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Assad-Oriented Shia Militia May Have U.S. M-1 Abrams Tank
Perhaps the most fundamental flaw in the flailing U.S. anti-ISIS strategy is the belief that any group willing to fight ISIS must support at least some U.S. goals, and that any group not ISIS is better in the long run than ISIS.
Such a viewpoint ignores the near-infinite complexities of Middle East alliances and politics, ignores the well-known reality that any group that does, in part, support the U.S. also needs to simultaneously prepare for when the U.S. one day suddenly picks up and leaves, and allows very dangerous weapons to exfiltrate out of the semi-right hands into the really wrong hands.The video below shows the Kata’ib Sayyid al Shuda (KSS), which is also known as the Battalion of the Sayyid’s Martyrs, cruising around in an American-made M1 Abrams tank (at around the 16-second mark of the video). The video surfaced on SOFREP, a very pro-U.S. military website that states it is run by Special Ops veterans.
About those KSS guys with our tank.Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS) are an Iraqi Shia militia formed in 2013 to protect “Shia shrines across the globe” among other fun things. It militarily supports the Assad Government in Syria, and has close ties to the Badr Organization. The Badr’s are some nasty people who excelled at killing Americans, with Iranian help, during the 2003-2010 Iraq War 2.0.
The U.S. has since 2010 been supplying the government of Iraq with M-1 tanks. The Iraqi government is denying their involvement with KSS, and claims “not to know” how they obtained the U.S.-made tank. Tanks, of course, are just darned hard things to keep track of.
According to the U.S. Defense Department, “We have received assurances from the Government of Iraq and the Iraqi Security Forces that they will use U.S. equipment in accordance with U.S. law and our bilateral agreements. If we receive reports that U.S.-origin equipment is being misused or provided to unauthorized users, we engage the Iraqi government in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy to address any confirmed issues — up to the highest levels, if necessary.”
The best news of all (it is not the best news) is that if Iranian-connected militia loyal to Assad have M-1 tanks, that means the Iranians, the Syrians and the Russians, at a minimum, have access to any M-1 technology they might wish to inspect or reverse engineer, or sell on the global black market.
This war just keeps getting better (it is not getting better.)
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rich bauer said...
1http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/01/28/pentagon-tells-congress-to-stop-buying-equipment-it-doesnt-need.html
“For three years, the Army in numerous Congressional hearings has pushed a plan that essentially would have suspended tank building and upgrades in the U.S. for the first time since World War II. The Army suggested that production lines could be kept open through foreign sales.
The Army and the Marine Corps currently have about 9,000 Abrams tanks in their inventories. The tank debate between the Army and Congress goes back to 2012 when Odierno testified that the Army doesn’t need more tanks.
Congress voted for another $183 million for tanks.
04/6/16 8:34 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
2Follow the money! as they say. Paraguay may not know what to do with Abram tanks but just about everyone in the Middle East has a hard on to own one or a few.
04/6/16 10:12 AM | Comment Link
rich bauer said...
3I would call the idiots in the Pentagone who allowed this to happen ASSOL-es, but that title goes to the new Antonin Scalia School of Law.
ASSOL – Koch paid for it.
04/6/16 11:13 AM | Comment Link
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04/6/16 12:24 PM | Comment Link
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04/7/16 9:42 AM | Comment Link
jhoover said...
6And you got this in Dutchland? any action taken against this Imam? Why? what you waiting for?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9nzSEGbQBg
04/8/16 4:13 AM | Comment Link
jhoover said...
7And you got your mane telling: Iraq Isn’t Lost to Iran
http://www.wsj.com/articles/iraq-isnt-lost-to-iran-1458858395
04/8/16 4:16 AM | Comment Link
jhoover said...
8Now, as Khedery told Anderson, “Iraq is more polarized than ever and Baghdad is falling under an Iranian orbit, which is furthering polarization of the society, which is strengthening ISIS and radical militant Shiite groups like the Iraqi militias.”
He pointed out that “the Iraqi government is fully penetrated by these Iranian-sponsored groups, and many of them are now in charge of the security services, they’re on the front lines with these militias, they’re receiving American weapons, they’re receiving American tanks, they have American air support, they have American diplomatic cover. So in this case we are backing the Iranian-commanded Shia militias to defeat ISIS. But the Iraqi security forces and the Iranian-backed militias are guilty of the same atrocities and war crimes that ISIS is known for. They are beheading individuals, they are torturing, and evidence of this emerges every day. And yet they are receiving billions of dollars of advanced military equipment from the United States.”
Longest-Serving U.S. Diplomat In Iraq: Obama Gave Us ISIS
By THOMAS MCARDLE2/03/2016
THOMAS MCARDLE | tom.mcardle@investors.com | @IBD_TMcArdle
04/8/16 4:20 AM | Comment Link
jhoover said...
9The uses and abuses of history
04/8/16 3:01 PM | Comment Link
Richard Einstein said...
10If Israel has any US military technology, you can guarantee they are selling it to the Chinese or Russians.
Israel is America’s most dangerous enemy.
04/24/16 12:17 PM | Comment Link