Tuesday, January 13, 2015

The ISIS Crisis: Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and the Naqshbandi Army

The ISIS Crisis: Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and the Naqshbandi Army

by Scott Creighton
UPDATE: Go here to read Mike Whitney describing this whole thing as a “terrorist farce” over at AlterNet (originally from CounterPunch). He gets into what he thinks the real story is a little (Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and the Naqshbandi Army) and suggests maybe they have concocted this whole thing in order to force Maliki out and allow President Peace Prize sufficient cover to start dropping bombs in Iraq again. Doesn’t mention my work once. Oh well.
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Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and the Naqshbandi Army don’t run around playing soccer with people’s heads. They don’t tell Iraqi men they are there to take their women. They aren’t claiming to come to New York or London right after they’re done with Iraq. They don’t have a Twitter feed designed to make the Iraq insurgents look like a bunch of raving animals. They don’t have a nice glossy corporate style PR portfolio and brochure.
All of that stuff has been brought to you by the U.S. and Saudi backed ISIS group of socialist supporting (?) ultra-fascist Wahhabists.
So what does Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri and the Naqshbandi Army have to do with the ISIS Crisis you ask?
Well, they’re the real targets of the pending U.S. involvement in Iraq. They are the reason that President Nouri-al Maliki is begging Washington to renew bombing operations in his own country.

“Now, after a decade as a fugitive, and believed by many to be dead, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri – one of the late Iraqi dictator’s most trusted acolytes – appears to have re-emerged as the spiritual figurehead of a resurgent movement dedicated to restoring Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party to power.
The 70 year-old, on whose head the US set a $10m bounty and who helped Saddam lead his 1968 coup, is thought to be leading a group of regime die-hards blamed for a major upsurge in violence across the country.
Last month, in some of the fiercest fighting since US troops left Iraq, gunmen attacked Iraqi army units in northern Iraq, set up their own checkpoints, and even briefly routed troops from a small town north of Baghdad, which they declared to be “Iraq’s first liberated territory”.
Overwhelmingly drawn from the Sunni Muslim minority, their stated goal is to topple the Shia-dominated government of President Nouri-al Maliki, which they believe has been left vulnerable since the departure of US troops from Iraq 18 months ago.” Telegraph, May 2013
al-Douri is the red-headed former Vice President in Saddam’s Ba’athist government. In fact, he did most of the foreign diplomatic duties in Saddam’s stead.
He is feared by our puppet regime in Iraq for a number of reasons.
“He is a veteran coalition-builder. His word, his networks of contacts, the favours he can call in, are his main resource as a leader.” Telegraph, May 2013
Though thought to be dead at one time, he popped back up in 2010 to start sowing the seeds of insurgency via audio and video recordings.
“On January 5, 2013, a 53-minute video was released on YouTube in which Al-Douri encouraged recent Sunni protests in Nineveh and Anbar provinces against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, saying that “the people of Iraq and all its nationalist and Islamic forces support you until the realization of your just demands for the fall of the Safavid-Persian alliance”. The message, which showed the 70 year-old sitting behind a desk with a small Saddam era flag on it, was partially broadcast on the Al Arabiya news channel. In the video, released just before the Iraqi Army Day on January 6, Douri claimed to be somewhere in Iraq’s Babil Province.[10][11] Hours after the tape was released, Iraqi military intelligence arrested Abdul Rahman Mohammed Ibrahim, the nephew of Al-Douri, in Saladin Province.[12]
In April 2013 the Iraqi Government claimed to be closing in on Al-Douri, who they claimed was moving between Tikrit and the towns of Hawija and Dour, which is alleged to be an area of strong support for Al-Douri, and also where he is also claimed to own a villa” Wiki
And that brings us to Naqshbandi Army or JRTN.
The Naqshbandi Army was originally created in 2003 to repel the invading and occupying U.S. forces. They were quickly routed due to our use of Shock and Awe and the Saddam led government fell. Chaos then ensued as the Coalition Provisional Authority took over.
It wasn’t until 2006, when Saddam was hung, that they reemerged with a renewed interest in driving the Americans from their country.
The precise details about the emergence of the JRTN are unclear, although it is generally assumed that the group was established in the summer of 2003 to fight coalition forces and to restore the old order under Ba’athist Ideology.
Although JRTN would only emerge as a group in 2006, JRTN members had been involved in anti-coalition actions earlier in the war, such as the 2003 Rixos Al Rasheed Baghdad Hotel, and the 2004 First Battle of Fallujah, where several Naqshbandia clerics associated with the JRTN were among the casualties.[5]
JRTN originally emerged as a group in December 2006, following the execution of Saddam Hussein. The groups original focus was on protectecting Naqshbandis in Iraq from the oppression they were facing from radical Sunni Islamist insurgent groups, particularly al-Qaeda in Iraq, whose tactics, especially the targeting Iraqis and Sunni’s, were opposed by JRTN’s Sufi ideology.[5][6]
On April 25, 2013, insurgents from the Naqshbandi Army completely captured the town of Sulaiman Bek, about 170 km north of Baghdad, after heavy fighting with security forces, only to relinquish control of it a day later, while escaping with weapons and vehicles.
Following the Hawija clashes JRTN units in Ninewa began to mobilise, emerging as a force that could potentially play a role in a new low-level Sunni led uprising. Immediately after the Hawija clashes JRTN units were able to take temporary control of a neighborhood in the 17 July neighborhood in western Mosul. ..
… The group is strongly anti-Coalition[1] and supports the targeting of Coalition forces in Iraq, believing that coalition forces including individuals, equipment and supplies, are legitimate targets at any time or place in Iraq. Iraqis are not considered valid targets, unless fighting with Coalition forces… Wiki
al-Douri is said to be in some form of leadership position with the Naqshbandi Army and as interesting as that is, take a look at the last line in this write-up from a Stanford study done on them:
JRTN is linked to the “New Baath Party” that is led by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, an adherent of the Naqshband order. Many of the New Bath Party members are former officials and soldiers from the Saddam Hussein regime, which is similar to the cohort that makes up JRTN.[51] US military officers contend that many JRTN members are believed to be former Iraqi military officers, in light of JRTN statements being infused with military terminology[52] as well as their vetting procedures of new recruits involving putting new members in a 90-day trial period in which they are required to carry out low-level attacks, endure physical abuse, and background checks to ensure they are not affiliated with AQI.[53]  Stanford.edu
That’s right. They spend an awful lot of time researching new recruits to ensure they have no connection to al Qaeda in Iraq.
Why do you think that is?
So, we have a long standing insurgency building in Iraq which threatens our national interests (big oil, big business, the IMF) and it builds to such a point where our puppet Maliki has to start bombing entire cities in order to slow it down but he’s unsuccessful.
Now, what is going to be an easier sell? Obama has to start bombing Iraq again because the wrong political party is taking ground from our neoliberal puppet regime? or… the “turruurruists” are after the women folk, kicking around heads as soccer balls and promising to come to New York and London next?
Hmmm?
Most Americans have to admit, whether they like it or not, that we had no business going to Iraq to force regime change and our neoliberal economic torture session  on the people of that country.
The very last thing most of us want is to replay that same grave mistake on behalf of Big Oil and Big Business (and Israel?)
But that is what is happening. ISIS is just a smoke screen. A pretext for President Peace Prize to continue yet another of his predecessor’s globalist policies and for the exact same reasons.
Whether or not al-Douri is calling the shots or whether he’s just a front man getting allies lined up against our occupational government doesn’t really matter. There is a legitimate threat to the gains our corporate Masters of the Universe made in Iraq and the last thing anybody wants is a Ba’athist government coming back into power in Iraq kicking out our Exxons and McDonalds once again.
The only contribution ISIS is making to the cause is to demonize the Ba’athist resurgence in Iraq and that holds true to their history of being used as paid mercenaries destabilizing Ba’athist nations in the recent past. Their efforts will ensure the Americans can sweep in and bomb the crap out of the insurgents thus preventing a Ba’athist coalition rising to power in Iraq.
That, my friends, is the point of the ISIS Crisis.

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