It isn’t just the ISIS safe havens, certainly the many ISIS bases, prison camps and slave markets set up inside Turkey. It goes much further and a stronger military involvement by Russia could make lightning strikes against these terror centers a reality.
The legal precedents were set during Vietnam and, particularly, during the War on Terror, rendition, secret prisons, assassinations and drone attacks on facilities, now a useful tool when deployed against terror supporters across the Middle East, Europe and North America.
Only when we decide to get tough on real terrorists and use the legal tools the United States government has granted the world, can we finally be safe, just as Dick Cheney had wanted for us all.
Last week Syrian artillery began decimating hundreds of ISIS fighters fleeing their last hiding places in Zabadani, scene of a month long battle with Syrian and Hezbollah forces, one of a string of successes in reducing the dwindling ISIS footprint in that beleaguered nation.
Within minutes, forward air controllers among the fleeing fear struck terrorists called for air support. There American built F16 fighters took off from ISIS held bases inside Israel and silenced the Syrian Army artillery position north of Damascus.
This has happened many times and been reported many times, never with any attempt at denial.
Back in 1970, a famous American military strategist and political advisor named Henry Kissinger was faced with a similar situation. American forces inside South Vietnam were being attacked from strongholds inside the neighboring nation of Cambodia.
First, Kissinger sent in B52’s to carpet-bomb the region. Then Kissinger announced a US invasion of Cambodia, May 1970, with tens of thousands of American troops entering that country legally, by American standards, going after the militant forces that now constitute the legal government of a reunited Vietnam.
Daraa Province in Southern Syria has been plagued with forces trained inside Jordan at CIA camps entering Syria and butchering thousands of civilians. These forces leaving Jordan fly the black flag of ISIS. Managing their operations is a command center outside of Amman, Jordan, staffed with US, Jordanian, Israeli and Saudi officers.
The large logistical facility that handles both trucked and air dropped supplies for ISIS in both Syria and Iraq is staffed by members of MEK, a pseudo-Islamic cult established during the 1960s in Iran by the Mossad, the same group responsible for fighting alongside Saddam against Iran and gassing 30,000 Kurds to death between 1991 and 1993.
From October 2014 onward, an endless stream of top of the line TOW missiles has been shipped by Raytheon Corporation to US Army supply depots. There is no record of end user certificates transferring these to any other nation.
These missiles ended up at a US Air Force Base in Constanta, Romania. From there, they were flown to Tbilisi, Georgia and from there trucked by British Petroleum and Bechtel Corporation through Turkey and into Syria where they were turned over to al Nusra/al Qaeda forces.
More high tech weaponry paid for by the American taxpayer was flown into a US Air Force Base in Adana, Turkey. From there it was trucked to an ISIS/al Nusra logistics facility run by the Turkish Army in the town of Rehanli, Hatay, Turkey, only miles from ISIS bases inside the Syrian city of Aleppo.
When tracking down the TOW missiles, it was found they had been consigned to the CIA as secret supplies to the Kiev junta. Evidence is accumulating that Kiev is actively supplying ISIS with weapons and, more interestingly, actively advising and assisting with chemical warfare against the Kurds, in exchange for promises from Turkey which may include a Ukrainian gas hookup to the new Turkish/Russian southern route through Romania. Online maps showing this spur have been purged from search engines and wrapped in malware.
Going further afield in order to find terror supporters who can, according to US law, be subject to drone strikes, we can begin to finally, years later, start degrading the material supporters of ISIS, not just Senator John McCain but others as well.
We know ISIS gets considerable funding from selling stolen oil. We also know who is running this for them; British Petroleum and Exxon Corporation.
These terror supporters are vulnerable, they have tanker fleets that can be seized and assets around the world. Were Exxon headquarters in Irving, Texas or several of their terrorist operational centers north of Houston at the Woodlands to be hit by the Delta Force aided by Russian Spetznaz, it would be the first real step in a very real war on global terror. Is America ready for that?
Remember, it is American law that makes everyone involved subject to non-judicial killing.
Let’s not forget the theft of Syrian and Iraqi antiquities. Interpol has carefully traced thousands of items worth hundreds of millions of dollars into auction houses in London, New York, Vienna, Paris and Berlin.
Nearly every major house has some terrorist items with some well-known houses taking major positions in terrorist finance.
Basically, here is the plan using American strategic and legal precedents:
- At the outset, a No Fly Zone has to be established over Israel until ISIS run air facilities can be put out of action. It can be safely assumed that any air traffic over Israel may be terrorist, perhaps including airliners which can be stuffed with bio weapons or nuclear waste from Dimona.
- A string of lighting attacks, over a period of two to three years, will be needed to degrade the terror infrastructure inside Turkey. Chemical weapons facilities, training camps, air bases, all need to be taken out before ISIS can be beaten.
- Terror camps and command centers in Jordan will require the heaviest munitions as some are deeply hidden underground including those inside the new Saudi Arabian “embassy” complex outside Amman.
- Rendition teams will be hitting auction houses, banks, boardrooms and newspaper offices around the world, ferreting out terror supporters, just as the US had done after 9/11.
- There are dozens of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) like the Syrian Human Rights Observatory in London which operates public relations for ISIS and dozens of others, some operating as refugee aid fronts that traffic in jihadists, human slavery and narcotics. All must be brought to justice.
America has to be given credit for using some of the greatest legal minds the world has seen, bringing them together, all members of the noted Federalist Society, and putting together the laws that will bring ISIS to its knees.
That America, though poor judgement, kidnapped and assassinated almost entirely innocent people under these provisions is unfortunate. Perhaps others will do better.
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War that has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security issues. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
