Archive | January 17, 2016

Congress Removes Ban on Funding Neo-Nazis*

Congress Removes Ban on Funding Neo-Nazis*

By James Carden

Recruits of the Ukrainian volunteer battalion Azov regiment take part in tests after training at the Azov Battalion base, in Kiev, Ukraine, November 28, 2015. (Photo by STR / NurPhoto)

In mid-December 2015, Congress passed a 2,000-plus-page omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2016. Both parties were quick to declare victory after the passage of the $1.8 trillion package. White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters

“we feel good about the outcome, primarily because we got a compromise budget agreement that fought off a wide variety of ideological riders.”

The office of House Speaker Paul J. Ryan touted the bill’s “64 billion for overseas contingency operations” for, among other things, assisting ”European countries facing Russian aggression.”

It would be safe to assume that one of the European countries which would stand to benefit from the omnibus measure—designed, in part, to combat “Russian aggression”—would be Ukraine, which has already, according to the White House, received $2 billion in loan guarantees and nearly $760 million in “security, programmatic, and technical assistance” since February 2014.

Yet some have expressed concern that some of this aid has made its way into the hands of neo-Nazi groups, such as the Azov Battalion. Last summer the Daily Beast published an interview by the journalists Will Cathcart and Joseph Epstein in which a member of the Azov battalion spoke about “his battalion’s experience with U.S. trainers and U.S. volunteers quite fondly, even mentioning U.S. volunteers engineers and medics that are still currently assisting them.”

And so, in July of last year, Congressmen John Conyers of Michigan and Ted Yoho of Florida drew up an amendment to the House Defence Appropriations bill (HR 2685) that

“limits arms, training, and other assistance to the neo-Nazi Ukrainian militia, the Azov Battalion.”

It passed by a unanimous vote in the House.

And yet by the time November came around and the conference debate over the year-end appropriations bill was underway, the Conyers-Yoho measure appeared to be in jeopardy. And indeed it was. An official familiar with the debate told The Nation that the House Defense Appropriations Committee came under pressure from the Pentagon to remove the Conyers-Yoho amendment from the text of the bill.

The Pentagon’s objection to the Conyers-Yoho amendment rests on the claim that it is redundant because similar legislation—known as the Leahy law—already exists that would prevent the funding of Azov. This, as it turns out, is untrue. The Leahy law covers only those groups for which the

“Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.”

Yet the State Department has never claimed to have such information about Azov, so funding to the group cannot be blocked by the Leahy law. The congressional source I spoke to pointed out that “even if Azov is already covered by Leahy, then no there was no need to strip it out of final bill.” Indeed, the Leahy law cannot block funding to groups, no matter how noxious their ideology, in the absence of “credible information” that they have committed human-rights violations. The Conyers-Yoho amendment was designed to remedy that shortcoming.

Considering the fact that the U.S. Army has been training Ukrainian armed forces and national guard troops, the Conyers-Yoho amendment made a great deal of sense; blocking the avowedly neo-Nazi Azov battalion from receiving U.S. assistance would further what President Obama often refers to as “our interests and values.”

That neo-Nazis (or neo-fascists, if you prefer) are a distinctly minority taste in Western Ukraine, is clear and is not in dispute. Of late, however, there have been troubling signs that they may become a force to be reckoned with. According to The Jerusalem Post, in Ukrainian municipal elections held last October, the neo-Nazi Svoboda party won 10% of the vote in Kiev and placed second in Lviv. The Svoboda party’s candidate actually won the mayoral election in the city of Konotop. Meanwhile, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported in November that Azov operates a boot camp that exposes children to “the regiment’s far right-wing ideology.”

Whether White House spokesman Josh Earnest was referring, in part, to the Conyers-Yoho amendment as one of those “ideological riders” the administration fought to defeat is unclear. What is clear is that by stripping out the anti-neo-Nazi provision, Congress and the administration have paved the way for U.S. funding to end up in the hands of the most noxious elements circulating within Ukraine today.

Source*

Related Topics:

‘Mein Kampf’ Now Part of Germany’s School Curriculum*

Nazism Back in Europe

Ukrainian Neo-Nazi Commander Trained in U.S.*

Neo-Nazis Tricked into Raising Money for anti-Nazi Charity*

Neo-Nazis Help Israel Block Recognition of Palestine*

Greek Neo-Nazi Party Trial Begins On Hitler’s Birthday*

ISIS/L and European Neo-Nazis United under Pentagon’s 5th Generation Warfare*

What I’ve Learnt About US Foreign Policy*

More People in Europe are Dying Than are Being Born*

More People in Europe are Dying Than are Being Born*

More people in Europe are dying than are being born, according to a new report co-authored by a Texas A and M University demographer. In contrast, births exceed deaths, by significant margins, in Texas and elsewhere in the U.S., with few exceptions.

Texas A and M Professor of Sociology Dudley Poston, along with Professor Kenneth Johnson, University of New Hampshire, and Professor Layton Field, Mount St. Mary’s University, published their findings in Population and Development Review this month.

The researchers find that 17 European nations have more people dying in them than are being born (natural decrease), including three of Europe’s more populous nations: Russia, Germany and Italy. In contrast, in the U.S. and in the state of Texas, births exceed deaths by a substantial margin.

“In 2013 in Texas, for example, there were over 387,000 births compared to just over 179,000 deaths,” says Poston. “The only two states in the U.S. with more deaths than births are the coal mining state of West Virginia and the forest product state of Maine.”

The research focuses on the prevalence and dynamics of natural decrease in the counties and county-equivalents of Europe and the United States in the first decade of the 21st century (2000-2009).

Findings reveal that 58% of the 1,391 counties of Europe had more deaths than births compared to just 28% of the 3,141 counties of the U.S.

In Texas, just 24% of the state’s 254 counties had more deaths than births. And in Texas between 2010 and 2014, 27 percent of the 254 counties had more deaths than births.

The researchers find that in Europe, deaths exceeded births in most of the counties of Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, as well as in Sweden and the Baltic States. Further south, natural decrease is found occurring in the majority of the counties of Greece, Portugal and Italy.

Though natural decrease was common in much of Europe, findings show that’s far from universal. Natural increase (more births than deaths) is widespread in Ireland, Cyprus, Iceland, Lichtenstein and Luxembourg. Natural increase is also evident in broad regions of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Norway.

In the U.S., deaths exceed births most significantly in a north-sound band from the Dakotas through Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, down to central Texas. Poston and his colleagues Johnson and Field note that this natural decrease can be attributed to the predominance of agriculture and youth adult outmigration. Also natural decrease is found in retirement destinations in Florida, Arizona and Texas due to a substantial inflow of older adults. Other states with higher death than birth rates include North Dakota, Montana, Maine and West Virginia; many other U.S. states have little, if any, natural decrease.

“Natural decrease is much more common in Europe than in the U.S because its population is older, fertility rates are lower and there are fewer women of child-bearing age,” Poston and his colleagues explain.

“Natural decrease is a major policy concern because it drains the demographic resilience from a region diminishing its economic viability and competitiveness.”

More information: Kenneth M. Johnson et al. More Deaths Than Births: Subnational Natural Decrease in Europe and the United States, Population and Development Review (2015). DOI: 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00089.x

Journal reference: Population and Development Review

Source*

Related Topics:

U.N. Raises Replacement Migration for Eurasian Countries with Aging Populations*

U.S. White Middle-Aged People Dying Quicker than in any other ‘Developed’ Nation*

The Disappearing Male*

March 2015: 117 Vaccine Injuries and Deaths*

Eugenics: UN “Death Targets” include the Elderly*

Vatican Speaker Push for Massive Depopulation under New ‘Earth Constitution’ and ‘World Government*

US Senate to Maintain Funding for Overseas Abortion, Population Reduction*

Making Radioactive Micro-Chips Child Friendly*

Making Radioactive Micro-Chips Child Friendly*

Once you’re chipped, you’re no longer a human being.  You’re an item of stock, belonging to an administrative bureaucracy, easy to find, manipulate, threaten and ultimately cut off.

Related Topics:

A Successful Strike Against RFID’s – Personalized Electronic Tracking System

Non-Compliance Stops California’s RFID Tracking Plans for Drivers

Implant RFID Chip Technology in Students without Parental Consent*

A Micro-chip to Monitor Your Health

School Planned to Microchip Bracelet Students for ‘Good Behaviour’ without Parental Consent*

Schoolgirl Found Hanged after Developing Allergic Reaction to School Wi-Fi*

The Electro-magnetic Warfare on our Consciousness*

Syrian Army Liberates Settlement, after Daesh Terrorists Killed 280 People*

Syrian Army Liberates Settlement, after Daesh Terrorists Killed 280 People*

Governor of the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor said that Syrian Armed forces liberated al-Bagilya settlement, where the militants of Daesh militant group had killed 280 people.

Syrian Armed forces liberated al-Bagilya settlement, where ISIL had killed 280 people, governor of the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor told Sputnik on Sunday.

“ISIL militants entered in the village of al-Bagilya… last night and perpetrated a massacre of whole families. For this reason the army headed to this region to save the population. There were clashes with ISIL militants, they suffered significant casualties, the rest succeeded to flee to the neighbouring areas controlled by ISIL,” Mohammad Qaddur Ajnyyja said.

Earlier in the day, sources familiar with the situation told Sputnik that Daesh jihadists could enter the village with the help of some 30 suicide bombers.

Local residents told Sputnik that Daesh murdered some 280 people in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, where Russia had delivered a humanitarian aid earlier.

Source*

Related Topics:
The Secret Oil War Has Begun*

The Syrian Starving Little “Mona Lisa” Turns Out to Be Lebanese*

Madaya: BBC caught recycling footage from Yarmouk

US-Saudi Plague ISIS Reaches Indonesia? *

Foreign Planes Dropping Military Aid for ISIL in Kirkuk*

U.S. Secretly Evacuated Top ISIS Commanders from Ramadi*

Syria Congratulates Iraq on Liberating al-Ramadi*

U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson on Perpetual War to Maintain the Empire*

Interpol Reports 1 Percent of European Terrorism Was Carried Out by Muslims in 2014*

Syrian Army Female Battalion Fights to Defend Syria*

Christmas in Damascus for Christians and Muslims*

CIA Helicopters Ferrying ISIS Fighters into Afghanistan*

The Occult and U.S. Evacuation of ISIS/Israeli Military Commanders from Ramadi*

U.S. Methodist Church Divests from Israeli Banks*

U.S. Methodist Church Divests from Israeli Banks*

By Ali Abunimah

Bank Hapoalim is one of five major Israeli banks excluded from the United Methodist Church’s pension fund portfolio over its role in financing settlements. (Yossi Gurvitz/Flickr)

The $20-billion pension fund of the United Methodist Church has divested from two Israeli banks and excluded five major Israeli banks from future investments.

The move by the U.S. church’s pension fund manager Wespath was taken under its ethical investment policy, as Israel falls among the “high risk” countries it has identified for “a prolonged and systematic pattern of human rights abuses.”

The United Methodist Church says it is the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. and counts almost 13 million members worldwide.

United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR), a group that advocates within the church for Palestinian rights, hailed the measure as

the first time a major church pension fund has acted to preclude investment in Israeli banks that sustain Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.”

The banks are Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, which are all deeply involved in financing Israeli settlement and colonization in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem.

“Only a first step”

As of 30 September 2015, the fund held shares in two ineligible Israeli banks, Leumi and Hapoalim.

Wespath has now confirmed it has “taken action to remove from investment” the shares of seven firms that appear among its list of 39 ineligible companies, which would include the two Israeli banks.

“We commend the pension fund for taking this significant step in disassociating from the illegal occupation of Palestinian land,” UMKR co-chair Reverend Michael Yoshii said in a press release.

“But as United Methodist policy opposes the occupation, this is only a first step towards ending our financial complicity in the ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people.”

In 2012, the church’s general conference rejected a motion calling for divestment, but adopted a policy calling for the boycott of goods made in Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law.

UMKR points out that Wespath still holds shares in 10 companies “located inside the illegal settlements and in several others that lend important support to Israel’s occupation.”

Reverend John Wagner, a member of the UMKR divestment committee, said his group urges Wespath fund managers “to maintain consistency and divest from all companies that profit from these same settlements.”

Palestinian welcome

Bisan Mitri, a spokesperson for the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the steering group of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, welcomed the decision:

“This historic step shows, with concrete measures, the ethical commitment of the United Methodist Church to peace and justice.”

“Israeli banks finance the decades-long occupation and oppression of Palestinians and are a key pillar in sustaining the brutality of Israel’s military, the unrelenting expansion of Israel’s settlements, and the plundering of Palestinian resources,” Mitri added.

Rifat Kassis of the Kairos Palestine initiative noted that the Methodists’ decision “is only the latest of the church denominations to take to heart the do-no-harm principle that Christian denominations hold dear.”

“We are getting closer to a united Christian front taking a principled, moral and effective stand against Israel’s occupation and violations of international law,” Kassis said.

Momentum

Wespath’s decision to divest from the Israeli banks will give momentum to those campaigning for four proposals put forward by UMKR for the church to divest from other companies complicit in the Israeli occupation.

The resolutions will be considered at the church’s 2016 general conference in Portland, Oregon, in May.

In the past two years, the Presbyterian Church USA and the United Church of Christ have adopted divestment. These hard-won decisions came after years-long debates in the face of stiff, well-funded opposition from Israel lobby groups.

In February 2014, Luxembourg’s state pension fund excluded Israel’s main banks from its investment portfolio because of their involvement in Israeli settlements and human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Other major financial institutions including the Dutch pensions giant PGGM and Norway’s state pension fund have done the same.

Source*

Related Topics:

Ireland’s Largest Multinational Company Disinvests from Israel*

Brazil Cancels $2bn Contract with Israeli Security Firm for 2016 Olympics*

How the Global Jewellery Industry is Funding Israeli Crimes against Humanity*

Jews Kicked Out Of Uganda*

U.S. Silent on U.S. Citizens Engage in Violence against Palestinians*

Jewish NY High School Student Facing Legal Action for Supporting Palestine*

Saudi King to Abdicate in Favour of Son*

Saudi King to Abdicate in Favour of Son*

King Salman bin Abdulaziz

A report says Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud plans to renounce power in favour of his son, who is currently the second in line to the throne but is widely believed to be the real ruler.

The report by the Institute for [Persian] Gulf Affairs quoted multiple highly-placed sources as saying that the ailing 80-year-old ruler has been seeking to transfer power to his son Mohammed, the deputy crown prince and defence minister.

The sources did not give a specific date for the abdication but said the issue will be concluded within a matter of weeks.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the current crown prince Mohammad bin Nayef will also be removed from his positions as the crown prince and the minister of interior.

This as the order of succession in Saudi Arabia stipulates that the throne go to bin Nayef, an American favourite, who has been gradually marginalized by his younger cousin and the king’s son, Mohammed.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Nayef (L) and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman

It comes amid reports of a fierce battle going on for power in the kingdom. King Salman named Mohammad as defence minister shortly after ascending to the throne.

The current Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, a technocrat and not a royal by blood, is also said to be replaced by Abdulaziz bin Salman, another son of the king.

The sources also pointed out that King Salman has been visiting his brothers to seek their support for a change in succession order.

The king is attempting to convince his brothers that the stability of the Saudi monarchy needs a change of the succession from lateral lines to a vertical order under which the king hands power to his most eligible son.

In October last year, The Times Daily quoted a dissident prince as saying that 80 percent of the royal family support his call for a palace coup d’état against Salman along with his two anointed successors.

The prince, whose name was not revealed for security reasons, had earlier written two letters calling for a revolt within the royal ranks.

The letter also called on the 13 surviving sons of Ibn Saud to instigate a coup.

“They have to isolate the powerless King Salman, the excessively arrogant, reckless Crown Prince Mohammad bin Nayef [and] the one who devastates the homeland, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman,” it said.

Since the establishment of Saudi Arabia as an absolute monarchy in 1932, the system has been effectively known as a hereditary dictatorship and monarchy.

The kingdom is struggling with plummeting oil prices. The Al Saud regime also faces criticism over its deadly military campaign against neighboring Yemen, which it launched on March 26.

Many also see Riyadh’s policies as a major cause of the crises in the region, especially in Syria and Iraq.

Source*

Related Topics:

Saudi Prince Joins the Opposition

Saudi Arabia $135bn in Deficit*

Saudi Set to Implode*

US-Saudi Plague ISIS Reaches Indonesia? *

Wahhabism on Trial? How Islam is challenging Al Saud’s Custodianship of Mecca*

Saudis’ Anti-Shiite Provocation has Clear Geopolitical Goals*

Saudi Pilot Kills himself for Massacring Yemeni Children*

Saudi Commander and Soldiers Join Yemeni Forces*

Princes Fleeing Saudi after Yemen Missile Attacks*

US-Saudi Man-Made Famine Threatens 20 Million Yemenis*

Saudi Arabia to allow Israel Airspace to Strike Iran*

Unholy Trinity United States-Israel- Saudi Arabia Sowing Discord amongst Muslims*

DEBKA Report: Saudi, Egypt and Israel Orchestrated Palestinian Holocaust*

U.S. – Saudi Deal to Destabilize Russia and Syria Backfires*

Saudi Prince Calls for Prosecution Of Officials Who Backed Egyptian Coup*

Rabaa Al-Adawiyya Sign is a Rejection of Murder and Destruction says Saudi Minister*

US-Saudi Plague ISIS Reaches Indonesia? *

US-Saudi Plague ISIS Reaches Indonesia? *

ISIS attacks conveniently mesh with Washington’s growing frustration with Jakarta and its expanding ties with China.

By Tony Cartalucci

Coordinated bombings and mass shootings struck Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta on Thursday leaving several dead and many more wounded. The pattern matched that of attacks carried out last year in Paris, France, where known terrorists Western intelligence agencies were tracking, some for years, were somehow allowed to mobilize large caches of weapons in Belgium and execute their coordinated mass murder with virtually no effort to stop them ahead of the attacks.

The so-called “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” quickly claimed responsibility for the attack and the Western media has begun stoking fears that the terrorist organization has now spread to Southeast Asia.

G.I. Jihadis: Wherever US Foreign Policy is in Trouble, ISIS is There…

A pattern is beginning to develop. Wherever the U.S. wants to put its military, ISIS shows up and conveniently justifies it. And whenever the U.S. is having a problem persuading a foreign government to do what Washington desires, ISIS shows up. In fact, pretty much everywhere U.S. foreign policy is in trouble, ISIS and similarly state-sponsored terrorism seems to show up and save the day.

ISIS itself is a creation of the U.S. and its European and Middle Eastern allies. The U.S’ own Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) admitted as much in a leaked 2012 report (.pdf) which stated:

If the situation unravels there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).

To clarify just who these “supporting powers” were that sought the creation of a “Salafist” (Islamic) principality” (State), the DIA report explains:

The West, Gulf countries, and Turkey support the opposition; while Russia, China, and Iran support the regime.

When the U.S’ own Defense Intelligence Agency says the U.S. sought the creation of a “Salafist principality,” the verbatim definition of the so-called “Islamic State,” in eastern Syria precisely where ISIS is now established, it is clear that ISIS is an enemy of the West in name only, and only to distract from the fact that this abhorrent terrorist organizations is in reality one of the West’s most potent and far reaching foreign policy tools. ISIS is a reboot of sorts of Al Qaeda which the U.S. and its Saudi allies first created – intentionally – to wage proxy war against the Soviet Union with in Afghanistan during the 1980s.

Instead of waging war against the Soviet Union with Al Qaeda, the U.S. is now waging an increasingly global war against Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and now clearly much of East and Southeast Asia with either ISIS or a similarly state-sponsored terrorist organization with.

What Other Explanation Could there Be? 

What the world is expected to believe is that the “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” so named because of where it is supposedly based and primarily operates, is currently fighting both the Syrian and Iraqi governments, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iran, and Russian airpower, apparently funded, armed, and backed by no one.

Additionally, we are expected to believe ISIS is also fighting thousands of “moderate rebels” the U.S. and its allies claim to have armed, funded, and trained to the tune of several billion dollars. Not only are they fighting these moderates backed by a multi-billion dollar multinational coalition, but are fighting and have been winning. But it doesn’t end there. We are also expected to believe that ISIS is also weathering the combined military might of the US, France, Germany, the UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan.

And finally, we are expected to believe not only all of this, and that ISIS is independently supporting expanding operations in Afghanistan and Libya, but that ISIS now has the extra time, money, resources, and inclination to attack Indonesia all the way in Southeast Asia.

Few nations-states on Earth possess the ability to do what it is claimed ISIS is doing, everywhere it is doing it, and to the degree of success it is allegedly doing it with. Among those few nations, there is only one that benefits from ISIS’ activities. The United States.

What’s the U.S. Using ISIS and other Terror Groups in Asia for and Why? 

It was just in August of last year that the joint US-Turkish terrorist group, the “Grey Wolves,” were implicated in a bombing in Southeast Asia’s Thailand. The bomb blast killed 20 and maimed many more in an attack that killed mostly Chinese tourists.

The attack was part of a wider terror campaign backed by the US and Turkey in China’s western Xinjiang region where Turkic Uyghur terrorists have been carrying out attacks for years. The US-Turkish backed Grey Wolves have been behind training and arming terrorists in China for years, and more recently have played a role in smuggling Uyghur fighters from China, through Southeast Asia – including through Thailand – and onward to Syria to fight the West’s proxy war there.

Killing Chinese tourists in Thailand was aimed at straining recent and growing ties between Bangkok and Beijing. Thailand has recently sought closer military and economic cooperation with China while slowly moving away from an increasingly meddlesome West. Bangkok had sought to purchase Chinese weapons, including several submarines. It already possesses Chinese-made warships and armored vehicles, and late last year conducted its first ever joint Thai-Chinese air military exercises.

Economically, Thailand has been working with China toward a deal to construct additional rail infrastructure both in Thailand, and connecting the nation beyond, including to China itself.

When the U.S. has repeatedly placed pressure on Bangkok to join its provocations in the South China Sea aimed at Beijing, Bangkok has repeatedly insisted that the conflict is none of their business, and that they will play no part in it.

The bombing in August by a terrorist organization which at one point was run out of the US embassy in Ankara during the Cold War, was a warning to Bangkok that if it hinders rather than aids US “primacy” in Asia, it will suffer destabilization.

ISIS Punishes Indonesia for its “Sins” 

And Indonesia is likewise “guilty” of many of the same “sins.” Jakarta while occasionally challenging China rhetorically, has repeatedly avoided getting too deeply involved in America’s provocations in the South China Sea. Additionally, Jakarta, like Bangkok, has sought to build greater economic ties with Beijing. This includes a deal that will see China construct a high-speed rail network throughout the country.

Bloomberg Business’ article, “China to Build $5 Billion High-Speed Rail Line in Indonesia,” would state:

China won the rights to build a $5.5 billion railway line in Indonesia as the Southeast Asian nation tries to upgrade its infrastructure to drive economic growth.

The massive infrastructure project will boost both China and Indonesia for decades to come. With the economic opportunities mass transportation brings a nation, opportunities for Washington to use socioeconomic disparity as a tool to divide and gain leverage over nations like Indonesia internally as it and other Western powers have done in the past will dwindle. Additionally, that China is building such projects in both Thailand and Indonesia, will only lead to greater ties between Beijing and a rising Southeast Asia – a Southeast Asia rising on the back of expanding and improving infrastructure.

With few attractive alternatives to offer Southeast Asia, the United States appears to have departed from offering “carrots” it does not have, and has instead resorted increasingly to the “stick.” But instead of wielding that stick itself, it has handed it to the “Salafist principality” it admittedly conspired to create with its allies in eastern Syria in 2012.

For the crime of wanting to move further out from under what the U.S. itself calls its “primacy over Asia,” Indonesia has been attacked, and now has the menace of ISIS being further still dangled over its head if it continues forging stronger ties with Beijing.

Thailand and Indonesia are not alone. The U.S.has openly declared in signed and dated policy papers that it believes controlling a unified Southeast Asian front, and arraying it against China, is the only way to encircle, contain, and eventually undermine and destroy the current political order in Beijing.

To that end, the United States has formulated an array of options ranging from supporting internal political subversion through U.S. State Department-funded political fronts and nongovernmental organizations, to an increasing dependency on terrorism, to coerce Southeast Asia away from Beijing while dividing and disrupting Southeast Asia’s own geopolitical future.

The U.S. and its allies could at any day expose and cut ISIS’ supply lines leading from their various subsidiaries and fronts around the world, back to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and its other state-sponsors. Instead, the U.S. protects and covers up this extensive, global state-sponsorship of terrorism. As such, when “ISIS attacks,” it is really an extension of U.S. foreign policy, and not merely ISIS alone that is committing this violence, nor for ISIS and its own agenda alone that it is being carried out.

Most ironic of all, perhaps, is the possibility that because of America’s dwindling credibility worldwide, and its waning influence in Asia, its complicity in the violence being carried out against the governments and peoples of Southeast Asia may – instead of creating a unified front against China – end up creating a unified front displacing Washington’s influence form the region. In many ways this is already underway, and Thursday’s attack in Jakarta may only stand to accelerate this process.

Source*

Related Topics:

The CIA Coup and Sponsored Massacre that Led to the Ruin of Indonesian Society*

What I’ve Learnt About US Foreign Policy*

World Rushes to De-Dollarize Oil Trade Before U.S. Economy Crashes*

CIA + Contractors = ISIS in Afghanistan*

ISIS/L and European Neo-Nazis United under Pentagon’s 5th Generation Warfare*

Are ISIS Backers Attempting to Revive the Ailing Beast?*

U.S. Companies Hosting ISIS Websites and Forums*

British Government Firms Behind ISIS Oil Sales*

British SAS Special Forces “Dressed Up as ISIS Rebels” Fighting Assad in Syria*

National Cyber Security Centre Employee Suspended After ‘Revealing’ that “ISIS is a Zionist Plot”*

50 U.S. Spies “Revolt” How their Reports are Cooked to Manipulate the Public About ISIS*

Putin Blows the Whistle on the Who and the Why of ISIS*

The Beast Revealed: U.S. Celebrates Iranian General’s Death at ISIS Hands*

As Russia Bombs ISIS, U.S. Bombs Syrian Civilian Power Stations*

Christians Join Forces with Muslim Group Hezbollah to Fight ISIS in Lebanon*

Captured Israeli Officer Details Israeli-ISIS Plan to Wipe-out all Islamic and Muslim Culture and Prevent Religions Coming Together*

Former Iraqi PM Slams the 60 nations in the U.S. –Led ‘anti’ ISIS Coalition*

Putin Reveals ISIS Funded by 40 Countries, Including G20 Members*

Hackers Trace 3 ISIS Twitter Accounts ‘back to U.K. Govt Computers,’*

Secret Norwegian Government Report Confirms Turkey Helping ISIS Sell Its Oil*

Financial Power Struggle, ISIS and IMF Chief Charged for Corruption*

U.S. Helps ISIS Gain New Stronghold in Libya*

CIA Helicopters Ferrying ISIS Fighters into Afghanistan*

U.S. Secretly Evacuated Top ISIS Commanders from Ramadi*