What’s going on in Iraq? Part 2 Interview with Snorre Lindquist and Lasse Wilhelmson

What’s going on in Iraq? Part 2 Interview with Snorre Lindquist and Lasse Wilhelmson

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Part 1 can be read here and includes introduction

 

Part 2.

Mousa Almllahi: It has been almost two weeks since the last interview. What is your view of recent events?

 

Snorre Lindquist: The explosive military outcome of the long-prepared popular uprising in Iraq – which in its peaceful form includes Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds – has forced an extraordinary unity upon otherwise sworn enemies of the world. They all have their special agendas and interests to take care of . If it is successful, the uprising is the end of US and Iranian power in Iraq.

The US now wishes to be quit its deadlock with Iran over the Iraq question and has in desperation decided to realise the plan to divide up Iraq – Israel’s dream scenario but hardly a dream for a disrupting American empire. All according to Israel’s so-called 1980 Oded Yinon plan, translated from Hebrew into English by Israel Shahak in 1982, with an aim to create permanent chaos and weakened national states. To this end, agent and foreign legionnaire ISIS, or ISIL as it is also known, is put to use, but also to hide or high-jack the popular uprising thus making it easier to suppress.

Lasse Wilhelmson: Of course there is no way ISIS, with just a few thousand men, can scare off a whole army and take over huge cities. ISIS has become a backdrop to hide the popular uprising against the puppet Al Maliki. The popular uprising is probably most strongly organised in “The Military Councils for the Revolutionary Tribes”. Assessing the ongoing uprising is therefore much dependent on the balance of power between them, and their relations within the organisation. Processes of change always consist of opposing interests.

 

Mousa Almllahi: How can not only sworn enemies USA and Iran, but also Russia and China, seem to agree that the uprising is terrorist-led by ISIS and support Al Maliki?

Snorre Lindquist: Iran has become Russia’s only stable friend in the Muslim world. Two issues lie behind the friendship: 1) Syria is protected by Iran which needs a strong flank in the west against NATO. For its part, Syria guarantees Russia the naval base Taurus which provides the key to the Mediterranean and the southern oceans. 2) If Iran loses its power over Iraq and is weakened, Russia may need other means of protecting its southern flank. Thus Russia is forced to take part in the dirty ISIS game. China is driven by its need for oil which calls for a strong and friendly Iran with its influence over Iraq. Furthermore, both Russia and China want to see an end to Islamic fundamentalism which commits acts of terror in their own countries.

 

Mousa Almllahi: Why has ISIS become what everyone talks about?

Lasse Wilhelmson: Military movements like Islamic fundamentalism have evolved into new, secret and frightening weapons in the geopolitical game of chess. They are bands of killers who can be hired by any country for use against any other country instead of a direct military intervention or for other purposes. By the US and the old colonial powers to win ground in Africa, by the US to destabilise Russia and China, or by the US, Israel, Turkey and the Gulf states to destabilise Syria. Assad turns to ISIS to buy oil and there are now rumours that even Iran has helped to build up ISIS in Syria, in order to discredit the rebel movement there.

These new professional armies are recruited and funded mainly by agents in Saudi Arabia, and in Israeli and US security services. The fact that they exist and commit heinous crimes casts a slur over Islam in the eyes of the West. And they are thus a significant weapon in Israel’s and Zionism’s propaganda.

Snorre Lindquist: ISIS is one of these movements. According to reporters on the spot, ISIS was only one of many armed groups, most of those that blind sided Al Maliki’s army in Mosul were Sunni tribes and Baathists. They have now divided the city into areas of responsibility. There is calm, people are back on the streets and can move about freely since sectarian military barbed wire and checkpoints have been removed. Refugees return and people go back to work. Sectarian violence has gone. Civilians were never attacked and nobody hurt the Christians. The disappearance of Al Maliki’s hell must have been “like suddenly being released from a barbaric prison”as the Iraqi author Haifa Zangana wrote. It must have been this feeling that caused the people of Mosul to cheer, despite the participation of ISIS. Indeed, people remember Al-Qaida’s ruthless acts and their affiliation with ISIS.

Most of the local tribes’ forces are probably gathered under the Tribal Revolutionary Councils. Their unique negotiating tactics, with amnesty granted to those opponents who surrender their weapons, have been very successful. This success should perhaps be seen in contrast to the fact that while under creation, Al Maliki’s army was infiltrated by opposing fractions and that it was never intended for real war but only to terrorise the Iraqi people.

The negotiating tactics and their presence in the towns carries the humanist hallmark that defines the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI). The organisation advises the Tribal Revolutionary Councils. I recognise this frame of mind through my many years of contact with Dr. Muhammed Bashar Al-Faidhy, spokesperson for AMSI.

I must say I am astounded by independent writers and friends of a free Iraq on the internet – Michael Chossudovski, Thierry Meyssan, Christoff Lehman, Patrick Coburn, Juan Cole, Jason Ditz and others. Either they ignore the existence of the popular resistance or they play down its significance, this is not solidarity. It is of the utmost importance that information about the opposition is spread. The uprising needs international solidarity in order to win the game, just as when Vietnam was liberated.

 

Mousa Almllahi: Why is Iran’s colonial behaviour towards Iraq not exposed, even though it has been more or less ongoing ever since the invasion in 2003?

Lasse Wilhelmson: The fact is that Iran has always been against the Shiites in Iraq taking part in the armed resistance against the US-led occupation and that this has facilitated and prolonged the occupation. Iran and the US have worked together mainly through the puppet Al Maliki and this has made it possible for Iran to strengthen its influence over Iraq while at the same time allowing the US allies’ destruction of Iraq to continue according to the 1980 Oded-Yinon plan and Israel’s interests. Much political rhetoric has hidden this. The biggest losers are the people of Iraq.

There are many who seem to find it difficult to believe that Iran and Russia can be both right and wrong. Basically they get it right about Syria’s national independence but wrong about Iraq’s. Even though the arch enemy is USrael’s neocolonial politics and the Zionist power elite’s work for NWO. on the other hand, there could be every reason to ask to what extent all the players in the great geopolitical game of chess are dependent on, or independent of, this elite?

http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2014/07/04/whats-going-on-in-iraq-part-2-interview-with-snorre-lindquist-and-lasse-wilhelmson/