Global Research

The race to the bottom of the oil barrel in Iraq has the US and its Western ‘proxy’ creatures driving a hard nail into the sectarian conflict of Shia and Sunni branches, culminating in forces pushing for the exit of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Make no mistake, the entire campaign surrounding the Islamic State of Iraq ‘terror-actors’ otherwise known as ISIS, ISIL and now IS, ironically, promotes US, Israeli objectives throughout the Middle East as well as those in the House of Saud and their Qatari friends…

The Obama administration along with its Persian Gulf allies and valued partners in Israel, have sought for the inclusion of the so-called ‘Sunni minority’ within the Iraqi government, but what you won’t be told, is that this also means the insertion of ISIS Sunni militants and Saudi-linked Chechen terrorists as well. The deliberate placement of directed Sunni radicals throughout the oil drenched nation have set the stage to topple Baghdad once again and in the process, it could spark a full-fledged civil war with the Shia who support the Maliki government. All of this was made possible by the multinational corporate backing that supports the overt foreign policies of Western nation building. It seems as though this could be a sequel to the bloody NATO campaign that played out in Libya in 2011. The country had been careening towards total chaos and erupted after the brutal Gaddafi regime change was aided by the injection of AQIM and the Al Qaeda linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).

Image: ‘Operation Fear’ – ISIS jihadists posing with their Al Qaeda-like ‘black flag’ in another photo-op ready-made for Western media outlets and their audiences to consume (Photo: theguardian.com)

Problem, reaction, solution

The rise of ISIS has been a calculated decision by a confluence of preemptive engineers involved in Western foreign policy and steadfastly approved by think-tanks like the Center for American Progress (CAP) and its President Neera Tanden, which had recommended a strategy to the White House for US troop withdrawal from Iraq. Incredibly, the think-tank is now also calling for the bombing of Iraq. Many right wing publications will have you believe that this was a result of incompetence or it was an erroneous blunder on part of the liberal-think group, along with the Obama-led White House, however, in reality this was most likely a purposeful decision to bolster calls for future war campaigns in the region, with neocon insiders salivating for another theatrical war in the Middle East since the end of the Bush-era.

In a document by CAP entitled, “On the Brink: Managing the ISIS Threat in Iraq,” we see a decidedly skewed perspective of how Iraq descended into turmoil in the first place. In addition, the left wing think-tank gives you the impression that regime change is necessary for the overlooked interests of the Sunni and Kurdish “political voice.” This is merely a ploy to further imperialist aims seeking to gain access to precious resources as well as control of tribal militias in the region. CAP disingenuously proclaims concern over a political voice, that also happens to mirror transnational policies directed by NATO/ Western overlords:

“The withdrawal of U.S. combat troops was necessary to create an incentive for Iraqis to take control of their own affairs: Iraq had become dependent on an endless supply of American ground troops for its security. The way forward for Iraq was and continues to be an inclusive democracy that fully respects the rights of all Iraqi communities, providing a voice for Sunnis and Kurds in the political process and in government.”

The CAP document also states that ISIS  has ‘exploited’ the resentment between Shia-Sunni relations due to the political position of Iraqi government. Since 2007, Maliki has wanted US troops out of Iraq, insisting a 2011 withdrawal. In 2010, we also learned that Maliki did not integrate Sunni’s within the Iraqi government this is what has stalled the US directed powder-keg of nation change, which has led the West to take drastic measures, leveraging the situation by aiding Sunni radicals to help overthrow the Iraqi government:

“The failure of Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to build an inclusive political system has enabled the current startling advances of militants across Iraq led by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS. The jihadi militant group is so brutal that even Al Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri disowned it. ISIS has exploited discontent with the Shia-led national government among Iraq’s Sunni population and has been able to rally some elements of Iraq’s Sunni tribes, as well as Sunni armed groups linked to the former regime of Saddam Hussein. As a result, ISIS was able to quickly seize towns across northern and central Iraq while the U.S.-trained and equipped security forces, weakened by Maliki’s politicization of their leadership and exclusion of Sunnis, melted away. Iraq is back on the brink of all-out sectarian civil war.”

The script was written well in advance, as we’ll see later, but here CAP places most of the blame on the Maliki government for supposedly failing to be more ‘inclusive’ in its political process and has somehow ‘enabled’ the ISIS death march even though its financiers seem to be tied to the Gulf states and the US, who ironically, seem more concerned with Maliki’s leadership then a gang of black-clad murderous terrorists. The NPR’s Jackie Northham reported from Baghdad, “It’s felt that Maliki’s marginalization of Iraq’s Kurdish and Sunni communities has helped spawn the violence we’re seeing now in the north of the country and the west,” incredibly, Northam states that it was Maliki’s government that had ‘spawned the violence’ were now seeing in Iraq, so pay close attention as this narrative will intensify in the coming days when the Iraqi parliament is back in session. 

When looking back we see a staged managed operation, in terms of  the ‘reshaping’ that has taken place in the Middle East. Back in 2007, Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh‘s wrote an article in the New Yorker entitled, “The Redirection,” it was a piece that fully exposed the manufactured landscape that was to be implemented by the US, along with their Western allies. It appears that Obama may have only been a dress rehearsal for what may come under the next ‘hawkish’ president, as this design displays more of a neoconservative outlook on foreign policy:

“To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.”

The ‘redirection’ Hersh was talking about was also confirmed by former US commander in Iraq and General David Petraeus in 2008, where it was stated that ‘security gains’ would not be possible if Sunni tribal fighters known as the Awakening Council, were not fully integrated into the Iraqi army. It becomes clearer when we understand that the Sunni tribes referred to as the Awakening Council, were re-branded as the Sons of Iraq – who later became members of ISIS. 

Is it possible that much of the $25 billion dollar cash injection from the US into Iraq ended up into the hands of Sunni extremists directed by Western intelligence agencies, in addition to the Iraqi government?

Here’s a YouTube video originally uploaded in 2009, displaying how the US military appears to be inciting division within ranks of Iraqi police and denominational militia’s. This provides further proof of the divide and conquer stratagem favored by the Western interests…

The shia-led Maliki government and Iraq army were aware of that the US had been exerting a strategy to install Sunnis and specifically blocked efforts of the sect to join their forces knowing this would allow the West to use them as a proxy cell inside the Iraq government. The US military had been paying salaries to many of the tribal fighters that had apparent ties to Al-Qaeda. We’ve been told “by 2013 the Sons of Iraq were virtually non-existent,” this appeared to be around the same time a revised terror narrative took hold in the press regarding the rise of ISIS militants. It was these same tribal factions that were rooted in Sons of Iraq and ISIS that threatened to ‘burn’ Iraq “after not doing well in elections” in 2009.

The US has claimed that its spy operations with the CIA were hamstrung because of the Maliki government, but in reality those clandestine units were working in tandem with known Sunni radicals that helped the growth of ISIS.

Image: ‘Change Agent’ – Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski was one of the main world planners involved in the Western reshaping of the Middle East (Photo:thesantorepublic.com)

Western Regime changers

We know that US think-tanks and policymakers have been the architects of the regional change seen across much of the Middle East and Obama could be seen as a far left puppet-placeholder for the international war-machine that will be ratcheted as soon as his term in office ends. Other individuals have been cleverly trying to divert the public’s attention as to the real scenario taking place in Iraq, in a recent news release by London’s Telegraph, an interview was conducted with Peter Mansoor, former executive officer to David Petraeus, where he deceptively lays blame on the Iraqi government, while also giving us a future glimpse into the the war-torn nation:

“Isis has hundreds, perhaps low thousands of foreign fighters, but part of Isis is officers from the old Iraqi army and a lot of the Iraqi tribes who are fed up with Maliki. And as in 2007 and 2008 the tribes in northern and western Iraq are really the key to the situation. I believe what we need to do is to encourage the Iraqi political elites to form a government of national unity and then you work with the tribes and moderate elements in Isis to become part of the Iraqi state. And then it becomes like it was during the surge – everyone gangs up against the al-Qaeda types.”

Petraeus and his affiliates are insider policy planners, that have been recently tasked with public relations role to shape public opinion for a transnational corporate interests. It was recently revealed the Petraeus had been speaking on behalf of those behind the NAFTA trade corridor that was drafted by the Heritage Foundation, stating that America will also soon face a restructuring to its borders and identity as well.

Manufacturing a crisis

The origins of ISIS date back to late 2006 emerging out of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, there was a counter-terrorism campaign directed by “U.S. Special Operations Forces and the U.S.-backed Sahwa, or Sunni Awakening movement.” Additionally, the CFR made telling remarks as to the transitional phase of government following the ousting of Saddam Hussein‘s Ba’ath party:

“The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the transitional government established by the United States and its coalition partners, made two decisions early in the U.S.-led occupation that are often cited as having fed the insurgency. The CPA’s first orderbanned members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party from government positions (so-called “de-Baathification”); its second order disbanded the Iraqi army and security services, creating hundreds of thousands of new coalition enemies, many of them armed Sunnis.”

Ironically, it was NATO and the United Nations who had drawn up a resolution that was against the political repression of both the Kurds and Shia, during the Sunni-Hussein leadership called United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 that issued the usual protocol of ‘no fly zones’ and the rest.

Additionally, the Coalition Provisional Authority was directly tied into the Iraqi Development Fund (IDF) which was apparently abusively managed as much as $20 billion of Iraqi money was funneled into the New York Federal reserve by CPA head Paul Bremer. Some 100 legal orders were apparently issued by decree from CPA regrading seizure of Iraqi holdings, as order 39 allowed the foreign ownership of state assets, including banks in Iraq. The CPA allegedly made payments to the Kurdish regional government for $794 million during the ‘smash and grab’ proceedings following the topple of Hussein.

Former Awakening Council leader Nathum al-Jubouri who had quit back in 2010, explained the role that ‘Awakenings’ were to have in unraveling certain regions:

“The Awakening doesn’t know what the future holds because it is not clear what the government intends for them,” adding, “At this point, Awakening members have two options: Stay with the government, which would be a threat to their lives, or help Al Qaeda by being a double agent, ”

he then summarized the terror connection, “The Awakening is like a database for Al Qaeda that can be used to target places that had been out of reach before.”

When putting the jigsaw puzzle is put together, it displays numerous connections that always lead back to the US and its allies. This was further compounded when it was made public that Abu Bakr al-Baghdad was fingered as the ISIS leader who has direct ties to Al Qaeda, as a Sunni insurgent leader during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He was captured the released in 2010, perhaps under intelligence supervision.

Gas Wars, Israeli oil shipments and US military ‘interventions’

Israel is playing a central role in this current Iraqi death-theater. This was even more evident when you consider the recent  Israeli air strikes on Syria last week, which appeared to provide air cover for the masked Islamic State in Iraq radical terrorists. According to news outlet Forbes, “the tanker SCF Altai transferred a cargo of Kurdish oil from another tanker United Emblem, which had been plying the Mediterranean for two weeks after loading at the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The SCF Altai then docked at the Israeli city of Ashkelon and off-loaded its crude,” which I noted my early reports in regards to the ISIS, kurd, Israeli connection. It was the first time, an SCF Altai tanker delivered a large amount of Kurdish oil to Israel, this would link ISIS as a partial Israeli creation, if the Kurdish oil is coming over from terror controlled oil field’s in Iraq. An Israeli energy ministry declined to disclose a comment on the crude oil deal with the Kurdish Regional Government. It should be stated that Iraq has boycotted Israel and has no official oil contract with them. The Kurdish region has also made its first oil shipment to the international market bypassing the central Maliki government in Baghdad.

Before the fall of Mubarak in Egypt, Israel was said to receiving 40% 0f their natural gas from them. There had been reports of sabotage and lack of payments by Israel subsequently ending the arrangement in 2012.

Also in 2012, it was reported that huge oil reserves had been discovered off the coast of Israel. According to Russia Today:

“Israel’s exploration partner Noble Energy discovered the Tamar field in the Levantine Basin, some 50 miles west of Israel’s port of Haifa and with an estimated 8.3 tcf (trillion cubic feet) of highest-quality natural gas.”

Israel’s new  arrangement with the Kurdish government is said to bolster the peshmerga to the tune of $93 million dollars so far. The deal will give a decided incentive for the Kurdish government to move with Israel’s political projects in Iraq.

It was reported that the US is set to send drones and manned aircraft to Iraq, in addition to 500 in special forces. We have also learned that ISIS has suddenly obtained a Scud missile, is this more propaganda or is it fully functional?

How long before a full-scale conflict is declared and will it be before the next election cycle in the US or after?