Antichrist blames Riyadh for terror attack on Shias (Rev 13)

 
Iraqi cleric blames Riyadh for terror attack on Shias

PressTV
Sun May 24, 2015 10:56PM

Influential Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has blamed the Saudi regime for the recent terrorist attack on a Shia mosque in the kingdom.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Sadr warned that Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority will continue to be targeted by Takfiri terrorists as there is no real determination on the side of the kingdom’s officials to fight extremism.

“What happened in Qatif is neither the first nor the last, especially with the lack of real deterrent from the Saudi government against the militants in the kingdom,” said the cleric in reference to the deadly incident.

On Friday, 21 people lost their lives and nearly 100 others sustained injuries in a bomb attack carried out by the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group against a Shia mosque in Qatif district in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.

Sadr also lashed out at Riyadh for fueling the extremist thought in the kingdom and the whole region.
“I don’t rule out the existence of [Saudi] government parties that feed this miserable and hateful extremism against moderation in general,” he pointed out.

The Iraqi figure stressed that Riyadh’s systematic discrimination against Shias has caused mounting dissatisfaction in the country, saying an uprising against the Al Saud regime is very like to happen if the injustice persists.

There have been numerous demonstrations in Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province since 2011, with the protesters calling for political reform and an end to widespread discrimination.

The ISIL Takfiri group, with members from several Western countries, controls parts of land in Syria and Iraq, and has been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations and crucifixions, against all communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.

The Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – are said to be supporting the ISIL.

FNR/NT/AS

Antichrist Orders Prayer In Baghdad (Rev 13)

  Unified prayer held in Baghdad after violence
A unified prayer session held between Sunnis and Shiites in the capital Baghdad to confront sectarian strife. (File photo courtesy: @IraqPics)
Staff writer, Al Arabiya News
Friday, 15 May 2015
Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obaidi attended a unified prayer session held between Sunnis and Shiites in the capital Baghdad after unknown assailants attacked the Sunni endowment building in the Sunni district area of Adhamiyah.
The violence on Thursday killed four people in Adhamiyah after Shiite pilgrims – heading to the holy Shiite site on the other side of the Tigris river – passed through the area.
Unknown mobs set 17 houses and the religious endowment building on fire. Police sources told AFP that four people were burnt to death trapped inside their torched homes but medical sources said some of the victims had bullet wounds.
Police said “some elements infiltrated in the midst of the pilgrims heading to the shrine of Imam Musa Kadhim attacked a Sunni Waqf (endowment) building.”
But Iraqi officials warned that the violence was a plot to divide Iraqis with prominent Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr denouncing the “insolent” act as unrepresentative of Islam.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said “some are angered by the fact that Iraqis are united in facing terrorism, that’s why they tried to sow this discord.”
However, some people on social media derided the government blaming “infiltrators” after a 10:16 minute video surfaced online, showing voice and faces of some of the perpetrators.
“There are women there,” one said in one segment of the video, with another person later on said: “They’re Daeshis [belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria].”
One Twitter user wrote in reaction, “hundreds of infiltrators? Pillaging institutions, houses of civilians and under protection of security?” in reference to shots fired by police officers to maintain the situation.
One officer told AFP that the violence broke out after 2:00 am (1100 GMT) when members of the crowd spread a rumor that a suicide bomber was among them.
He said police fired shots in the air in an attempt to contain the panic but the violence only swelled because the crowd thought they were being shot at by Adhamiyah residents.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the local Al-Baghdadia News, Obaidi said a “small number of people” were behind the violence, adding that “Iraqi brotherhood” cannot be “destroyed by some infiltrators.”
Some arrests were made, however, no new information was made available.
Last Update: Friday, 15 May 2015 KSA 09:16 – GMT 06:16

Antichrist Stops Babylon’s Plans (Revelation 13)

 

US Congress to Reexamine Ways of Arming Peshmerga

Luke Coleman
BAGHDAD

During a visit to Baghdad, the chairman of the US Committee on Homeland Security has expressed confidence that there is a more efficient way of delivering arms to Kurdish and Sunni fighters in Iraq, despite repeated objections from the majority Shi’ite Baghdad government.

Responding to criticism over a proposed bill which would divert 25% of the $715 million slated to train the Iraqi army, Rep. Michael T. McCaul told Associated Press, “I think there is a way to streamline the process of getting the weapons to both the Sunni tribes and the Peshmerga, where it is desperately needed to defeat [Islamic State (IS)], while at the same time not undermining the government of Iraq in Baghdad.”

There is a perception among US lawmakers that while the Peshmerga are fighting along multiple lines in the north, they are not receiving enough weapons from the central government. This is coupled with concern that the overwhelmingly Shi’ite forces in the south of the country will not be able to tackle areas in Anbar and Mosul Provinces without securing the support of currently poorly armed Sunni tribal factions.

The Shi’ite dominated government has reacted angry to the proposed bill. Prominent cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday threatened to attack US interests in the country if the law passed. Prime Minister al-Abadi has spoken with US Vice President Joe Biden to address the issue.

The proposed bill, criticised as a threat to Iraq’s sovereignty, has faced problems in the US, as the country cannot legally arm regions or groups.

Babylon Caves In To Antichrist’s Demands (Rev 13)

Congressmen to reconsider separate funding for Iraq factions

By Paul Schemm | AP May 3 at 3:51 PM

BAGHDAD — Congress may reconsider a provision in an upcoming bill funding the training of the Iraqi army that would also send weapons directly to Arab Sunnis and Kurds, a congressman visiting Baghdad said Sunday.

However Rep. Michael T. McCaul (R-TX), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security visiting Baghdad with seven other members, said following meetings with the Iraqi government that Congress would still seek a way to ensure the Sunnis and Kurds fighting the Islamic State group would receive weapons.

“I think there is a way to streamline the process of getting the weapons to both the Sunni tribes and the (Kurdish) peshmerga, where it is desperately needed to defeat ISIS, while at the same time not undermining the government of Iraq in Baghdad,” McCaul told The Associated Press, referring to the Islamic State by an acronym.

On Wednesday, influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia was once a major force, threatened to attack U.S. interests if the original provision, which would divert 25 percent of the $715 million defense bill to train the Iraqi army, passed.

Al-Sadr’s statement precipitated a cascade of condemnations by members of the Shiite-dominated government and its allied militias.

Al-Abadi said he brought up the issue with Vice President Joe Biden in a phone conversation, warning that such a provision would undermine the country’s sovereignty, according to the prime minister’s website Sunday.

The provision stems from concerns that the Iraqi government is withholding weapons from the Kurdish peshmerga forces, which are bearing the brunt of the fight against the Islamic State in the north.

The U.S. would also like to see Sunni tribesmen armed and brought into the fight but the Shiite-dominated government doesn’t trust them.

The United States has already spent billions arming and training the Iraqi military, but it performed poorly last year when Islamic State militants swept across western and northern Iraq, routing four divisions.

For the U.S. to bypass the central government in distributing weapons, however, was seen by critics as a threat to the country’s national unity.

Antichrist Opposes Babylon’s Hegemony (Rev 13)

 

An influential Shiite cleric in Iraq threatened to attack US interests over supporting Sunnis and Kurds

PAUL SCHEMM AND DONNA CASSATA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
APR. 30, 2015, 8:29 AM

Iraqi Shi’ite radical leader Muqtada al-Sadr delivers a sermon to worshippers during Friday prayers at the Kufa mosque near Najaf, April 3, 2015. 

BAGHDAD (AP) — An influential Shiite cleric threatened Wednesday to attack U.S. interests in Iraq and abroad over a congressional provision to send arms directly to Sunni and Kurdish fighters.

The proposed measure in the House Republicans’ defense authorization bill for next year would distribute a quarter of the $715 million authorized to train and equip the Iraqi army outside the government’s control. It’s unclear if the provision will survive the months-long legislative process.

“In the event of approving this bill by the U.S. Congress, we will find ourselves obliged to unfreeze the military wing and start targeting the American interests in Iraq — even abroad, which is doable,” said the statement on Muqtada al-Sadr’s website.

In a rare turn of events, both al-Sadr and President Barack Obama signaled their opposition to the provision by House Republicans. Proposing to give 25 percent of the funds directly to the Kurdish peshmerga and Sunni forces is one of several provisions in the military policy measure that the White House said on Tuesday that the president opposes.

The statement from al-Sadr underscored how closely the Shiite cleric is following the lengthy, often arcane legislative process. The release of the House GOP version of the bill on Monday was just the first step, and it got barely any notice outside of the Pentagon and Congress.

But it clearly registered in Baghdad.

Al-Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, was one of the most determined opponents of the U.S. military between 2003 and 2011, but it went dormant after the pullout.

The Iraqi government has also rejected the provision.

“Any weapons supplying will be done only through the Iraqi government,” it said. “The draft law proposed by the foreign affairs committee in the U.S. Congress is rejected and it will lead to more division in the region and we urge it be stopped.”

The United States has already spent billions arming and training the Iraqi military, but it performed poorly last year when Islamic State militants swept across western and northern Iraq, routing four divisions.

Some of the most effective fighters against the Islamic State have been the Kurdish peshmerga, but they say the government has not given them enough arms.

Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government has also been reluctant to arm Sunni tribes, which were key to defeating al-Qaida in Iraq several years earlier.

REUTERS/StringerRifles are seen during a ceremony to present weapons to Sunni tribesmen at camp Habbaniyah, in the eastern city of Ramadi April 8, 2015. 

On Wednesday, the House Armed Services Committee is considering the defense authorization bill, one of the few bipartisan measures in Congress.

While the specific provision might not withstand the debate process, the defense authorization bill has become law for more than half a century.

Salaheddin and Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Antichrist Orders Jihad (Revelation 13:18)

Al-Sadr: Killing Saddam’s aide politicises jihad 
Wednesday, 29 April 2015 11:20 

Leader of the Sadrist Movement Muqtada Al-Sadr said yesterday that claims that former President Saddam Hussein’s aide Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri had been killed were aimed at politicising “Jihad and victories.”

Last week, the Iraqi government announced it had a corps which was believed to be that of Al-Douri. It said the corps was undergoing DNA tests.

Al-Sadr said: “The Popular Shia Crowds are experiencing challenges which might disrupt their work. Some of the challenges are the disunity among its militias, American interference and the abundance of its sects.”

He expected an Arabic interference like what happened Yemen and other international conflicts, calling for unity and mobilising all efforts to undermine the potential Arabic interference.

As part of his call to undermine external interference, Al-Sadr called for liberating Al-Anbar and Mosul. He also called for the government not to depend on the US to fight terrorism.

After the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Washington announced a $10 million-award for anyone offering information leading to Al-Douri’s arrest or death.

Al-Douri was the second in line in Saddam’s regime and had been in hiding since the American invasion. He sometimes issued statements; in one he announced his support for ISIS.

Antichrist Speaks Out Against Babylonian Hegemony (Rev 13)

Iraqi Cleric Says US Defense Bill May Split Iraq

April 29, 2015 – 17:17

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday threatened to hit the US interests in and out of Iraq over a proposed defense bill yet to be approved by the US, which he said could divide Iraq.

“The US House of Representatives intends to pass a draft law on Iraq making each sect independent from the other, and this will be the beginning of Iraq’s division,” Sadr said in a statement.

If the US passes such law, “then we will be obliged to lift the freeze on the military wing which is tasked with (fighting) the American side, to start hit the US interests in Iraq and even abroad possibly,” Sadr warned.

The US House Armed Services Committee on April 27 released a defense bill which is scheduled to be debated and voted on in the committee on April 29.

The bill suggested that at least 25 percent of 715 million dollars of US aid to Iraqi forces to be allocated to the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Sunni tribal militias and a yet-to-be-established Iraqi Sunni National Guard, Xinhua reported.

Sadr also urged the Iraqi government and the country’s parliament to adopt a strong response to the US bill, the statement said, adding that the Iraqi people have to protect their land by rejecting and denouncing such move that could divide the country.

Babylon Vs. Antichrist: Ultimate Winner Al-Sadr (Rev 13)

 

 Meet the General Shaking Up America’s Yemen, ISIS, and Hostage Rescue Plans

Lieutenant General Bennet Sacolick’s little-known office is grabbing the spotlight with its review of U.S. hostage policy and ISIS and Yemen strategy.

 

Army Lieutenant General Bennet S. Sacolick still remembers the call: The body of an American hostage had been found in Iraq.It was 2004, and the Iraqi insurgency was building momentum. Four Blackwater USA contractors had recently been killed and their burned bodies hung from a bridge in Fallujah. The Mahdi army, a Shia militia created by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was rising up and Sacolick, then a colonel, was commanding a special operations task force in Iraq.After the call, Sacolick and his men tracked down the insurgents and captured or killed the group responsible for the kidnapping. It was a single-minded hunt with little concern for anything but the location of the next target. Sacolick never considered the victim’s family—either during the hunt for the insurgents or after the body was recovered near an overpass. The family wasn’t part of the mission.

“The Iraqis would love for us to fight their fight for them, but it is a bad idea.”

“We eventually were able to kill or capture every single one of them, but I never associated that with a family back home,” said Sacolick, who asked that the victim not be named for privacy reasons. “I’ve since met the family and they are wonderful people, and now I’m on the other end of it and I realize there is a huge tail associated with hostages. Maybe that was my own personal maturing process, when you realize there was more to it than just what is going on in my battle space in Iraq.”
That disconnect between those trying to free the hostage and the family waiting for news of their loved ones is one reason the Obama administration ordered a review of how the U.S. government handles hostage negotiations and rescues. Sacolick, now director of the strategic operational planning directorate, was tapped to oversee the review, thrusting his little known planning office at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) into the spotlight.

While not household names, Sacolick and his office play an integral role in the United States’ counterterrorism fight. They are the architects of the strategy to combat terrorism worldwide, including the plan to destroy ISIS. In a rare interview, Sacolick talked to The Daily Beast about the ongoing hostage review; how his office is rewriting the strategy in Yemen from scratch as the country disintegrates into a civil war; and how his office is revising the plan to degrade and defeat ISIS as Iranian-backed militias lead an offensive in Tikrit.

The hostage police review was ordered by President Obama in August, shortly after the video emerged showing journalist James Foley’s death. The families were not invited to be a part of the review until December. Christine Wormuth, the undersecretary of defense for policy, said last year that the review will include a “specific emphasis on examining family engagement, intelligence collection, and diplomatic engagement policies.”

Typically, the FBI is the leading agency that deals with the families. Military special operations units often conduct the rescue, with recent attempts in both Yemen and Syria. Much of the criticism of how the U.S. government handles hostage negotiations focuses on turf wars between the government agencies, poor leadership, and a lack of compassion and communication with the families. Foley’s parents said they felt ignored by U.S. officials.

The Daily Beast has spoken with several families who said they are not regularly updated and that information gathered by different agencies is not shared, often forcing families to serve as a bridge. The families also said there is no clear hostage policy, creating an ad hoc system that leads to delays and a breakdown of communication.

The review started with letters to families and former hostages. Sacolick and his team interviewed in person every single family who lost a loved one or had a loved one still in captivity.

“I am the honest broker in the process,” Sacolick said. “I am working directly for the White House.”

In addition to interviewing families of hostages and former hostages, the review team consulted with experts in the government, think tanks, and representatives of four countries. The interviews brought back Sacolick’s experience in Iraq, he said. Connecting the people pursuing the safe recovery of a hostage with the people talking to the family is an important step, he added.

“We just don’t do a great job of keeping families informed,” Sacolick said. “We can do better. It is the most traumatic experience of their life. We can do much better at providing, not just leveraging, all elements of this great, wonderful government to bring their loved ones back home and doing a better job keeping them informed. Right now there is a disconnect.”

Sacolick declined to reveal any of the recommendations in his upcoming report besides a need for better communication with the families. He said the review is about halfway complete and is expected later this spring.

The hostage review is one of the highest profile projects on Sacolick’s desk, but his daily challenge is mapping out the United States’ counterterrorism strategy.

“Trust me, someone is scheming against a U.S. Embassy somewhere on this planet every single day,” Sacolick said. “There are threats emanating from half a dozen countries. It keeps you up at night, but I am really comfortable with our country’s posture to prevent that.”

Sacolick said his career, which has spanned three decades, was good preparation for his current job. Sitting in his office, Sacolick’s walls tell the story of that career. A framed plaque commemorates his tour as commanding general of the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, where he oversaw the training of the Army’s special operations forces. And a framed flag marks his stint as commander of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment—Delta, more commonly known as Delta Force.

Sacolick enlisted in the Army in 1981 and served with the 2nd Ranger Battalion before earning his commission a year later. He has commanded at the detachment, troop, squadron, group, and task force level, including 12 years in Delta Force as a unit and task force commander during the Iraq War. He has seen combat in Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, according to his biography.

“I’ve been involved in every aspect of combating terror at every single level for the past 30 years,” Sacolick said.

And it shows in the ways the United States is fighting ISIS and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the terror outfit’s branch in Yemen. Sacolick’s first special operations command was with the 7th Special Forces Group, training and mentoring soldiers from Latin American nations including Colombia, Peru, and El Salvador. He sees the partnerships with local forces as the way forward, especially in Iraq.

“The introduction of American ground forces in large numbers is not the answer,” he said. “What will we achieve that we couldn’t achieve 10 years ago? Why is now going to be any different? We’ll just get sucked into a black hole. The Iraqis would love for us to fight their fight for them, but it is a bad idea.”

Sacolick said the American people wouldn’t accept another massive deployment of conventional troops as in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I think they accept the small footprint that Special Forces provides,” he said, adding that small numbers of conventional troops like the 82nd Airborne Division Trainers in Iraq could fit that bill, too.

But that model depends on a partnership with the local government. Take Yemen, where the government was overthrown by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. That forced the United States to remove its special operations forces from the country—hampering counterterrorism operations and drone strikes against AQAP, generally considered the most dangerous of the al Qaeda affiliates.

With Saudi Arabia leading a coalition against the rebels, the violence in Yemen has turned into a regional proxy war. Sacolick’s staff is rewriting its Yemen strategy, touted as the president’s counterterror model, from scratch as conditions on the ground shift daily.

“They were supporting our CT [counterterrorism] efforts,” Sacolick said. “Now that government is on the verge of collapse. It is really concerning. We’re talking about it every day. That is one of those areas where we let it play out.”

But finding willing partners with a more stable government is hard. Kurdish Peshmerga units are making progress against ISIS in Syria and northern Iraq. But the same can’t be said for the Iraqi army. Defense officials announced plans to oust ISIS from Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, this spring. Iraqi officials said their forces aren’t ready, however.

Iranian military advisers and militia fighters have had some success mobilizing the Iraqis, leading an offensive against Tikrit last month. But the Iraqis’ first major counterattack against ISIS stalled, forcing the U.S. to break the stalemate with airstrikes. With the city liberated last week, the militia victory turned into an orgy of looting and lynching, according to media reports.

Between 80,000 and 100,000 militia fighters are in Iraq fighting ISIS, and the influx of Iranian fighters and influence is a concern, Sacolick said.“As long as they take their orders from Baghdad, I think we’ll be OK,” he said. “Those were the guys we were fighting five years ago. What happens when rogue elements decide they don’t like the U.S. Embassy? This is a consideration. We look at this all the time.”

Sacolick said ISIS poses a much bigger threat to Iran than the U.S., which could be a good thing.

“When ISIL took down Mosul and were moving on Baghdad, you don’t think my counterpart in the Iranian government wasn’t in a panic?” Sacolick said, using the government’s preferred acronym for ISIS. “That was probably the most significant national security crisis they’ve had in a very, very long time. Let’s leverage them. I am sure they’d love to have American soldiers die on their behalf, but I’d prefer to have Iranian ones.”

Sacolick’s staff is reworking the strategy against ISIS, and the revision is due this month. Sacolick said the shelf life for any strategy is about 36 months before it needs to be updated, but he is optimistic that the overall plan is working.

“We’ve been able to disrupt ISIL’s momentum,” he said. “They completely overwhelmed Mosul and they were on the heels of Baghdad. We were able to disrupt their momentum. We were able to affect their ability to communicate. We were able to affect their ability to mass. We were able to affect their ability to maneuver.”

At the end of the day, Sacolick knows the United States can’t shoot its way to victory. The only way to win is to change minds, and that fight begins on social media. A first step is confronting ISIS’s massive social network, which produces almost 100,000 tweets a day.

“Their social media apparatus is out of control,” Sacolick said. “We’re just starting to develop a strategy, a plan to address it, and it is a tough one. I just don’t think America appreciates the significance of that. Three middle-class schoolgirls decide they want to be freedom fighters in Syria. How does this happen in our country? How do we address that?”

Brookings analysts J.M. Berger and Jonathon Morgan found current efforts to combat ISIS’s social media campaign wanting, according to a March analysis on ISIS’s Twitter activity. Morgan and Berger said counter messages from the State Department were only moderately effective, and most watchers on Twitter tuned in to see who won the argument. Rita Katz, director of the SITE Intelligence Group, called the State Department’s counter-messaging program an “embarrassment,” according to the report.

Morgan and Berger argue that any counter messaging has to come from a third party not affiliated with the U.S. government. Sacolick said a third party from a Muslim country like Jordan or the United Arab Emirates is needed to spread an anti-terror message.

“We have over 60 countries that want to help in some capacity,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be dollars or dropping bombs.”

But Sacolick acknowledged there isn’t a single solution to combating terrorism or a grand strategy to achieve victory, despite his mission. In the end, it will take battles on all fronts—military, economic, diplomatic—to make any real difference.

“We won World War II because we were part of a coalition,” Sacolick said. “Maybe we need some 21st-century [version] of that. Where is that community of the willing that all view terrorism as a threat to their national interest? That is what will be required.”