ISIL, US-MADE AL-QAEDA-TYPE GROUP: SCOTT RICKARD

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview, according to Press TV report quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA):

Press TV: How do you feel about this new American involvement in this issue in Iraq?

Rickard: The Americans are clearly back at war in Iraq. I started my career with the American intelligence community when we were beginning war in Iraq against Iran, and this is yet again another decision by the dogs of war who have trained these rogue mercenaries, and now their dogs have turned on them.

They have to go in and basically smack their dogs in the nose with their jets, and basically they’re protecting their Kurdish Regional Government puppet heads that they put in place that will ensure their control of Maliki and his Shia-based regime that was put in place.

It creates this scenario that the US and their allies want, whereby there will be continued chaos and continued war within the region, and Iraq will not rise and become a powerful nation as it should with proper leadership and with proper guidance. That’s not been provided over the last decade, in which the Americans and their allies have controlled the region.

Press TV: Many people have blamed the United States and especially Saudi Arabia, an American ally, for even the fact that ISIL exists to begin with. Now that it does and now that the genie is out of the bottle, so to say, the Americans are trying to control the situation. Can they really be blamed for that? Because certainly a lot of regional countries as well as a lot of world countries are worried about what’s happening in Iraq.

Rickard: Absolutely Americans and their allies, that includes Israel, that includes Jordan, that includes Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the list goes on and on, the UK and Europe, these allies are absolutely responsible for this problem. Every one of the countries that is to blame. Very few people in their parliaments have spoken out against the massive support that’s been given these rebels.

These rebels were very well known to be operating in and out of Iraq and Turkey. Now that they’ve got some that have turned on them, you know, shame on them. Certainly they have every single ounce of responsibly for this. Their reaction to it is by far, basically, required, unfortunately.

But at the same time, they should be held accountable for their war crimes in their criminal warfare that they’ve been instigating in that area for well over five years and certainly over several decades if you want to go back into the multiplicity of wars that they’ve instigated in the region.

Press TV: Do you believe that there will be at any point in time accountability for the fact that ISIL even exists?

Rickard: Unfortunately not. They’ve created a scenario throughout the media campaign whereby they’ve given ISIL its own independence, and given its own sort of creation, and that’s nothing true about that.

They’ve created another al-Qaeda because they’ve said they destroyed al-Qaeda, but it’s just the boogeyman. We’re talking about less than 10,000 troops that are heavily armed now that they’ve obtained some arms out of northern Iraq, and they’re also heavily funded. They’ve increased their bank account by at least 100 percent with the pilfering of banks in Mosul.

Certainly they’ve going after…area because it’s really the headquarters of the center of operations for the Kurdish Regional Government. That’s become sort of their enemy. They’ve turned on their masters. (T/E01/IR)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)