This article titled “Qassem Suleimani: the Iranian general ‘secretly running’ Iraq” was written by Martin Chulov in Baghdad, for The Guardian on Thursday 28th July 2011 22.58 UTC

There’s a story that the new CIA director, David Petraeus, likes to tell which harks back to his days as a four-star general in Iraq.

Early in 2008, during a series of battles between the US and Iraqi army on one side and the Shia militias on the other, Petraeus was handed a phone with a text message from the Iranian general who had by then become his nemesis.

The message came from the head of Iran’s elite al-Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani, and was conveyed by a senior Iraqi leader. It read: “General Petraeus, you should know that I, Qassem Suleimani, control the policy for Iran with respect to Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and Afghanistan. And indeed, the ambassador in Baghdad is a Quds Force member. The individual who’s going to replace him is a Quds Force member.”

Petraeus hardly needed to be told. Much of the US military’s work with Iraq’s Shia Muslims had been undermined by Suleimani and the client militias of the Iranian general’s al-Quds force. So too had US government diplomatic efforts elsewhere in the Middle East, especially in Lebanon.

Petraeus last year told a thinktank, the Institute for the Study of War, about the problem Suleimani created for him: “Now, that makes diplomacy difficult if you think that you’re going to do the traditional means of diplomacy by dealing with another country’s ministry of foreign affairs because in this case, it is not the ministry. It is a security apparatus.”

As he prepared for the job of the US’s most senior spy, Petraeus would surely have been preparing for further shadow boxing. Suleimani’s reputation as the most formidable operator in the region has not diminished in the past three years. By some measures it has actually increased: Syria now also comes within Suleimani’s sphere of influence.

The strength of the ties between Suleimani and Iraqi legislators has been revealed during weeks of interviews with key officials, including those who admire him and those who fear the man like no other.

Iraq’s former state security minister, Sharwan al-Waeli is one who knows Suleimani well. A formal conversation between the Guardian and al-Waeli last year took on a very different tone as soon as Suleimani’s name was mentioned.

The Shia legislator was a known ally of Iran, so much so that he was seen by secularists and Sunnis in parliament as someone prepared to do Iran’s bidding. He denied Iran played a pervasive role in Iraq until he was interrupted with a question that Iraqi officials have long prefered to ignore: when was the last time Qassem Suleimani came to the Green Zone, the fortified government district in the heart of Baghdad?

Al-Waeli’s left hand trembled slightly and his brow furrowed. “You mean Sayed Qassem Suleimani,” he said, giving Suleimani an Arabic honorific reserved for the most esteemed of men. He refused to elaborate.

In Baghdad, no other name invokes the same sort of reaction among the nation’s power base – discomfort, uncertainty and fear.

“He is the most powerful man in Iraq without question,” Iraq’s former national security minister, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, said recently. “Nothing gets done without him.”

Until now, however, few Iraqis have dared to talk openly about the enigmatic Iranian general, what role he plays in Iraq and how he shapes key agendas like no one else.

“They are too busy dealing with the aftermath,” said a senior US official. “He dictates terms then makes things happen and the Iraqis are left managing a situation that they had no input into.”

Suleimani’s journey to supremacy in Iraq is rooted in the Islamic revolution of 1979, which ousted the Shah and recast Iran as a fundamentalist Shia Islamic state. He rose steadily through the ranks of the Iranian military until 2002 when, months before the US invasion of Iraq, he was appointed to command the most elite unit of the Iranian military – the al-Quds force of the Revolutionary Guards Corp.

The al-Quds force has no equal in Iran. Its stated primary task is to protect the revolution. However, its mandate has also been interpreted as exporting the revolution’s goals to other parts of the Islamic world.

Shia communities throughout the region have proved fertile grounds for revolutionary messages and have formed deep and abiding partnerships with the al-Quds force. So too have several Sunni groups opposed to Israel – first among them Hamas in Gaza.

But Iraq has been Suleimani’s key arena. The last eight years have witnessed a proxy war between Suleimani’s Quds force and the US military, the full effects of which are still being played out, as the US prepares for a full departure from Iraq and Iraq’s leaders ponder over whether to ask them to stay.

Arabian heartland

At stake is no less than who gets to shape the destiny of the heartland of Arabia. “His power comes straight from (the country’s lead cleric Ayatollah) Khamenei,” said one of Iraq’s three deputy prime ministers, Saleh al-Mutlaq, a secular Sunni. “It bypasses everyone else, including Ahmadinejad.

“There is a saying in Islam that you should never get angry with your father or mother. The [Shia] interpret that as meaning what (Khamanei, via Suleimani) says has to be respected by every [Shia] inside, or outside Iran.

“All of the important people in Iraq go to see him,” said Mutlaq. “People are mesmerised by him – they see him like an angel.”

A second MP – a senior member of Prime Minister Nour al-Maliki’s inner circle who regularly meets Suleimani in Iran – said the general has only travelled once to Iraq in the past eight years. He described him as “softly spoken and reasonable, very polite”. “He is simple when you talk to him. You would not know how powerful he is without knowing his background. His power is absolute and no one can challenge this.”

Silver-haired, slight and with a perennial serene smile, Suleimani comes across as the most unlikely of warlords. Those who met him during the one time he traveled to Baghdad at the height of the 2006 sectarian conflict say he walked around the compounds of his two key hosts without bodyguards. The Americans did not know he had been in the capital until he was back in Iran and were deeply unhappy to learn that their arch enemy had been among them.

“He is indeed like Keyser Söze,” said a senior US official this week – in reference to the legendary villain in the The Usual Suspects, whose ruthlessness and influence terrified everyone. “Nobody knew who he was and this guy’s the same. He is everywhere, but nowhere.”

The senior Shia MP added: “He has managed to form links with every single Shia group, on every level. Last year, in the meeting in Damascus that formed the current Iraqi government, he was present at the meeting along with leaders from Syria, Turkey, Iran and Hezbollah. “He forced them all to change their mind and anoint Maliki as leader for a second term.”

Over the five years that Maliki has been in power in Iraq, all his key advisers have been granted court in Iran by Suleimani. Iraq’s president, a Kurd – Jalal Talabani, has also regularly met the general, sometimes along the border separating both countries.

The Syrian uprising has added a new dimension. The al-Quds Force has been involved in suppressing the Syrian uprising, according to multiple sources inside and outside the country.

The US has slapped personal sanctions on Suleimani and two other generals in the Iranian security forces who it accuses of helping orchestrate the crackdown that is believed to have killed more than 1,600 civilians.”

Tehran has heavily invested in the survival of embattled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, whose ruling Allawite clan has links to Shia Islam. Assad’s fall would be a serious strategic setback for Iran and Suleimani. It is perhaps the only part of the region where the general’s preferred mix of strategic diplomacy with aggressive operations is being strongly tested.

In the meantime, the work of the al-Quds force continues in Iraq. All but two of the US troops killed in June – the highest number in more than two years, were killed by client militias directly under Suleimani’s control, the Keta’ib Hezbollah and the Promised Day Brigades.

“It is clear that the al-Quds force is responsible,” said the director general of the intelligence division in Iraq’s interior ministry, Hussein Kamal. “There has been a systematic flow of weapons into Iraq for the past eight years. Of course they try to say it is not state-sponsored. But when weapons are flowing from the borders of a sovereign state, it is very clear where the blame lies.

“They are destructive weapons and they cannot deny the responsibility for them.”

Another Shia MP said he had personally asked Suleimani why his al-Quds force continued to smuggle weapons, many of which are fired into the Green Zone, where he and most of Maliki’s inner circle live. “He just smiled and said it is nothing to do with me,” the MP said. “He said he had no idea where the weapons were coming from.”

Suleimani has been variously described by those who dislike him – Iraq’s Sunnis, and those who have spent years trying to get his measure – as a “talented extortionist” and a highly skilled wheeler-dealer.

US officials who have spent years trying to disrupt the work of his loyalists say they would like to meet him, while at the same time being puzzled as to his objectives.

“I would simply ask him what he wants from us,” said a senior US military official. In addition to the soldiers killed this year, the US ambassador in Baghdad, James Jeffrey, said last summer that Iranian proxies accounted for roughly a quarter of US combat casualties in Iraq – around 1,100 deaths and many thousands more injuries.

Despite this, the US has landed few public blows on Suleimani’s close circle.

In March 2007, the British SAS captured a senior Hezbollah official, Ali Moussa Daqduq, who had allegedly planned an operation that killed seven soldiers in Karbala. The same year, US troops also captured two men in the Kurdish north who they believed were al-Quds leaders. Apart from that, the trophy cabinet remains bare – at least publicly. More troubling than the apparent dearth of tactical victories is how the rest of the year will play out.

The US – and some key neighbouring Sunni states – believe Iran’s strategy in Iraq as the conflict winds down is to keep the country in a permanent but manageable state of chaos.

“They keep it on simmer and turn it up and down when they want to,” said one Lebanese official in Beirut.

The senior US military spokesman in Iraq, Major General Jeffrey Buchanan agreed. “Their overall strategy has been to keep [Iraq] isolated from the rest of its neighbours and from the US, because that makes it likely that it will depend on Iran. They want Iraq to play a subordinate, weak role.”

Only Iraq’s lawmakers can stop the master-client relationship from becoming entrenched here. It’s a task that Kurdish legislator in the national parliament, Mahmoud Othman, fears may prove to be beyond his colleagues.

“Qassem Suleimani is the key man to every decision taken in Iraq,” he said.

“It is a shame to have such a man playing such a role in this country. There should be a relationship between equals like normal relations with normal states.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

This interview is from last year, but it’s so powerful I had to post it. Mosab Hassan Yousef’s father is the founder of terrorist group Hamas. Mosab worked undercover for Israeli intelligence for 10 years. He converted to Christianity and now lives in California. He says Islam is a devil religion and the “Prophet” Mohammad is a liar.

If you haven’t read Mosab’s book, Son of Hamas, it’s a MUST READ.

This article titled “Egyptian uprising enables jailed Hamas militant to escape” was written by Harriet Sherwood in Nuseirat refugee camp, for The Guardian on Monday 7th February 2011 21.07 UTC

In a small cell in Egypt’s al-Marj prison, the BBC World Service brought encouraging news to Ayman Nofel. The senior Hamas commander from Gaza had just passed the third anniversary of his imprisonment on unspecified charges.

The voice coming from his radio told him that prisoners at another Egyptian jail had been freed amid the chaotic uprising sweeping the country. He saw his chance and wasted no time.

“I shouted to other prisoners to break down the doors and gates,” said Nofel, who described himself as the only political prisoner among al-Marj’s criminal population. Using smuggled mobile phones to mobilise locals to storm the prison gates, Nofel and his fellow-prisoners fought their way outside the walls and to freedom.

In an unintended consequence of the Egyptian people’s revolt against decades of repression and economic misery, the Hamas militant accused of planning bomb attacks against Israel found himself at the centre of a hero’s welcome in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

One by one, men queueing under the blue tarpaulin of a reception tent stepped forward to embrace the commander of the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing. They flung arms around his shoulders, clapped his back vigorously and planted kisses on each cheek before turning to accept a celebratory sticky pastry and cup of potent Arabic coffee. Despite the festivities, Nofel, 37, a stocky man in a checked shirt, said he was ready to return to “work”. Three years “and a few days” in the dank and wretched conditions of an Egyptian jail had not dulled his eagerness for what he described as “the next battle”.

The Hamas commander claimed he was held for political reasons in Egypt after being detained at a security checkpoint in Sinai in 2008. “I never went on trial. My family got a lawyer, who went to court and got an order to release me but I was never freed.”

His escape came amid the chaos of the early days of Egypt’s revolution. Having broken out of the prison with help from local people he contacted “people here in Gaza”. Hamas? “Yes, of course. They arranged for some Egyptians to pick me up,” he said. Nofel stayed in a house in the area for about seven days “until the situation was more stable”. Finally he was brought through a tunnel dug beneath the Egypt-Gaza border to his home and family. He was grateful to the Egyptian protesters who “inspired us to rise up against the prison guards. This should have happened earlier. They have spent 30 years being enslaved by the regime.” He hoped to see the Muslim Brotherhood in power in Egypt – “and all over the world, not just Egypt”.

Now, he would “resume my work with the Qassam Brigades. We are preparing and training for the next battle. This is our right.”

Nofel’s unambiguous support and gratitude for Egypt’s revolutionaries has not been universally shared in Gaza. Fatah supporters are worried that President Hosni Mubarak’s demise could boost the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, the political partners of their arch-rivals Hamas.

“Hamas has not spoken a single word,” said Gaza political analyst Mkhaimar Abusada. “My information is that they gave instructions to spokesmen not to say anything. They are closely watching the situation, but they don’t want to publicly side with either the people or the government.”

However, Hamas imams in Gaza’s mosques had described the regime as a dictatorship and offered strong support to the attempt to overthrow the government, he added. “Deep in their hearts, Hamas is very happy because they believe the Mubarak regime was conspiring with Israel, the US and the [Fatah-dominated] Palestinian Authority to impose the siege on Gaza. But they are waiting to see how it plays out.” Fatah supporters, he said, took the view that “my enemy’s enemy is my friend. They know Hamas is keen to see Mubarak leave power. Any change in Egypt will not serve the interests of Fatah and the PA, but the interests of Hamas.”

A senior Israeli government official said: “We have no doubt that Hamas is exploiting the current chaos in Egypt to advance its own interests, whether by arms smuggling or strengthening its terrorist infrastructure. We are deeply concerned about it.”

On the streets of Gaza City, many people spoke of being glued to TV pictures from Egypt over the past fortnight. “I keep pushing my children out of the way,” said Emtiaz Abu Watfa, 45. “If I could go there, I would. Mubarak will be forced out.” Could she see similar scenes to those in Cairo’s Tahrir square in Gaza City’s Palestine square? “Inshallah. We want change everywhere, here in Gaza too. People are suffering. Democracy must take its place.”

Basel Atwana, 32, a member of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, agreed. “The Egyptian youth have become more aware of their rights, and they knew the road to Tahrir square. They will keep on fighting. One day we will do the same.”

But minding his music shop, its shelves lined with CDs and DVDs featuring Egyptian stars, Fatah supporter Haytham Waheidy, 38, feared that Egypt could become another Iraq, racked by division and violence. “I think the Egyptian people deserve freedom, but Mubarak has promised change and they should give him a chance to implement this. It is outside interference that is keeping them in Tahrir Square.”

The historical, cultural and social ties between Egypt and Gaza are strong. Gazans lived under Egyptian rule for almost 20 years until 1967; there are business and family connections; for three years Gazans almost exclusively consumed Egyptian products smuggled through the tunnels. “Egypt is everywhere in Gaza,” said Abusada.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

According to the liberal media the mean old Jews are keeping the Palestinians in Gaza from living their lives. The horrible naval blockade prevents food, medicine, and building materials from getting through. The people in Gaza can’t build anything! Damn the Zionist regime! Damn them!

…Meanwhile in other news, a luxury shopping mall celebrated its grand opening today in the “besieged” city of Gaza.

I know I’m really going out on a limb here, but maybe just maybe the so-called humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a manufactured PR stunt by Hamas.

Hamas would never want to make Israel look bad by crying to sympathetic ears overseas about the mean Jews.

I know, crazy suggestion. My bad.

The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is still holding Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit captive four years after kidnapping him.

(hat tip Story Balloon via Conurls)

The worst president in history is worried — Gateway Pundit has the details.

Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas founder sheikh Hassan Yousef, said the Israeli flotilla incident had nothing to do with bringing aid to Gaza. He says the entire thing was an obvious PR stunt by Hamas to make Israel look bad. (emphasis mine)

The so-called Freedom Fleet, with 10,000 tons of humanitarian cargo and 700 pro-Palestinian/anti-Israeli activists was warned repeatedly that it would not be permitted to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza harbor. But Hamas’s media machine was already running at full speed.

While the ships were being loaded, Hamas provided reporters with photo ops showing hard-working, hopeful Palestinians laboring night and day to prepare the harbor, moving sand, paving roads, erecting light poles. The hope and the sweat were very real, but my people were only being used by Hamas leaders who knew that no ship would ever pull in to those waters.

He goes on to say Israel has every right to stop ships trying to reach Gaza and search them for weapons. Yousef doesn’t think Israel can or should lift its blockade of Gaza because Hamas cannot be trusted not to smuggle in weapons to murder Israeli citizens.

I am sorry, my Palestinian brothers and sisters, but Israel has the right, like every other country in the world, to protect its borders. Every time they were open, weapons and enemies poured in, just as Iraq’s enemies poured in before its borders were secured after Saddam’s fall.

Israel had every right to inspect the flotilla’s cargo before letting it into Gaza. What government would do otherwise? What guarantee did Jerusalem have that the ships did not carry long-range missiles from Iran like the ones sold to Hezbollah, even warheads with biological weapons?

And even if Israel could trust Hamas, which it cannot, there are now tens of thousands of al-Qaeda-like Salafi terrorists in Gaza who see Hamas as too wishy-washy and tame and who would not hesitate to detonate a nuclear device, even if it meant their own destruction along with Israel.

No, Israel cannot open its borders or lift the blockade. If Israel removes the naval blockade, we will see what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called “an Iranian port on the Mediterranean,” and, given the close relationship between Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, within five years a war would break out that would devastate Europe and the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands would die.

The most important thing Yousef says is about Islam itself. (emphasis mine)

But the deeper issues in Gaza go far beyond humanitarian needs, military strength and national security.

The members of Hamas can never be free as long as their minds and hearts are prisoners to Islamic ideology. And non-Muslim Palestinians can never be free as long as they define freedom in terms of borders and self-determination. At best, they would be prisoners in an independent state. Still driven by anger, hatred, and revenge. Still controlled by an angry, intolerant, vengeful god or believing in no god at all.

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the author of the bestselling book Son of Hamas, and is now a practicing Christian living in the U.S. — at least for now.

Yousef grew up under radical Islam and now believes the problems in the Middle East are caused by Islam itself which he contends is a violent and hateful religion.

I think he’s right. Read his book.

-Chris Jones

Kudos to The Right Scoop for pointing out this little gem. I like Ron Paul…sometimes. I live in his district and like many people here we frequently go from proud of Paul to embarrassed and then back again. When it comes to fiscal policy the man knows what he’s talking about. When it comes to national security and foreign policy he’s a total nut.

Here’s Ron Paul letting his inner kook hang free on Imus:

This kid is a hero. In many ways this kid is like Israel herself. He’s outnumbered by hostile, hateful, despicable people but refuses to back down. That mob of angry, terrorist-loving savages would have torn him apart had the police not protected him.

As an American I’m embarrassed by that ignorant and angry mob. They are not my fellow countrymen, they’re a disgrace.

(hat tip The Right Scoop via Conurls)

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) boarded six ships that were attempting to break the blockade of Gaza after numerous warnings to turn back. Armed with non-lethal paintball guns and their side arms the IDF rappelled onto the deck of the ships from helicopters in an attempt to seize the vessels.

Five of the ships were taken without incident. The crew aboard the remaining vessel however, had no intentions of going quietly. As soon as the IDF soldiers landed on the deck of the ship they were brutally attacked by an angry and murderous mob. The soldiers were struck with steel pipes, chairs, knives, and other weapons. One soldier was struck in the head and thrown over the rail falling 3 stories to the bottom deck.

Even while being attacked the soldiers yelled to one another not to pull their pistols and use lethal force. It wasn’t until the activists took one soldier’s side arm and began firing live rounds at the others that lethal force was authorized as a matter of self-defense.

Not until nine “peace” activists lay dead and several soldiers were critically wounded that the situation was brought under control. It’s clear the thugs aboard the ship had prepared themselves for a bloody siege by arming themselves and waiting to attack the IDF.

The media, the world community, and sadly President Obama have been quick to feign outrage over the incident and condemn Israel.

Fortunately, Israel had their video cameras and night vision equipment rolling throughout the incident and it’s quite obvious who the aggressors are. Much to the chagrin of the UN and the world community it’s all on tape and the so-called “peace activists” are shown to be the Islamo-Nazi thugs we all know they are.

And now for the videos…

You can find more on this story at Haaretz, Hot Air, Ynet, and other places. You can read about the terrorist ties of the so-called humanitarian group behind the flotilla here.

Not surprisingly, Obama’s terrorist pal Bill Ayers and a top Obama bundler are top activists with the group responsible for the attack.