THE BATTLE AGAINST ISIS FANATICS
British hostage John Cantlie forced to criticise Obama's 'disappointingly predictable' strategy on ISIS and warns Western weapons will end up in jihadists' hands in shocking video
- Obama has had accurate intelligence about ISIS 'since BEFORE the 2012 election'
- ISIS fighters now 'at the gates of Baghdad': Islamic militants fighting 'just one mile from Iraqi capital' despite days airstrikes
A new video has been posted online by ISIS showing British
hostage John Cantlie (left and top right) criticising the U.S. President
Barack Obama's military strategy for combating the terrorist group. In
the video, shot in the style of a news report, Cantlie says organising
the Iraqi army to fight off the Islamic State will take months, while
arming Syrian rebels (bottom right) is 'largely pointless', as many of
the weapons are sold on the black market and end up being bought by
Islamic State soldiers.
British hostage John Cantlie forced to criticise Obama's 'disappointingly predictable' strategy on ISIS and warns Western weapons will end up in jihadists' hands in shocking video
- British ISIS hostage John Cantlie has appeared in new video shot by group
- Propaganda footage shows him criticising Obama's military strategy
- Criticises Iraqi army and says Free Syrian Army are corrupt and ineffective
British
ISIS hostage John Cantlie has appeared in a new propaganda video on
behalf of the group, criticising President Barack Obama's
'disappointingly predictable' action against the militants.
Wearing
an orange Guantanamo-style jumpsuit and speaking directly to the
camera, Cantlie attacks the West's plans to use Iraqi troops and Syrian
rebels to fight ISIS.
In
forced speech, spoken as if reading from a script, Cantlie says
organising the Iraqi army will take months, and describes the Free
Syrian Army as 'undisciplined, corrupt and largely ineffective.'
Scroll down to watch John Cantlie's first ISIS video
Propaganda: A new video from ISIS has
been posted online showing British hostage John Cantlie criticising
Obama's military strategy for combating the terror group
Cantlie
also says that arming the Syrian rebels with Western weapons is
'largely useless', because many are sold on the black market and end up
in the hands of ISIS soldiers.
Speaking
about U.S.-led airstrikes, Cantlie goes on to say: 'Air power is good
at taking out specific targets but it is not much use a taking and
holding ground.
'For
that you need effective and disciplined troops and it is hard to see how
this hotch-potch army with a long history of under performing is going
to be any form of credible infantry. '
At
the start of the footage, Cantlie, who was captured in 2012, describes
himself as a long-term prisoner of the Islamic State and says he has
been 'abandoned' by the British Government.
Speech: In the footage Cantlie called
Obama's rhetoric 'disappointingly predictable', and criticised the Free
Syrian Army as being 'undisciplined, corrupt and largely ineffective'
Territory: This map, which appears in
the new John Cantlie video, shows where ISIS is operational. The dark
pink streaks - largely centered around main roads in northern Syria and
Iraq - show where ISIS maintains a presence, while the red dots show
towns or cities currently under the group's control
It is the third time Cantlie - a photojournalist from Haslemere, Surrey - has appeared in an ISIS video.
At the start of last week, another video was posted online in which Cantlie said Obama was being sucked into 'Gulf War Three'.
In
the latest video, Cantlie again criticises Obama's decision to go to
war - saying a new conflict will not make the West a safer place.
'If this reality was not changed by two arrogant wars before, why would a third change it now?' he says.
In
the new film, Cantlie denies that ISIS has attacked 'innocents', saying
the group did not kill Christian and Yazidi women and children at Mosul
and Sinjar, calling it an 'undeniable fact'.
He
goes on to say that ISIS militants do not kill Muslims either, as they
regard Shias as 'worse than Americans... apostates claiming to be
Muslims, while worshiping the dead.'
Finally,
he describes Obama's speech on the anniversary of 9/11 as 'prideful
chest banging' and 'disappointingly predictable', painting Americans as
the 'good guys' whose job it is to save the world 'single-handedly'.
Cantlie
then signs off, saying ISIS looks forward to 'meeting Obama's
under-construction army' before adding 'join me again, for the next
programme.'
In
the first video, the photojournalist explained that he will be
narrating a series of videos and seeking to explain ISIS's philosophy as
well as explaining why fighting against the group will fail.
Cantlie
appears sitting in a dark room behind a wooden desk similar to that
seen in the first and second videos, while his beard and hair appear
roughly the same length.
That
means there was not much of a time gap between the two videos being
shot, and raises the possibility that both could have been filmed on the
same day.
The film also makes no reference to British or U.S. action in the Gulf over recent days.
As
Cantlie references Obama's 9/11 speech, and a New York Times article
written about it the following day, the video must have been filmed on
September 12 at the earliest.
While
analysts were able to gather information about Jihadi John from the
backdrop of the execution videos - tracing his position to Raqqa, Syria
- there is no such information in Cantlie's film, as it is filmed
against a black curtain in a basic studio.
However,
the curious use of British English phrases such as 'ninnying about' and
'hotch-potch' may suggest that Cantlie had a role in writing or
redrafting his speech - or it was at least in part written by a militant
from the UK.
Last night Foreign Office officials said they were aware of the video and were analysing the content.
Before: John Cantlie is pictured in
London shortly before he travelled to Syria, where he was captured in
November 2012 along with David Haines, who was beheaded by ISIS earlier
this month
Attack: John
Cantlie also attacked Obama's address to the nation earlier this month,
in which he said that ISIS was 'not Islamic', saying the President had
resorted to 'prideful chest-banging'
The
new footage emerged on the same day as the American military were
criticised for killing two Syrian civilians when an airstrike hit a
grain silo.
The
British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights believes aircraft may
have mistaken the mills and grain storage areas in the northern Syrian
town of Manbij for an Islamic State base.
The
US-led coalition has been targeting towns and villages in northern and
eastern Syria controlled by the Islamic State group since last week.
Elsewhere
it was reported that up to 1,000 Iraqi soldiers were killing fighting
ISIS militants just one mile outside of Baghdad as the group push to
take the country's capital.
ISIS
have held a number of towns and villages close to the Iraqi capital
since earlier in the year, when government troops melted away following a
lightning advance in the west of the country - enabling the terrorist
group to seize further swaths of territory for their so-called
caliphate.
Condemned: John Cantlie called arming
the Free Syrian Army (pictured) a 'largely pointless' move, claiming
that many of the weapons were sold on to the black market and then
bought by Islamic State
'IT WAS ALL DISAPPOINTINGLY PREDICABLE': CANTLIE STATEMENT IN FULL
Hello, I am John Cantlie, the British citizen abandoned by my government and a long-term prisoner of the Islamic State.
President
Obama's address on the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks finally
stopped all of the ninnying around and and laid down his four-stage
strategy for confronting the Islamic State.
There
were no big surprises. U.S. aircraft will provide the air power while a
mix of Iraqi army and Iraqi national guard - not yet formed - peshmerga
fighters and Iranians - not mentioned - will do the ground operations.
The
borders between Iraq and Syria will be opened and Syrian rebels will be
armed and all of this with only 475 U.S. advisory personnel doing the
job, and not a single U.S. combat solider with his boot on the ground.
'We
will be lead a broad coalition to roll back the Islamic State', said
Obama. 'We are hitting ground targets while Iraqi forces go on the
offense. I will not hesitate to take action against the Islamic State in
Syria', he said.
Now, when exactly Gulf War Three will start and how long it will take is not covered.
U.S.
advisors working with the Iraqi army have described their performance
as 'consistently grim' while arming and training a effective national
guard of supposed Sunni fighters in Western Iraq will take months to
achieve.
The video was presented in similar style to a news report, and have been compared to a 'lecture series'
The
Free Syrian Army have proved to be an undisciplined, corrupt and
largely ineffective fighting force. As recently as September 11 a
serving U.S. intelligence official said 'our intelligence assessment has
no serious consideration to working with the FSA'.
Giving
the FSA $500million now is a completely pointless exercise, never mind
that fact that the FSA sells the weapons the West gives them to arms
dealers and smugglers and much of it then ends up with the Islamic
State.
Air
power is good at taking out specific targets but it is not much use at
taking and holding ground. For that you need effective and disciplined
troops and it is hard to see how this hotch-potch army with a long
history of under-performing is going to be any form of credible
infantry.
After
that speech Peter Baker of the New York Times observed that Obama is
'plunging the United States into one of the bloodiest, most vicious
conflicts now in existence. He will hand his successor a volatile and
incomplete war, much as his predecessor left one for him.'
Mr
Baker goes on to comment that while previous presidents enjoyed a surge
of public support when they took the nation to war, the public is not
rallying behind Obama this time around.
Now
polls indicate that while the American public support military action
against Islamic State, they do not think that Obama is the man for the
job.
Which
goes a long way in explaining the simplistic language he used in his
last speech. Obama was a pains to point out that 'groups of killers have
the capacity to do great harm, that was the case before 9/11 and
remains so today.'
If this reality was not changed by two arrogant wars before, why would a third change it now?
John Cantlie also quoted U.S. advisors
working with the Iraqi army, saying the performance of Iraq's troops
had been 'consistently grim'
Obama
described the Islamic State as 'not Islamic. No religion condones the
killing of innocents, and the vast majority of their victims have been
Muslims. Islamic State has no vision other than the slaughter of all who
stand in their way.'
Now
if by innocents he means women and children, then the Islamic State did
not kill the Christian and Yazidi women and children of Mosul and
Sinjar. This is an undeniable fact. And they do not regard the Shias as
Muslims at all.
In
fact, according to them, the Shias are considered worse than Americans
as they are apostates claiming to be Muslims while worshipping the dead.
And the Islamic State does have a vision. They have created an autonomous and functioning caliphate.
But
expanding on the complex social and political issues of the region
isn't going to work when it's war you want. And so the speech was full
of hyperbole about how America was saving innocent men, women and
children.
'This
is American leadership at its best,' said Obama. 'We stand with people
who fight for their own freedom,' he said, before the speech descended
into prideful chest-beating about how the U.S.A. always saves the world
single-handedly.
It
was all disappointingly predictable. America is good, the Islamic State
is bad and they will be defeated using aircraft and a motley collection
of fighters on the ground.
For their part the Islamic State say they welcome meeting Obama's under-construction army.
Join me again, for the next programme.
copy http://www.dailymail.co.uk
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário