ISIS and Saudi Arabia: "They are One and the Same"

The truth of Saudi support for jihadist terror is front and center in the British parliamentary election campaign. George Monbiot had a superb piece in The Guardian yesterday:

[May] is even more sycophantic towards this revolting man [Trump] than Tony Blair was to George W Bush. She won’t confront Saudi Arabia over terrorism or Yemen or anything else. Far from it: both as home secretary and as prime minister she appears to have suppressed a report into the foreign funding of jihadi groups in the UK that is said to focus on the role of the Saudi kingdom. When there is a conflict between our security and selling weapons to a despotic regime, brutality wins.

The hyperlink is to another Guardian story, "Theresa May urged not to suppress report into funding of jihadi groups," which says that

Jeremy Corbyn and Tim Farron have challenged Theresa May over a long-delayed inquiry into foreign funding and support of jihadi groups in the UK, after the Home Office suggested the investigation may not be published.

The inquiry into revenue streams for extremist groups was commissioned by David Cameron when he was prime minister and is thought to focus on Saudi Arabia.

[snip]

The Conservatives were criticised last year for selling billions of pounds of arms to the Saudis. 

Cameron ordered the investigation as part of a deal with the Lib Dems in exchange for the party supporting the extension of British airstrikes against Islamic State into Syria in December 2015.

The Home Office’s extremism analysis unit was directed by Downing Street in January 2016 to investigate overseas funding of extremist groups in the UK, with findings to be shown to the then home secretary May and Cameron.

Eighteen months on, the Home Office said the report, originally due to be published in spring 2016, had not yet been completed and publication was not guaranteed, given the sensitive nature of the content.

A decision about the future of the investigation would be taken “after the election by the next government”, a Home Office spokesman said. 

Another reason to vote Labour tomorrow.

The feeling inside Iran is that ISIS terror definitely is Saudi directed. This from Thomas Erdbrink's story, "Islamic State Claims Deadly Iran Attacks on Parliament and Khomeini Tomb":

At least 12 people were killed and 42 others wounded Wednesday morning in a pair of devastating attacks on two of Iran’s most potent symbols: the national Parliament and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The Islamic State immediately claimed responsibility; if that is found to be true, the attacks would be the terrorist group’s first major assault within Iran’s borders. Suspicions in Tehran were also directed at Saudi Arabia, Iran’s nemesis in the region, which has been newly emboldened by a supportive visit from President Trump last month.

In the view of many in Iran, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, is inextricably linked to Saudi Arabia. Hamidreza Taraghi, a hard-line analyst with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said, “ISIS ideologically, financially and logistically is fully supported and sponsored by Saudi Arabia.”

“They are one and the same,” he added.

At this point I think this is a pretty safe bet, and no doubt the reason the Tories are keeping their report hidden.

Given this then we have to accept what follows: Western governments in their fulsome support of the Saudis are complicit, even if only tacitly, in attacks on their own citizens.

The political equation is that terrorizing one's own population keeps the status quo -- the deep national security state, the rancid mainstream political parties, the inequality -- safe and secure.

Trump, thoroughly and unimaginatively corrupt, has "poured gasoline on the fire." As The Independent reported yesterday, "Trump's Washington DC hotel received $270,000 from Saudi Arabia":

Donald Trump’s flagship hotel in the nation’s capital has received more than $270,000 in payments from a lobbying firm tried to Saudi Arabia, as the country seeks to overturn a US anti-terrorism law.

The anti-sharia protesters this Saturday should park themselves on Pennsylvania Avenue.