NEO – High Comedy and the Fall of Raqqah

by  Gordon Duff, VT Sr. Editor,   …with New Eastern Outlook, Moscow

[ Editor’s Note: This is another Gordon “Theater of the Absurd” piece, something new mixed in with something old.

One of the absurdities that could not be added is what Erdogan said today as part of the growing EU showdown over Turkey, with wanting it to roll out the red carpet for the implementation of the Erdogan family Sultancy in the coming vote to concentrate all power in the hands of the President.

Erdogan can dismiss the Parliament any time he chooses, and for any reason he chooses. The same goes for any cabinet ministers. This all grew out of the coup attempt, which is turning out to be a successful one for the Erdogan family and political party.

Today he got out in front of the problem of his being charged with still supporting the jihadis in Syria, by claiming that ISIS is a 100% US construct, no mention of the Saudis, Qataris or Israelis. Erdo needs a better counter intelligence division.

I just got back from doing a Sunday Debate Show with Michael Lane on the Saudi role in Takfiri terrorism, a meaty topic indeed. I got an honorable mention for Mr. Erdogan being a partner in crime in that endeavor, but Gordon will lay it all out in spades below.

So far, Erdogan is riding high, despite jerking everyone around in the region, including those he pretends to be allies with; but in his defense I must add that he is not the only one. This will get worse before it gets better. He will drag the peace process out and slowly eat the North Syria elephant one bite at a time. But all will be revealed in the end… Jim W. Dean ]

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– First published … March 12,  2017  –

Writing about upcoming battles and making predictions is a dangerous thing. Saddam and his “mother of all battles” is a case in point. However, the complex situation in Northern Syria in the 2nd week of March, 2017 has all the earmarks of a wartime comedy farce.

The battle for Raqqah against whoever is there claiming to be “ISIS” is going to be a curious one. You see, nearly every “player” in the Israelo-Saudi sphere has forces inside Raqqah, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, the UAE and British and American contracting firms.

The Brits and Americans are former SAS, US Navy SEALS, no more than a few dozen, paid by the Gulf States through contract firms like L3 Communications and DynCorp; note I said “like” and not “them” specifically.

The majority of ISIS fighters are a mix of Saudi nationals, with maybe two dozen Saudi Special Forces and about 500 Turkish Army reservists, many who now have families there, having “married” local girls who were kidnapped for them. This is the same “Turkey” that is going to “free” Raqqah. Do you see where the comedy comes in?

Enter stage right, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Force, come to provide Syria’s Kurds with the needed 155mm firepower to take on the hardcore ISIS contingent in Raqqah, their makeshift capitol, or so we are told, and bring them in line.

Do note that ISIS is “on the ropes” primarily because of the military intervention of Iran on behalf of Iraq and Syria, the sacrifice of Hezbollah, of the Kurdish people and, most of all, the Syrian Arab Army.

Lest we fail to mention Russia, their military and diplomatic efforts, we do so now. Heading in for “the kill” is the “late to war” after being on the wrong side all along United States.

Mind you, while the US is now sending in troops to take down Raqqah, they are also threatening Iran with military action and supplying Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States with the high technology weapons that delivered directly from the factories of American arms companies like Raytheon to the terrorists who have used them successfully for years.

We might add that this process has accelerated, aided every step of the way by Turkey as well. We are going to get into that one, also.

Then we have the geography. This part of Syria is no more than a half hour drive from the city of Aleppo, mostly wheat farming country with a mixed population of ethnic Arabs and Kurds.

Then have another issue, a minor one. Turkey is now sworn to come in for the kill and aid Syria by knocking out ISIS, even if it means they must fight their own military, which makes up the bulwark of ISIS forces in this region, and supply both sides in the fighting simultaneously. Comedy?

It gets better, Turkey sent its military into this region when the Syrian government was hopelessly besieged in 2013. How Turkey helped the situation is quite a story. They began by sending in engineer and transport companies that removed 600 factories including an entire automobile assembly plant from the heavily industrialized Aleppo region, the largest industrial center, at one time at least, in the entire Middle East.

For the past two years, Syria was looted into Turkey, while NGO charities tasked with aiding war victims in the areas controlled by ISIS, al Nusra, the Free Syrian Army, the “White Helmets” and a dozen other organizations grew fat trafficking women and children into sex slavery and ran poison gas shells and chemicals to the “rebels”.

All the while, the US, Britain and France all knew about it. Endless millions in antiquities were taken, they were traded in Israel, at London and New York auctions; and, you will enjoy this most of all, the organizations that send investigators to report on these crimes or even to write books supporting the Syrian government were “spotters” for the thieves themselves.

Groups that cry about refugees or that are even featured in Academy Award winning films take part in mass executions and have aided in the kidnapping and trafficking of tens of thousands of Syrian women and children who are not in camps anywhere, and who will never be seen again.

Now we get back to our Turkish friends. We know that during the entire War on Terror, from 2003 onward, and there is no way of knowing this ever ended, the Iraqi oil that transited Turkey in the Turkish-Israeli pipeline system, oil that mostly went to British Petroleum and to Secretary of State Tillerson’s Exxon, was never paid for. Some Turkish leaders made vast fortunes on their cut.

Then, during the new ISIS war, Turkey claimed the pipeline was “out of action”, and then cut a deal with certain Kurdish leaders who sought a way to defraud Baghdad. So, for years, the Kirkuk oil from Iraq has flowed through a “destroyed” pipeline into those Exxon and BP tankers, money split in more hands this time, with ISIS getting a fat cut, London and the CIA too.

Then there are the oil trucks, rumored to be owned by an Erbil, Kurdistan company controlled by Turkey’s Erdogan family, perhaps more than a rumor. These trucks, up to 12,000 of them, were prominently featured on YouTube as the Russian Aerospace forces made mincemeat of them.

Before that, however, the US with all those CIA spy treasures WikiLeaks talks about, couldn’t see those trucks though we have reliable reports they might well have been visible to the naked eye from the surface of Mars.

What more comedy?

Nobody ever knows where the trucks go, where the oil goes, who pays for it, where 600 factories went, where 40,000 missing women and children went, where hundreds of millions in antiquities went, nobody knows anything. The world is Forrest Gump.

Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War that has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security issues. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of VT, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

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Related article:

RT Proof: Turkey Loots World’s Antiquities Aided by ISIS

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Gordon Duff

Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.

Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.

Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.

• Gordon’s Archives:  2008-2015
• Gordon’s Archives:  2016-2022