GUEST BLOG: Ross Meurant – It is time for a change of attitude and a new approach to identify the real threats to this great country of ours.
al-BAGHDADI – alive and kicking.
Kicking the snot out of Sri Lanka, if the BBC is to be believed.
“The battle for Baghuz is over,” says (al-Baghdadi), before adding: “There will be more to come after this battle.” He also reportedly says the group is fighting a “battle of attrition”.
If this fellow really is still alive, the world could be in for bad times.
If his ISIS Group were responsible for Sri Lanka’s week of terrorist chaos, and if this Group decide that retribution is the key to redemption, it would (in my view) be unwise of NZ Guardians, to ignore the possibility if not probability, that Aotearoa would be an easy target and revenge for the massacre of 50 Muslims in Christchurch.
As I said in a previous post , in my view, NZ guardians failed miserably when it came to preventing and responding to Christchurch – to the extent that they were negligent.
Put aside the damage control which has followed and the pathetic parade of armed cops guarding Muslim mosques for a month (when the greater probability of any response was a pay-back attack on a Christian church), the performance of our guardians must be a concern to the more discerning politicians.
In my view – based on my exposure to police intelligence gathering and to recent extensive travelling through countries exposed to on-going terrorist activity, terrorism is best fought internationally.
If I was still in charge of police spies, I would be looking at Five Eyes for hard data.
After all, NZ did toady to American pressure (along with Aussie) and shut out Huawei- when UK and EU all stood up to American bullying and have accepted the Chinese technology.
This sycophantic conduct also jeopardised our trade relations with our biggest market outside of Australia. So, surely, Uncle Sam owes NZ big time and should provide our Guardians with hard data on whether ISIS is going to hit NZ in its promised, “battle of attrition”?
Perhaps America might also deny or confirm that speculation about the “well fed” appearance of al-Baghdadi, adding weight to the suspicion that this fellow has all the while been well cared for in an American bastion, until a propitious moment in the American calendar to create more chaos -e.g. serve Sri Lanka a lesson for having embraced the Belt Road of China?
Reverting to our back yard.
It is time, in my view, for a serious review of the calibre and quality of our intelligence gathering. The personnel. The equipment. The strategies. The objectives. The outcomes.
Focusing on Kiwi journalist who dare to question and others who have the temerity to demand their right to articulate their point of view (as long as it does not incite racism discord etc), should be consigned to the ‘filed’ basket.
al-Baghdadi’s reappearance, whether still alive or reincarnated as a guiding light for terrorists, must be a concern to every State on the planet. Hence my previous blog: terrorism is best fought internationally.
It is time for a change of attitude and a new approach to identify the real threats to this great country of ours.
Ross is an international businessman and entrepreneur. In 2016 Ross was appointed Honorary Consul for the Kingdom of Morocco. In New Zealand he is trustee and managing director of absentee Russian owned forestry and commercial property.
Ross has a bachelor degree in politics and management, a master’s degree in economics, statistics, law and policy and C.O.P’s in law.
From 2004 he lived and worked in Zimbabwe, Russia, Czech Republic, Thailand and the Balkans.
Since 2005 Ross has established business interests in aqua culture and fisheries development – from Morocco to Syria: U.A.E and North Korea.
In 2015 Ross was prime speaker on sustainable fisheries as guest of the Moroccan government at CRANZ Montana ‘Sustainable Resources: Africa’ conference, and an official guest at the 2017 forum.
A former Member of Parliament (1987–1996) and Member and the Executive Council of New Zealand in the National government, Ross was Under Secretary (junior minister) Agriculture & Forestry; Cabinet Committee Industry & Commerce & Chair Select Committee Fisheries.
Subsequent to parliament, he owned equestrian facilities; was elected to local government as a councilor; consulted to several major fishing companies, was engaged by parliamentary services as adviser to Rt. Hon Winston Peters and emerged as a key figure in the Scampi Affair, which falsely alleged political corruption.
Prior to entering parliament, Ross had been 21 years in the police. Service included: detective on Regional Crime Squad and Drug Squad; 5 years Armed Offenders Squad, second in command of the infamous Red Squad, and commissioned officer in charge of police spies i.e. Criminal Intelligence Section and V.I.P. Security.
In defence of lost causes, the message of this celebrity terrorism stuff is to not take it to seriously. Especially when someone says that they are a big celebrity? Okay no, celebrities do not hold powerful positions. Then again if you speak up against radicals fighting for equality as in fighting for an excuse to break the rules every one has to live by, then you could lose your job. Academic power is measured on 3 levels, a) can you provide jobs, b) can you provide institutional funding (grants), c) can you provide publication. And so celebrity power is very powerless in all these three domains. In an elementary sense who really stands for power.
I don’t doubt that Al Baghdadi is sincere in his threats but he is questionable. When acting as a celebrity spokesperson you don’t follow the rules of weak vs strong. The weak don’t signal to the strong over here, here I am. I think there is a real danger that people who don’t understand war or combat and people making decisions when they don’t know how things can go wrong and talking about it with the same sort of language that we would use to describe office politics.
Y’know so we get these woke talking points saying we won’t to save lives but we don’t want the terrorists to feel bad. So there probably needs to be a clean out of old inelegance staff and a moving forward so non of is old water boarding stuff and non of the old Obama drone policy and I think that Parliaments Security and Intelligence committee should do there jobs and appoint some one who is appropriate for the times because the laws aren’t the same as they where before 15/3.
It’s just strange that people who don’t really have an operational understanding of terrorism would appoint people to head chief security positions and then opps sorry, turns out they don’t really know what they are doing for the last 20 years. Now we have big issues. We have China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Fiji.
If it was Al Baghdadi after all, he said the attacks in Sri Lanka were for the last battle lost by IS in Syria.
That contradicts earlier reports that were quoted by silly MSM here, saying, there were reports that it was a revenge attack for Christchurch.
So who do we believe, a revitalised or revived from the dead IS leader Abu Bakr Al What is His Name, or the MSM, or whosoever?
NO matter what we choose, we will be in trouble, one way or another, we are simply being misinformed on a massive scale. But most sheeples rather focus on day to day consumerism, their sports and entertainment, and chats with loved ones.
Let the two legged sheep rule forever, the planet will die a century before climate change will even hit us.