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welcome to Sputnik orbiting the world
with me George Galloway and me gatri a
state of total confusion Reigns in
Western capitals over what to do about
the catastrophe unfolding in Syria and
Iraq the UK foreign secretary Philip
Hammond rules out Britain going back to
war in Iraq and is instantly repudiated
by David Cameron still at the time of
recording the British prime minister who
insists that quote all options remain
open in the US things are no more clear
there the commander-in-chief of the US
military President Obama is impudently
contradicted by the top military bras
the President says that there will be
absolutely no American boots on the
ground and yet the generals including
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff tells the Senate armed services
committee that there will be in fact
boots on the ground if necessary Cameron
claims he can bomb Isis in Syria from
over Syrian airspace without the
permission of the Syrian government the
said Syrian government is armed and
dangerous and entirely within its legal
rights to shoot down any and all
military aircraft over their territory
and has the military hardware to do so
neither the us nor the UK governments
who some argue caused a disaster in the
first place have any intention of
helping the actual government of Iran
Iraq a government only in power because
of them and they won't even deliver to
Bagdad the weapons and planes they have
already paid for even though Isis is at
the gates in Paris this week a summit of
the Great and the gruesome came together
to discuss the existential threat of
Isis but the two countries actually
doing something meaningful about that
threat Syria and Iran were of course not
invited confused you won't be after
you've heard our first guest Hass risby
a commentator on the region and part of
digital resistance hasib welcome to the
show tell the viewers first of all how
things are on the ground now in Iraq
what territory does Isis hold who's
fighting them are there any uh
indications of a change of in the
military situation on the ground so the
situation is a bit uh it varies um from
parts to Parts but primarily uh we're
talking about about Northeast Syria and
Northwest Iraq being under heavy Isis
influence um not necessarily blanket
control but heavy segments of those
areas um and within those areas that
they have control um there's various
battles taking place uh along the
borders of those those regions that they
control so for example they're fighting
with Kurds um they're fighting against
other Syrian Rebel groups such as
al-nusra and the Islamic front um as
well as I think the free Syrian Army as
well um and towards Iraq they're
fighting obviously the Iraqi uh Armed
Forces as well as Shia militias that are
you know defending their territory
against uh you know further Isis
expansion so at the moment Isis are
involved in a lot of uh battles and SC
lot fighting they're fighting quite a
few people at the same time to be honest
with you and um the the recent kind of
resurgence of the Iraqi Armed Forces as
well as support from the you know us air
strikes and stuff has um prevented you
know further expansion um but they're
show showing no sign of stopping um and
that's kind of worrying they seem to be
still you know going about their
day-to-day executions in in a in a very
kind of you know sophisticated and uh
well planned U Manner and they're still
controlling major Iraqi cities
absolutely and and you like in Syria for
example in in the in the city of raqa
they're you know they more or less they
they they run the show there completely
which is thought to be the place where
they're carrying out these hideous
execution of foreigners yeah yeah that
part and you know various border border
towns between Iraq and Syria uh where
there is you know very loose control of
of anything uh is where they're
operating and and they have you know
pretty good control over those areas now
you mention US air strikes uh I'm of the
I've seen us air strikes I've seen them
in Vietnam I've seen them in Cambodia
I've seen them in the Iraq War I've seen
them in Afghanistan these are not
meaningful US air strikes which leads me
to wonder why if the United States was
really as concerned about Isis as they
say they are and that we should be
they'd be bombing them a lot more
seriously than they are these are very
desilter very occasional and very small
air strikes why absolutely um and and
you know adding on to what you're saying
uh they should have reacted much sooner
one would imagine um it's taken them
this long to kind of react to it whilst
you know the previous uh prime minister
NRI Maliki you know was constantly uh
pleading to America for you know support
against the the the growing threat of uh
you know militancy in his country but
you know it it fell on deaf airs
basically um but what you see is as soon
as for example Isis started threatening
the Kurdish region is when America all
of a sudden started taking things
serious there in the kurish region where
their oil interests where the oil
interests are and where they want to
break Iraq up from there you go and and
you know it's a strategic place for them
uh you know the Kurdistan because you
know you know the good ties with Israel
for example and you know you heard
stories about Kur Kurdistan you know
selling oil to Israel you know just a
matter of weeks after Isis took over and
stuff like that completely illegally um
but you see that America and the West
generally only reacted then not when you
know uh 2,000 or so uh Shia you know
Army Cadets were massacred why can't the
regional players sought this matter out
themselves what you have at the moment
is this very confusing kind of Blurred
Lines uh that exist where you know um
whilst Saudi Arabia and all these the
these countries that essentially went to
Paris for for for a day out were the
ones essentially that kind of allowed
Isis to exist in the first place you
know through turning a blind eye to you
know weapons and and and money being
trafficked to them um and now they
realize that you know it's it's going to
come back to bite them so now they're
trying to react but it's it's it's a bit
too late because the people inside these
countries already inside Saudi Arabia
inside qat they they they've been fed
the sectarian rhetoric already so they
buy the Isis line very easily um you see
already that you know um in in places
like Jordan um and Saudi Arabia many
Isis flags have been raised and you know
there are a lot of people the opposite
of feel feeling threat exactly exactly
so um to be honest with you Saudi Arabia
or you know any of these suddenly Gulf
States to kind of trying you know
intervene militarily against Isis would
just be uh counterproductive as well
just as much as it would be for the us
to do so um which then makes it another
sticky situation that if Iran and Syria
were the only ones to kind of uh attack
Isis then it becomes Al you know sh are
attacking sunnis there's a state of
confusion there's no Islamic State but
there's a state of confusion reigning uh
over all this I mean even in ontological
terms what exactly are Isis who are they
what do they want Isis for you know if
you try and simplify exactly what they
are essentially is is is is is a
collection of of
Ruthless um
angry and violent individuals that have
uh come together under under a false
notion of of you know a Califa under
under some sort of Illusion that they're
trying to do a good thing for the world
um and and and their ethos is
essentially being fed by something that
has been prevalent in Saudi Arabia for
so long um under the teachings of
wahhabism and salafism and I understand
that obviously not all wahhabis and not
all salafis are you know uh as Extreme
as Isis however the the the the
fundamentals behind uh these these um
you know these sexs have have really
spurred on uh the the kind of
ideological principles for why Isis go
about doing the things that they do and
furthermore it's
like it seems that they've kind of tried
to go one above alqaeda with their
ruthlessness they they decided that you
know we're going to stand out you know
this going to be our brand almost and
and the way they they celebrate and
glorify their violence and and and
dehumanize those that they're killing uh
it's it's actually pretty chilling and I
don't think we've seen um you know a
group or the end I mean during from the
free Syrian Army we've already witnessed
the most horrible scenes and they were
the moderate ones by the way they were
the moderates were heart eaters you mean
indeed yeah yeah uh we haven't actually
seen Isis eating Hearts yet that's
probably something that's uh still too
come they behave like a kind of death
cult there seems nothing Islamic about
them I hate when people call them the
Islamic State because they're neither
Islamic nor are they a state
uh how do they find any theological
justification for the mass execution of
helpless handcuffed uh prisoners in in
uh wartime how do they justify
theologically slicing off the heads of
Aid workers and journalists that fall
into their hands and videoing it
uh for the entertainment presumably of
their own side their their justification
is essentially that anyone that
disagrees with their very specific set
of thoughts is is not worthy of Life
essentially um especially when you're on
on their land so um but it's not their
land is it the person slicing the heads
off of these uh American and British
journalists are thought to be uh English
yeah well they're from London that's
that's the one thing that I don't
confuse young men from London know
growing up in this modern you know
Global City and then back to their land
is essentially this this the Islamic
calipat land you know so you've seen the
view of the picture I'm sure you've seen
the picture of where they want to go
eventually so they they they they've
carved this section out for themselves
and and whatever they say goes in this
area you've I I've seen videos uh of of
Scholars or sorry their clerics rather
where they tell you that you know when
you're cutting someone's head you should
enjoy it it should it shouldn't be like
you know when you kill an animal you
should you know do that very mercifully
but when you kill a human being because
he's an enemy of God you should enjoy it
take your time um so it's very very
disturbing there's this very kind of uh
strong lust towards violence within this
group um that is I don't think we've
seen it before I I don't think I've seen
a group like this before really hell on
Earth is it yeah I mean to be fair as in
I think I think it was one of the
newspapers the guardian or something
that that introduced uh Isis in the
British media as heads a group that's
worse than Al-Qaeda and that stood out
to me as well thinking that is good way
to put it as in alqaeda they make
alqaeda look like uh look like Boy
Scouts now how do we uh follow uh
digital resistance and what do you do uh
so what we do we colate news um from
various U media Outlets uh to try and
kind of put put together you know story
line that that makes sense that that's
actually true as to what's happening as
well as that we provide analysis um and
opinions on on various news stories so
you can follow us uh on Twitter at
digitalresistance or
facebook.com/ theedigital resistance
hasib thanks for coming on board the
Sputnik coming up after the break how is
it that any Muslim returning from Syria
to Britain is instantly arrested but
British citizens serving in the Israeli
Army can come and go to and from the
Carnage as they please don't miss
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it and a lot of the focus and it's
become a very political situation
because neither Palestine nor Israel are
signed up to the to the Rome statute we
also have to to look at the fact that
the United Kingdom is and countries such
as France are also members and we know
that there are uh British citizens
French citizens and of course US
citizens that are actively fighting with
the IDF and we know that what the IDF
has done in this particular incursion
constitutes war crimes and crimes
against humanity so there's absolutely
no reason why if we are able to identify
those British citizens that have
actively engaged that that matter can't
be referred to the international
criminal court very much in the same way
that the international criminal court is
now um looking into a preliminary
inquiry which is a precursor to an
investigation um in relation to the
conduct of uh British forces in
Iraq that's uh good all very well but
why doesn't the state Act act after all
uh at least my reading of the law is
that it is prohibited for British
citizens to enlist in foreign armies
fight with them and then return here and
if that's true in general why isn't it
true specifically for Israel well again
we go back to the rather unfortunate
situation is that there are rules that
apply to the rest of the world and
unfortunately there are rules that apply
to Israel um I mean I've been quite open
about this recently in relation to to
double standards that are applied by
both the UK and the US you know we see
individuals who are uh teenagers who are
who are detained tortured in custody but
as soon as one of them has an American
passport who's arrested then America um
takes particular offense to that and the
same as far as the UK is concerned the
the sad reality is there should not be a
different standard applied to those
joining the IDF but there is but the law
but the Law Officers must be uh culpable
in that I mean the law the law if the
Law Officers told the police that he
throw to arrest people returning from
Tel Aviv and question them as to whether
or not they'd just been fighting in the
IDF the police would have to do so of
course yes but they don't ask these
questions what what what you have to do
is you you have to be able to provide a
fairly compelling dossier to to law
enforcement in this country um
identifying individual uals to be able
to to Target those individuals but but
what is particularly disturbing is that
there is no action being taken by these
organizations that are um actually
broadcasting the fact that they will
help you get into the IDF and they will
set you up and they will assist your
family I mean this to me um is is just
there's a whole Cottage uh industry uh
here in support of the IDF uh it's open
advertised uh in certain newspapers that
you can donate to help the IDF and so on
and as I understand it these uh soldiers
are not hiding themselves certainly in
the US their pictures are appearing
glorifying it yes well actually um
before I came on the show this morning I
just looked at one of these websites in
particular you and you read the comment
section
um
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