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When we examine the backgrounds of those chosen to make foreign policy for Trump, we find they are Establishment figures with a history of supporting pro-jihadi policies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Historical & Investigative Research – 21 May 2017, by Francisco Gil-White
http://hirhome.com/TRUMP/TRUMP_05_eng.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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As I write, Donald Trump is in the Middle East, making his way to Israel. What can we expect? We have predicted that, on the substance, Trump will be another version of Obama. Since this claim clashes with almost everybody’s perception of the world, we are forced to defend it.

As they campaigned for the US presidency, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were represented in the media, and indeed behaved in public, as diametrical opposites. Aside from dissimilarities in etiquette and personal style, Trump loudly repudiated not only Obama’s specific decisions but their very philosophy, holding Clinton—the public face of Obama’s foreign policy—personally responsible for fostering the growth of radical Islam and, in this manner, undermining Israeli security.

The extreme contrast between Trump and Clinton makes it difficult to imagine them playing on the same team, so Trump’s electoral victory is a clear challenge to the idea that the US system is run by a political cartel, the core claim in the HIR model. This is, therefore, a ‘natural experiment’: the scientist does not control it, but the variables of interest align fortuitously, as if he had organized it all himself to test his hypothesis.

Foreign policy will here give the sharpest possible test. On the nature of the US political system, there are two possibilities of special interest:

1)    If it is a free market, and Trump and Clinton are genuine rivals, then we expect Trump’s foreign policy to exhibit sharp differences.

2)    If a power elite-cartel controls both main parties, then we expect, as outlined in Part 1, that Trump—quite despite his loud protestations to the contrary—will walk down the traditional path of previous administrations.

That traditional path, as documented in Part 2, has long been pro-jihad and anti-Israel (← not an editing error).

So far, Trump’s head fakes in immigration policy, the missiles he dropped on Assad, his declared intention of assisting the Rojavans, and his summit with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have convinced many people that Trump really does mean to deliver on his campaign promises. To these people, the first possibility looks right.

We are not convinced. In Part 3 we contributed the relevant (though mostly unknown) historical context in order to dispel the impression created by the Trump-Netanyahu summit, exposing Trump’s continuity with the anti-Israeli policies of his predecessors. Since then, Trump has hardly contradicted our analysis.[0] And in Part 6, we will expose the true bias of his presumed ‘anti-jihadi’ policies.

Should you find our analysis persuasive, we will then need to explain this consistency in US policy—immune to any and all election results.

In Part 4, we began to outline one such explanation. We examined the history and structure of the US policymaking system and found that the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller networks are heavily involved in several key think tanks, chief among them the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which they helped create. Year after numbing year, working outside the democratic process, the CFR produces recommendations that—regardless of who wins at the polls—reliably become US foreign policy. It walks and talks like a cartel.

This implies that elections in the US, though utterly necessary to preserve the appearance of a functioning democracy, are irrelevant to policy, and that’s why the pro-jihadi and anti-Israeli tradition can persist despite the election of Donald Trump. This is the HIR model.

How useful is it? The evidence will judge.

The model predicts, as mentioned in Part 4, that Trump will recruit his foreign-policy team from the same pro-jihadi, CFR circles that supplied the key policymakers for previous administrations. To provide continuity with Obama/Clinton policies, Trump’s handlers will not hesitate to re-hire them.

We shall now see how well these expectations match the evidence. I shall examine those positions most relevant to ‘international security’ and therefore to policies regarding the growth of radical Islam and the defense of the State of Israel.

As I conduct this survey, I will keep score for the CFR.

  FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR (Richard Haas)

  FOREIGN MINISTER (Rex Tillerson)

  CIA DIRECTOR (Mike Pompeo)

  #2 AT THE NSC (K.T. McFarland)

  #2 AT THE NSC (Ricky L. Waddell)

  NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR (Michael T. Flynn)

  (ALMOST) NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
(Robert S. Harward)

  NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR (H.R. McMaster)

  DEFENSE SECRETARY (James Mattis)

  DEPUTY ADVISOR ON COUNTERTERRORISM (Sebastian Gorka)

  WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST (Steve Bannon)

 


FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR
(Richard Haass)


Even before the election, Trump made clear who whispered in his ear. In mid-2016, “when Donald Trump was asked by Megyn Kelly who he is listening to as top national security advisers, the first name Trump mentioned was Richard Haass.”[1]

Image result for richard haass

 

Richard Haass

Who is Haass? Since 2003, he is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Score one for the CFR.

The president of the CFR will naturally recommend people from his circle. That influence is apparent in how Trump filled some of his key foreign-policy positions.


FOREIGN MINISTER
(Rex Tillerson)


Trump’s Secretary of State—in other words, his foreign minister—is Rex Tillerson, who before this was CEO of ExxonMobil.[2]

Image result for rex tillerson

 

Rex Tillerson

The Rockefeller network has always spread outward from ExxonMobil, which earlier went by the name Standard Oil, when John D. Rockefeller founded it. So Tillerson has been one of the biggest players in that network.

Why does this matter?

Because there is no real separation between the Rockefeller network and the CFR. The Rockefeller network created the CFR, is still one of its most important patrons, and is directly involved in its direction. David Rockefeller (John D.’s grandson) became director of the CFR in 1949 and then stayed on as honorary president (he passed away March 2017). His daughter Peggy is a CFR member of the board. And ExxonMobil, the company that Tillerson was running until recently, is listed as a “founder corporate member” of the CFR.

In other words, the CFR will be running the State Department.

Score two.


THE CIA DIRECTOR
(Mike Pompeo)


Trump chose Mike Pompeo to head the CIA. Pompeo’s reputation as an anti-jihadist owes much to his earlier criticisms of Obama (and especially of Obama’s nuclear treaty with Iran). But we have seen in the cases of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Jr. that public ‘enemies’ of jihad don’t always mean it (Part 2).

Of course, some Trump followers will have been delighted with Pompeo’s nomination because he is a ‘Tea Party Republican’—which means, you would think, that he is pro-liberty and against the Establishment, no? Think again.

Image result for mike pompeo

 

Mike Pompeo

Pompeo is a big fan of spying on US citizens and believes that Edward Snowden should be executed.[3]

And Pompeo is a card-carrying member of the Establishment: he is one of 5 members of the Distinguished Advisory Committee of the Wichita Council on Foreign Relations, “having its roots in the prestigious New York Council on Foreign Relations.” Yep, the CFR.

Score three.


#2 AT THE NSC
(K.T. McFarland)


For Deputy National Security Advisor, Trump chose K.T. (Kathleen Troia) McFarland, earlier a “Fox News national security analyst.”

Though her NSC stint was brief (reportedly, she will now be ambassador to Singapore), she strongly influenced perceptions, for she had excoriated Trump’s softness on jihadism on television. When she was appointed, her fame no doubt convinced many that Trump would be ‘tough on jihadism.’

Image result for k.t. mcfarland

 

K.T. McFarland

But don’t forget: You are the company you keep. Let us examine a few important relationships.

Caspar Weinberger

Under Ronald Reagan, McFarland was a close aide to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, and so well appreciated by that group that she received in 1985 the highest decoration that the Pentagon can give to a civilian. She was ‘playing ball.’

That same year, her boss Weinberger was busy helping Reagan and Bush Sr. to send weapons to Ayatollah Khomeini’s jihadi regime (and to the Nicaraguan terrorists): the Iran-Contra Affair. (Weinberger’s trial was aborted thanks to Bush Sr.’s presidential pardon.[4])

Jamestown Foundation

McFarland is a board member of the Jamestown Foundation, a think tank focused on issues that are “strategically or tactically important to the United States.” On that same board has served Zbigniew Brzezinski. This is the genius who, as Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, invented—right before Reagan—the policy of arming and training jihadis. Brzezinski has boasted publicly about this policy, which gave us the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and then ISIS.[5]

The Jamestown Foundation has that typical think-tank bipartisanship so diagnostic of a ruling cartel (see Part 4): Carter’s people and also Reagan’s: Democrats and Republicans: all in agreement: all pro-jihad.

 

Left to right: Brzezinski, Weinberger, Reagan

David Petraeus

When Roger Ailes, FOX News founder, wanted to convince General David Petraeus—chosen by Obama to run CENTCOM and then also the CIA—to launch a republican presidential campaign funded by Rupert Murdoch, he sent McFarland in person.[6]

What policies does Petraeus favor?

If McFarland and her former bosses at FOX News—allegedly the ‘pro-Israel’ network—are so besotted with Petraeus that they want him for president, then he must be a staunch Zionist, no? Doesn’t seem that way.

During his tenure at CENTCOM, with the full weight of his prestige as commander of US forces in the Middle East and North Africa, Petraeus became a ‘political general,’ demanding publicly that Obama force the Israelis, at long last, to create a PLO/Fatah state and thus keep the Muslim states happy.[7]

Oh, and McFarland is “a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.”

Score four.


#2 AT THE NSC
(Ricky L. Waddell)


Major General Ricky Waddell has replaced K.T. McFarland.[7a] Waddell is from General David Petraeus’s inner circle, and in fact was, under Obama, one of a handful of top advisors to Petraeus, at CENTCOM, assisting his revision of strategy.[7b]

Image result for ricky waddell

 

Ricky Waddell

Given that Petraeus strongly urged Obama, in public, to give PLO/Fatah a state in Judea and Samaria (see McFarland), we may expect a similar bias in Waddell, especially considering that his boss, H.R. McMaster (see McMaster), led—in the Obama years—the handful of top Petraeus advisors that Waddell belonged to.


NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
(Michael T. Flynn)


This general, briefly the National Security Advisor, is an interesting character. Though he is gone now, Trump did choose him, and he was prominent in the campaign, helping establish, with his reputation, the candidate’s ‘counter-jihad’ bona fides. Flynn’s reputation, however, seems to rest entirely on his own testimony.

The story was first aired in an interview to James Kitfield (from Politico), immediately before Flynn left his post as Obama’s Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). “In remarkably blunt comments for a general still in uniform,” wrote Kitfield, Flynn accused that he himself was the “lone voice” in the Obama administration calling for getting tough on jihadists,[8] a claim later reinforced in statements to Seymour Hersh.[9]

According to this narrative, Flynn was forced out because Obama couldn’t tolerate his anti-jihadi emotion.

Image result for michael t. flynn

 

Michael T. Flynn

There is a counternarrative. Unnamed Obama insiders, per the Washington Times, say that Flynn was ousted not, as he claims, because he had “tougher views than Obama about Islamic extremism,” but because “Flynn failed to follow guidance from superiors.[10] Flynn, they say, has “a deep maverick streak,”[11] and some accuse that “his management style could be chaotic.”[12]

No comment on Flynn’s management. But the ‘anti-jihadi’ story is strange. Watch the dates.

From 2003 to 2008, Bush Jr.’s Pentagon created a vast prison system in Iraq designed to produce a powerful jihadist movement. Lots of innocent people were detained without charges and mixed in with condemned jihadi terrorists. The latter, allowed to control prison social life, coerced everybody into the jihad. The man in charge, General Douglas Stone, himself called it “jihadi university.[13]

After five years—a bachelor’s degree!—“jihadi university” was dismantled and its graduates—over the objections of local Iraqi sheiks and the Iraqi government—were just… let… go… The result was ISIS.

ISIS then caused a war in Iraq that spread to Syria.

Is this what US policymakers wanted? A jihadi war in Syria? Consider the sequel.

In June 2012, it became public that Obama’s CIA was running a program to arm the—allegedly democratic—‘Syrian opposition’ to Assad. But there was an interesting detail: “the arms themselves are coming from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.” Why would these governments wish to arm democrats?

I ask because Turkey is run by a thinly-disguised jihadist party. The regimes in Saudi Arabia and Qatar are both openly jihadist. And the weapons were “funneled mostly across the Turkish border by way of a shadowy network of intermediaries including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood,” a jihadist organization.[14] Isn’t it more likely that jihadis will send weapons to other jihadis?

Hold that thought.

Now, a policy must be planned and executed. Since this CIA operation was on the Syrian ground at least from June 2012, it had to be a bureaucratic reality—or at the very least a definite idea—two months earlier, in mid-April, when Obama nominated Michael Flynn to head military intelligence (DIA).

Did Flynn get the nod because Obama wanted someone congenial to pro-jihadi CIA operations? It’s the obvious hypothesis. The CIA and the Pentagon’s DIA are members of the same ‘intelligence community.’ And the Pentagon is useful to any intervention in a foreign war.

After taking over as DIA Director in July 2012, Flynn produced, in August, a secret report on the war in Syria. This report confirmed that everybody in the ‘Syrian opposition’ (except for the Rojavans) was indeed jihadist, including the recipients of CIA-sponsored weapons. Immediately, Obama gave his favorite ‘Syrian rebels’ more weapons and military training, after which they joined ISIS—i.e., the Pentagon’s “jihadi university” graduates—en masse.

Did Flynn resign in protest? Did Obama get rid of him? Hardly. Flynn stayed until August 2014. This, to me, spells ‘pro-jihadi cooperation.’ So, Flynn’s story, told to Seymour Hersh, that he was always bombarding the White House with unheeded anti-jihadi emotion, is a bit strange.[15]

I like this other story better: Flynn is pro-jihad. As he left the DIA, he donned a fake ‘anti-jihadi’ and ‘anti-Obama’ costume so the power-elite cartel, in its new ‘Trump’ version, could later reuse him and continue its pro-jihadi policies as always. It’s all show.

But the show, I will allow, is really quite spectacular. During the campaign,

“Speaking to thousands of supporters… Trump vowed to ‘knock the hell out of ISIS’… before pointing the finger at the Democrats.

‘ISIS is honoring President Obama,’ he said. ‘He is the founder of ISIS. He is the founder of ISIS, okay? He is the founder. He founded ISIS. And I would say the cofounder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.’ ”[15a]

In fairness to Bush Jr., he was the founder of “jihadi university,” out of which came ISIS. But Obama/Clinton did continue along that path. And who carried out this continuation? None other than Michael Flynn, Trump’s co-campaigner and then his National Security Advisor.

Image result for kenneth juster

 

Kenneth Juster

Oh, and Flynn brought Kenneth Juster—from the Council on Foreign Relations—to the National Security Council.[16]

Score five.


(ALMOST) NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
(Robert S. Harward)


Flynn was asked to leave when his contacts with Russians became a public embarrassment. Trump then offered the vacant post to General Robert S. Harward, who declined. But Trump—or his handlers—did want him. This is once again revealing, because Harward supported the Bush Jr./Obama policies that recruited so many Muslims to jihad.

Image result for Robert harward

 

Robert Harward

In the Bush Jr. years, as we saw above, the Pentagon created a prison system in Iraq where lots of innocent people were imprisoned together with hardened Islamic terrorists, who then forced the rest to join the jihad. Operating from 2003 to 2008, this “jihadi university” produced ISIS (see Flynn).

For the first three years of this, 2003-2005, Harward worked at the National Security Council’s (NSC) counterterrorism office. This job description, in a normal world, would have led Harward to end “jihadi university.” But perhaps this is an Orwellian world. Perhaps ‘counterterrorism’ really means ‘pro-terrorism.’

How to find out? We could look at Harward’s earlier postings.[17] But let’s follow him to his next job instead.

In the period 2006-2008, ‘counterterrorism’ expert Robert Harward was placed in charge of JSOC (special forces) in Afghanistan, where he started a new “jihadi university” on the model of the first (it’s a franchise business!). Two-thirds of those picked up in Harward’s raids, incarcerated in Bagram, were innocent, according to an internal military report. As in Iraq, once locked up with hardened jihadis, these innocent were forcibly recruited to jihad.

When Obama came in, he named Harward to “oversee detention operations in Afghanistan.” From this position, Harward sabotaged an effort to release the innocent; the jihadi recruitment program continued.[17a]

Presumed ‘counter-jihadist’ Donald Trump, then, wanted Harward for National Security Advisor… Speaks volumes.

When Harward said no, Trump offered the job to Lt. General H.R. McMaster. McMaster’s nomination allows us to make, once again, the same inferences about Trump.


NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
(H.R. McMaster)


Trump came into office declaring that he would do it all differently. Unlike Obama and Clinton, he would fight the enemies of the US. And, by Jove, he would call a spade a spade! The danger, he shouted, was “radical Islamic terrorism.”

[Cut to H.R. McMaster, facing his new staff at the National Security Council (NSC).]: “[T]he label ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ was not helpful” announces McMaster, “because terrorists are ‘un-Islamic.’ ” They “are perverting their religion.”

Islam, then, is ‘the religion of peace.’

The Obama/Clinton and Bush Jr. cliques—as the New York Times points out—used precisely this language, so McMaster’s speech came as a great relief to professional NSC staff members, “many of them holdovers from the Obama administration” (and the Bush Jr. administration).[18]

 

 

H.R. McMaster

McMaster’s bias makes it natural that he should appoint Obama and Bush Jr. stalwarts to advise him:

      Ricky Waddell, Deputy National Security Advisor, earlier with David Petraeus in the Obama administration (see Waddell).

      Dina Habib Powell, Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy, earlier a top aide in the Bush Jr. (she helped select Bush’s top personnel).

      Lisa Curtis, Senior Director for South and Central Asia, earlier a CIA hand that was an advisor in Bush Jr.’s State Department.

      Fiona Hill, Senior Director for Russia and Europe, earlier a national intelligence officer in the Obama administration.[19]

Obama and Bush Jr. staffers, Obama and Bush Jr. appointees, and Obama’s and Bush Jr.’s apologies for Islam. Business as usual, then? Yes, because this is doctrinal.

And who’s been overseeing this doctrine? Why, McMaster!

His previous job, under Obama, was Deputy Commanding General, Futures of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, which educates close to half a million soldiers plus a fair number of civilians.[20]

What does McMaster recommend, in the way of educational material?

For a taste, peruse Militant Islamist Ideology: Understanding the Global Threat (Naval Institute Press, 2010). The author is one Youssef Aboul-Enein, formerly a top ‘counterterrorism’ advisor in the Obama administration. The book is riddled with problems; I will focus here on one.

Mr. Aboul-Enein alleges a distinction between “militant Islamists”—ISIS and others who murder ‘infidels’—and “non-militant Islamists,” such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which, he claims, is not a threat. One problem with that: the Muslim Brotherhood helped arm the jihadis in Syria who later joined… ISIS (see Flynn). So this distinction is without a difference.

And yet, “McMaster wholeheartedly endorsed [Aboul-Enein’s book] in 2010 as ‘excellent’ and ‘deserv[ing] a wide readership.’ ” This endorsement appears on the back cover.[21]

No doubt the Muslim Brotherhood is pleased.

The Brookings Institution also seems pleased. Senior fellow William McCants said the following in support of McMaster’s “repudiation of [Trump’s] lexicon and worldview”:

“ ‘McMaster, like Obama, is someone who was in positions of leadership and thought the United States should not play into the jihadist propaganda that this is a religious war.’ ”[22]

Consider the logic of that. Jihadists certainly use propaganda—e.g. when they denounce Western values as supposedly evil. But ‘jihad’ means ‘religious war’ and a ‘jihadist’ is the one who fights it. This is a simple definition—not propaganda.

Why do Brookings scholars say otherwise? And why do they endorse McMaster?

Here’s our take. The ruling cartel in the US has for decades supported a pro jihadi policy (Part 2), working through powerful think tanks such as Brookings (Part 4). This policy can succeed only if Westerners do not understand it, so Brookings obscures the very meaning of ‘jihad’ and applauds McMaster for saying that “terrorists are ‘un-Islamic.’ ”

Now consider the following four facts, all consistent with this model:

      “Qatar [has been] arguing that Muslim Brotherhood-style political Islam is the Arab world’s best hope for democracy”;

      Qatar allied with the Muslim Brotherhood and with Obama to arm and train the jihadists in Siria that later joined ISIS (see Flynn);

      “the Qatari government [is] the single biggest donor to Brookings” and its former prime minister “sits on the center’s advisory board”[23]; and

      Fiona Hill (above), McMaster’s right-hand man, is a Brookings scholar.

(But Donald Trump is a counter-jihadist?)

Image result for david petraeus 

 

David Petraeus

On the Israeli front, what can we expect?

Well, McMaster belongs to David Petraeus’ circle and, as noted above, Petraeus—Obama’s man—has been quite adamant that the Israelis should be made to genuflect and forced to accept the creation of a PLO/Fatah state in Judea and Samaria (see McFarland).[23a] McMaster now promises that Trump will call for “Palestinian self-determination” in his trip to Israel.[23b] No surprises there.

Oh, and H.R. McMaster is a “member of the Council on Foreign Relations.”

Score six.


DEFENSE SECRETARY
(James Mattis)


James Mattis was, under Obama, commander of CENTCOM—which oversees US military operations in North Africa and the Middle East—from August 2010 to March 2013. In other words, he was the man on the ground, in charge in the key ‘Area of Responsibility’ when Leon Panetta (Obama’s CIA director, then his secretary of defense) and Michael Flynn (Obama’s DIA director) partnered with the Muslim Brotherhood to arm and train the Pentagon’s jihadists in Syria (see Flynn).

Who did Mattis want as undersecretary for policy? Anne Patterson.[24]

Patterson is reportedly close to David Petraeus, the general who loudly calls for removing Judea and Samaria from Israel to create there an independent PLO/Fatah state (see McFarland). She is also close to Leon Panetta. And, perhaps not coincidentally, Patterson seems cozy, too, with the Muslim Brotherhood.

 

 

James Mattis and Anne Patterson

Right after forcing Hosni Mubarak out of power in Egypt, Obama demanded immediate elections, which only the Muslim Brotherhood could organize quickly enough for. Then he sent Patterson to be his ambassador to Cairo. Patterson was there when, thanks to Obama, Mohammed Morsi, from the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected president, and also when he was ousted after dramatic, widespread demonstrations. She was Obama’s mouthpiece at the epicenter, voicing Obama’s intense displeasure that the Muslim Brotherhood had been removed from power.

There is a widespread perception among Egyptians that Patterson was a US tool to impose Muslim Brotherhood rule upon them.[25]

Mattis was unable to make Patterson responsible for Pentagon policy because two senators became stubbornly opposed; but though she wasn’t confirmed, it is clear where Mattis himself wants to go—or, rather, keep going. That may explain why the CFR seems so happy with him.

“Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that Mr Mattis would be a ‘great choice.’ ‘He is not only a consummate warrior but also a deeply learned student of warfare. He would bring a thoughtfulness and wisdom to the cabinet that is badly needed. He is also a man of unassailable probity — another important attribute that this administration needs,’ said Mr Boot.[26]

Score seven.


DEPUTY ADVISOR ON COUNTERTERRORISM
(Sebastian Gorka)


Sebastian Gorka, “a former Breitbart News national security editor and fixture on Fox News,” gets a lot of criticism from the ‘left’ as a supposed ‘Islamophobe’ hard-liner. Talking Points Memo, for example, considers Gorka to be in the “anti-Muslim fringe” and therefore entirely beyond the pale.

TPM relies on two quoted experts: Omid Safi, director of Islamic Studies at Duke University, and author of Memories of Muhammad: Why the Prophet Matters, and Engy Abdelkader, professor at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (Georgetown University), and author of When Islamophobia Turns Violent.

Gorka’s book, Defeating Jihad, these two say, is “ ‘propaganda’ ” and replete with “ ‘anti-Muslim bigotry and prejudice.’ ” His opinions of Islam are “ ‘sloppy, superficial, bigoted, and ideological.’ ” Besides, Gorka regularly appears on a radio show hosted by Frank Gaffney, whom TPM calls an “anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist” heading an “anti-Islam think tank.”[27]

 

 

Omid Safi and Engy Abdelkader

Such reactions by the ‘left’ might suggest that Gorka really does fit with Trump’s campaign promise to fight jihadism. And yet the counter-jihad movement doesn’t seem happy with him either.

Jihad Watch, for example, complains that “President Trump continues to speak about ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ while hiring people who remain in Obamoid fantasyland.” One of these people, according to Jihad Watch is no other than Sebastian Gorka. An article by John Guandolo accuses that, in a radio presentation,

“Sebastian Gorka stated ‘99.9% of Muslims do not support terrorism (jihad)’ despite a mountain of evidence and polling data proving this comment untrue.[28]

Indeed, surveys show that Muslims in Western countries are being radicalized, and every day there is greater support among them for suicide bombings against ‘infidels.’ In the United States, where Gorka lives, 15% of young Muslims say they are in favor.[29]

The piece in Jihad Watch also fulminates that

“Gorka ends [his book] with the call for the United States to spend billions of dollars supporting ‘Muslim reformers’ in their ‘ideological war to delegitimize the message of holy war against the infidel and bolster modern interpretations of Islam.’ ”

What rankles is Gorka’s presumption that “the message of holy war against the infidel” can be “deligitimiz[ed]” from within Islam as ‘un-Islamic,’ which brings Gorka’s language close to McMaster’s. This “demonstrates,” says the author, “that Sebastian Gorka is either completely free of any clue of Islamic doctrine or is intentionally lying about what Islam actually teaches.”

Indeed, if Gorka believes that violent jihad is ‘un-Islamic,’ then he does not understand the content of the Qur’an, the content of the hadiths, the normative weight of the Sira (Muhammad’s accepted biography), or the canonical interpretations of the most respected scholars in the Muslim tradition (such as Ibn Hazm of Cordoba). And if so, he is no different from most Western officials, whose representations of Islam have been denounced by prominent ex-Muslims—such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali—as irresponsible apologies for Islamic doctrine.[30]

Is Gorka, then, only a pretend ‘counter-jihad’ warrior? You are the company you keep.

Gorka consorts with Frank Gaffney, who parades himself as a counter-jihadist. But Gaffney, starting in the 1970s, was an aide to Richard Perle, and later worked with him at Ronald Reagan’s Pentagon, which worked overtime to arm the jihadist Khomeini regime in Iran (Part 2). Perle was deeply involved with that circle and assisted Iran’s expansion into Iraq.[31]

Gorka’s wife Katharine—part of Trump’s U.S. Department of Homeland Security transitional ‘landing team’—was director of the Hungarian office of the National Forum Foundation, led by James Denton. This Denton has received an award for his prominent role assisting the jihadi destruction of Yugoslavia.[32]

Denton has also directed Heldref Publications, established by Jeanne Kirkpatrick, a member of Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council and heavily involved in the conspiracy to send weapons to Khomeini’s jihadi regime in Iran.

Image result for sebastian gorka at the trump inaugural 

 

Sebastian (with bocskai) and Katharine Gorka

Then there is the question of Sebastian Gorka’s apparent sympathies with groups that espouse antisemitism.

The clue comes from Trump’s inaugural, to which Gorka, of Hungarian origin, decided to wear a bocskai. This frankly odd piece of attire, one guesses, was worn to make a statement. And that’s how followers of Jobbik—Hungary’s second strongest party, considered very ‘far right’—took it. Thus, “a few far-right Hungarian publications wrote up approving stories about Gorka’s attire shortly after inauguration.” But why would they see Gorka’s bocskai as a salute to them? Because that’s how they dress: Jobbik followers “have taken to wearing bocskai jackets to formal events.”[33]

Context is everything.

How ‘far-right’ is Jobbik? Well, French politician Marine Le Pen—also called ‘far right’—“has ruled out forming a group with Jobbik in the European Parliament, considering it too extreme.”[34] Why “too extreme”? Perhaps because Jobbik “ha[s] been accused of anti-Semitism,”[35] whereas Le Pen has been working hard to soften her party’s antisemitic reputation.[38]

Is it fair to accuse Jobbik of antisemitism?

Consider that Jobbik followers are fond of Miklos Horthy (which explains the bocskai, “popular during Horthy’s rule”).[36] They like him so much that, each year, they commemorate Horthy’s 1919 march on Budapest.[37] That’s a bit of a giveaway because Horthy ruled Hungary in WWII, allied with the Nazis, and deported more than 400,000 Jews to Auschwitz.

Or consider Csanad Szegedi. This character, a onetime “rising star” in Jobbik, first “came to prominence as a founder member of the Hungarian Guard,” a group that, before it was banned by courts in 2009, “wore black uniforms and striped flags recalling the Arrow Cross, a pro-Nazi party which governed Hungary at the end of World War II and killed thousands of Jews.” Not surprisingly, Szegedi “was notorious for his antisemitic comments.” None of this embarrassed Jobbik. But when political enemies of Szegedi documented that he was from a Jewish family, that was embarrassing. Szegedi was forced out of Jobbik.[39]

http://a5.img.talkingpointsmemo.com/image/upload/w_652/numg31xwzp7bfzaw9l4g.jpg 

 

A younger Gorka, wearing the same bocskai (from Facebook)

Gorka is of Hungarian origin, and lived, studied, and worked in Hungary for years, where he held high-profile government jobs and became a media ‘expert on counterterrorism.’ It is hard to accept that Gorka wore a bocskai to the Trump inaugural without understanding that Hungarian antisemites—now running Hungary’s second-biggest party—would see it as a ‘high five’ to them.


WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST
(Steve Bannon)


Long before becoming Trump’s campaign strategist, Steve Bannon had made a name for himself as a ‘counter-jihadist.’ His visibility contributed strongly to the perception that Trump will be ‘tough on Islam.’ And he continues to have that effect, because Bannon is now, according to many, ‘the power behind the throne,’ calling all the shots. TIME magazine called him “The Great Manipulator” and “The second most powerful man in the world.”[40]

By presidential memorandum, Trump included Bannon in the National Security Council. When this created too much controversy, the new head of the NSC, H.R. McMaster, officially removed Bannon from this NSC role. But, even so,

“Bannon retains a top-level national security clearance, the ability to sit in on most NSC meetings, and a West Wing office steps away from the Oval Office door.”[41]

Moreover, Bannon helped select McMaster as head of the NSC. Few doubt that Bannon’s influence will be strongly felt in Trump’s foreign policy.

So, who is Bannon?

Image result for steve bannon 

 

Steve Bannon

Until recently, he was executive chair of Breitbart News, which claims to speak for the ‘alt-right’ movement. “We think of ourselves,” says Bannon, “as virulently anti-establishment, particularly ‘anti-’ the permanent political class.”[42]

Really? Among other high-profile jobs, Bannon once worked as special assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations—the top admiral at the Pentagon.[33] He was always ‘Establishment.’

And his high-profile Pentagon stint was during the Reagan administration, when Pentagon top-chief Caspar Weinberger colluded secretly with other top Reagan officials to send weapons to Khomeini’s jihadi regime in Iran. Bannon remembers those days fondly: he wrote and directed In the Face of Evil, a documentary film celebrating Ronald Reagan.

Bannon fits right into the pattern we’ve been tracing here.

Is the ‘alt right’ just another cartel con? Perhaps. The late Andrew Breitbart, founder of the ‘alt right’ internet mecca, Breitbart News, also helped launch the Huffington Post, at the very opposite end of the political branding spectrum.[43]


Conclusion


For anyone casually perusing the Western media, Donald Trump will appear as an erratic and ineffective man, perhaps, but sincerely committed to getting ‘tough on jihadism,’ and hence a big contrast with his predecessor, Barack Obama, and with his campaign rival, Hillary Clinton. But is this true? Or is it a show?

Put another way: Is the US system, as they tell us, a free political market, with democratic responsiveness to the people? Or does a political cartel—entirely immune to the result of any election—have a stranglehold on power? To try and decide, we may look at how Trump filled his top slots with foreign policy responsibilities.

We have seen Donald Trump, Mr. ‘anti-Establishment,’ getting mostly people from the Obama and Bush Jr. administrations to fill appointments with top foreign-policy responsibility. He is using mostly people that have been heavily involved with pro-jihadi and anti-Israeli policies, which, as explained in Part 2, are quite traditional. And a crushing majority of these appointments involve people who have membership in, or are closely connected to, the group we identified in Part 4 as the brain behind US policy: the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). All of this follows rather closely the predictions of the HIR model, built on the hypothesis that a political cartel runs the United States.

 

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In our next article, we will argue that the ruling cartel—despite Trump’s apparent missteps—is in fact getting precisely what it wants. When Trump is understood as an avatar of this cartel, as we shall see, even his wildest-seeming idiosyncrasies fall into a coherent pro-jihad pattern.

To make this case, we will focus on Trump’s anti-Mexican offensive, a master psychological warfare move on the world geopolitical chessboard.

 

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NEXT : PART 6  ► WHY DOES TRUMP ATTACK MEXICO? ►

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Readings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is the Council on Foreign Relations?
http://www.hirhome.com/cfr.htm

THE US AND IRAN: Friends of foes?
http://hirhome.com/iraniraq/ITAM-conf-eng.htm

NOW YOU SEE IT: Just Where Did ISIS Come From?
http://www.hirhome.com/iraniraq/isis.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Footnotes and further reading

[0] In addition to telling Netanyahu that he should not build in Judea and Samaria, Trump announced that he will visit the Wailing wall without Netanyahu. The reason, it seems, is that the Trump administration considers that the Wall is not part of Israeli territory!

[1] Trump Names President of Council on Foreign Relations as Top National Security Adviser”; Target Liberty; March 4, 2016; by RW

[2] Rex Tillerson, Exxon C.E.O., Chosen as Secretary of State”; New York Times; 12 Dec 2016; By Michael D. Shear and Maggie Habermandec.

[3] 5 Things You Need To Know About Trump CIA Director Pick Mike Pompeo”; Daily Wire; 19 November 2016; by Aaron Bandler.

[4] Kornbluh, P., & Byrne, M. 1993. The Iran-Contra Scandal: The declassified history. New York: The New Press. (p.xvii)

[5] In order to justify its intervention in Afghanistan, the US government defended the following interpretation. There was a pro-liberty movement in Afghanistan that was trying to free Afghans from communism. The USSR had invaded Afghanistan to assist the Afghan communist government in its efforts to crush liberty. So the US was intervening in reaction to Soviet policy and in favor of Afghan liberties.

This had to be repeated loudly and often, because the beneficiaries of US policy called themselves mujahedeen, which means ‘jihadi holy warriors.’ Soon they were traveling all over the world that Muslims could be found, initiating or joining new jihads.

The Afghan mujahedeen were the brainchild of Zbigniew Brzezinski, who launched this policy in the last stages of the Jimmy Carter presidency—that is, long before the Soviet incursion in Afghanistan. We know this because Robert Gates, ex-CIA director, couldn’t keep quiet about it and bragged. Then Zbigniew Brzezinski, apparently not wishing for Gates to take all the credit, confessed to Le Nouvel Observateur in a 1998 interview that the Carter administration had indeed deliberately created and trained the Afghan jihadists in order to attack the Soviet Union. They always wanted jihadists. It was no mistake.

You may click here to see an image of the original article in Le Nouvel Observateur. Here below is the English translation:

Full text:

Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs [“From the Shadows”], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?

B: It isn’t quite that. We didn’t push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn’t believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don’t regret anything today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn’t a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.

Translated from the French by Bill Blum

[6] When Roger Ailes—“the longtime Republican media guru, founder of Fox News and its current chairman”—wanted to get Petraeus to run for president (promising that Rupert Murdoch would finance the campaign), it was K.T. McFarland who personally delivered that message, taking advantage of that moment to ask Petraeus how they should modify content at Fox News to make him happy.

SOURCE: “Fox News chief’s failed attempt to enlist Petraeus as presidential candidate”; Washington Post; 3 December 2012; by Bob Woodward

[7] U.S. generals push for Arab-Israeli peace”; 23 March 2010; United Press International.

[7a] White House chooses Ricky Waddell to replace K.T. McFarland as deputy national security adviser”; Washington Examiner; 14 May 2017; by Daniel Chaitin

[7b] In his book on Petraeus, Peter R. Mansoor explains that Ricky Waddell was a member of the Joint Strategic Assessment Team, a select group that Petraus created to review strategy.

SOURCE: Mansoor, Peter R. (2013). Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press (p.104).

[8] How Mike Flynn Became America’s Angriest General”; Politico; 16 October 2016; by James Kitfield.

[9] Military to Military: Seymour M. Hersh on US intelligence sharing in the Syrian war”; London Review of Books; Vol. 38 No. 1; 7 January 2016 pages 11-14 | 6853 words; by Seymour Hersh.

[10]Flynn’s access to classified information suspended”; The Washington Times; 15 February 2017; by Deb Riechmann (Associated Press)

[11] How Mike Flynn Became America’s Angriest General”; Politico; 16 October 2016; by James Kitfield.

[12] Head of Pentagon intelligence agency forced out, officials say”; The Washington Post; 30 April 2014; by Greg Miller & Adam Goldman

[13] NOW YOU SEE IT...: Just where did ISIS come from?”; Historical and Investigative Research; 23 Nov 2015; by Francisco Gil-White

[14] C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition”; New York Times; 21 June 2012; Page A1; by Eric Schmitt

Report: US Helping Syrian Rebels Arm, Fight”; VOA News; June 21, 2012.

[15] Military to Military: Seymour M. Hersh on US intelligence sharing in the Syrian war”; London Review of Books; Vol. 38 No. 1; 7 January 2016 pages 11-14 | 6853 words; by Seymour Hersh.

[15a] Donald Trump's Pants on Fire claim that Barack Obama ‘founded’ ISIS, Hillary Clinton was ‘cofounder’ ”; Politifact; 11 August 2016; by Louis Jacobson & Amy Sherman

[16] Trilateral Commission Member Appointed To National Security Council”; Technocracy News & Trends; 6 February 2017; by Patrick Wood

[17] Earlier, Harward had been deputy commander of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force in support of Operation Joint Forge in Bosnia. Joint Forge was one of the code names for SFOR. The point of SFOR was officially to “deter hostilities and stabilize the peace” in Bosnia. Unofficially, this meant repressing the Bosnian Serbs so that the terrorist and rabid jihadist Alija Izetbegovic could consolidate his NATO-supported and Iranian-supported victory. To learn more about this, read on.

In the Bosnian civil wars, it seems, every major accusation against the Bosnian Serbs turned out to false. The single most famous accusation was that they had supposedly massacred Bosnian Muslims in the city of Srebrenica.

That city was supposed to be a ‘safe haven,’ and the UN blue helmets, in this case Dutch soldiers, were the ones supposed to keep it safe. After the events and the accusations against the Serbs, in 2002, Dutch investigator Cees Wiebes was asked to put together an addendum to the official Dutch report on Srebrenica, for which he received unlimited access to the Dutch intelligence archives.

What Wiebes found out should have shaken the world; as it happened, it shook Holland.

Wiebes documented that the Muslim ranks in Bosnia overflowed with jihadi terrorists from other parts of the world, imported to Bosnia by agency of a joint operation of the Pentagon and the Iranian ayatollahs. There was such a stir over this in Holland that the Dutch government—implicated in all this, for its troops had been on the ground—saw fit to resign.

The Bosnian Muslim faction that NATO supported with imported Muslim ‘holy warriors’ was led by Alija Izetbegovic, a rabid jihadist who back in 1970 had published the book The Islamic Declaration. In this book, Izetbegovic wrote:

“There can be neither peace nor coexistence between ‘the Islamic Religion’ and non-Islamic social and political institutions…”  (p.30)

Since he considered Western democracy and Islam entirely incompatible, Izetbegovic recommended cleansing Bosnia of ‘infidels’ to establish there an orthodox Sharia state.

For several years, Izetbegovic was imprisoned in Yugoslavia for thus attempting to incite Bosnian Muslims to wholesale slaughter. Then he was released. Right before the Bosnian elections of 1990, Izetbegovic republished this jihadi screed as campaign platform.

But as most Bosnian Muslims didn’t like that, they didn’t vote for him. So Izetbegovic ousted the duly-elected moderate Muslim—and Serbian ally!—Fikret Abdic. Then he launched a terror war against the Serbs and against Abdic’s (quite numerous) Bosnian Muslim followers.

To this end, Izetbegovic recreated the SS Handzar Division that Hajj Amin al Husseini, a jihadist allied with the German Nazis (and, later, creator of PLO/Fatah!), had organized in Bosnia during WWII.

Meanwhile, the US government, assisted by the mainstream Western media, claimed the Serbs were the genocidal maniacs, and painted Izetbegovic as a besieged multiculturalist—allegedly a tolerant, democratic stalwart. In order to thus turn the Yugoslav civil wars upside down, spectacular frauds were perpetrated. These frauds the public still does not understand.

But despite all that help, Izetbegovic was losing, so the Pentagon allied with Iran to import into Bosnia hordes of mujahedeen veterans from other ‘holy wars’ around the globe.

SOURCES:

1)    Wiebes, C. (2003). Intelligence and the war in Bosnia 1992-1995: The role of the intelligence and security. Amsterdam: Netherlands Institute for War Documentation.

2)    Dutch Report: Us Sponsored Foreign Islamists In Bosnia”; By Richard J Aldrich; The Guardian (LONDON); Monday April 22, 2002

3)  What really happened in Bosnia?: Were the Serbs the criminal aggressors, as the official story claims, or were they the victims?”; Historical and Investigative Research; 19 August 2005; by Francisco Gil-White

[17a] RIGHTS: JSOC Interests Snag Plan to Free Afghan Detainees”; Inter Press Service; 21 March 2010; by Gareth Porter.

Detained and Denied in Afghanistan”; Human Rights First; May 2011

[18] H.R. McMaster Breaks With Administration on Views of Islam”; The New York Times; 24 February 2017; by Mark Landler and Eric Schmitt

[19] McMaster staffing NSC with traditional GOP foreign policy hands”; The Washington Post; 4 April 2017; by Josh Rogin

The above mentions the appointments of Lisa Curtis and Fiona Hill. For Dina Habib Powell, see her Wikipedia page.

[20] According to McMaster’s résumé, he was formerly the Deputy Commanding General, Futures of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), which “operates 37 schools and centers at 27 different locations” and educates “443,231 [US] soldiers; 36,145 other-service personnel; 8,314 international soldiers; and 28,310 civilians.”

[21] More Evidence That McMaster Shares Obama's Views on Islam and Terror”; PJ Media; 14 March 2017; by Raymond Ibrahim

[22] H.R. McMaster Breaks With Administration on Views of Islam”; The New York Times; 24 February 2017; by Mark Landler and Eric Schmitt

[23] Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Think Tanks”; The New York Times; 6 September 2017; By ERIC LIPTON, BROOKE WILLIAMS and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

[23a] In his book on Petraeus, Peter R. Mansoor explains that H.R. McMaster was a member of Petraeus’ closest inner circle, and led the Joint Strategic Assessment Team that Petraus created to review strategy.

SOURCE: Mansoor, Peter R. (2013). Surge: My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press (p.104).

[23b] McMaster says Trump will back Palestinian 'self-determination' during his trip to Israel”; The Week; 13 May 2017; by Bonnie Kristian

[24]Defense Secretary Mattis withdraws Patterson as choice for undersecretary for policy”; 14 March 2017; by Karen DeYoung

[25]Ambassador Becomes Focus of Egyptians’ Mistrust of U.S.”; The New York Times; 3 July 2013; by Mark Landler

[26] Trump says retired general Mattis in running for Pentagon”; Financial Times; 20 November 2016;

[27] How Did Sebastian Gorka Go From The Anti-Muslim Fringe To White House Aide?”; Talking Points Memo; 9 February 2017; by Allegra Kirkland

[28] Unfit for duty: McMaster and Gorka”; 2 March 2017; Jihad Watch; by Robert Spencer

[29] In 2007, the Pew Research Center conducted 55,000 interviews with Muslims in the United States. Pew concluded that these Muslims are “highly assimilated,” but Pew’s own data dispute that.

According to the interview data, 9% of Muslim Americans older than 30 consider suicide bombings against ‘infidels’ justified. That’s already too high for comfort, in my view. But “the survey finds that younger Muslim Americans—those under age 30—are both much more religiously observant and more accepting of Islamic extremism than are older Muslim Americans.” In this younger group, the percentage of those who believe suicide bombings against ‘infidels’ are OK rises to 15%.

“A pattern of greater acceptance of suicide bombing among young Muslim Americans corresponds with the Pew Global Attitude Project’s findings among Muslims in Great Britain, France, Germany and Spain.”

This suggests that, even in countries where Muslims are surrounded by a liberal ideology, there is a trend toward radicalization, and that we may expect, in the future, higher percentages of Muslims in the West with a jihadi ideology.

Moreover, it is almost certain that Pew’s study grossly underestimates the true numbers, because it is natural for Muslim Americans to fear being identified as jihadis, and in fact, in the interviews, many said they felt they were being monitored by the US government.

SOURCE: 2007. “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream.Pew Research Center. (pp.2, 5-6)

[30] Refugees from Islam in the West, such as Ayan Hirsi Ali, have been explaining for a long time that there is no such thing as ‘moderate Islam.’ Practicing Muslims seem to agree. Consider Turkey’s most important politician, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a big fan and ally of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to Jihad Watch:

“Speaking at Kanal D TV’s Arena program, PM Erdogan commented on the term ‘moderate Islam,’ often used in the West to describe AKP [Erdogan’s party] and said, ‘These descriptions are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.’ ”

And at Muslim events in the West, Muslim speakers, before audiences that identify to the last person as normal—not ‘radical’—Muslims, have denounced the idea that killing homosexuals, infidels, etc., is in any way ‘radical.’ This is just normal, traditional Islam, they insist.

HIR’s own research into Islamic doctrine agrees with this view. Moderate Muslims certainly do exist—in other words, people who say ‘I am a Muslim’ and who also want to live in peace with their neighbors of all religions. But this peaceful stance finds scant support in the Islamic teachings, so whereas moderate Muslims (i.e. people who call themselves Muslims but don’t want to kill ‘infidels’) are good people, they are not proper Muslims.

[31] After the Reagan years, Richard Perle became chairman of the Defense Policy Board, a creation of the Reagan administration, which advises the Pentagon. In this capacity, during the Bush Jr. administration, Perle became “one of the most outspoken and influential American advocates of war with Iraq.” That war happened, and it became the greatest gift to the Iranian jihadis, who have now inherited Iraq.

Meantime, Perle continued to have dealings with Adnan Kashoggi, earlier “one of the middlemen between Oliver North, in the White House, and the mullahs in Iran in what became known as the Iran-Contra scandal.”

SOURCE: “Lunch With the Chairman: Why was Richard Perle meeting with Adnan Khashoggi?”; The New Yorker; 17 March 2003; by Seymour Hersh

[32] According to the Wikipedia entry on Denton, he received a “commendation from the Coordinating Group of the Serbian Opposition for his support of their successful effort to overthrow Slobodan Milosevic.” That ‘Serbian Opposition’ was called OTPOR, and OTPOR was trained by the CIA to undermine Slobodan Milosevic, the democratically elected leader of Yugoslavia.

Who was Milosevic fighting? Jihadists and fascists.

Of course, NATO accused that Milosevic was “the new Hitler.” The only problem with this is that every accusation against Milosevic has turned out to be a fraud. [see note 17]

SOURCES:

a)    Otpor is an American Tragedy”; Emperor’s Clothes; 8 September 2000; by Jared Israel

b)    How Politicians, the Media, and Scholars Lied about Milosevic's 1989 Kosovo Speech: A review of the evidence”; Historical and Investigative Research; 9 February 2002; by Francisco Gil-White

c)    How to lie with (or without) statistics: An examination of Patrick Ball’s indictment of Milosevic”; Historical and Investigative Research; 14 March 2006; by Francisco Gil-White

[33] Did Gorka Really Wear A Medal Linked To Nazi Ally To Trump Inaugural Ball?”; Talking Points Memo; 13 February 2017; by Allegra Kirkland

[34] Court rules Jobbik cannot be called ‘far-right’”; EU Observer; 6 June 2014; by Eszter Zalan

[35] Former ‘anti-Semitic politician’ from Hungary moves to Israel after discovering he's Jewish”; The Independent; 23 September 2016; by Caroline Mortimer

[36] Did Gorka Really Wear A Medal Linked To Nazi Ally To Trump Inaugural Ball?”; Talking Points Memo; 13 February 2017; by Allegra Kirkland

[37] Jobbik commemorates Miklós Horthy’s 1919 march on Budapest”; The Budapest Beacon; 17 November 2014; by Csaba Tóth.

[38] Le Pen has even “presented herself as a staunch ally of Israel and French Jewry.” In fact, she made a loud show of repudiating her father’s truly crass public expressions of antisemitism and then shoved him out of the Front Nationale, the party he founded, when he wouldn’t back down.

[39] Former ‘anti-Semitic politician’ from Hungary moves to Israel after discovering he's Jewish”; The Independent; 23 September 2016; by Caroline Mortimer

Rising star of Hungarian anti-Semitic party forced to resign after he discovers his Jewish heritage”; 16 August 2012; by Rob Williams

[40] “The second most powerful man in the world?”; 13 February 2017; Time; by David Von Drehle (pp. 24–31).

[41] Bannon’s Booting From NSC May Not Mean Much After All”; Talking Points Memo; 7 April 2017; by Allegra Kirkland

[42] How Breitbart has become a dominant voice in conservative media”; The Washington Post; January 27, 2016; by Paul Farhi

[43] Andrew Breitbart, ‘Reborn’ On The Internet, Died A Force In Media And Politics”; 1 March 2012; by Michael Calderone


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  1. Will Trump be different? 

 

Will Trump be different? Israeli patriots expect him to be. After all, he postures as an enemy of Iran and ISIS. But, what evidence will be diagnostic that Trump really is delivering on his Mideast promises?

 

  2. Can Trump buck the trend?

 

Can Trump (assuming he wants to) transform US foreign policy in the Middle East? To get a sense for how difficult this might be, we must appreciate how traditional the pro-jihadi policy has been. (It wasn’t just Obama.)

 

  3. Trump & Netanyahu: How to interpret their summit?

 

According to many in the mainstream media, the Trump-Netanyahu summit evidenced a ‘pro-Israeli’ turn. That would be a direct challenge to the HIR model. But we don’t see it. The result of the summit, we claim, was ‘pro Iran.’ To say otherwise, as we show, requires important historical omissions.

 

   4. Is Trump the boss?

 

Is US policy-making run by a bipartisan elite cartel? Perhaps the president is a figurehead; the media show changes, but the long-term goals—chosen by the CFR—are always the same. If so, Trump’s Middle East policies will feel different, but they will yield familiar fruits.

 

   5. Who makes foreign policy for Trump?

 

When we examine the backgrounds of those chosen to make foreign policy for Trump, we find they are Establishment figures with a history of supporting pro-jihadi policies.

 

  6. Why does Trump bully Mexico? (It’s a con)  

 

What does Trump’s bullying of Mexico have to do with supporting jihad and undermining Israel? Oddly enough, everything. By thus tugging at people’s identity-based emotions, Trump’s handlers divide the political field and weaken opposition to their dangerous policies. It’s psychological warfare. Trump is a con artist. And you’ve been conned.

 

  7. Obama, too, was a bully   

 

In the last century, US policy was never so violent against Mexico as in the Bush Jr.-Obama period. What changes with Trump is just the style—and that’s the clue that this is a con—.

 

  8. Trump!: He’s conned us before 

 

In the year 2000 a well-known businessman and media personality announced himself as presidential candidate in order to fight racism, denounce border walls, and defend Mexicans. His name was Donald Trump.

 

  9. Political grammar of the anti-Mexico con 

 

To preserve the West as the refuge of human rights and modern liberties, we need to be, simultaneously, pro-liberty and anti-jihad. But the identity-driven emotions stirred by the anti-Mexico con make Westerners either 1) anti-jihad but fascist; or 2) pro-liberty but pro-Islam. Either combination dooms the West.

 

  10. The anti-Mexico con and Trump’s foreign policy

 

Trump, naturally, makes a few noises to satisfy those who expect him to implement an anti-jihadi and pro-Israeli foreign policy—these are obligated moves, forced by the political grammar. But if we look at what Trump is achieving, we find that, like his predecessors, he is making radical Islam stronger and Israel weaker.

 

  11. Why the US pro-jihadi tradition?

 

Even granting that the US is run by a power-elite cartel, it may be difficult to accept that it would want to support jihadism and destroy Israel. But if we consider the cartel’s history, we shall find nothing implausible in this.

 

 

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