Topic: Former DIA Chief Says Rise of Islamic State Was “A Willful Decision” (Read 541 times)
August 09, 2015, 06:24:32 AM
In the Middle East, the first priority for the United States is to keep the Iranians out. Therefore, the groups which supported Iran (Assad's regime, Hezbollah.etc) needed to be neutralized. And since the Americans didn't had a strategy for this, they turned to their allies in the region (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Qatar). The ISIS was their idea, approved by the US.
August 09, 2015, 04:43:45 AM
It really doesnt matter who "made" isis. The fact alone that they exist is reason enough to eradicate it.
Put it this way. If the CIA gave me and my friends money and arms we will not turn around and rape child girls, decapitate people, or otherwise kill and persecute innocents.
So the simple fact that such a vile group such as ISIS is possible to exist in the middle east is grounds enough for military intervention.
Those who deliberately created the problem cannot stop the problem. They have a vested interest in perpetuating the problem. Put it this way. If the CIA gave me and my friends money and arms we will not turn around and rape child girls, decapitate people, or otherwise kill and persecute innocents.
So the simple fact that such a vile group such as ISIS is possible to exist in the middle east is grounds enough for military intervention.
August 09, 2015, 04:42:51 AM
Pay attention that when a former high officer goes to a foreign TV [Al Jazeera], well present in a sensitive environment [Arab world], usually there is a will behind all. It could be a case of diffusion of "oriented" information with a clear purpose: to diffuse mistrust and overall to make ISIS something "American", this would make it a kind of "Satan's product" in the eyes of many Islamists ... it's a great way to make them fight one each other without spending a dollar or sending a soldier ...
August 09, 2015, 04:42:01 AM
It really doesnt matter who "made" isis. The fact alone that they exist is reason enough to eradicate it.
Put it this way. If the CIA gave me and my friends money and arms we will not turn around and rape child girls, decapitate people, or otherwise kill and persecute innocents.
So the simple fact that such a vile group such as ISIS is possible to exist in the middle east is grounds enough for military intervention.
Put it this way. If the CIA gave me and my friends money and arms we will not turn around and rape child girls, decapitate people, or otherwise kill and persecute innocents.
So the simple fact that such a vile group such as ISIS is possible to exist in the middle east is grounds enough for military intervention.
August 09, 2015, 04:40:54 AM
His "opinion" does not make it fact.
There's nothing "mere" about that opinion.
August 09, 2015, 04:39:43 AM
ISIS is the Joe Biden Plan for three different groups to reign separately in Iraq.
I think Obama is a little dismayed at the killing of news men, Christians, and other non-muslims.
But Biden was all for three groups, way back when.
I think Obama is a little dismayed at the killing of news men, Christians, and other non-muslims.
But Biden was all for three groups, way back when.
ISIS is a radical backlash to Maliki and the chaos in Iraq... Didn't have squat to do with Biden.
There were 50 Christian churches in Baghdad before Bush's invasion.. I don't think he cared about Iraqi Christians at all just like the US has never cared about Palestinian Christians.
August 09, 2015, 04:38:15 AM
Correct. It's the classic definition of insanity (Internet definition anyway) of continuing to do the same thing after every failure in the BELIEF that next time it . . . will . . . be . . . different. It's as if these highly educated experts use the lessons of history for their toilet paper.
They think in their words that they will 'be able to watch arms to prevent them from getting into the hands of 'extremists'", meanwhile the very moderates were those who were fighting against US armed forces to begin with. So what do you think will happen? Of course, they will be the new US enemy. Stupid is as stupid does, which seems to be the Pentagon these days.
August 09, 2015, 04:37:20 AM
The institutional logic of governments is to increase "state security" even at the expense of "national security".
"The policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making":
"The policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making":
ISIS is the Joe Biden Plan for three different groups to reign separately in Iraq.
I think Obama is a little dismayed at the killing of news men, Christians, and other non-muslims.
But Biden was all for three groups, way back when.
August 09, 2015, 04:36:11 AM
Partisan politics, as we know so well. You and I also both know that Proxy States has been a gigantic failure for the US even as the US has continued using this strategy since Iran-Contra way back in Reagan. It's as if the Pentagon has fallen in love with failure.
Correct. It's the classic definition of insanity (Internet definition anyway) of continuing to do the same thing after every failure in the BELIEF that next time it . . . will . . . be . . . different. It's as if these highly educated experts use the lessons of history for their toilet paper.
August 09, 2015, 04:34:25 AM
They did a bait car operation for jihadists. Get them into groups to identify and isolate them , in order to eliminate them. Destabilize a region that is so unstable it needs fervent mullahs or iron fist tyrants to maintain order. Also in an area where our few allies have much to gain, and at a time Russia has it's own close to home military combat operations going on in Ukraine, Crimea...
If and when the worlds bankers take absolute control. They discuss a smaller world population. Eliminating and identifying the violent and combat capable will be a priority. Those driven by devout religion are the worst to control outside of that doctrine. This is why the jihadists are first to be selected for elimination in the battle for world domination.
If and when the worlds bankers take absolute control. They discuss a smaller world population. Eliminating and identifying the violent and combat capable will be a priority. Those driven by devout religion are the worst to control outside of that doctrine. This is why the jihadists are first to be selected for elimination in the battle for world domination.
August 09, 2015, 04:33:25 AM
Earlier in our history such an assertion by such a highly placed intelligence official would result in congressional curiosity about additional details but not today. How in the hell can leftists declare that they and this particular administration have high standards of integrity and simultaneously keep a straight face?
Partisan politics, as we know so well. You and I also both know that Proxy States has been a gigantic failure for the US even as the US has continued using this strategy since Iran-Contra way back in Reagan. It's as if the Pentagon has fallen in love with failure.
August 09, 2015, 04:32:22 AM
In Al Jazeera’s latest Head to Head episode, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn confirms to Mehdi Hasan that not only had he studied the DIA memo predicting the West’s backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk in 2012, but even asserts that the White House’s sponsoring of radical jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Nusra) against the Syrian regime was “a willful decision.” [Lengthy discussion of the DIA memo begins at the 8:50 mark.]
Amazingly, Flynn actually took issue with the way interviewer Mehdi Hasan posed the question—Flynn seemed to want to make it clear that the policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making:
Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn on Al Jazeera
Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn on Al Jazeera
Hasan: You are basically saying that even in government at the time you knew these groups were around, you saw this analysis, and you were arguing against it, but who wasn’t listening?
Flynn: I think the administration.
Hasan: So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?
Flynn: I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.
Hasan: A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?
Flynn: It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing.
Hasan himself expresses surprise at Flynn’s frankness during this portion of the interview. While holding up a paper copy of the 2012 DIA report declassified through FOIA, Hasan reads aloud key passages such as, “there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria, and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.”
Rather than downplay the importance of the document and these startling passages, as did the State Department soon after its release, Flynn does the opposite: he confirms that while acting DIA chief he “paid very close attention” to this report in particular and later adds that “the intelligence was very clear.”
Lt. Gen. Flynn, speaking safely from retirement, is the highest ranking intelligence official to go on record saying the United States and other state sponsors of rebels in Syria knowingly gave political backing and shipped weapons to Al-Qaeda in order to put pressure on the Syrian regime:
Hasan: In 2012 the U.S. was helping coordinate arms transfers to those same groups [Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda in Iraq], why did you not stop that if you’re worried about the rise of quote-unquote Islamic extremists?
Flynn: I hate to say it’s not my job…but that…my job was to…was to ensure that the accuracy of our intelligence that was being presented was as good as it could be.
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2015/08/07/rise-of-islamic-state-was-a-willful-decision-former-dia-chief-michal-flynn/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG3j8OYKgn4&feature=youtu.be
The institutional logic of governments is to increase "state security" even at the expense of "national security".
"The policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making":
Amazingly, Flynn actually took issue with the way interviewer Mehdi Hasan posed the question—Flynn seemed to want to make it clear that the policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making:
Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn on Al Jazeera
Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn on Al Jazeera
Hasan: You are basically saying that even in government at the time you knew these groups were around, you saw this analysis, and you were arguing against it, but who wasn’t listening?
Flynn: I think the administration.
Hasan: So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?
Flynn: I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.
Hasan: A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?
Flynn: It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing.
Hasan himself expresses surprise at Flynn’s frankness during this portion of the interview. While holding up a paper copy of the 2012 DIA report declassified through FOIA, Hasan reads aloud key passages such as, “there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria, and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.”
Rather than downplay the importance of the document and these startling passages, as did the State Department soon after its release, Flynn does the opposite: he confirms that while acting DIA chief he “paid very close attention” to this report in particular and later adds that “the intelligence was very clear.”
Lt. Gen. Flynn, speaking safely from retirement, is the highest ranking intelligence official to go on record saying the United States and other state sponsors of rebels in Syria knowingly gave political backing and shipped weapons to Al-Qaeda in order to put pressure on the Syrian regime:
Hasan: In 2012 the U.S. was helping coordinate arms transfers to those same groups [Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda in Iraq], why did you not stop that if you’re worried about the rise of quote-unquote Islamic extremists?
Flynn: I hate to say it’s not my job…but that…my job was to…was to ensure that the accuracy of our intelligence that was being presented was as good as it could be.
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2015/08/07/rise-of-islamic-state-was-a-willful-decision-former-dia-chief-michal-flynn/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG3j8OYKgn4&feature=youtu.be
The institutional logic of governments is to increase "state security" even at the expense of "national security".
"The policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making":
Earlier in our history such an assertion by such a highly placed intelligence official would result in congressional curiosity about additional details but not today. How in the hell can leftists declare that they and this particular administration have high standards of integrity and simultaneously keep a straight face?
August 09, 2015, 04:27:03 AM
His "opinion" does not make it fact. I refer to this opinion of "deliberate decision".
In that dog's breakfast of competing groups of Syrian rebels abetted by tens of thousands of foreign Islamists and their interests, trying to determine the most appropriate strategy is hardly straightforward.
Hindsight being what it is, the path taken or at least its consequences can be seen with clarity.
Some people believe that mistakes and incorrect evaluations and strategies are somehow nefariously conceived deliberate actions, but real life should teach them that nobody is infallible, either individually or collectively.
In that dog's breakfast of competing groups of Syrian rebels abetted by tens of thousands of foreign Islamists and their interests, trying to determine the most appropriate strategy is hardly straightforward.
Hindsight being what it is, the path taken or at least its consequences can be seen with clarity.
Some people believe that mistakes and incorrect evaluations and strategies are somehow nefariously conceived deliberate actions, but real life should teach them that nobody is infallible, either individually or collectively.
August 09, 2015, 04:23:31 AM
In Al Jazeera’s latest Head to Head episode, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn confirms to Mehdi Hasan that not only had he studied the DIA memo predicting the West’s backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk in 2012, but even asserts that the White House’s sponsoring of radical jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Nusra) against the Syrian regime was “a willful decision.” [Lengthy discussion of the DIA memo begins at the 8:50 mark.]
Amazingly, Flynn actually took issue with the way interviewer Mehdi Hasan posed the question—Flynn seemed to want to make it clear that the policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making:
Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn on Al Jazeera
Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn on Al Jazeera
Hasan: You are basically saying that even in government at the time you knew these groups were around, you saw this analysis, and you were arguing against it, but who wasn’t listening?
Flynn: I think the administration.
Hasan: So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?
Flynn: I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.
Hasan: A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?
Flynn: It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing.
Hasan himself expresses surprise at Flynn’s frankness during this portion of the interview. While holding up a paper copy of the 2012 DIA report declassified through FOIA, Hasan reads aloud key passages such as, “there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria, and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.”
Rather than downplay the importance of the document and these startling passages, as did the State Department soon after its release, Flynn does the opposite: he confirms that while acting DIA chief he “paid very close attention” to this report in particular and later adds that “the intelligence was very clear.”
Lt. Gen. Flynn, speaking safely from retirement, is the highest ranking intelligence official to go on record saying the United States and other state sponsors of rebels in Syria knowingly gave political backing and shipped weapons to Al-Qaeda in order to put pressure on the Syrian regime:
Hasan: In 2012 the U.S. was helping coordinate arms transfers to those same groups [Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda in Iraq], why did you not stop that if you’re worried about the rise of quote-unquote Islamic extremists?
Flynn: I hate to say it’s not my job…but that…my job was to…was to ensure that the accuracy of our intelligence that was being presented was as good as it could be.
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2015/08/07/rise-of-islamic-state-was-a-willful-decision-former-dia-chief-michal-flynn/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG3j8OYKgn4&feature=youtu.be
The institutional logic of governments is to increase "state security" even at the expense of "national security".
"The policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making":
Amazingly, Flynn actually took issue with the way interviewer Mehdi Hasan posed the question—Flynn seemed to want to make it clear that the policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making:
Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn on Al Jazeera
Former DIA Chief Michael Flynn on Al Jazeera
Hasan: You are basically saying that even in government at the time you knew these groups were around, you saw this analysis, and you were arguing against it, but who wasn’t listening?
Flynn: I think the administration.
Hasan: So the administration turned a blind eye to your analysis?
Flynn: I don’t know that they turned a blind eye, I think it was a decision. I think it was a willful decision.
Hasan: A willful decision to support an insurgency that had Salafists, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood?
Flynn: It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing.
Hasan himself expresses surprise at Flynn’s frankness during this portion of the interview. While holding up a paper copy of the 2012 DIA report declassified through FOIA, Hasan reads aloud key passages such as, “there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in Eastern Syria, and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime.”
Rather than downplay the importance of the document and these startling passages, as did the State Department soon after its release, Flynn does the opposite: he confirms that while acting DIA chief he “paid very close attention” to this report in particular and later adds that “the intelligence was very clear.”
Lt. Gen. Flynn, speaking safely from retirement, is the highest ranking intelligence official to go on record saying the United States and other state sponsors of rebels in Syria knowingly gave political backing and shipped weapons to Al-Qaeda in order to put pressure on the Syrian regime:
Hasan: In 2012 the U.S. was helping coordinate arms transfers to those same groups [Salafists, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda in Iraq], why did you not stop that if you’re worried about the rise of quote-unquote Islamic extremists?
Flynn: I hate to say it’s not my job…but that…my job was to…was to ensure that the accuracy of our intelligence that was being presented was as good as it could be.
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2015/08/07/rise-of-islamic-state-was-a-willful-decision-former-dia-chief-michal-flynn/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG3j8OYKgn4&feature=youtu.be
The institutional logic of governments is to increase "state security" even at the expense of "national security".
"The policies that led to the rise of ISIL were not merely the result of ignorance or looking the other way, but the result of conscious decision making":
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