jueves, 27 de febrero de 2014

ISIL to Christians in Syria’s Raqqa: Pay Gold Levy in Return for Your Safety

Local Editor

Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group imposed gold levy on Christians in the Syrian city of Raqqa in return for their protection, as it obligated them to curb displays of their faith.

The so-called “Islamic State in Iraq and Levant” which is composed of Takfiri militants is engaged in violent and brutal struggle with the Syrian government as well as its rival extremist militants.

ISIL said it would ensure Christians' “safety” in exchange for the levy and their adherence to restrictions on their faith, citing the Islamic legal precept of 'Jizyah'.



It said Christians must not make renovations to churches or other religious buildings, display religious insignia outside of churches, ring church bells or pray in public.

It demanded every Christian man pay a tax of up to 17 grams of gold.
The directive also bans Christians from owning weapons and from selling pork or wine to Muslims or drinking wine in public.

Its directive to Christians in the eastern city of Raqqa is the latest evidence of the group's ambition to establish a state in Syria founded on Takfiri principles.

Source: Agencies 27-02-2014

domingo, 16 de febrero de 2014

The Criminal Record of the Head of the Syrian National Coalition – Jarba- Al Qaeda's £168 million cocaine smugglers: terror group flooding Britain with drugs

Autor: Seth Ferris
NEO - Pronóstico Nueva Oriental
Jarba

En un intento de "resolver" la crisis siria Washington y Riad ha presentado un negociador - el presidente de la Coalición Nacional de Siria revolucionarias y las fuerzas de la oposición Ahmad Jarba. Pero parece que hoy en día hay algunas personas que hacen recordar la historia del ascenso de Ahmad al "protagonismo". Un ex delincuente, fue detenido por contrabando de drogas en Arabia Saudita y más tarde trasladado a Siria bajo convoy. En Siria Ahmad Jabra comenzó a correr casas desordenadas, y más tarde fue contratado por el asesinato del Ministro de Qatar fugitivo de Relaciones Exteriores, pero en lugar de matar a su objetivo lo  cargó  ex-Ministro de "lo alarmante". 

La subida inminente de Ahmad al-Jarba al liderazgo nacional es preocupante, pero no inesperada. Es parte de un patrón distinto. Las mismas potencias occidentales que aún se dedican a la "guerra contra el terror" son perfectamente felices de usar los terroristas para sus propios fines, y promoverlos para alimentar estadistas tan respetados, cuando les conviene. Entonces sus crímenes se olvidan pronto. Sus víctimas, sin embargo, que con razón espera que la ayuda occidental contra los terroristas, son luego abandonadas y les dice que se mueven con la marea que los lava rápidamente lejos.
Hay una larga tradición de los terroristas se conviertan en líderes políticos respetables porque alguien lo dice. El actual gobierno de Uruguay, popularmente electo y popular, está liderado por ex guerrilleros Tupumaro, cuyas largas décadas de campaña de violencia y el asesinato fue legitimado en última instancia por la corrupción de los regímenes de auto-servicio que lucharon contra. Más relevante, Occidente ha decidido que le gusta a la gente responsable de delitos como el secuestro del embajador británico.
El entonces primer ministro de Israel Menachem Begin no asistió a las conversaciones de paz en Oriente Medio en el castillo de Leeds, en el Reino Unido porque todavía era buscado por los británicos para actividades terroristas, la voladura del Hotel King David (Sede británica en la década de 1940). Después de un acuerdo fue finalmente firmado en Camp David fue galardonado con el Premio Nobel de la Paz. Camp David, por supuesto, en los EE.UU., y el acuerdo fue negociado por el presidente Jimmy Carter.
En 1982 el movimiento rebelde FAN derrocó al gobierno de Chad, liderados por Goukouni Oueddei, en un golpe y lo reemplazó con su propio líder, el ministro de Defensa Hissène Habré, el pro-occidental de las figuras políticas más chadianos. A los quince días, Habre estaba siendo descrita como "Presidente" y Goukouni como el "rebelde respaldado por Libia". Habre y Goukouni habían sido a la vez miembros del mismo movimiento de resistencia basado en Libia, y sus dos ejércitos rivales habían sido entrenados por Libia.
La policía y los registros diplomáticos muestran que Riyadh entregado "al presunto terrorista y asesino Ahmad al-Jarba" a Damasco en 2008, al parecer por cargos de tráfico de drogas, de conformidad con un acuerdo de extradición entre los servicios de seguridad sauditas y sirios. Luego fue considerada como "muy malo". Ahora se presenta como el principal activo en el país, lo que lleva a la Coalición Nacional.
En Siria el Partido Baath ya no se acepta como "partido de vanguardia" dentro de la sociedad y la minoría suní quiere más influencia. Arabia Saudita, el principal actor en la crisis actual, está jugando esta carta también. Arabia Saudita es un aliado de Occidente, porque sus gobernantes ricos en petróleo prefieren influir en Occidente que Oriente y pueden darse el lujo de elegir a sus propios amigos. Pero no puede competir en infraestructura política o la inteligencia con los EE.UU. o de la UE. Únete a su campamento, incluso en sus propios términos, usted todavía tiene que jugar con sus reglas.
El papel los EE.UU., el turco y los servicios de inteligencia saudíes están jugando en todo lo que está sucediendo en Siria y la región indica que quieren hacer una "casa desordenada fuera de la Casa Blanca". Al menos 20 grupos terroristas alineados diferentes están luchando contra el gobierno y entre sí como parte del plan de juego actual, unido por un patrón siempre cambiante de las alianzas frágiles. Es como si las agencias de inteligencia no pueden sobrevivir sin mantener la guerra fría va; Siria fue una vez dentro de la esfera de influencia soviética, recibió apoyo militar fuerte de la ex Unión Soviética y Rusia participa en la actualidad, por lo que los EE.UU. y sus aliados tienen que demostrar que son los hijos de puta más grandes.
syrian_rebels

Larga tradición de participación saudí

Participación saudí en Siria se remonta mucho antes de la actual guerra civil. Por ejemplo, la muerte de Hisham al Badni (el PA de Khaled Meshaal, un comandante de Hamas), Imad Mughnyeh (Hezbollah Comandante en Jefe), y Muhammad Suleiman (el hombre de enlace entre Hezbolá, Assad y Guardia Revolucionaria Islámica de Irán en Damasco tienen todo ha relacionado por fuentes locales con la inteligencia saudí, y te ha habido ninguna refutación convincente de estas acusaciones.
Una juerga de asesinato y la intimidación de los miembros del gobierno sirio también se atribuye a los saudíes. En esta campaña, todos estamos en peligro, incluyendo a los ciudadanos comunes y corrientes que pueden ser considerados en las varias horas para ser prescindible por entidades externas.
Las personas cercanas a la Alawi corren especial peligro. Esta secta es considerada herética por otros musulmanes, y esto puede ser utilizado para justificar cualquier acción tomada en contra de sus miembros, si tiene o no tiene nada que ver con la religión. Un delicado equilibrio social y político entre las sectas musulmanas ha existido desde la muerte de Mahoma, y ​​la cuestión de quién es el legítimo sucesor del Profeta, la principal causa de las distintas divisiones dentro del Islam, está siendo utilizado por los EE.UU., un no-musulmán país, para alterar este equilibrio y provocar el miedo y la división.
Arabia Saudita ve a sí mismo como el guardián de la variedad sunita del Islam. La inspiración de las operaciones de Arabia es el príncipe Bandar bin Sultan. Se ha informado ampliamente que él ha tratado de desestabilizar a Siria, tanto a través de la Coalición Nacional y con la ayuda de fuerzas externas, independientemente de su orientación. De hecho contrainteligencia sirio ha intentado asesinarlo en varias ocasiones.
Como sucede a menudo en los conflictos intra-musulmanes, el príncipe justifica sus acciones, describiéndolos como una jihad: un término que significa "lucha por establecer la ley de Dios en la tierra", la obligación de todo musulmán, pero a menudo se interpreta como "guerra santa "en el que todo es aceptable. La multitud de organizaciones islámicas de Paz en todo el mundo se han opuesto a largo figuras políticas que utilizan este término para justificar las acciones contra compañeros musulmanes, inspirados en la política, en lugar de la promoción de la fe.
La verdadera agenda de los dirigentes de Arabia no es promover la "correcta" Islam en un país que ya se practica en gran parte, sino para derrocar al régimen, especialmente agitando las cosas en la Coalición Nacional. Islam en realidad no predican el terrorismo o el apoyo a quienes lo practican. Pero a fin de que reducir la influencia de la Hermandad Musulmana, Arabia Saudita es aparentemente feliz para imponer Ahmad al-Jarba como nuevo líder de la Coalición Nacional.
Arabia Saudita tiene valor, oficialmente, que no supere el Islam. El Occidente secular tiene un montón. Así que realmente quiere promover un terrorista una vez vilipendiado-para liderar Siria, y con qué propósito?
Aunque los informes regionales de medios de comunicación afirman que Ahmad al-Jarba fue fasttracked para el puesto más alto en la Coalición por los servicios de inteligencia del exterior, principalmente de Arabia Saudita, su avance también sirve a los intereses de los otros jugadores en el lodazal de Siria en curso, incluido Qatar. En los largos años en que Jarba fue considerada como la peor pesadilla de todo el mundo, su notoriedad unió a los servicios de seguridad saudíes, Qatar y Siria. Ellos tenían un enemigo común, y de hecho esto era cierto en gran medida, ya que sus tramas y acciones estaban dirigidas a todos, indiscriminadamente.
ahmad_al-jarba_drug-distribuidor-terrorista
De pie a Jarba era una manera barata para los líderes de los países regionales para presentarse como hombres de principios y socios fiables - es decir, los acólitos esperando una limosna - en la Guerra contra el Terror. Ahora, cada país de la región está tratando de utilizar para su propio beneficio a expensas de los demás. En cualquier concurso, los EE.UU. tiene en general la red de apoyo para ganar el día. ¿Qué Jarba se supone que debe hacer para Siria cuando él es su líder ni siquiera entrar en la ecuación.
Una vez más, un fugitivo de la justicia se ha convertido en un activo valioso inteligencia trabajando sobre el terreno para derrocar un régimen, no sólo regional, sino que el apoyo de EE.UU.. El príncipe Bandar no es tonto y se ha calculado cuidadosamente los riesgos que implica meterse en la cama con Jarba. Él, no podría haber sido autorizado a asumir esos riesgos sin obtener la luz verde de Washington, el instigatoe de la Guerra contra el Terror, que durante muchos años ha significado de hecho la guerra contra el Jarba en esta región.
Como se ha informado en la prensa regional, "Bandar negoció con varios bloques de la Coalición sobre la instalación de Jarba como el presidente del grupo de la oposición a cambio de la entrega de armas que cambian el juego. Ahmad al-Jarba es conocido por ser capaz de resolver problemas, e incluso para estar listo y capaz de llevar a cabo asesinatos pagados, tal vez no remunerado si se sirven a sus intereses personales. Por ejemplo, se sabe que el pueblo de Emir Hamad pidió a Ahmad al-Jarba para asesinar al ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Qatar, exiliado en Siria. Al-Jarba incluso recibe el pago después de aceptar la oferta.
Ahmad Jarba es una figura influyente tribal en Siria, como miembro de la tribu shammar importante, en un país con un "delicado equilibrio" de las afiliaciones tribales e intereses políticos. Sobre esta base, que se reclaman de una participación en la decisión del futuro del país. Pero sus largos años como un terrorista buscado deberían poner en duda su voluntad de actuar como un hombre de Estado.
Jarba fue una figura influyente tribal antes de convertirse en un terrorista, capaz de apalancar la misma influencia. Para Jarba, el terrorismo no es el único modo de acción política abierta para él, fue una elección consciente. Tal vez él va a resolver un problema a corto plazo, ya que Occidente percibe. Pero, ¿qué entonces?
El escenario más probable es que el saudí y los servicios de inteligencia de Estados Unidos han hecho un acuerdo para dividir la influencia sobre la nueva Siria entre ellos y están utilizando la espina en sus respectivos lados de eliminar cualquier obstáculo a esta hegemonía. Jarba es, después de todo, el hombre más temido por todas las agencias de inteligencia de los otros países y sus facciones combatientes escogidos.
Después de haber servido a su propósito, él volverá a ser tildado de terrorista y reemplazado con alguien con un mejor historial. Todo esto va a costar muchas vidas y ríos de sangre. Nada de esto tiene nada que ver con el pueblo sirio o cualquier problema que actualmente están luchando sobre. Por tanto, no es una solución a esos problemas, pero con el problema de Arabia Saudita y EE.UU. con Siria.
La rehabilitación de Jarba no tiene nada que ver con la resolución del conflicto sirio. Es un medio para aterrorizar a otros países a que se extiende y Arabia EE.UU. influencia en la región. Al parecer, ningún precio es demasiado alto a pagar para lograr este fin.
En Afganistán, los EE.UU. y sus aliados ahora escupen sobre las tumbas de los cientos de jóvenes muertos que enviaron a combatir a los talibanes, y los miles de muertos durante la insurgencia, por lo que el Talibán en el gobierno. En Afganistán, como en Siria, el gobierno de qué? Muy lejos de donde se están discutiendo cuestiones totalmente diferentes en un país independiente o un corredor de poder?
La pregunta sigue siendo, si Ahmad Jarba es el mejor de Washington y Riad fueron capaces de proponer, ¿te imaginas el resto de la la llamada "Coalición Nacional"? ¿Los delincuentes hacen buenos negociadores de la paz?
Seth Ferris, periodista de investigación y politólogo, experto en asuntos del Medio Oriente, en exclusiva para la revista en línea "Perspectivas Nueva Oriental".
Autor: Seth Ferris
NEO - Pronóstico Nueva Oriental

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Terreno: Al Qaeda fanático financiado por tráfico de drogas

Al Qaeda se ha asociado con otros grupos terroristas para el contrabando de cocaína a Gran Bretaña, el Pueblo Domingo ha descubierto.
Una parcela implicada la asombrosa cifra de cuatro toneladas de la droga ilegal con un valor en la calle de 168million libras.
Al Qaeda, liderada por el 9/11, Osama bin Laden hasta su muerte en mayo de 2011, está utilizando las ganancias para financiar planes terroristas en el Reino Unido y Europa occidental.
Y han pagado por la cocaína con armas robadas en Libia durante el caos después de la muerte del coronel Gadafi en 2011.
Spooks de MI6 y la agencia de inteligencia criminal del Reino Unido SOCA han unido sus fuerzas para investigar los vínculos de Al Qaeda con cárteles de la droga y grupos terroristas en África y América del Sur.
Pagaron el uso de armas en efectivo y también saqueados en Libia.
El rastro de sangre: ¿Cómo colombiano drogas terminan en Reino Unido
 
La droga fue enviada al norte de África y se trasladó a través del Mediterráneo hacia el sur de Francia, donde se cree que se han distribuido a otros países europeos, incluido el Reino Unido.
Al Qaeda del Magreb Islámico ha estado involucrado con los traficantes de cocaína, recibiendo grandes pagos para asegurar narcotraficantes podían cruzar con seguridad el Sahara argelino con los envíos de varios millones de libras.
Pero los espías dicen que esta es la primera vez que han aparecido pruebas que sugiere la organización son ellos mismos el tráfico de cocaína hacia Europa.
Una fuente de inteligencia criminal de alto rango en Londres, dijo: "Es un hecho muy preocupante y tanto el MI6 y la SOCA va a trabajar juntos para averiguar lo más que puedan.
"Cuando hay una superposición entre el crimen directo y cuestiones de seguridad, las dos agencias trabajan juntas. Habrá una gran cantidad de interacción con las fuerzas de seguridad de varios países.
"Francia será particularmente involucrado dada la conexión de Argelia y el hecho de que Francia parece ser el principal punto de entrada para los envíos de Al Qaeda. También habrá un fuerte interés estadounidense''.
En enero de 2009 el británico Edwin Dyer, de 60 años, fue secuestrado por Al Qaeda del Magreb Islámico durante sus vacaciones en Níger.
Fue retenido como rehén durante cinco meses antes de ser decapitado en el vecino Malí, donde sus captores se han comprometido a establecer "un Afganistán en África" ​​a pesar de una operación militar francesa para echarlos.
Mientras tanto, en Afganistán los talibanes anunciaron el inicio de su ofensiva de primavera. Casi 500 personas, entre ellas 217 insurgentes, ya han sido asesinados allí este mes.

martes, 11 de febrero de 2014

“WE Track ‘Em, YOU Whack ‘Em”: NSA’s Secret Role in US Assassination Program

‘We Track ’Em, You Whack ’Em.’

Obama once reportedly told his aides that it “turns out I’m really good at killing people.”

The president added, “Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”







The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes – an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.

According to a former drone operator for the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who also worked with the NSA, the agency often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis and cell-phone tracking technologies. Rather than confirming a target’s identity with operatives or informants on the ground, the CIA or the U.S. military then orders a strike based on the activity and location of the mobile phone a person is believed to be using.

The drone operator, who agreed to discuss the top-secret programs on the condition of anonymity, was a member of JSOC’s High Value Targeting task force, which is charged with identifying, capturing or killing terrorist suspects in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

His account is bolstered by top-secret NSA documents previously provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden. It is also supported by a former drone sensor operator with the U.S. Air Force, Brandon Bryant, who has become an outspoken critic of the lethal operations in which he was directly involved in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.

In one tactic, the NSA “geolocates” the SIM card or handset of a suspected terrorist’s mobile phone, enabling the CIA and U.S. military to conduct night raids and drone strikes to kill or capture the individual in possession of the device.

The former JSOC drone operator is adamant that the technology has been responsible for taking out terrorists and networks of people facilitating improvised explosive device attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But he also states that innocent people have “absolutely” been killed as a result of the NSA’s increasing reliance on the surveillance tactic.

One problem, he explains, is that targets are increasingly aware of the NSA’s reliance on geolocating, and have moved to thwart the tactic. Some have as many as 16 different SIM cards associated with their identity within the High Value Target system. Others, unaware that their mobile phone is being targeted, lend their phone, with the SIM card in it, to friends, children, spouses and family members.

Some top Taliban leaders, knowing of the NSA’s targeting method, have purposely and randomly distributed SIM cards among their units in order to elude their trackers. “They would do things like go to meetings, take all their SIM cards out, put them in a bag, mix them up, and everybody gets a different SIM card when they leave,” the former drone operator says. “That’s how they confuse us.”

As a result, even when the agency correctly identifies and targets a SIM card belonging to a terror suspect, the phone may actually be carried by someone else, who is then killed in a strike. According to the former drone operator, the geolocation cells at the NSA that run the tracking program – known as Geo Cell –sometimes facilitate strikes without knowing whether the individual in possession of a tracked cell phone or SIM card is in fact the intended target of the strike.

“Once the bomb lands or a night raid happens, you know that phone is there,” he says. “But we don’t know who’s behind it, who’s holding it. It’s of course assumed that the phone belongs to a human being who is nefarious and considered an ‘unlawful enemy combatant.’ This is where it gets very shady.”

The former drone operator also says that he personally participated in drone strikes where the identity of the target was known, but other unknown people nearby were also killed.

“They might have been terrorists,” he says. “Or they could have been family members who have nothing to do with the target’s activities.”

What’s more, he adds, the NSA often locates drone targets by analyzing the activity of a SIM card, rather than the actual content of the calls. Based on his experience, he has come to believe that the drone program amounts to little more than death by unreliable metadata.

“People get hung up that there’s a targeted list of people,” he says. “It’s really like we’re targeting a cell phone. We’re not going after people – we’re going after their phones, in the hopes that the person on the other end of that missile is the bad guy.”

The Obama administration has repeatedly insisted that its operations kill terrorists with the utmost precision.

In his speech at the National Defense University last May, President Obama declared that “before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured – the highest standard we can set.” He added that, “by narrowly targeting our action against those who want to kill us and not the people they hide among, we are choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life.”

But the increased reliance on phone tracking and other fallible surveillance tactics suggests that the opposite is true. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which uses a conservative methodology to track drone strikes, estimates that at least 273 civilians in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia have been killed by unmanned aerial assaults under the Obama administration. A recent study conducted by a U.S. military adviser found that, during a single year in Afghanistan – where the majority of drone strikes have taken place – unmanned vehicles were 10 times more likely than conventional aircraft to cause civilian casualties.

The NSA declined to respond to questions for this article. Caitlin Hayden, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, also refused to discuss “the type of operational detail that, in our view, should not be published.”

In describing the administration’s policy on targeted killings, Hayden would not say whether strikes are ever ordered without the use of human intelligence. She emphasized that “our assessments are not based on a single piece of information. We gather and scrutinize information from a variety of sources and methods before we draw conclusions.”

Hayden felt free, however, to note the role that human intelligence plays after a deadly strike occurs. “After any use of targeted lethal force, when there are indications that civilian deaths may have occurred, intelligence analysts draw on a large body of information – including human intelligence, signals intelligence, media reports, and surveillance footage – to help us make informed determinations about whether civilians were in fact killed or injured.”

The government does not appear to apply the same standard of care in selecting whom to target for assassination. The former JSOC drone operator estimates that the overwhelming majority of high-value target operations he worked on in Afghanistan relied on signals intelligence, known as SIGINT, based on the NSA’s phone-tracking technology.

“Everything they turned into a kinetic strike or a night raid was almost 90 percent that,” he says. “You could tell, because you’d go back to the mission reports and it will say ‘this mission was triggered by SIGINT,’ which means it was triggered by a geolocation cell.”

In July, the Washington Post relied exclusively on former senior U.S. intelligence officials and anonymous sources to herald the NSA’s claims about its effectiveness at geolocating terror suspects.

Within the NSA, the paper reported, “A motto quickly caught on at Geo Cell: ‘We Track ’Em, You Whack ’Em.’”

But the Post article included virtually no skepticism about the NSA’s claims, and no discussion at all about how the unreliability of the agency’s targeting methods results in the killing of innocents.

In fact, as the former JSOC drone operator recounts, tracking people by metadata and then killing them by SIM card is inherently flawed. The NSA “will develop a pattern,” he says, “where they understand that this is what this person’s voice sounds like, this is who his friends are, this is who his commander is, this is who his subordinates are. And they put them into a matrix. But it’s not always correct. There’s a lot of human error in that.”

The JSOC operator’s account is supported by another insider who was directly involved in the drone program. Brandon Bryant spent six years as a “stick monkey” – a drone sensor operator who controls the “eyes” of the U.S. military’s unmanned aerial vehicles. By the time he left the Air Force in 2011, Bryant’s squadron, which included a small crew of veteran drone operators, had been credited with killing 1,626 “enemies” in action.

Bryant says he has come forward because he is tormented by the loss of civilian life he believes that he and his squadron may have caused. Today he is committed to informing the public about lethal flaws in the U.S. drone program.

Bryant describes the program as highly compartmentalized: Drone operators taking shots at targets on the ground have little idea where the intelligence is coming from.

“I don’t know who we worked with,” Bryant says. “We were never privy to that sort of information. If the NSA did work with us, like, I have no clue.”

During the course of his career, Bryant says, many targets of U.S. drone strikes evolved their tactics, particularly in the handling of cell phones. “They’ve gotten really smart now and they don’t make the same mistakes as they used to,” he says. “They’d get rid of the SIM card and they’d get a new phone, or they’d put the SIM card in the new phone.”

As the former JSOC drone operator describes – and as classified documents obtained from Snowden confirm – the NSA doesn’t just locate the cell phones of terror suspects by intercepting communications from cell phone towers and Internet service providers. The agency also equips drones and other aircraft with devices known as “virtual base-tower transceivers” – creating, in effect, a fake cell phone tower that can force a targeted person’s device to lock onto the NSA’s receiver without their knowledge.

That, in turn, allows the military to track the cell phone to within 30 feet of its actual location, feeding the real-time data to teams of drone operators who conduct missile strikes or facilitate night raids.

The NSA geolocation system used by JSOC is known by the code name GILGAMESH. Under the program, a specially constructed device is attached to the drone. As the drone circles, the device locates the SIM card or handset that the military believes is used by the target.



Relying on this method, says the former JSOC drone operator, means that the “wrong people” could be killed due to metadata errors, particularly in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. “We don’t have people on the ground – we don’t have the same forces, informants, or information coming in from those areas – as we do where we have a strong foothold, like we do in Afghanistan. I would say that it’s even more likely that mistakes are made in places such as Yemen or Somalia, and especially Pakistan.”

As of May 2013, according to the former drone operator, President Obama had cleared 16 people in Yemen and five in Somalia for targeting in strikes. Before a strike is green-lit, he says, there must be at least two sources of intelligence. The problem is that both of those sources often involve NSA-supplied data, rather than human intelligence (HUMINT).

As the former drone operator explains, the process of tracking and ultimately killing a targeted person is known within the military as F3: Find, Fix, Finish. “Since there’s almost zero HUMINT operations in Yemen – at least involving JSOC – every one of their strikes relies on signals and imagery for confirmation: signals being the cell phone lock, which is the ‘find’ and imagery being the ‘unblinking eye’ which is the ‘fix.’” The “finish” is the strike itself.

“JSOC acknowledges that it would be completely helpless without the NSA conducting mass surveillance on an industrial level,” the former drone operator says. “That is what creates those baseball cards you hear about,” featuring potential targets for drone strikes or raids.

President Obama signs authorizations for “hits” that remain valid for 60 days. If a target cannot be located within that period, it must be reviewed and renewed. According to the former drone operator, it can take 18 months or longer to move from intelligence gathering to getting approval to actually carrying out a strike in Yemen. “What that tells me,” he says, “is that commanders, once given the authorization needed to strike, are more likely to strike when they see an opportunity – even if there’s a high chance of civilians being killed, too – because in their mind they might never get the chance to strike that target again.”

While drones are not the only method used to kill targets, they have become so prolific that they are now a standard part of U.S. military culture. Remotely piloted Reaper and Predator vehicles are often given nicknames. Among those used in Afghanistan, says the former JSOC drone operator, were “Lightning” and “Sky Raider.”

The latter drone, he adds, was also referred to as “Sky Raper,” for a simple reason – “because it killed a lot of people.” When operators were assigned to “Sky Raper,” he adds, it meant that “somebody was going to die. It was always set to the most high-priority missions.”

In addition to the GILGAMESH system used by JSOC, the CIA uses a similar NSA platform known as SHENANIGANS. The operation – previously undisclosed – utilizes a pod on aircraft that vacuums up massive amounts of data from any wireless routers, computers, smart phones or other electronic devices that are within range.

One top-secret NSA document provided by Snowden is written by a SHENANIGANS operator who documents his March 2012 deployment to Oman, where the CIA has established a drone base. The operator describes how, from almost four miles in the air, he searched for communications devices believed to be used by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in neighboring Yemen.The mission was code named VICTORYDANCE.

“The VICTORYDANCE mission was a great experience,” the operator writes. “It was truly a joint interagency effort between CIA and NSA. Flights and targets were coordinated with both CIAers and NSAers. The mission lasted 6 months, during which 43 flights were flown.”

VICTORYDANCE, he adds, “mapped the Wi-Fi fingerprint of nearly every major town in Yemen.”



The NSA has played an increasingly central role in drone killings over the past five years. In one top-secret NSA document from 2010, the head of the agency’s Strategic Planning and Policy Division of the Counterterrorism Mission Management Center recounts the history of the NSA’s involvement in Yemen. Shortly before President Obama took office, the document reveals, the agency began to “shift analytic resources to focus on Yemen.”

In 2008, the NSA had only three analysts dedicated to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen. By the fall of 2009, it had 45 analysts, and the agency was producing “high quality” signal intelligence for the CIA and JSOC.

In December 2009, utilizing the NSA’s metadata collection programs, the Obama administration dramatically escalated U.S. drone and cruise missile strikes in Yemen.

The first strike in the country known to be authorized by Obama targeted an alleged Al Qaeda camp in the southern village of al-Majala.

The strike, which included the use of cluster bombs, resulted in the deaths of 14 women and 21 children. It is not clear whether the strike was based on metadata collection; the White House has never publicly explained the strike or the source of the faulty intelligence that led to the civilian fatalities.

Another top-secret NSA document confirms that the agency “played a key supporting role” in the drone strike in September 2011 that killed U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, as well as another American, Samir Khan. According to the 2013 Congressional Budget Justification, “The CIA tracked [Awlaki] for three weeks before a joint operation with the U.S. military killed” the two Americans in Yemen, along with two other people.

When Brandon Bryant left his Air Force squadron in April 2011, the unit was aiding JSOC in its hunt for the American-born cleric. The CIA took the lead in the hunt for Awlaki after JSOC tried and failed to kill him in the spring of 2011.



According to Bryant, the NSA’s expanded role in Yemen has only added to what he sees as the risk of fatal errors already evident in CIA operations. “They’re very non-discriminate with how they do things, as far as you can see their actions over in Pakistan and the devastation that they’ve had there,” Bryant says about the CIA. “It feels like they tried to bring those same tactics they used over in Pakistan down to Yemen. It’s a repeat of tactical thinking, instead of intelligent thinking.”

Those within the system understand that the government’s targeting tactics are fundamentally flawed. According to the former JSOC drone operator, instructors who oversee GILGAMESH training emphasize: “‘This isn’t a science. This is an art.’ It’s kind of a way of saying that it’s not perfect.”

Yet the tracking “pods” mounted on the bottom of drones have facilitated thousands of “capture or kill” operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan since September 11. One top-secret NSA document provided by Snowden notes that by 2009, “for the first time in the history of the U.S. Air Force, more pilots were trained to fly drones … than conventional fighter aircraft,” leading to a “‘tipping point’ in U.S. military combat behavior in resorting to air strikes in areas of undeclared wars,” such as Yemen and Pakistan.

The document continues: “Did you ever think you would see the day when the U.S. would be conducting combat operations in a country equipped with nuclear weapons without a boot on the ground or a pilot in the air?”

Even NSA operatives seem to recognize how profoundly the agency’s tracking technology deviates from standard operating methods of war.

One NSA document from 2005 poses this question: “What resembles ‘LITTLE BOY’ (one of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II) and as LITTLE BOY did, represents the dawn of a new era (at least in SIGINT and precision geolocation)?”

Its reply: “If you answered a pod mounted on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that is currently flying in support of the Global War on Terrorism, you would be correct.”



Another document boasts that geolocation technology has “cued and compressed numerous ‘kill chains’ (i.e. all of the steps taken to find, track, target, and engage the enemy), resulting in untold numbers of enemy killed and captured in Afghanistan as well as the saving of U.S. and Coalition lives.”

The former JSOC drone operator, however, remains highly disturbed by the unreliability of such methods. Like other whistleblowers, including Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, he says that his efforts to alert his superiors to the problems were brushed off. “The system continues to work because, like most things in the military, the people who use it trust it unconditionally,” he says.

When he would raise objections about intelligence that was “rushed” or “inaccurate” or “outright wrong,” he adds, “the most common response I would get was ‘JSOC wouldn’t spend millions and millions of dollars, and man hours, to go after someone if they weren’t certain that they were the right person.’ There is a saying at the NSA: ‘SIGINT never lies.’ It may be true that SIGINT never lies, but it’s subject to human error.”

The government’s assassination program is actually constructed, he adds, to avoid self-correction. “They make rushed decisions and are often wrong in their assessments. They jump to conclusions and there is no going back to correct mistakes.” Because there is an ever-increasing demand for more targets to be added to the kill list, he says, the mentality is “just keep feeding the beast.”

For Bryant, the killing of Awlaki – followed two weeks later by the killing of his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al Awlaki, also an American citizen – motivated him to speak out. Last October, Bryant appeared before a panel of experts at the United Nations – including the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, Ben Emmerson, who is currently conducting an investigation into civilians killed by drone strikes.

Dressed in hiking boots and brown cargo pants, Bryant called for “independent investigations” into the Obama administration’s drone program. “At the end of our pledge of allegiance, we say ‘with liberty and justice for all,’” he told the panel. “I believe that should be applied to not only American citizens, but everyone that we interact with as well, to put them on an equal level and to treat them with respect.”

Unlike those who oversee the drone program, Bryant also took personal responsibility for his actions in the killing of Awlaki. “I was a drone operator for six years, active duty for six years in the U.S. Air Force, and I was party to the violations of constitutional rights of an American citizen who should have been tried under a jury,” he said. “And because I violated that constitutional right, I became an enemy of the American people.”

Bryant later told The Intercept, “I had to get out because we were told that the president wanted Awlaki dead. And I wanted him dead. I was told that he was a traitor to our country…. I didn’t really understand that our Constitution covers people, American citizens, who have betrayed our country. They still deserve a trial.”

The killing of Awlaki and his son still haunt Bryant. The younger Awlaki, Abdulrahman, had run away from home to try to find his dad, whom he had not seen in three years. But his father was killed before Abdulrahman could locate him. Abdulrahman was then killed in a separate strike two weeks later as he ate dinner with his teenage cousin and some friends. The White House has never explained the strike.

“I don’t think there’s any day that goes by when I don’t think about those two, to be honest,” Bryant says. “The kid doesn’t seem like someone who would be a suicide bomber or want to die or something like that. He honestly seems like a kid who missed his dad and went there to go see his dad.”

Last May, President Obama acknowledged that “the necessary secrecy” involved in lethal strikes “can end up shielding our government from the public scrutiny that a troop deployment invites. It can also lead a president and his team to view drone strikes as a cure-all for terrorism.”

But that, says the former JSOC operator, is precisely what has happened. Given how much the government now relies on drone strikes – and given how many of those strikes are now dependent on metadata rather than human intelligence – the operator warns that political officials may view the geolocation program as more dependable than it really is.

“I don’t know whether or not President Obama would be comfortable approving the drone strikes if he knew the potential for mistakes that are there,” he says. “All he knows is what he’s told.”

Whether or not Obama is fully aware of the errors built into the program of targeted assassination, he and his top advisors have repeatedly made clear that the president himself directly oversees the drone operation and takes full responsibility for it. Obama once reportedly told his aides that it “turns out I’m really good at killing people.”

The president added, “Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”

Jeremy Scahill is an investigative reporter, war correspondent and author of the international bestselling books Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield and Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. He has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere across the globe. Scahill has served as the National Security Correspondent for The Nation Magazine and Democracy Now!.

Glenn Greenwald is a journalist, constitutional lawyer, commentator, and author of three New York Times best-selling books on politics and law. His fifth book, No Place to Hide, about the U.S. surveillance state and his experiences reporting on the Snowden documents around the world, will be released in April 2014. Prior to his collaboration with Pierre Omidyar, Glenn’s column was featured at Guardian US and Salon.

Ryan Devereaux contributed to this article.

© 2014 First Look Productions, Inc. All rights reserved

Note: – The image embedded in this article did not appear in the original item.

The Intercept

Tags: drone mine NSA Obama

domingo, 2 de febrero de 2014

15 February “Catastrophe” Warned Will Shake Entire World

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers




A grim report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared the by the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Ministry of Defense is warning that the assassinations this past week of three top Western bankers coincide with Snowden Documents detailing a 15 February 2014 “catastrophe” being engineered by the Obama regime in order to establish some type of “new world economic order” prior to the coming global meltdown of markets and massive bank failures, some of which have already begun.

Edward Snowden is a computer specialist and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent who with his yet unidentified US military backers obtained nearly two million highly classified top-secret documents from the United States Department of Defense (DOD) run National Security Agency-Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) and was granted temporary asylum in Russia in 2013 after his designation by the Obama regime as the “most wanted man on earth.”
The three Western bankers targeted for elimination by Obama regime “black team hit squads,” this report says, were Deutsche Bank executive Bill Broeksmit, 58, found dead at his home in Chelsea, south west London, on 26 January, JPMorgan Chase & Company vice president in technology operations Gabriel Magee, 39, who died after falling from his London headquarters on 28 January, and chief economist at Russell Investments, and former US Federal Reserve economist, Mike Dueker, 50, found dead at the side of a highway that leads to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State on 31 January.

The “common link” between these bankers, this GRU report continues, began this past year after two JP Morgan whistleblowers confessed that their bank manipulates the gold and silver markets, which led to this past weeks stunning announcement that Europe's largest bank, Deutsche Bank, would withdraw from the appropriately named gold and silver price “fixing”, as European regulators investigate the manipulation of precious metals prices by Western banks.

Deutsche Bank executive Broeksmit, called among the “finest minds” in his field, and Russell Investments Dueker, ranked among the top 5 percent of economists by number of works published, this report says, were at the forefront of the European investigation into JPMorgan gold and silver price manipulation and had as their “inside man” JPMorgan tech guru Magee who oversaw his banks computer systems built for this crime.

Critical to note, GRU economic analysts say in this report, is that if the price of gold and silver were to achieve their “honest” level, JPMorgan would collapse as it does not have the reserves needed to equal the “paper” gold it has already sold, and a JPMorgan collapse would then, in turn, implode the entire global economic system.

Even worse, this report continues, JPMorgan crimes have now reached into the motherland itself after the Russian Central Bank (RCB) yesterday was forced to shut down Moscow-based lenders My Bank and Priroda Bank after they were unable to retrieve their foreign deposits from the British multinational banking and financial services company HSBC due to their imposing restrictions on large cash withdrawals on 24 January.

As the United States just reported its worst January stock market in 24 years, this report continues, the Obama regimes “master plan” of purposefully creating global financial chaos  in order to destabilize enemy countries and create a flight into the US dollar is now failing and has led to the highly influential trends forecaster Gerald Celente to warn people this week that they need to “brace themselves for a disastrous global collapse and riots that will engulf the entire world.”
Not just Celente is issuing warnings either, this report says, but so has too the famous US economist and former Harvard economics professor Terry Burnham who during an interview this past week on PBS NewsHour stated that he was removing his $1 million of life savings from Bank of America because American banks are no longer safe.

This GRU further notes that despite the 6.5% US stock market rally over the last three months, a handful of billionaires are quietly dumping their American stocks . . . and fast.
Most ominous to note in this GRU report are Russian intelligence analysts noting that Snowden’s documents refer to a 15 February “catastrophe” due to occur based upon the US nearing a Black Eagle Trust Fund type “event horizon.”
Though virtually unknown to the American, within two hours of the 11 September 2001 attacks, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declared a national emergency, and for the first time in US history, invoked its emergency powers under Securities Exchange Act Section 12(k) easing regulatory restrictions for clearing and settling security trades for the next 15 days.
These changes would allow an estimated $240 billion in covert US government securities to be cleared upon maturity without the standard regulatory controls around identification of ownership due to the quickly unfolding Black Eagle Trust Fund plot that would have most certainly destroyed the entire global economic system.

Even more ominous, and, again, virtually unknown to the American people, is that the war the US has been waging for over a decade was, in fact, declared on 10 September 2001 when then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, testifying before the US Congress [watch video HERE], stated that he had declared war on the Pentagon itself over his discovery of over $2.3 trillion missing from their accounts and warning it was a “matter of life and death.”
To if the Obama regime would resort to a 9/11 type false flag attack once again to protect the Western banking system, this report gravely warns, cannot be ruled out as evidence has long proven what German central bank president Ernst Welteke called “terrorism insider trading” relating to this horrific event.

Specifically, the Chicago Board Options Exchange reported to the SEC that four days before the attack an extremely unbalanced number of trades betting United’s stock price would fall were being placed, followed one day before the attack by the US stock options market authorities reporting to the SEC that an equally extraordinary number of trades were betting that American Airlines stock price would fall too.  As to who made these trades, and made tens-of-millions of dollars from them, the world will never know as the Obama regimes SEC admitted in 2010 that they had destroyed all the documents relating to them.

This GRU report further notes that with the New York City headquarters of the SEC destroyed on 9/11 after the mysterious implosion of World Trade Center Building 7, and the equally devastating cruise missile attack on the Pentagon that destroyed its computing accounting system burying forever the information on where the missing $2.3 trillion went, this new “catastrophic event” being planned by the Obama regime within a fortnight of 15 February can be expected to be as worse, and will, most assuredly, “shake the entire world.” 
February 2, 2014 © EU and US all rights reserved. Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com. Freebase content licensed under CC-BY and GFDL.

[Ed. Note: Western governments and their intelligence services actively campaign against the information found in these reports so as not to alarm their citizens about the many catastrophic Earth changes and events to come, a stance that the Sisters of Sorcha Faal strongly disagrees with in believing that it is every human beings right to know the truth.  Due to our missions conflicts with that of those governments, the responses of their ‘agents’ against us has been a longstanding misinformation/misdirection campaign designed to discredit and which is addressed in the report “Who Is Sorcha Faal?.]

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1735.htm

sábado, 1 de febrero de 2014

دولة الاسلام في عرسال والشام (داعش) 1/10



الطريق إلى عرسال...
الذاهب الى عرسال كالذاهب الى اعزاز فكل القوى الموجودة في الأخيرة وجدت لها موطنا ومركزا في عرسال. تشابهت البلدتان في الخطف وإرسال السيارات المفخخة وسيطرت المجموعات المسلحة عليها، وأخيرا تجارة المخدرات التي اشتهرت بها اعزاز وتنشط بها عرسال هذه الأيام. كل الإجراءات التي تحتاجها للذهاب الى اعزاز تحتاجها  للذهاب الى عرسال، ويمكن القول ان الذهاب الى البلدة البقاعية أصعب بسبب سيطرة تيار المستقبل الذي يقوم  في عرسال بدور تركيا في اعزاز مع فارق أن تركيا يمكن لها الدفاع عن اعزاز الواقعة في محيط مناسب بينما يختلف الحال مع  تيار المستقبل الذي يخلق لعرسال عداوة مع محيطها الجغرافي دون أن يكون لديه الامكانية لحمايتها في حال قرر المحيط التعامل بشدة مع عرسال.

هي عوامل كثيرة تتحكم بمسالك هذا الطريق كما تتحكم بالوضع الأمني والسياسي في البلدة البقاعية ،التي تعيش حالة صراع مع نفسها قبل ان يكون هذا الصراع مع الجوار اللبناني، فالطريق الى عرسال آمن بقرار سياسي او  بتواصل عشائري او تواصل مباشر مع  أحد أطراف الجماعات المسلحة او بمحض الصدفة ، وقطع هذه الطريق  يتم بالشروط نفسها.
كان اختيار الطريق للوصول الى عرسال موضوع أخذ ورد مع الدليل . عرض علي الدلالون اكثر من اقتراح ، عبر سهل القاع ،  او عبر راس بعلبك سالكين الطرق الترابية ، او  الطريق الرئيس عبر اللبوة. في نهاية الأمر قرر الدلالون  الذهاب من الطريق الاساس عبر اللبوة بسبب  كثافة الثلوج في المعابر الجبلية. تم تحديد  ساعة الانطلاق الى عرسال ساعة الصلاة حيث تخلو الطريق من الجماعات المسلحة ،ويبدو ان الاختيار اتى أيضا لمعرفته  بتوقيت يتعلق بدوريات الجيش اللبناني، على الطريق وفي مداخل البلدة.

كانت السيارة ذات الزجاج الاسود الداكن تخفي شخصية من بداخلها عن الخارج ، وتخفي ما فيها   للدفاع عن النفس عند حصول مفاجأة  حسب ما قال لي احدهم ، ضحكت في سري عند رؤية الاسلحة، كيف يمكن الدفاع عن النفس ونحن محبوسون في داخل السيارة.
استقلينا السيارة باتجاه عرسال . لم يعترض طريقنا أحد وسط اللبوة . كانت الطريق شبه خالية من مخرج اللبوة الشرقي حتى مشارف عرسال، وعند  وصولنا الى منعطف  واسع قال لي الدلال الجالس على مقود السيارة ان هذا (الكوع) يسمى كوع ماهر دندش، نسبة الى شخص من آل دندش من الهرمل وقع ضحية حادث سير في الماضي.

 توقفت سيارتنا  الى جانب سيارة كانت في انتظارنا، قمنا بالتبديل ، بقي سائق  السيارة الثانية معنا على مقوده  وقد الصق به  قبضة من خشب لتسهيل استخدام المقود كونهم يقودون السيارات بسرعة كبيرة بسب الاوضاع في البلدة. عند هذا المنعطف ينقطع بث الهواتف الخلوية اللبنانية ، تشعر بانعدام الحياة  ،هنا في هذه النقطة يقوم المسلحون، ورجال الأمن والجيش  والمهربون، بعمليات تبديل، ومراقبة واستقبال القادم وتوديع الخارج من المدينة  و ربما ترك هذا الكوع من دون تغطية عمدا لتجري عنده كل هذه الاعمال.  ولأمر ليس مفهوم بقي هاتفي الفرنسي ممتلئ الاشارة كأنه  تحت التغطية، اتصلت برقم صديق في فرنسا للتأكد من فعالية الخط الفرنسي كانت التغطية مقطوعة. قيل لي وحدها هواتف الثريا تعمل عند هذا المنعطف ، سوف اتصل بمحمد بن راشد ليرسل لي ثريا، علقت ضاحكا.

بعد عبورنا المنعطف عادت التغطية الهاتفية اللبنانية  وما لبثنا ان  وصلنا الى حاجز الجيش اللبناني على مدخل البلدة ، نظر الجندي اللبناني  عبر نافذة السيارة  وطلب فتح الشباك الخلفي ، قلنا له لا يفتح فتحت باب السيارة للجندي نظر الى الداخل و أشار إلينا  بيده لمتابعة السير دون ان يسال عن  شيء . أعتقد ان من في السيارة معروفون لديه او  أحدهم على الاقل.  استمرينا بطريقنا الى داخل البلدة، كانت الساعة تقارب الواحدة  ظهرا ، الطرقات  شبه خالية من المارة مع وجود أعداد كبيرة من السيارات المركونة على جوانب الطرقات ، غالبيتها من دون لوحات كثيرة هي السيارات  بزجاج أسود  داكن،  سبب هذا المشهد قرار  صدر عن  بلدية عرسال قضى بمنع السيارات السورية من التجول في شوارع البلدة وأحيائها  بعد الساعة الواحدة ظهرا، مسموح لهم التجول من الساعة الثامنة والنصف صباحا حتى الواحدة ظهرا بقرار من المجلس البلدي ، يقول سائق السيارة.

اجرى السائق مكالمة هاتفية ، وقال ان هناك سيارتين بانتظارنا وسوف ترافقنا في تجوالنا داخل البلدة. لم استلطف هذا التصرف ، قلت له الافضل ان لا يرافقنا احد حتى لا نثير الشبهات ونستجلب المشاكل بأنفسنا. وصلنا الى طريق فرعية صغيرة حيث ركنت سيارتان دون لوحات يظهر من طريقة زينتها ونوعها أنها سيارات سورية وليست لبنانية ، نزلنا من السيارة والقينا السلام على الجمع، سألنا عن الاحوال وجرى حديث سريع حول وجهتنا وتأكيد  من الاخرين للدليل على تجنب البقاء في البلدة بعد غروب الشمس.   بعد أن تركناهم قال لي السائق  (هؤلاء يحملون لواء جبهة  النصرة في الليل ، ولواء الجيش الحر في النهار).

الجزء الثاني: كيف قدمت قطر منذ سنة 2008 الإمكانيات  لخوض المعركة...
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