ISIS is back – just in time to prove we do need the surveillance state after all

by BlackCatte

Those of our readers who have been watching the BBC documentary about Operation Gladio we published yesterday, might find it interesting to watch the current roll-out of the latest horrific terrorist attacks over on the Guardian today.

In Kuwait people are blown up in a Mosque. In France a decapitated body “with a message written on” was found at the scene of an alleged attempt to blow up a factory. In Tunisia “multiple deaths” are reported (anywhere between 13 and 27) at a resort where unidentified men opened fire.

The perpetrators of the Tunisian outrage have yet (as of 2pm BST) to be identified, though probably not for long, but in France the narrative is already clear. An ISIS flag was found near the unfortunate decapitated remains. Case closed.

ISIS, the insurmountable, indestructible, undefeatable multi-billion dollar terrorist network oil empire, with its own currency, its own banking system, its own film studios and unlimited numbers of trucks has struck again.

And – once again – they have inadvertently done so at a moment that benefits the strategic and diplomatic interests of their alleged mortal enemy – the United States of America.

Three days after Hollande holds emergency meetings to discuss his response to the recent Wikileaks revelations about longterm NSA spying on the French presidency, just when the “French political class” are (according to the Guardian) debating the thorny questions of surveillance and national security, and just after new and controversial legislation drastically increases the surveillance powers of the French security forces, along come ISIS with well timed murderous and psychotic distraction, and the perfect rationale for all that lovely spying.

One doesn’t have to be a peripheral “conspiracy-theorist” to notice that this narrative – like all the ISIS narratives – demands a bit of interrogation.

“There’s something very weird and strange and not right about ISIS” said veteran war reporter Eric Margolis. We have to agree. From their curiously staged and disgusting death films to their groomed photo ops and drive-bys, ISIS is a puzzle. Why do their attacks so often dovetail so smoothly with US aims and objectives? Why can the “greatest country on earth”, with the largest military spending, that can reduce Libya and Iraq to rubble, not even significantly disable one relatively small and clearly insane terrorist network? If this is really the best the US military and intelligence can do against this relatively ill-equipped foe they should definitely think twice before provoking Russia and China any further. Because they clearly would have no chance at all against any properly equipped, supplied and trained forces. It would be a tragic rout.

But US incompetence does seem selective. And that raises questions.

• If they can locate and drone an innocent wedding party in Afghanistan you would assume they could locate and drone the ludicrously productive, green-screen enabled ISIS film studios, wouldn’t you? Or the numerous ISIS HQs.
• If they can document the hundred-strong convoys of oil tankers allegedly entering Turkey every day, why can’t they stop them? Bomb them?
• If Russian assets can be frozen, why not ISIS assets? If they are trading millions in oil daily they must have bank accounts, right? So, where are these accounts? Why can’t they be seized? Or are we supposed to believe ISIS carries its vast wealth around in a sack? Or that it keeps it in its special ISIS bank in ISIS money?
• If the latter, what is the exchange rate? And where do they do the exchanging? You can’t buy weapons and trucks and manpower with ISIS notes, can you? So, where and how do they get their dollars? Maybe they are using their new “gold and silver coins”?
• But then – where do they get the gold and silver? And where is their ISIS mint and their ISIS foundry?

It’s unanswered questions like this that lead some to believe ISIS is one strand of what they are calling Gladio B. A new set of false flag stay-behinders for a new generation. With Islam replacing the Red Menace as the go-to boogeyman. If this is even slightly true then the newest spate of outrages probably doesn’t herald anything very hopeful for democracy and human happiness.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn the Guardian is not asking any of these questions. Not now, not ever. It has long ago succeeded in making itself believe its own propaganda, and is so institutionally cretinous and dumbed down now that any old nonsense can pass the Graun test as good copy. The paper that saw fit to publish Shaun Walker’s owlishly embarrassing claims to have followed an otherwise invisible and undetectable convoy of Russian munitions across the Ukraine border, is not easily going to understand the concept of checking its sources, and the editors who thought it appropriate to present an asinine story about ISIS and their currency in the format of a cutesy teen mag Q&A are probably lost to any sense of social responsibility.

No, the once-proud Guardian has its shrieking blood-red banner and its rolling “news” coverage of the latest horror and fear porn. They have their video of “people running and screaming.” And that is enough. Decapitation. Death, ISIS flag. Outrage. Panic. All the boxes checked.

Run, Scream. Don’t think. Don’t ask if the story makes any sense. Just be very afraid. Hunker down and beg the NSA to surveille the shit out of us – or we might end up like that poor unnamed man from Chassieu. Collateral damage in an idiot-scripted psyop.

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PS – I also can’t help noticing that the red-flagged rolling feeds are closed for comments. Wise move if you need to shore up an essentially bald and unconvincing narrative I suppose…