Patrick Cockburn Archive
Prince Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi Arabia’s psychopath prince is provoking war – by Patrick Cockburn: At the end of last year the BND, the German intelligence agency, published a remarkable one-and-a-half-page memo saying that Saudi Arabia had adopted “an impulsive policy of intervention”. It portrayed Saudi defence minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed
Paris massacre: The only real solution is the destruction of Isis – by Patrick Cockburn: The “Islamic State”, as Isis styles itself, will be pleased with the outcome of its attacks in Paris. It has shown that it can retaliate with its usual savagery against a country that is bombing its territory and
War with Isis: In Mosul, the Sunni brides brainwashed into becoming Salafi Deobandi suicide bombers – Patrick Cockburn: It was when Isis issued a fatwa saying a wife should obey her husband in all matters, including becoming a suicide bomber, that Aysha, a 32-year-old mother of two children, decided to flee her home in Mosul. She recalls
The ISIS Salafi and Deobandi militants enforcing Jihad-un-Nikah. rape and temporary marriage on Sunni women in Iraq – Patrick Cockburn: On the day Ibrahim fled his home city of Fallujah, crowds were gathering to witness the execution of two women who had refused to marry Islamic State (Isis) militants. A 49-year-old Sunni Arab, he says he was shocked
Saudi air strikes and blockade threaten humanitarian disaster for millions in Yemen – Patrick Cockburn: Dozens of Saudi soldiers and Yemeni fighters have been killed in clashes on the border between the countries as five weeks of Saudi air attacks fail to bring the war to an end. Air strikes and heavy artillery fire
The only way of dealing with Isis, al-Qaeda and other jihadi movements is in the countries where Salafis and Deobandis flourish, i.e. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan – Patrick Cockburn: The ghost of Osama bin Laden will have been chuckling this month as he watches the movements he inspired conquer swathes of the Middle East. He will be particularly gratified to see fighters from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
ISIS’s role in the destruction of Sunnis of Iraq – by Patrick Cockburn: Yet for all Mahmoud’s (an Iraqi Sunni) passionate sense of injustice, his belief that the government is irredeemably anti-Sunni is only part of the story. Sunni and Shia have both used mass violence against one another’s communities in the
Patrick Cockburn: Private donors from Gulf oil states helping to bankroll salaries of up to 100,000 Isis fighters: Islamic State is still receiving significant financial support from Arab sympathisers outside Iraq and Syria, enabling it to expand its war effort, says a senior Kurdish official. The US has being trying to stop such private donors in the
Isis in Iraq: Britain has no plan for tackling the militants, and no idea who’s in charge – Patrick Cockburn: The traumatic experience of Britain’s participation in the 2003 Iraq war led the Government to have as little to do with the country as possible. By the spring of 2014, as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Patrick Cockburn: If all right-thinking people are united against terrorism, where are the ‘Je suis Nigeria’ banners?: By far the worst atrocity committed this year by an extreme Islamist movement was the slaughter of more than 2,000 people last week by Boko Haram in north-eastern Nigeria. Satellite images publicised by Amnesty International show two towns, Baga
Charlie Hebdo attack and the Syria blowback – by Patrick Cockburn: There is a feeling of inevitability about the attack in Paris. The likelihood must be that the killers were Islamic Wahhabi Deobandi fanatics, the murder of the journalists and police underlining the degree to which the ferocious religious war
Libyan model for Syria? The West is silent as Libya falls into the abyss – Patrick Cockburn: Remember the time when Libya was being held up by the American, British, French and Qatari governments as a striking example of benign and successful foreign intervention? It is worth looking again at film of David Cameron grandstanding
Tariq Ali obfuscates the Salafi and Deobandi nature of ISIS: Recently I happened to read a conversation between Tariq Ali and Patrick Cockburn on the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. As usual, Tariq Ali indulges in false Sunni-Shia binary also somehow treating the ISIS (Salafi and Deobandi)
War against Isis: US air strategy in tatters as militants march on – Patrick Cockburn: America’s plans to fight Islamic State are in ruins as the militant group’s fighters come close to capturing Kobani and have inflicted a heavy defeat on the Iraqi army west of Baghdad. The US-led air attacks launched against Islamic
Isis in Kobani: Turkey’s act of abandonment may mark an ‘irrevocable breach’ with Kurds across the region – Patrick Cockburn: Kurds vented their fury at the Turkish government for standing by as Isis fighters looked poised to take the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani in view of the Turkish border and the watching Turkish army. At least 12
Islamic State: ‘US failure to look into Saudi role in 9/11 has helped Isis’ – by Patrick Cockburn: The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) has been aided by the continuing failure of the US Government to investigate the role of Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 attacks and its support of
Why Washington’s War on Terror Failed – by Patrick Cockburn: There are extraordinary elements in the present U.S. policy in Iraq and Syria that are attracting surprisingly little attention. In Iraq, the U.S. is carrying out air strikes and sending in advisers and trainers to help beat back
Turkey is the global hub and highway of global Salafi Wahhabi and Deobandi Jihadists – by Patrick Cockburn: The murder of the US journalist James Foley by a British jihadi has reignited the barren debate in Britain about new government powers to tackle extremist Islamic groups. Dubious counter-terrorism specialists, the exact nature of their expertise frequently
West poised to join forces with President Assad in face of Islamic State – by Patrick Cockburn: Islamist forces are fighting their way into western Syria from bases further east, bringing forward the prospect of US military intervention to stop their advance. If Isis, which styles itself Islamic State, threatens to take all or part
Crisis in the Middle East: The end of a country, and the start of a new dark age – by Patrick Cockburn: Iraq has disintegrated. Little is exchanged between its three great communities – Shia, Sunni and Kurd – except gunfire. The outside world hopes that a more inclusive government will change this but it is probably too late. The main
LRB: For America, Britain and the Western powers, the rise of Isis and the Caliphate is the ultimate disaster – by Patrick Cockburn: As the attention of the world focused on Ukraine and Gaza, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) captured a third of Syria in addition to the quarter of Iraq it had seized in June.
Israel-Gaza conflict: What has Israel achieved in 26 bloody days? – by Patrick Cockburn: As Gaza is devastated by a new paroxysm of violence, what has Israel achieved by its 26-day bombardment and ground intervention? The outcome so far is similar to that of past Israeli wars in Lebanon and Gaza:
The secret report that helps Israelis to hide facts – by Patrick Cockburn: Israeli spokesmen have their work cut out explaining how they have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, compared with just three civilians killed in Israel by Hamas rocket and mortar fire. But on
Did ISIS kidnap 3 Israeli children to provoke a war to deflect media attention to Gaza? – Patrick Cockburn: Editor’s note: We are posting a theory presented by Patrick Cockburn of the Independent in his July 21st article. The Saudi/ Gulf States, Turkey and Qatar sponsored Takfiri Khariji Deobandi Salafi ISIS wanted to take the world attention away
While international attention is focused on Gaza, Isis Salafi militants march further into Syria battling to crush the resistance of Sunni Kurds – by Patrick Cockburn: Isis fighters have captured much of eastern Syria in the past few days while international attention has been focused on the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Using tanks and artillery seized in Iraq, it has taken almost all of
Iraq crisis: How Saudi Arabia helped Isis take over the north of the country – by Patrick Cockburn: How far is Saudi Arabia complicit in the Isis takeover of much of northern Iraq, and is it stoking an escalating Sunni-Shia conflict across the Islamic world? Some time before 9/11, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, once the powerful
Can Nouri Al Maliki save Baghdad from ISIS? – by Patrick Cockburn: In early June, Abbas Saddam, a private soldier from a Shia district in Baghdad serving in the 11th Division of the Iraqi army, was transferred from Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in western Iraq, to Mosul
Iraq crisis: As Shia and Sunni shrines are targeted by Wahhabi ISIS, the fiercest of wars lies ahead – by Patrick Cockburn: The meltdown of American and British policy in Iraq and Syria attracts surprisingly little criticism at home. Their aim for the past three years has been get rid of Bashar al-Assad as ruler of Syria and stabilise Iraq under
This spread of ‘holy fascism’ is a disaster – by Patrick Cockburn: Earlier this month, Saudi liberal activist Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, 10 years in prison and a heavy fine for insulting Islam. In fact, his crime was to establish an online discussion forum where people were free
The US is paying the cost of supporting the House of Saud as cracks begin to appear – by Patrick Cockburn: President Obama flew to Saudi Arabia to patch up relations with King Abdullah at the end of last week in his first visit in five years. The alliance had been strained by Saudi anger over US negotiations with
Salafi monarchs back YouTube hate preachers: Anti-Shia propaganda threatens a sectarian civil war which will engulf the entire Muslim world – by Patrick Cockburn: World View: There is now a pool of jihadis willing to fight and die anywhere Anti-Shia hate propaganda spread by Salafi/Deobandi religious figures sponsored by, or based in, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies, is creating the ingredients for
‘The near future of Iraq is dark’, says Muqtada al-Sadr – by Patrick cockburn: The future of Iraq as a united and independent country is endangered by sectarian Shia-Sunni hostility says Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia religious leader whose Mehdi Army militia fought the US and British armies and who remains a powerful figure
Mass murder in the Middle East is funded by our friends the Saudis – by Patrick Cockburn: Donors in Saudi Arabia have notoriously played a pivotal role in creating and maintaining Sunni (Salafi Wahhabi and Deobandi) jihadist groups over the past 30 years. But, for all the supposed determination of the United States and its allies