To me the Islamic Caliphate seems to be achieving what the Republicans want to do in the United States, i.e., impose their religious beliefs on all and have absolute control of everything.
BAGHDAD — If there were such a thing, it would probably be rule No. 1 in the teaching manual for instructors of aspiring suicide bombers: Don’t give lessons with live explosives.
In what represented a cautionary tale for terrorist teachers, and a cause of dark humor for ordinary Iraqis, a commander at a secluded terrorist training camp north of Baghdad unwittingly used a belt packed with explosives while conducting a demonstration early Monday for a group of militants, killing himself and 21 other members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, army and police officials said.
Iraqi citizens have long been accustomed to daily attacks on public markets, mosques, funerals and even children’s soccer games, so they saw the story of the fumbling militants as a dark — and delicious — kind of poetic justice, especially coming amid a protracted surge of violence led by the terrorist group, including a rise in suicide bombings.
Just last week a suicide bomber struck a popular falafel shop near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here, killing several people. On Monday evening Raad Hashim, working the counter at a liquor store near the site of the attack, burst out laughing when he heard the news.
“This is so funny,” Mr. Hashim said. “It shows how stupid they are, those dogs and sons of dogs.”
More seriously, he said, “it also gives me pain, as I remember all the innocent people that were killed here.”
“This is God showing justice,” Mr. Hashim continued. “This is God sending a message to the bad people and the criminals in the world, to tell them to stop the injustice and to bring peace. Evil will not win in the end. It’s always life that wins over death.”
Another resident of the area, who lives near the ministry building that was targeted last week, said: “I heard this today when my friend rang me in the afternoon to tell me about it. He was so happy as if he was getting married.
“Which made me happy as well,” the resident said. “I hope that their graves burn and all the rest of them burn as well. I was not happy with the number killed, though: I wanted more of them to die, as I remember my friend who was killed by a suicide bomber in 2007.”
Iraq is facing its worst violence in more than five years, with nearly 9,000 people killed last year and almost 1,000 people killed last month. On Monday, a roadside bomb in Mosul, in northern Iraq, targeted the speaker of Parliament, Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, security officials said. Six of his guards were wounded, but Mr. Nujaifi was unharmed, they said.
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria evolved from its previous incarnation as Al Qaeda in Iraq, but recently Al Qaeda’s central leadership disavowed the group, which has taken on an increasingly important role in the fighting in Syria, as well as in Iraq.
Along with the increase in attacks on Iraqi civilians in Baghdad and elsewhere, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and other Sunni extremist groups have captured territory in western Anbar Province, and for weeks they have controlled the city of Falluja and parts of Ramadi, the provincial capital. Other areas of the country have also become strongholds of the Islamic State and of Al Qaeda.
Terrorist training camps have been set up in the mountainous areas of Diyala Province. Northern Nineveh Province has become a gateway for jihadis traveling from Iraq to Syria. Mosul, Nineveh’s capital, has become a center of financing for militant groups estimated by one Iraqi official at millions of dollars a month, generated by extortion and other schemes.
Suicide attacks make up an increasing share of the operations financed by this money stream. At a congressional hearing last week, Brett McGurk, a senior State Department official, said 50 suicide attacks occurred in Iraq in November, compared with three in November 2012. “The suicide bomber phenomenon, it is complete insanity,” Mr. McGurk said.
In addition to the 22 militants who were killed, 15 others were wounded in the explosion on Monday at the militant compound, in a rural area of northeastern Salahuddin Province, according to police and army officials. Stores of other explosives, including explosives packed in at least 10 vehicles, ready for operations, were found at the camp, as well as heavy weapons, the officials said.
Eight militants were arrested when they tried to escape, the officials said. The militant commander who was conducting the training was not identified by name, but an Iraqi Army officer described him as a prolific recruiter who was “able to kill the bad guys for once.”
Referring to the recruiting pitch that martyrdom is a sure ticket to heaven and the virgins that await there, the officer added, “Maybe this suicide bomber will really get to heaven as they say.”
Back at the liquor store in Baghdad on Monday evening, Mr. Hashim, in almost a celebratory mood, passed four bottles of Corona to a customer and took his money.
“What happened today was not death, but it was life to us,” Mr. Hashim said. “Those 22 who were killed today might have killed hundreds of Iraqis, hundreds of innocent souls. May they burn in hell.”
Duraid Adnan reported from Baghdad, and Tim Arango from Istanbul. Christine Hauser contributed reporting from New York.
Saudi Contrition Fighting Terrorism: Much Too Little, Much Too Late
by Raymond J. Learsy Posted: 08/18/2014 5:40 am EDT Updated: 08/18/2014 11:59 pm EDT
Last week the New York Times ("Saudis Give $100 Million To U.N. Fight On Terrorism [ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/14/world/middleeast/saudis-give-100-million-to-un-fight-on-terrorism.html ]" 08.14.14) informed us that Saudi Arabia, increasingly concerned about the spread of Islamist militant extremism reaching its own doorstep, had donated $100 million to the United Nations counterterrorism agency the day before. Thank you, Saudi Arabia. That is the equivalent of what the United States spends daily on keeping a naval flotilla in the Persian Gulf for years on end whose primary mission could have been deemed to be no less than safeguarding the integrity of the Saudi state from the rapacious reach of their Shia neighbor, Iran.
The sum also represents a vast financial sacrifice of Saudi treasure. More precisely it is the equivalent of three hours of Saudi Arabia's s single day's oil export loadings. Saudi Arabia's national oil company, Aramco, exports of oil currently range in the order of 8 million barrels/day and at the current price of more than $100 per barrel, results in cashing in some $800 million daily. $100 million represents the income of but three hours of a single day's loading. Irrespective, $100mm is a significant sum, yet compared to the resources dedicated to Saudi Arabia's dissemination of the corrosive mindset through both state and private Saudi initiatives that have resulted in the emergence of religious based fanaticism which is overwhelming the Middle East and now beginning to threaten the world, it is a pitifully penurious token given their means and their years long engagement.
The Washington Institute reported [ http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/saudi-funding-of-isis ] that Saudi citizens continue to represent a significant funding source for Sunni groups operating in Syria. Arab Gulf donors as a whole -- of which the Saudis are believed to be the most charitable -- have funded hundreds of millions to Syria in current years including ISIS. There is significant support for ISIS in Saudi Arabia and ISIS directly targets Saudis with fund raising campaigns. Riyadh could do and could have done much more to limit or foreclose all this private funding.
"Saudi Arabia not only exports oil, but tanker-loads of quasi-totalitarian religious dogma and pipelines of jihadi volunteers, even as it struggles to insulate itself from the blowback ... But in doctrinal terms it is hard to see in what way it 'deviate' from Wahhabi orthodoxy, with its literalist and exclusivist rendering of Sunni Islam. Its extreme anathematizes other beliefs, in particular practices of Christians and Shia Muslims, as infidel or apostate. That can be read as limitless sanction for jihad."
The article continues: "Yet the kingdom still spews out the corrosive poison that helps religious based fanaticism. The Isis rampage of destruction of shrines and mosques, for instance, continues the two-century old record of Wahhabi iconoclasm."
The Financial Times article further cites the initiatives to achieve Wahhabi outreach by King Fahd, King Abdullah's predecessor, during whose reign 1,359 mosques were built abroad, 202 colleges, 210 Islamic centers and more than 2000 schools. It would appear that Saudi mosque building is powering ahead undaunted under King Abdullah, especially in south, central and southeast Asia, which is home to about 1 billion of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims.
"Saudi Arabia is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into Islamic groups in the Balkans, some of which spread hatred of the West and recruit fighters for Jihad in Afghanistan ... Islamic fundamentalism threatens to destabilize the Balkans ... Fundamentalist Saudi organizations are clashing with traditionally moderate local Muslim communities."
And the beat goes on.
The question needs be asked, what is Washington doing about this ongoing incitement, or has it continued be lulled into silence by the millions of Saudi contributions to myriad Beltway think tanks and their lobbying influence, or for those fund strapped 'American Presidential Libraries' who have been the recipients of millions of Saudi largesse?
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