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posted by n1 on Tuesday November 29 2016, @03:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the great-game-to-grand-chessboard dept.

On the sixth anniversary of the first infamous "Cablegate" by WikiLeaks, when it releases its first batch of sensitive US files, on November 28 2010, it has expanded its Public Library of US Diplomacy (PLUSD) with 531,525 new diplomatic cables from 1979.

In a statement to coincide with the release of the cables, known as "Carter Cables III", Mr Assange explained how events which unfolded in 1979, had begun a series of events that led to the rise of ISIS.

He said: "If any year could be said to be the "year zero" of our modern era, 1979 is it."

Mr Assange said a decision by the CIA, together with Saudi Arabia, to plough billions of dollars into arming the Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan to tackle the Soviet Union, had led to the creation of terror group al-Qaeda.

This, in turn, he said led to the 9/11 terror strikes, the invasion of Afghanhistan and Iraq by the US, and the creation of ISIS.

Source: Express.co.uk


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Tuesday November 29 2016, @05:18PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday November 29 2016, @05:18PM (#434548)

    It's almost like you're conveniently forgetting this because you like the Russian government. Ohhh yes... they're the ones who have been protecting your butt from imprisonment, and plying you with hacked documents so you can stay in the news.

    Umm, no, they aren't, that would be the government of Ecuador that's been protecting him from imprisonment. Also, the UN examined the case and found in favor of Assange, that the whole purpose of the Swedish case was to try to get him into physical custody so he could be shipped off to the US and be on the receiving end of torturous imprisonment before trial just like Chelsea Manning.

    I do find it very interesting how when Wikileaks was helping the New York Times find out all about horrible stuff the Bush administration had done, everyone was cheering them on, but when Wikileaks was helping everyone else find out all about horrible stuff Hillary Clinton has done all of a sudden they were corrupted tools of Vladimir Putin. That's one of my tests for whether someone has fallen for Democratic partisan hackery these days.

    That said, Assange overstated his case a bit. ISIS was made possible by many many acts of stupidity by the US. In approximate chronological order:
    1. Backing the mujahadeen, including Osama bin Laden, in Afghanistan to fight the Russians. Understandable at the time, but still something likely to come back to haunt them.
    2. Cozying up to Saudi Arabia's monarchy, even though their government is directly responsible for all sorts of problems for the US. For example, Osama bin Laden's main grievance against the US was that we had put our troops into Saudi territory in 1991, even though that was at the Saudi government's request.
    3. Invading Iraq for no reason, creating a vacuum of power and a bunch of unemployed military officers.
    4. Backing the rebels in Syria, leaving wide areas of Syria that were effectively lawless that ISIS could use as a base of military operations.
    5. Letting the new Iraqi government abuse the Sunni population, creating a very real grievance against Baghdad that ISIS could exploit.
    6. The complete destruction of Iraq's civil bureaucracy due to "de-Baathification", which made conditions in much of Iraq miserable.

    That said, there is a strategy that is working to defeat ISIS: Help the various forces operating in Iraq and Syria take care of it. Which is exactly what Obama has been doing, which is why most of their leadership is now completely surrounded by enemy forces. It is particularly important that it's not the US or other Western forces that are getting rid of ISIS, because their entire ideology is based on the idea that their falling to Christians will be what triggers the apocalypse, so what we want is for them to be defeated by Muslims rather than Christians.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
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  • (Score: 1) by Type44Q on Wednesday November 30 2016, @11:15AM

    by Type44Q (4347) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @11:15AM (#434856)

    Invading Iraq for no reason...

    No reason that you know of... isn't the same thing. FYI, Saddam was openly preparing to sell Iraqi oil for Euros, thus bypassing "the WRC" (and Col. Omar was about to go a step farther, rejecting all fiat and only selling for bullion).

    • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday November 30 2016, @05:51PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @05:51PM (#435022)

      So instead, we invaded Iraq, and now ISIS is selling oil for whatever they can get. Progress!

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:49PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:49PM (#439740)

    Also, the UN examined the case and found in favor of Assange, that the whole purpose of the Swedish case was to try to get him into physical custody so he could be shipped off to the US and be on the receiving end of torturous imprisonment before trial just like Chelsea Manning.

    That doesn't hold water, because it would be easier to extradite him straight from the UK. Also they would still need permission from the UK to extradite him to the US from Sweden because he would have been extradited from the UK to Sweden.