Who Profits From Killing
Charlie?
By Pepe Escobar
January 10, 2015 "ICH"
- "Asia
Times"-
Putin did it.
Sorry, he didn't. In the end, it was not
Russia "aggression" that attacked the heart
of Europe. It was a pro-style jihadi
commando. Cui bono?
Careful planning and preparation;
Kalashnikovs; rocket-propelled grenade
launcher; balaclavas; sand-colored
ammunition vest stuffed with spare
magazines; army boots; piece of cake escape
in a black Citroen. And the icing on the
lethal cake; faultless Paris-based
logistical support to pull that off. A
former top French military commander,
Frederic Gallois, has stressed the perfect
application of "urban
guerrilla technique" (where are those
notorious Western counter-terrorism
"experts" when one needs them?)
They might have spoken perfect French;
others said it was broken French. Anyway,
what matters is that they uttered the magic
word; "We're al-Qaeda." Better yet; they
told a man in the street, "Tell the media
that this is al-Qaeda in Yemen", which
means, in American terror terminology,
al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP), which
had Charlie Hebdo's editor/cartoonist
Stephane Charbonnier ("Charb") on a hit
list duly promoted by AQAP's glossy magazine
Inspire. Accusation: "Insulting the Prophet
Mohammed."
And just to make sure everyone had the
perpetrators implanted on their brain, the
killers also said, "Allahu Akbar"; "We have
killed Charlie Hebdo"; and "We have avenged
the Prophet."
Case closed? Well, it took only a few hours
for French police to identify the (usual?)
suspects; French-Algerian brothers Said and
Cherif Kouachi. The third man - the driver
of the black Citroen, 18-year-old Hamyd
Mourad - then turned himself in with an
ironclad alibi. So the third man remains a
cipher.
They all wore balaclavas. The Kouachi
brothers have not been captured. But the
police seem to know very well who they are.
Because they found an abandoned ID in the
black Citroen (oh, the troubles of being a
command in a rush ...) How come they didn't
know anything before the carnage?
Right on cue, Cherif Kouachi's bio was
splattered all over. He was on a global
watch list. Along with six others, he was
sentenced in May 2008 to 3 years in prison
for "terrorism"; in fact unloading a dozen
young Frenchmen via madrassas in Egypt and
Syria to none other than Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, the
killed-by-an-American-missile former head of
Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the spiritual father of
Daesh/ISIS/ISIL.
Also right on clue, a full narrative was
ready for mass consumption. The key
point; French police privileges the
hypothesis of "Islamic terrorism". According
to their "experts", this could be an attack
"ordered from abroad and executed by jihadis
coming back from Syria that have escaped
us", or it could be "suburban idiots that
radicalized themselves and concocted this
military attack in the name of al-Qaeda."
Scrap option two, please; this was a pro
job. And staying with option one, this
points right at - what else - blowback. Yes,
they could be Daesh/ISIS/ISIL mercenaries
trained by NATO (crucially, France included)
in Turkey and/or Jordan. But it might get
even false-flag nastier. They could also be
former or current French special forces.
Blast Islam, will travel
Predictably, Islamofascism peddlers are
already having a field day/week/month/year.
For simpletons/trolls/hordes exhibiting an
IQ worthy of sub-zoology, when in doubt,
demonize Islam. It's so convenient to forget
that untold millions from Pakistan's tribal
areas to street markets across Iraq continue
to feel pain devastating their hearts and
lives as they are expendable victims of the
jihadi mindset - or "Kalashnikov culture",
as it is known in Pakistan - profiting the
"West", directly or indirectly, for decades
now. Think ritual droning of Pakistani,
Yemeni, Syrian, Iraqi or Libyan civilians.
Think Sadr City witnessing carnages over 10
times worse than Paris.
What French President Francois Hollande
defined as "an act of exceptional barbarism"
- and it is - does not apply when the
"West", France in the front line, from King
Sarko to General Hollande himself,
weaponizes, trains and remote-controls
assorted mercenaries/beheaders from Libya to
Syria. Oh yeah; killing civilians in Tripoli
or Aleppo is perfectly all right. But don't
do that in Paris.
So this, in the heart of Europe, is what
blowback feels like. This is what people
feel in the Waziristans when a wedding party
is incinerated by a Hellfire missile. In
parallel, it's absolutely impossible that
the oh so sophisticated Western intel
network had not seen blowback coming - and
was impotent to prevent it (how come the
scapegoats du jour, the Kouachi brothers,
were not in the gallows?)
Of course the ultra-elaborate Western
counter-terrorism expert network - so
proficient at strip-teasing us all at every
airport - saw it coming; but in shadow
warland, portmanteau "al-Qaeda" and its
myriad declinations, including "renegade"
Daesh/ISIS/ISIL, are used as much as a
mercenary army as a convenient domestic
threat "against our freedoms".
Who profits?
US Think Tankland, also predictably, is busy
spinning the drama of an "intra-Muslim"
split which provides jihadis a lot of
geopolitical space to exploit - all this
sucking the Western world into a Muslim
civil war. This is absolutely ridiculous.
The Empire of Chaos, already during the 70s,
was busy cultivating jihadi/Kalashnikov
culture to fight anything from the USSR to
nationalist movements all across the Global
South. Divide and Rule has always been used
to fan the flames "intra-Islam", from the
Clinton administration getting cozy with the
Taliban to the Cheney regime - helped by
Persian Gulf vassals - advancing the
sectarian Sunni/Shi'ite schism.
Cui bono, then, with killing Charlie?
Only those whose agenda is to demonize
Islam. Not even a bunch of brainwashed
fanatics would pull off the Charlie carnage
to show people who accuse them of being
barbarians that they are, in fact,
barbarians. French intel at least has
concluded that this is no underwear bomber
stunt. This is a pro job. That happens to
take place just a few days after France
recognizes Palestinian statehood. And just a
few days after General Hollande demanded the
lifting of sanctions against the Russian
"threat".
The Masters of the Universe who pull the
real levers of the Empire of Chaos are
freaking out with the systemic chaos in the
racket they so far had the illusion of
controlling. Make no mistake - the Empire of
Chaos will do what it can to exploit the
post-Charlie environment - be it blowback or
false flag.
The Obama administration is already
mobilizing the UN Security Council. The FBI
is "helping" with the French investigation.
And as an Italian analyst
memorably put it, jihadis don't attack a
vulture hedge fund; they attack a satirical
rag. This is not religion; this is hardcore
geopolitics. Reminds me of David Bowie:
"This is not rock'n roll. This is suicide."
The Obama administration is already
mobilized to offer "protection" - Mob-style
- to a Western Europe that is just, only
just, starting to be diffident of the
pre-fabricated Russian "threat". And just as
it happens, when the Empire of Chaos mostly
needs it, evil "terra" once again rears its
ugly head.
And yes, I am Charlie. Not only because they
made us laugh; but because they were
sacrificial lambs in a much nastier,
gruesome, never-ending shadowplay.
Pepe Escobar's latest book is
Empire of Chaos. Follow him on
Facebook. He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.
(Copyright 2015 Asia Times Online (Holdings)
Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
about sales, syndication and republishing.)
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