Proceeding step by step, Donald Trump is setting the table for a political system transition in the United States.
As he often impulsively says what he really thinks ( his numerous tweets are proof ), his recent visit to China convinced him that it is possible to change the american political system.
He said that it would not be a bad idea to think of a way that would allow more than two successive political terms, something that is actually forbidden by the Constitution of the United States. In order to do that, he proceeds in a similar pattern as Mussolini did and changes the American system step by step.
Not only does he attack the institutions representing the legal system, like the FBI, but he also attacks the media that do not think like he does. We could eventually see the creation of a Trump owned media that would become the official communication channel of the President.
Trump creates fictive foes by selecting several countries whose citizens are denied an entry in United States. All statistics show that crimes and attacks are in the vast majority committed by people that are already American citizens.
Donald Trump wants to become, for his supporters, the only object of their confidence and trust. He wants to be seen as the only shield that can protect them from the imaginary foes that have been created. He invents the idea of a wall that would supposedly be paid by Mexico, a ridiculous proposition that shoud have made everyone laugh from the very beginning but which nonetheless convinced the American voters. That says it all!
The vast majority of his supporters do not have the interest, or the ability, to analyze his empty rethoric and lies, his transformation of reality. Ignorance is what creates the fear of others. He counts on the cowardice of several elected Republicans who stopped asking questions about the actions of the President in order to concentrate only on a necessary reelection.
Those who consider Donald Trump lightly risk a lot. How many had even realized that, in order to prepare his political campaign, Cambridge Analytica was already at work?
Click on the link for other articles on geopolitics on my blog.
Translated from German to French, this book is titled : « L’extase totale – Le troisième Reich, les Allemands et la drogue ». The original title was : « Der totale Rausch. Drogen im Dritten Reich ». The author is a German journalist and documentarist who worked for Stern and Der Spiegel. He has also written four other books. I tried to translate the quotes to the best of my ability.
The research made by the author shows that in the years preceding the Second World War, the German population regularly used drugs to better support the defeat resulting of the First World War. Drug consumption was a standard phenomenon. It became necessary to curtail this habit.
Front cover of the book “L’extase totale” by Normand Ohler
Hitler is thus presented as a « pure role model […], an ascetic, the enemy of drugs who disregards his own needs » (p.25). But if there is somebody in Germany who is becoming a regular user of drugs and who even has access to his own pusher, namely the well-known Dr Morell, it is Hitler.
In the documents presented by the author, Hitler is also described as thePatient A : « Hitler is getting used to repetitive shots and to those mysterious substances flowing in his veins to supposedly invigorate him » (p.37).
In 1937, the Temmler factories create the first German methylamphetamine, also known as « pervitin ». There is a widespread use in the German population as well as in the army. Pervitin is the artificial booster that lasts more than twelve hours, « solves problems » and keeps the German soldier awake for several days : « Use of pervitin becomes as natural as drinking a cup of coffee » (p.44).
The German troops, who sleep every two or three days now, rush through Europe. It is the famous Blitzkrieg. The armour do not stop anymore. While the Allied soldiers must sleep on a rotating basis, the German soldiers charge without taking any breaks, energized with methamphetamine.
Poland is the first surprised. « […] provided with a huge amount of drugs, but without dosage indications, the Wehrmacht attacks the Polish neighbour who is not doped and has no idea of what to expect. » (p.63).
Thirty five million doses are ordered for the army and the Luftwaffe. « The Wehrmacht becomes the first army in the world to widely use chemical drugs […]. A new form of war has appeared » . (p.76)
Peter Steinkamp, a medical historian, states that « the Blitzkrieg was led through the use of methamphetamine, not to say that it was planned with methamphetamine in mind » (p.85).
The German officers do not obey orders anymore, exhilarated by the quick victories : « Guderian […] continues his offensive while he has formally received the order to stop » (p.86). It is the same thing for Rommel who does not obey General Hoth’s orders : « He has lost all senses of danger, [which is] a typical symptom of an excessive consumption of methamphetamine. He maintains his offensive both day and night ». (p.88). Hitler does not control the generals of the armoured divisions who now act in an autonomous mode.
Decided to regain control of his officers, Hitler takes a decision that ignores any military strategy. He orders all his troops to stop during ten days, at a moment when they have almost surrounded the Allied. The German officers impress upon Hitler to complete the military campaign but « Hitler wants to show his ground troops that it is him and nobody else who leads this war » (p.95). At Dunkirk, « more than 340,000 French, Belgian and British soldiers escaped by the sea » (p.95).
Backcover of the book ” L’extase totale ” by Normand Ohler
The author refers to numerous research documents pertaining to extensive drug consumption among soldiers and officers. This habit was present up to the highest military ranks. The German population was also keen to use drugs on an extensive basis : « It does not take long before the number of doses that find themselves in the stomach or blood of Germans exceed the million doses » (p.114)
The melting pot of drugs used on a daily basis by Hitler has an important effect on his judgment. He makes a serious strategic mistake concerning the war raging with Russia. He forbids any retreat of the German troops without his official authorization. The Wehrmacht undergoes heavy losses to the elite Russian divisions « freshly arrived from Siberia » (p.135).
Another important strategic mistake happens in December 1941 when Germany decides to declare war to the United States : « Germany is already exhausted by the fights it wages on multiple fronts, while overseas, the industrial giant is ready for the battle » (p.139).
Hitler’s stubbornness « to refuse to give up an inch of the conquered territory has a more profound reason : that the chimneys continue to work as long as possible in the East, in the extermination camps in Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobidor, Chelmno, Majdanek and Belzec. Hold all positions until all the Jews are killed. Distancing himself from the human laws, [Hitler] continues his war against the weakest» (p.140).
The author enumerates other military strategical mistakes made by Hitler. He also details the close relation that existed between Hitler and his personal doctor, Dr Morell. The reader learns about the content of Hitler’s daily drug cocktails, among which Eucodal, cocaine and morphine. Benefiting from his close personal relation with Patient A, Dr Morell also increases his personal influence and fortune.
The reader witnesses the Führer’s progressive decline and the consequences of his desperate decisions. It is quite surprising that among all Hitler biographies, his heavy consumption of drugs and their consequences are barely noted.
The end of the book deals with the harsh experiments made on prisoners in the concentration camps.
The book « L’extase totale » allows a different understanding of the Second World War and of the psychology of the German population at the time. The reader realizes the very strong impact of the chemical drugs before and during the war. Even the way the Blitzkrieg is traditionnally presented has to be reviewed.
The advanced technology combined with military strategy and extensive use of chemical drugs initially gave the advantage to the German forces. However, with time, a lack of control on pervitin and other drugs had irreversible negative consequences on a huge number of soldiers and officers. It was the cause of crucial military strategical mistakes. An exclusive identity-based nationalism was also responsible for the loss of millions of human lives.
Turkey presented the case that Fethullah Gulen, an american cleric living in the USA, is behind the 2016 failed coup against President Erdogan of Turkey and it wants M. Gulen extradited.
To explain the USA’s refusal to send Fethullah Gulen over to Turkey, Fareed Zakaria said something along the lines : « My contacts say that there is nothing solid that supports the fact that the 2016 coup against Turkey was organized by the Imam Fethullah Gulen ».
The well-prepared Prime Minister of Turkey then responded : « When you said that Osama Bin Laden was behind the September 9/11 attacks, we did not ask for proof of that. We just supported you ». [And immediately went to war in Afghanistan without proof of Bin Laden’s involvment].
In other words, to stay friends with the United States, Turkey did not ask that the USA prove with any hard facts that Bin Laden was behind the 9/11 attacks, a fact that Bin Laden denied from day one. They knew that the United States had strategic interests in Afghanistan and they supported whatever reason, proven or not, that would justify an invasion of Afghanistan.
Now, Turkey says that the Unites States are not willing to commit themselves to Turkey’s national interests the same way Turkey supported the USA. It is like saying to the United States : « Don’t ask for hard facts, just do it, like we did for you. » In 2016, on the same issue, Erdogan said : « If we are strategic partners or model partners, do what is necessary“.
We can extract two things out of this discussion between Fareed Zakaria and Binari Yildirim:
1) That the cleric Fethullah Gulen has possibly nothing more to do with the coup in Turkey than Bin Laden had to do with the 9/11 attacks. But as Gulen strongly opposes Erdogan, he is considered a threat to Turkey’s national interests (or to Erdogan’s chance to stay indifinitely in power?).
Turkey expects the United States to refrain from looking for hard facts of any wrong doings by Gulen and nonetheless send the cleric to Turkey as a sign of goodwill and friendship between the two countries.
2) That friends of the United States don’t seem to ask a lot of questions and proof when it comes to the 9/11 attacks. They go with the flow and expect a return of favors when comes the time…
Fareed quickly changed subject …
For more explanations on the failed coup in Turkey, click on the following link on CNN : Turkey failed coup explainer
About the September 9/11 attacks, you will find several facts presented in a book written by a former well-known french journalist, Éric Reynaud, in the « controversial issues» section of my blog.
Trump’s political slogan “Make America great again” does not make any sense when analyzed against the nominee’s words and actions.
You cannot make America great again if your political platform does not present a clear plan of action for the American population. Formulas like “Look at this crowd!”, “We’re going to build a wall” and “I would have liked to punch him in the face” are not promises for a brighter future.
You cannot make America great again if your economic ideas involve isolating America from its long lasting commercial partners. America created 255,000 jobs in the sole month of July (2016). For a country that, according to Trump, loses everything to its commercial partners, it sounds somewhat contradictory. A populist platform will not help the American population grow up and understand how business thrives.
You cannot make America great again by building up tensions between ethnic groups within the United States.
You cannot make America great again by constantly lying. Numerous declarations by Trump have been found untrue.
You cannot make America great again if the few general proposals you put forward contradict each other. Trump promises to lower the American deficit ($23 trillion dollars) and, at the same time, repeats that he will spend billions and billions of dollars to refurbish and bring the military capacity back to what it used to be. This is totally contradictory. It implies that the American population will pay for the new expenses while having to deal with serious cuts in the nation’s budget. Since the rich American does not want to contribute more than he actually does, and that the poor American is already almost unable to survive, it implies that a disappearing middle class will foot the bill. This will not make America great again but instead create the worst internal crisis ever in the United States.
You cannot make America great again by being rude, bullying, insulting and mocking whoever does not agree with you. That attitude does not help to build a greater America.
You cannot make America great again by being condescending towards prisoners of war. While some Americans where being made prisoners of war, Donald Trump was enjoying a comfortable living in the security of his home.
You cannot make America great again by lowering the political debate to a level never seen before.
You cannot make America great again by considering that dictatorship is synonymous of strong leadership. Under this angle, Hitler would be a great leader and we all know the consequences of his actions. Give the presidency to a gigantic and uncontrolled ego and the Americans, as well as the rest of the world, will pay the price.
You cannot make America great again by ridiculing Mexico, an extremely important neighbour. This country is a major commercial partner of the United States and has also a fantastic culture, for whoever is curious enough to open a book and read about it. But it takes curiosity and the feeling that there are other important people around the world than oneself.
You cannot make America great again if the republican vice-president and president nominees contradict each other about very serious matters on national TV, and if the vice-president nominee finds himself unable to defend the presidential nominee’s positions.
You cannot make America great again if the republican presidential nominee does not understand the consequences of being a populist nationalist. The Germans went through that in the past. I have included a video that is worth taking the time to listen to:
Let’s just hope that the current resentment from having received over one million refugees in Germany in a very short time frame will not help the extreme right to gain momentum and repeat the mistakes of the past.
You cannot make America great again by governing on fear. That does not make for a great future. You then have a population who needs several guns per person in order to be able to sleep at night.
You cannot make America great again if you continue to push for the population to be armed like no other country in the world. The shootings among Americans places the country in the top most violent country in the world. You can make America greater by reducing the number of guns in circulation and increasing the control on who can acquire guns.
You cannot make America great again if you do not understand, as a President, what is really going on in Syria in 2016. Summing it up to a simplistic description only adds to the confusion. In Syria, there are war crimes being perpetrated. The civil population and hospitals are deliberately targeted to protect and improve strategic military positions.
You cannot make America great again by stating that Hillary Clinton will be sent to jail if you are elected as President of the United States. This is done under authoritarian regimes around the world, and certainly is not a promise that will help the United States increase its credibility in the free world.
You cannot make America great again by destabilizing your NATO allies, or saying that you would use the nuclear bomb against Europe if necessary.
You cannot make America great again by promising that you will put forward tax reforms that will hurt your own businesses. Somebody who has fought to keep his hotels and casinos alive will not suddenly change his mind if elected President and start putting in place measures that will endanger what he has taken so much time to protect. It is nonsense. The person who is well positioned to modify a tax code that could hurt companies is someone who does not himself own the targeted companies.
You cannot make America great again by electing somebody who hates very frequent briefings. Being President of the United States requires being available, interested and able to listen to the frequent daily briefings. You must have the personality to cope with them, even if you would like to be somewhere else.
You cannot make America great again by staying silent on how to realistically lower the difference in revenues between Americans. I am not talking about equality between revenues, but lowering the extremes between the rich and the poor. This would certainly help to bring the American dream back to life, lower the social tensions and crime rate and give more sense to the theme “Make America great again…”. But I guess we are not there yet…
“Patrick Cockburn spotted the emergence of ISIS much earlier than anybody else and wrote about it with a depth of understanding that was in a league of its own.” – Press Gazette Journalist of the Year Judges
The book presents a bigger picture of what is happening in the Middle East than what we are normally allowed to watch in the news. The reader is presented with both sides of several stories and this really helps to get a better understanding of the different conflicts.
Cover of Patrick Cockburn’s book “The Rise of Islamic State”
Of lies and limited accuracy of the news
The author shows how lies are easily fabricated on a battlefield. He also explains the limited accuracy of news reports, such as when a “chosen” reporter is travelling, protected by an army or when reporters use second-hand information (often not verified) to prepare their news reports. It also seems pretty hard for a news channel to refuse to air a story when there are doubts about it, especially when all the competitors are reporting the same news.
I am including quotes (in italic) from the book as they provide excellent summaries. Some are from the author himself, others are from the sources he found to write his book. The author addresses so many subjects that it impossible to cover everything in a small review like the present one. So I’ll be as succinct as possible to present the reader with a broad idea of the book’s content.
Fear
Fear is the main factor behind many irrational political decisions. Fear leads to radical policies, religions and propaganda. It is often related to the fact that a very small group of people leading a country, a state or a region think that they can lose the political power that gives them undue privileges over the rest of their population. The greater the advantages, the greater the fear.
The political “solutions”, most of the time irrational, create tensions or aggravate the existing problems and only help to increase instability.
Saudi Arabia was initially helping ISIS because of fear of Jihadists operating within Saudi Arabia and fear of Shia powers abroad. As for Turkey, it is more afraid of the Kurds than it is of ISIS. So for a long period of time, it kept its border with Syria open: it helped ISIS to maintain a rear base.
The author says: “There is something hysterical and exaggerated about Saudi fear of Shia expansionism, since the Shia are powerful only in the handful of countries where they are in the majority or are a strong minority. Of fifty-seven Muslim countries, just four have a Shia majority” (p.102)
The demonization of religions other than Wahhabism
In the case of Saudi Arabia, the demonization of religions other than Wahhabism and the spreading of hate through social media have created a fertile ground for ISIS to grow.
The author says: “[…] The Saudis need a serious attempt to reform their educational system which currently demonizes Shias, Sufis, Christians, Jews and other sects and religions. They need to stop the preaching of hate from so many satellite stations, and not allow a free ride for their preachers of hate on the social media”.(p.107)
“The “Wahhabization” of mainstream Sunni Islam is one of the most dangerous development of our era” (p.108)
Money helps increase the polarization between Sunni and Shia
ISIS could not have risen without the financial help from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Turkey. Since ISIS thrives on tensions between Sunni and Shia, anything that increase that tension will benefit this terrorist group: “There is no doubt that well-financed Wahhabi propaganda has contributed to the deepening and increasingly violent struggle between Sunni and Shia” (p.99)
“A crucial feature in the rise of Wahhabism is the financial and political might of Saudi Arabia. Dr Allawi says that if, for example, a pious Muslim wants to found a seminary in Bangladesh, there are not many places he can obtain £20,000 other than from Saudi Arabia. But if the same person wants to oppose Wahhabism, then he will have “to fight with limited resources”” (p. 108)
“This polarization between the two religious groups was only intensified by the hot and cold war between the US and Russia. Proxies were at play here with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies, backed by the US, facing off against Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, supported by Russia”(p.71)
Back cover of Patrick Cockburn’s book: “The Rise of Islamic State”
Propaganda that made al-Qaeda look stronger and more effective than it actually was, with reference to the 9/11 attacks
There are multiple sections in the book which relate to the September 11th 2001 attacks. Here are some of the author’s observations (in italic). I have also added some personal comments which are clearly identified as such:
The Pearl Harbour moment of the 9/11 attacks
The author says: “The shock of 9/11 provided a Pearl Harbor moment in the US when public revulsion and fear could be manipulated to implement a pre-existing neo-conservative agendaby targeting Saddam Hussein and invading Iraq”(p.100).
Note: the following four paragraphs are my personal comments on the “Pearl Harbor moment”:
A “Pearl Harbor” moment means that in order for the American public to approve an attack in a foreign country, it needed to see something terrible happening in the United States. For example, before the very obvious destruction of war ships at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, the American population refused to be engaged in World War 2.
During the 9/11 attacks and later on, the Pentagon’s eighty cameras have not captured anything close to a Boeing hitting the building. You had to believe that it happened the way the news told you since there were no pictures and no videos of a Boeing close to or in pieces on the Pentagon property.
The Medias showed instead, over and over, the World Trade Center Twin Towers crashing to the ground after being hit by one aircraft, even though the buildings were built to resist multiple impacts, through a “mesh” design, a lesson learned after what happened on the Empire State Building years ago. Some people believed that the buildings crumbled due to the high temperature, but most neglected the FEMA’s report that got out later on stating that the temperature never rose above 300 or 400 degrees in the buildings, hundreds of degrees short from what was needed to melt steel.
The free-falling towers of the World Trade Center were the Pearl Harbor moment needed to instill fear and facilitate the implementation of a pre-existing neo-conservative agenda. The American voters would not have approved a war abroad if the buildings had been standing after a single impact. It’s almost like the world should believe that the World Trade Center was built using the poorest American engineering possible, while not learning from lessons of the past. For more info on this specific subject:
In 2001, al-Qaeda was an “ineffectual” organization
Mr Cockburn is one of very few reporters who is not afraid to present al-Qaeda as it really was in 2001, an emerging organization that was far from being able to mastermind and execute complex attacks such as the 9/11 attacks. (This also explains why, soon after the attacks, international news reports presented a video of Ben Laden denying responsibility for the attacks. A video that was not shown ever again. But millions of people saw it before it was censored by the main news channels).
“At the time of 9/11, al-Qaeda was a small, generally ineffectual organization” (p.59). The term “ineffectual” refers to the inability to produce a desired effect.
The implementation of the neo-conservative agenda
This really means that the pre-existing American neo-conservative agenda could not rely on Al-Qaeda’s experience. Instead, one or more experienced organizations were needed for the financing, planning and execution of the 9/11 attacks. Only after the facts could the blame be put on Al Qaeda since it was, after all the media propaganda, very well-known to the American public. An artificial link was then made with Iraq, allowing for an invasion that sixty percent of the American voters approved.
Sixty percent of the US voters were misled
“The name al-Qaeda has always been applied flexibly when identifying an enemy. In 2003 and 2004 in Iraq, as armed Iraqi opposition to the American and British-led occupation mounted, US officials attributed most attacks to Al-Qaeda, though many were carried out by nationalist and Baathist groups. Propaganda like this helped to persuade nearly 60 percent of US voters prior to the Iraq invasion that there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and those responsible for 9/11, despite the absence of any evidence for this. In Iraq itself, indeed throughout the entire Muslim world, these accusations have benefited al-Qaeda by exaggerating its role in the resistance to the US and British occupation” (p. 53).
The fall of Mosul
ISIS needed only 6000 fighters to win the Battle of Mosul. Yet, they were facing one million Iraqi soldiers. How was that possible? The author sees three reasons:
The cooperation from the Iraqi Sunnis, who were sensing that they would be better off with ISIS than the Shias.
Corruption at all levels in the Iraqi army. “As one former minister put it “the Iraqi government is an institutionalized kleptocracy”. Another politician who does not want to be named says “[…] People pay money to get into the army [so they can get a salary] – but they are investors not soldiers” (p.77)
The fact that the Iraqi army was no longer a national army since the well-trained Iraqi Sunni soldiers were sidelined.
Syria: President Bachar Assad was not as weak as expected
Both the outside world and opposition viewed President Assad as far weaker than he actually was. They both thought that he would be defeated without an organized air campaign.
A major oversight on the war in Syria
“A blind spot for the US and other Western powers has been their failure to see that by supporting the armed uprising in Syria, they would inevitably destabilize Iraq and provoke another round of its sectarian civil war” (p.73)
Five different conflicts within Syria
The Syrian conflict is extremely complicated since there are many different political and religious interests at stake: “The Syrian crisis comprises five different conflicts that cross-infect and exacerbate each other. The war commenced with a genuine popular revolt against a brutal and corrupt dictatorship, but it soon became intertwined between the Sunni against the Alawites, and that fed into the Shia-Sunni conflict in the region as a whole, with a standoff between the US, Saudi Arabia and the Sunni states on the one side, and Iran, Iraq and the Lebanese Shia on the other. In addition to this, there is a revived cold war between Moscow and the West, exacerbated by the conflict in Libya and more recently made even worse by the crisis in the Ukraine” (p.94)
In Syria, it is either Assad or ISIS
ISIS is the strongest opposition force in Syria. If Assad falls, ISIS takes his place: “Syrians have to choose between a violent dictatorship, in which the power is monopolized by the presidency and brutish security services, or an opposition that shoots children in the face for minor blasphemy and sends pictures of decapitated soldiers to the parents of their victims.” (p.81)
The God-given victories
“The appeal of the Islamic State to Sunni Muslims in Syria, Iraq, and across the world comes in part from a sense that its victories are God-given and inevitable, so any failure damages its claim to divine support” (p.159)
The solution to the Syrian conflict will come from outside the country
“Many Syrians now see the outcome of their civil war resting largely with the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. In this, they are probably right”.
Side notes
War is never about “combat” only. There is always an underlying political process going on. So, even if a country seems defeated militarily, enormous political efforts will have to be made in order to create a new stable order.
“Conviction that a toxic government is the root of all evil is the public position of most oppositions, but it is dangerous to trust one’s own propaganda”.
“A government or an army can try to maintain secrecy by banning reporters but they will pay the price as the vacuum of news is filled with information supplied by their enemies”.
There are seven very interesting articles, in the non-fiction category, in this anthology. Published between 2009 and 2013 in publications like The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Men’s Journal or Q2U.S, they allow the reader to catch-up on events that happened around the planet.
Those stories received a lot of attention from the medias since they covered popular topics like a mid-air collision between two jets, a jewel heist by the Pink Panthers, a botched covered operation by Mossad, wild animals freed by their owner near a small American city, the son of a wealthy American who suddenly leaves United States for Lybia to fight against Khadafi. The reader can also learn more about Apollo Robbins, the king of pickpockets and, finally, comes the weird story of a film making that started in 2006 in Ukraine and is still not ready today.
Le diable à 37,000 pieds (The Devil at 37,000 feet)
This story presents all the elements that contributed to create a mid-air collision: a new crew recently trained on an aircraft loaded with a modern technology that makes flight management more complicated than anything else; air traffic controllers letting their expectations impear their judgment; tired and under pressure careless pilots; passengers disturbing the flying crew by visiting the cockpit on multiple occasions.
It is paradoxal to realize that the extreme precision offered by modern flight navigation equipment also increases the possibility that two aircrafts hit each other in flight.
Pink Panthers
A popular name that sends the reader back to the movies where Peter Sellers played a distracted police inspector. But the article is about the real thing: What circumstances favored the creation and international development of the multiple groups of thiefs that came to be known as the Pink Panthers.
The different Pink Panthers groups have robbed more than 152 jewelry stores since 2002 and pocketed around 250 million dollars. The reader learns that most Pink Panthers members come from the Balkan region and that they operate from Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland.
The author uses the opportunity to explain how the Milosevic’s gangster regime was put in place in Serbia, a State transformed into a criminal business: “In March 2001, soon after the fall of Milosevic, we discovered, in a safe rented by municipal civil servants from a Belgrade bank, more than 660 kilos of a 93% pure heroin, valued at approximately 100 million dollars on the street”.
Montenegro is also associated with significant banditry and the author tells us about a meeting he had in that region with a former Pink Panthers. In order for criminal groups to survive and develop, there is an essential collaboration with politicians and the border services staff.
Opération Dubaï (Dubaï Operation)
In January 2010, a Mossad team lands in Dubaï with the intention of killing Mahmoud al-mabhouh. The agents are part of an ultra-secret section called “Césarée”. Although they reached their goal, the mission was somewhat a failure since it was possible to determine very rapidly who were the killers, which embarrassed Israël.
The article recounts the general progress of the operation in Dubaï and enhances the important mistakes that eventually damaged the Mossad’s reputation for efficiency.
Here are some of those mistakes:
1. Agents are sitting for hours in a hotel lobby, thus attracting the staff’s attention.
2. Two members of the team head towards the hotel washrooms, where they change their appearance by using a wig and sunglasses, all this while their physical transformation is filmed by an hotel camera positioned near the toilet’s door.
3. The man in charge of planning the covert operation has a huge ego and does not tolerate criticism or a difference of opinion.
4. Carelessness is shown when the team members are equipped with Payoneer prepaid calling cards. Those cards are mostly used in United States and the Payoneer’s director, Yuval Tal, is a veteran of the Israel’s Defence Force elite commando. While they were at it, why not give a Mossad colored business card directly?
5. The person in charge of the operation greatly underestimates the capacity and will of Dubaï’s police force to find the culprits behind Mahmoud al-mabhouh’s death.
6. Every phone call made by the team transit through the same system located in Austria.
An increase in the number of operations lead by Mossad certainly contributed to the non-compliance with respect to the security protocol. Meir Dagan eventually had to step down and the relations between the Mossad and other occidental intelligence services were impacted.
La désertion des animaux du zoo (Animals)
This is a very interesting account of an incident that made the news around the world. At the end of 2011, in Zanesville, Ohio, the owner of about fifty wild animals killed himself, not without having precedently opened the cages of all the wild animals he was keeping on his private property.
The story allows us to share a bit of the emotions lived by the inhabitants living close to the private zoo. We witness the quick reaction and organization needed to face the lions, tigers and bears that are now free to go where they want in the fields near Zanesville. It’s a very well written story.
Vacances de printemps arabe (Arab Spring Break)
This is the story of a rich American who abandons his wealthy neighborhood to go fight against Khadafi in Lybia. This type of story, told with a humoristic approach, was possibly quite amusing in 2012. But with the departure of numerous young kids gone to join ISIS during the past few years, the tone used in the article is now kind of awkward.
Le roi des pickpockets (A Pickpocket’s Tale)
The article is about the life of Apollo Robbins, a now internationally famous pickpocket that has appeared on multiple TV programs around the world, among them National Geographic’s “Brain Games”.
Un tournage pris dans l’engrenage (The Movie Set That Ate Itself)
Through the account of a movie director’s eccentric behaviour in Kharkov, Ukraine, the reader is made aware of the exaggerated control that a human can impose on other persons. It also shows the easiness with which people are ready to accept a totalitarian control in their life. All this while the movie itself is about the dictatorship lived in Russia, more precisely in Moscow, during the fifties and sixties.
