23 Jan 2017

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Fully-funded Scholarship Programme 2017 – Netherlands

Application Deadline: April 2017. Participating institutions have different application deadlines. Please check the website of your desired school for individual deadline
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Countries: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman and Tunisia. 
To be taken at (country): The Netherlands
Accepted Subject Areas: You can use an MSP scholarship for a number of selected short courses in one of the following fields of study:
  • Economics
  • Commerce
  • Management and Accounting
  • Agriculture and Environment
  • Mathematics
  • Natural sciences and Computer sciences
  • Engineering
  • Law Public Administration
  • Public order and Safety
  • Humanities
  • Social sciences
  • Communication and Arts
About Scholarship: The MENA Scholarship Programme (MSP) enables professionals from ten selected countries to participate in a short course in the Netherlands. The overall aim of the MSP is to contribute to the democratic transition in the participating countries. It also aims at building capacity within organisations, by enabling employees to take part in short courses in various fields of study.
There are scholarships available for short courses with a duration of two to twelve weeks.
Target group:  The MSP target group consists of professionals, aged up to 45, who are nationals of and work in one of the selected countries.
Scholarships are awarded to individuals, but the need for training must be demonstrated within the context of the organisation for which the applicant works. The training must help the organisation develop its capacity. Therefore, applicants must be nominated by their employers who have to motivate their nomination in a supporting letter.
Selection Criteria: The candidates must be nationals of and working in one of the selected countries.
Who is qualified to apply:
  • must be a national of, and working and living in one of the countries on the MSP country list valid at the time of application;
  • must have an employer’s statement that complies with the format EP-Nuffic has provided. All information must be provided and all commitments that are included in the format must be endorsed in the statement;
  • must not be employed by an organisation that has its own means of staff-development. Organisations that are considered to have their own means for staff development are for example:
    • multinational corporations (e.g. Shell, Unilever, Microsoft),
    • large national and/or a large commercial organisations,
    • bilateral donor organisations (e.g. USAID, DFID, Danida, Sida, Dutch ministry of Foreign affairs, FinAid, AusAid, ADC, SwissAid),
    • multilateral donor organisations, (e.g. a UN organization, the World Bank, the IMF, Asian Development Bank, African Development Bank, IADB),
    • international NGO’s (e.g. Oxfam, Plan, Care);
  • must have an official and valid passport (valid at least three months after the candidate’s submission date);
  • must have a government statement that meets the requirements of the country in which the employer is established (if applicable);
  • must not be over 45 years of age at the time of the grant submission.
Number of Scholarship:  Several
Value: A MENA scholarship is a contribution to the costs of the selected short course and is intended to supplement the salary that the scholarship holder must continue to receive during the study period.
The following items are covered:
  • subsistence allowance
  • international travel costs
  • visa costs
  • course fee
  • medical insurance
  • allowance for study materials.
The allowances are considered to be sufficient to cover one person’s living expenses during the study period. The scholarship holders must cover any other costs from their own resources.
How to Apply: You need to apply directly at the Dutch higher education institution of your choice.
  1. Check whether you are in the abovementioned target groups.
  2. Check whether your employer will nominate you.
  3. An overview of the MSP courses available for the April 2017 deadline will be available in February 2017.
  4. Contact the Dutch higher education institution that offers the course of your choice to find out whether this course is eligible for an MSP scholarship and how to apply.
Sponsors: The MENA Scholarship Programme is initiated and fully funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Important Notes: MSP is not currently open to applicants applying from Syria. Applicants with the Syrian nationality may however apply if they are residing and working in one of the other selected MSP countries.
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Newton International Fellowships for Early-Career Scientists 2017

Application Deadline: 22nd March 2017.
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Countries:  Brazil, China, Mexico, South Africa, and Turkey.
To be taken at (country): UK
About the Award: The scheme provides the opportunity for the best early stage post-doctoral researchers from all over the world to work at UK research institutions for a period of two years.
The scheme covers the broad range of the natural and social sciences and the humanities. It also covers clinical and patient orientated research for applicants from Newton Fund partner countries.
The scheme is jointly run by the British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society. Currently there is one round per year which opens in January.
Type: Fellowship
Eligibility: To be eligible to apply you must:
  • have a PhD, or will have a PhD by the time the funding starts
  • have no more than 7 years of active full time postdoctoral experience at the time of application (discounting career breaks, but including teaching experience and/or time spent in industry)
  • be working outside the UK
  • not hold UK citizenship
  • be competent in oral and written English
  • have a clearly defined and mutually-beneficial research proposal agreed with a UK host scientist
Before applying, please ensure that you meet all the eligibility requirements, which are explained in the scheme notes.
Number of Awardees:  Not specified
Value of Fellowship: 
  • Newton Fellowships last for two years. Funding consists of £24,000 per annum for subsistence costs, and up to £8,000 per annum research expenses, as well as a one-off payment of up to £2,000 for relocation expenses.
  • Awards include a contribution to the overheads incurred, at a rate of 50% of the total award to the visiting researcher.
  • Applicants may also be eligible to receive up to £6,000 annually following the tenure of their Fellowship to support networking activities with UK-based researchers.
Duration of Fellowship: 2 years
How to Apply: Applications should be submitted through the Royal Society’s electronic grant application system (e-GAP). Applications are initially reviewed by two members of the Newton International Fellowships panel and then shortlisted. The applications are then reviewed again by the panel and the final decision is made.
Award Provider: British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society.
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Aga Khan Foundation Scholarship for Developing Countries (Masters & PhD) 2017/2018

Application Deadline: The annual deadline for submission of applications is March 31. In certain countries internal deadlines may be earlier
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Countries: The Foundation accepts applications from nationals of the following countries: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Madagascar and Mozambique. In France, Portugal, UK, USA and Canada, applications are accepted from those who are originally from one of the above developing countries, are interested in development-related studies and who have no other means of financing their education.
To be taken at (country): Anywhere. However, for the 2017/2018 application cycle, the Foundation is not able to accept applications from students planning to attend universities in UK, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, The Netherlands, Italy, Norway and Ireland.
Accepted Subject Areas? Masters and PhD focused areas are Architecture, Health, Civil Society, Planning & Building, Culture, Rural Development, Economic Development, Humanitarian Assistance, Education, Music.
About Scholarship: The Aga Khan Foundation provides a limited number of scholarships each year for postgraduate studies to outstanding students from developing countries who have no other means of financing their studies. Scholarships are awarded on a 50% grant : 50% loan basis through a competitive application process once a year in June or July.
The Foundation gives priority to requests for Master’s level courses but is also willing to consider applications for PhD programmes, when doctoral degrees are necessary for the career objectives of the student. Requests will also be considered for travel and study awards for PhD students doing their research in Third World countries on topics judged to be of interest to the Aga Khan Development Network. Applications for short-term courses are not considered; neither are applications from students who have already started their course of study.
Type: Masters and PhD Scholarships and loan
Selection Criteria and Eligibility: The main criteria for selecting award winners are:
  1. excellent academic records,
  2. genuine financial need,
  3. admission to a reputable institution of higher learning and
  4. thoughtful and coherent educational and career plans.
Candidates are also evaluated on their extra-curricular interests and achievements, potential to achieve their goals and likelihood to succeed in a foreign academic environment. Applicants are expected to have some years of work experience in their field of interest.
Preference is given to students under 30 years of age.
Number of Scholarships: A limited number of scholarship will be available
Value of Scholarship
The Foundation assists students with tuition fees and living expenses only. The cost of travel is not included in AKF scholarships. Applicants are requested to make every effort to obtain funding from other sources as well, so that the amount requested from the Foundation can be reduced to a minimum. Preference is given to those who have been able to secure some funding from alternative sources.
Loan Conditions
Half of the scholarship amount is considered as a loan, which must be reimbursed with an annual service charge of 5%. A guarantor is required to co-sign the loan agreement. The payback period is five years, starting six months after the study period funded by the Aga Khan Foundation.
How long will sponsorship last? For the duration of the degree programme

How to Apply
The application procedures of AKF’s International Scholarship Programme are decentralized. Students may obtain application forms as of January 1st each year from AKF offices or Aga Khan Education Services / Boards in their countries of current residence.
Completed applications should be returned to the agency from which the form was obtained, or to the address indicated on the front of the form. They should not be sent to Geneva.
Visit Scholarship Webpage for Details
Sponsors: Aga Khan Foundation
Important Notes:
Applicants should be prepared to be interviewed by local Scholarship Committees about their financial situation, their academic performance, extra-curricular achievements and career plans. Interview reports are sent with the applications to Geneva for the final selection.
The annual Scholarship Selection Meeting takes place in late June or early July and the Aga Khan Foundation notifies all students of the outcome of their application shortly thereafter.
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East Africa Social Science Translation (EASST) Visiting Fellowship for East African Students 2017

Application Deadline: 31st March 2017.
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, or Rwanda
To be taken at (country): USA
About Scholarship: In Spring 2017, EASST will host its sixth annual Visiting Fellowship application. The EASST Visiting Fellowship seeks to equip East African social scientists with the skills needed to carry out rigorous evaluations of social or economic development projects in East Africa. During a four-month fellowship, researchers will be based at the University of California, Berkeley during the Fall academic semester (approximately August 20 – December 20, 2017).
Type: Research, Visiting Fellowship
Who is qualified to apply?
  • Be a resident of an East African country participating in EASST (i.e. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, or Rwanda);
  • Have a PhD or Masters (completed within the last 5 years), or be enrolled in a doctoral program, in economics, statistics, epidemiology/public health, or other social science discipline;
  • Have conducted an impact evaluation study (either randomized or quasi–experimental), or have an interest in micro-level data collection and quantitative analysis;
  • Should hold a staff position at a research institution, university or other recognized national institution in East Africa that has an element of quantitative social science research;
  • Will return to a university or research institute in East Africa for at least 1 year after the fellowship;
  • Be computer literate and fluent in English.
Number of Awards: Several
What are the fellowship benefits? Fellows receive a living stipend, round-trip economy class air travel to Berkeley, CA, and the opportunity to receive seed funding promote impact evaluation at their home institution in East Africa.
Duration of Fellowship: Fall academic semester (approximately August 20 – December 20, 2017).


How to Apply: To apply, please review application information available through the Request for Applications, below. All materials should be submitted using the online platform in the Submittable link below
Sponsors: The East Africa Social Science Translation (EASST) Collaborative
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University of Bridgeport Global Leader of Tomorrow (Fully-funded) Scholarships for International Students 2017/2018 – USA

Application Deadline: 1st April, 2017
Eligible Countries: International
To be taken at (country): Connecticut, USA
Type: Undergraduate
Eligibility: Applicants must demonstrate full English language proficiency, and possess the equivalent of a 3.5 Grade Point Average (GPA) or higher on a scale of 4.
Selection Criteria: Students will be selected on the basis of their academic performance in their secondary school studies and through a nomination provided by the student’s high school counselor or the local EducationUSA advisor. Nominations from other sources will not be accepted.
Final selection will be made based on the student’s potential for growth, academic performance, community involvement, and leadership, as demonstrated through academic transcripts, test scores, the counselor’s letter of nomination, and the student-authored supplementary essay.
Number of Awardees: Not specified
Value of Scholarship: The Global Leaders of Tomorrow Full Scholarship will cover:
  • the full cost of tuition and fees
  • cost of room and board in an on-campus residency hall for the duration of four years of undergraduate studies for first-time freshman students
Students receiving this scholarship are required to:
  • pay a minimal housing fee each semester
  • enroll in and pay for the University of Bridgeport’s mandatory health insurance
Duration of Scholarship: 4 years
How to Apply: Students must personally apply directly to the University of Bridgeport. Applications submitted through a third party will not be considered for the Global Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship.
Award Provider: University of Bridgeport
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WMF Empowerment Through Education Scholarships for Developing Country Students

Wells Mountain FoundationBachelor’s Degree
Deadline: 1 April 2017 (annual)
Study in: any developing country
Course starts 2017



Brief description:
The Wells Mountain Foundation, through the Empowerment Through Education (ETE) program, provides undergraduate scholarships to developing country nationals to study in their home country or a neighboring country.
The Foundation believes in the power and importance of community service; therefore, all scholarship participants are required to volunteer for a minimum of 100 hours a year.
Host Institution(s):
Your choice of institution in your home country or in another developing country
Level/Field(s) of study:
Bachelor’s Degree in any field of study but applications are encouraged from those interested in pursuing degrees that will best help their local communities – medicine & health sciences, community development, law, education, social work, business, information technology, agriculture and engineering.
Number of Scholarships:
About 10-30 scholarships per year.
Target group:
Citizens of developing countries
Scholarship value/duration:
ETE scholarships range from $300 USD to $3000 USD annually and are provided throughout the undergraduate education of the recipient. The average scholarship amount is $1400. Scholarships may be used for tuition and fees, books and materials, and room rent.
Eligibility:
WMF’s ideal candidate is a student, male or female, from a country in the developing world, who:
• Successfully completed a secondary education, with good  to excellent grades
• Will be studying in their country or another country in the developing world
• Plans to live and work in their own country after they graduate
• Has volunteered prior to applying for this scholarship and/or is willing to volunteer while  receiving the WMF scholarship
• May have some other funds available for their education, but will not be able to go to school without a scholarship
Application instructions:
To apply for the Empowerment Through Education (ETE) program, you must submit a complete application via the online scholarship application portal (preferred method) or via postal mail to the Foundation’s office. The 2017 Empowerment Through Education online application will be available from 1 December 2016 to 1 April 2017.
It is important to visit the official website (link found below) to access the application form and for detailed information on how to apply for this scholarship.
Website:
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Rotary Peace Fellowships

Rotary InternationalMasters/Certificate
Deadline: 31 May 2017 (annual)
Study in: USA, Japan, UK, Australia, Sweden, Thailand
Course starts 2018



Brief description:
Each year, Rotary selects up to 100 individuals from around the world to receive fully funded academic fellowships to pursue a Professional Development Certificate Program or Masters Degree Program related to peace and conflict resolution and prevention at one of the participating peace centers around the world (USA, Japan, UK, Australia, Sweden, Thailand)
Host Institution(s):
•  , England
•  , Australia
•  , Sweden
•  , Thailand (certificate program)
Level/Field of study:
Professional Development Certificate Program or Masters Degree Program in fields related to peace and conflict resolution and prevention
Target group:
Anyone endorsed by their local Rotary Club/District.
No. of Scholarships:
Up to 50 fellowships for master’s degree and 50 for certificate studies are awarded each year.
Scholarship value/inclusions:
The fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all internship and field-study expenses.
Eligibility:
The Rotary Peace Fellowship is designed for professionals with work experience in international relations or peace and conflict prevention and resolution. Applicants must also meet the following requirements:
• Proficiency in English; proficiency in a second language is strongly recommended
• Strong commitment to international understanding and peace as demonstrated through professional and academic achievements and personal or community service
• Excellent leadership skills
• Master’s degree applicants: minimum three years of related full-time work or volunteer experience, bachelor’s degree
• Certificate applicants: minimum five years of related full-time work or volunteer experience, strong academic background
Application instructions:
The deadline for candidates to submit applications to their respective Rotary district is 31 May. Districts must submit endorsed applications to The Rotary Foundation by 1 July.
It is important to read the complete application instructions and visit the official website (link found below) for detailed information on how to apply for this scholarship.
Website:
Official Scholarship Website: https://www.rotary.org/en/peace-fellowships
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Development and India: Why GM Mustard Really Matters

Colin Todhunter

The push to commercialise the growing of genetically modified (GM) mustard in India is currently held up in court due to a lawsuit by Aruna Rodrigues. The next hearing is due in February. Rodrigues has indicated at length that, to date, procedures and tests have been corrupted by fraudulent practices, conflicts of interests and gross regulatory delinquency.
Dr Deepak Pental, lead researcher into the crop at Delhi University, has now conceded that the GM mustard in question has not even been tested against varieties of non-GM mustard for better yields. That seems very strange given that the main argument for introducing GM mustard is to increase productivity in order to reduce edible oils imports (a wholly bogus argument in the first place).
All of this should in itself provide sufficient cause for concern and have alarm bells ringing. It raises the question: what then is the point of GM mustard? 
Consider too that the drive to get India’s first GM food crop into the field and on the market also goes against the recommendations of four high-level reports that have advised against the adoption of these crops in India: The ‘Jairam Ramesh Report’ of February 2010, imposing an indefinite moratorium on Bt Brinjal; The ‘Sopory Committee Report’ (August 2012); The ‘Parliamentary Standing Committee’ (PSC) Report on GM crops (August 2012); and The ‘Technical Expert Committee (TEC) Final Report’ (June-July 2013).
These reports conclude that GM crops are unsuitable for India and that existing proper biosafety and regulatory procedures are inadequate. Appointed by the Supreme Court, the TEC was scathing about the regulatory system prevailing in India, highlighting its inadequacies and inherent serious conflicts of interest. The TEC recommended a 10-year moratorium on commercial release of GM crops. The PSC also arrived at similar conclusions.
It might seem perplexing that the current Modi-led administration seems to be accelerating the drive for GM given that the BJP manifesto stated: “GM foods will not be allowed without full scientific evaluation on the long-term effects on soil, production and biological impact on consumers.” Yet none of this has occurred.
According to eminent lawyer Prashant Bhushan, these official reports attest to just how negligent and unconcerned India’s regulators are with regard to the risks of GMO contamination. They also attest to a serious lack of expertise on GM issues within official circles.
It now clear that placing GM crops on the commercial market in the first place (in the US) was based on the subversion or bypassing of science and that their introduction poses a risk to food security, human health and animal, plants and soil as well as the environment in general.
In India, the only commercialised GM crop (bt cotton) is a failing technology that has severely impacted farmers’ livelihoods.
As bad as all of this might seem, the real significance of GM mustard lies in the fact it could be India’s first GM food crop. In this sense, it should be regarded as a pioneering crop that would open the doors to a range of other GM food crops that are currently in the pipeline for testing.
GM provides a handful of companies with an ideal tool for securing intellectual property rights over seeds (and chemical inputs) and thus gaining corporate control over farming and agriculture. Despite the GMO industry saying that GM should be but one method within a mix, evidence indicates that this is impractical due to cross-contamination and that corporations and their mouthpieces are seeking to denigrate/replace existing food production practices in order to secure greater control over global agriculture. In effect, the only reason for imposing GM crops on India seems to be to facilitate corporate imperialism.
The issue of GM mustard is not only about a crop but is central to a development paradigm that wants to see a fully urbanised India with a small fraction of people left in agriculture and living in the countryside.
US companies and Washington, via the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture, are driving the agenda. Does India want to mirror what is effectively a disastrous US model of agriculture? If this is the case, it is highly disturbing, given that it is an unsustainable taxpayer-subsidised sector that has produced a range of social, environmental and health costs outlined in that last link.
We must therefore ask: does India want denutrified food, increasingly monolithic diets, the massive use of agrochemicals, food contaminated by hormones, steroids, antibiotics and a wide range of chemical additives, spiralling rates of ill health, degraded soil, contaminated and depleted water supplies and a cartel of seed, chemicals and food processing companies that seek to secure control over the global food production and supply chain to provide people with low-grade but highly profitable food products?
Things do not look good. A recent UN report said that by 2030, Delhi’s population will be 37 million. In 1991, it was just over 9.4 million. Such rapid, ongoing urbanisation will eat up highly productive farmland on the edges of cities and will place smallholder farmers under even more duress. Quoted in The Guardian, the report’s principal authors, Felix Creutzig, says:
“The emerging mega-cities will rely increasingly on industrial-scale agricultural and supermarket chains, crowding out local food chains.”
In India, the push to drive at least 400 million from the land and into cities is already underway at the behest of the World Bank: a World Bank that is, under the guise of ‘enabling the business of agriculture’, committed to opening up economies to corporate seeds and agrochemicals and securing global supply chains for transnational agribusiness from field to plate.
The drive is to entrench industrial farming, commercialise the countryside and to replace small-scale farming: small-scale farming that is the backbone of food production in India (and globally) and which is more productive than industrialised agriculture, more sustainable and capable of producing more diverse, nutrient- dense diets. Contrast this with what Green Revolution technologies and ideology has already done to India, including the degradation of its water, its soils and its people’s health (see this and this).
Contrast it with an industrial farming that would bring with it all the problems outlined above. And an industrial farming that would destroy hundreds of millions of livelihoods with little guarantee of work for those whose productive system is to be displaced by that which is to be imposed by the likes of Cargill, Monsanto/Bayer and other corporate entities that fuel industrial agriculture.
The issue of GM mustard is part of a drive that seeks to restructure India to benefit foreign capital; a process that regards as being India ripe for a 30-trillion-dollar corporate hijack.
Food and trade policy analyst Devinder Sharma describes the situation:
“India is on fast track to bring agriculture under corporate control… Amending the existing laws on land acquisition, water resources, seed, fertilizer, pesticides and food processing, the government is in overdrive to usher in contract farming and encourage organized retail. This is exactly as per the advice of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well as the international financial institutes.”
Dr Pental’s GM mustard has roots that trace its origins back to Bayer. Mr Modi, Arvind Subramanian (Chief Economic Advisor to the Indian government) and former governor of the Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan also have roots that can be traced back to Washington, the IMF and the World Bank.
There is an agenda for India. An agenda that regards the peasantry, small farms and India’s rural-based traditions, cultures and village-level systems of food production/processing as backward, as an impediment to ‘progress’. An agenda that regards alternative approaches to agriculture that have been advocated by numerous high-level reports as a hindrance: approaches that would in effect build on and develop the current rural infrastructure and not eradicate it.
There is a push to displace the current productive system with a corporate-controlled model geared towards the maximisation of profit and the erosion of existing deeply-embedded and culturally relevant social relations. For all the fraud and corruption surrounding GM mustard, this alone should convince any bystanders to question the ongoing drive – against all the recommendations – to introduce GM food crops to India.
Finally, none of this is about being ‘anti-GMO’. It is about understanding and challenging the politics of GM and development. Wealthy corporations are flexing their financial and political muscle and are effectively hijacking public institutions for their own ends by slanting, science, politics, policies and regulation (these claims are discussed here,and here). It should not be about whether we are pro-GMO or anti-GMO. It is more the case of whether we are anti-corruption and pro-democratic.
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An Al-Qaeda Attack in Mali: Just Another Ripple of the Endless, Bogus “War on Terror”

Gary Leupp

AP reports that a group linked to al-Qaida’s North Africa branch, al-Mourabitoun, has claimed responsibility for an attack last week on a camp in northern Mali used by government troops and former rebels, killing 71 and wounding 115. The government has proclaimed three days of mourning.
Inquiring minds wants to know: how is it that al-Qaeda, perhaps a few thousand strong in 2001when it enjoyed a foothold in Afghanistan, with cells around the world but no territory and no significant impact elsewhere, sixteen years later (despite trillions spent to defeat al-Qaeda) now controls swathes of territory in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya and—but for French intervention—could control northern Mali? Why has its spin-off ISIL been even more effective in carving out an Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, erasing the colonial border?
The facts are:
(1) the U.S./NATO-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 did not weaken al-Qaeda, which found new refuge in Pakistan, but merely produced an endless conflict between the warlord-based puppet regime and the Taliban;
(2) the Iraq War beginning in 2003, based on the lies that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and close links to al-Qaeda, and the harsh policies of the occupation regime towards the Sunni minority, produced a golden opportunity for al-Qaeda to—for the first time—establish a base in Anbar Province and exploit Sunni-Shiite tensions to expand its influence in Iraq, then Syria;
(3) a faction of al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria broke off to form ISIL and establish capitals in Raqqa, Syria and Mosul, Iraq;
(4) U.S. (and Turkish, Qatari and Saudi) efforts to topple the secular government of Assad, in their inability to recruit actual “moderate” Syrian fighters unwilling or unable do to their weakness to cut ties with the al-Qaeda franchise called al-Nusra, has resulted in strengthening the group that now calls itself Fateh al-Sham;
(5) U.S. sabotage of a promising U.S.-Russian plan for a ceasefire in Syria by an attack last Sept. 17 on an army camp near Deir Ezzor, killing 62 government  troops doing battle with ISIL, has paved the way for the likely ISIL conquest of Deir Ezzor, even as Palmyra (once liberated with Russian help) is once again under ISIL’s control, more of its precious monuments pulverized by the bloody thugs;
(6) the U.S./NATO unprovoked attack on Libya in 2011 sowed chaos in that country and the region, providing al-Qaeda one more opportunity to establish a foothold there for the first time, and to expand into the Sahel;
(7) U.S. insistence on regime change in Yemen in 2011 threw that country into turmoil, invited a brutal Saudi invasion and provided new opportunities for al-Qaeda expansion (including the conquest of the port of Mukkala);
(8) U.S. interventions in the Middle East and North Africa have sent over a million refugees into Europe, who include terrorists from both al-Qaeda and ISIL, producing fear huge social tensions;
(9) U.S. actions, ostensibly against al-Qaeda, in both Iraq and Syria, have not quelled al-Qaeda and ISIL but encouraged Kurdish nationalism and separatism in Iraq and Syria, pitting the U.S. squarely against its NATO ally Turkey, which fears Kurdish separatism at home, and also pitting Ankara against the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad, paving the way for confrontations in northern Iraq in the future (between U.S. allies);
(10) the destruction of the modern secular Iraqi state, justified by its (fake news) al-Qaeda associations, has empowered Shiites in Iraq, aligned informally with Shiites in Syria, Lebanon, and especially Iran—viewed by the key U.S. ally in the region (the Sunni theocracy of Saudi Arabia) as a state run by dangerous heretics, threatening the position of Sunni Islam in majority Shiite but Sunni-ruled Bahrain, Yemen (where Shiite Houthis continue to control the capital of Sana despite savage Saudi bombardment), and Saudi Arabia itself (where Shiites preponderate in the oil-rich eastern province); it has produced a general Sunni-Shiite (and Saudi-Iranian) confrontation few in Washington are equipped to understand.
In sum: disaster after disaster have accompanied the open-ended “War on Terror” proclaimed by the U.S. after the 9/11 attacks. Al-Qaeda has grown and creatively broadened its terror activities, in no small part by using social media to encourage independent solo actions. European cities live in fear from Islamist terrorist attacks far more than they did 2001. The military position of the Taliban (the indigenous jihadi organization whose ties to al-Qaeda were always exaggerated by the press) in Afghanistan is stronger than at any time since 2001. ISIL continues to hold Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa and Palmyra (tragic Palmyra, being blown up as we speak) in Syria.
The car bombing near Gao, Mali on January 18 was declared by al-Qaeda’s al-Mourabitoun chapter as “punishment for [Mali’s] cooperation with France.” But isn’t it also punishment for those responsible for War-Based-on-Lies in 2003, that France actually opposed—the neocons in Washington with their grand scheme for the reconfiguration of the Middle East, to better service U.S. imperialism and the needs of its Israeli junior partner?
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