I want to start with a well known saying – beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
Now if Neo-Nazis wasn’t enough for you – we have ISIS joining the fray in the Ukraine.
Sources confirm that most of the foreign extremists that left Syria for Ukraine are Hayat Tahrir al-Sham veteran fighters.
ISIS is a rather loosely knit group, as was its predecessor Al-Qaeda. Included in this group are those that fought in the Caucasus and hate Russia. Since the fall of the Caliphate, fighters from Idlib province in Syria have made their way to the Ukraine.
Western press outlets are covering the denouncement of Russia by ISIS in yet another crazy twist. ISIS have called the war in Ukraine “divine punishment” and views it as “direct bloody war between the Orthodox crusaders”. However, the conclusion that ISIS are sitting back and calling a plague on both your houses is incorrect. No, it’s misleading because they have been recruiting.
Pepe Escobar writing for The Unz Review states;
Arguably the apex of Western hysteria is the onset of a 2022 Neo-Nazi Jihad: a 20,000-strong mercenary army being assembled in Poland under CIA supervision. The bulk comes from private military companies such as Blackwater/Academi and DynCorp. Their cover: “return of Ukrainians from the French Foreign Legion.” This Afghan remix comes straight from the only playbook the CIA knows.
Marcin Mamon in the Intercept, has covered the growth of ISIS in this region since 2015. Writing then Mamon states that the situation on the ground (Donbass), is far more complex then perceived.
Calls for a volunteer army have been touted far and wide. However, it should be recognised that there have been volunteer battalions all along in this conflict. Wikipedia reports 37 such private battalions were in operation in 2014/5. Although by 2019 volunteers had been replaced by mercenaries uptil now. Ostensibly state sanctioned they are supported by oligarchs in the main. They are also beyond the full control of the state. Indeed, they don’t really have to answer to them at all if they chose not to.
This includes the St Mary’s Battalion as formed by Korchynsky who has mixed Christian Orthodoxy with Islamic jihadism to promote a holy war in Ukraine. Throw ISIS into the mix and you have a real cocktail.
An article in the Independent from November 2019 talks about the capture of Al Bara Shishani. Shishani is one of the top ISIS leaders that emerged from Georgia – specifically the Pankisi Gorge. The place is close to Chechnya and 40 miles from the Russian border. Many of his followers went with him to Latakia in Syria to fight the Syrian government.
He was reported dead in an airstrike – only to appear suddenly in court in Kiev in 2019. Using fake passports (that Ukraine is famous for) passage is taken via Turkey to Ukraine.
Fake passports and slack legal and law enforcement has benefited not only crime but terrorists. Ukraine has become a stopping off point – a place where a fighter for $15,000 gets a new passport and Ukrainian identity. Many then fill the gaps in Polish workplaces left by migration further West. They can acquire unregistered weapons (to fight the separatists) – only to bribe customs officials to export the arms.
The Independent quotes Vera Minorova, a jihad expert and visiting fellow at Harvard University, who estimates hundreds of former fighters have decamped to Ukraine. She says;
This isn’t a random selection. The slower guys stop as soon as they get to Turkey. After all, it is a multiple-step operation to get to Ukraine. The ones who get there are the dangerous ones.
However she also says;
I know many who are living normal lives, like driving Ubers. They aren’t going to s**t in their own home. But if they are cornered, if they become terrified that they will be arrested, then we have a big problem on our hands.
Will all those who are now working at ordinary lives be called to arms? I expect so. This article from Global Research discusses how recruitment is going on to form a foreign legion, with attractive remuneration, throughout North Africa and West Asia. There are now reports that ISIS are recruiting in Aden to send to Ukraine. Russian foreign intelligence (SVR) reports that the US is relocating fighters. According to the SVR, at the end of 2021, the US released several dozen ISIS cutthroats from prison, where they were taken to the US controlled Al-Tanf base and gave them further terrorist training with a focus on the Donbass.
As of 8 March 2022 450 extremists from Idlib have arrived in Ukraine. Assurances have even been given that their families can follow later. This group includes British, Belgian, Chinese (muslims), French, Moroccan, Tunisian and Chechen citizens.
Naturally ISIS will be followed by the White Helmets. The fraudulent human rights group who have been exposed as creators of false flag events and are just as dangerous to the peace process as veteran jihadists. Vanessa Beeley's latest piece in Off-Guardian does a great job delving into the record of the White Helmets.
AbdulAziz Maghrabi seated centre, with Ahrar Al Sham & Abu Amara fighters, was also head of the White Helmets in Eastern Aleppo.(Photo: Maghrabi’s Facebook page)
How such people as ‘Wali’ the French-Canadian sniper who fought ISIS, will now find themselves on the same side as ISIS, but hey that’s mercenaries for you.
