It’s Presidential Election Season--Time for Another High-Profile Assassination!

The alleged leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, Abū Bakr al-Baghdadi, reportedly killed himself and three of his children following capture by the US military. And just in time for Donald Trump’s looming re-election campaign. Trump is taking credit for the alleged death, meaning that al-Baghdadi joins the two million other Iraqis murdered by the US and Britain since 1990: a million died between 1990 and 2003 due to the US-British blockade on chemicals and medicines (and in fact everything under the Sun), and another million died in the aftermath of the Anglo-American invasion in 2003.

FISHY ARTICLES
An article originally entitled, “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48,” was published by Joby Warrick at the Washington Post reported at 2.31pm GMT(+1) on 27 October. Relying on Donald Trump’s claims at a press conference, Warrick wrote that al-Baghdadi “died Oct. 26 in northwest Syria, during a raid conducted by Special Operations forces.” Was this merely the Democrat-backing Washington Post down-playing the Republican Trump’s alleged achievements (driving someone to suicide after wrecking their country is an achievement in contemporary US culture) or was it an early report hinting that al-Baghdadi had died of natural causes and the causes of his death were rewritten by Trump’s advisors for the coming election?

The level of the reporting can be summarised by the inclusion of a Reuters photo, which the Post describes as: “An image from a 2014 video purporting to show Mr. Baghdadi at a mosque in Mosul, Iraq.” “Purported to show”? The title of the article received a backlash from other media, prompting the Washington Post to change it to, “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48.” That’s a better propaganda title. The Post then reminds us that al-Baghdadi had reportedly been killed in airstrikes in 2015. But an audio address allegedly given by al-Baghdadi in November 2016 appeared to confirm that he was still alive.

GEORGE, BARACK & OSAMA
Conveniently-timed political assassinations are becoming something of a pattern. On 29 October 2004, just four days prior to the US Presidential election and still riding high from last year’s capture of the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, President George W. Bush’s poll ratings got a boost when a mysterious audio recording purported to be of Osama bin Laden appeared to taunt Bush. The Telegraph reported at the time: “If the trend is confirmed by other polls, Mr Bush may have his greatest enemy to thank for helping him secure another four years in the White House after the appearance of the video sparked a sharp final round of argument over which candidate can best defeat terrorism.”

Lucky George!

In 2009, it was reported that the CIA and US Army Special Forces started training their Pakistani counterparts. The CIA later set up a fake vaccination programme in Pakistan designed to obtain the bin Laden family’s DNA. In May 2011, Osama bin Laden, the alleged leader of “al-Qaeda” (the “database” or “computer file” of terrorists trained by the British and Americans) was reportedly murdered in a CIA-led operation, Neptune Spear: a raid on a supposed “compound” in Bilal Town, Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The bin Laden “compound” was less than a mile from the Pakistan Military Academy. The so-called compound was reportedly built in 2005 and was said by local journalists to be at or near “the home of the Baluch Regiment of the Pakistan Army, of the Pakistani military academy Kakul, in which the newly commissioned armed forces officers are trained, and there also are many educational institutes.”

A ridiculous video of a man with his back to the camera whom, from the side, looks nothing like bin Laden, was broadcast. It purported to show bin Laden watching video of himself. Why anyone would take such a video of the world’s most wanted fugitive (whom the FBI poster says died in November 2001), and from the back, is frankly bizarre.

After reportedly believing that bin Laden was wearing a suicide bomb belt (a weasel way of avoiding any possible conviction for murder), Navy SEAL and Team Six leader, Rob O’Neill supposedly claims to have killed bin Laden, who reportedly and implausibly used one of his wives as a human shield. A woman present in the “compound” was supposedly killed, as was one of bin Laden’s adult sons. O’Neill claimed that no video of the event was taken (“we didn’t bring any recording devices in there”), which rather contradicts the famous and likely staged Situation Room photo of Obama, VP Biden, and Secretary of State Clinton supposedly watching the operation unfold.

Supposedly to honour Islamic law, the military dumped the alleged bin Laden corpse at sea, avoiding the need for pesky things like...evidence. Like Bush before him, Obama’s approval rating leapt by six points to 52%, following the raid.

AL-BAGHDADI
With an election looming, the team helping Trump didn’t want to carbon copy the bin Laden assassination story and lose credibility in the process. So, assuming that the Baghdadi killing was a political stunt designed to boost Trump’s poll ratings ahead of the Presidential election, they contrived a death-by-suicide story. They’ve even thrown in a hero dog tale (no pun intended). According to Trump, al-Baghdadi was located by US Special Forces in northwest Syria on the night of October 26. Never mind that Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad does not appear to have been notified, Trump claimed that “a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him.” Claiming that he watched the video, just as Obama had reportedly watched the non-existent video of the bin Laden murder, Trump said that al-Baghdadi:

“…died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. The compound had been cleared by this time, with people either surrendering or being shot and killed ... The only ones remaining were Baghdadi in the tunnel, and he had dragged three of his young children with him. They were led to certain death.

He reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. His body was mutilated by the blast. The tunnel had caved in on it, in addition. But test results gave certain immediate and totally positive identification”

Just like bin Laden’s body being allegedly dumped at sea, the need for evidence is eliminated by the suicide bomb story. Perhaps the next photo op will be of Trump stroking the hero dog, just as the US-funded, anti-Assad White Helmets rescuers “rescued” puppies from debris in Syria? “Our dog was hurt. Actually, the K-9 was hurt, went into the tunnel. But we lost nobody.” Trump is so hated that where once the claims made in this article would be dismissed as offensive and ridiculous conspiracy theorising, they are now widely accepted when applied to Trump. Twitter accounts frequently mock the likely staged photo of Trump, VP Mike Pence, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and others, purportedly watching the video of the event in the Situation Room.

CONCLUSION
Conveniently-timed, high-profile assassinations of enemies are becoming the hallmark of incumbent Presidents seeking re-election. Perhaps the notion that al-Baghdadi’s murder was staged is incorrect, but the timing works in Trump’s favour. Also working in Trump’s favour is the widespread propaganda that Islamic State is not decapitated and still poses a threat. Like “al-Qaeda” before it, Islamic State gives the US and Britain another pretext to ensure that a military foothold remains in the energy-rich Middle East indefinitely.

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