JORDAN and ISRAEL

Jordanian Sheikh: Allah gave Israel to the Jews

By Ari Rusila 

Jordanian Sheikh Ahmad al-Adwan adheres to his unconventional interpretation of the Koran, and is not afraid to enrage the Palestinians and their supporters. A Jordanian Quranic scholar, and former postal worker, cited the Quranic sources that affirm Islam and Judaism should have friendly relations and that ‘Palestine’ should be for Jews.

In December 2012, Sheikh al-Adwan visited Israel and met with Jewish Rabbis including Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu in order to discuss peace and reconciliation between the religions. He was interviewed after the visit, which was published a few months ago on the ‘Israel in Arabic’ site.‘Mida’ (a news and intellectual website which aims to present the public with information and opinions not common in the Israeli media) has now presented an English translation of this important interview, which allows a look into unconventional positions and facts, which are not sufficiently well-known in the Israeli and worldwide media.

Here are some of the key points of this interview (Note: Koran verses were taken from Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s translation, available at Project Gutenberg ):

Allah may He be praised wrote in the Torah that this is the land of the sons of Israel, he bequeathed the Holy Land to the sons of Israel and called the land by this name (the Land of Israel) and so it is stated by the Holy Koran: “O my people! Enter the holy land which Allah hath assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.” [Koran 5:21]. This holy verse is a “Kushan” (deed) which confirms that this land is granted to the Jews. It is also said “We made the Children of Israel inheritors of such things.” [Koran 26:59], and in the following verse “And We said thereafter to the Children of Israel, “Dwell securely in the land (of promise)”” [Koran 17:104] and there are many additional holy verses which prove and confirm this.
All should know that the Holy Land is their [the Jews’] land and that Jerusalem is the direction towards which they pray and during their readings and ceremonies, as God said in the Koran “Turn then Thy face in the direction of the sacred Mosque” (in Mecca) [Koran 2:144]. This verse effectively cancels out the prayer towards al-Aqsa (the Temple Mount) and all traditions regarding al-Aqsa for Muslims.
It is also said in the Koran “Even if thou were to bring to the people of the Book all the Signs (together), they would not follow Thy Qibla; nor art thou going to follow their Qibla;” [Koran 2:145]. That is, God created two directions for prayer [“Qibla” in Arabic]. One he designated for Muslims – this is the Kaaba in holy Mecca, while the Jews’ prayer direction is al-Aqsa which is holy to the Jews, this in spite of the nations of the world, because this is the command of God, the King of Kings who chooses how to run His world.
“The Palestinians are the killers of children, the elderly and women. They attack the Jews and then they use those (children, the elderly and women) as human shields and hide behind them, without mercy for their children as if they weren’t their own children, in order to tell the public opinion that the Jews intended to kill them. This is exactly what I saw with my own two eyes in the 70’s, when they attacked the Jordanian army, which sheltered and protected them. Instead of thanking it (the Jordanian army), they brought their children forward to (face) the Jordanian army, in order to make the world believe that the army kills their children. This is their habit and custom, their viciousness, their having hearts of stones towards their children, and their lying to public opinion, in order to get its support.” (Source: ‘Mida’ )

Palestine?

To the opinion that the Kingdom of Jordan in its present borders is the Palestinian State Sheikh al-Adwan has clear position:

The State (Jordan) was blessed with the glorious and honorable leadership of the Hashemites, a strong Jordanian nation connected to its land of tribes and families, and proud and brave men who support and embrace the present leadership and support its call for peace. Anyone who says this is the Palestinian State is either asleep or a daydreamer…a terrorist and a wicked person.

A quote from the answer to question if Sheikh al-Adwan believes that those who call themselves “Palestinians” have a right to establish a state on the Jews’ historic land?

How can they (the Palestinians) have the right to establish a State on the Jewish Land of Israel, which Allah granted and bequeathed to the Jews? More than that, even if all the inhabitants of the land forgot their right, or went crazy and collaborated with those who call themselves “Palestinians” to establish a state for the latter, they won’t succeed, and Allah will not allow this until the Day of Judgment, this because Allah Himself willed and specifically wrote in His book that this land will be the land of the People of Israel under Israeli sovereignty so that no-one would later dispute it.

With this question I have a bit different approachas I see Palestine in relation to British mandate. From Israeli point of view the legal rights to the land are based to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the League of Nations San Remo Conference of 1920. The geographical area called Palestine was to become a homeland for the Jewish Homeland. The land was administered as British mandate. Britain split off 75% of Palestine to establish the Emirate of Transjordan split off 75% of Palestine to establish the Emirate of Transjordan on the eastern bank of the RiverJordan. This part is now known as the modern Kingdom of Jordan. The Peel Commission of the late 1930’s endeavored to partition the western portion of the original Jewish Homeland into Jewish and Arab mini-states, the latter to mollify Arab rioters fomented by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini, an close ally with Hitler during WWII

Coming back to the present time for example Farouk Kaddoumi, a veteran PLO official, dropped a political bomb (on 31st Oct. 2012) with a call for “returning” the West Bank to Jordan during an interview with the London-based Al- Quds Al-Arabi newspaper. Kaddoumi, who is based in Tunisia, said he supported the idea of a federation or confederation between the West Bank and Jordan.  (More in A Jordanian-Palestinian Confederation Is On The Move , Palestinians Put Jordanian Option on the Table and The Three-State Option could solve Gaza Conflict )

Similar approach

Besides Al-Adwan few other muslim scholars have similar approach. For example Abdul Hadi Palazzi – secretary general of the Italian Muslim Assembly – accepts Israel’s sovereignty over the Holy Land, and says the Qur’an supports it as the will of God as a necessary prerequisite for the Final Judgment. He accepts Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem, if the rights of other religions are protected. He quotes the Qur’an to support Judaism’s special connection to the Temple Mount. (Source: Wiki) Also Muhammad Al-Hussaini (Leo Baeck Rabbinical College, London) has similar Muslim-zionist position as he understands the text of the Qur’an to award the Holy Land to the Jews for all time, and he holds that Muslims can be convinced of this interpretation. (Source: Wiki )

Opposite approach

On the other hand the Islamic State (IS) – formerly known as ISIS – the terror group wreaking havoc and death across Iraq and Syria, has promised a Holocaust against the Jews. The Algemeiner brings us this report of a disguised Israeli reporter who interviewed an American-born member of IS, a report that shows the terrorists’ intentions, as well as the truth behind their many foreign-born members. Posing as “Abed al-Islam Afifi,” 26, from Paris, the reporter contacted Abu Turab via a cellphone app.

“From Syria, we’ll expand the caliphate, Allah willing, and Hizbullah and the Jews will meet their fate, and soon,” vowed an American-born 26-year-old Islamic State (IS) fighter in Aleppo, Syria …

IS boasts that dozens of American youths, and hundreds from various countries in Europe have joined its ranks and have already entered Syria and Iraq to fight alongside various factions, in part, thanks to easy access to information on the internet …

Dr. Muhammad Al Atawneh, a senior faculty member in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, suggested that these young people understand Islam and organizations like IS via non-religious sources. “For these young people, this is a protest. They see radical Islam as an alternative to the failure of nation-states. They go to the edge of the edge, talking about the caliphate, but no one there knows what ‘caliphate’ really means,” he said. “There is tremendous ignorance on the subject,” Al Atawneh said. “They’re very confused in matters of religion. The distortions and gaps are so abysmal, it is impossible to understand what texts people who chop off heads are following.” (Source: The Algemeiner )

ISIS five-year plan

My view

Personally, from my perspective the religious aspects related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are insignificant. In my opinion the legitimacy of Israel is based on anti-Semitism through centuries and especially implementation of Holocaust during WWII. Based to this unique experience – as far as I can see – the Jews have all right to their newly established homeland; sure newborn Israel same time has violated the rights of Arabs living West side of the River Jordan but as said in my opinion the claim of Jews compared to Arabs is more justified in this region. Ari Rusila 

SYRIA AND THE ASSAD EQUATION

TIME TO DO A DEAL WITH ASSAD? 

The military options for the WEST vis-a-vis IRAQ are limited without some ability to operate permissively in the air and on the ground there. This would require movement toward a political settlement to the SYRIAN civil war and an arrangement with ASSAD.

Background Information: 

WEST POISED TO JOIN FORCES WITH PRESIDENT ASSAD IN FACE OF ISLAMIC STATE

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com/2014/08/usa-and-syria-geopolitical-irony.html

THE REGION HAS NO HISTORY OR EXPERIENCE OF DEMOCRACY

Politics in the Mideast is not for those with weak stomachs. Ruling there within the artificial borders left behind by the colonial powers is no easy task. The many internal and cross-border fissures – ideological, sectarian, ethnic, tribal, clan and extremist – with which governments must contend make the job hard enough. Add the apparently existential conflict between ISRAEL and the ARABS – adds another level of difficulty. The region has no history or experience of democracy. The so-called “ARAB spring” expressed the deep frustration of populations abused by corrupt regimes. But success in overturning governments exposed the fissures “to the air” and made it near impossible to maintain stability through anything genuinely democratic.

Indeed, the region’s regimes have been generally authoritarian and the rulers not shy about the use of force to hold things together. JORDAN has been an exception, blessed by intelligent and pragmatic kings using diplomacy (triangulating between ISRAEL, the PALESTINIANS and their less agreeable ARAB neighbors), a degree of internal openness and Arab money (when they can get it) to maintain internal peace. The GULF STATES – most characteristically SAUDI ARABIA – have utilized huge piles of money and fundamentalist ISLAM to keep divisions at bay. SADDAM and the ASSADS used, sometimes brutally, repression and force – with doses of ARAB nationalism and socialism – to hold IRAQ and SYRIA together. EGYPT – the brief MORSI period aside – has been ruled by military “pharaohs” for decades. LEBANON barely holds together at all under its multi-confessional arrangements. In none of these countries has anything like WESTERN-democracy played any real role.

ASSAD GAINED THE UPPER HAND IN THE STRUGGLE

In IRAQ, SADDAM knew how to deal with any sign of opposition.  His regime would likely have continued along but for the historical calamity of the BUSH/CHENEY/RUMSFELD/TENET-led US invasion. In SYRIA, BASHAR ASSAD was perhaps not as practiced as his father, Hafez. When faced with the 2011 protests against his government, he first suggested openness to limited change and even the possibility of elections. His father would never have shown such “weakness.”   The opposition – encouraged by who or what? – refused and ASSAD responded with force. Outsiders drawing “red lines” and offering encouragement (if not arms) to “moderate” rebels contributed to the resultant escalation of violence as much as ASSAD himself. And ASSAD learned. He blew through the mostly rhetorical demands that he end the attacks on his own people and has proceeded to gain the upper hand in the struggle. But against the background of international involvement – invasions in one and support for hapless rebels in the other – both IRAQ and SYRIA have descended into an anarchy providing fertile ground for a new, even more dangerous form of terrorism.

BASHAR ASSAD told us this would happen, warning about who might step into any vacuum left behind if his government fell. But he himself could not resist playing with fire. His strategy included allowing ISIS – now the Islamic State (IS) – to war against his other opposition. (TURKEY too has allowed ISIS space but to take the war to ASSAD. In the MIDEAST, politics makes for very strange bedfellows.)

THE “CALIPHATE” ITSELF ACCEPTS NO STATE BOUNDARY 

and has carried its efforts not only to IRAQ and SYRIA but to LEBANON as well. The US and EUROPEANS have now woken up to the IS threat. American aircraft are being used in support – implicit when not explicit – of KURDS, SHIA, BAGDAD and IRAn against IS in IRAQ. The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has made clear, however, that the fight against IS must be joined in Syria as well. WASHINGTON and LONDON must be considering their options because they have felt the need to say they will not, nevertheless, deal with ASSAD. On one level, this is understandable. The UN reports that the death toll in SYRIA had now surpassed 190,000 with hundreds of thousands more living as refugees in over-stretched neighbors. 

Read also related article: 
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com/2014/07/isis-in-iraq-sectarian-tsunami-or.html

EXPECTING ASSAD TO GIVE UP POWER AS PART OF A SETTLEMENT IS UNREALISTIC

Yet, there is reason to consider finding a way to find an arrangement with ASSAD. The military options for the WEST vis-a-vis IRAQ are limited without some ability to operate permissively in the air and on the ground there. This would require movement toward a political settlement to the SYRIAN civil war. By now it must be accepted that expecting ASSAD to give up power as part of a settlement is unrealistic. Some sort of compromise would be required. Any compromise must be based on an objective appraisal. 

Background Information on related subject: 

IN 2011 WE WROTE: TUMBLING OF REGIME COULD BE USED BY FUNDAMENTALISTS TO SEIZE POWER

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com/2011/06/assad-dilemma.html

So, it may be necessary to recognize that ASSAD has basically now “won” his battle to remain in power. Until now, and with no other options, he may have found IS attacks on the other rebels convenient. But finding a way to reestablish some sort of relationship with the US might still be attractive enough for ASSAD to win some degree of political moderation and cooperation. (He did give up his chemical weapons in an earlier effort.)

THE WEST HAS MADE COLOSSAL MISTAKES WITH IRAQ AND SYRIA. 

The US helped create the conditions which weakened the states the BRITISH and FRENCH left behind. Working together, with RUSSIA and IRAN, and accepting the regimes we must accept to provide some coherence on the ground – easier perhaps in IRAQ now that key actors accept MALIKI was a mistake – may bring together the degree of force and stability necessary to contain and defeat IS. Working with governments in IRAQ and SYRIA to provide services and stability to their people – plus some degree of decentralization – in the wake of driving out the terrorists will be necessary to win anything like a permanent peace. We would need to work with those we find in power rather than those we would wish to find there.

Related articles on subject matter:

SYRIA: ASSAD WINNING THE WAR?
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/02/syria-assad-winning-war.html

SYRIA – ASSAD FIRM IN SADDLE
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/syria-assad-firm-in-saddle.html

US INTELLIGENCE: ASSAD FIRMLY IN CHARGE IN SYRIA. At:http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/03/syria.html

By Gerard M. Gallucci via TransConflict

Gerard M. Gallucci is a retired US diplomat and UN peacekeeper. He worked as part of US efforts to resolve the conflicts in Angola, South Africa and Sudan and as Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council. He served as UN Regional Representative in Mitrovica, Kosovo from July 2005 until October 2008 and as Chief of Staff for the UN mission in East Timor from November 2008 until June 2010. He was Diplomat-in-Residence at Drake University for the 2013-14 school year and now works as an independent consultant.

ARGENTINA: BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

FIRST TIME IN HISTORY THAT A COUNTRY WANTS TO PAY ITS DEBTS BUT CANNOT DO SO BECAUSE THE JUSTICE SYSTEM OF ANOTHER COUNTRY DOES NOT ALLOW IT TO 

By Andrés Gaudin via Latinamerica Press

ARGENTINA wants to pay its creditors, but a district court judge from the NEW YORK metropolitan area is preventing it from doing so. With the same timeliness it has been doing so for 10 years, in June ARGENTINA deposited in the Bank of NEW YORK MELLON the US$ 539 million it owed citizens all around the world who purchased bonds from their external debt, but the judge ordered the bank to retain these funds and not transfer them into the accounts of their real owners. Judge Thomas GRIESA, still active despite being 84 years old, was backed by the U.S. Supreme Court, and both decided that the SOUTH AMERICAN country is in default, meaning it is incapable of facing its external commitments.

According to the INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF), GRIESA and the U.S. Supreme Court decided to put “at risk all of the debt restructuring plans throughout the world.” This could be the first time in history that a country wants to pay its debts but cannot do so because the justice system of another country does not allow it to. Eugenio ZAFFARONI, a professor and a member of ARGENTINA’S Supreme Court, spoke ruthlessly of GRIESA and told the ARGENTINE newspaper Tiempo that “he seems to be an omnipotent figure when in reality he is a poor judge of a district court, with a blind legal vision.”

This story began in December 2001. After a decade of wild neoliberalism, ARGENTINA exploded both politically and economically. Following a week that left about thirty people dead on the streets of BUENOS AIRES and that saw five presidents in 10 days, the State declared itself in default and, along with the loss of external credit, lost complete credibility. Finally, in 2003, Néstor KIRCHNER (2003-2007) became president and in 2004 called together all the global creditors to join a debt restructuring plan. ARGENTINA committed to paying all of those debt bondholders who agreed to receive only 25 percent of the amount owed to them. The 92.4 percent of the creditors accepted. Part of the remaining 7.6 percent of bonds that did not enter the restructuring plan was purchased in 2008 by five of the companies known as “vulture funds.” They purchased the bonds at less than 30 percent of their value and, immediately, demanded 100 percent of the value plus interest.

UNPLAYABLE AMOUNT

Was it bribery? ...... or total impartiality?   

Judge GRIESA ruled in favor of the vulture funds and determined they deserve to recover their money. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected ARGENTINA’S appeal to review GRIESA’S decision and supported the ruling of the MANHATTAN judge. All in all, ARGENTINA would have to pay the vulture funds $1.3 billion that would automatically become $15 billion because that payment must be made to all of the 7.6 percent of bondholders not involved in the restructuring plan. That amount is unplayable; it represents 52 percent of the country’s total reserves and equals 20 percent of its exports. But that’s not all. If ARGENTINA pays those $1.3 billion, a clause within the agreement signed with the 92.4 percent of bondholders who agreed to restructure would be triggered. The clause establishes that these bondholders have the right to be compensated if any better offer is given to the 7.6 percent who did not join in the 2004 agreement. In that case, the debt would amount to $500 billion, almost 17 time ARGENTINA’S international reserves. ARGENTINA would not be able to pay and would be bankrupt.

ARGENTINA’S Minister of Economy, Axel KICILOFF, repeats every day that “we want to pay,” and accuses Judge GRIESA and the U.S. Supreme Court of being part of this trial and acting in “complete bad faith.” He insists that ARGENTINA “is not willing to do absolutely everything and pay under any condition, but [is willing to pay] under the same principles that guided the 2004 restructuring, that is with the principle of growing to be able to pay, because the dead don’t pay.”

For KICILOFF, GRIESA’S ruling is unprecedented and unbelievable, “unprecedented because the judge attempts to block a debtor from complying with its obligations and unbelievable because GRIESA rules on instruments whose validity were never objected by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission and because what he is freezing are funds that ARGENTINA no longer owns but are [owned by] third parties.”

OBAMA’S INACTION - COULD USE CONSTITUTION’S “SEPARATION OF POWERS CLAUSE”

During this entire process, ARGENTINA has received the support of institutions, the media and personalities from around the world, from the IMF, the Organization of AMERICAN States, the Union of SOUTH AMERICAN Nations, the Economic Commission for LATIN AMERICA and the CARIBBEAN, the UNITED NATIONS Conference on Trade and Development as well as The Financial Times, The Guardian and The New York Times, even Joseph STIGLITZ (Nobel Prize for Economics 2001), Anne KRUEGER (former IMF Managing Director) and Mark WEISBROT (Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and President of Just Foreign Policy in WASHINGTON).

Perhaps WEISBROT best summarized everyone’s opinion: “In the UNITED STATES, and most other countries, there are bankruptcy laws designed to allow for companies and individuals facing unpayable debt to make a new start. There is no such legal mechanism for countries, so these restructuring agreements are an important way of resolving problems of unpayable sovereign debt. Now, if we continue on this path draw by this judge, his ruling will have a destabilizing effect on international financial markets,” he said.

However, the strongest support came from the BRITISH newspaper The Guardian. There, Greg PALAST, an investigator specialized in vulture funds, accused US President Barack OBAMA of “not doing what he should.” As he explained, OBAMA can use the Constitution’s “Separation of Powers Clause”, allowing a president to tell a judge, without violating republican principles that he is interfering with foreign policy.

PALAST notes that in 2003 former US President George W. BUSH (2001-2008) invoked this clause to block actions against the Republic of the CONGO by the same vulture fund that attacks ARGENTINA today.

“Under the principle known as ‘comity’, OBAMA only need inform US federal judge Thomas GRIESA that [his ruling on ARGENTINA] interferes with the president´s sole authority to conduct foreign policy,” pointed Palast. Based on this, the ARGENTINE government maintained that “OBAMA is directly responsible for the world financial imbalance caused by GRIESA’S ruling.”

USA AND SYRIA: GEOPOLITICAL IRONY

WEST POISED TO JOIN FORCES WITH PRESIDENT ASSAD IN FACE OF ISLAMIC STATE

Source: Independent

Islamist forces are fighting their way into western SYRIA from bases further east, bringing forward the prospect of US military intervention to stop their advance. If ISIS, which styles itself ISLAMIC STATE, threatens to take all or part of ALEPPO, establishing complete dominance over the anti-government rebels, the US may be compelled to act publicly or secretly in concert with President BASHAR AL-ASSAD, whom it has been trying to displace.

Read related Reuteres Article: 

U.S. HOSTAGE RESCUERS DROPPED FROM NIGHT SKY, Syria activist says
BY Oliver Holmes and Jason Szep

(Reuters) - It was just after midnight on July 4 when at least two dozen U.S. Delta Force commandos arrived on heavily armed Black Hawk helicopters in Akrishi, a small town near the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa on the bank of the Euphrates River.

Before they landed to search for American hostages including journalist James Foley, they destroyed a crucial target: anti-aircraft weapons at a jihadist base about 3 miles (5 km) southeast of the city, a stronghold of Islamic State militants seeking to build a monolithic Islamic state.

The above account and other details of the raid have emerged from witnesses who spoke with a member of a Syrian opposition activist group, who identified himself as Abu Ibrahim al Raqaoui. Raqaoui told the information to Reuters in an interview via Skype from inside Syria. His group also posted witness accounts of the raid on Facebook soon after it took place. The posts, which were viewed by Reuters, have since been taken down.

"The raid happened just after midnight," Raqaoui said. "The helicopters first started destroying anti-aircraft weapons.”Reuters could not verify the account.

The White House publicized details of the raid on Wednesday, a day after Islamic State jihadists posted a video showing Foley being beheaded. The White House said the commandos failed to find Foley or other hostages and that it was prompted to make the announcement after several U.S. news organisations learned of the operation. The U.S. military incursion into the heart of Islamic State territory, made on U.S. Independence Day, ended in disappointment when the soldiers found no prisoners.

"BURNED THE CAMP"

After landing, the commandos blocked the main road to Raqqa and moved towards a makeshift jail believed to hold Foley and other hostages, Raqaoui said. Discovering Foley wasn’t there, they attacked the base, which the militants had named "Bin Laden", after the former al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, Raqaoui said. They lit it on fire, he said.

"According to villagers, they burned the camp and killed all the ISIS fighters,” he said, using one of the acronyms that refer to the Islamic State.

U.S. officials said “many” Islamic State fighters were killed and one American soldier was wounded when a helicopter came under fire. Raqaoui’s account puts the number of wounded U.S. soldiers at two.

The mission was authorised by President Barack Obama and based on U.S. intelligence, including information from hostages who have been released, the administration said. U.S. officials would not confirm that it was on July 4. It was first direct ground engagement between the United States and Islamic State militants, and the first known U.S. ground operation in Syria since the start of its civil war in 2011.

The raid's failure to bring hostages home underscores the limits of U.S. intelligence about Syria's chaotic conflict. 

“We believed we had a good case for where they might be,” said one U.S. official who declined to be identified.

MILITANTS TIPPED OFF

A Syrian source close to the Islamic State told Reuters that the militants had been tipped off to the planned operation when Americans were seen asking about the hostages in the Turkish city of Antakya, about 12 miles (20 km) from the Syrian border.

“The Americans were looking for their hostages and desperately looking for any information,” said this person, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity. 

“They met people in Antakya and asked questions. Afterwards, the operation became expected. The (Islamic) State anticipated the operation and took precautions. They expected it and that is why they have probably changed the location of the hostages.”

Rami Abdelrahman, founder of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors violence in the Syrian war via a network of activists across the country, said that at the time of the operation last month, his activists in Raqqa received a report from a single source close to the Islamic State saying that there had been a raid in the area by American troops. 

“The residents said they heard the noise of aircraft and gunfire but did not know more than that,” he said.

The source close to the Islamic State had said at the time that some of the Americans had been killed, Abdelrahman said. The source said Islamic State fighters also had been hurt. “They said some of the brothers were wounded.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S. independent group, estimates that two dozen kidnapped journalists, both local and foreigners, remain in Syria, including American Steven Sotloff who was shown at the end of the Islamic State video on Tuesday. The militant who killed Foley warned that Sotloff would be next if U.S air strikes persist. U.S. warplanes and drones have continued daily attacks on Islamic State positions in Iraq. U.S. officials say they have not ruled out escalating military action against the jihadists, who have increased their threats against the United States since the air campaign in Iraq began two weeks ago.

(Writing by Jason Szep, additional reporting by Mariam Karouny and Tom Perry in Beirut, and Steve Holland and Missy Ryan in Washington; editing by Peter Henderson)

Background Information on related subject: 
REBEL FORCES HAVE BEEN DANGEROUSLY INFILTRATED BY VARIOUS EXTREMIST GROUPS WITH DIVERSE AGENDAS WHICH WILL HELP DETERMINE ANY SHIFT IN THE BALANCE OF POWER IN THE MIDDLE EAST
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com/2012/10/libya-syria.html

US PASSES INTELLIGENCE TO ASSAD VIA BNA

The US has already covertly assisted the ASSAD government by passing on intelligence about the exact location of jihadi leaders through the BND, the GERMAN intelligence service. This may explain why SYRIAN aircraft and artillery have been able on occasion to target accurately rebel commanders and headquarters.

Background Information on related subject: 
IN 2011 WE WROTE: TUMBLING OF REGIME COULD BE USED BY FUNDAMENTALISTS TO SEIZE POWER
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com/2011/06/assad-dilemma.html

SYRIAN army troops are engaged in a fierce battle to hold TABQA airbase in RAQQA province, the fall of which would open the way to HAMA, SYRIA’S fourth-largest city. Further north, ISIS has captured crucial territory that brings it close to cutting rebel supply lines between ALEPPO and the TURKISH border. The caliphate declared by ISIS on 29 June already covers the eastern third of SYRIA in addition to a quarter of IRAQ. It stretches from JALAWLA, a town 20 miles from IRAN, which the IRAQI army and KURDISH PESHMERGA are trying to recapture, to towns 30 miles north of ALEPPO.

Copyright: Stratfor

The question of possible US military action in SYRIA, such as air strikes, jumped to the top of political agenda when the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, General Martin DEMPSEY, said: “Can they [ISIS] be defeated without addressing that part of the organisation that resides in SYRIA? The answer is no.”

He stressed that he was not predicting that the US was intending to take military action in SYRIA, but the US is very conscious that ISIS can survive indefinitely if it has a large safe haven in SYRIA.

DIRECTION CHANGE: CALLING IT OFF WITH ASSAD

Chas FREEMAN, the former US ambassador to SAUDI ARABIA, said that General DEMPSEY was pointing out that ISIS straddles the IRAQ-SYRIAN border and there should be a consistent policy towards it on both sides of the divide.

General DEMPSEY “did not spell out the implications of that but, to me, they point in the direction of calling it off with ASSAD. It might also imply the sharing of intelligence with the opponents of ISIS, even those from whom we ourselves are estranged. Odder things have happened in the MIDDLE EAST.”

Background Information on related subject: 

U.S. GOVERNMENT BACKED THE PREVIOUS OPPOSITION “LEADERSHIP,” THE SYRIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL, WHICH WAS FORMED AS A RESULT OF AMERICAN INITIATIVE OPERATING THROUGH ISLAMIST TURKEY
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com/2012/12/usa-policy-is-making-syria-into-anti.html

US REFUSES TO LEARN FROM HISTORY: AMERICAN AGENDA IS NOT THE ELIMINATION OF ISIS, BUT PREVENTING ITS EXPANSION........ 

Mr FREEMAN, who is retired, added he had no knowledge about whether intelligence-sharing with President ASSAD’S government was being considered. For the moment, the most pressing issue in SYRIA is not the elimination of ISIS, but preventing its expansion after a series of victories in July and August. Firstly, it drove out JABHAT al-NUSRA, the SYRIAN affiliate of AL-QA’IDA, from the oil-rich province of DEIR EZZOR on the EUPHRATES. Then it overran two important SYRIAN army bases, one held by Division 17 in RAQQA province and a second by Regiment 121 in HASAKAH province where the IRAQI regimental commander was killed.

SYRIA holds greater opportunities for ISIS in terms of expansion than IRAQ because the movement draws its support from the SUNNI ARAB community: 60 per cent of SYRIANS are SUNNI ARABS, compared to 20 per cent in IRAQ.

The policy of the US, BRITAIN and their allies in the region over the last three years has been to support “moderate” SYRIAN rebels who are supposed to fight Isis and other jihadists as well as the ASSAD government in DAMASCUS.

Related articles on subject matter:

SYRIA: ASSAD WINNING THE WAR?
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/02/syria-assad-winning-war.html

SYRIA – ASSAD FIRM IN SADDLE
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/syria-assad-firm-in-saddle.html

US INTELLIGENCE: ASSAD FIRMLY IN CHARGE IN SYRIA. At: http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/03/syria.html

ISLAMIC STATE (IS, FORMERLY ISIS) - BLINDSIDE WESTERN INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

FIRST CRIMEA, NOW IRAQ. WHY DOES AMERICA'S $50 BILLION INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY KEEP GETTING TAKEN BY SURPRISE?

How come that all major Western Intelligence Agency were caught completely off guard by the rise of the IS (Islamic States, formally ISIS)? One can only assume that either they let IS rise deliberately for reasons of complex causes, or they simply were caught off guard, which rises the question of their abilities....     

UNITED STATES intelligence agencies were caught by surprise when fighters from the ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND AL-SHAM (ISIS) seized two major Iraqi cities and sent IRAQI defense forces fleeing. With U.S. troops long gone from the country, Washington didn't have the spies on the ground or the surveillance gear in the skies necessary to predict when and where the jihadist group would strike.

Background Information: 

US INTELLIGENCE FAILURES 

INFILTRATION OF TERRORIST GROUPS OR RADICAL ISLAMIC OUTFITS IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE OR EVEN OVERLY CHALLENGING

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/09/us-intelligence-failures.html

The speed and ease with which well-armed and highly trained ISIS fighters took over MOSUL, IRAQ'S second-largest city, and TIKRIT, the birthplace of former IRAQI ruler SADDAM HUSSEIN, have raised significant doubts about the ability of AMERICAN intelligence agencies to know when ISIS might strike next, a troubling sign as the Islamist group advances steadily closer to BAGHDAD. And it harkened back to another recent intelligence miscue, in February, when U.S. spy agencies failed to predict the RUSSIAN invasion of CRIMEA. 

"WE GOT CAUGHT FLAT-FOOTED. PERIOD" 

Both events are likely to raise questions about whether the tens of billions of dollars spent every year on monitoring the world's hot spots is paying off -- and what else the spies might be missing.

The CIA maintains a presence at the U.S. Embassy in BAGHDAD, but the agency has largely stopped running networks of spies inside the country since U.S. forces left IRAQ in December 2011, current and former U.S. officials said. That's in part because the military's secretive JOINT SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND had actually taken the lead on hunting down Iraq's militants. With the JSOC commandos gone, the intelligence agencies have been forced to try to track groups like ISIS through satellite imagery and communications intercepts -- methods that have proven practically useless because the militants relay messages using human couriers, rather than phone and email conversations, and move around in such small groups that they easily blend into the civilian population.

POLICYMAKERS IN WASHINGTON AND OTHER ALLIED CAPITALS WERE SIMILARLY UNSURE OF THE GROUP'S TRUE STRENGTH OR HOW TO RESPOND. 

Secretary of Defense Chuck HAGEL met with defense officials from Arab countries in JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA, where they agreed that ISIS and other Islamic fighters in SYRIA and IRAQ posed a threat to the entire region, a senior U.S. official said. But no plan on how to counter those groups emerged from the meeting, and there's no indication that U.S. intelligence agencies stepped up monitoring of ISIS fighters in IRAQ, who also seized control of FALLUJAH and parts of RAMADI in January.

"We got caught flat-footed. Period," said Daveed GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, a terrorism analyst and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who studies ISIS and other al Qaeda-linked groups. Although for the past three years U.S. officials had assessed that ISIS was strong enough "to go toe-to-toe" with the IRAQI military -- a fact the group demonstrated with its operations in FALLUJAH and RAMADI -- there has been no indication that the U.S. intelligence agencies knew ISIS was about to mount a major offensive to take over two more cities simultaneously, GARTENSTEIN-ROSS said.

In the wake of the attacks on MOSUL and TIKRIT, U.S. intelligence agencies have increased the number of high-resolution images taken from satellites, which could help find the location of ISIS forces on the ground, a U.S. official said. But it was unclear whether this information is being provided to IRAQI forces to help them plan airstrikes or other operations.

Two senior U.S. officials acknowledged that the intelligence agencies' assessment of ISIS has been overly broad and lacked the type of specifics that could have actually helped the IRAQI military know when and where to expect an attack. But the greater concern to the OBAMA administration has been the strength of the IRAQI forces and their actual will to fight, they said.

"This has never been about whether we thought ISIS had the capability to launch attacks. It's always been, do the IRAQIS have the capability to defend their country?" one official said. On that score, the U.S. assessment was more on the mark. OBAMA administration officials have hesitated to provide IRAQI military forces with advanced weapons -- including fighter jets and attack helicopters -- because they've never shown an aptitude for using them or sufficient resolve to fight their enemies, the officials said. The OBAMA administration had also long feared that IRAQI Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, a Shiite with clear antipathy towards the country's Sunni population, would use the armaments against his own people.

OLD TOOLS - IS SENDING COURIERS BACK AND FORTH TO DELIVER INFORMATION RATHER THEN THROUGH TELECOMMUNICATION MEANS 

The intelligence agencies' inability to predict the latest crisis in IRAQ is likely to fuel critics of the OBAMA administration's management of other global crises, including in SYRIA and UKRAINE. In the case of RUSSIA'S seizure of CRIMEA, in which U.S. spies were also caught by surprise, sophisticated electronic eavesdropping systems run by the National Security Agency were of little use because RUSSIAN forces limited their time on telephones and adopted the techniques of jihadists, sending couriers back and forth between their units.

But the responsibility for failing to counter ISIS in IRAQ cannot solely be placed at the feet of U.S. intelligence agencies. When AMERICAN forces were stationed in the country, they built one of the most successful battlefield intelligence systems in the history of AMERICAN warfare. The NSA monitored every phone call, email, or text message in IRAQ, and it provided leads on the location of jihadists and insurgents to drone pilots and special operations forces, who captured or killed them. U.S. commandos working hand in hand with the CIA also developed an extensive network of human spies.

But when U.S. forces left IRAQ in 2011, all that intelligence power went with them. The IRAQI government failed to secure an agreement that would have allowed the UNITED STATES to maintain some physical presence in IRAQ, which it needed to run the intelligence networks at full throttle. Today, that intelligence capability has withered.

HUM INT ( HUMAN INTELLIGENCE ) KEY TO SUCCESS 

"The UNITED STATES has so many intelligence collection efforts occurring simultaneously. It's especially difficult to collect in a place where we have no presence," said Christopher HARMER, a former Navy officer and an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War. Given the lack of human spies in particular, HARMER said that the UNITED STATES would be outmatched in IRAQ against ISIS because of its reliance on couriers and the diligence with which it avoids phones and email, which can be tracked. "What ISIS is best at is exactly what we are worst at. We just don't have a good human intelligence network" in IRAQ, HARMER said.

If the UNITED STATES has any hopes of gaining some intelligence insights into IRAQ, it might look to the autonomous KURDISH region in the north. "The KURDS begged the U.S. to keep a base in KURDISTAN" prior to the troop withdrawal, said David TAFURI, who served as the Rule of Law Coordinator for IRAQ with the State Department in 2006 and 2007, and is now a partner with the law firm Squire Patton Boggs. "They would have given the U.S. whatever it wanted to have a base here. And if we did, we'd be in a much better position to monitor this situation," TAFURI said.

IRAQI officials have been eager to get their hands on U.S. military and intelligence equipment to assist in their struggle against jihadists. Foreign Policy reported that the IRAQI government was actively seeking armed aerial drones from the UNITED STATES to combat al Qaeda militants in the increasingly violent ANBAR province, where fighters from SYRIA were believed to be spilling over into IRAQ. And in a significant reversal, IRAQI officials said they would welcome AMERICAN military drone operators back into the country to target the militants on its behalf, according to people with knowledge of the matter. But to date, the UNITED STATES has only agreed to give IRAQ 10 small ScanEagle drones, which are launched from a catapult and carry no weapons. Those should arrive by the end of the summer.

IRAN, the UNITED STATES' most nettlesome adversary in the entire region, is moving much faster. According to press reports, a 150-man unit of the QUDS Force, the elite wing of IRAN'S Revolutionary Guard, had been sent to IRAQ to bolster the MALIKI government and fight ISIS. Other accounts suggest that a joint IRANIAN-IRAQI force has retaken all or most of TIKRIT.

"We have seen reports but we cannot confirm them," White House Press Secretary Jay CARNEY said. Asked by a reporter whether the OBAMA administration would caution Iraq not to seek assistance from its neighbor, CARNEY said, "I think that this is an issue of the government of IRAQ, and our view is they ought to make prudent decisions about how they deal with the [ISIS] threat in the interests of national unity."

STR / AFP 

BY SHANE HARRIS 

UKRAINE, THE DONBAS SEPARATISTS AND THE CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX CHURCHES INVOLVEMENT IN THE CONFLICT

KONSTANTIN MALOFEEV: FRINGE CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX FINANCIER OF THE DONBAS SEPARATISTS

By: Maksym Bugriy (Source: FT)

The RUSSIA-supported separatists operating in eastern UKRAINE as well as some of their backers in RUSSIA are increasingly espousing a radical ideology based on a meld of Christian Orthodoxy, expansionist Eurasianism, and irredentist state aggression. One important figure closely tied into this group is Konstantin MALOFEEV. A self-described “Orthodox businessman,” MALOFEEV is believed to personally finance the DONBAS separatist operation and has direct links to President Vladimir PUTIN’S inner circle. Although he has been sanctioned by both the EUROPEAN UNION and CANADA, to date MALOFEEV has not come under US sanctions and flies under the radar of Washington policymakers.

CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX FAITH AN THE STAGING OF AN “TRANSNISTRIA SCENARIO” IN UKRAINE 

On July 28, as the RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN conflict continued to escalate, RUSSIA marked the Day of Baptism of Rus. Simultaneously, UKRAINE held celebrations for the Day of Baptism of Kyivan Rus and commemorated Volodymyr the Great (980–1015)—a Great Prince of Kyivan Rus who introduced ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY as the principality’s state religion. 

Related Article: 

AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE USSR, THE MAIN ENEMY OF THE USA WILL BE THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com/2013/01/greater-albania-united-states-project.html

The dual observances in MOSCOW and KYIV illustrate the importance of the CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX faith to the cultural identities of both nations as well as their competing desires to lay claim to its roots. But meanwhile, a radical fringe version of ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY has been growing in importance among the backers of the RUSSIA-sponsored separatist movement in eastern UKRAINE’S DONBAS region. 

This ORTHODOX-based ideology justifies MOSCOW’S irredentist politics and openly welcomes RUSSIA’S hybrid warfare against UKRAINE and other potential EURASIAN states. Both the official RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH led by Patriarch KIRILL, as well as its “affiliated” UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH (Moscow Patriarchate), have cautiously distanced themselves from the DONBAS militants and pro-KREMLIN hardliners who espouse these pseudo-ORTHODOX views. Nonetheless, the fringe ORTHODOX movement has attracted support from several high positions around the KREMLIN, including an activist RUSSIAN “ORTHODOX businessman,” who has been accused of financing much of the DONBAS rebellion.

RUSSIAN OLIGARCH KONSTANTIN MALOFEEV PROMOTER OF CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY, EXPANSIONIST EURASIANISM

The RUSSIAN “ORTHODOX businessman” in question is Konstantin MALOFEEV, the founder of the investment firm Marshall Capital and, at one point, the largest minority shareholder in the RUSSIAN telephone company Rostelecom. MALOFEEV seems to have close connections to RUSSIAN political technologist (and, until recently, the supposed “prime minister” of the self-proclaimed “DONETSK PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC”) Aleksandr BORODAY and to military commander Igor GIRKIN (a.k.a. STRELKOV). 

As evidenced from a conversation intercepted by the Security Service of UKRAINE (SBU) during the early days of escalation of the DONBAS conflict, STRELKOV allegedly reported to MALOFEEV about killing a high-ranking Ukrainian counter-terrorism official. In turn, MALOFEEV is allegedly heard on the tape encouraging STRELKOV to pursue the military operation in SLOVYANSK without hesitation. The RUSSIAN businessman also congratulated STRELKOV on a “well-marked” holiday of Verbnoye (Palm) Sunday (Novosti Dnya, April 14).

KONSTANTIN MALOFEEV IS BELIEVED BY SOME OBSERVERS TO BE ONE OF THE PRIMARY FINANCIERS OF THE ENTIRE SEPARATIST OPERATION IN EASTERN UKRAINE, 

acting on the personal directives of RUSSIAN President Vladimir PUTIN. The arguments in support of this reasoning were laid out in a May 27 investigative article by the RUSSIAN online media outlet The Insider (The Insider, May 27). The article refers to the contents of a hacked e-mail written by STRELKOV in which the DONBAS military commander claims that in the spring of 2014 he was employed as the security chief at Marshall Capital. In another e-mail released by The Insider, which STRELKOV allegedly sent four years earlier, he muses about staging a “Transnistria scenario” in UKRAINE and notes that “some of his friends” were involved in planning the operation. 

Importantly, the same e-mail mentions that the financing for this operation was being “allocated by Staraya Ploshchad [4 Starya PLOSHCHAD is the address of the Presidential Administration building in MOSCOW].” The Insider further investigated MALOFEEV’S alleged current connections to President PUTIN’S administration, including PUTIN’S chief of staff, Sergei IVANOV, as well as IVANOV’S son. The online news source concluded that the circle of MALOFEEV’S contacts included RUSSIAN Communications Minister Igor SHCHEGOLEV and Father TIKHON (GEORGIY ALEKSANDROVICH SHEVKUNOV), who presides over SRETENSKY MONASTERY and is believed to be Vladimir PUTIN’S personal confessor (dukhovnik). The Insider further deduced that most likely Moscow is making “direct use of MALOFEEV’S [financial] resources for combat operations in southeastern UKRAINE without the official involvement of the RUSSIAN Armed Forces” and suggested that FATHER TIKHON actually might have acted as a liaison between MALOFEEV and the KREMLIN (The Insider, July 25).

MALOFEEV SPONSORED A GATHERING IN VIENNA OF RADICAL NATIONALISTS, IDEOLOGICAL PROPONENTS OF “EURASIANISM” AND EUROPEAN FAR-RIGHT POLITICIANS

Konstantin MALOFEEV has openly denied his alleged role in the UKRAINE war, as well as repudiated the suggestions of STRELKOV’S employment with Marshall Capital (Forbes-Russia, May 21). Nevertheless, he welcomed being called an “Orthodox businessman” and sought to highlight his role in sponsoring “humanitarian aid.” However, he has been unable to entirely hide his more radical activities. For example, this past June, a Swiss newspaper reported that MALOFEEV had sponsored a gathering in VIENNA of radical nationalists, ideological proponents of “Eurasianism” and EUROPEAN far-right politicians. 

At this meeting, ultranationalist RUSSIAN philosopher Aleksandr DUGIN was a keynote speaker (Tages Anzeiger, June 3). Moreover, Russian journalist OLEG KASHIN—one of the first to write about MALOFEEV’S alleged role in the UKRAINE crisis—also reported that in the 1990s, this notorious RUSSIAN businessman had contact with ORTHODOX CHURCH METROPOLITAN Ioann (Snychev), who has a reputation of being “openly fascist” and who later “made friends with DUGIN” (Slon, May 19). DUGIN is particularly well known for his EURASIANIST (Russian imperialist) views and as a proponent of RUSSIA’S irredentist war against UKRAINE.

MARSHALL CAPITAL PARTNERS 

A lawyer and an investment banker who founded Marshall Capital Partners in 2005, MALOFEEV has been accused of “raidership” influence over the RUSSIAN telecommunications monopoly SVIAZINVEST (Lenta.ru, November 1, 2010). His funds accumulated a 10-percent stake in Rostelecom, one of RUSSIA’S most powerful telephone companies. And in February 2013, his company was searched by authorities in relation to a criminal investigation involving a VTB loan to  one of his assets (Forbes-Russia, February 4, 2013). Marshall Capital supports the Saint Basil the Great Charitable Foundation, which MALOFEEV personally established in 2007, as well as a range of other projects (Marshall Capital, July 30). On July 22, the UKRAINIAN Ministry of Interior opened a criminal case against Konstantin MALOFEEV on charges of financing unlawful military groups (RBC, July 22). 

He was placed on the EUROPEAN UNION’S sanctions list on July 30 for his role in supporting the armed separatist movements in UKRAINE (eur-lex.europa.eu, July 30), and was also added to CANADA’s sanctions list on August 6 (international.gc.ca, August 6); but so far officials in the UNITED STATES have failed to subject him to US sanctions.

RELIGIOUS JUSTIFICATION FOR RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM

MALOFEEV’S alleged partnership with FATHER TIKHON in funding the DONBAS rebels further underscores the centrality of radical CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX thought in guiding RUSSIA’S imperialist policies. FATHER TIKHON is known for being a conservative intellectual, a writer and director of several documentaries, as well as the editor of the RUSSIAN ORTHODOX Church web portal Pravoslavie.ru. 

His beliefs blend ORTHODOX conservatism with ideologies linked to the cultural legacy of the SOVIET UNION and RUSSIAN irredentism. FATHER TIKHON is believed to be especially close to Putin — he is the RUSSIAN president’s spiritual confessor. Illustratively, in a recent SBU counter-intelligence recording, a former UNITED RUSSIA party official states that FATHER TIKHON’S help would be needed to defend warlord Igor STRELKOV’S fading reputation before Vladimir PUTIN (SBU YouTube Channel, July 25). 

“RUSSKIY MIR” OR “RUSSIAN WORLD,” WHICH IS OPENLY PROMOTED BY THE OFFICIAL RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

PUTIN and FATHER TIKHON’S “geopolitical” views are remarkably similar. Both dwell on a cold war–style confrontation between Russia and the West (The Trinity Temple at Vorobyevy Hills , June 21, 2013). Notably, the idea of the “RUSSKIY MIR” or “RUSSIAN WORLD,” which is openly promoted by the official RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH, easily combines with nostalgia for the SOVIET UNION’S bygone hard power and global dominance. The resulting ideology serves as philosophical justification for RUSSIA’S irredentist wars in its neighborhood.

WEST UNLEASHED A NEW CAMPAIGN WITH THE PURPOSE TO DESTROY THE ORTHODOX-SLAVIC WORLD

Finally, the aforementioned sectarian pseudo-ORTHODOX doctrine is widely employed by the RUSSIA-backed insurgents operating in DONBAS. On July 28, for example, STRELKOV issued an order banning the militants from using obscene language. In this directive, STRELKOV referred to the rebels as an “ORTHODOX ARMY” and labeled his enemies “HATERS OF CHRISTIANS” who, he proclaimed, “seized power in KYIV and order ORTHODOX UKRAINIANS to fire at their own temples [and] sneer at [Orthodox] Banners [religious icons] and the ORTHODOX Clergy” (Informastionniy Korpus, July 28). A couple days earlier, an editorial on the militants’ official website stated: “We fight for the Faith of Christ […] after the West unleashed a new campaign with the purpose to destroy the ORTHODOX-SLAVIC world. This is why the Opolcheniye [militia] is called The ORTHODOX Host…” (Informatsionniy Korpus, July 26).

From a purely religious perspective, the militants’ sectarianism has little in common with true ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY. But there is a distinct danger that the RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH and even RUSSIAN authorities may be increasingly swayed by its radical nationalist ideology, the consequences of which could lead to further chaos and unrest along RUSSIA’S borders. Consequently, proponents of this dangerous ideology such as Konstantin MALOFEEV—who have deep pockets and whom the KREMLIN can, seemingly, count on to finance artificial militant rebellions abroad—pose a specific threat to WESTERN policies and should not be ignored.