ISIS / ISIL: Al Qaeda Version 2.0?

Even though it is far more bloody than its alleged Al Qaeda roots but is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS nothing more than an Al Qaeda version 2.0?

By: Ringo Bones

The terror group’s horrific viral video of their beheading of the American journalist James Foley not only disqualifies them from ever being endorsed by any Hollywood celebrity – i.e. like what Joan Baez and Jane Fonda did supporting the cause of Ho Chi Minh and the then North Vietnam during the early 1970s – but also make the rest of the world wonder if they are nothing more than just a bloodier version of Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. Even though the Pentagon’s defense analysts where quite agog on how they are a quantum leap better compared to Al Qaeda in military tactical proficiency terms, it is still quite hard to avoid comparing the Islamist terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS or – as of late – just Islamic State or if you prefer: " Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIL to its Al Qaeda offshoot. One things for sure though - both Al Qaeda and ISIL share a deep seated animosity against Middle-Eastern religious minorities like the Kurds and the Yazidi.  

Even though they are still in an on-going process of establishing an Islamist Caliphate that the industrialized West can recon with since Osama Bin Laden was still alive back in 1998, like Al Qaeda, ISIS / ISIL / Islamic State’s idea of establishing an Islamist Caliphate is based on a history of Islam that never was – never mind on the future that they want that never can be. But that seems like just a minor inconvenience that never seems to stop them from achieving their goals.

ISIS founder Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi might be gloating on his recent alleged successes this very moment given that halting ISIS in a military operation could cost the US government the amount of time and money no current or incoming administration is wily-nilly enough to commit itself. Even though the United States is certain to win decades down the road, the fanatical folks at ISIS certainly won’t make it as easy as the D.C. jingoists suggests.      

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Shootdown Incident: Not So Unprecedented Civil Aviation Incident?

Even though it does not happen with alarming regularity, will the recent Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 shootdown incident change yet again the current civil aviation safety measures in currently place? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Fortunately for us civilians who frequently fly the increasingly not-so-friendly skies since the 9/11 Islamist terror attacks, shootdown incidents are still a rarity and don’t occur with alarming regularity as portrayed in most Hollywood action movies. Civil aviation shootdown incidents have happened before and even served as the catalyst of the tragic April 1994 Rwandan Genocide, it seems that such incidents only seem to provide the general perception that the flying civilian public had served as “unwitting pawns” in geopolitical power struggles since the Cold War. 

In putting a human face to this tragic incident, the shootdown of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Boeing 777 back in Friday July 18, 2014 while flying its Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur route over the airspace of Eastern Ukraine largely under control by pro-Russia separatist rebels since February 2014 involved the deaths of 280 passengers and 15 crewmembers. Most of the passengers – 189 of them – are Dutch nationals on their way to vacation one of which is a leading and pioneering HIV / AIDS medical researcher Dr. Joep Lange together with 100 other leading HIV / AIDS researchers. At present, other passengers’ nationalities who perished in the tragic shootdown are 28 Australian nationals, 23 Malaysians, 6 Britons, 4 Germans, 3 Filipinos and 3 infants. 

The latest initial investigations so far have revealed that the most likely anti-aircraft weapons system used to shoot down the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Boeing 777 is probably the Soviet era BUK surface-to-air missile which has become de rigueur air defense weapons system of choice by former Warsaw-Pac member countries. The BUK consists of four 16-foot long 1,500-lb missiles with a 150-ib warhead and launch system mounted atop a full track armored vehicle and is capable of speeds up to 2,684 mph which can easily make short shrift of a typical civilian passenger plane which only can fly around 600 mph and an incoming BUK missile can only be “seen” by a pilot in a cockpit equipped with advanced sensors oft the preserve of advanced fighter jets. 

The BUK missile is often used to shoot down planes flying at altitudes high enough to avoid man-portable anti-aircraft weapons systems like the famed Stinger. As an anti-aircraft weapons system developed near the end of the Cold War, the BUK is “user-friendly” enough to be effectively used by anyone with the brainpower to be able to tie one’s shoes while chewing gum at the same time but takes a bit longer training time to be able to accurately differentiate civilian from military targets. A modified BUK missile launcher system was modified with a high-speed Schottky Rectifier equipped Mainland Chinese Nanjing Radar system that brought down a US Air Force F-117 Nighthawk stealth plane during the 1999 operation to capture Balkan strongman Slobodan Milosevic. 

Though questions are being asked why Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was flying over a “hostile warzone” but the flight-path it took was a well trodden designated Europe to Asia international flight path L980 which the German airliner Lufthansa also uses but British Airways has since shied away from since the February 2014 Eastern Ukraine conflict initiated by pro-Russia separatist militias.  While a typical altitude flown by a typical civilian passenger plane at 30,000 to 40,000 feet is way above the range of most man-portable rocket launchers that are in the hands of most terrorist militia groups. Given that the pro-Russia separatist militias manage to hold a sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons system like the BUK and the intelligence so far gathered by secret American operatives imbedded in Eastern Ukraine had shown that the militants actually made the mistake of shooting down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 as the recently deleted text messages between a pro-Russian militant named “Greek” and “Major” revealed a “Tweet” of the screw-up. And diversions due to the tragic shootdown incident could make Europe to Asia flights take longer and cost more due to increased fuel usage.  

And investigation of the crash site has since became a contentious issue since the crash site has not been quarantined and been trampled around by both the pro-Russian militants and the nearby townsfolk. OSCE monitors trying to make an initial investigation of the crash site were even given warning shots by local pro-Russian militants after just spending 75 minutes on the crash site. In short, international investigators have so far been denied free unfettered access of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17.  

While Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed the Ukrainian government for “responsibility” of the crash, such rhetoric only reminds the world of the legal case of a burglar suing the homeowner for medical compensation after the burglar broke his leg trying to scale the homeowner’s fence. And further rhetoric of the Russian strongman only seems like him digging a hole for him and the pro-Russian militants as war criminals straight into the International Court of Justice. 

Since the Cold War began, high profile shootdown cases of civilian airliners by the former Soviet Union and her allies had almost started an all-out thermonuclear exchange between the United States and the then Soviet Union. Back in July 23, 1954, a Cathay Pacific Douglas DC4  - known as Cathay Pacific Flight VR-HEU - was brought down by anti-aircraft fire by the Mainland Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force off the coast of Hainan Island, People’s Republic of China, killing 13 passengers and 6 crew shot with anti-aircraft incendiary rounds. Fortunately, 9 people survived as the plane made an emergency landing.

And before the shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 back in September 1, 1983 that nearly triggered a thermonuclear World War III, the Korean Air Lines Flight 902 shootdown incident by a Soviet Sukhoi Su-15 fighter plane on April 20, 1978 near Murmansk, Russia after it accidentally violated the country’s airspace and failed to respond to Soviet interceptors only gives the impression to the rest of the world that Russians in charge of monitoring the security of their airspace are – then and now – trigger happy yahoos. Two passengers were killed after the Sukhoi Su-15 fighter plane strafed the Korean Air Lines Flight 902 plane with its 25-mm guns. Fortunately, 107 passengers survived after the plane made an emergency landing on a frozen lake. 

On the shootdown of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, authorities of the then Soviet Union only admitted to “accidentally” shooting down the plane 20 days after the tragic incident. And a historical footnote of the tragedy now probably largely forgotten, the black box of the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 was “hidden” by Soviet authorities and was only returned back in 1993 when the West friendly Boris Yeltsin became president of post-Soviet Russia.  

July: A Politically Auspicious Month For Ronald Reagan?

Basing from his “contentious” 8-year presidency, can one safely conclude that July is a “musically auspicious” month for the former US President Ronald Reagan?

By: Ringo Bones 

Whether you love him or hate him, it seems like the month of July – at least from my own perspective – was a really auspicious month during the 8-year presidency of former US President Ronald Reagan.  I mean it is the very month that any big event that could either make or break him seems to “go viral” during the pre user-friendly online social network days of the 1980s. 

Given the largely political nature of punk rock music, it might be more than a coincidence that Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedy’s chose July 3, 1983 to launch the Rock Against Reagan tour. By the way, the punk rock extravaganza Rock Against Reagan tour also includes The Dicks, Crucifucks, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (D.R.I.) and MDC which probably where MDC played their iconic Elvis in the Sudetenland (or was it Elvis in the Rhineland?). And didn't Suicidal Tendencies also wrote a song about killing Ronald Reagan during the early 1980s? Though this was a few years after John Hinckley,Jr.'s failed assassination attempt at the former US President Ronald Reagan. 

And who can forget that big, blue 1,960-page Ronald Reagan Pornography Report that was launched way back in July 1986 that many criticized as being a colossal waste of American Taxpayers’ money because it proved that pornography is not that harmful to the average person. Speaking of former US President Ronald Reagan’s rather “low opinion” on music making during the first half of his presidency, remember when he used the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act / OBRA and its various incarnations to drastically cut the funding of public high school music programs that lead to the over-hyping of the “Mozart Effect” during the Clinton years?

Should There Be A Ronald Reagan Pornography App?

Given that 1980s throwback themes had recently become bestsellers in the burgeoning app industry, would a “Ronald Reagan Pornography App” be the next must have retro app? 

By: Ringo Bones 

With the release of the MacGyver Deadly Descent App back in the second half of May 2014 that had taken the app world by storm – for a 1980s themed retro app that is and based on a hit 1980s TV series nonetheless – many could be asking right now if “there was a pornography detection app based on that notorious then US President Ronald Reagan and then US Attorney General Edwin Meese III’s pornography commission report?” Imagine – for possible comic effect – the app’s pornography detection criterion be based on that Ronald Reagan’s “big blue 1,960-page book on pornography that was published back in July 1986 that almost nobody reads anymore and was labeled a big waste of American taxpayers’ money back then”. Would such a 1980s themed retro app prove to be a “best-seller”? 

Given that July has become the more or less ad hoc “Ronald Reagan Pornography Month” – the release of a “Ronald Reagan Pornography” themed app this July 2014 seems apt – if you’ll excuse the pun – to try out what the hubbub is about on that notorious of American taxpayers’ money Ronald Reagan Pornography Commission Final Report was back in July 1986. Would it also necessitate the addition of a “hypocrisy chip” or “hypocrisy module” on your Android capable smartphone given how the US Republican Party tackles such problems since the days when Ronnie was still president? Or would it be like – as legend has it – act like former US First Lady Nancy Reagan when she first saw an exhibition of the paintings of Old Masters in a museum and exclaimed “pornography”? Maybe somebody is already making and/or designing a US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart Pornography App right now. 

Did Pornography Started During The Stone Age?

Archeologically dug Paleolithic era figures over the years might have been primarily used for fertility rites – but does their “voluptuously erotic” nature suggest “pornography”?

By: Ringo Bones

This rather “controversial” subject may not have been placed under scrutiny by the Ronald Reagan Pornography Commission that war run by the then US Attorney General Edwin Meese III during the first half of the 1980s, but did the Reagan administration’s “morality watchdogs” ever scrutinized alleged pornographic items that came before Jesus Christ? Not to mention anything that came before and what passed muster as “pornography” during the Roman Empire. Or what about “porn” so old that have been uncovered by tenured archaeologists from leading ivy league institutions?

Paleolithic or Stone Age porn may conjure up images of Fred Flintstone’s hidden antediluvian porn stash but they had been considered over the years since they’ve been uncovered as one of mankind’s finest artistic achievement of all time. Examples of which are the Venus of Laussel, the Venus of Willendorf, the Venus of Vestonice and the Lady of Brassempouy. The clue that first suggests that these are sculptures are more than just intended for Paleolithic fertility rites is that all of them are small enough to be carried around even by a single individual – suggestive of a “secret porn stash” meant to be hidden under the bed of hot blooded Stone Age era men? About as portable and easy to hide as our contemporary pornographic conveyances like porno magazines, computer laptops and even tablet computers.

One Paleolithic artifact discovered by Hallam L. Movius, Jr. – Professor of Anthropology at Harvard – now called the Venus of Abri Pataud which was unearthed in the Dordogne cave region of France. Named after a cave shelter on a farm formerly owned by a family named Pataud, the Venus of Abri Pataud was made some 20,000 years ago. Given that some contemporary “prudes” still consider some erotic Old Masters exhibited in the various major metropolitan museums around the world as pornography, it is safe to assume that probably all of these modern day prudes consider Paleolithic depictions of voluptuous women as “pornography”. Sometimes I too wonder what these “morality watchdogs” would consider as “Stone Age Child Pornography”. 

Remembering the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979

Even though now it is a over 35 years ago, did a recent anti-Chinese riot in Vietnam brings into discussion that this old conflict is still largely unresolved?

By: Ringo Bones

When Mainland China’s state-owned oil company dispatched an oil rig to a contested area in the South China Sea, it inevitably fuelled a fire on the long smoldering dispute with its communist neighbor Vietnam. Unfortunately, the Beijing government didn’t foresee the need to evacuate thousands of its nationals desperate to escape from the onslaught of Vietnamese protestors back in May 17, 2014 that were protesting on the Mainland Chinese drilling for oil in an area on the South China Sea that the Hanoi government claims as Vietnamese territory that had gone violent.  Unfortunately, Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean nationals working in Vietnam also fall victim to the clashes that seem to remind everyone old enough to remember why The People’s Republic of China and the newly unified Vietnam went to war back in 1979.

Back in January 1979, The People’s Republic of China established diplomatic relations with the United States – a move seen by the international community at the time as a willingness on the part of the Beijing government to engage peacefully with the capitalist West. But a lot of unresolved conflicts between the then Soviet Union and the newly unified Vietnam will trigger a border conflict between Mainland China and Vietnam by the middle of February 1979.

Around that time, antagonism between The People’s Republic of China and the then Soviet Union grew even more heated with Beijing calling for resistance to “Soviet Expansionism” on all fronts. By February 17, 1979, Mainland China’s full scale border conflict with Vietnam amounted to a “proxy war” with the then Soviet Union.

During that period, relations between The People’s Republic of China and Vietnam had been deteriorating since 1978 when the Hanoi government’s harsh treatment of its ethnic Han Chinese minority was followed by Hanoi’s invasion of Cambodia – which at that time – was a very close ally of Beijing. Increasingly frequent border incidents heightened the tension and finally convinced Beijing that Hanoi “must be taught a lesson.” On February 17, 1979, Mainland China launched a major attack along its 500-mile (805-Km) border with Vietnam. Supported by artillery and tanks, Mainland Chinese forces invaded four Vietnamese provinces.

After a pause for supplies, the Mainland Chinese on February 21, 1979 renewed their advance in the direction of Lang Son in North-West Vietnam. By March 2, 1979 the Mainland Chinese had taken Lang Son, Cao Band and Lao Cai, penetrating some 25-miles (40-Km) into Vietnamese territory. Having reached their goal, Beijing announced that its forces were withdrawing back to Mainland Chinese territory.

The withdrawal was completed by March 16, 1979 when Vietnam offered to hold talks to ensure peace along the border and ultimately to normalize relations. The first two sessions, held in Hanoi back in April 18 and April 26, 1979 – were immediately deadlocked Subsequent meetings during the year also served merely as an opportunity to exchange accusations. Back then, the chief difficulty in the negotiations was Hanoi’s refusal to consider Chinese demand that Vietnamese forces be withdrawn completely from Cambodia. Even though everyone back then was expecting Vietnam to be routed since it has just recently came out of a traumatic victory against America back in April 30, 1975, Vietnam managed to valiantly resist the Mainland Chinese invasion unlike what happened to India during the 1962 Sino-Indian War. More like this time, Vietnam’s victory is akin to more like Gene Roddenberry’s Sino-Indian War  

Sino-Vietnamese hostility – which has a history that goes back many centuries, has been stimulated in the late 1970s by Vietnamese nationalism – a newly found nationalism emboldened by its recent booting out American troops and completely taking over the then South Vietnam back in April 30, 1975 – and the Hanoi government’s increasingly close ties with the then USSR which at that time was Beijing’s chief rival in the South East Asian regional geopolitical power play.

Back then, the Beijing government supported Pol Pot in neighboring Cambodia more to contain “Soviet Expansionism” than Vietnamese influence and when Beijing learned in 1978 of Hanoi’s plot to invade Cambodia in order to end the tyrannical and genocidal rule of Pol Pot, Beijing abruptly terminated its aid program in Vietnam which totaled to 10-billion US dollars since the April 30, 1975 reunification of Vietnam.

On Vietnam’s issue on its ethnic Han Chinese population, Hanoi’s requirement that all ethnic Han Chinese living in the now unified Vietnam must become citizens of the country boosted tensions and resulted in a large number of ethnic Han Chinese – most of which are from the former South Vietnam and often ostracized for being “too cozy” with the occupying American troops during the Vietnam War – are now resorting to leave the country of Vietnam A move which the Hanoi government blocked that triggered a further worsening of diplomatic relations with Beijing By the end of 1979 – more than 250,000 displaced ethnic Han Chinese who used to live in Vietnam had fled to The People’s Republic of China. Given that Mainland China’s President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been recently negotiating a natural gas deal that could lessen the burden of EU sanctions aimed at Russia after the Kremlin annexed back Crimea only shows how the turbulent relationship of The People’s Republic of China and Russia has now come full circle since the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979.     

Did the Current Nigerian Government Made Secret Deals With Boko Haram?

Did the current Nigerian government made a secret deal with the Islamist group Boko Haram that if the government draws a hard line on Nigeria’s homosexual community, Boko Haram would leave foreign crude oil workers on Nigerian soil alone? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Given that headline grabbing incidents of foreign crude oil extraction workers on Nigerian workers being kidnapped and held for ransom by local Islamic terror groups like Boko Haram seems to have inexplicably stopped during the past couple of years might seem like god news in the eyes of the rest of the world, while the current Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan’s anti-homosexual policy that began around 2012 might seem to be a step back for the country in terms of human rights, one could wonder if the Nigerian government might be recently kowtowing to Boko Haram’s  increasing military and political might. The recent “rumored” deal currently circulating in the rest of the world’s conspiracy groups might have been if we (current Nigerian government) will draw a hard line on the country’s homosexual community, local Islamist groups like Boko Haram will leave foreign crude oil workers alone. But is there any truth to these circulating rumors? 

With a recent massacre of a boy’s school and more recently the abduction of over 200 schoolgirls and the razing of a girl’s school by Boko Haram in the Nigerian town of Chibok back in April 14, 2014, had both “conspiracy buffs” and anti-terror security analysts are now reaching the conclusion that Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan and his administration might be in over their heads for ever performing a secret deal with Boko Haram reminiscent that of Cold War era double agents hanging around Vienna, Austria facilitating cloak-and-dagger intel exchanges back in the mid 1980s. Sadly, any al-Qaeda affiliated Islamist terror groups like Boko Haram are much, much more ruthless than the Cold War era “godless” Marxist-Leninist socialist Soviet state. 

The recent abduction of over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram that they are threatening to be sold into sexual slavery into neighboring countries had since raised global concerns over president Goodluck Jonathan’s inability to tackle this problem expediently. Even the U.S. first lady Michelle Obama has lent her influence on the global online campaign - Bring back our Girls – along with girls’ education campaigner Malala Yousafzai. But is the current “complexity” of the present situation in Nigeria the “wildcard” that could derail the eventual success of the Bring back our Girls movement? 

Former U.S. Counter Terrorism Department head of the US DoD, Rudolf Atallah, who now heads the security consulting firm White Mountain Research, LLC, has recently uncovered that local politicians in the northern parts pof Nigeria who are political rivals with current Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan might be actively helping the Islamist terror group Boko Haram to make the April 15 attack on the girl’s school in Chibok in Nigeria's Borno state an unqualified tactical success. Worse still, Amnesty International researchers had recently uncovered that the local police of Chibok had received a warning pertaining to the April 14 terror attack on the Chibok girl’s school and abduction of school girls by Boko Haram 4 hours before it happened. Could the lack of a Boko Haram terror attack on the recent World Economic Forum in Abuja back in May 7 the best news so far that had recently come out of Nigeria?