In the 1980′s, the Nicaraguan Death Squads and CIA-backed ‘Contra’ rebels, were under the financial and political control of Washington DC and death-squad specialist John Negroponte (photo, left). Through cocaine and narcotics trafficking, these paramilitary gangs were also able to fund their conquest to destabilize and terrorize Nicaraguans. So, it was no surprise when Negroponte showed up as US Ambassador in Baghdad, Iraq in 2004, that Islamic death squads began to appear in Iraq featuring some of the most brutal sectarian violence to date. 

Negroponte’s understudy during this period was US operative Robert Stephen Ford. After completing his study in Iraq, Ford was then moved in 2010 to become US Ambassador to Syria. Soon after Ford’s arrival, western-backed Flash Mobs and targeted violence against Syrian police and military – erupted in parts of Syria. 

It wasn’t long before the Assad government realized why Ford was installed when he was, and promptly forced him out of Damascus in 2011. Not surprisingly, critics believe that it was US operative Robert Ford who laid the groundwork for the eme... in Syria.

Ruthless and unconventional “asymmetric” enemies are nothing new to the United States. Historically, the Privateer, or Barbary “Corsair”, was a private person or ship authorized by a government to attack foreign vessels or governments, often covertly. During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, Ottoman Corsairs operated along the North African coast, and attacked Colonial American ships for decades. 


OLD SKOOL ISIS: Barbary Pirates were the 17th century ISIS, terrorists who kidnapped and killed people, but controlled behind the scenes by Kings and states. 

Later, many of these Barbary Pirates (Image above) fell under the control of  Morocco’s SultanMohammed III. Privateering was also a way of mobilizing a small army without sacrificing real troops or spending state funds to do it. Privateers would generate income and operating capital through black market smuggling, pillaging and plundering treasure booty along the way. They also captured and impressed people into slavery along the way – just like ISIS today.

It could be said that the Sultan Mohammed’s ladder day role is being shared by the US-UK-Franco Axis and their GCC Gulf allies – the royal families of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain et all – all sponsors of the terrorist confab currently laying siege to two of the Middle East’s only secular governments – Syria and Iraq. Each of these monarchies have their own designs on the important strategic and resource rich compartments in Syria and Iraq. It’s been said how the former Emir of Qatar was looking forward to seeing his son Tamim as head of a new Syrian Emirate. Gas-rich Qatar has been a primary backer of the Syrian rebels since the armed civil war began in 2011, hoping to topple the Bashar al-Assad regime. 

Qatar was also supporting Afghan Taliban militants recently by giving them an office in Doha next door to US Central Command in the same capital city.

ISIS: America’s Terrorist Mercenaries

Phase I: Justifying Chaos 

It was only in 2007 that US foreign policy openly sought to pursue war against Iran, Syria, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, while undercutting pro-Iranian factions in Iraq which at the time the US was still occupying. Failing to accomplish this directly, the US planned a not-so-covert proxy war that would include funding, politically backing, and even arming groups ranging from the Muslim Brotherhood to militants aligned with Al Qaeda itself. 

This is perhaps best summarized by the prophetic 2007 report “The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our ...” written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh and published in the New Yorker.

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. 

The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda. 

Hersh would also go on to chronicle American political and financial support that was being provided to the Muslim Brotherhood, even then under then US President George Bush. 

In all, the supposedly “spontaneous” uprisings referred to by the Western media as the “Arab Spring” in 2011 were being engineered years ahead of time – not in an attempt to promote peaceful pro-democratic aspirations, but to serve as cover for ultra-violent foreign-backed insurrections that would leave a trail of destruction stretching along Africa’s northern coast, all the way to the borders of Iran, Russia, and even China.

Phase II: The War 

After denying any role in the “Arab Spring” unrest, the US would soon not only openly support the protesters in the streets, but also support armed militants that followed in the wake of protests. This support included that of a military dimension – with militants in Libya being provided aircover and special forces initially, to eventually the air-dropping of weapons, equipment, and other supplies.

US Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) would even travel to the terrorist capital of Libya – Benghazi – and offer US support in person. He would stand literally upon the footsteps of Benghazi’s courthouse where Al Qaeda rallies would be held shortly after, promising weapons to men who would later slaughter a US ambassador in that very city.

After the destruction of Libya’s government amid NATO’s intervention, Benghazi would serve as a terrorist epicenter where weapons, cash, and fighters were being staged before being sent to NATO-member Turkey and then .... Among these terrorists were seasoned militants of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an official Al Qaeda franchise in North Africa. One of their leaders, Abdelhakim Belhadj would eventually find himself in power in Tripoli after the collapse of the Libyan government, and even have his photograph taken with Senator McCain.

Predictably, as NATO shifted resources and attention from the overthrow of Libya to the overthrow of Syria, the conflict aimed at Damascus escalated. It did not however succeed. Instead, the West found itself in a protracted proxy war in which its role in arming, aiding, and abetting hardcore sectarian extremists became increasingly obvious.

Phase III: The “Rise” of ISIS 

Clearly, the rise of the so-called “Islamic State” or ISIS, did not happen overnight, nor by accident. It was not only the logical result of the United States continuing its strategy of proxy warfare it had carried out against Libya, now unfolding in Syria, it was also the premeditated, documented result of what veteran journalist Seymour Hersh had warned about in 2007.

It is a threat that not only Syria understands all too well, but a threat its allies including Iraq, Iran, and Russia fully understand and are mobilizing against.

The US has found itself revising history, attempting to explain the existence of ISIS lurking in the footprints of its massive support of so-called “moderates” in Syria’s ongoing conflict. The US has attempted to claim ISIS has built itself on “donations,” selling oil to the black market, and by taking hostages for ransom. If only building a multinational terrorist mercenary force was that easy, we could imagine Syria, Iraq, and Iran would likewise have vast mercenary armies to outmatch ISIS in an afternoon.

The reality is, to explain how the US and its regional partners have provided “moderates” with billions in aid only to have ISIS rise up and displace these “moderates,” we must realize that there were never any “moderates” to begin with, and that the US intentionally armed and funded terrorists, just as Hersh warned in 2007, to create a terrorist mercenary army that “espouses a militant vision of Islam” and is “sympathetic to Al Qaeda.”

ISIS didn’t displace the “moderates,” the truth of what America has done in the Middle East has displaced the lies the West has been telling the public starting in 2011 at the height of the so-called “Arab Spring.”

It is essential that people around the world continue to spread this this truth faster than the West can spread its chaos.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine“New Eastern Outlook”.

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