YEMEN
On 15 August the sinaa’at al-mawt program on al-arabiyya TV did a show on the child soldiers of Yemen. Much of the information gathered for this show came from interviews with children who had escaped the Houthi’s grasp, or had been rescued by forces loyal to the Yemeni government. Social workers and teachers working with these “rescued” children were also interviewed.
According to the reporting on this program, the Iranian-supported Houthis of Yemen have been recruiting children as young a 8, or even 6, with orphanages being a special target of Houthi recruiters.
These children are then trained in weapons use and used as spies, or spotters, to man monitoring points. Others are used as “human shields” for the regular Houthi troops. Some are used to lay mines–without being instructed as to the dangers of this job.
Any kids that refuse “recruitment” by the Houthis, or refuse orders to perform suicidal jobs are tortured and put in prison.
The Houthis are even besieging entire villages promising to kill everyone there unless they surrender their young boys. The boys are thus sacrificed to the Houthis in order to spare the lives of their mothers, sisters, and younger brothers.
Reportedly, the Houthis have succeeded in mobilizing 10,000 under age kids which they have brainwashed and trained for war. These children will become a headache for the next generation throughout the entire Middle East, as they know nothing except how to kill, the program host said.
ISIS
Washington Post has reported that ISIS has begun setting up Caliphate 2.0 in N.E. Syria, right under our noses. The name of the camp is al–Hul, and it contains 70,000 people, including 50,000 children. Among the 70,000 are 11,000 from countries outside of the Iraq/Syria region, and their home countries refuse to take them back.
ISIS has taken over control of this camp from the inside, imposing Shari’a law, and even resuming executions for those who break the rules. They have even succeeded in obtaining weapons, such as the AK-47.
The Saudi-owned al-Arabiyya TV has also reported that ISIS is re-establishing itself in Southern Syria as well.
COMMENT: Yours truly threw a fit the moment I heard that Trump had invited Turkey into N.E. Syria last December 2018 to replace the American troops he wanted to withdraw. I warned that this would come back to bite us in the rear in more ways than one. The first has to do with Turkey itself. As the planet’s #1 state sponsor of terrorism and the Godfather of ISIS, Turkey is the last country in the world you should want to invite into Syria to “take care of ISIS.”
Turkey’s creeping occupation of ever larger chunks of Syria are one consequence of that. The renewed vigor of ISIS is also another predictable outcome of the U.S. withdrawal, even though Trump did backpedal a bit on the idea of a total withdrawal.
Now, when we combine the 10,000 Yemeni kids (mentioned above) being trained to kill, with the 50,000 kids in just this one camp under ISIS control, who are now being brain-washed with ISIS ideology and trained to kill, this is a problem that will plague the Middle East, and the rest of the world, for a long time to come.
Finally, the issue of all non-Iraqis and non-Syrians who now find themselves in these refugee camps unable to return home because their home countries don’t want them . . .
Those home countries should be forced to take them back and stuff them into prisons where they belong. It is not right that they should be foisted upon a small country like Syria. The countries that these people came from are responsible because they have allowed Islam to flourish unchallenged within their borders. They have allowed Islam to dictate what is taught about Islam in their K-12 and colleges. They have allowed Islam to dictate how their intelligence and law enforcement agencies view terrorism. They refuse to allow the truth about Islam to be taught in their schools or discussed publically. They are thus responsible for the very predictable result of having a certain percentage of their citizens recruited by the real Islam that ISIS is.
IRAN
On 18 August al-arabiyya TV reported that Iran has been enriching Uranium underground, in violation of Obama’s brain-dead nuclear deal. They have also threatened to increase their production of enriched Uranium by 50%.
In a related matter, al-arabiyya also reported that Iran had threatened to send warships to Gibraltar to escort the “Adrian Darya” in response to the U.S. threat to take control of the ship after British Gibraltar authorities decided to let the ship go.
The ship was originally seized because it was thought that it was heading to Syria, and there is a UN embargo against delivering oil to Syria because of its war against ISIS and al-Qaeda. Iran claims that the ship was not destined for Syria, but for the NATO country of Greece. The U.S. has apparently lost the legal battle, and the ship was last seen steaming away from Gibraltar, heading east.
QATAR
On the 18 August edition of al-hakaya on MBC-Egypt, talk show host ‘Amru Adeeb reported on Qatar’s involvement in yet another financial scandal, this with regarding the London-based Barclay’s bank. The initial reports of this scandal came out in the British press in early 2019, and has to do with secret payments by Barclay’s to Qatar, and the admission by Barclay’s that Barclay’s could not survive without Qatar’s support.
Adeeb then opined that everywhere you look in the world where there is a financial scandal, Qatar is there in some capacity. First they bribe FIFA to hold the world cup soccer championships in Qatar, then we learn of Qatar purchasing the way Americans think through their buying off media and think tanks, then the purchasing of politicians in Paris, and now Barclay’s in London.
What Adeeb left out was that now there is a video making the rounds on you Tube that U.S. Congressperson Ilhan Omar is “Qatar’s pet project.” Which, of course, is not surprising since she has been regurgitating the Muslim Brotherhood propaganda points since the day she set foot in Congress.
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
Egyptian talk show host ‘Amru Adeeb opened his Monday 19 August al-hakaya (the Story) show with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). He noted that the MB is still around (in spite of the 60,000 in prison in Egypt, and another 60,000 Egyptian MB members in exile in Turkey). “And,” he says, “everyone knows who they are. They’re in the colleges, government work, the media, other areas of employment.” But, he implied, they generally lie low.
Adeeb then launched into his reason for bringing up the MB: 1,350 MB members currently in prison in Egypt have signed a document asking their leaders to make peace with the government so they could be let out of prison.
Adeeb warned against that, while making fun of the MB saying how when they are weak, they always pretend to be “nice,” “non-violent,” loyal citizens, but once free . . . Adeeb ripped off a list of recent terrorist acts in Egypt he blamed on the MB. He closed his spiel with the admonition that the MB “is a serious national security danger to Egypt,” and that they should not be let loose from prison.
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Barry Webb has logged a 25-year career as an Arabist for the NSA, has two MA degrees in related subject matter, and is currently a Senior Fellow with Americans for Intelligence Reform www.intelreform.org. He is the author of Confessions of an (ex) NSA spy: Why America and its Allies are Losing the War on Terror. His website is www.barrywebbauthor.com
