Information operations – To Inform is to Influence

Self-styled entity

Let’s not forget that ISIS is a self-proclaimed and self-styled entity. All the images about its strength have been constructed by the group itself through horrific videos and testimonies of citizens living in its strongholds. These witnesses may have been forced to say what they said about ISIS. Or they might be members of the group itself. Someone may disagree with me here citing ISIS’s capture of Iraq’s second largest city of Mosulin June last year. But there was actually no war in Mosul. The purely Sunni city was captured because the Iraqi army decided not to fight ISIS, full stop. The fall of Mosul was in brief not the result of ISIS’s strength but had to do with the socio-political situation of Iraq. Iraq’s ex-premier Nouri al-Maliki’s sectarian policies, the marginalization of the Iraqi Sunnis, the agony, wrath and “poverty” of the ex-officers of Saddam Hussein’s dismantled Baath army, coupled with the terrorism of the Shiite militias, were the major reasons behind Mosul’s fall.

The image that wherever ISIS goes no one can stop it is no longer in place. ISIS is now being defeated, cornered and hurt. If the Iraqi forces, now equipped with U.S.-manufactured weapons, continue their march on ISIS-held territories, the group will be forced to withdraw northward and westward to Syria to be faced with the FSA that Washington has recently pledged to train and equip. This withdrawal has already begun but still within Iraq, media outlets has reported recently, talking about the intensified coalition airstrikes obliging ISIS fighters to pull out to Iraq’s al-Qaem province on the border with Syria.

For some reason, watching a video the group has recently released, I had the feeling that ISIS is now trying to fix its tarnished and widely-abhorred image. In that video, there was an ISIS member, speaking “politely” and “quietly” with no black mask on or AK-47 assault gun on his side or shoulder. The man was justifying the terrorist organization’s burning alive of Jordanian Moaz al-Kasasbeh. Definitely under the shock of the angry response of Jordanians – all Jordanians – and also the world on the brutal and barbarian execution of Moaz, this bearded man was helplessly trying to fix the “no way-to-repair” harm to ISIS’ image caused by the pilot’s burning alive and other barbarian acts.

ISIS could have secured some reputation and, maybe acceptance, if it only fought Syria’s sectarian regime and showed mercy to the Sunni communities. ISIS, which calls itself the “Islamic State,” could also have secured a good image if it dealt with the prisoners it held either according to Islamic law or the international law which stipulates decent treatment of prisoners of war, let alone civilians. But violence, torture, brutality and horror are basic ingredients of ISIS’ deviant ideology. ISIS is now perceived worldwide and also in Islamic countries as a terrorist organization and that is not going to change.

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Raed Omari is a Jordanian journalist, political analyst, parliamentary affairs expert, and commentator on local and regional political affairs. His writing focuses on the Arab Spring, press freedoms, Islamist groups, emerging economies, climate change, natural disasters, agriculture, the environment and social media. He is a writer for The Jordan Times, and contributes to Al Arabiya English. He can be reached via raed_omari1977@yahoo.com, or on Twitter @RaedAlOmari2

Last Update: Friday, 27 February 2015 KSA 08:36 – GMT 05:36

Information operations

Russian soldier fighting in Ukraine is proud of Putin for deceiving the world

Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images

Russian military regulars fighting in Ukraine is an open secret –a “secret de Polichinelle.” Putin’s ghost army is ravaging the Ukrainian countryside, while Russian officials continue to deny their presence in a neighboring country, brazenly lying to the world. Russia is quietly transporting its wounded soldiers, checking them into hospitals after-hours and omitting their names from the general registries. The dead of Russia’s undeclared war against Ukraine are being buried in secret. Injured survivors are ordered not to admit where the said injuries occurred, at the risk of losing military benefits. Their families are also discouraged from speaking out. Russian government labeled the non-profit group Soldiers’ Mothers a “foreign agent,” after its chairman, Ella Polyakova (also a member of the Kremlin’s human rights council) openly stated that Russian soldiers were fighting in Ukraine. Russia’s former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov was gunned down near Kremlin walls, just before he was to present incontrovertible evidence about regular Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. Nemtsov was under constant surveillance and the location where he was assassinated is the most-policed area of Moscow. The brave truth-teller became yet another casualty of Putin’s covert war in Ukraine.

A common misperception in the West is a somewhat naïve expectation that Russian people would rebel, if they only knew thatPutin is covertly sending soldiers to fight and die in another sovereign country. The fact is, many of them already know. Blinded by shameless Russian propaganda, they don’t mind the fact that their government is obfuscating the facts and lying to the world. To the contrary, they’re proud of their fibbing President. In their imagination, inflamed by Russian mainstream media, the end justifies the means. They don’t mind it when lies are spouted from the Kremlin, because many Russians see themselves at war with the West. “The information war” is therefore part of this one-sided grandstanding, where anything goes. Believing Putin’s lie about “NATO legions” in Ukraine, many Russians are content to believe that their military battalions are waging battle against these imaginary Western opponents. What they fail to realize is that while Putin is lying to the world, he is also lying to the Russians.

Russian mainstream media and the country’s leading propagandists (designated as so-called “guardians” of the establishment) callously disseminate images of dead and injured children in the Middle East, passing them off as casualties of the Ukrainian military. They show off images of Russia’s brutalities in Chechnya, representing them as Ukraine’s alleged slaughter of its own civilians. They ludicrously exclaim that Ukrainian armed forces are “crucifying children and forcing their mothers to watch.” Quite simply, Russia lies to everyone. These falsehoods affect the country’s citizens in the most profound way: by convincing them to give up their very lives for the sake of defeating their alleged arch-nemesis. Instead of the phantom “NATO legions,” they savagely attack Ukrainian military and civilians on Ukrainian soil. As Slavoj Žižek once said, “[T]he horror of Communism, Stalinism, is not that bad people do bad things — they always do. It’s that good people do horrible things, thinking they are doing something great.”

A stunning interview published today by Novaya Gazeta (one of very few independent media outlets remaining in totalitarian Russia), showcases the warped mentality of Putin’s soldiers in Ukraine. Dorzhi Batomunkuev is a Russian soldier, who participated in a tank battle near Debaltseve. He detailed the process of deployment of Russian troops to Ukraine and outlined his own participation. (Full English translation of the article can be viewed here). While the information he revealed is quite staggering, Batomunkuev’s self-described mindset is equally as revealing. Although the troops were initially told they are going to participate in military exercises, all soldiers knew where they were going. “Even if we do military exercises first, we’ll be sent to bomb khokhols [derogatory slur used by Russians to describe Ukrainians].”

Batomunkuev describes the process of “maskirovka” (military deception) that commenced in Russia: painting over the license plates, disguising tanks, removing military patches and epaulets, leaving passports and military ID’s with their military divisions. “We all knew where we were going. I was fully adjusted, mentally and physically, to the fact that we would have to go to Ukraine.”

While in Donetsk, the Russian military listened to the radio program, discussing whether Russian troops are present in Ukraine. Every guest on the show denied it – but it didn’t surprise the troops. “Our government understands that we need to help, but if they officially bring in the troops, Europe and NATO will go nuts,” Batomunkuev explained. He openly admits that Russian troops fight on behalf of the so-called “separatist rebels” in Ukraine. Batomunkuev also has no qualms about killing civilians in Ukraine. When he saw civilian vehicles and believed that the people within were Ukrainian, he murdered them in cold blood. Batomunkuev concedes that Russian troops destroyed multiple Ukrainian villages, but he has trouble remembering their names. “They all look the same,” he says.

In the city of Makiivka, Russian troops were warned that around 70% of the population was pro-Ukrainian. To Batomunkuev and other Russian soldiers, that was simply “unimportant.” He is there to bring “independence and Putin” to the militants of Donetsk. The Russian troops have no regrets, believing that they’re in Ukraine “fighting for a just cause.” Even his Buddhist beliefs are somehow not in conflict with Batomunkuev’s covert slaughter in a neighboring country. He is excited to have met recently-sanctioned Iosif Kobzon, talks of traveling the world and plans to go fishing, once he recovers from severe burns. Batomunkuev has no issues with Putin and his lies about Russia’s covert invasion of Ukraine. To the contrary, he beams with pride. Putin is a “very interesting person” and is “very cunning,” Batomunkuev gushes. “To the whole world he says: “Our troops aren’t there,” but to us he says, “Go, go, go!” After discussing his understanding of geopolitics and praising Putin for forcing the world to contend with Russia, Batomunkuev adds: “I am no fool… In this war we’re fighting for our own rights.”

Source: http://www.examiner.com/article/russian-soldier-fighting-ukraine-is-proud-of-putin-for-deceiving-the-world

By Nadiya Savchenko, via Mark Feygin (lawyer)
03.05.2015
Translated by Maria Stanislav and edited by Voices of Ukraine

After meeting with Nadiya Savchenko in the infamous Matrosskaya Tishina detention facility, where she is being kept, Mark Feygin, her lawyer, confirmed that Nadiya agreed to accept chicken broth in order to sustain her life.

Nadiya has been on hunger strike for 83 days. During the last two weeks, she also refused glucose injections, due to the inflammation her veins developed because of improperly placed catheters. Starting 03.05.2015, she agreed to eat chicken broth “for a while.”

In the letter Nadiya gave to Feygin, she elaborates on her decision to “change the tactic” of her fight:

“To people, to Ukrainians!

I’m a fan of a Soviet film called Emergency Situation [1958; based on real events surrounding a Taiwan takeover of the Soviet tanker Tuapse in 1957].

In the film, the Chinese capture a Soviet tanker, are holding its crew prisoner, and forcing them to sign a statement to confirm that they are betraying their homeland and cross over to work for China.

There was a Chinese psychologist who would seek out the weak points of every crew member, and put pressure on them.

One young sailor was very fond of good food. He was denied food for two weeks, and then had a banquet laid out in front of him and was told, “Sign [the statement], and you can eat.” In response, he said he was too weak to hold a pen, so he would sign everything, as long as they let him eat.

So they let him eat. He had his fill, and then said, “Well, now I’m stuffed! You can starve me for another month now! And I won’t sign jack!” ;)

Now that’s what I call strategy!

I’m learning to change my tactic…

Yes, I’m feeling a bit lousy, physically, but not enough to just go off and die. ;)

So, I will drink broth, for a while, so that “if I live – I can fly!”

If I die – I’ll die healthy! ;)

And if I fight – I will have the strength!

I will fight!!! Together with you!

And, as you demand of me, and to thank you for your support, I will stay alive – for you!!!

To be able to thank you more!

We will live!!!

05.03.2015
Nadiya Savchenko”