The Khorasans: As Fake As the Kardashians

The Khorasans: As Fake As the Kardashians (Washington Post, Sep 25, 2014):

New Boogeyman Has Already Been Debunked

Obama is now – after the fact – scrambling to justify bombing the sovereign nation of Syria without the permission of either the Syrian government or even the United States Congress by saying that we were going after the super-evil Khorasans, who were about to attack us.

My God!  That sounds terrifying … like a cross between Genghis Khan, Klingons and the Kardashians!

The U.S. is saying that they’re even more dangerous than ISIS.

There’s just one wee little problem … the Khorasan threat is as as fake as the Kardashians’ physiques. (Admittedly, it’s confusing, given that the Kardashians have also inserted themselves right in the middle of the Syrian conflict.)

Agence France-Presse reports:

The US says it has hit a little-known group called “Khorasan” in Syria, but experts and activists argue it actually struck Al-Qaeda’s affiliate Al-Nusra Front, which fights alongside Syrian rebels.

In announcing its raids in the northern province of Aleppo on Tuesday, Washington described the group it targeted as Khorasan, a cell of Al-Qaeda veterans planning attacks against the West.

But experts and activists cast doubt on the distinction between Khorasan and Al-Nusra Front, which is Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch.

In Syria, no one had ever heard talk of Khorasan until the US media brought it up,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“Rebels, activists and the whole world knows that these positions (hit Tuesday) were Al-Nusra positions, and the fighters killed were Al-Nusra fighters,” added Abdel Rahman, who has tracked the Syrian conflict since it erupted in 2011.

Experts were similarly dubious about the distinction.

“The name refers to Al-Qaeda fighters previously based in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran who have travelled to Syria to fight with… Al-Nusra,” said Matthew Henman, head of IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre.

They… should not be considered a new or distinct group as such.”

Aron Lund, editor of the Syria in Crisis website run by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, raised similar doubts.

The fact that news about this Al-Qaeda-run, anti-Western cell linked to Al-Nusra emerged just over a week ago, through US intelligence leaks — well, it’s certainly an interesting coincidence,” he told AFP.

***

Claims of a distinction are lost of many of Syria’s rebels, who have also often rejected the world community’s designation of Al-Nusra as a “terrorist” group.

When Washington added Al-Nusra to its list of “terrorist” organisations, even the internationally-backed Syrian opposition National Coalition criticised the decision.

***

On the ground, almost all rebel groups have been willing to cooperate with Al-Nusra, seeing them as distinct from the Islamic State group (IS), which espouses transnational goals and includes many non-Syrians among its ranks.

***

[The] history of cooperation [between the various crazies in Syria] has left some rebels and activists on the ground suspicious and even angry about the strikes on Al-Qaeda.

***

Some key members are believed to maintain channels of communication with Al-Nusra, including Qatar, which has helped negotiate the release of prisoners held by the group.

McClatchy adds:

Raad Alawi, the commander of a smaller group of fighters, the Squadrons of Al Haq, told McClatchy he was very angry.

“Starting the war with the bombing of Nusra is an indication that this is a war against the revolution and not [ISIS] … “Maybe next they will bomb the bases of the Free Syrian Army.”

Well, okay … experts and Syrian Islamic jihadis think there’s no distinction between the Khorasans and plain vanilla Al Nusra/Al Qaeda/Free Syrian Army fighters.

But surely America and our allies treat the moderate Syrian rebels … I mean Al Nusra …  er, I mean the Khorasans … with a consistent iron fist?

Well, no … we’ve been – directly or indirectly – backing them.  And – as we’ve been warning for some time – the boys we’re arming are threatening to attack us.

So – while I’d like to believe that I’m being shown the real deal as a justification for long-term, direct involvement – I’m just not buying it

2 thoughts on “The Khorasans: As Fake As the Kardashians”

  1. Fear mongering lies upon lies. Pravda in its worst days had to have been better than this claptrap.
    This is so old, so depressingly mendacious and ugly.
    The US was hijacked in the coup of 2000, but the dirty work started long before.
    It was Ronald Reagan who passed a law that distressed me at the time, but it passed with no comment from the press. It said in a case of national emergency, the president has the power to dissolve congress.
    History has taught me such a power is always eventually used. Charles I of England kept the House of Lords and Commons dissolved for 12 years. He needed funding for another war, and called them back into session. This is when Cromwell got his voice……….and the rest is history.

    What bothers me is how US presidents don’t seem to need congress to okay and fund more wars. After 911, congress gave their constitutional duties, such as the power to declare war, over to Bush.

    Obama went into Syria without congressional approval, the people have no voice to express their horror at yet another corporate enriching war at public expense. The slaughter of more people who had done nothing to warrant it is no longer considered. Congress is bought off and apathetic, their corruption removing any life from them.

    The US is indeed broke. Only 33% of world nations now accept the dollar. Once the EU is forced into an economic corner, they will be forced to dump the dollar. The day that happens, the dollar will collapse.

    The Pacific Ocean, once the source of jobs for millions, and food for millions more is now dead. The radiation from Fukushima continues without any resolution in sight. The Gulf of Mexico which feeds into the Pacific, is also dead thanks to BP oil leaks, and many leaks from other oil corporations.
    Many more nightmares ahead, and the corporate stooge in the White house adds to them. The only way to stop the wars is a dollar collapse. How depressing is that?
    The internal Vandals are doing their evil work every day. People ask me where is FDR. I tell them the time for FDR has passed…….people are so corrupt, such a man would never make it in politics.

    Reply

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