Following the recent terrorist outrage on a Tunisian beach killing scores of British holidaymakers, David Cameron now feels at ease and able to reveal his true foreign and domestic policy programme to the world at large. As told by the Beeb: the “fight against Islamic State is ‘the struggle of our generation’, David Cameron has said, as it emerged the British death toll in the Tunisian attack will rise above 30. Home Secretary Theresa May will travel to Tunisia on Monday [, 29 June 2015] to meet ministers and those caught up in the attack. A total of 38 people were killed on a beach near Sousse by a gunman with links to Islamic State extremists. Mr Cameron said IS could be beaten but it would take ‘a very long time’. The prime minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the ‘absolutely horrific’ events had ‘shocked the whole of the world’. He said IS posed ‘an existential threat’ to the West, and its members in Iraq and Syria were plotting ‘terrible attacks’ on British soil. Mr Cameron – who will chair another meeting of the Cobra emergency committee on Monday morning – said the UK must have a ‘full-spectrum response’ to the IS threat – including continuing with air strikes”.[1]
In other words, a possibly deranged or brainwashed individual by the name of Seifeddine Rezgui, with no clear or apparent connections to the Caliph and his henchmen, has now handed Cameron his very own Bush moment. In the aftermath of what has become known as “9/11”, then-U.S. President George W. Bush craftily utilized the terror attacks to oil the wheels of the Military-Industrial Complex (or Mic,[2] if you will) and unleash the true successor to the Cold War in the form of the War on Terror, an endless affair that has received a new moniker since then. In addition, Bush also oversaw the introduction of the PATRIOT Act and the subsequent implementation of extreme and complete surveillance. But, back to Cameron now and his plans to unseat Bashar al-Assad, oops, I meant the Caliph Ibrahim (aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi): “Our strategy is to build up local armies. It’s much easier to just invade a country. . . it’s easier and faster, but that has consequences”.[3] Still talking on Radio 4, Cameron declared that “[i]t is an existential threat because what’s happening here is the perversion of a great religion, and the creation of this poisonous death cult that is seducing too many young minds in Europe, in America, in the Middle East and elsewhere. This is going to be the struggle of our generation and we have to fight it with everything that we can”.[4] And sounding just like Bush, the PM minced now words stating that “[]hey have declared war on us and they are attacking our people at home and overseas whether we like it or not”.[5] And so it become apparent that the Tunisia beach attack has now given President Obama a true ally in his attempt to train, equip, and position non-extremist opposition fighters (known more commonly as Jihadi terrorists) in the fight against the new bogeyman.
‘Chris Fogarty was raised on farm in Ireland where he worked the land with his father, and later went on to reside in the US. Mr. Fogarty has been a regular Columnist for the past nineteen years in Irish American News and is a citizen-investigator of Chicago aldermanic crime. He is the author of Ireland 1845-1850: the Perfect Holocaust, and Who Kept it ‘Perfect’ and he is behind irishholocaust.org. Chris joins us to speak about the Irish Holocaust and the cover-up that is accomplished by the same British terrorism and bribery that perpetrated the genocide. He explains the dark time during 1845-1850 when Ireland starved because its food, from 40 to 70 shiploads per day, was removed at gunpoint by 12,000 British constables reinforced by the British militia. Chris describes how the British completely took over 95% of Ireland’s territory, extracting all goods and wiping out at least half of the indigenous population. We’ll discuss the lie of Ireland’s “potato famine,” the official story used to explain the deaths of over 5.2 million people, which is propagated to this day – even by the Irish government, academia, and the Catholic Church. Chris gives details of his extensive research into the locations of British food removal regiments and over 170 mass graves across Ireland. He’ll explain the fear of persecution and intimidation that continues to infect Irish society in modern times. We end by considering Ireland’s long history of ethnic cleansing, the role of the government and Catholic hierarchy, and the notion that the IRA are terrorists (6 March 2015)’.
As reported by RT: “Three fatal terrorist attacks on three continents within hours of each other have left officials fearful that a coordinated campaign of terror is underway, following last week’s calls for ‘a month of disasters for infidels’ by [the] Islamic State”.[1] The Guardian reports that “[m]ore than 60 people have been killed across three continents, during three separate attacks in Tunisia, France and Kuwait. These attacks are not believed to be coordinated. At least 38 people have been killed in a terrorist attack on a beachside hotel in Sousse, Tunisia and 36 wounded (eight in critical condition).The British Foreign Minister confirmed 5 Britons were among the dead, as was one Irish woman. Guests at the Imperial Marhaba hotel, barricaded themselves in hotel rooms throughout the day. British holidaymakers are being flown back to the UK on Friday night to Gatwick, Doncaster and Manchester airports. Tunisia’s president said the attack was “worse than terrible” and has called for a unified international response to terrorist threats. The Tunisian interior ministry said a gunman was killed in an exchange of fire with security forces. There were conflicting reports over whether there was another gunman, and, if so, whether he was still at large. In Kuwait, at least 27 people were killed by an explosion at a Shia mosque in Kuwait city during Friday prayers. More than 227 people were injured. In France, police have arrested four people – including the main suspect Yassin Salhi – after a decapitated body was found following an attack on a factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, south of Lyon. The suspect had reportedly tried to blow up the factory belonging to a US gas company. The three attacks come just days after after an Islamic State (Isis) spokesman urged jihadists to make the holy month of Ramadan ‘a time of calamity for the infidels … Shias and apostate Muslims’. Isis has claimed the attack in Kuwait but no group has claimed the attacks in Tunisia or France”.[2]
On the same day, homosexuals across the U.S. rejoiced as they were granted the right to engage legally in marital relations in every single one of the 50 states that make up the United States: ‘Friday on the NewsHour, the Supreme Court declares same-sex marriage a nationwide right. Also: Terror attacks kill dozens on three continents, mourning the victims of the Charleston shooting, Mark Shields and Michael Gerson on this week’s news and looking back at a time when the government targeted gay employees (26 June 2015)’.
‘Philip Marshall was killed in a black operation over confessing to having worked with CIA drug smugglers and the potential exposure of 9/11 secrets. In the background to this, former US National Security Agency Officer Wayne Madsen says the 9/11 investigative author Philip Marshall and his children were killed in a “black ops hit” by the CIA, dismissing the suicide hypothesis. Marshall was afraid of being silenced for his revelations about 9/11, Madsen said, noting that a side door the investigator never used was wide open when his dead body was found. Marshall believed the former US President George Bush had pulled off the 9/11 attack to foment a government coup. In his fourth book, he was supposed to disclose blockbuster information. Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Kevin Barrett, an American author and political expert in Madison, Wisconsin, to further discuss the issue. Barrett is joined by Lee Kaplan, investigative journalist from Berkley (4 March 2013)’.
‘Team Redacted explains why a basic monthly income for all Americans isn’t such a crazy idea, proposes eating bugs to feed a growing world population, US military straddles the fence of legality and more! (19 June 2015)’.
‘Christopher J. Hale, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. joins Thom. Pope Francis has released a groundbreaking new document urging the world to take action against climate change. Could this mark a turning point in the fight to save the planet? (19 June 2015)’.
The Pope (aka Jorge Mario Bergoglio) has managed to grab quite some headlines since he got elected to his office on 13 March 2013 . . . In some ways, Pope Francis has really taken the Holy See into hitherto uncharted waters, one could argue. As for example reported last May by the New York Daily News: “Pope Francis has nicely set the record straight on his thoughts about Israel and the Palestinians. There was doubt because, while meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Pope was said to have called Abbas an ‘angel of peace’. Subsequent translations suggested that Francis had actually told Abbas, ‘May you be an angel of peace’. Then the Vatican indicated that the Pope had termed Abbas ‘a bit of an angel of peace’. Now, a Portuguese-Israeli journalist has reported that, in a written statement, Francis remembered telling Abbas that one day he might become a peace angel. Still more powerfully, the Pope is reported to have written that ‘anyone who does not recognize the Jewish people and the State of Israel — and their right to exist — is guilty of anti-Semitism'”.[1] On step forward, five steps back . . . On other issues, he seems more forthright though, such as this month when Matthew Tharrett wrote that “Pope Francis ruined the celebratory vibe of Rome’s annual gay pride march over the weekend by spewing anti-gay rhetoric from inside The Vatican’s walls while LGBT revelers poured into the city around him. LGBT parents are incapable of raising children properly, he told an audience of around 25,000 Catholics at Sunday service on June 14, just one day after Rome’s pride march initiated a weekend of LGBT festivities”.[2] Oh well, mustn’t grumble . . . turns out the Pope is not gay-friendly after all.
On climate change, on the other hand, the Pope has really broken new ground, as indicated by Thom Hartmann and his Catholic guest in the above clip. The Encyclical Letter is called Laudato Si’ and opens in the following pious yet firm way: “‘LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore’ – ‘Praise be to you, my Lord’. In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. ‘Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs’ . . . This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she ‘groans in travail’ (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters”.[3] Going down the historical road, the Pope’s missive continues that “[m]ore than fifty years ago, with the world teetering on the brink of nuclear crisis, Pope Saint John XXIII wrote an Encyclical which not only rejected war but offered a proposal for peace. He addressed his message Pacem in Terris to the entire ‘Catholic world’ and indeed ‘to all men and women of good will’. Now, faced as we are with global environmental deterioration, I wish to address every person living on this planet. In my Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I wrote to all the members of the Church with the aim of encouraging ongoing missionary renewal. In this Encyclical, I would like to enter into dialogue with all people about our common home . . . In 1971, eight years after Pacem in Terris, Blessed Pope Paul VI referred to the ecological concern as ‘a tragic consequence’ of unchecked human activity: ‘Due to an ill-considered exploitation of nature, humanity runs the risk of destroying it and becoming in turn a victim of this degradation’. He spoke in similar terms to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations about the potential for an ‘ecological catastrophe under the effective explosion of industrial civilization’, and stressed ‘the urgent need for a radical change in the conduct of humanity’, inasmuch as ‘the most extraordinary scientific advances, the most amazing technical abilities, the most astonishing economic growth, unless they are accompanied by authentic social and moral progress, will definitively turn against man’ . . . Saint John Paul II became increasingly concerned about this issue. In his first Encyclical he warned that human beings frequently seem ‘to see no other meaning in their natural environment than what serves for immediate use and consumption’. Subsequently, he would call for a global ecological conversion. At the same time, he noted that little effort had been made to ‘safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic human ecology’. The destruction of the human environment is extremely serious, not only because God has entrusted the world to us men and women, but because human life is itself a gift which must be defended from various forms of debasement. Every effort to protect and improve our world entails profound changes in ‘lifestyles, models of production and consumption, and the established structures of power which today govern societies’. Authentic human development has a moral character. It presumes full respect for the human person, but it must also be concerned for the world around us and ‘take into account the nature of each being and of its mutual connection in an ordered system’. Accordingly, our human ability to transform reality must proceed in line with God’s original gift of all that is . . . My predecessor Benedict XVI likewise proposed ‘eliminating the structural causes of the dysfunctions of the world economy and correcting models of growth which have proved incapable of ensuring respect for the environment’. He observed that the world cannot be analyzed by isolating only one of its aspects, since ‘the book of nature is one and indivisible’, and includes the environment, life, sexuality, the family, social relations, and so forth. It follows that ‘the deterioration of nature is closely connected to the culture which shapes human coexistence’. Pope Benedict asked us to recognize that the natural environment has been gravely damaged by our irresponsible behaviour. The social environment has also suffered damage. Both are ultimately due to the same evil: the notion that there are no indisputable truths to guide our lives, and hence human freedom is limitless. We have forgotten that ‘man is not only a freedom which he creates for himself. Man does not create himself. He is spirit and will, but also nature’. With paternal concern, Benedict urged us to realize that creation is harmed ‘where we ourselves have the final word, where everything is simply our property and we use it for ourselves alone. The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any higher instance than ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves'”.[4]
In this way, Francis presents care for the environment as a well-established Catholic tradition and places himself in a strong line of papal defenders of “our common home”, the sub-lunar reality that is planet earth. The Pope’s letter continues that “[t]hese statements of the Popes echo the reflections of numerous scientists, philosophers, theologians and civic groups, all of which have enriched the Church’s thinking on these questions. Outside the Catholic Church, other Churches and Christian communities – and other religions as well – have expressed deep concern and offered valuable reflections on issues which all of us find disturbing. To give just one striking example, I would mention the statements made by the beloved Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, with whom we share the hope of full ecclesial communion”.[5] And yes, Istanbul’s very Orthodox Patriarch is a very well known activist in the field of environmental protection. The Patriarch even traveled to the Arctic to prove his personal credentials in this respect. The author and theologian Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis, who also serves as the advisor to the Ecumenical Patriarch on environmental issues, posits that “[n]o other church leader has been so recognized for his leadership and initiatives in confronting the theological, ethical and practical imperative of environmental issues in our time as the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. He has long placed the environment at the head of his church’s agenda, earning him numerous awards and the title ‘Green Patriarch'”.[6] As a result, we can but wonder whether the present pope also aims at such accolades . . . the Green Patriarch and the Green Pope cooperating to save the world from the evil that is anthropogenic climate change or a particularly crafty demon that has been at work for a couple of centuries now.
In fact, the now-retired Benedict was already nick-named the Green Pope at one time . . . in July 2012, Sabrina Arena Ferrisi wrote that “the Vatican announced in 2007 that the Paul VI audience hall was to be covered in solar panels, [and consequently] environmentalists around the world took notice. Eighteen months later, the building was topped with 2,400 photovoltaic panels, generating sufficient electricity to supply the building’s heating, cooling and lighting needs year-round. Throughout his seven-year pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI has promoted the idea of sustainability and resource conservation. In addition to the solar panels, Vatican City has planted a 37-acre forest in Hungary and installed a solar cooling system in one of its cafeterias, making it the worlds’ first carbon-neutral state”, adding that Pope Benedict XVI did “find some common ground with environmentalists on stewardship of the earth. While most liberals label him ‘ultra-conservative’, Benedict’s teaching on the environment has many on both ends of the political spectrum nodding in agreement . . . [at that time n]o other pope in history ha[d] written or spoken as much about the earth as Benedict XVI, which has led some in the media to dub him ‘The Green Pope’. He has spoken about the environment at World Youth Day and with dignitaries at the Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome”.[7]
As a result, Pope Francis hasn’t really broken new ground as much as revived a tradition of papal concern with environmental issues. And issuing an Encyclical Letter is arguably the best a pope can do on any issue . . . Francis addresses a whole host of matters in his missive: from “POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE”, “THE ISSUE OF WATER”, and the “LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY”, to the “DECLINE IN THE QUALITY OF HUMAN LIFE AND THE BREAKDOWN OF SOCIETY” as well as “GLOBAL INEQUALITY”. But then, he starts assuming a more accusatory tone: “Modern anthropocentrism has paradoxically ended up prizing technical thought over reality, since ‘the technological mind sees nature as an insensate order, as a cold body of facts, as a mere ‘given’, as an object of utility, as raw material to be hammered into useful shape; it views the cosmos similarly as a mere ‘space’ into which objects can be thrown with complete indifference’. The intrinsic dignity of the world is thus compromised. When human beings fail to find their true place in this world, they misunderstand themselves and end up acting against themselves: ‘Not only has God given the earth to man, who must use it with respect for the original good purpose for which it was given, but, man too is God’s gift to man. He must therefore respect the natural and moral structure with which he has been endowed'”.[8] The Pope then homes in on the real culprit, which is “[m]odernity [that] has been marked by an excessive anthropocentrism which today, under another guise, continues to stand in the way of shared understanding and of any effort to strengthen social bonds”.[9] And he argues that it “cannot be maintained that empirical science provides a complete explanation of life, the interplay of all creatures and the whole of reality. This would be to breach the limits imposed by its own methodology. If we reason only within the confines of the latter, little room would be left for aesthetic sensibility, poetry, or even reason’s ability to grasp the ultimate meaning and purpose of things”.[10] After all, Pope Francis is another pope, or another one of God’s shepherds of souls and another one of his representatives on earth: the “Father is the ultimate source of everything, the loving and self-communicating foundation of all that exists. The Son, his reflection, through whom all things were created, united himself to this earth when he was formed in the womb of Mary. The Spirit, infinite bond of love, is intimately present at the very heart of the universe, inspiring and bringing new pathways. The world was created by the three Persons acting as a single divine principle, but each one of them performed this common work in accordance with his own personal property. Consequently, ‘when we contemplate with wonder the universe in all its grandeur and beauty, we must praise the whole Trinity’ . . . For Christians, believing in one God who is trinitarian communion suggests that the Trinity has left its mark on all creation”.[11]
‘China Uncensored is China news like the Daily Show or Colbert Report is US news. It’s a little funny, a little scary, and pretty darn entertaining. Chris Chappell’s launches his war on the CCP with a sarcastic take on China’s government abuse with the latest news’.
10 Signs China’s Military Is Weaker Than You Think
‘Sure China has the largest standing army in the world, with 2.3 million people, a military budget of 120 billion dollars, and experimental spider tanks. But it turns out that China’s People’s Liberation Army might not be as powerful as you think. And here are 10 reasons why (27 May 2015)’.
12 Craziest-Looking Chinese Buildings
‘”Weird architecture” is something even Chinese leader Xi Jinping is rallying against. From Beijing to Shanghai, bizarre buildings have popped up all over China and you won’t believe some of the designs they’ve come up with. Some of these you’ll have to see to believe. On this episode of China Uncensored, 12 of the craziest buildings in China (10 June 2015)’.
China’s Secret War Against the US
‘For over a decade, China—and by China I mean the Communist Party of China—has been engaged in a full scale war with the United States. But the average American has no idea. Because China never declared war. And China hasn’t fired a single bullet. Nonetheless, the Communist Party of China is engaged in a full-scale, multi-billion-dollar war with the United States, and it threatens every American worker and taxpayer (19 June 2015)’.
Hizb ut-Tahrir, the international organization that has been striving for a revival of the Caliphate in a non-violent manner, organized a rally in Istanbul on Friday, 19 June 2015 (corresponding to 2nd Ramadan 1436AH). Following the Friday prayers at the Fatih Mosque, founded by Sultan Mehmed II and restored by Mustafa III, the organization’s Turkish branch tried to whip up a frenzy. The 1996-founded website The Khilafah notes that the “rally of the ‘Great Ummah’ was held in support of the oppressed Muslims across the world and the call to establish the Khilafah upon the methodology of Muhammad. The Khilafah is the only correct project for revival for the Islamic Ummah”.[1]
In the journal Terrorism and Political Violence, the political scientist Emmanuel Karagiannis and the psychologist Clark Mccauley summarize as follows: “Hizb ut-Tahrir is a transnational movement that currently finds support among young Muslims in Central Asia and Western Europe. It presents a complex challenge to both Western and Muslim governments because it calls for the unification of all Muslim countries into a single Caliphate but has consistently rejected violence as a tool of political change”.[2 Founded in 1953 by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani in Jerusalem, Hizb ut-Tahrir is currently led by Palestinian civil engineer named Ata Khalil Abu-Rashta, who has been heading the caliphal cause since 2003. The aim of Hizb ut-Tahrir is the foundation of an Islamic State, but as stated earlier the organization does not condone violence and is thus in no way connected to Abu Bakr al-Baghdada (aka the Caliph Ibrahim) or his Islamic State, previously known as ISIS. Hizb ut-Tahrir, on the other hand, devised a Draft Constitution, consisting of 186 articles:
“Article 1
The Islamic ‘Aqeedah constitutes the foundation of the State. Nothing is permitted to exist in the government’s structure, accountability, or any other aspect connected with the government, that does not take the ‘Aqeedah as its source. The ‘Aqeedah is also the source for the State’s constitution and shar’i canons. Nothing connected to the constitution or canons is permitted to exist unless it emanates from the Islamic ‘Aqeedah.
Article 2
The domain of Islam (Daar ul-Islam) is that entity which applies the rules of Islam in life’s affairs and whose security do Muslims maintain. The domain of disbelief (Daar ul-Kufr) is that entity which applies the rules of kufr and whose security is maintained by the kuffaar
Article 3
The Khaleefah is empowered to adopt divine rules (aHkaam shar’iyyah) enacted as constitution and canons. Once the Khaleefah has adopted a divine rule, that rule alone becomes the divine rule that must be enacted and then implemented. Every citizen must openly and secretly obey that adopted rule.
Article 4
The Khaleefah does not adopt divine rules pertaining to worship, i.e. ibadaat, except in connection with alms (zakaah) and war (jihaad). Also, he does not adopt any of the thoughts connected with the Islamic ‘Aqeedah.
Article 5
All citizens of the Islamic State are entitled to enjoy the divine rights and duties.
Article 6
All citizens of the State shall be treated equally regardless of religion, race, colour or any other matter. The State is forbidden to discriminate among its citizens in all matters, be it ruling or judicial, or caring of affairs”.[3]
The Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir explains that the “Khilafah is the global leadership for all the Muslims in the world. Its role is to establish the laws of the Islamic Shari’ah and to carry the call of Islam to the world. It is a model completely distinguished from any other ruling style such as democracy, theocracy or monarchy. The Shari’ah that is applied in founding the ruling, in caring for the citizen’s affairs, and in the external affairs is from Allah. It is a system of unity not a system of union. The system of government in Islam, which is the system of Khilafah, is a unitary system of one state and not a federal system. Muslims all over the world are not allowed to have more than one Islamic State . . . The Khilafah does not exist today in any shape or form throughout the entire world. It was destroyed following World War I at the hands of Mustafa Kemal [Atatürk] of Turkey. Commenting on its destruction, Lord Curzon, the British foreign secretary, told the House of Commons on 24th July 1924 ‘Turkey (the seat of the Khilafah) is dead and will never rise again because we have destroyed its moral strength, the Khilafah and Islam'”.[4]
The academics Karagiannis and Mccauley elaborate that “Hizb ut-Tahrir views itself not as a religious organization, but rather as a political party whose ideology is based on Islam. Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Islamic movement, which calls for the unification of all Muslim countries into a single state, the Caliphate. It has sought to advance its cause by widespread dissemination of published materials including books and pamphlets. Although Hizb ut-Tahrir advocates a strict interpretation of Islam, it does not oppose modern technology and makes extensive use of the Internet to spread its message”.[5] They go on describing the organization’s make-up in some detail: “Hizb ut-Tahrir operates through a network of underground cells resembling those that the Bolshevik revolutionaries employed as the groundwork for their seizure of power in Russia in October 1917. At the lowest level, members and new recruits are organized in study-circles (halqa) of five people. The head of each study-circle (mushrif) supervises its members who study the group’s ideology. At the district level, there is a local committee, whose leader is termed Naqib, which is responsible for the administration of group affairs in the relevant urban center and its surrounding villages. Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects the concept of the modern nation-state and has divided the world into provinces (Wilayah); a province can coincide with a nation-state or a particular region within a state. At the provincial level, there is a committee headed by a provincial representative (Mu’tamad) who oversees group activities. The Mu’tamad is appointed by the central committee (lajnat al-qiyada) of the international party, headed by the supreme leader (Amir) of the Hizb ut-Tahrir. Internal discipline and obedience to the central leadership are necessary for such a pyramid-like group to avoid infiltration by security agents and maintain ideological coherence. There is a range of disciplinary measures for members who break the rules, with expulsion being the most severe penalty”.[6]
[5] Emmanuel Karagiannis and Clark Mccauley, “Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami: Evaluating the Threat Posed by a Radical Islamic Group That Remains Nonviolent”.
[6] Emmanuel Karagiannis and Clark Mccauley, “Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami: Evaluating the Threat Posed by a Radical Islamic Group That Remains Nonviolent”.
The Associated Press reports from Istanbul that “WikiLeaks is in the process of publishing more than 500,000 Saudi diplomatic documents to the Internet, the transparency website said Friday [, 19 June 2015], a move that echoes its famous release of U.S. State Department cables in 2010 . . . WikiLeaks said in a statement that it has already posted roughly 60,000 files. Most of them appear to be in Arabic. There was no immediate way to verify the authenticity of the documents, although WikiLeaks has a long track record of hosting large-scale leaks of government material. Many of the documents carried green letterhead marked ‘Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’ or ‘Ministry of Foreign Affairs’. Some were marked ‘urgent’ or ‘classified’. At least one appeared to be from the Saudi Embassy in Washington. If genuine, the documents would offer a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the notoriously opaque kingdom. They might also shed light on Riyadh’s longstanding regional rivalry with Iran, its support for Syrian rebels and Egypt’s military-backed government, and its opposition to an emerging international agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program. One of the documents, dated to 2012, appears to highlight Saudi Arabia’s well-known skepticism about the Iranian nuclear talks. A message from the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Tehran to the Foreign Ministry in Riyadh describes ‘flirting American messages’ being carried to Iran via an unnamed Turkish mediator. Another 2012 missive, this time sent from the Saudi Embassy in Abu Dhabi, said the United Arab Emirates was putting ‘heavy pressure’ on the Egyptian government not to try former president Hosni Mubarak, who had been overthrown in a popular uprising the year before”.[1]
Going down the nitty-gritty, the AP report continues that in an “Aug. 14, 2008 message marked ‘classified and very urgent’, the Foreign Ministry wrote to the Saudi Embassy in Washington to warn that dozens of students from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries had visited the Israeli Embassy in the U.S. capital as part of an international leadership program. ‘They listened to diplomats’ briefings from the embassy employees, they asked questions and then they took pictures’, the message said, asking the embassy for a speedy update on the situation. Another eye-catching item was a document addressed to the interior and justice ministers notifying them that a son of Osama bin Laden had obtained a certificate from the American Embassy in Riyadh ‘showing death of his father’. Many more of the dozens of documents examined by The Associated Press appeared to be the product of mundane administrative work, such as emails about setting up a website or operating an office fax machine. The AP was not immediately able to reach anyone whose phone numbers or email addresses were published in the various documents, but WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson told AP he was confident that the material was genuine. It is not clear how WikiLeaks got the documents, although in its statement the website referred to a recent electronic attack on the Saudi Foreign Ministry by a group calling itself the Yemen Cyber Army. Hrafnsson declined to elaborate on the statement or say whether the hackers subsequently passed documents on to WikiLeaks”.
And right on cue, Reuters reports that “Saudi Arabia Saturday [, 20 June] urged its citizens not to distribute ‘documents that might be faked’ in an apparent response to WikiLeaks’ publication Friday of more than 60,000 documents it says are secret Saudi diplomatic communications. The statement, made by the Foreign Ministry on its Twitter account, did not directly deny the documents’ authenticity”.[2] On the WikiLeaks website, on the other hand, this could be read on Saturday, 20 June: “The Saudi Cables. Over half a million cables and other documents from the Saudi Foreign Ministry.A total of 61195 published so far”.[3] But then the WikiLeaks team also released this for the press: “Today, Friday 19th June at 1pm GMT, WikiLeaks began publishing The Saudi Cables: more than half a million cables and other documents from the Saudi Foreign Ministry that contain secret communications from various Saudi Embassies around the world. The publication includes ‘Top Secret’ reports from other Saudi State institutions, including the Ministry of Interior and the Kingdom’s General Intelligence Services. The massive cache of data also contains a large number of email communications between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and foreign entities. The Saudi Cables are being published in tranches of tens of thousands of documents at a time over the coming weeks. Today WikiLeaks is releasing around 70,000 documents from the trove as the first tranche. Julian Assange, WikiLeaks publisher, said: ‘The Saudi Cables lift the lid on a increasingly erratic and secretive dictatorship that has not only celebrated its 100th beheading this year, but which has also become a menace to its neighbours and itself’. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a hereditary dictatorship bordering the Persian Gulf. Despite the Kingdom’s infamous human rights record, Saudi Arabia remains a top-tier ally of the United States and the United Kingdom in the Middle East, largely owing to its globally unrivalled oil reserves. The Kingdom frequently tops the list of oil-producing countries, which has given the Kingdom disproportionate influence in international affairs. Each year it pushes billions of petro-dollars into the pockets of UK banks and US arms companies. Last year it became the largest arms importer in the world, eclipsing China, India and the combined countries of Western Europe. The Kingdom has since the 1960s played a major role in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) and dominates the global Islamic charity market. For 40 years the Kingdom’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was headed by one man: Saud al Faisal bin Abdulaziz, a member of the Saudi royal family, and the world’s longest-serving foreign minister. The end of Saud al Faisal’s tenure, which began in 1975, coincided with the royal succession upon the death of King Abdullah in January 2015. Saud al Faisal’s tenure over the Ministry covered its handling of key events and issues in the foreign relations of Saudi Arabia, from the fall of the Shah and the second Oil Crisis to the September 11 attacks and its ongoing proxy war against Iran. The Saudi Cables provide key insights into the Kingdom’s operations and how it has managed its alliances and consolidated its position as a regional Middle East superpower, including through bribing and co-opting key individuals and institutions. The cables also illustrate the highly centralised bureaucratic structure of the Kingdom, where even the most minute issues are addressed by the most senior officials. Since late March 2015 the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been involved in a war in neighbouring Yemen. The Saudi Foreign Ministry in May 2015 admitted to a breach of its computer networks. Responsibility for the breach was attributed to a group calling itself the Yemeni Cyber Army. The group subsequently released a number of valuable “sample” document sets from the breach on file-sharing sites, which then fell under censorship attacks. The full WikiLeaks trove comprises thousands of times the number of documents and includes hundreds of thousands of pages of scanned images of Arabic text. In a major journalistic research effort, WikiLeaks has extracted the text from these images and placed them into our searchable database. The trove also includes tens of thousands of text files and spreadsheets as well as email messages, which have been made searchable through the WikiLeaks search engine. By coincidence, the Saudi Cables release also marks two other events. Today marks three years since WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London seeking asylum from US persecution, having been held for almost five years without charge in the United Kingdom. Also today Google revealed that it had been forced to hand over more data to the US government in order to assist the prosecution of WikiLeaks staff under US espionage charges arising from our publication of US diplomatic cables”.[4]
The WikiLeaks team continues its attack on Saudi Arabia as follows: “On Monday [, 15 June 2015}, Saudi Arabia celebrated the beheading of its 100th prisoner this year. The story was nowhere to be seen on Arab media despite the story’s circulation on wire services. Even international media [were] relatively mute about this milestone compared to what it might have been if it had concerned a different country. How does a story like this go unnoticed? Today’s release of the WikiLeaks ‘Saudi Cables’ from the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs show how it’s done. The oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its ruling family take a systematic approach to maintaining the country’s positive image on the international stage. Most world governments engage in PR campaigns to fend off criticism and build relations in influential places. Saudi Arabia controls its image by monitoring media and buying loyalties from Australia to Canada and everywhere in between. Documents reveal the extensive efforts to monitor and co-opt Arab media, making sure to correct any deviations in regional coverage of Saudi Arabia and Saudi-related matters. Saudi Arabia’s strategy for co-opting Arab media takes two forms, corresponding to the ‘carrot and stick’ approach, referred to in the documents as ‘neutralisation’ and ‘containment’. The approach is customised depending on the market and the media in question . . . The initial reaction to any negative coverage in the regional media is to ‘neutralise’ it. The term is used frequently in the cables and it pertains to individual journalists and media institutions whose silence and co-operation has been bought. ‘Neutralised’ journalists and media institutions are not expected to praise and defend the Kingdom, only to refrain from publishing news that reflects negatively on the Kingdom, or any criticism of its policies. The ‘containment’ approach is used when a more active propaganda effort is required. Journalists and media institutions relied upon for ‘containment’ are expected not only to sing the Kingdom’s praises, but to lead attacks on any party that dares to air criticisms of the powerful Gulf state. One of the ways ‘neutralisation’ and ‘containment’ are ensured is by purchasing hundreds or thousands of subscriptions in targeted publications. These publications are then expected to return the favour by becoming an ‘asset’ in the Kingdom’s propaganda strategy. A document listing the subscriptions that needed renewal by 1 January 2010 details a series of contributory sums meant for two dozen publications in Damascus, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Kuwait, Amman and Nouakchott. The sums range from $500 to 9,750 Kuwaiti Dinars ($33,000). The Kingdom effectively buys reverse ‘shares’ in the media outlets, where the cash ‘dividends’ flow the opposite way, from the shareholder to the media outlet. In return Saudi Arabia gets political ‘dividends’ – an obliging press. An example of these co-optive practices in action can be seen in an exchange between the Saudi Foreign Ministry and its Embassy in Cairo. On 24 November 2011 Egypt’s Arabic-language broadcast station ONTV hosted the Saudi opposition figure Saad al-Faqih, which prompted the Foreign Ministry to task the embassy with inquiring into the channel. The Ministry asked the embassy to find out how ‘to co-opt it or else we must consider it standing in the line opposed to the Kingdom’s policies’. The document reports that the billionaire owner of the station, Naguib Sawiris, did not want to be ‘opposed to the Kingdom’s policies’ and that he scolded the channel director, asking him ‘never to host al-Faqih again’. He also asked the Ambassador if he’d like to be ‘a guest on the show’. The Saudi Cables are rife with similar examples, some detailing the figures and the methods of payment. These range from small but vital sums of around $2000/year to developing country media outlets – a figure the Guinean News Agency ‘urgently needs’ as ‘it would solve many problems that the agency is facing’ – to millions of dollars, as in the case of Lebanese right-wing television station MTV . . . The ‘neutralisation’ and ‘containment’ approaches are not the only techniques the Saudi Ministry is willing to employ. In cases where ‘containment’ fails to produce the desired effect, the Kingdom moves on to confrontation. In one example, the Foreign Minister was following a Royal Decree dated 20 January 2010 to remove Iran’s new Arabic-language news network, Al-Alam, from the main Riyadh-based regional communications satellite operator, Arabsat. After the plan failed, Saud Al Faisal sought to ‘weaken its broadcast signal’. The documents show concerns within the Saudi administration over the social upheavals of 2011, which became known in the international media as the ‘Arab Spring’. The cables note with concern that after the fall of Mubarak, coverage of the upheavals in Egyptian media was ‘being driven by public opinion instead of driving public opinion’. The Ministry resolved ‘to give financial support to influential media institutions in Tunisia’, the birthplace of the ‘Arab Spring’. The cables reveal that the government employs a different approach for its own domestic media. There, a wave of the Royal hand is all that is required to adjust the output of state-controlled media. A complaint from former Lebanese Prime Minister and Saudi citizen Saad Hariri concerning articles critical of him in the Saudi-owned Al-Hayat and Asharq Al-Awsat newspapers prompted a directive to ‘stop these type of articles’ from the Foreign Ministry. This is a general overview of the Saudi Foreign Ministry’s strategy in dealing with the media. WikiLeaks’ Saudi Cables contain numerous other examples that form an indictment of both the Kingdom and the state of the media globally”.[5]
SITANBUL 
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