Editor’s Note: News hitting the world, shared here from Guardian UK. THIS is terrorism.Naked.In it’s pure form.
Pentagon suspends course after study materials posted online suggested that Mecca and Medina may have to be obliterated.
General Martin Dempsey speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon. The course was suspended when a student objected to the material. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP
Associated Press in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Fri 11 May 2012 08.28 BST
A course for US military officers has been teaching that America’s enemy is Islam in general and suggesting that the country might ultimately have to obliterate the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina without regard for civilian deaths, following second world war precedents of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima.
The Pentagon suspended the course in late April when a student objected to the material. The FBI also changed some agent training last year after discovering that it, too, was critical of Islam.
The teaching in the military course was counter to repeated assertions by US officials over the past decade that America is at war against Islamic extremists, not the religion itself.
“They hate everything you stand for and will never coexist with you, unless you submit,” the instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Dooley, said in a presentation last July for the course at Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. The college, for professional military members, teaches mid-level officers and government civilians on subjects related to planning and executing war.
Dooley also presumed, for the purposes of his theoretical war plan, that the Geneva conventions that set standards of armed conflict, are “no longer relevant”.
He adds: “This would leave open the option once again of taking war to a civilian population wherever necessary (the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki being applicable to the Mecca and Medina destruction decision point).”
His war plan suggests possible outcomes such as “Saudi Arabia threatened with starvation … Islam reduced to cult status”.
A copy of the presentation was obtained and posted online by Wired.com’s Danger Room blog. The college did not respond to the Associated Press’ requests for copies of the documents, but a Pentagon spokesman authenticated the documents. Dooley still works for the college, but is no longer teaching, said the joint chiefs of staff chairman, General Martin Dempsey. Dooley has refused to comment.
A military service record summary provided by army human resources at Fort Knox, Kentucky, shows that Dooley was commissioned as a second lieutenant upon graduation from the US military academy at West Point, New York, in May 1994. He has served tours in Germany, Bosnia, Kuwait and Iraq. He has numerous awards including a Bronze Star medal, the fourth-highest US combat award.
In what he termed a model for a campaign to force a transformation of Islam, Dooley called for “a direct ideological and philosophical confrontation with Islam”, with the presumption that Islam is an ideology rather than just a religion.
He further asserted that Islam has already declared war on the west, and the US specifically.
“It is therefore illogical” to continue with the current US strategy, which Dooley said presumes there is a way of finding common ground with Islamic religious leaders, without “waging near total war”.
The course on Islam had been taught since 2004, but was not part of the required core curriculum. It was offered five times a year, with about 20 students each time.
Though Dooley has been teaching at the college since August 2010, it was unclear when he took on that particular class, called Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism.
The joint staff suspended the course after it had received a student complaint, and within days Dempsey ordered all service branches to review their training to ensure other courses do not use anti-Islamic material.
On Thursday, Dempsey said the material in the Norfolk course was counter to American “appreciation for religious freedom and cultural awareness”.
“It was just totally objectionable, against our values, and it wasn’t academically sound,” Dempsey said. “This wasn’t about … pushing back on liberal thought; this was objectionable, academically irresponsible.”
In his July 2011 presentation on “counterjihad”, Dooley asserted that the rise of what he called a “military Islam/Islamist resurgence” compels the US to consider extreme measures, “unconstrained by fears of political incorrectness”.
He described his purpose as generating “dynamic discussion and thought”, while noting that his ideas and proposals are not official US government policy and cannot be found in any current official defence department documents.
A Pentagon inquiry is seeking to determine whether someone above the professor’s level is supposed to approve course materials and whether that approval process was followed in this case, said Colonel Dave Lapan, a spokesman for Dempsey.
The problem of negative portrayals of Islam in federal government is not new. A six-month review the FBI launched into agent training material uncovered 876 offensive or inaccurate pages that had been used in 392 presentations, including a PowerPoint slide that said the bureau can sometimes bend or suspend the law in counterterror investigations.
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Comments
I heard about this on Democracy Now today. Really awful! Such fear and hatred and stupidity. People like that make me embarrassed to be an American (but I honestly know so many people here who are horrified by this – how do these people end up in positions of power?)
Amy, this has hit Pakistan full in the face since yesterday in light of US arm twisting tactics & drone killings.No one is America’s enemy. USA Govt is America’s own worst enemy for creating such hatred-no wonder US Soldiers urinated on dead Afghan soldiers bodies.I do not find it surprising Now!
I agree entirely
I get so frustrate with the division in this country. Yes they create hatred and fear and stupid people believe – but lots of people don’t. Unfortunately we don’t have the power now – the corporations have really taken over. It is worrisome.
The divisions are there in every country. When the balance becomes lop sided,THEN it’s the reason to get worried.In US, media is controlled by vested interests.People there are not given a ‘fair’ coverage & awareness of issues. Yes,I would be worried if I were you,Amy as a decent,upright American.
Lots of people here are worried – but we are shut out. People are trying to start again at the local level to regain control, but until we get the big money and the corporations out of the government, we are at a huge disadvantage. The Occupy Wall Street movement is providing some hope, though.
You support what I always say:What Govts do may not be reflective of what their people may want.But I am sure if some like minded folks come together,they can form a pressure group of sorts!
I think that is true. I think the norms have to be changed. I do see the mentality shifting (slowly – but definitely) As people who are not well informed change how they see things, and they do – especially as their own well being is threatened by the plutocrats – what is “acceptable” changes. I do think the plutocrats have over reached and hopefully things will change. But I worry about the control they have over things. I find it amazing that they use violence on peaceful protesters, that they are willing to kill innocent people with drones, that they are wanting the “right” to spy on citizens, that they have done away with the right to habeas corpus (even for their own citizens – although it would be bad for anyone). It is troubling.
I am shocked, stunned & distressed on this . We should not then be surprised when US soldiers pee on dead bodies of their Afghan counterparts!There must be an investigation into who approved the text/course.But will that change the thousands & thousands who have graduated with hatred in their hearts? What does seem rather surprising is that all those commanders, captains and colonels must have sat through the course and not felt the need to tell someone that something rather weird was going on. So they felt what was being taught was OK? OK?
L
I find it surprising that if the shoe fits, you still don’t wear it. This IS government policy. Guess what, regardless of how democratic or not this government is, it was voted in. The only reason why it is being removed is because the hands were caught in the cookie jar. Look if the government can talk from both sides of its mouth AND the people believe it, then Pakistan has every right to shoot back.
What is REALLY (not) surprising is the LACK of people commenting.
Apparantly the only ones with balls are women?
🙂
Who are these people.? Americans apparently but infact not, one should dig their origin, SATIN ( DEVIL) has prevailed over their soules completely. They will destroy the humanity if not checked.Good Americans should come forward to fight these evil minds and spread awairness amoung the public about their evil designs..
I know the Americans speaking on this article.They are decent people working on forums in US raising voice against drone attacks.They are a pressure group there.
The above goes along with what I was told by former soldier Ethan Mccord about the hatred and racism which he said was brainwashed into new recruits during training. He speaks about it on camera and tried to hold his superior officer to account for ordering 360 degree rotational fire on to civilians in Iraq… Ethan said they were taught to see Muslims as lower than dogs, fortunately he stayed human and spoke out…
Then the Americans wonder why the world hates them. If America stops poking others there would be tranquility in the world.
It is indeed a sad affair to see such policies surface and further distance communities of the world and people at large. Having lived in the US for a very long time, I know for a fact that such policies/acts, by no means, are a representation of “Americans”. It is time that the Americans take these matters seriously and put their government to task for creating such hatred for them amongst people of other nations. Need a lot more Amy Cox(s) for this to be addressed!
Indeed it can be seen that there is much hatred, but here in Pakistan, it can be felt within my social sphere at least, that the hatred is more towards the US Government and policies rather than Americans in general.
On a lighter note, there are men as well with balls, perhaps most of them are putting them to other uses 🙂
Lol! Love the end part of your comment.
Yes,US Govt policies may be different from what American People feel or support!
Gee, Yasmeen, you are way behind on this one. This story has been around since Bush’s first term. All US military training is some form of brainwashing, whether it is hyping ultra-patriotism or right-wing fundamentalism, or even weirder nonsense of the left-wing variety, SEE: “First Earth Battalion.”
Like most American youth, US military cadets are inured to Christian Proselytization, unless they grew-up in the clutches of fundamentalist parents. There are very few individuals who will fall for such b.s. as that depicted below, more likely their response will be to either ignore it altogether, or pretend to go along (like this group–Air Force Academy Cadets Decide They Must Pretend To Be Fundamentalist Christians).
Nope. What you are saying is absolutely and totally false and a lie. 1.5 million dead in Afghanistan and 1.5 million dead in Iraq. This is the result of the US doublespeak and policy against Islam. I am sorry, but that’s how it goes. 3 million dead. This was was blamed on the act of 911 where 3000 thousand people died. I am sorry but there were as a result 1000 911 done on iraq and afghanistan. don’t tell me that they were not successful in their indoctrination. they were and since they were, and since they have proven to follow the document to the letter when they are successful enough to, then payback is only appropriate. total warfare against brownies that did nothing to them? well a better case can be made for attacking american civilians. they voted in bush, and the antiwar protests stopped when obama came to office. there is nothing moral about the american population as a whole. and the 5 people that are on here, who knows maybe they are the PR psyops design again to pacify the opposition. i am not buying it for one second.
This, in addition to the preceding items :
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31290.htm
“U.S. Military Taught Officers:
Use ‘Hiroshima’ Tactics for ‘Total War’ on Islam,”
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/total-war-islam/all/1?pid=1198&viewall=true
By Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman May 10, 2012
May 11, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — “The U.S. military taught its future leaders that a ‘total war’ against the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims would be necessary to protect America from Islamic terrorists, according to documents obtained by Danger Room. Among the options considered for that conflict: using the lessons of ‘Hiroshima’ to wipe out whole cities at once, targeting the ‘civilian population wherever necessary.’
“International laws protecting civilians in wartime are “no longer relevant,” Dooley continues. And that opens the possibility of applying “the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki” to Islam’s holiest cities, and bringing about “Mecca and Medina[‘s] destruction.”
“The course, held at the Defense Department’s Joint Forces Staff College, has since been canceled by the Pentagon brass. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently ordered the entire U.S. military to scour its training material to make sure it doesn’t contain similarly hateful material, a process that is still ongoing. But the officer who delivered the lectures, Army Lt. Col. Michael A. Dooley, still maintains his position at the Norfolk, Virginia college.” Read the full story here:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/total-war-islam/all/1?pid=1198&viewall=true
By Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman Email Author May 10, 2012
Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley’s Joint Staff Forces College presentation on “A Counter-Jihad Op Design Model” (.pdf) calls for violent measures in a war against Islam. (emphasis added)
A second slide from Lt. Col. Dooley’s presentation (.pdf) mocks the idea of moderate Muslims.
Guandolo offered to military officers this list of “Usual Responses From the Enemy When Presenting the Truth” (.pdf), asserting that Muslims are bent on world domination. (emphasis added)
A cartoon included in Shireen Burki’s Joint Staff Forces College presentation on “Jihad: Defined and Operationalized” (.pdf) contains a number of ugly stereotypes.
A later slide from Coughlin’s presentation (.pdf) made fun of people who didn’t see Islam in the same way he did.
John Guandolo’s action items for military officers (.pdf) on what they can do to fight Guandolo’s perceived enemies. (emphasis added)
View as gallery
The U.S. military taught its future leaders that a “total war” against the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims would be necessary to protect America from Islamic terrorists, according to documents obtained by Danger Room. Among the options considered for that conflict: using the lessons of “Hiroshima” to wipe out whole cities at once, targeting the “civilian population wherever necessary.”
The course, first reported by Danger Room last month and held at the Defense Department’s Joint Forces Staff College, has since been canceled by the Pentagon brass. It’s only now, however, that the details of the class have come to light. Danger Room received hundreds of pages of course material and reference documents from a source familiar with the contents of the class.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently ordered the entire U.S. military to scour its training material to make sure it doesn’t contain similarly hateful material, a process that is still ongoing. But the officer who delivered the lectures, Army Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley, still maintains his position at the Norfolk, Virginia college, pending an investigation. The commanders, lieutenant colonels, captains and colonels who sat in Dooley’s classroom, listening to the inflammatory material week after week, have now moved into higher-level assignments throughout the U.S. military.
For the better part of the last decade, a small cabal of self-anointed counterterrorism experts has been working its way through the U.S. military, intelligence and law enforcement communities, trying to convince whoever it could that America’s real terrorist enemy wasn’t al-Qaida — but the Islamic faith itself. In his course, Dooley brought in these anti-Muslim demagogues as guest lecturers. And he took their argument to its final, ugly conclusion.
“We have now come to understand that there is no such thing as ‘moderate Islam,’” Dooley noted in a July 2011 presentation (.pdf), which concluded with a suggested manifesto to America’s enemies. “It is therefore time for the United States to make our true intentions clear. This barbaric ideology will no longer be tolerated. Islam must change or we will facilitate its self-destruction.”
Dooley could not be reached for comment. Joint Forces Staff College spokesman Steven Williams declined to discuss Dooley’s presentation or his status at the school. But when asked if Dooley was responsible for the course material, he responded, “I don’t know if I would classify him [Dooley] as responsible. That would be the commandant” of the school, Maj. Gen. Joseph Ward.
That makes the two-star general culpable for rather shocking material. In the same presentation, Dooley lays out a possible four-phase war plan to carry out a forced transformation of the Islam religion. Phase three includes possible outcomes like “Islam reduced to a cult status” and “Saudi Arabia threatened with starvation.” (It’s an especially ironic suggestion, in light of today’s news that Saudi intelligence broke up the most recent al-Qaida bombing plot.)
International laws protecting civilians in wartime are “no longer relevant,” Dooley continues. And that opens the possibility of applying “the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki” to Islam’s holiest cities, and bringing about “Mecca and Medina[‘s] destruction.”
Dooley’s ideological allies have repeatedly stated that “mainstream” Muslims are dangerous, because they’re “violent” by nature. Yet only a few of al-Qaida’s most twisted fanatics were ever caught musing about wiping out entire cities.
“Some of these actions offered for consideration here will not be seen as ‘political correct’ in the eyes of many,” Dooley adds. “Ultimately, we can do very little in the West to decide this matter, short of waging total war.”
Dooley, who has worked at the Joint Forces Staff College since August 2010, began his eight-week class with a straightforward, two-part history of Islam. It was delivered by David Fatua, a former West Point history professor. “Unfortunately, if we left it at that, you wouldn’t have the proper balance of points of view, nor would you have an accurate view of how Islam defines itself,” Dooley told his students. Over the next few weeks, he invited in a trio of guest lecturers famous for their incendiary views of Islam.
Shireen Burki declared during the 2008 election that “Obama is bin Laden’s dream candidate.” In her Joint Forces Staff College lecture, she told students that “Islam is an Imperialist/Conquering Religion.” (.pdf)
Stephen Coughlin claimed in his 2007 master’s thesis that then-president George W. Bush’s declaration of friendship with the vast majority of the world’s Muslims had “a chilling effect on those tasked to define the enemy’s doctrine.” (.pdf) Coughlin was subsequently let go from his consulting position to the military’s Joint Staff, but he continued to lecture at the Naval War College and at the FBI’s Washington Field Office. In his talk to Dooley’s class (.pdf), Coughlin suggested that al-Qaida helped drive the overthrow of Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak and Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi. It was part of a scheme by Islamists to conquer the world, he added. And Coughlin mocked those who didn’t see this plot as clearly as he did, accusing them of “complexification.”
Coughlin titled his talk: “Imposing Islamic Law – or – These Aren’t the Droids Your Looking For!”
Former FBI employee John Guandolo told the conspiratorial World Net Daily website last year that Obama was only the latest president to fall under the influence of Islamic extremists. “The level of penetration in the last three administrations is deep,” Guandolo alleged. In his reference material for the Joint Forces Staff College class, Guandolo not only spoke of today’s Muslims as enemies of the West. He even justified the Crusades, writing that they “were initiated after hundreds of years of Muslim incursion into Western lands.”
Guandolo’s paper, titled “Usual Responses from the Enemy When Presented With the Truth” (.pdf), was one of hundreds of presentations, documents, videos and web links electronically distributed to the Joint Forces Staff College students. Included in that trove: a paper alleging that “it is a permanent command in Islam for Muslims to hate and despise Jews and Christians” (.pdf). So was a video lecture from Serge Trifkovic, a former professor who appeared as a defense witness in several trials of Bosnian Serb leaders convicted of war crimes, including the genocide of Muslims. A web link, titled “Watch Before This Is Pulled,” supposedly shows President Obama — the commander-in-chief of the senior officers attending the course — admitting that he’s a Muslim.
Dooley added the caveats that his views are “not the Official Policy of the United States Government” and are intended “to generate dynamic discussion and thought.” But he taught his fellow military officers that Obama’s alleged admission could well make the commander in chief some sort of traitor. “By conservative estimates,” 10 percent of the world’s Muslims, “a staggering 140 million people … hate everything you stand for and will never coexist with you, unless you submit” to Islam. He added, “Your oath as a professional soldier forces you to pick a side here.” It is unclear if Dooley’s “total war” on Muslims also applied to his “Muslim” commander in chief.
After the Pentagon brass learned of Dooley’s presentation, the country’s top military officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, issued an order to every military chief and senior commander to get rid of any similar anti-Islam instructional material. Dempsey issued the order because the White House had already instructed the entire security apparatus of the federal government — military and civilian — to revamp its counterterrorism training after learning of FBI material that demonized Islam.
By then, Dooley had already presented his apocalyptic vision for a global religious war. Flynn has ordered a senior officer, Army Maj. Gen. Frederick Rudesheim, to investigate how precisely Dooley managed to get away with that extended presentation in an official Defense Department-sanctioned course. The results of that review are due May 24.
Ironically, Dooley and his guest lecturers paint a dire picture of the forward march of Islamic extremism right as its foremost practitioner feared its implosion. Documents recently declassified by the U.S. government revealed Osama bin Laden fretting about al-Qaida’s brutal methods and damaged brand alienating the vast majority of Muslims from choosing to wage holy war. Little could he have known that U.S. military officers were thinking of ways to ignite one.
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Excerpts of anti-Islamic military course
By The Associated Press A course for U.S. military officers has been teaching that America’s enemy is Islam in general, not just terrorists. The Pentagon suspended the course last month after a student complained, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said the Joint Forces Staff College was reviewing how curricula are designed. Here are some excerpts of statements from the course:
– “They hate everything you stand for and will never coexist with you, unless you submit.”
– “Islam as it currently defines itself is an ideology rather than solely a religion with the normally associated protections we afford such beliefs.”
– “It is therefore time for the United States to make our true intentions clear. This barbaric ideology will no longer be tolerated. Islam must change or we will facilitate its self-destruction.”
– “The United States has come to accept that radical ‘true Islam’ is both a political and military enemy to free people throughout the world.”
– Possible outcomes of an anti-Islam campaign: “Saudi Arabia threatened with starvation, Mecca and Medina destroyed, Islam reduced to cult status.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I would be very wary of this kind of article. Note that both authors have ties to the Israel lobby. And who benefits most from provoking Muslims to react against the US? Doesn’t this article only serve to advance the narrative of a “Clash” between the West and Islam?
1.5 million dead in Afghanistan and 1.5 million dead in Iraq. This is the result of the US doublespeak and policy against Islam. I am sorry, but that’s how it goes. 3 million dead. This was was blamed on the act of 911 where 3000 people died. there were as a result 1000 911 done on iraq and afghanistan. don’t tell me that they were not successful in their indoctrination. they were and since they were, and since they have proven to follow the document to the letter when they are successful enough to, then payback is only appropriate. total warfare against brownies that did nothing to them? well a better case can be made for attacking american civilians. they voted in bush, and the antiwar protests stopped when obama came to office. there is nothing moral about the american population as a whole. and the 5 people that are on here, who knows maybe they are the PR psyops design again to pacify the opposition. i am not buying it for one second.
There have been much more serious acts of terrorism, war crimes, etc. where the contents of the course have actually been lived out. If there was no clash then, what clash is expected now, just because of the course contents becoming public? Which nation(s) are able to take this head on. And its not only the ability, willingness to take this head on is a much bigger issue in my humble opinion. Those who can create hell over this, dont wish to and those who wish to probably cant afford to.
Thank you. It had to come. I knew it in 1998, when I returned back
to Pakistan after six years stay in USA. I would tell this to people
and they would give me back strange looks. Now it is in the open
and wait to see who will be on their side.
SHW
What a shocker. Signs of an America in free fall, in total decline. Let Muslims and new Americans save America from herself.
HH
no…america has done enough killing in its own lifetime. murders get the death sentence
ugly. very ugly. but then what can u expect from a third rate General? he does not understand the nuances of a civilised society and can only paint his identified enemy as black as he can.His job is to identify,zero-in and obliterate in the best way possible.
Hello Yasmeen,
Frightening, but not at all surprising.
Take care,
Anthony