Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Deconstructing Syria - Example of Modern Imperialism

Imperialism's oft-used Divide & Rule policy - works most of the time...

US To Begin the Invasion of Syria. Washington Policymakers Call for the Division, Destruction and Military Occupation of Syria

Peculiarities of the English Language...

Let's see some examples...



Saturday, June 27, 2015

Take this food while fasting in Ramadan!

Say what? You crazy?? A New Fatwa???

Say whatever you want...

I am not suggesting to take material food that you are used to taking...

Rather 'food for thought'...

Now, tell me -- can you not take this food while fasting?

Sure, yes.

Then enjoy the following food...

The Meaning of Ramadan
By Khalid Baig

    Fasting during Ramadan was ordained during the second year of Hijrah. Why not earlier? In Makkah the economic conditions of the Muslims were bad. They were being persecuted. Often days would go by before they had anything to eat. It is easy to skip meals if you don’t have any. Obviously fasting would have been easier under the circumstances. So why not then?

    The answer may be that Ramadan is not only about skipping meals. While fasting is an integral and paramount part of it, Ramadan offers a comprehensive program for our spiritual overhaul. The entire program required the peace and security that was offered by Madinah.

    Yes, Ramadan is the most important month of the year. It is the month that the believers await with eagerness. At the beginning of Rajab --- two full months before Ramadan --- the Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, used to supplicate thus: "O Allah! Bless us during Rajab and Sha’ban, and let us reach Ramadan (in good health)."

    During Ramadan the believers get busy seeking Allah’s mercy, forgiveness, and protection from Hellfire. This is the month for renewing our commitment and re-establishing our relationship with our Creator. It is the spring season for goodness and virtues when righteousness blossoms throughout the Muslim communities. "If we combine all the blessings of the other eleven months, they would not add up to the blessings of Ramadan," said the great scholar and reformer Shaikh Ahmed Farooqi (Mujaddad Alif Thani). It offers every Muslim an opportunity to strengthen his Iman, purify his heart and soul, and to remove the evil effects of the sins committed by him.


    "Anyone who fasts during this month with purity of belief and with expectation of a good reward (from his Creator), will have his previous sins forgiven," said Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam. "Anyone who stands in prayers during its nights with purity of belief and expectation of a reward, will have his previous sins forgiven." As other ahadith tell us, the rewards for good deeds are multiplied manifold during Ramadan.

    Along with the possibility of a great reward, there is the risk of a terrible loss. If we let any other month pass by carelessly, we just lost a month. If we do the same during Ramadan, we have lost everything. The person who misses just one day’s fast without a legitimate reason, cannot really make up for it even if he were to fast everyday for the rest of his life. And of the three persons that Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam cursed, one is the unfortunate Muslim who finds Ramadan in good health but does not use the opportunity to seek Allah’s mercy.

    One who does not fast is obviously in this category, but so also is the person who fasts and prays but makes no effort to stay away from sins or attain purity of the heart through the numerous opportunities offered by Ramadan. The Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, warned us: "There are those who get nothing from their fast but hunger and thirst. There are those who get nothing from their nightly prayers but loss of sleep."

    Those who understood this, for them Ramadan was indeed a very special month. In addition to fasting, mandatory Salat, and extra Travih Salat, they spent the whole month in acts of worship like voluntary Salat, Tilawa (recitation of Qur’an), Dhikr etc. After mentioning that this has been the tradition of the pious people of this Ummah throughout the centuries, Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi notes: " I have seen with my own eyes such ulema and mashaikh who used to finish recitation of the entire Qur’an everyday during Ramadan. They spent almost the entire night in prayers. They used to eat so little that one wondered how they could endure all this. These greats valued every moment of Ramadan and would not waste any of it in any other pursuit…Watching them made one believe the astounding stories of Ibada and devotion of our elders recorded by history."


    This emphasis on these acts of worship may sound strange --- even misplaced --- to some. It requires some explanation. We know that the term Ibada (worship and obedience) in Islam applies not only to the formal acts of worship and devotion like Salat , Tilawa, and Dhikr, but it also applies to worldly acts when performed in obedience to Shariah and with the intention of pleasing Allah. Thus a believer going to work is performing Ibada when he seeks Halal income to discharge his responsibility as a bread-winner for the family. However a distinction must be made between the two. The first category consists of direct Ibada, acts that are required for their own sake. The second category consists of indirect Ibada --- worldly acts that become Ibada through proper intention and observation of Shariah. While the second category is important for it extends the idea of Ibada to our entire life, there is also a danger because by their very nature these acts can camouflage other motives. (Is my going to work really Ibada or am I actually in the rat race?). Here the direct Ibada comes to the rescue. Through them we can purify our motives, and re-establish our relationship with Allah.

    Islam does not approve of monasticism. It does not ask us to permanently isolate ourselves from this world, since our test is in living here according to the Commands of our Creator. But it does ask us to take periodic breaks from it. The mandatory Salat (five daily prayers) is one example. For a few minutes every so many hours throughout the day, we leave the affairs of this world and appear before Allah to remind ourselves that none but He is worthy of worship and of our unfaltering obedience. Ramadan takes this to the next higher plane, providing intense training for a whole month.

    This spirit is captured in I’tikaf, a unique Ibada associated with Ramadan, in which a person gives up all his normal activities and enters a mosque for a specific period. There is great merit in it and every Muslim community is encouraged to provide at least one person who will perform I’tikaf for the last ten days of Ramadan. But even those who cannot spare ten days are encouraged to spend as much time in the mosque as possible.

    Through direct Ibada we "charge our batteries"; the indirect ones allow us to use the power so accumulated in driving the vehicle of our life. Ramadan is the month for rebuilding our spiritual strength. How much we benefit from it is up to us.



===

Message of Ramadan
By Khalid Baig
19 Sha'ban 1423, 26 October 2002

We observe Ramadan every year. Do we also listen to it?

Ramadan is the most important month of our calendar. It is a tremendous gift from Allah in so many ways. In our current state of being down and out, it can uplift us, empower us, and turn around our situation individually and collectively. It is the spring season for the garden of Islam when dry grass can come back to life and flowers bloom. But these benefits are not promised for lifeless and thoughtless rituals alone. They will be ours if our actions are informed by the message of Ramadan.

Today the message of Ramadan tends to get drowned out by much louder voices of the pop culture that have an opposite message. We have become so accustomed to them that many of us remain enslaved to them even during Ramadan.

The most important message of Ramadan is that we are not just body. We are body and soul. And that what makes us human beings and that determines our value as human beings is the soul and not the body. During Ramadan we deprive the body to uplift the soul. This is all simple and familiar. But we can understand its significance if we remember that the message of the materialistic hedonistic global pop culture that has engulfed every Muslim land today --- just like the rest of the world--- is exactly the opposite. It says that body is everything. That the materialistic world is all that counts. That the greatest happiness -- if not virtue-- is in filling the appetites of the body. This message produces endless appetites and consequently endless wars to fill those endless appetites through endless exploitation. It produces endless frustrations since the gap between desires and achievements can never be filled. It produces endless chaos and endless oppression. Yet this trash comes in such beautiful and enticing packages that we can hardly resist it. We equate this slavery with freedom. We consider this march to disaster as progress. And with every movement, we get further and deeper into the mire.


Ramadan is here to liberate us from all this. Here is a powerful message that it is soul over body. Take a break from the pop culture. Turn off the music and TV. Say goodbye to the endless and futile pursuit of happiness in sensory pleasures. Rediscover your inner self that has been buried deep under it. Reorient yourself. Devote your time to the reading of the Qur'an, to voluntary worship, to prayers and conversations with Allah. Reflect on the direction of your life and your priorities. Reflect on and strengthen your relationship with your Creator.

On the last day of one Sha'ban, Prophet MuhammadSall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam, gave a Khutbah about the upcoming month of Ramadan. It is a very important Khutbah that we should carefully read before every Ramadan to prepare ourselves mentally for the sacred month. It begins: "Oh people! A great month is coming to you. A blessed month. A month in which there is one night that is better than a thousand months. A month in which Allah has made it compulsory upon you to fast by day, and voluntary to pray by night. Whoever draws nearer to Allah by performing any of the voluntary good deeds in this month shall receive the same reward as is there for performing an obligatory deed at any other time. And whoever discharges an obligatory deed in this month shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time. It is the month of Sabr (patience), and the reward for sabr is Heaven. It is the month of kindness and charity. It is a month in which a believer's sustenance is increased. Whoever gives food to a fasting person to break his fast, shall have his sins forgiven, and he will be saved from the Fire of Hell, and he shall have the same reward as the fasting person, without the latter's reward being diminished at all."


The hadith continues and contains many other very important messages. However let us take the time to highlight two of the statements contained above. First, that Ramadan is the month of sabr. The English translation is patience but that word has a very narrow meaning compared to sabr. Sabr means not only patience and perseverance in the face of difficulties, it also means being steadfast in avoiding sin in the face of temptations and being persistent in performing virtues when that is not easy. Overcoming hunger and thirst during fasting is part of it. But protecting our eyes, ears, minds, tongues, and hands, etc. from all sins is also part of it. So is being persistent in doing good deeds as much as possible despite external or internal obstacles. Ramadan requires sabr in its fullest sense and provides a training ground for that very important quality to be developed and nurtured. Here is a recipe for the complete overhaul of our life, not just a small adjustment in meal times.

The highest point of Ramadan is itikaf, an act of worship in which a person secludes himself in a masjid to devote his time entirely to worshipping and remembering Allah. Some in every Muslim community must take a break and go to the masjid for the entire last ten days of Ramadan. Others should imbibe the spirit and do whatever they can.


But we must differentiate between worldly pleasures and worldly responsibilities. We take a break from the former and not the latter. Syedna Abdullah ibn Abbas, Radi-Allahu unhu, was performing itikaf, when a person came and sat down silently. Sensing his distressed condition Ibn Abbas enquired about his situation, learnt that he needed help, and proceeded to leave the masjid to go out and help him. Now this action does nullify the itikaf, making a makeup obligatory. So the person, though grateful, was curious. Explaining his action, Ibn Abbas related a hadith that when a person makes efforts to help his brother, he earns the reward for performing itikaf for ten years.

This brings us to the second statement to consider: that Ramadan is the month of kindness and charity. With those in distress in the millions in the world today, the need for remembering this message of Ramadan cannot be overstated.


Unfortunately, today another scene seems to be dominant in some parts of the Muslim world. Here Ramadan is the month of celebrations, shopping, fancy iftars at posh restaurants, entertainment and gossip. People stay up at night but not for worship; they while away that time watching TV or wandering in the bazaar. Ramadan here is more a month of feasting than fasting.

No one can take away our Ramadan from us; we just give it away ourselves. And if we realize the utter blunder we have made, we can take it back.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Turkey supplies Syria militants with Libya arms

This had been known right from the beginning...
 
ISIL Takfiri terrorists (file photo)
ISIL Takfiri terrorists (file photo)

Turkey has been involved in a covert arms trade between Libya and the Takfiri militant groups operating in Syria, a report has revealed.

Jun 15, 2015

Turkish Nokta weekly news magazine published its findings after examining the markings on the ammunition and casings in photos recently released by Turkish daily Cumhuriyet of intercepted Syria-bound Turkish trucks, English-language Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman reported on Monday.
The magazine discovered that the weapons and ammunition came originally from Libya and ended up in the hands of ISIL militants in Syria.
Last January, authorities stopped and searched a convoy of trucks belonging to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, also known as the MIT, loaded with arms and ammunition near the Syrian border in the southern provinces of Hatay and Adana.
This file photo shows Turkish gendarmes checking several trucks on suspicion of transporting arms to Syria in January 2014.
The Turkish government at the time claimed that the vehicles had been transporting humanitarian aid to Syria and denounced the interception as an act of “treason and espionage.”
However, the Cumhuriyet newspaper afterwards released photos and footage that showed steel containers filled with mortar shells and ammunition underneath boxes of medicine, saying they were transferred to Syria in trucks operated by the MIT. 
The daily said the trucks had been carrying 1,000 artillery shells, 1,000 mortar shells, 50,000 machine gun bullets, and 30,000 heavy arms bullets.
After investigating the pictures, Nokta found out that in one photo, letters on one of the wooden boxes “Tripoli Socialist People” should be read as “Tripoli Socialist People's Libya.” It added that the word “Libya” could not be seen in the photo because it was on the wooden panel taken off by those examining its content.
The magazine also considered the sand in the boxes another indication that they came from Libya.
Nokta further said that apparent mortar shells with blue tips and markings of “FULL CHARGE, UOF-412, 100mm G” were found among the items. This kind of mortar shells are used in the D-10 type Soviet-made tanks or similar models such as the T-54 and T-55 battle tanks.
A still image from a video published on the website of the Turkish Cumhuriyet daily on May 29, 2015 shows mortar shells in boxes intercepted on a truck destined for Syria.
Only the Syrian army and the ISIL terrorist group have tanks that are capable of using these mortars, the weekly said, noting that since ISIL has purportedly seized some Syrian army tanks in areas under their control, they would need ammunition to be able to use the tanks. 
The Nokta magazine stated that numerous videos and photos have emerged on social media platforms showing how ISIL, the al-Nusra Front and other extremist groups are using these kind of tanks and mortar shells.
The report also pointed to many pictures from ISIL terrorists with weapons and ammunition similar to those discovered in the trucks intercepted by the MIT.
The militancy in Syria started in March 2011. The Western powers alongside their regional allies, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar, have been supporting the militants financially and militarily.

Virtual life eroding our real life...

more to come...


Saturday, June 13, 2015

Kissinger Admits ISIS Gets Its Weapons from US

Cold hard truth, no matter how unpleasant, has to come out one day...

Bilderberg Kingpin Henry Kissinger Admits ISIS Gets Its Weapons from US


Bilderberg steering committee member and architect of a globalist order, Henry Kissinger, told Fox News on Wednesday the United States is responsible for arming ISIS.

Kissinger did not say the arming of the Islamic State was a deliberate process.
In March, Qasim al-Araji, the head of the Badr Organization in Iraq, told parliament he had evidence the U.S. has deliberately armed the Islamic Army, according to a report carried by the Arabic language Almasalah.
Infowars.com reported on March 5:
Iranian media and other sources have claimed on at least two occasions U.S. military aircraft dropped weapons in areas held by the Islamic State.
“The Iraqi intelligence sources reiterated that the US military planes have airdropped several aid cargoes for ISIL terrorists to help them resist the siege laid by the Iraqi army, security and popular forces,” Iraqi intelligence claimed in December.
“What is important is that the US sends these weapons to only those that cooperate with the Pentagon and this indicates that the US plays a role in arming the ISIL.”
In January Iraqi MP Majid al-Ghraoui said American aircraft delivered weapons and equipment to ISIS southeast of Tikrit, located in Salahuddin province.
The London-based organization Conflict Armament Research previously reported that ISIS fighters are using “significant quantities” of arms including M16 assault rifles marked “property of the US government.”
In June Aaron Klein, writing for WorldNetDaily, reported that members of ISIS were trained in 2012 by U.S. instructors working at a secret base in Jordan, according to informed Jordanian officials.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said last year ISIS was able to capture large areas of Iraq due to arms transfers from “moderates” in Syria fighting a proxy war against the government of Bashar al-Assad.
“I think we have to understand first how we got here,” he told CNN.
“I think one of the reasons why ISIS has been emboldened is because we have been arming their allies. We have been allied with ISIS in Syria.”

Kissinger Disagrees with Rand Paul on ISIS
Kissinger told Fox News he strongly disagrees with Rand Paul’s approach on ISIS.
In September Paul said US interventionist policies are responsible for the situation in the Middle East.
Paul said from the Senate floor there “were no WMDs” in Iraq and “that Hussein, Qadhafi, and Assad were not a threat to us. Doesn’t make them good, but they were not a threat to us.”
“Intervention created this chaos,” he added. “To those who wish unlimited intervention and boots on the ground everywhere, remember the smiling poses of politicians pontificating about so-called freedom fighters and heroes in Libya, in Syria, and in Iraq. Unaware that the so-called freedom fighters may well have been allied with kidnappers and are killers and jihadists.”

Obama Sends Hundreds of US Troops Into Iraq
Kissinger told Fox News that he opposes “boots on the ground” in Iraq and Syria to defeat ISIS. He said, however, the United States should send special forces to work with Sunni, Shia and Kurdish groups fighting against the terror organization and also provide intelligence and target spotters for the Iraqi military.
Obama has approved a plan to send an additional 450 U.S. troops to Iraq. Moreover, the administration has approved a plan to create a training base at al-Taqaddum in western Iraq between the key Anbar provincial cities of Ramadi and Fallujah which are currently under ISIS control.
“I don’t think it’s a new strategy … because we’re continuing to execute the strategy that we have,” U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told CBS News.

Mid-course correction for Turkey?!

Dreams for a totalitarianism sultanate shattering...

We all know that adage - "Power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely"...

Turkey shows it can’t be hostage to one man’s ambition

Mahir Ali (Poll position) / 11 June 2015

The AKP’s neo-liberalism might turn into a bad memory for Turkey


Recep Tayyip Erdogan should have seen it coming. Perhaps he did, given that opinion polls were reasonably accurate in predicting the result of Sunday’s parliamentary election in Turkey. In which case, his belligerent tactics clearly backfired.
Erdogan wasn’t a candidate, having last year successfully engineered his elevation to the presidency, constitutionally a relatively symbolic post. No one was particularly surprised when the focal centre of political power consequently shifted from the head of government to the head of state.
That wasn’t enough for Erdogan, though. He sought a constitutional shift from a parliamentary to a presidential form of government. A two-thirds majority for his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Sunday’s election would have made this a cinch. Even a three-fifths majority would have sufficed to facilitate a plebiscite.
Instead, for the first time since 2002, the AKP garnered substantially less than 50 per cent of the vote, compelling it to form a coalition. Its likeliest partner in this enterprise is the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), a right-wing outfit that secured about 17 per cent of the vote.
The MHP has thus far been reluctant to commit itself in this respect, while AKP representatives have raised the prospect of a second election, should a coalition prove unachievable.
The latter option may not turn out to be a particularly desirable alternative for the AKP. It is, after all, not inconceivable that, in the event, it could end up with a share of the vote even smaller than the disappointing 41 per cent it has achieved this time.
This is, mind you, a figure that would be coveted by ruling parties in many other countries. Turkey, to its credit, operates on the basis of proportional representation. At the same time, based on rules introduced by a military dictatorship, the threshold for entry into parliament is set at an uncommonly high 10 per cent of the popular vote.
That is why it was something of a gamble for the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) to put up candidates. Had it failed to scale the 10 per cent hurdle, it votes would have been redistributed, going mainly to the AKP. That is why candidates associated with its left-liberal and pro-Kurdish line of thinking previously contested as independents, who are exempted from the 10 per cent rule.
They won some representation in parliament, but were unable to act as a coherent bloc. With the HDP’s nearly 13 per cent of the vote, their parliamentary numbers have been doubled to 80 seats, despite (or perhaps because of) Erdogan’s unrelenting efforts to dismiss the party as a bunch of degenerates. There is some evidence, though, that in appealing to his conservative base, Erdogan lost the support of those who appreciate some of his achievements but were disinclined to give him a carte blanche.

The mood is clearly not unconnected to the Gezi Park protests of 2013 and the government’s crude reaction to them. It also bears some relation to Erdogan’s reaction to the so-called Arab Spring, whereupon he donned the mantle of a putative leader, and made no secret of his disappointment when the Muslim Brotherhood was ousted from power in Egypt. It wasn’t so much the blow against Egypt’s nascent democracy that unnerved him, though, as the example set by military action against a democratically elected leader who dabbled in fundamentalism.
Many Turks have also been disturbed by Erdogan’s attitude towards the conflict neighbouring Syria, with Turkey serving as the commonest conduit for deluded international recruits eager to lend their services to Daesh or Jabhat Al Nusra. Erdogan has been inclined to see the regime of Bashar Al Assad as the biggest threat, despite having once designated him as a brother, and has therefore tended to view the Islamist outfits as potential allies.
Much to the consternation of Turkish Kurds, he resisted allowing their fighters to go to the aid of the besieged Syrian town of Kobane, and AKP representatives have on occasion lauded Daesh initiatives. Despite negotiations for a settlement with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the HDP has been pilloried as an associate of the PKK.
In fact, the HDP came fourth in Sunday’s election by broadening its appeal beyond Kurds to socially liberal Turks, and by being remarkably inclusive in its outreach. Its leader, Selahattin Demirtas, has been compared with Barack Obama, but in fact bears a closer resemblance in many ways to Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
It is not inconceivable that a second election this year could give Demirtas a more substantial mandate. But Turkey’s future is hazy. This week’s election has been variously described as a watershed and the beginning of the end of Erdogan. It may well turn out eventually to conform with those optimistic prognostications. But it’s too soon to say.
The change, for what its worth, is most welcome. Erdogan remains ensconced, though, at least for the time being, on his golden throne in a grandiose palace that, he says, enables him to escape from a cockroach infestation. Be that as it may, there is the prospect that he and his neoliberal neo-Islamism will in due course turn into little more than a bad memory for Turkey.
That hour, however, is not yet at hand. And one would certainly not wish it to be accomplished by a military coup, which has too often served as an agent of undesirable change in Turkey. As of this week, however, the most welcome prospect of a more free and less authoritarian Turkey appears to have become a more realistic proposition.

Mahir Ali is a Sydney-based journalist

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

In Search of the Weapons Supply Lines of ISIS...

An excellent piece of investigative journalism...

Logistics 101: Where Does ISIS Get Its Guns?


Since ancient times an army required significant logistical support to carry out any kind of sustained military campaign. In ancient Rome, an extensive network of roads was constructed to facilitate not only trade, but to allow Roman legions to move quickly to where they were needed, and for the supplies needed to sustain military operations to follow them in turn.
In the late 1700′s French general, expert strategist, and leader Napoleon Bonaparte would note that, “an army marches on its stomach,” referring to the extensive logistical network required to keep an army fed, and therefore able to maintain its fighting capacity. For the French, their inability to maintain a steady supply train to its forces fighting in Russia, and the Russians’ decision to burn their own land and infrastructure to deny it from the invading forces, ultimately defeated the French.
Nazi Germany would suffer a similar fate when it too overextended its logical capabilities during its invasion of Russia amid Operation Barbarossa. Once again, invading armies became stranded without limited resources before being either cut off and annihilated or forced to retreat.

The other half of the war is logistics. Without a steady stream of supplies, armies no matter how strong or determined will be overwhelmed and defeated. What explains then ISIS’ fighting prowess and the immense logitical networks it would need to maintain it?
And in modern times during the Gulf War in the 1990′s an extended supply line trailing invading US forces coupled with an anticipated clash with the bulk of Saddam Hussein’s army halted what was otherwise a lighting advance many mistakenly believed could have reached Baghdad had there been the political will. The will to conquer was there, the logistics to implement it wasn’t.
The lessons of history however clear they may be, appear to be entirely lost on an either supremely ignorant or incredibly deceitful troupe of policymakers and news agencies across the West.
ISIS’ Supply Lines
The current conflict consuming the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Syria where the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) is operating and simultaneously fighting and defeating the forces of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran, we are told, is built upon a logistical network based on black market oil and ransom payments.
The fighting capacity of ISIS is that of a nation-state. It controls vast swaths of territory straddling both Syria and Iraq and not only is able to militarily defend and expand from this territory, but possesses the resources to occupy it, including the resources to administer the populations subjugated within it.
For military analysts, especially former members of Western armed forces, as well as members of the Western media who remember the convoys of trucks required for the invasions of Iraq in the 1990s and again in 2003, they surely must wonder where ISIS’ trucks are today. After all, if the resources to maintain the fighting capacity exhibited by ISIS were available within Syrian and Iraqi territory alone, then certainly Syrian and Iraqi forces would also posses an equal or greater fighting capacity but they simply do not.
And were ISIS’ supply lines solely confined within Syrian and Iraqi territory, then surely both Syrian and Iraqi forces would utilize their one advantage – air power – to cut front line ISIS fighters from the source of their supplies. But this is not happening and there is a good reason why.

Recent maps showing ISIS’ territory show obvious supply lines leading from Jordan and Turkey. Should Syria and its allies manage to cut these supply lines, one wonders just how long ISIS’ so-far inexplicable winning streak would last.
ISIS’ supply lines run precisely where Syrian and Iraqi air power cannot go. To the north and into NATO-member Turkey, and to the southwest into US allies Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Beyond these borders exists a logistical network that spans a region including both Eastern Europe and North Africa.
Terrorists and weapons left over from NATO’s intervention in Libya in 2011 were promptly sent to Turkey and then onto Syria – coordinated by US State Department officials and intelligence agencies in Benghazi – a terrorist hotbed for decades.
The London Telegraph would report in their 2013 article,CIA ‘running arms smuggling team in Benghazi when consulate was attacked’,” that:
[CNN] said that a CIA team was working in an annex near the consulate on a project to supply missiles from Libyan armouries to Syrian rebels.
Weapons have also come from Eastern Europe, with the New York Times reporting in 2013 in their article,Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid From C.I.A.,” that:
From offices at secret locations, American intelligence officers have helped the Arab governments shop for weapons, including a large procurement from Croatia, and have vetted rebel commanders and groups to determine who should receive the weapons as they arrive, according to American officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.
And while Western media sources continuously refer to ISIS and other factions operating under the banner of Al Qaeda as “rebels” or “moderates,” it is clear that if billions of dollars in weapons were truly going to “moderates,” they, not ISIS would be dominating the battlefield.
Recent revelations have revealed that as early as 2012 the United States Department of Defense not only anticipated the creation of a “Salafist Principality” straddling Syria and Iraq precisely where ISIS now exists, it welcomed it eagerly and contributed to the circumstances required to bring it about.
Just How Extensive Are ISIS’ Supply Lines? 
While many across the West play willfully ignorant as to where ISIS truly gets their supplies from in order to maintain its impressive fighting capacity, some journalists have traveled to the region and have video taped and reported on the endless convoys of trucks supplying the terrorist army.
Were these trucks traveling to and from factories in seized ISIS territory deep within Syrian and Iraqi territory? No. They were traveling from deep within Turkey, crossing the Syrian border with absolute impunity, and headed on their way with the implicit protection of nearby Turkish military forces. Attempts by Syria to attack these convoys and the terrorists flowing in with them have been met by Turkish air defenses.
Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) published the first video report from a major Western media outlet illustrating that ISIS is supplied not by “black market oil” or “hostage ransoms” but billions of dollars worth of supplies carried into Syria across NATO member Turkey’s borders via hundreds of trucks a day.

German national broadcaster DW reported on convoys of hundreds of trucks per day crossing into Syria from NATO-member Turkey with impunity, enroute to ISIS terrorists, finally explaining the source of the terrorist army’s fighting capacity. The trucks were reported by DW to have originated from deep within Turkish territory – most likely NATO air bases and ports.
The report titled, “‘IS’ supply channels through Turkey,” confirms what has been reported by geopolitical analysts since at least as early as 2011 – that ISIS subsides on immense, multi-national state sponsorship, including, obviously, Turkey itself.
Looking at maps of ISIS-held territory and reading action reports of its offensive maneuvers throughout the region and even beyond, one might imagine hundreds of trucks a day would be required to maintain this level of fighting capacity. One could imagine similar convoys crossing into Iraq from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Similar convoys are likely passing into Syria from Jordan.
In all, considering the realities of logistics and their timeless importance to military campaigns throughout human history, there is no other plausible explanation to ISIS’s ability to wage war within Syria and Iraq besides immense resources being channeled to it from abroad.
If an army marches on its stomach, and ISIS’ stomachs are full of NATO and Persian Gulf State supplies, ISIS will continue to march long and hard. The key to breaking the back of ISIS, is breaking the back of its supply lines. To do that however, and precisely why the conflict has dragged on for so long, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and others would have to eventually secure the borders and force ISIS to fight within Turkish, Jordanian, and Saudi territory – a difficult scenario to implement as nations like Turkey have created defacto buffer zones within Syrian territory which would require a direct military confrontation with Turkey itself to eliminate.
With Iran joining the fray with an alleged deployment of thousands of troops to bolster Syrian military operations, overwhelming principles of deterrence may prevent Turkey enforcing its buffer zones.
What we are currently left with is NATO literally holding the region hostage with the prospect of a catastrophic regional war in a bid to defend and perpetuate the carnage perpetrated by ISIS within Syria, fully underwritten by an immense logistical network streaming out of NATO territory itself.
Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazineNew Eastern Outlook”.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Pictoblog: Finding the needle in the haystack


Back in 1991 Matthew Koll, then a research fellow at AOL, described the approaches to finding information on the Internet as attempting to solve the 'haystack problem' in the following words:

A known needle in a known haystack
A known needle in an unknown haystack
An unknown needle in an unknown haystack
Any needle in a haystack
The sharpest needle in a haystack
Most of the sharpest needles in a haystack
All the needles in a haystack
Affirmation of no needles in a haystack
Things like needles in any haystack
Let me know whenever a new needle shows up
Where are the haystacks?
Needles, haystacks - whatever.

A huge needle in a small haystack ... easy!

A gigantic needle in a smaller haystack ... too easy!
Where the hell is the needle in this bookstack?




Now they teach university course on this subject, whew!!!

Good Luck! Make sure you have a GPS with you...
Well, that needle is probably on her hairlock...

OK, get that? Now starts the reverse engineering process ...

Ah! The coveted relief...

Hard work finally paid off...

Needles, needles, everywhere needles...

Male & female needles play catch-up with each other!



Friday, June 5, 2015

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Bazaar buzzing with rumbles of discontent!

Riding on the wave of economic prosperity for a number of years, Erdogan had been ruling 'the roost' in a dictorial style - banning social media, restricting free press, preventing any publication of any adverse news against him, squeezing judiciary, concentrating absolute power in his own hand, devaluing women, promoting terrorism in Syria on behalf of his Wahhabi partners -- to name a few. But as the good times come to a schreeching halt, general people start to feel the 'p[i/u]nch'. Like they say, 'No money, no funny.' The psuedo-Islamic secular smokescreen is unable to contain the burning ash...

Turkey is preparing for parliamentary elections on Sunday. The vote is critical for several reasons. The first and most important reason is that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is much willing to consolidate power through an executive-style presidency. The country’s newest opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party, has become a formidable force to spoil Erdogan’s wish.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey’s opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Monday slammed Erdogan for openly threatening a journalist, saying the reaction shows the president’s weakness.

Reporters Without Borders has called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stop threatening journalists and meddling in the affairs of the country’s judiciary system.

A controversial 1,000-room palace built for Turkey's president will cost even more than the original £385m ($615m) price tag. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will enjoy a 250-room private residence there. Thousands of trees, each costing between £2,400 ($3,750) and £6,400 ($10,000), were imported from Italy to be planted in the palace grounds according to Ankara Architecture Chamber. The monthly electricity bill alone - likely to be footed by the taxpayer - will reach £200,000 ($313,000).

In Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, rumbles of discontent against Erdogan

June 03, 2015
In Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, rumbles of discontent against Erdogan
People walk at historical Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. The hum of commerce is as noisy as ever. Vendors sell tea, coppersmiths craft their wares, merchants shout out to passing tourists. But beneath this hubbub, discord is brewing against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ahead of June 7 parliamentary elections. — AFP
ISTANBUL — In Istanbul's centuries-old Grand Bazaar, the hum of commerce is as noisy as ever. Vendors sell tea, coppersmiths craft their wares, merchants shout out to passing tourists.
But beneath this hubbub, discord is brewing against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ahead of June 7 parliamentary elections.

The Grand Bazaar, home to some 4,000 shops where over 20,000 people work, has long been seen as a bastion of support for Erdogan and the Islamic-rooted AKP.

But as the economy starts to show weakness after years of impressive growth under Erdogan, who became president in 2014 after more than a decade as premier, there are growing signs that this support is beginning to wane.

"I used to vote for AKP but it's time for a change now. They have been in power for too long. I think they are burnt out now," said Huseyin Kaya, a silver shop owner who has worked in the Bazaar for two decades.

"The economy is not good. Business is bad. I have bought merchandise for tens of thousands of dollars and I have debts now that I cannot pay back," he said.

Many of the shopkeepers and small-scale manufacturers who have thrived under the AKP's rule voted for political stability and rewarded Erdogan for the country's growing prosperity, even after a corruption scandal and anti-government protests in 2013.


But the party is entering an election under fire over Turkey's economic performance for the first time since it came to power in 2002 due to stalling growth, stubbornly high inflation and unemployment.
The Bazaar was the scene of protests last month by shopkeepers who refused to vacate their stalls in Sandal Bedesteni, a section of the 15th century shopping area, following a notice calling for the immediate eviction of some 80 shops.

The shopkeepers locked themselves in their shops, shouting anti-government slogans, before riot police stormed the area, evicting all the shops in Sandal Bedesteni and briefly detaining some 20 shopkeepers.

The tenants say that Fatih Municipality — run by the AKP — had leased their shops for a higher rent to a single tenant "to cover the costs of the restoration" of the Grand Bazaar, which hosted a motorcycle chase scene in 2011 in the James Bond movie "Skyfall" that caused damage to the structure.

There are rumors that the shops could be converted into hotels as part of an ambitious project by the municipality.

"The government is just spitting on our face. I don't believe in any of them anymore. I'm not going to vote for AKP because we are in a grave situation here," said Mustafa Kahraman, a cloth merchant.

Turkish economist Mustafa Donmez said "there is no economic miracle anymore" for the AKP's core voters, who until now supported the party over "bread and butter issues".

Erdogan is hoping the AKP will win a two-thirds majority in the polls in order to change the constitution and boost his office's powers to that of a US-style executive president.

The latest opinion polls, however, suggest the AKP's support could fall sharply from the almost 50 percent of the vote it garnered in 2011, with it possibly even losing its parliamentary majority.

But Selvi Gurey, who owns a souvenir shop in the bazaar, says he will vote for the AKP because he thinks a presidential system will bolster stability and economic growth. "We owe a debt of gratitude to Erdogan, who has worked so tirelessly to make our life better. I think Turkey will be better off with a stronger president," he said. — AFP