grounds in the Middle East.
According to the 2007 article “The Redirection” on the new American policy by Seymour M. Hersh, the United States needed to build closer ties with moderate Sunni states (and not only Saudi Arabia) in order to deal with the Shiite resurgence that occurred in Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003. These “moderate Sunnis” were to conduct clandestine operations to weaken Iran and Hezbollah, Israel’s key opponents. The policy shift also aimed to bring “Saudi Arabia and Israel into a new strategic embrace, largely because both countries” saw Iran as an existential threat.
It has been an open secret for quite some time that the terrorist organization Daesh (banned in Russia and many other countries) had not come into being “out of the blue” but instead with assistance from the United States acting in its own strategic interests.
It is also well-known that the United States and its allies helped terrorists by providing military consultants, supplying them with weapons, evacuating and treating their sick in Jordan, Turkey or other countries who were part of the so-called Coalition Against Terrorism led by the USA. Many articles have been written about all of this and not only by alternative media outlets independent of Washington.
However, exposés are just the beginning. Later on, the global community, which is currently leaving the unipolar world dominated by the United States behind, could demand that an independent investigation be carried out. And a global trial (similar to the Nuremberg trials) may subsequently find not only specific nations but also individuals guilty of encouraging the spread and consolidation of the “Black Death” of Daesh. Hence, just as during the time of the Third Reich and of its collapse, those guilty of spreading the “Great Plague” are especially concerned nowadays about destroying, as quickly as possible, any evidence of their involvement by assassinating leaders of this terrorist threat who are particularly knowledgeable about this operation.
In such a context, instead of an intensified battle, waged by Washington, against any remaining terrorists in Idlib or other regions, we are seeing rousing reports about clandestine missions to first assassinate Osama bin Laden, then Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and also a number of other extremist militants in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen. Having agreed to go along with this fairly important quest from certain U.S. military and political circles, President Donald Trump even demanded that American intelligence agencies kill Hamza bin Laden, a son of the founder of Al-Qaeda (an organization banned in Russia) despite the existence of more pressing terrorist threats.
In addition, Washington and its for now loyal allies have been ardently defending the actions of remaining terrorists in Idlib in the face of aggression from Russia and the Syrian forces in media sources as well as global discussion forums. After all, these former terrorist accomplices are demanding protection from Washington in exchange for not revealing the truth about their “clandestine” collaboration to the rest of the world. Moreover, it is perfectly clear to everyone that the presence of even a small number of militants could be used as a justification by Washington to keep its troops in the region, who continue to rob Syria and Iraq of their oil, and archaeological artefacts and treasures kept in their museums. It is, therefore, not surprising that yet another scandal is brewing nowadays. It involves the smuggling of ancient relics, which must be happening with the full knowledge of the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve in the Syrian Arab Republic and its deputy commander Alex Grynkewich. Unfortunately, U.S. legislation does not allow for any serious punishment for the theft of artefacts from territories of other countries, which is evidenced by reports of similar crimes committed by Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq. Still, there must be numerous international organizations tasked with keeping track of such violations, and we cannot rule out the possibility that they will investigate the crimes committed by Americans in nations occupied by them.
Hence, we are likely to witness more and more rousing reports in the nearest future from the Pentagon and the CIA about assassinations of some leaders of terrorist groups or Islamic militants in the Middle East who are still keeping the shameful truth about Washington’s actions in the region secret.
Valery Kulikov, political analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.