by Catte

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The alleged “terror attacks” are happening thick and fast in Europe right now. France has suspended its constitution for another several months as a response. Germany is in turmoil and may well follow suit. The media narrative is already set within a clearly defined paradigm that stipulates these attacks are being perpetrated by “radical Islam.” The debate centres solely on what this means. Is it “blowback” for the West’s policy of perpetual war in the Middle East, as the more liberal/left-inclined tend to say, or is it just Evil Extreme Islamics being Evil, as the more rightist-inclined aver?There was a debate just like that on RT today. A Northern Irish white gentleman was looking severe and intolerant and claiming ISIS was basically Islam, (because – duh – they’re called “Islamic State”!), and an English non-white gentleman was looking embattled and pointing out (justifiably) that most of the ISIS terrorists identified were anything but devout Moslems and anyhow the history of colonial wars perpetrated by many of the countries currently suffering these attacks can’t simply be removed from the equation. He had a little pile of paper printed with the names of all the Moslem countries France had attacked in the last century – but neither the Irish gent nor the RT anchor seemed much interested.More attention was given to interviews with frightened French people from the small town that just saw a priest allegedly knifed to death by ISIS, all demanding “these people” be locked up asap. Some other person appeared briefly to say the “war” against these terrorists was “spiritual” (he didn’t amplify much about this terrifyingly absolutist concept, but did he need to?), and there was a segment of Hollande saying the (spiritual?) fight would be a long one (in other words, don’t expect to get your “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité back any time soon, people of France).The message was clear: be afraid, and hand over your freedoms to the nice government employee who will be along to save you soon.If this news item had been on the BBC or any of the Western media then it would be par and unremarkable. But this was RT, and therefore a bit more worthy of mention. RT, generally, questions the prevailing western narratives a little more, especially if that prevailing western narrative disadvantages Russia (which, let’s be honest, most of them do). In the past it’s even dared to openly accuse the BBC of faking the alleged “chemical attack” on the school in Syria that was the subject of a very questionable Panorama program . (RT was sanctioned by OfCom as a result of this brave piece, even though OfCom did not find that their allegations were false ).Yet currently, on this issue, RT is simply serving up a storyline that would get the stamp of approval from Langley or Downing Street. RT is, of course, a Russian state-sponsored outlet, and Russia clearly has its own reasons right now for playing along with Western attempts to promote the image of ISIS as bad guys du jour. The Russian government must also be entirely aware that “ISIS” is backed – and possibly even created – by the West, and that it functions at least in part as an agent of NATO in Syria.It must know that ISIS will be used to foment discord and terror in the Russian homeland if allowed to do so. Unlike the West, it therefore has a real reason to fear ISIS and a real motive to destroy it. So, when the ISIS brand name is attached to European terror attacks, Russia likely sees a chance to mobilise domestic and international opinion behind its own struggle, and therefore will play along. They see no advantage to them, at the moment, in digging into the hidden realities of what ISIS might be.But the result of this superficial merging of Russian and western interests is not good or wise. Russia wants to big up ISIS in order to get a consensus for destroying it, but the West wants to big up ISIS as fear porn. The US/European leaders may join with Russia in condemning the violence. They may – will – use it as a pretext to clamp down even more on civil liberties and criminalise dissent. But we all know they will not do the one thing Russia wants them to do – and that is actually combat ISIS.RT might be better serving Russian interests – as well as the greater cause of truth – if it dared to mention the possibility these attacks may have little or nothing to do with Islam at all, but are being produced by an outfit similar to the one that brought you the Bologna Massacre . It could even point out the most inadmissible thing of all, which is that if ISIS really is behind the recent spate of Euro-terror, then there’s a live probability NATO – or NATO elements – are too. And that of course would mean Gladio is alive and kicking and morphed into Gladio B , just as the “conspiracy theorists” have been saying for quite a long time This sudden surge of “terror attacks”, whatever their origins, could finally bring the reality of a police state to large portions of Europe and beyond and needs to be interrogated, analysed and questioned, beyond the admissible paradigm, beyond our comfort zones, because a great deal may be dependent on how these events are to be spun for popular consumption.The growing unanimity across the spectrum of reportage on this issue threatens us all very deeply, and if we allow ourselves to be manipulated into sterile binary discussions of blowback versus “evil meanies”, if we just help disseminate the disaster-porn and invite people to be afraid sans any context, then we might as well quit and take up gardening or some other nice restful pursuit, because we are just doing the corporate media’s job for them.It may or may not be significant to note that the terrorist outfit known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, who were active in the 1970s and allegedly heavily infiltrated/manipulated by Gladio have suddenly (allegedly) come out of retirement in their late middle-age to start doing heists in the Netherlands. If nothing else, there’s a movie in this.

Operation Gladio (document collection)

Operation Northwoods (document collection)

The idiotic media version of ISIS: are we losing our critical thinking?

‘The race to save Peter Kassig’

ISIS Lessons in Terror Marketing: how to change the world by deception