BOOK REPORT: THE MANAGEMENT OF SAVAGERY BY MAX BLUMENTHAL

The subtitle of Max Blumenthal’s new book is: How America’s National Security State Fueled The rise Of Al Qaeda, ISIS, And Donald Trump which suggests this book is not a pleasant one to read. It explores the web of connections that American security services, particularly the CIA and the FBI, have had with extremist Islamic groups over the past several decades. Max details how covert operations began in the 1980s with the US government secretly funding jihadist groups in Afghanistan who then waged a guerrilla war against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul. It details the blow-back resulting from this flawed CIA program with the rise, decades later, of Al Qaeda and ISIS whose roots lay in the blood and soil of that impoverished, war-torn country. 

Max describes the networks formed between American spy agencies and  Islamist radicals, some even operating in the United States. He notes how CIA money and covert support to Al Qaeda affiliates in Iraq, following America’s disastrous invasion, led directly to the formation of the even more extremist group, ISIS. He later explores the CIA’s connection with ISIS and other radical Islamist groups fighting in Syria's civil war, as well as highlighting the role the "White Helmets" played, and continues to play there. Blumenthal suggests the NGO may be acting as an anti-Assad shill in concord with the terrorist groups:

"Marketed to the public as a mere band of "rescuers" rushing toward the bombs to pluck helpless babies from the rubble, the White Helmets had revealed themselves as an international influence operation that lobbied on behalf of the Western governments and military-intelligence officials that conceived it to drive the regime change agenda. Indeed, the group was not born in the rubble of a Syrian conflict zone, but in public relations offices and the boardrooms of private defense contractors." (209)

Max Blumenthal

American spy agencies played a central role in all these theaters of conflict by funding splinter terrorist cells, pitting rival groups one against the other, sometimes funding and equipping both sides—all in support of the larger project of American hegemony in the Middle East. 

So, no, this is not a pleasant book to read, but it is an important one.

His first chapter, “The Afghan Trap”, is a primer on how not to win a war, revealing how America’s all-encompassing “War on Terror”, begun in the aftermath of 9/11, had its roots in the earlier involvements by the CIA and other government agencies with Middle Eastern (particularly Saudi) radical Salafist adherents. These extreme Islamists (nicknamed “the Arab Afghans”) were given training and hundreds of millions of dollars in supplies and weapons by the CIA to promote an insurgency in Afghanistan. This policy began in the Carter administration, in 1979, as a geopolitical ploy to draw the Russians "into their own Vietnam”, and to weaken the Russian polity. The operation succeeded in its larger project: In 1989 Russia withdrew its troops from Afghanistan and two years later the Berlin Wall fell.
However, blow-back came afterwards when all those highly trained and armed “freedom fighters” returned home. What was to be done with them? Unsurprisingly, as Blumenthal outlines, this “disposal problem” (28) became the problem for a number of countries as their nationals were repatriated. The “ghosts" (36) of "Operation Cyclone” (the name of the CIA’s undercover operation in Afghanistan) came to haunt Egypt, Algeria, the Philippines and Bosnia in the following decades as radical Islamist cells developed in these and other countries. Along with terrorist bombings and violence, governments themselves reacted with their own, extreme policies.* Summarizing this point, Blumenthal says: “…[T]error begets extremism [from governments] and collapses the fragile space where multi-confessional societies survive.” (38) 

Of course, the attacks on 9/11 were the most dramatic examples of blow-back resulting from these ill-conceived, cloak and dagger operations.**

"I try to see no evil, but I don't know what Hear or Say are doing."

Recently, Syria has become the latest victim of egregious CIA meddling when the agency secretly began funding  and supporting radical jihadist groups in the country in its bid to remove President Assad. These groups were judged at the time to be "more “moderate" and therefore more compliant (but who later proved to be neither.) Consequently, Syria’s civil war has been prolonged and deepened because of US interference, and blow-back came in the form of millions of Syrians forced to flee their homeland, with all the problems that entails. No doubt, there will be further repercussions resulting from the CIA’s ham-fisted operations in the future.

And that’s just the first chapter of Max Blumenthal’s meticulously detailed examination of the connections between America’s security services and radical Islamic groups. He highlights the cynical disregard for law and order and moral conduct on the part of the CIA, FBI, the US government and other actors in their pursuit of geopolitical aims. It’s a modern democracy’s dark corner and Blumenthal’s exposé shines a needed light into it.

Cheers, Jake.

*The 2001 ”Patriot Act” in the United States is one example—it was enacted to allow the President to quickly declare war, without going through the legislative process, in case of a threat to national security. It was supposed to be a one-off, but it has been renewed annually ever since, and has allowed Presidents of both political stripes to send troops around the world as they see fit—without congressional approval. Canada has a similar, if watered-down, version. Once power has been granted to a government, it's hard for it to be rescinded.

**It should be remembered that 15 of the 19 hijackers on that fateful day were Saudi citizens. Saudi Arabia remains a hotbed for Wahhabism, an extreme, traditionalist form of Islam that radicalized many of the hijackers. Max provides an interesting geopolitical context for the growth of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, by which the United States ‘turned a blind eye’ to the dangers arising from this extreme form of Islam—in exchange for a secure supply of Saudi oil!

And it should also be remembered that the mastermind of 9/11, Osama bin Laden, was a Saudi, a former “freedom fighter” and an adherent of Wahhabism who was incensed over the presence of foreign troops in his country. Blow-back can come in many forms and from many sources.

    

Max Blumenthal is an American investigative-journalist and senior editor for on-line news site The Grayzone.  His is a youthful, articulate and passionate voice of dissent and scrutiny that regularly challenges the Washington consensus, calling out bad actors in government and elsewhere which, some months ago, made him the target of deep-state harassment. (See my 31 October 2019 blog post “Rants: American Reporter Arrested on Trumped-Up Charge” for details.)   

His award-winning journalism gives fresh insights into American foreign and domestic politics and attempts to uncover the truth behind the curtain of current political events.   

       

Max Blumenthal, The Management of Savagery: How America’s National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, Isis and Donald Trump. Verso. New Left Books, Brooklyn, NY. 2019

"Yep. That's either the North Star or a speck of fly poop on the window."