RUTHFULLY YOURS

A big question surrounding missile attacks against two U.S. ships ( the USS Mason and USS Ponce) is whether it was the Yemeni rebel Houthis (also known as Ansar Allah) who did it? Or, instead, did Iran carry out the attacks? A related question is what were these U.S. ships doing near the Bab el-Mandab straits in the Red Sea? The Ponce is, admittedly, an at-sea forward staging base.

Iran has been harassing U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf for some time, and on each occasion the Iranians appear to have been bolder in what looks like a naval game of chicken. So much so that most recently Iranian fast boats equipped with missiles and torpedoes literally parked in front of the U.S. destroyer Nitze, forcing it to alter course to avoid a collision. But that is not nearly as serious the as events that unfolded starting on October 1st. Early in the morning the Houthis fired a C-802 missile that hit the HSV-2 Swift, a very fast and relatively large catamaran ship originally built by Incat in Australia. Acquired by the U.S. Navy in 2003, the Navy’s Sealift Command operated the vessel for ten years. Then it went out of service in 2013, replaced by another Incat-built catamaran. In an unusual move, in fact a strange one, the Sealift Command leased the Swift to a UAE organization called the National Marine Dredging Company. According to various news reports, the Swift was shuttling supplies and passengers between the UAE and Eritrea on the one hand and Aden on the other. So-called independent experts speaking on Iranian TV say that the Swift was moving troops from a training base in Eritrea to Aden, controlled by the Hadi government (Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi) backed by Saudi Arabia and its allies. According to Aden, the ship was evacuating wounded persons and bringing in humanitarian supplies.

The problem is that the Swift was nowhere near Aden. It was just off the coast of Houthi-controlled areas north of the Ban el-Mandab close to the Port of Mocha.

As acknowledged by the Houthis, they fired on the Swift and caused almost catastrophic damage. There is a video of the attack that appears to have been made from a small skiff. The video shows the missile launch and the missile hitting the target. The Swift is very close by. What follows is a terrific explosion and fire. The Swift did not sink, but it did burn. According to reports from some of the crew who survived the attack, another small boat fired at the survivors with a machine gun as they fled the Swift. The Houthis declared they used a C-802 missile to hit the Swift.

Senior commanders in the Sunni Palestinian Quds Brigade, known as the Liwa al Quds or the Syrian Arab Army Fedayeen, have been photographed receiving medals from Russian military officers for battlefield action. The latest interaction further indicates the deep level of Russian involvement and impact they are having on the Syrian civil war.

The pro-government militia is drawn from the Palestinian diaspora in Aleppo province, and has openlyoperated as an auxiliary to pro-regime forces there since 2013. The unit numbers in the several hundreds.

Late last month, the Quds Brigade and the Syrian Arab Army succeeded in taking the strategic Handarat Palestinian refugee camp and Kindi Hospital north of Aleppo proper, following the launch of an offensive in late September and several rounds of intense back-and-forth with the Islamist-led Fatah Halab coalition. Pro-regime forces and the Quds Brigade have been fighting to control the camp since 2014.

Photo 2. Quds Brigade fighters following the capture of Handarat Camp, posted on October 1.

The capture of Handarat was a significant victory, particularly for the Palestinian militia, whose members are drawn from the town. Capturing that area and the adjacent Kindi Hospital consolidatespro-regime control over a key road north of Aleppo, and has opened a front to push toward the rebel-held area of the city. The Quds Brigade has reportedly continued to make gains in the surrounding areas.

Several days after the victory at Handarat, photographs surfaced of a Russian military officer bestowing medals to the militia chief Mohammad al Saeed, an engineer by vocation, and operations commander Mohammad Rafi (AKA “the Godfather”) (photo 1). Prior to launching the operation to fully retake the camp on Sept. 29, the two Palestinian commanders were photographed with what appears to be their Russian military advisor (photo 3).

Earlier in August, Rafi had received a medal from a Russian Lieutenant General (photo 4). The patch on the senior commander’s shoulder is the emblem of the 18th Guards Motor Rifle Division (photo 5), a unitstationed near Grozny, Chechnya. Members from this unit have operated in Ukraine and Syria.

Editors’ note: To those of you who have enquired, the author is a real man living in the Middle East who sent us these pieces because he is unable to share them with anyone where he lives. At first we tried to tidy up the English, but that seemed to knock much of the soul out of his work. So we made the editorial choice to present his work basically as he sent it; what you are seeing is the result of that choice. It is the way he sees the world from his point of view, unobstructed by editors. Perhaps think of it more as a different kind of article, more as folk art but in words. It is not meant to offend anyone or any religion. It always seemed, living among people from different nations, as if wrongnesses in English were often “righter” than rightnesses. The painter Paul Gauguin reportedly said: “If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue.” We apologize to anyone who may not like these postings. “Those who understand, understand.”

The Boy voice was getting Down slowly and after a few whiles he is silent with no locomotion, then same soo beautifull girl come close and look up to his eyes and fire more bullets on his face and tell us that he is died.

“My Dears Boys today you are standing here it is a very Good position for you. On Otherside you will have a golden happiness, Paradise! Do not come back without full fill the Task. After full Fill your Last wish, we Go a head for Jihad, Takecare.”

One Boy who are aware from this area try to Run away but Man have a pistol he fire on the Boy and Bullet hit the Boy on Forehead and he thud onto the Road. We Sit silently into the Bus.

Jihadi camps where gives training is just for terror or personal interest, Nothing more. Parents even do not know where is my Son. They thinks One Day he come backs.

In 2013, some Body is asking, am meet my cousins Jowhar & Muhammad near to my Town. So first we have a nice chat and after a Few whiles am seeing Skin of right Arm on Jowhar is black with thick lines on the Arm Skin.

So am ask to Jowhar, What happened this?

He reply, That is a Vestige of Torture.

I reply, Torture, which kind of Torture this and why?

He answer, That is a Vestige of Jihad Torture.

I ask, Jihad Torture sorry am do not understand this.

He reply, I show to you after.

So we together go to the room of Jowhar & Muhammad where he remove the Shirts and when I look at the Jowhar am Shock because His body is full with Lines from Torture.

Am ask, What is this and how it is happen?

“[Pope Benedict XVI] has has doubted publicly that it [Islam] can be accommodated in a pluralistic society… and tempered his support for a programme of inter-religious dialogue run by Franciscan monks at Assisi. He has embraced the view of Italian moderates and conservatives that the guiding principle of inter-religious dialogue must be reciprocità. That is, he finds it naive to permit the building of a Saudi-funded mosque, Europe’s largest, in Rome, while Muslim countries forbid the construction of churches and missions”. – Christopher Caldwell, Financial Times.

In that lecture, Benedict did what in the Islamic world is forbidden: freely discussing faith. He said that God is different from Allah.

Since then, apologies to the Islamic world have become the official Vatican policy. Pope Francis denied that Islam itself is violent and claimed that the potential for violence lies within every religion, including Catholicism. Previously, Pope Francis said there is “a world war” but denied that Islam has any role in it.

“It is clear that Muslims have an ultimate goal: conquering the world…But we find it hard to recognize this reality and to respond by defending the Christian faith (…) I have heard several times an Islamic idea: ‘what we failed to do with the weapons in the past we are doing today with the birth rate and immigration’. The population is changing. If this keeps up, in countries like Italy, the majority will be Muslim (…) And what is the most important achievement? Rome”. — Monsignor Raymond Burke, US Catholic leader.

If 9/11 was the declaration of jihad against the West, 9/12 will be remembered as one of the most dramatic knee-bends of the Western cultural submission to Islam.

On September 12th 2006, Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) landed in Bavaria, Germany, where he was born and first taught theology. He was expected to deliver a lecture in front of the academic community at the University of Regensburg. That lesson would go down to history as the most controversial papal speech of the last half-century.