Mossad 'in contact from very beginning' with killers of Italian PM, reporter reveals

Kit Klarenberg, Wyatt Reed | The Grayzone

 

A roving reporter who covered Italy's top politicians explains to The Grayzone how his country was reduced to a joint US-Israeli "aircraft carrier," and raises troubling questions about an Israeli role in the killing of Prime Minister Aldo Moro.

For years, Israel's Mossad monitored and secretly influenced a violent communist faction that carried out the March 16, 1978 kidnapping and murder of Italian statesman Aldo Moro, veteran investigative journalist Eric Salerno has documented.

Having worked closely alongside multiple Italian heads of state during his 30-year career as a correspondent, Salerno published an expose of their secret relationship with Israeli intelligence in 2010 called Mossad Base Italy.

The reporter told The Grayzone that Moro, who was arguably Italy's most important leader, became a thorn in the side of powerful forces who sought to keep his country firmly lodged in the pro-Western bloc. Salerno believes Italy's long-term foreign policy would have developed differently if Moro had survived, adding, "that's what they were afraid of in the United States."

Moro was kidnapped in 1979 by the radical Brigate Rosse, or Red Brigades faction, in a daring and highly-professional daytime operation which left all but one of his bodyguards dead. He was executed two months later. The still-unresolved case shocked the nation, and remains a deeply unsettling chapter in the period of intelligence intrigues and political terrorism known by Italians as The Years of Lead.

For some of Italy's most knowledgeable sources, the crimes bore strong similarities to those of Operation Gladio, a covert effort which saw the CIA, MI6 and NATO train and direct a shadow army of fascist paramilitary units across Europe that carried out false flag terror attacks, robberies, and assassinations aimed at neutralizing the socialist left. 

 

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NATO terror cell? German Army officer infiltrated Syrian refugees, planned terror attacks against German state, arrested in Europe-wide raid

RT / Sott.net

A German Army officer arrested on suspicion of plotting an attack had procured a firearm and registered himself as a Syrian refugee, prosecutors said. He may have attempted to put the blame for the possible assault on migrants, local media reported.

The arrest was accompanied by searches at 16 locations across Germany, Austria, and France, according to the prosecutor's office. The officer is stationed in France but was assigned to a military facility in Hammelburg for qualification courses, where he was arrested.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Nadia Niesen of the Hessen prosecutor's office said the suspect also had a potential accomplice - a 24-year-old student who might have been involved in the alleged plot.

"It is understood that the accomplice was aware of the [prime suspect's plan] to register as an asylum seeker," she added.

On Wednesday, investigators secured valuable evidence during searches, including "numerous mobile phones, laptops as well as documents." Niesen also noted that firearms and ammunition had been found at the 24-year-old student's place of residence.

According to the prosecutor's office, the 28-year-old was first detained by Austrian police when he attempted to conceal a 7.65mm pistol at a lavatory inside Vienna International Airport. The use of the weapon was part of his plot to commit "a serious act of violence" in the form of an attack, Niesen stated. 

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'The State Cannot Convict Itself': Operation 'Gladio' & the Crimes of U.S. Empire

Gary Weglarz
Global Research

 The key institutions of Western societies have lost their credibility. They fail to merit either the respect or loyalty of the domestic populations they purport to serve.

Testing the validity of this assertion requires examination of Western institutions from a holistic rather than fragmentary perspective. This is easier said than done.

There exists a massive amount of near real-time web based information available for us to process daily if we are attempting to keep abreast of world events. This often leaves us diligently evaluating recent events, while lacking the opportunity to step back and assemble these discrete events into a more comprehensible whole.

The assassinations of the entire elite level of progressive leadership in the United States during the 1960s (JFK, Malcolm X (image left), MLK & RFK within a 5 year period).

In Europe this includes the later assassinations of Aldo Moro and Olaf Palme.

Following is but a partial list of the crimes of the U.S. empire (with the routine complicity of many Western European governments) over the decades since the end of WWII. It is important to briefly review them as the intersection of these orchestrated criminal actions casts light on the lack of legitimacy of Western governments and institutions:

• Operation Condor , the Phoenix program and ongoing material aid and military training support for dictators, torture and death squads in numerous non-Western nations,
• The extensive history of CIA and Western involvement in global narcotics trafficking including importation of drugs into the United States
• US government criminalization of drug use by the poor in conjunction with CIA importation to create the apartheid-like prison-industrial system
• Covert and overt U.S. foreign policy operations involving the destabilization, overthrow and/or assassination of many dozens of foreign leaders of former colonies with assistance from Western European intelligence and/or military
• U.S. corporate financial support for the Nazi regime before and during WWII (trading with the enemy), followed by post-war recruitment and incorporation of Nazi war criminals by the CIA and other U.S. government agencies
• The failed plot to overthrow FDR by U.S. oligarchs prior to WWII
• CIA & FBI programs to undermine and destroy progressive social and political change within the U.S. such as COINTELPRO, MKUltra, Operation Mockingbird and Operation Chaos
• Creation of the Mujahideen and continued logistical support, training and arming of related evolving jihadist forces (i.e. al-Qaeda, ISIS, al-Nusra), used by the West in ongoing efforts to destabilize secular nations in the Middle East
• The instalment of former Nazis, Nazi collaborators and fascists into governing and institutional positions of power across Western Europe following WWII
• The continuing failure to abide by the stipulations of a single legal treaty entered into with Native American tribal nations
• Many decades of maintaining an institutionally based apartheid system restricting access by African Americans to housing, voting, job opportunities and access to basic public services such as equal education
• Many dozens of U.S. led/or sponsored outright military invasions of sovereign nations in violation of both domestic and international law
• The U.S. manipulation and rigging of ostensibly democratic election processes in Europe and throughout Latin America since WWII
• The publicly state justification of the use of sanctions to bring about the deaths of half a million Iraqi children framed as an acceptable policy decision
• The routine outright police murders of unarmed minority American civilians and the mentally ill
• The utilization of both NATO and the United Nations to sanction, destabilize and/or militarily intervene in nations that remain independent of Western control
• Ongoing Western looting of the natural resources of Africa, Latin America and the Middle East facilitated by the IMF, World Bank and related Western financial and military institutional structures
• The proposed murder of U.S. citizens in the Northwoods document, and the actual murder of European citizens under NATO/CIA run Operation Gladio 

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Islam Vs The West - Has A Neo-'Operation Gladio' Been Started?

The Daily Bell

How should France answer to the horror in Nice? The country is now deeply entrenched in a long-term war with few hopes of dodging future attacks. The anger of the French population is understandable. But booing a prime minister at the commemoration ceremony for the loss of innocent lives is not the smartest idea.   No intelligence service could have prevented the Nice attack as nothing in the profile of the lunatic who drove over 84 people could have suggested a potential link to terrorism. – Al Jazeera

We’ve been writing regularly about the meme of “evil Islam” and our perspective that it is propaganda – a dominant social theme – intended to create military tension, further authoritarianism and even, eventually, wider wars setting the West against Islam.
You can see our articles HERE and HERE And HERE too.

The lie is that Islam of itself is a terrible threat to the French – and Western – way of life.

The lies are propagated by a tiny group of people who organize fallacious themes that then become Western policy.

Global warming, the economics of central bank – and the dangers of Islam – are all examples of these themes.

The lies are regularly expanded and deepened.

Here is a famous recent quote by the Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure – Patrick Calvar:

 “We are on the verge of a civil war.”

Calvar is actually describing a war that he likely wants. The whole idea of the Evil Islam exercise is to polarize Europe in preparation for increased globalist solutions.

More from Al Jazeera:

The anger of the French population is understandable. But booing a prime minister at the commemoration ceremony for the loss of innocent lives is not the smartest idea.

If the French were booing the prime minister because they understood the manipulations taking place, that would be a positive development.

But no doubt the French in question were booing because they believed the state had not taken a firm enough stance against “radical Islam.”

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Western-Backed Chechen “Freedom Fighter” Named as Istanbul Attack Mastermind

Christoph Germann
Boiling Frogs Post

First details begin to emerge about the suspected Islamic State attack on Istanbul's Atatürk Airport that left at least 44 people dead and more than 230 injured.

A senior Turkish government official announced on Thursday that the three suicide bombers who carried out the attack were nationals of Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.[1]

Turkish pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak quoted police as saying that eight terrorists were involved in the operation. Three of them were killed, one was detained and four others remain at large.

According to the Yeni Safak report, well-known Chechen Islamic State commander Akhmed Chatayev organized the deadly attack.[2]

Turkish officials did not immediately confirm Chatayev's involvement but a Turkish police source with direct knowledge of the investigation told NBC News that Chatayev is believed to be the planner of the attack.[3]

Turkish police reportedly launched a manhunt to catch the Chechen terrorist leader.[4] Western governments and media are now scrambling to explain why they dismissed Russian warnings about Chatayev and protected him for many years despite a long history of terrorism-related offenses.

Akhmed Chatayev first caught the Russian authorities' attention when he was captured during the Second Chechen War in the late 1990s. Depending on whom you want to believe, Chatayev lost his right arm either due to a wound sustained during the fighting or as a result of torture after his arrest.

The circumstances of his release remain unclear, which prompted Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's The Interpreter to suggest that Chatayev might have been recruited as a Russian informer or agent.[5] Judging by his actions upon release, this seems unlikely.

Chatayev left Russia in 2001 and found refuge in Azerbaijan,[6] like many other Chechen "freedom fighters."[7]

This can be explained by the fact that Azerbaijan served as one main conduit for the U.S.-NATO-led 'Gladio B' operations in the region - the other main conduit being Turkey.[8]

The true extent of U.S.-NATO involvement in the Chechen struggle for independence is still a well-guarded secret but Chatayev's story sheds some light on dubious Western machinations that have fueled terrorism in Russia and beyond.  

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Russia versus NATO's Gladio 2.0: Turkish jihad from China to Syria

Joe Quinn
Sott.net

To understand what is happening on the geopolitical global scene today, you have to understand what has been happening on that same scene for the last 100 years, because it hasn't really changed much.

The US Empire has been the world's only (and 'greatest') superpower since at least the end of the Second World War. Once the Empire had achieved that position, it was determined to keep it. Russia was supposed to have been destroyed as a result of the 1939-45 war, but Russian ingenuity and hardiness, and Stalin's surprising independent streak, forced the Empire to accept a division of the world between 'East' and 'West'. As soon as the lines were drawn, however, the Empire sent its agents out to continue and complete the process of global conquest.

Apart from the few overt US military forays (Korea, Vietnam, the odd turkey shoot in Latin America) the Empire relied primarily on covert operations to expand its control. In Western Europe - a prized piece on the 'grand chessboard' - the US Empire established 'stay-behind' networks made up of paramilitary groups from various backgrounds and espousing right-wing, fascistic ideologies. The rationale for 'mining' Europe with weapons caches and nutjobs trained in sabotage and bloody mayhem was that, in the event of a Soviet invasion and occupation of Europe, 'resistance fighters' would form the West's front-line in the coming war with the Soviets.
These groups were created and funded as part of the Truman Doctrine, which pledged to "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures". A Soviet invasion was never on the cards, of course, and thus this 'support' took the form of CIA funding, training and arming of minority groups that used extreme violence to 'correct' any European political or social drifts towards 'the left', or anything that opposed the Empire's interests. In their spare time, many of these groups involved themselves in arms- and drug-smuggling and other racketeering, much of it also under the control of the CIA and other Western intel. agencies. 

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ISIS as Instruments of Proxy War on Western Populations

Joe Quinn
Sott.net

The obvious result, and therefore goal, of the horrific Paris attacks that were blamed on ISIS terrorists is to provoke the potential socio/political 'fracture point' of French Muslims vs. (mostly lapsed) French Christians and ignite a debate on what should be done about France and Europe's 'multi-culturalism' in an age of Jihadist terrorism.

This is a particularly cynical and, frankly, evil, maneuver in the context of the recent influx of large numbers of Syrian migrants into Europe, who are fleeing a war against the Assad government that was ignited and has been fully backed by Western powers, including France.

To put it more bluntly, France has been supporting in Syria the very same type of jihadist terrorists that it blames for the Paris attacks.

As I noted in a previous article, it's a matter of public record that after WW2, the US government and NATO countries established covert paramilitary networks in European countries that were tasked with carrying out terrorist attacks against European civilians to provoke the then socio/political fracture point of East vs. West and Communist vs. Capitalist ideologies.

Many terror attacks were carried out between the 1960s-1980s by this 'Gladio' network, several of which targeted and killed European civilians in attacks similar to that in Paris last weekend. Today, the same strategy of creating tension via terror attacks on Western populations in order to achieve geopolitical goals is at work, the only difference being that "Soviet communist" has been replaced with "Muslim terrorist".

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Europe Has to Decide: Is the Real Threat Russia or the US?

Paul Craig Roberts

Washington continues to drive Europe toward one or the other of the two most likely outcomes of the orchestrated conflict with Russia. Either Europe or some European Union member government will break from Washington over the issue of Russian sanctions, thereby forcing the EU off of the path of conflict with Russia, or Europe will be pushed into military conflict with Russia.

In June the Russian sanctions expire unless each member government of the EU votes to continue the sanctions. Several governments have spoken against a continuation. For example, the governments of the Czech Republic and Greece have expressed dissatisfaction with the sanctions.

US Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged growing opposition to the sanctions among some European governments. Employing the three tools of US foreign policy–threats, bribery, and coercion–he warned Europe to renew the sanctions or there would be retribution. We will see in June if Washington’s threat has quelled the rebellion.

Europe has to consider the strength of Washington’s threat of retribution against the cost of a continuing and worsening conflict with Russia. This conflict is not in Europe’s economic or political interest, and the conflict has the risk of breaking out into war that would destroy Europe.

Since the end of World War II Europeans have been accustomed to following Washington’s lead. For awhile France went her own way, and there were some political parties in Germany and Italy that considered Washington to be as much of a threat to European independence as the Soviet Union. Over time, using money and false flag operations, such as Operation Gladio, Washington marginalized politicians and political parties that did not follow Washington’s lead.

The specter of a military conflict with Russia that Washington is creating could erode Washington’s hold over Europe. By hyping a “Russian threat,” Washington is hoping to keep Europe under Washington’s protective wing. However, the “threat” is being over-hyped to the point that some Europeans have understood that Europe is being driven down a path toward war.

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Spreading hatred and Islamophobia - Western Gladio networks behind Garland, Texas shooting

Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer 

ABC News confirms that one of the suspects of the Garland Texas shooting incident, featuring professional war propagandists of the so-called "American Freedom Defense Intitiative" (AFDI), has been under FBI surveillance and investigation since at least as early as 2007.

Their report, "Garland Shooting Suspect Elton Simpson's Father: 'My Son Made a Bad Choice'," states:

Followers of ISIS had been sending messages about the event in Texas for more than a week, calling for attacks. One referenced January's Charlie Hebdo massacre in France and said it was time for "brothers" in the United States to do their part. Simpson was well known to the FBI. Five years ago he was convicted for lying to federal agents about his plans to travel to Africa where investigators alleged he planned to join a terror group.

The investigation into Simpson reached back to July 2007, when he was recorded saying of fighting with Islamists, "I know we can do it, man. But you got to find the right people that... Gotta have connects."

Despite the event allegedly increasing chatter amongst "Islamic State" (ISIS) groups online, and despite the suspect Elton Simpson being long under FBI surveillance and even sentence to 3 years of probation resulting from a terror-related investigation, he was still able to conveniently conspire and carry out an attack on a highly provocative propaganda stunt in the state of Texas.

Garland Shooting Fits Pattern of Larger Staged Terror Campaign

As with all other staged provocations, including similar shootings in Paris, France, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Sydney, Australia, the suspects were well known to state security agencies for years, but allowed to conspire and carry out predictable, deadly, and politically highly convenient attacks. All of this echos the similar and long-since exposed staged provocations of the notorious "Operation Gladio," carried out by NATO.

In Paris, France, the suspects in the so-called "Charlie Hebo Shooting" were under the watch of security forces for years, were in and out of jail specifically for terrorism, were known to have left France to join terrorists fighting with Western-backing in Syria and return, only to be left "unwatched" for precisely the 6 months they would need to plan, assemble the weapons for, and prepare to execute the attack.

In Copenhagen, an assailant who attacked a synagogue killing 2, was also well known to security agencies. The Washington Post would report in their article, "Danish attacks echo France," that:

The assailant in this weekend's attacks was well known to Danish intelligence, Madsen said. In November 2013, Hussein stabbed a teenager in the thigh while aboard a commuter train, and according to Danish media, he had recently been released from prison following his conviction.

But it was unclear whether this weekend's assailant was under surveillance and, if so, how he managed to slip free long enough to plan an attack with an assault rifle.

Once again, suspects under surveillance and even arrested and imprisoned as violent offenders or as terrorists, managed to conveniently "slip free" of security agencies just in time to carry out attacks that just so happen to help the West continue its extraterritorial wars raging abroad, and continue building an abhorrent police state back at home.

Finally, in Australia, a suspect who held up a cafe in a deadly hostage crisis, was literally brought to Australia from Iran for the purpose of waging a propaganda war on Iran. When this failed to materialize, the "shape-shifting sheik" would morph to fit the villain necessary to match whatever narrative was currently being floated around the Western media. His final performance would help bolster the illusion that ISIS is an enemy of the West, rather than a creation and perpetuation of it, and to this day serving as the West's extraterritorial mercenary forces in nations like Syria and Iraq. 

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Charlie Hebdo: France's 9/11

Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Sun, 11 Jan 2015

In the last few days since the mass shootings at the offices of the Parisian satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and a Paris Kosher supermarket which left 17 dead, France has seen massive demonstrations in support of the victims and their families, a catchy but misplaced meme of solidarity with the slogan "Je suis Charlie", and a string of anti-Muslim hate speech and attacks. The head of the French National Police is warning of "further attacks", the government is pushing a hard-line stance in the war on terror, and the country is on red alert. Some are calling it France's 9/11. That could be closer to the truth than they intend to convey by making that particular connection, assuming anyone knows the real culprits behind the 9/11 attacks.

To see why, first let's take a look at the Paris attack, the suspects, and what the media has been telling us about them. 

The Kouachi Bros.

The attack starts at 11:30 local time, Wednesday 7 January 2014, at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris. Two masked men bearing Kalashnikov rifles (later identified as French-Algerian brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi) enter an editorial meeting, shooting dead 10 employees, including the magazine's editor and several cartoonists.

Their voices are recorded saying, ""Allahu akbar," "we've killed Charlie Hebdo" and "we've avenged the prophet." Witnesses described their actions as professional -- they must have had extensive combat training and experience. One witness at first confused the gunmen with France's elite anti-terrorism forces:

"They knew exactly what they had to do and exactly where to shoot. While one kept watch and checked that the traffic was good for them, the other one delivered the final coup de grace," he said.

The men then exit the building and make their getaway, before engaging in a shootout with police north of the site of the attack. One of the men calm executes a wounded police officer, Ahmed Merabet (a Muslim, incidentally), on the street. Contrary to many claims and videos 'busting this open' as a hoax, the video seems legitimate. Kalashnikovs don't recoil that much, and the video is choppy. Also, it appears Merabet was shot in the back, not the head (explaining the lack of visible blood or bullet exit wound).

Continuing their escape, the men seemingly evade police after a high-speed chase, changing vehicles several times, again with an odd sense of calm. For example, while hijacking their second car, they tell the car's owner: "If the media ask you anything, tell them it's al-Qaida in Yemen." Never miss a chance to self-advertise!

Police release the names of three suspects: the Kouachis and 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad, Cherif's brother-in-law, who later turns himself in to the police: he was in class at university of the time of the attacks, confirmed by his professors and classmates. The brothers were allegedly identified by an ID card accidentally left in in the Citroën C3 car they left during their escape. Shades of 9/11! However, their names were reportedly circulating on Facebook and Twitter an hour before police confirmation of their names.

The next day, Thursday, a policewoman is shot dead in Montrouge. Initially thought to be unrelated, police then state that the shooter knew the Kouachis. This is allegedly the same man who will later take hostages in the kosher supermarket. The two Charlie Hebdo suspects are next seen driving north through Picardy, and they rob a gas station.

Friday, in a new car, the men are seen with rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and they procure a new car after the previous one runs out of gas. They are involved in another shoot-out on the N2 motorway, taking refuge in a printing works building, with one hostage. While there, a BFM reporter calls the print office and speaks to Cherif, who says:

We just want to say that we are the defenders of the prophet, and that I, Cherif Kouachi, was sent by al-Qaida in Yemen. And that I went there and that it was Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki who financed me", adding that the visit took place before Awlaki was killed.

While this is happening, Ahmedi Coulibaly, a man with a 'long criminal history' takes hostages in a Jewish supermarket in Paris. Police state this is the same man who shot the policewoman the day before. BFM also has a conversation with Coulibaly:

BFM: Are you in touch with the two brothers who conducted the operation at Charlie Hebdo?

Coulibaly: Yes. We synchronized our operations.

BFM: Are you still in touch with them? Have you recently spoken with them by phone?

Coulibaly: No.

BFM: How were you synchronized with the Kouachis? Are there further attacks planned?

Coulibaly: No, we only synchronized to kick-start things: so when they started Charlie Hebdo, I started on the police officers.

Back at the printers, shots and explosions are heard, the gunmen are killed on sight, the hostage freed, with no casualties. AFP reports the suspects "came out firing on security forces", but their professional training seems to have escaped them, as they missed their targets. Around 20 minutes later, bangs are heard at the supermarket. The hostage taker and 4 hostages are reported killed.

Before the final encounter with the police, one hostage relates hearing Coulibaly say: "I am Amedy Coulibaly, Malian and Muslim. I belong to the Islamic State." Police are still searching for Coulibaly's girlfriend, Hayat Boumedienne (who may be in Syria, by way of Turkey, according to AFP). Boumedienne was reportedly in frequent telephone contact with the Kouachis' wives. She and Coulibaly reportedly had more than 500 telephone conversations with the Koulachis.

So who were these guys?

It turns out Cherif, a petty criminal until he turned radical jihadist, was on a global watch list, and had been on the U.S.'s no-fly list "for years". Take a look at this timeline (unsourced entries are culled from this article):

• 2005: Cherif is was arrested for trying to fly to Syria in order to join the Iraqi insurgency. (He would tell a French documentary team that he was radicalized by a 'firebrand Muslim preacher', Farid Benyettou.)
• 2005: According to French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, one of the brothers was in Yemen.
• 2008: Cherif is convicted on terrorism charges for sending recruits to the Iraqi insurgency during the period of 2004-2006. In the trial, it is revealed that he has received combat training with Kalashnikovs. He's sentenced to three years, but only serves half of that.
• 2009: Le Parisien reports that French authorities begin surveillance on the brothers.
• 2010: Cherif is investigated for involvement in a plot to free an Islamic militant from prison, but is released without charges.
• 2011: Said is trained by Al-Qaeda in Yemen, according to Reuter's 'sources'. This prompts French authorities to "step up" surveillance on the brothers, during which they turn up with "nothing suspicious".
• 2014: Surveillance on the brothers is stopped in July.
• 2014: A source "close to French security services" tells CNN that Cherif travels to Syria, presumably to fight alongside anti-Assad forces, and returns to France in August. It's uncertain when he arrived in Syria (before or after surveillance ended?).

Quite the background, huh?

The Context

The timing of the attacks is curious, some might say even convenient, or worse. To demonstrate why, take a look at this sequence of events, keeping in mind the propensity of Mossad (and other intelligence agencies) for carrying out terror attacks and framing Muslims for them.

• September 24: ISIS releases video showing the beheading of French hostage Herve Gourdel, after a previous video demanding an end to French involvement in airstrikes on Syria.
• November 9: French government is on high alert after unexplained drone flights over nuclear power stations. These illegal flights, using highly sophisticated drone technology, began in October of last year and have continued, with one recent report of flights on January 3.
• November 19: ISIS releases video showing French jihadists burning passports and calling for terror in France.
• November 23: Israeli PM Netanyahu warns France that French recognition of Palestinian statehood would be a "grave mistake".
• December 2: France's Lower House of Parliament votes in favor of recognizing Palestine.
• December 6: Hollande unexpectedly meets Putin in Moscow, defying the anti-Russia brigade.
• December 20: Burundi-born Frenchman attacks police station in Tours with knife, shouting "Allahu Akbar", injuring three before being shot dead.
• December 22: Driver shouting "Allahu Akbar" runs down pedestrians in five parts of Dijon, injuring 13.
• December 31: France votes in favor of Palestinian Statehood
• January 5: Hollande urges for an end to sanctions on Russia, defying the anti-Russia brigade once again.
• January 6: The French military announces it is sending an aircraft carrier to the Gulf to fight ISIS in Iraq.
• January 6: France warns Palestinians: Don't resubmit UN statehood bid.
• January 7: Amchai Stein, the deputy editor of Israeli IBA Channel 1, just happens to be at the scene of the Charlie Hebdo attacks and posts photos of the shooting on Twitter.
• January 10: Announcement of a video released by ISIS 'days ago', with a French jihadist calling for fellow jihadis to tear down France.

Funny how those dastardly terrorists never seem to get what the want, right? Syria is bombed, so they kill a bunch of people thinking that will stay the West's mighty hand, but the West just gets angry and keeps on bombing! Who could foresee such an illogical outcome? What's the point? Well, here's the ever-litigious Alan Dershowitz to spell it out for us: 

 In other words, France isn't tough enough on 'terrorism' (i.e., they support Palestinian statehood). What better way to change that than to flip the collective French paranoia switch, stir up anti-Islam feeling, and thus get those Frenchies to make the associative leap from 'evil Muslims' to 'evil Palestinians'. As people like Dershowitz like to point out, practically all Palestinians are terrorists (never mind that it was Jewish terrorist groups responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine to begin with).

Dershowitz's friend, Bibi Netanyahoo, also wasted no time in exploiting the attacks for his own purposes, calling for the West to support Israel's own 'war on terror' (i.e., war on Palestine) and adding this mafia-esque ultimatum: "The terror of Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIL and Al-Qaeda will not stop unless the West fights it physically." And Bibi and his friends in the Mossad will make sure to see to that personally, no doubt!

But Dershowitz does have a point. France is a supporter of terrorism, of a sort. But so is Israel! After all, in 2011 France helped arm the rebels in Libya, rebels who were perfectly open about their allegiance with Al-Qaeda. Then again, in 2013, France supported the rebels in Syria, who also have made no bones about their allegiance with ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Israel supports ISIS/al-Nusra in the occupied Golan heights.

You can bet the French intelligence agencies involvement with Islamic terror goes deeper than that, though. (See Joe Quinn and Niall Bradley's Manufactured Terror for the details.) So there's always the possibility that this is a case of blowback - a result of misguided support of terrorists on the one hand, and public ideological conflict with them on the other - but the timing seems all too convenient.

The attacks also had the advantage of displacing other big stories, such as the Jeffrey Epstein/Prince Andrew sex slave scandal (in which Dershowitz himself is implicated), from the headlines, and thus, the public's awareness. It also comes after a seemingly endless string of reports and investigations revealing ISIS to be a U.S./NATO proxy. It also comes as Palestine is set to join the ICC on April 1, at which point they stand a small chance of taking Bibi and the rest of them to the Hague for war crimes.

And what's up with Israelis just happening to be on the scene in order to 'document' major terror events? (For example, at the Twin Towers on 9/11, at Schiphol airport for MH17, or Rita Katz of SITE Intelligence Group, who somehow manages to get ISIS's videos before they are 'officially' released.)

And speaking of Mossad, out of the goodness of his heart, Netanyahoo confirmed on January 9 that he "ordered Mossad to provide French officials for all the assistance they need in tackling the ongoing terror situation in and around Paris." He's also sending an Israeli Police SWAT team that specializes in "siege situations and rescues". How nice of him.  

The Reality

The Charlie Hebdo attacks check almost every point in the false-flag handbook: early conflicting reports (2 shooters, 3 shooters), convenient evidence (ID in the getaway car), patsies with prior run-ins with police and counterintelligence (making them perfect CIs or victims of entrapment), convenient deaths (dead men tell no tales, leaving the government all too willing to fill in the blanks with their own version of events), contradictions (professional behavior vs. bungled last stand; third suspect with a perfect alibi), and of course, affiliation with known intelligence fronts. Of course, that doesn't prove it was a false flag. These guys may have been acting on their own initiative, or that of their 'cleric handlers' (but more on that in a moment). Either way - convenient blow-back or malevolent false flag - the result is the same, and equally helpful to Israel and the U.S.'s agenda around the world.

This has been the goal of NATO's Operation Gladio for generations: strategy of tension. And if Sibel Edmonds is right (and it sure looks like she is), the whole Islamic terror scare is simply Gladio Plan B. And some 'big names' in the terror circuit are directly implicated. For example, the Guardian has this to say about Al-Qaeda in Yemen, the group on whose behalf the Kouachis allegedly carried out their attack:

The Yemen branch of al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has some track record of attempting terrorist attacks in the West, including the December 2009 "underwear bomber" plot and the October 2010 cargo planes bomb plot, with explosives packed in toner cartridges.

The leader of AQAP, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, is al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri's second-in-command.

First of all, remember the underwear bomber? Or the toner bomber? Well, their leader's leader, Zawahiri, just happens to be an intelligence agent. At least, so says Edmonds:

Another figure of importance whose name comes up in connection with this investigation is Ayman Al-Zawahiri, formerly Bin Laden's right hand man and the current nominal leader of the Al-Qaeda organization. According to Edmonds he appeared as a figure in several FBI counterterrorism investigations in the 1990s, turning up in Turkey, Albania, Kosovo and Azerbaijan. His travels to the Balkans in the mid 1990s make sense given Al-Qaeda involvement in the so-called Yugoslav Wars, but his involvement in Turkey and Azerbaijan is of particular relevance to this study. Edmonds claims that he worked with the Turkish arm of NATO and NATO itself during this period, meeting several times with US military attaches in Baku, Azerbaijan.

And this:

"In interviews with this author [Nafeez Ahmed] in early March, Edmonds claimed that Ayman al-Zawahiri, current head of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's deputy at the time, had innumerable, regular meetings at the US embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, with US military and intelligence officials between 1997 and 2001, as part of an operation known as 'Gladio B'. Al-Zawahiri, she charged, as well as various members of the bin Laden family and other mujahideen, were transported on NATO planes to various parts of Central Asia and the Balkans to participate in Pentagon-backed destabilization operations.

"According to two Sunday Times journalists speaking on condition of anonymity, this and related revelations had been confirmed by senior Pentagon and MI6 officials as part of a four-part investigative series that were supposed to run in 2008. The Sunday Times journalists described how the story was inexplicably dropped under the pressure of undisclosed 'interest groups', which, they suggest, were associated with the US State Department."

And the Iraqi insurgency Cherif sent recruits to and which he so wanted to join, the one led by Zarqawi? An internal briefing from U.S. military headquarters said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military's chief spokesman at the time, concluded that "The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date." Zarqawi was a PSYOP creation.

Whether people like the Kouachis know it or not, they're working for the CIA. Mossad. NATO. MI6. And they're doing their job well. After all, what do we see so far in the aftermath of the attacks? French politicians are upping their rhetoric. PM Manuel Valls just 'declared war' on radical Islam. Troops are on the streets in preparation for mass rallies, which will include visits from such notables as David Cameron, Angela Merkel, Sergey Lavrov, Ahmoud Abbas, and Bibi Netanyahoo.

Hate crimes against Muslims are on the rise too. In the first day, a mosque was shot at and attacked with blank grenades, a prayer hall was shot at, and a kebab shot was blown up. 'Death to Arabs" was scrawled in graffiti on a mosque in Poitiers, more in Bayonne, a high school student was beaten, and a car belonging to a Muslim family was shot at.

They're also taking to the streets defending the holy mantra 'freedom of speech'. 'Je suis Charlie', the world is chanting. I'm sorry, but do these people even know what they're doing by making such an identification? I think they're making utter fools of themselves. It's somewhat akin to defending free speech be saying "I am Goebbels". Have all these people even looked at the cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo? Google them and prepare to vomit: they are vulgar, insulting, juvenile, and hate speech. Glenn Greenwald nailed it in his recent article on the subject:

Central to free speech activism has always been the distinction between defending the right to disseminate Idea X and agreeing with Idea X, one which only the most simple-minded among us are incapable of comprehending. One defends the right to express repellent ideas while being able to condemn the idea itself. There is no remote contradiction in that: the ACLU vigorously defends the right of neo-Nazis to march through a community filled with Holocaust survivors in Skokie, Illinois, but does not join the march; they instead vocally condemn the targeted ideas as grotesque while defending the right to express them.

But this week's defense of free speech rights was so spirited that it gave rise to a brand new principle: to defend free speech, one not only defends the right to disseminate the speech, but embraces the content of the speech itself. ...

So it's the opposite of surprising to see large numbers of westerners celebrating anti-Muslim cartoons - not on free speech grounds but due to approval of the content. Defending free speech is always easy when you like the content of the ideas being targeted, or aren't part of (or actively dislike) the group being maligned.

Indeed, it is self-evident that if a writer who specialized in overtly anti-black or anti-Semitic screeds had been murdered for their ideas, there would be no widespread calls to republish their trash in "solidarity" with their free speech rights. ...

With all due respect to the great cartoonist Ann Telnaes, it is simply not the case that Charlie Hebdo "were equal opportunity offenders." Like Bill Maher, Sam Harris and other anti-Islam obsessives, mocking Judaism, Jews and/or Israel is something they willrarely (if ever) do. If forced, they can point to rare and isolated cases where they uttered some criticism of Judaism or Jews, but the vast bulk of their attacks are reserved for Islam and Muslims, not Judaism and Jews. Parody, free speech and secular atheism are the pretexts; anti-Muslim messaging is the primary goal and the outcome. And this messaging - this special affection for offensive anti-Islam speech - just so happens to coincide with, to feed, the militaristic foreign policy agenda of their governments and culture.

To see how true that is, consider the fact that Charlie Hebdo - the "equal opportunity" offenders and defenders of all types of offensive speech - fired one of their writers in 2009 for writing a sentence some said was anti-Semitic (the writer was then charged with a hate crime offense, and won a judgment against the magazine for unfair termination). Does that sound like "equal opportunity" offending?

So I'll repeat myself: Good job, France. You've fallen hook, line and sinker for the lowest, basest manipulation possible. You've not only become racist neandertals in service of the most cynical, racist, violent agenda possible; you've done this all the while thinking you're upholding some universal principle of good. You've had your 9/11. And you're reacting exactly the way your masters wanted: like gullible, mindless idiots. How's that for free speech? 

Paris Killings: Terrorism or False Flag?

Stephen Lendman

Things aren’t always as they seem. When incidents like this happen, take nothing at face value.

On Wednesday, three heavily armed masked men attacked the Paris-based satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Known for lampooning Islam, other religions and political figures.

The incident took place in broad daylight. Killing 12. Wounding eight others. MSM reports didn’t surprise. Headlines screamed “terrorism.”

BBC was typical. “Unprecedented terrorism,” it said. “France has never seen terror like this.”

New York Times editors said the “massacre…motivated by hate.” Calling what happened “terrorism.”

Washington Post editors said “Charlie Hebdo stands for free expression. The West must do no less.”
Wall Street Journal editors headlined “Islamist Terror in Paris,” saying:

“Wednesday’s massacre…is a reminder that jihadism isn’t a distant Middle Eastern phenomenon.”
“There will be many more such attempts at mass murder, and authorities in the US and Europe need broad authority to surveil and interrogate potential plotters to stop them.”
“(V)iolent Islam isn’t a reaction to poverty or Western policies in the Middle East.”
“It is an ideological challenge to Western civilization and principles…”

Los Angeles times editors headlined “Paris terrorists aimed at freedom of expression, we must defend it.” Calling the attackers “terrorists.”

Chicago Tribune editors headlined “Terror in France.” Calling the incident an attempt to “stifle” free expression.

London Guardian editors referred to “guns…trained on free speech.”

French President Francois Hollande called the attack an assault on “the expression of freedom…the spirit of the republic.”

On prime time evening television, he said: “Today the French republic as a whole was the target.” He declared Thursday a national day of mourning.

Obama called Hollande from Air Force One. A White House statement said he “personally offer(ed) his condolences.”

“(E)xpress(ed) solidarity after this morning’s horrific terrorist attack in Paris.”
“Americans stand beside the people of France in the aftermath of this outrage.” Offered US “resources” to help bring the perpetrators to justice. “(A)nd anyone who helped plan or enable this terrorist attack.”

Hard-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen said “(t)he nation is under attack, our culture, our way of life. France must be in the war against Islamic fundamentalism. They are at war against France.”

In 2006, Charlie Hebdo (CH) reprinted controversial Prophet Muhammad cartoons. Originally published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

On November 2, 2011, CH’s office was fire-bombed. Its web site hacked. After its special edition called “Charia Hebdo.”

The Prophet Muhammad listed as “editor-in-chief.” The cover featured a cartoon lampooning him. Saying “100 lashes of the whip if you don’t die laughing.”

On Wednesday, reports said one suspect, Hamyd Mourad, walked into a Charlevill-Mezieres police station 145 miles northeast of Paris and surrendered.

How he got there wasn’t explained. Was he involved? Is he part of a false flag plot? Police identified two other suspects – Said and Cherif Kouachi. Paris residents.

Criminal investigations take time. Suspects don’t usually turn themselves in voluntarily. Let alone within hours of an incident.

Weeks often pass before police file charges. Usually after making arrests.

According to Reuters, a police source said one attacker was “identified by his identity card, which had been left in the (abandoned) getaway car.” More on this below.

Cherif Kouachi previously was imprisoned for 18 months. For criminal association with a “terrorist enterprise” in 2005.

Allegedly involved in recruiting French nationals to fight Americans in Iraq. “He was arrested before (supposedly) leaving for Iraq to join militants,” said Reuters.

“The third man (Hamyd Mourad) was not seen in any (video) footage…(I)t was not clear if he was directly (or in any way) involved in the attack.”

No one claimed responsibility, said Reuters. It cited “a witness quoted by 20 Minutes daily newspaper sa(ying) one of the assailants cried out before getting into his car: ‘Tell the media that it is al Qaeda in Yemen!’ ”

AFP said Paris is “in lockdown.” Citing “(t)roops in railway stations, armed police outside media buildings, ultra-tight security at department stores.”

“The government raised the capital’s alert to its highest level immediately after the attack…(It) deployed hundreds of police across the city.” Some reports said thousands.

In his 1997 book titled “The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives,” former Carter administration national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski said:

“(A)s America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it may find it more difficult to fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly massive and widely perceived direct external threat.”

The kind 9/11 created. Others discussed below. State-sponsored.

Orchestrated and carried out to further new world order global dominance plans.

America, Britain, Israel, France and other rogue partners involved.

US officials identified so-called 9/11 attackers nearly straightaway after the incident.

The FBI lied claiming Mohamed Atta left behind luggage containing “decisive evidence” about Al Qaeda’s responsibility for the attacks.

Passports allegedly found at United 93′s crash site were fake.

Alleged hijackers weren’t aboard the four fateful flights.

A previous article called the official story the mother of all Big Lies. Who ever heard of perpetrators leaving behind incriminating documents? Identifying themselves responsible for terror or other attacks.

Yet French authorities claimed one attacker left his identity card in an abandoned getaway car. An obvious red flag. Questioning the official account’s veracity.

False flags are a longstanding US tradition. 9/11 is Exhibit A. The clearest example. State-sponsored terrorism writ large. Falsely blamed on innocent victims.

Imperial wars followed. Against Afghanistan. Iraq. Parts of Pakistan. Libya. Syria. Iraq again. Palestine and Lebanon (in 2006) allied with Israel.

As well as numerous proxy wars. Homeland ones against Muslims. Black Americans. Latino immigrants. Environmental andanimal rights activists. Ordinary US workers.

In April 2013, evidence suggested state-sponsored terrorism responsibility for Boston marathon bombings.

Tamerian and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were set up as convenient patsies. Neither brother had anything to do with what happened.

European countries have their own crosses to bear. Partnered with Washington’s quest for world dominance. Needing justification for imperial wars.

Crackdowns on homeland freedoms. What better way than by stoking fear. False flag terrorist attacks work best. Hyped by media propaganda.

In March 2004, Madrid train bombings occurred three days before Spain’s general elections.

Al Qaeda was blamed. With no corroborating evidence. Fear was stoked. Suggesting follow-up attacks against other Western targets. Including American ones.

On July 7, 2005, so-called London 7/7 underground bombings attacked the city’s public transport system.

During the morning rush hour for maximum disruption and casualties. At precisely the same time, an anti-terror drill occurred. Simulating real attacks.

At the time, AP said Israel’s London embassy warned Scotland Yard in advance. Israeli Army Radio reported:

“Scotland Yard had intelligence warnings of the attacks a short time before they occurred.”

No action was taken. Israel’s then finance minister Netanyahu was told to skip a London economic conference. He was scheduled to speak.

Other officials were warned, not the public. Fifty-two people died. Over 700 were injured.

These type attacks raise suspicions. Vital questions remain unanswered. Who gains? Who loses?

On 9/11 morning, the CIA simulated a pre-planned emergency response required if a plane struck a building.

Held at its Chantilly, Virginia Reconnaissance Office. Simulating a small jet aircraft hitting one of its buildings.

In October 2000, the Pentagon simulated a commercial plane striking its building. Pre-9/11 exercises preceded the real thing.

On June 30, 2007, a Jeep Cherokee with propane canisters crashed into Glasgow International Airport’s glass doors. The usual suspects were blamed. Islamic terrorists.

In May 2013, two assailants killed British soldier Lee Rigby. In broad daylight in London. Alleged attackers remained on the scene.

Until police arrived 20 minutes later. Why wasn’t explained. Killers don’t usually stay around to be captured.

Both assailants were shot and apprehended. Hospitalized for treatment.

One allegedly said “(w)e must fight as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Britain’s ITV news aired an edited video clip.

Allegedly a witness filmed it. Conveniently in the right place at the right time. Showing a young Black man with blood dripping from his hands.

Saying “(w)e swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.”

“The only reason reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day.”

Reports called what happened the first domestic Al Qaeda-inspired attack since the July 7, 2005 underground (so-called 7/7) bombings.

On January 11, 2010, one day before Haiti’s devastating earthquake, the Pentagon’s US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) simulated a hurricane striking the island.

In preparation for carefully planned measures to be implemented. Involving occupation, control and plunder.

Deputy SOUTHCOM commander General PK Keen was in Haiti when the quake struck the next day. Ready to initiate US policy.

Haiti remains colonized. Plundered for profit. Its people exploited. With no say over issues most affecting their lives. Controlled by America’s iron fist.

What follows Wednesday’s Paris attacks remains to be seen. Maybe CIA operatives plan something similar in America.

Perhaps another step toward eliminating freedom altogether. Escalating US-led NATO’s war on the Middle East.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.