Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܐ; Kurdish: سوریه, Sûrî), officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest. A country of fertile plains, high mountains and deserts, it is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Turks, Christians, Druze, Alawite Shias and Arab Sunnis. The latter make up the majority of the population.
In English, the name "Syria" was formerly synonymous with the Levant (known in Arabic as al-Sham) while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the third millennium BC. In the Islamicera, its capital city, Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate, and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.
The modern Syrian state was established after the First World War as a French mandate, and represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Arab Levant. It gained independence in April 1946, as a parliamentary republic. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a large number of military coups and coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949–1971. Between 1958 and 1961, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt, which was terminated by a military coup. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, and its system of government is considered to be non-democratic. Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1971.
Syria is a member of one International organization other than the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement; it is currently suspended from the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and self suspended from the Union for the Mediterranean.
Since March 2011, Syria has been embroiled in civil war in the wake of uprisings (considered an extension of the Arab Spring, the mass movement of revolutions and protests in the Arab world) against Assad and the neo-Ba'athist government and, as a result of the Syrian civil war, the government gradually lost control over most of Syria to the Rebel groups of the Free Syrian Army and other groups including Al-Nusra Front, analternative government that was formed by the opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition, in March 2012. Representatives of this government were subsequently invited to take up Syria's seat at the Arab League. HERE
The opposition coalition has been recognised as the "sole representative of the Syrian people" by several nations including the United States, United Kingdom and France
Israel Hints at New Strikes, Warning Syria Not to Hit Back
By MARK LANDLER
Published: May 15, 2013
WASHINGTON — In a clear warning to Syria to stop the transfer of advanced weapons to Islamic militants in the region, a senior Israeli official signaled on Wednesday that Israel was considering additional military strikes to prevent that from happening and that the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, would face crippling consequences if he retaliated.“Israel is determined to continue to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah,” the Israeli official said. “The transfer of such weapons to Hezbollah will destabilize and endanger the entire region.”“If Syrian President Assad reacts by attacking Israel, or tries to strike Israel through his terrorist proxies,” the official said, “he will risk forfeiting his regime, for Israel will retaliate.”The Israeli official, who had been briefed by high-level officials on Israel’s assessment of the situation in Syria, declined to be identified, citing the need to protect internal Israeli government deliberations. He contacted The New York Times on Wednesday.The precise motives for Israel’s warning were uncertain: Israel could be seeking to restrain Syria’s behavior to avoid taking further military action, or alerting other countries to another military strike. That would increase the tension in an already fraught situation in Syria, where a civil war has been raging for more than two years.There could be a secondary audience for the warning, analysts said, in Hezbollah and its primary supporter, Iran. Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon, has said in recent days it could use weapons supplied by Iran to retaliate for recent Israeli strikes on Syria.Nearly two weeks ago, Israeli warplanes carried out two strikes in Syria, the first hitting bases of Syria’s elite Republican Guard and storehouses of long-range missiles, in addition to a military research center that American officials have called the country’s main chemical weapons site.A more limited strike on May 3 at Damascus International Airport was also meant to destroy weapons being sent from Iran to Hezbollah. The Israeli government did not confirm either of the attacks, which followed another earlier this year.The Syrian government publicly condemned Israel for the assaults, saying it “opened the door to all possibilities.” The Syrian deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, declared, “We will respond immediately and harshly to any additional attack by Israel.”Mr. Assad and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, have each said in recent days that the Israeli-Syrian border, which has been relatively quiet despite the more than two years of civil war inside Syria, could become a “resistance front,” in response to Israeli attacks.On Wednesday, mortar shells, fired from across the Syrian border, landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The shells landed on Mount Hermon, a popular tourist site, and were the latest in a series of what Israel has generally considered errant fire from internal Syrian fighting.Israel did not fire back, as it had on several previous occasions, but it closed Mount Hermon to the public for several hours during a Jewish holiday on which hiking in the Golan is popular.In his comments, the Israeli official said that “Israel has so far refrained from intervening in Syria’s civil war and will maintain this policy as long as Assad refrains from attacking Israel directly or indirectly.”“Israel,” he said, “will continue its policy of interdicting attempts to strengthen Hezbollah, but will not intercede in the Syrian civil war as long as Assad desists from direct or indirect attacks against Israel.”Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, declined to discuss the meaning of the Israeli official’s statement. “We’re not going to comment on the story,” he said.American and Israeli political analysts agree that Israel has little motive to intervene in Syria’s civil war, but that it is deeply concerned about the transfer of advanced weapons, as well as the danger that Mr. Assad’s stockpiles of chemical weapons could be used against it.Amos Yadlin, Israel’s former military intelligence chief who now directs the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said that the timing of the warning could have been linked to intelligence Israel had received about something it wanted to prevent.That, he said, could be a Syrian intention to react, albeit belatedly, to the recent airstrikes on its soil, an imminent shipment of weapons to Hezbollah, or signs of action by Syrian proxies in the Golan Heights.Mr. Yadlin said that, aside from Mr. Assad, Russia could be another intended recipient for the Israeli official’s message. Two of the weapons systems that Israel has identified as game-changing “red line weapons” — SA-17 antiaircraft weapons and Yakhont shore-to-sea missiles — were supplied by the Russians, he added. The convoy that Israeli warplanes struck in January was carrying SA-17 antiaircraft weapons.A Western diplomatic official who works in the region said that after the recent airstrikes, Israel had sent a similar message to Mr. Assad through back channels — probably Russia — saying it was not attacking his government but would do so if he retaliated. Perhaps, this official said, Jerusalem now wanted to broadcast the message publicly because the real audience is Iran and Hezbollah, whose leaders have been among the loudest threatening responses.“It’s probably doubling down on the message to make sure it’s known to him and the others,” he said, also on the condition he not be named because of the delicacy of the situation. “Maybe some of the others who are calling on him to respond but also have an interest in him surviving would hear it better from this channel than other channels. Maybe it’s more directed at Iran and Hezbollah than it is at Syria.”As for whether the timing of the statement indicated an imminent strike, this official said, “I wouldn’t think they would telegraph a punch like that so publicly.”Jodi Rudoren and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:Correction: May 15, 2013An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of Hassan Nasrallah.
Syria conflict: US and UK pledge to bolster opposition
13 May 2013
The US and the UK say they will work to strengthen the moderate opposition in Syria and create a transitional body to replace President Bashar al-Assad.US President Barack Obama said such a body would be the goal of a meeting in Geneva in "the coming weeks".The US recently won Russian support for the conference.British Prime Minister David Cameron, in Washington for talks, said there was an "urgent window of opportunity before the worst fears are realised" in Syria.Since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule began more than two years ago, at least 70,000 people are believed to have been killed and more than 1.2 million are living outside Syria as refugees.The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at the weekend that more than 80,000 people had died, a figure cited by Mr Cameron on Monday.'Onslaught'Mr Cameron arrived in the US from Russia, where he had discussed the Syrian crisis with President Vladimir Putin.On Tuesday, in a press conference following talks with Mr Obama, he said he welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin's agreement to join an effort to achieve a political solution to the Syrian crisis."There's no more urgent international task than this. We need to get Syrians to the table to agree a transitional government that can win the consent of all of the Syrian people," he said.But he added: "There will be no political progress unless the opposition is able to withstand the onslaught and put pressure on Assad so he knows there is no military victory."Mr Cameron said he had not made a decision to arm the Syrian opposition, but cited the UK's push for further flexibility in the EU's arms embargo on Syria.He also referred to an earlier pledge to double non-lethal support to the Syrian opposition over the coming year, including armoured vehicles, body armour and generators."I do believe that there is more we can do alongside technical advice, assistance, help, in order to shape them, in order to work with them," Mr Cameron said.Chemical weaponsMr Obama said the US would work to increase pressure on Mr Assad, provide humanitarian aid, support the moderate opposition and prepare Syria for a democratic transition."Meanwhile, we'll continue to work to establish the facts around the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and those facts will help guide our next steps," he added.Both the UK and the US have spoken of growing evidence that the Syrian government have used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin.Mr Obama had previously warned that such a development was a "red line" for possible intervention,The BBC's North America editor Mark Mardell says the US and Europe are "slowly inching towards arming the rebels" - a complicated move, because there are many different rebel groups, some of which are hostile to the West.Mr Putin has been portrayed as one of the main obstacles preventing Western countries taking a stronger line on Syria.Last week, however, the US claimed a breakthrough when the Russian leader agreed to the international peace conference on Syria, which would involve representatives of both the government and the opposition.But details of who would attend this conference are vague, and no date has been set.
May 9, 2013
Daniel Taylor
Infowars.comSecretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced earlier this month that the White House was“rethinking” its opposition to arming Syrian rebels.Since then, Senator Robert Menendez has introduced legislation to “…allow the U.S. to provide arms, military training and non-lethal aid to the rebels.”But wait a minute, didn’t we hear reports of this already? The alternative media has pointed out that the Benghazi incident points to a larger operation that the Obama administration is not eager to reveal. The Wall Street Journal reported in November of last year, “The U.S. effort in Benghazi was at its heart a CIA operation.”What was this operation? According to the Business Insider, it involved sending heavy armaments including mortars, rocket propelled grenades and heat seeking missiles to Syrian rebels. Many of these fighters are openly linked to Al-Qaeda.As a side note, take a minute to read this 2002 article from the Washington Post describing the U.S. government effort to radicalize Afghan schoolchildren from the late 80′s to early 90′s. Millions were spent on textbooks filled with radical Islamic teachings meant to militarize a generation to fight the Soviet Union. As of 2002, the books were reported to be in continued circulation.Perhaps the White House – in “rethinking” its opposition to arming Syrian rebels – is seeking retroactive justification for what it has already done. Regardless, the operation has succeeded in planting the seeds of war which may soon force this issue into the memory hole.Daniel Taylor’s website is Old-thinker News.
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May 9, 2013
Fighters being treated in field hospitals and sent back to
front lines
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Infowars.com
Israel is sending military vehicles into Syria to pick up wounded Al-Qaeda terrorists involved in the fight against the Syrian Army before patching them up and sending them back into battle, another startling example of how the Zionist state is working with its supposedly sworn enemies to topple President Bashar Al-Assad.That’s a not a claim being made by Iranian or Syrian state media, it’s calmly admitted in a report by the staunchly pro-Israel DebkaFile.“Israel has set up a large field hospital near the Tel Hazakah observation and military post on Golan which overlooks southern Syria and northern Jordan. There, incoming Syrian war wounded are vetted and examined by Israeli army medics who decide whether to patch them up and send them back, or judge them badly hurt enough for hospital care. The seriously hurt are moved to one of the the nearest Israeli hospitals in Safed or Haifa,” states the report.The report notes that the wounded fighters are probably being rescued by unmarked “Israeli army vehicles” that are “entering Syria to pick up injured rebels.”In addition to the latest information, an AFP report from March also documented how the IDF had set up a “military field hospital” at army outpost 105 in the Golan Heights in order to rescue and treat FSA fighters.By treating and rehabilitating wounded FSA militants and Al-Qaeda terrorists, Israel is aiding the very same rebels who have burned Israeli flags in public and vowed to crush the Zionist regime once they are finished toppling Bashar Al-Assad.Multiple reports now confirm that the primary frontline militants in Syria fighting against Assad’s forces are members of the Al-Qaeda group Jabhat al-Nusra which “killed numerous American troops in Iraq,” and is now leading western-backed rebel forces in Syria. After the organization was declared a terrorist group by the US State Department, 29 different US-backed Syrian opposition groups pledged their allegiance to al-Nusra.The DebkaFile report admits that Jabhat al-Nusra fighters are now heavily concentrated, “in the 8 sq. km separation zone on the Golan” from where the Israeli military is rescuing them for medical treatment.According to Egyptian and Jordanian intelligence sources, Israel’s air strike on Syria was this past weekend was also timed to precede an Al-Qaeda-led rebel offensive against President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces, who had been scoring major military victories up until that point.A May 8 London Guardian report notes how Jabhat al-Nusra is “emerging as the best-equipped, financed and motivated force fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” and how droves of FSA fighters are now joining its ranks.Attempts by the west to make a distinction between FSA rebels and Al-Qaeda terrorists in order to justify shipments of heavy weaponry are becoming increasingly discredited given the fact that Jabhat al-Nusra is now easily the most dominant fighting force, meeting “every day” with FSA rebels and training them how to build car bombs. As al-Nusra’s influence has grown, so have the number of atrocities, from sectarian murders, to beheadings, to terrorist attacks targeting schools and other civilian infrastructure.Tel Aviv’s support for Al-Qaeda makes little sense until one accepts the fact that both the US and Israel routinely exploit the presence of Al-Qaeda militants in any given region as a pretext for military intervention, whether those militants are fighting on the same side, as in Libya and Syria, or on the opposite side as in Mali.The United States and Israel have also armed and funded Al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Iran to carry out bombings and assassinations for years.NATO powers also openly armed and funded the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Libyan Islamic FIghting Group to topple Colonel Gaddafi in 2011, a policy that directly contributed to the assault on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi (which itself was likely a cover for clandestine arms shipments to Syrian rebels).It was also recently revealed that the State Department hired Al-Qaeda-linked militants to “defend” the diplomatic mission in Benghazi that was later attacked. State Department officials who blocked efforts to help Americans under assault later tried to hide Al-Qaeda’s involvement in the attack.Not only has Israel supported Al-Qaeda-led rebels in Syria, but back in 2002 Israel was caught actually creating an Al-Qaeda group in order to justify attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.The west’s narrative in Syria, that the fight against Assad is an organic uprising of oppressed Syrians, has been completely decimated despite the best efforts of the establishment media to maintain the myth.Now that it is becoming abundantly clear that the US, UK and Israel are directly supporting Al-Qaeda terrorists in order to achieve a long planned regime change, NATO powers are scrambling to arm the rebels before their last shreds of legitimacy are torn asunder.
May 8, 2013
Mona Mahmood and Ian Black
guardian.co.uk
guardian.co.uk
May 8, 2013The flag of the Islamist rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra flying over the main square of the city of Raqqa in Syria. Photograph: ReutersSyria's main armed opposition group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), is losing fighters and capabilities to Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist organisation with links to al-Qaida that is emerging as the best-equipped, financed and motivated force fighting Bashar al-Assad's regime.Evidence of the growing strength of al-Nusra, gathered from Guardian interviews with FSA commanders across Syria, underlines the dilemma for the US, Britain and other governments as they ponder the question of arming anti-Assad rebels.John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said that if negotiations went ahead between the Syrian government and the opposition – as the US and Russia proposed on Tuesday – "then hopefully [arming the Syrian rebels] would not be necessary".The agreement between Washington and Moscow creates a problem for the UK and France, which have proposed lifting or amending the EU arms embargo on Syria to help anti-Assad forces. The Foreign Office welcomed the agreement as a "potential step forward" but insisted: "Assad and his close associates have lost all legitimacy. They have no place in the future of Syria." Opposition leaders were sceptical about prospects for talks if Assad remained in power.Illustrating their plight, FSA commanders say that entire units have gone over to al-Nusra while others have lost a quarter or more of their strength to them recently."Fighters feel proud to join al-Nusra because that means power and influence," said Abu Ahmed, a former teacher from Deir Hafer who now commands an FSA brigade in the countryside near Aleppo. "Al-Nusra fighters rarely withdraw for shortage of ammunition or fighters and they leave their target only after liberating it," he added. "They compete to carry out martyrdom [suicide] operations."Abu Ahmed and others say the FSA has lost fighters to al-Nusra in Aleppo, Hama, Idlib and Deir al-Zor and the Damascus region. Ala'a al-Basha, commander of the Sayyida Aisha brigade, warned the FSA chief of staff, General Salim Idriss, about the issue last month. Basha said 3,000 FSA men have joined al-Nusra in the last few months, mainly because of a lack of weapons and ammunition. FSA fighters in the Banias area were threatening to leave because they did not have the firepower to stop the massacre in Bayda, he said.The FSA's Ahrar al-Shimal brigade joined al-Nusra en masse while the Sufiyan al-Thawri brigade in Idlib lost 65 of its fighters to al-Nusra a few months ago for lack of weapons. According to one estimate the FSA has lost a quarter of all its fighters.Al-Nusra has members serving undercover with FSA units so they can spot potential recruits, according to Abu Hassan of the FSA's al-Tawhid Lions brigade.Ideology is another powerful factor. "Fighters are heading to al-Nusra because of its Islamic doctrine, sincerity, good funding and advanced weapons," said Abu Islam of the FSA's al-Tawhid brigade in Aleppo. "My colleague who was fighting with the FSA's Ahrar Suriya asked me: 'I'm fighting with Ahrar Suriya brigade, but I want to know if I get killed in a battle, am I going to be considered as a martyr or not?' It did not take him long to quit FSA and join al-Nusra. He asked for a sniper rifle and got one immediately."FSA commanders say they have suffered from the sporadic nature of arms supplies. FSA fighter Adham al-Bazi told the Guardian from Hama: "Our main problem is that what we get from abroad is like a tap. Sometimes it's turned on, which means weapons are coming and we are advancing, then, all of a sudden, the tap dries up, and we stop fighting or even pull out of our positions."The US, which has outlawed al-Nusra as a terrorist group, has hesitated to arm the FSA, while the western and Gulf-backed Syrian Opposition Coalition has tried to assuage concerns by promising strict control over weapons. "We are ready to make lists of the weapons and write down the serial numbers," Idriss told NPR at the weekend. "The FSA is very well organised and when we distribute weapons and ammunition we know exactly to which hands they are going."Syria's government has capitalised successfully on US and European divisions over the weapons embargo by emphasising the "jihadi narrative" – as it has since the start of largely peaceful protests in March 2011. Assad himself claimed in a recent interview: "There is no FSA, only al-Qaida." Syrian state media has played up the recent pledge of loyalty by Jabhat al-Nusra to al-Qaida in Iraq.Western governments say they are aware of the al-Nusra problem, which is being monitored by intelligence agencies, but they are uncertain about its extent."It is clear that fighters are moving from one group to another as one becomes more successful," said a diplomat who follows Syria closely. "But it's very area-specific. You can't talk about a general trend in which [Jabhat al-Nusra] has more momentum than others. It is true that some say JAN is cleaner and better than other groups, but there are as many stories about it being bad." Critics point to punishments meted out by Sharia courts and its use of suicide bombings.The FSA's shortage of weapons and other resources compared with Jabhat al-Nusra is a recurrent theme. The loss of Khirbet Ghazaleh, a key junction near Dera'a in southern Syria, was blamed on Wednesday on a lack of weapons its defenders had hoped would be delivered from Jordan."If you join al-Nusra, there is always a gun for you but many of the FSA brigades can't even provide bullets for their fighters," complained Abu Tamim, an FSA man who joined Jabhat al-Nusra in Idlib province. "My nephew is in Egypt, he wants to come to Syria to fight but he doesn't have enough money. Al-Nusra told him: 'Come and we will even pay your flight tickets.' He is coming to fight with al-Nusra because he does not have any other way."Jabhat al-Nusra is winning support in Deir al-Zor, according to Abu Hudaifa, another FSA defector. "They are protecting people and helping them financially. Al-Nusra is in control of most of the oil wells in the city." The Jabhat al-Nusra media, with songs about jihad and martyrdom, is extremely influential.Abu Zeid used to command the FSA's Syria Mujahideen brigade in the Damascus region and led all its 420 fighters to al-Nusra. "Since we joined I and my men are getting everything we need to keep us fighting to liberate Syria and to cover our families' expenses, though fighting with al-Nusra is governed by very strict rules issued by the operations command or foreign fighters," he said. "There is no freedom at all but you do get everything you want."No one should blame us for joining al-Nusra. Blame the west if Syria is going to become a haven for al-Qaida and extremists. The west left Assad's gangs to slaughter us. They never bothered to support the FSA. They disappointed ordinary Syrian protesters who just wanted their freedom and to have Syria for all Syrians."
ADAM ENTOUS and JULIAN E. BARNESThe Pentagon is stepping up plans to deal with a dangerous regional spillover from Syria’s possible collapse—a scenario it had recently seen as remote—drawing up proposals including a Jordanian buffer zone for refugees secured by Arab troops, said U.S. officials familiar with the discussion.The plans seek to minimize direct U.S. involvement, but they reflect a reassessment of the Pentagon’s hands-off approach. The shift comes after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s trip last month to the Middle East, during which Arab leaders appealed for the U.S. to focus on the danger of Syria’s disintegration into warring sectarian fiefdoms.“The Syria message was loud and strong,” said a senior diplomat briefed on Mr. Hagel’s trip. “Everybody’s scared. And nobody knows what the hell we are going to do there.”
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May 8, 2013
Militants fighting against the Syrian government have abducted a group of UN peacekeepers monitoring the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.According to Reuters news agency, a militant group operating in Syria issued a statement on Tuesday saying it was holding the four peacekeepers.The statement said the peacekeepers were being held for their own safety because of clashes in the separation zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied heights.A picture accompanying the statement shows four peacekeepers wearing light-blue UN flak jackets marked “Philippines.”This is the second time that foreign-backed militants fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad seize UN troops in the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.In March, anti-Syria militants detained 21 Filipino peacekeepers in the same region. They were released after three days.Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security personnel, have been killed in the violence.Several international human rights organizations have accused foreign-sponsored militants of committing war crimes.Related Articles
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Mon May 6, 2013 2:20PM GMT
US-led Zio-Wahhabis wage war on Syria
This morning, the government of Israel contacted President
Assad of Syria. They did so as the leader of a coalition now openly at war
against Syria and Iran, with plans to broaden the conflict.
Assad was told he would be allowed to continue his rule, but on the “Jordanian model,” as a puppet of Israel and Turkey.Israeli armor is now inside Syria, not just the occupied zone, but has closed the distance to Damascus and has that city under artillery fire.The claimed air attacks are a ruse; Israel has been using 155 and 175 mm artillery, mobile howitzers of extreme range, enhanced by arms expert Gerald Bull, who was assassinated by Israeli agents in 1990 as his reward.The artillery attacks on Syria, using time delay and cluster munitions, are in direct support of military actions with fire control and communications being supplied by Israeli UAV aircraft operating in Syrian air space in support of Al Qaeda led rebel group.These terrorist groups, aided by extremists from Libya and the Persian Gulf States are being trained and supplied in Jordan and Turkey. It is hard to ignore the fact that US troops, on a secret mission to verify Israeli claims of chemical weapon use by the Syrian government, are fully complicit in aiding Al-Qaeda operations against the Syrian government.As for chemical weapon use, a report from United Nations human rights investigators, according to Reuters, has verified that it is rebels who have been using these weapons, in particular, deadly Sarin Gas.Former Swiss attorney general, Carla Del Ponte, representing the United Nations independent commission of inquiry, based in Geneva, is quoted in a televised interview:"Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of Sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated. This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities."RED LINELast week, President Obama declared that use of chemical weapons by the Assad government would represent a “red line” for the United States, justifying military action against Syria. However, despite numerous unsubstantiated news reports, the first “actionable” reports of that mythic line being crossed place Israel, Turkey and even the United States on the wrong side, aligned with Al Qaeda in the use of deadly nerve agents against Syria.DELIVERYKing Abdullah II of Jordan, on a mission at the request of Israel, met with President Obama on April 26, 2013. His message, supplied by his Israeli handlers, was that Syria had been using artillery shells loaded with Sarin gas against rebel held enclaves inside Syria.President Obama confirmed the message in a public statement and also indicated that he found King Abdullah’s plea “less than compelling.”However, since that time, we have been able to learn that Israeli artillery, some mobile units capable of ranges between 55 and 70 kilometers, have been firing into Syria from, not just the occupied Golan Heights but have entered Syria by night and are able to reach, not just Damascus, but broad areas of Syria.These artillery units have been pulled out by daylight but are visible to military satellites, particularly American and Russian, using Synthetic Aperture Radar.These satellites detect all weapons movements and, aided by Hyper-Spectral cameras, are capable of, not just detecting movements of weapons but the use of any nuclear, biological and chemical agents (Hyper-Spectral cameras, highly classified, use light to analyze molecules from space).Thus, claims of ignorance of the artillery attacks on Syria and the incursions of IDF units and their direct support of Al-Qaeda units inside Syria won’t stand up to scrutiny.What is being kept from us is whether Israel is involved in the chemical attacks on Syria that the United Nations has verified. As the media is continually filled with reports from “Syrian rebels” filtered through Israel, it is difficult to believe that such weapons could not be deployed without, minimally, full Israeli knowledge.Sadly, the same has to be said of the United States.The scene in Syria more resembled World War I, as depicted in the film, “All Quiet on the Western Front.” What was represented to be a “surgical strike” by Israeli aircraft on trucks purportedly taking weapons to Lebanon was, in actuality, an artillery barrage covering a broad area, clearly meant to ‘soften up’ Syrian army units defending Damascus. Thus, a warning to Assad.The reason for a night attack is clear, shielding columns of Israeli mobile artillery from prying eyes. Aircraft, subject to advanced air defense systems including the Russian built S 300 system Syria acquired in 1996.Despite announcements to the contrary, the system was delivered and installed but put under control of Russian technicians. Russian technicians, verified by Israel’s Ynet News, used the S 300 system to shoot down a Turkish F16 jet fighter on July 1, 2012.Any Israeli aircraft attacking Syria would be subject to inexorable destruction were that system to be employed, the sporadic use of which has put many intelligence agencies in a quandary over.UN FAILURE TO ACTThe goal of the current Israeli ploy is to draw Iran into the Syrian conflict, which now involved military units from, not only Israel but Turkey as well.One might wonder why, with the expansion of the conflict, there hasn’t be a word yet from the United Nations Security Council, despite demands by the 22 member Arab League, whose chief, Nabil al-Arabi, conveyed this message directly to Secretary General Ban Kai Moon.The Assad government wrote the Security Council, denying Israel’s claims of arms shipments traversing Syria to Lebanon.The Syria letter accused Israel of working with terrorist groups. The letter stated that attacks were specifically aimed at Syrian army position defending the capital including army positions where dozens are killed or missing and Syrian military installations around Damascus.Syria’s official television, Al-Ikhbariya, quoting unofficial sources, indicated that Syria was ready to “respond to specific targets” if violations continue.Two Security Council member states, China and Russia, have both condemned Israel’s attack on Syria. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was in China when that announcement was made.Iran has offered broad assistance to Syria to assure the survival of that nation, a factor that makes the risk of an even wider war likely, particularly if the American government fails to stand up to Israel’s propaganda onslaught on its people.GD/SL
Monday 6 May 2013 16.56 BST
Israeli bombing of Syria and
moral relativism
No universally applied principle
justifies the Israeli attack on Damascus. Only self-flattering tribalism does
that
Glenn GreenwaldA handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency purports to show damage caused by an Israeli strike on 5 May. Photograph: AFP/Getty ImagesOn Sunday, Israel dropped massive bombs near Damascus, ones which the New York Times, quoting residents, originally reported (thenevidently deleted) resulted in explosions "more massive than anything the residents of the city. . . have witnessed during more than two years of war." The Jerusalem Post this morning quoted "a senior Syrian military source" as claiming that "Israel used depleted uranium shells", though that is not confirmed. The NYT cited a "high-ranking Syrian military official" who said the bombs "struck several critical military facilities in some of the country's most tightly secured and strategic areas" and killed "dozens of elite troops stationed near the presidential palace", while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that "at least 42 soldiers were killed in the strikes, and another 100 who would usually be at the targeted sites remain unaccounted for."Israeli defenders claim that its air attack targeted weapons provided by Iran that would have ended up in the hands of Hezbollah. Obama officialsquickly told media outlets that "the administration is fully supportive of Israel's airstrikes". Indeed, Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy noted: "Keep in mind the Israelis are using weapons supplied by us." There is, needless to say, virtually no condemnation of the Israeli assault in US media or political circles. At this point, the only question is how many minutes will elapse before Congress reflexively adopts a near-unanimous or unanimous resolution effusively praising Israel for the attack and unqualifiedly endorsing all past and future attacks as well.Because people who cheer for military action by their side like to pretend that they're something more than primitive "might-makes-right" tribalists, the claim is being hauled out that Israel's actions are justified by the "principle" that it has the right to defend itself from foreign weapons in the hands of hostile forces. But is that really a "principle" that anyone would apply consistently, as opposed to a typically concocted ad hoc claim to justify whatever the US and Israel do? Let's apply this "principle" to other cases, as several commentators on Twitter have done over the last 24 hours, beginning with this:Here's a similar question:Or, for that matter, if Syria this week attacks a US military base on US soil and incidentally kills some American civilians (as Nidal Hasan did), and then cites as justification the fact that the US has been aiding Syrian rebels, would any establishment US journalist or political official argue that this was remotely justified? Or what if Syria bombed Qatar or Saudi Arabia on the same ground: would any US national figure defend the bombing as well within Syria's rights given those nations' arming of its rebels?Few things are more ludicrous than the attempt by advocates of US and Israeli militarism to pretend that they're applying anything remotely resembling "principles". Their only cognizable "principle" is rank tribalism: My Side is superior, and therefore we are entitled to do things that Our Enemies are not. In more honest moments, they admit this. As soon as Hasan tweeted his question, he was instantly attacked by a writer for the Times of Israel and the Atlantic, dutifully re-tweeted by Jeffrey Goldberg, on this ground:One could say quite reasonably that this is the pure expression of the crux of US political discourse on such matters: they must abide by rules from which we're immune, because we're superior. So much of the pseudo-high-minded theorizing emanating from DC think thanks and US media outlets boils down to this adolescent, self-praising, tribalistic license: we have the right to do X, but they do not. Indeed, the entire debate over whether there should be a war with Iran over its nuclear enrichment activities, as Israel sits on a massive pile of nuclear weapons while refusing UN demands to permit any international inspection of it, is also a perfect expression of this mentality.The ultimate irony is that those who advocate for the universal application of principles to all nations are usually tarred with the trite accusatory slogan of "moral relativism". But the real moral relativists are those who believe that the morality of an act is determined not by its content but by the identity of those who commit them: namely, whether it's themselves or someone else doing it. As Rudy Giuliani put it when asked if waterboarding is torture: "It depends on who does it." Today's version of that is: Israel and the US (and its dictatorial allies in Riyadh and Doha) have the absolute right to bomb other countries or arm rebels in those countries if they perceive doing so is necessary to stop a threat but Iran and Syria (and other countries disobedient to US dictates) do not. This whole debate would be much more tolerable if it were at least honestly acknowledged that what is driving the discussion are tribalistic notions of entitlement and nothing more noble.Other notesFormer New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, who was one of the loudest and most influential advocates of the attack on Iraq, today demands that the US "get[] over Iraq" and militarily attack Syria. He does so even as he says that his public drum-beating for the Iraq war "turned out to be a humbling error of judgment, and it left [him] gun-shy," but then argues that the attack on Syria is justified, in part, by the fact that Assad has "apparently" used "chemical weapons" on his own people. The only problem: a UN investigator said yesterday that the widely reported use of sarin gas came from Syrian rebels, not government forces. All of these claims deserve great skepticism, which is precisely why starting wars based on them is so foolish, and why Keller has obviously learned nothing despite his claims to the contrary.For a nuanced and interesting analysis of the civil war in Syria, see this 2012 Al Jazeera column by the Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar, who was abducted at JFK Airport in 2002 and then imprisoned and tortured in Syria at the behest of the US, even though he was (as everyone now acknowledges) guilty of nothing. Although many important events have developed since that column, the context he provides on the Assad regime, what started the rebellion, and the relationship between the US and Syria are valuable.Finally, claims of US and western superiority and entitlement are always amazing to behold given the behavior by those countries: see today's Guardian article on how the British systematically abused, tortured and killed Kenyan rebels fighting against colonial rule in the 1950s, then spent decades hiding the evidence of it and lying about it, all in an effort to avoid compensating the victims and having the world know about the atrocities they committed. The parallels between that and today's War on Terror are obvious and glaring. Whatever descriptive phrases might apply to the US, Britain and its allies, "so objectively superior so as to warrant exemption from or special standing under international law" is most certainly not among them.
May 05, 2013
Israel Used Depleted Uranium on SyriaGlobal Research, May 05, 2013Fars News Agency 5 May 2013
5 May 2013It has been disclosed that Israel has used depleted uranium in its recent missile attacks on a suburban Damascus area.The first missile which hit Jamraya near al-Haviyeh in Reef (outskirts of) Damascus contained uranium substances, a correspondent of Russian television quoted some local sources as saying.Other media outlets had also earlier released similar reports on Israel’s use of radioactive materials in attacks on Syria.Explosions shook Damascus early on Sunday and Syrian state television said Israeli rockets had struck a military research center on the outskirts of the capital.The blasts occurred a day after an Israeli official said Tel Aviv had carried out an air strike targeting a consignment of missiles in Syria. The research center hit on Sunday was also targeted by Israel in January.“The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army,” Syrian television said, referring to recent offensives by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against rebels.There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials on Sunday’s explosions.Late in January, the Syrian Army said in a statement that two people were killed and five others injured in an Israeli air strike on a scientific center in Jamraya, 25 kilometers (15 miles) Northwest of the capital Damascus.
The Hypocrisy of Ban Ki-moon about Israel’s Attacks on SyriaGlobal Research, May 05, 2013
Global Research NoteWe bring to the attention of our readers the following news release about the Israeli attack on Syria from the United Nations. Ban Ki-moon has called ”on all sides to exercise maximum calm and restraint.” No words of condemnation were uttered against Israel’s attack on Syria and Israel is never directly referenced.It is Israel which has attacked Syria several times now. The aggressor and the victim cannot be equated as equivalents. In essence, Ban Ki-moon is whitewashing the Israeli attacks on Syria. The United Nations Secretariat expects Syria to do nothing and to accept the continuous aggression and assaults from Israel, which is capitalizing on the crisis inside Syria and threatening regional security, without making any condemnation of Israel’s actions in the United Nations.
May 5, 2012
UN chief calls for maximum calm and restraint after reported Israeli air strikes in SyriaUN News Centre, May 5, 2013.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is gravely concerned about reports of air strikes in Syria by the Israeli Air Force, according to a statement from his spokesperson, which stressed that the United Nations does not have details of the reported incidents nor is in a position to independently verify that they took place.“The Secretary-General calls on all sides to exercise maximum calm and restraint, and to act with a sense of responsibility to prevent an escalation of what is already a devastating and highly dangerous conflict,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said in the statement.
“The Secretary-General urges respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries in the region, and adherence to all relevant Security Council resolutions,” he continued.A series of powerful explosions rocked the outskirts of Damascus early this morning, which Syrian state television attributed to Israeli missile attacks on a Syrian military installation, according to media reports.Mr. Ban’s spokesperson underscored that “at this time, the United Nations does not have details of the reported incidents. Nor is the United Nations in a position to independently verify what has occurred.”Top UN officials, including Mr. Ban and his political chief, Jeffrey Feltman, have said on numerous occasions that a political solution is the only answer for long-term in the country and the region.Since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011, more than 70,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed and some three million displaced.
May 6, 2013
Tony CartalucciInfowars.comThe reasoning behind recent US-Israeli attacks on Syria has been undermined further as the UN reveals Western-backed terrorists, not the Syrian government, deployed sarin gas during the 2 year conflict. Reuters reported in their article, “U.N. has testimony that Syrian rebels used sarin gas: investigator,” that:U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria’s civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.“Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated,” Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.Why the Small Amounts of Sarin Cited by Washington, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv are a Set UpThe small amounts of sarin gas reportedly used would defy any tactical or strategic sense had they been deployed by the Syrian government to tip the balance in the destructive 2-year conflict. According to the US military’s own assessments of chemical weapon use during the 1980′s Iran-Iraq War, only under ideal conditions and with massive amounts of chemical agents can tactical and strategic outcomes be achieved – and that conventional weapons were still, by far, superior to chemical weapons of any kind.A document produced by the US Marine Corps, titled, “Lessons Learned: The Iran-Iraq War” under “Appendix B: Chemical Weapons,” provides a comprehensive look at the all-out chemical warfare that took place during the devastating 8 year Iranian-Iraqi conflict. Several engagements are studied in detail, revealing large amounts of chemical agents deployed mainly to create areas of denial, not mass casualties.The effectiveness and lethality of chemical weapons is summarized in the document as follows (emphasis added):Chemical weapons require quite particular weather and geographic conditions for optimum effectiveness. Given the relative nonpersistence of all agents employed during this war, including mustard, there was only a brief window of employment opportunity both daily and seasonally, when the agents could be used. Even though the Iraqis employed mustard agent in the rainy season and also in the marshes, its effectiveness was significantly reduced under those conditions. As the Iraqis learned to their chagrin, mustard is not a good agent to employ in the mountains, unless you own the high ground and your enemy is in the valleys.We are uncertain as to the relative effectiveness of nerve agents since those which were employed are by nature much less persistent than mustard. In order to gain killing concentrations of these agents, predawn attacks are best, conducted in areas where the morning breezes are likely to blow away from friendly positions.Chemical weapons have a low kill ratio. Just as in WWl, during which the ratio of deaths to injured from chemicals was 2-3 percent, that figure appears to be borne out again in this war although reliable data on casualties are very difficult to obtain. We deem it remarkable that the death rate should hold at such a low level even with the introduction of nerve agents. If those rates are correct, as they well may be, this further reinforces the position that we must not think of chemical weapons as “a poor man’s nuclear weapon.” While such weapons have great psychological potential, they are not killers or destroyers on a scale with nuclear or biological weapons.Clearly, the minute amounts of sarin the West has accused the Syrian government of using, makes no tactical, political, or strategic sense. However, these small amounts of sarin gas, now suspected to be the work of Western-backed terrorists, would have been perfect for establishing a pretext for Western military intervention, and in fact, have been in part cited by the US and Israel in their latest, unprovoked aerial assault on Damascus.The terrorists operating in Syria possess the means and motivation to carry out such an operation, as do their Western sponsors.Where Did Western-backed Terrorists Obtain Sarin?A number of methods could have lent sarin gas to terrorists operating in Syria – from Turkey, Israel, and the US simply handing select units the chemical agent in a clandestine operation, to Libyan terrorists confirmed to have been flooding into Syria for the past 2 years, bringing looted chemical stockpiles with them after NATO’s disastrous invasion in 2011 left them in the hands of a sectarian extremist regime.….Indeed, Libya’s arsenal had fallen into the hands of sectarian extremists with NATO assistance in 2011 in the culmination of efforts to overthrow the North African nation . Since then, Libya’s militants led by commanders ofAl Qaeda’s Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) have armed sectarian extremists across the Arab World, fromas far West as Mali, to as far East as Syria.Libyan LIFG terrorists are confirmed to be flooding into Syria from Libya. In November 2011, the Telegraph in their article, “Leading Libyan Islamist met Free Syrian Army opposition group,” would report:Abdulhakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, “met with Free Syrian Army leaders in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey,” said a military official working with Mr Belhadj. “Mustafa Abdul Jalil (the interim Libyan president) sent him there.”Another Telegraph article, “Libya’s new rulers offer weapons to Syrian rebels,” would admitSyrian rebels held secret talks with Libya’s new authorities on Friday, aiming to secure weapons and money for their insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, The Daily Telegraph has learned.At the meeting, which was held in Istanbul and included Turkish officials, the Syrians requested “assistance” from the Libyan representatives and were offered arms, and potentially volunteers.“There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria,” said a Libyan source, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There is a military intervention on the way. Within a few weeks you will see.”Later that month, some 600 Libyan terrorists would be reported to have entered Syria to begin combat operations and have been flooding into the country ever since.….In Time’s article, “Libya’s Fighters Export Their Revolution to Syria,” it is reported:Some Syrians are more frank about the assistance the Libyans are providing. “They have heavier weapons than we do,” notes Firas Tamim, who has traveled in rebel-controlled areas to keep tabs on foreign fighters. “They brought these weapons to Syria, and they are being used on the front lines.” Among the arms Tamim has seen are Russian-made surface-to-air missiles, known as the SAM 7.Libyan fighters largely brush off questions about weapon transfers, but in December they claimed they were doing just that. “We are in the process of collecting arms in Libya,” a Libyan fighter in Syria told the French daily Le Figaro. “Once this is done, we will have to find a way to bring them here.”Clearly NATO intervention in Libya has left a vast, devastating arsenal in the hands of sectarian extremists, led by US State Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf)-listed terrorist organization LIFG that is now exporting these weapons and militants to NATO’s other front in Syria. It is confirmed that both Libyan terrorists and weapons are crossing the Turkish-Syrian border, with NATO assistance, and it is now clear that heavy weapons, including anti-aircraft weapons have crossed the border too.The Guardian reported in their November 2011 article, “Libyan chemical weapons stockpiles intact, say inspectors,” that:Libya’s stockpiles of mustard gas and chemicals used to make weapons are intact and were not stolen during the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, weapons inspectors have said.But also reported that:The abandonment or disappearance of some Gaddafi-era weapons has prompted concerns that such firepower could erode regional security if it falls into the hands of Islamist militants or rebels active in north Africa. Some fear they could be used by Gaddafi loyalists to spread instability in Libya.Last month Human Rights Watch urged Libya’s ruling national transitional council to take action over large numbers of heavy weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, it said were lying unguarded more than two months after Gaddafi was overthrown.On Wednesday the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said the UN would send experts to Libya to help ensure nuclear material and chemical weapons did not fall into the wrong hands.And while inspectors claim that Libya’s chemical weapons are in the “government’s” hands and not “extremists’,” it is clear by the Libyan government’s own admission, that they themselves are involved in sending fighters and weapons into Syria to support NATO and Al Qaeda’s joint operation there.Furthermore, it is confirmed that the US had been providing select terrorist units training in the handling of chemical weapons. CNN had reported in December of 2012, in a report titled, “Sources: U.S. helping underwrite Syrian rebel training on securing chemical weapons,” that:The United States and some European allies are using defense contractors to train Syrian rebels on how to secure chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria, a senior U.S. official and several senior diplomats told CNN Sunday.The training, which is taking place in Jordan and Turkey, involves how to monitor and secure stockpiles and handle weapons sites and materials, according to the sources. Some of the contractors are on the ground in Syria working with the rebels to monitor some of the sites, according to one of the officials.NATO not only ensured that chemical weapons in Libya remained in the hands of a proxy regime now openly arming, aiding, and sending fighters to assist terrorists in Syria, but also appears to have ensured these terrorists possessed the know-how on handling and using these weapons.Israel vs. Hezbollah – Lie of Last ResortIt appears that once again, those truly responsible for the most egregious atrocities and the crossing of “red lines,” are the very Western interests drawing these lines in the first place.The decision to shift attention away from the chemical weapons “red line,” and toward Israel and Hezbollah is a desperate ploy to extend the faltering viability of the West’s current operations in Syria.While Israel, with the help of the Western media, attempts to portray itself as reluctantly entering a war it has so far avoided, it has been documented since as early as 2007 that Israel, along with the US and Saudi Arabia were openly conspiring to overthrow the Syrian government via armed and funded Al Qaeda terrorists and an unprecedented sectarian bloodbath.Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his 2007 New Yorker article, “The Redirection,” stated (emphasis added):“To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.”Of Israel and Saudi Arabia’s partnership it specifically stated:“The policy shift has brought Saudi Arabia and Israel into a new strategic embrace, largely because both countries see Iran as an existential threat. They have been involved in direct talks, and the Saudis, who believe that greater stability in Israel and Palestine will give Iran less leverage in the region, have become more involved in Arab-Israeli negotiations.”Additionally, Saudi Arabian officials mentioned the careful balancing act their nation must play in order to conceal its role in supporting US-Israeli ambitions across the region. It was stated even then, that using Israel to publicly carry out attacks on Iran would be preferable to the US, which would ultimately implicate the Saudis. It was stated:“The Saudi said that, in his country’s view, it was taking a political risk by joining the U.S. in challenging Iran: Bandar is already seen in the Arab world as being too close to the Bush Administration. “We have two nightmares,” the former diplomat told me. “For Iran to acquire the bomb and for the United States to attack Iran. I’d rather the Israelis bomb the Iranians, so we can blame them. If America does it, we will be blamed.””This ploy was further developed in 2009 by the Fortune 500-funded (page 19) Brookings Institution in their document, “Which Path to Persia?” In regards to Iran, and now clearly being utilized against Syria, the gambit was described as follows (emphasis added):“…it would be far more preferable if the United States could cite an Iranian provocation as justification for the airstrikes before launching them. Clearly, the more outrageous, the more deadly, and the more unprovoked the Iranian action, the better off the United States would be. Of course, it would be very difficult for the United States to goad Iran into such a provocation without the rest of the world recognizing this game, which would then undermine it. (One method that would have some possibility of success would be to ratchet up covert regime change efforts in the hope that Tehran would retaliate overtly, or even semi-overtly, which could then be portrayed as an unprovoked act of Iranian aggression.) ” -page 84-85, Which Path to Perisa?, Brookings Institution.And:“Israel appears to have done extensive planning and practice for such a strike already, and its aircraft are probably already based as close to Iran as possible. as such, Israel might be able to launch the strike in a matter of weeks or even days, depending on what weather and intelligence conditions it felt it needed. Moreover, since Israel would have much less of a need (or even interest) in securing regional support for the operation, Jerusalem probably would feel less motivated to wait for an Iranian provocation before attacking. In short, Israel could move very fast to implement this option if both Israeli and American leaders wanted it to happen.However, as noted in the previous chapter, the airstrikes themselves are really just the start of this policy. Again, the Iranians would doubtless rebuild their nuclear sites. They would probably retaliate against Israel, and they might retaliate against the United States, too (which might create a pretext for American airstrikes or even an invasion).” -page 91, Which Path to Perisa?, Brookings Institution.It is unlikely the West possesses the political, economic, or even tactical ability to pursue a greater regional war against Syria and Iran. The aim of using Israel against Syria is to alleviate pressure on Western-backed terrorists, create tension and opposition within the Syrian government and military, and perhaps even crack “fortress Damascus” ahead of one final push by whatever remains of the so-called “opposition.”Brookings, in another report titled, “Assessing Options for Regime Change,” stated specifically that:“In addition, Israel’s intelligence services have a strong knowledge of Syria, as well as assets within the Syrian regime that could be used to subvert the regime’s power base and press for Asad’s removal. Israel could posture forces on or near the Golan Heights and, in so doing, might divert regime forces from suppressing the opposition. This posture may conjure fears in the Asad regime of a multi-front war, particularly if Turkey is willing to do the same on its border and if the Syrian opposition is being fed a steady diet of arms and training. Such a mobilization could perhaps persuade Syria’s military leadership to oust Asad in order to preserve itself. Advocates argue this additional pressure could tip the balance against Asad inside Syria, if other forces were aligned properly.” -page 6, Assessing Options for Regime Change, Brookings Institution.Clearly, Israel has been involved in Western designs against Syria from the beginning. Its role has been intentionally kept subtle until now, specifically to exercise options of last resort. It is now up to Syria and its allies to ensure they both survive increasingly provocative assaults by the West, while both winning the political battle abroad and sweeping away the remnants of the West’s terrorist proxies at home.Tony Cartalucci is the writer and editor at Land DestroyerThis article was posted: Monday, May 6, 2013 at 6:29 am
Michael SnyderMay 6, 2013War is a horrible thing. Just ask anyone that has ever been in the middle of it. And in this day and age governments around the world possess weapons of such incalculable power that war should be unthinkable. In future wars, we could literally see millions of people killed on a single day. Nobody should want that or look forward to that.Unfortunately, the next major regional war in the Middle East appears to be closer than ever. But nobody should want it to actually happen. During the next major regional war in the Middle East we will likely see death on a scale that is unprecedented. It won’t be like the wars of 1967 or 1973. It will likely be a fight to the death where nothing is held back. You see, the truth is that most Americans have no idea what is really going on in the Middle East. There are ancient grudges and ancient hatreds that go back for thousands of years. There is no “peace plan” that is going to suddenly make everything okay. The Middle East is a simmering volcano of hate and resentment that could erupt at any moment. That is why what is happening in Syria right now is so important. An Israeli airstrike in Damascus that reportedly was attempting to destroy a shipment of Fateh-110 missiles that Iran was sending to Hezbollah has brought Israel and Syria to the brink of war. In fact, Syria is calling the airstrike a “declaration of war” and is vowing retaliation.The Syrian government is saying that “Israeli aggression opens the door to all possibilities“, but they have not provided any specifics about what they plan to do. Meanwhile, Israel has made it very clear that they will do whatever is necessary to keep Fateh-110 missiles from getting into the hands of Hezbollah. With those missiles, Iranian-backed Hezbollah would have the capability of striking the heart of Tel Aviv with a very high degree of accuracy. So it is definitely understandable why Israel would not want Hezbollah to have those missiles. Just think about it – would you want Russia or China to deploy highly advanced missile systems in northern Mexico which could rain down hell on Los Angeles and Dallas in less than five minutes? Unfortunately, this gives Iran the perfect way to provoke a war between Israel and Syria. All they have to do is keep rolling trucks loaded with Fateh-110 missiles through war-torn Syria toward Hezbollah bases in Lebanon. Israel will feel forced to intervene, and the rest of the Islamic world will get angrier and angrier.The explosions that rocked northern Damascus on Sunday were absolutely massive. It is being reported that they registered about two or three on the Richter scale, and enormous balls of fire that lit up the sky could be seen from all over Damascus.The following is how the Washington Post described the attack…Israeli warplanes bombed the outskirts of Damascus early Sunday for the second time in recent days, according to Syrian state media and reports from activists, signaling a sharp escalation in tensions between the neighboring countries that had already been exacerbated by the conflict raging in Syria.Videos posted on the Internet by activistsshowed a huge fireball erupting on Mount Qassioun, a landmark hill overlooking the capital on which the Syrian government has deployed much of the firepower it is using against rebel-controlled areas surrounding the city.So why did Israel do this?Despite what the anti-Israel crowd is suggesting, Israel did not do this just to be mean. As Reuters is reporting, Israel was specifically targeting Fateh-110 missiles that were on their way to Hezbollah…Israel does not confirm such missions explicitly – a policy it says is intended to avoid provoking reprisals. But an Israeli official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the strikes were carried out by its forces, as was a raid early on Friday that U.S. President Barack Obama said had been justified.A Western intelligence source told Reuters: “In last night’s attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah.”These missiles would significantly change the balance of power if they got into the hands of Hezbollah. According to the Times of Israel, Fateh-110 missiles would be a very serious threat not only to Tel Aviv – these missiles would also threaten cities all the way down to Beersheba…Uzi Rubin, a missile expert and former Defense Ministry official, told the Associated Press that if the target was a consignment of Fatah-110 missiles, then such weaponry did constitute a “game-changer”: Fired from Syria or south Lebanon, these missiles, he said, could reach almost anywhere in Israel with high accuracy.Rubin emphasized that he was speaking as a rocket expert and had no details about the reported strikes.“If fired from southern Lebanon, they can reach Tel Aviv and even [the southern city of] Beersheba,” Rubin said. He said the rockets are much five times more accurate than the Scud missiles that Hezbollah has fired in the past. “It is a game-changer because they are a threat to Israel’s infrastructure and military installations,” he said.So that is why Israel carried out these airstrikes. They feel like they simply cannot allow Hezbollah to have these weapons. And with Hezbollah’s track record, that is very understandable.Unfortunately, these airstrikes have also brought the Middle East much closer to the next war.According to the Jerusalem Post, Syria is positioning units for a potential conflict with Israel…Syria has stationed missile batteries aimed at Israel in the aftermath of alleged Israeli air strikes in the country, the website of Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV, considered close to the regime of President Bashar Assad, quoted a top Syrian official as saying on Sunday.In response, Israel has deployed two Iron Dome batteries to northern Israel, they have closed off airspace in northern Israel to commercial traffic, and Israeli embassies around the world have been put on high alert.But Syria may choose not to retaliate against Israel directly. According to WND, Syria may decide to allow jihadist groups to carry out their vengeance for them…The Syrian government will soon declare it is opening its borders with Israel for Palestinian and other jihad groups to carry out attacks against the Jewish state, a senior Syrian official told WND.Separately, informed Middle Eastern security officials said the Syrian army held a meeting Sunday afternoon with the leaders of the military wing of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terrorist group to discuss retaliation against Israel for the recent air strikes near Damascus.According to those officials, Islamic Jihad and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah are coordinating a possible reaction to Israel’s reported strikes.In any event, things are definitely becoming more unstable over in the Middle East.So what would a war between Israel and Syria do to the already fragile global economy?Well, a war between Israel and Syria would likely paralyze the entire region. Hezbollah and Hamas would almost certainly jump into the war on the side of Syria, and there is the potential that nations such as Iran, Egypt and even Jordan could get involved as well.In such a scenario, the flow of oil from the Middle East could become interrupted for an extended period of time, and that would have serious consequences for the global economy.But the bigger threat to the global economy would be the fear that a regional war in the Middle East would create. Global financial markets respond very badly to fear, and right now the world economy is already teetering on the brink of disaster. Much of Europe has already descended into a full-blown economic depression, and there are signs that the greatest debt bubble in the history of the planet is starting to burst.The next major wave of the economic collapse is rapidly approaching, and a major regional war in the Middle East would greatly accelerate our economic problems.Unfortunately, it appears that such a conflict is inevitable.I don’t believe that it will happen yet though. For the moment, I believe that cooler headers will prevail.But as tensions continue to rise, I believe that we will see tempers boil over and the Middle East will descend into full-blown warfare at some point within the next several years.Of course I could always be wrong about this. We will just have to wait and see what happens.So what do you think?Do you believe that we will see a regional war in the Middle East soon?Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below…This article was posted: Monday, May 6, 2013 at 6:26 am
May 5, 2013
In the aftermath of last night’s second attack in two weeks by Israel on Syria, the immediate response has so far been muted, with Syria condemning the aggression as an act of war. According to UPI, Syria “vowed to retaliate after an apparent Israeli airstrike on the capital Damascus early Sunday. A government official said on CNN the attack on a military research facility was “an act of war” that the government would not take lightly. “Syria is a country that does not accept insults and it doesn’t accept humiliation,” said Omran Zoabi, Syria’s information minister. Zoabi added the attack had opened “a wide door for all possible options.” It remains to be seen what, if any, option Syria will take or if it will merely jawbone toothlessly, inviting further unrequited air-based incursions into its territory. Most likely any response will need the preapproval, and the assistance, of Putin.
Incidentally, the only response so far has come from Israel. As Stratfor reports, citing Israel News, the airspace in northern Israel has been closed until May 9 due to an Israel Defense Forces directive issued May 5. Which means the only planes flying in north Israel, which borders Syria through the Golan Heights, would be military.
In the meantime, those curious what Israel bombed and why on Sunday Morning, Enduring America has compiled a detailed analysis on the topic.
Early on Sunday morning, huge explosions rocked northern Damascus.
Scientists said that the explosions measured between two and three on the Richter scale, a scale designed to measure earthquakes. Giant balls of fire rose above Mt. Qasioun, a mountain that overlooks the capital and is at the center of Syria’s largest military complex. The very symbol of Assad’s control over Damascus was on fire.
Immediately, Syrian officials stated that an Israeli airstrike had hit a military installation in the area. Within a short time, unnamed American officials confirmed Israel had struck Damascus, a sign that the US government likely greenlighted the attack.
This strike took place within days of another Israeli airstrike that apparently targeted a shipment of rockets en route from the Syrian military to Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon.
Some analysts have said that a stockpile of rockets, made in Iran and bound for Lebanon, was the target of this second strike.
However, this analysis ignores the fact that several important military installations appear to have been the targets of this most recent strike.
The Syrian government claimed that a military research facility was struck (map). In addiion, there have been many videos of the explosions, taken from many different angles, which suggest that a much wider range of targets, across a wider area of the military installation, were struck and not simply a convoy of rockets.
An initial analysis by Stroyful’s Félim McMahon suggests that the research facility itself was not hit, but rather the nearby headquarters of the 104th Brigade. Beyond this, videos suggest that huge stockpiles of weapons, likely artillery shells and ballistic/artillery rockets, were also destroyed in the airstrike.
The 104th Brigade is an elite group of Republican Guards tasked with defending one of the most sensitive areas of Assad’s defense network in the capital.
The precise locations of the targets are still being nailed down and confirmed, but some insurgent leaders are reporting that an even wider stretch of area was hit:
View Strike near Mount Qasioun (May 5, 2013) @felimmcmahon in a larger map
The 4th Armored Divion is Assad’s most important unit, run by his brother, Rifaat Al Assad. If the 4th Armored Division was indeed the target of the airstrike, this is a major blow to Assad and to the regime.The Israeli airstrike did not target stockpiles of weapons deep in storage.These are the most important fortresses that the regime maintains, and are instrumental to Assad’s ongoing defense against the rebel offensive. These artillery and rockets from this area are used to routinely target insurgent positions, and civilian neighborhoods, all across the capital, from east to west, north to south.
These stockpiles are particularly important to Assad’s efforts to retake Darayya, the largest suburb of Damascus which has been at the front lines of the fight for the capital for over six months. There are unconfirmed reports that the 4th Armored Division and the 155th Brigade SCUD missile base were also hit, but even if this is not the case, the Israelis have struck at some of Assad’s most important bases, just kilometers from the Presidential Palace.
The message to Assad is clear. If the regime continues to move rockets across the border to aid Hezbollah, Israel willnot only strike at the immediate threat, but will deal serious body blows to the regime, severely hampering Assad’s efforts to counter Syria’s insurgency.
The question remains, however, as to whether destabilizing Assad was the ultimate goal of this airstrike. At the very least, Israel has proven that it is willing to pick a side and go all in if it feels threatened.
This incident should also permanently put to rest the debate as to whether Assad’s air defense is capable of standing up to external threats. Assad is completely vulnerable, and has been dealt a serious blow. As a result, Israel may have completely changed the debate about foreign intervention in a single instant, and may have catalyzed an international drive to remove Bashar al-Assad from power.Related Articles
Tel Aviv emboldens western-backed
jihadists
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
May 5, 2013
Infowars.com
May 5, 2013
BEIRUT | Sun May 5, 2013 5:32pm EDTAt the end of a week when the Obama administration signaled its intention to send heavy weaponry to Al-Qaeda-led Syrian rebels, Israel launched air strikes inside Syrian territory that will only serve to embolden jihadist militants who have openly espoused their desire to destroy both Israel and the United States.Israeli rockets bombarded areas on the outskirts of Damascus early this morning in an apparent raid on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah. This followed a separate Israeli attack a few days previously, making it three Israeli assaults on Syria so far this year.Syria’s Information Minister Omran Zoabi responded by warning that the attacks “open the door to all possibilities,” although it is not expected that Bashar Al-Assad will order any military response. Just as it has been demonized for the last two years for responding to an insurgent insurrection, any attempt by Syria to defend itself would provide the US and Israel with the green light to launch a full scale military assault.Imagine if Syrian warplanes fired rockets into Tel Aviv destroying Israeli military facilities. Israel would instantly treat such a move as a declaration of war and the United States would hop on board to completely raze Syrian cities to the ground within days. Yet Israel bombards Syria over the course of two days and Syria is expected to sit back and do nothing.Israel has taken the opportunity to attack Syria safe in the knowledge that Damascus’ commitment to fighting FSA insurgents means they won’t be able to retaliate, illustrating once again the symbiotic relationship between Israel and Al-Qaeda terrorists.“The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army,” said Syrian TV in response to the attack, adding that the assault was “coordinated with terrorists.”By launching attacks that weaken and distract Damascus from its focus on defeating western-backed insurgents, Israel is aiding the very same rebels who have burned Israeli flags in public and vowed to crush the Zionist regime once they are finished toppling Bashar Al-Assad.Israel’s attack on Syria again highlights the fact that Al-Qaeda is an organization under the control of the United States and Israel which is used to destabilize Israel’s enemies in the region. Not only has Israel supported Al-Qaeda-led rebels in Syria, even setting up field hospitals for injured fighters, but back in 2002 Israel was caught actually creating an Al-Qaeda group in order to justify attacks on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.As we have exhaustively documented, opposition fighters in Syria are now dominated by sectarian extremists and jihadists who have repeatedly emphasized their hatred for America and their allegiance to Al-Qaeda.Multiple reports now confirm that the individuals responsible for a plethora of atrocities, many of them part of the Al-Qaeda group Jabhat al-Nusra which “killed numerous American troops in Iraq,” are leading western-backed rebel forces in Syria. After the organization was declared a terrorist group by the US State Department, 29 different US-backed Syrian opposition groups pledged their allegiance to al-Nusra.The timing of the Israeli attacks also speaks volumes given that the Syrian Army has begun to win the war against the Free Syrian Army, taking back key areas of cities such as Homs in recent weeks.Israel and the United States will stop at nothing to eliminate so-called rogue states like Syria and Iran, to the point of aiding and arming radical jihadists that claim to be in opposition to Israel, yet who routinely help Israel accomplish its hegemonic agenda in the middle east.*********************Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
Israel strikes Syria, says targeting Hezbollah armsBy Dominic Evans and Oliver Holmes(Reuters) - Israeli jets devastated Syrian targets near Damascus on Sunday in a heavy overnight air raid that Western and Israeli officials called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah.As Syria's two-year-old civil war veered into the potentially atomic arena of Iran's confrontation with Israel and the West over its nuclear program, people were woken in the Syrian capital by explosions that shook the ground like an earthquake and sent pillars of flame high into the night sky."Night turned into day," one man told Reuters from his home at Hameh, near one of the targets, the Jamraya military base.But for all the angry rhetoric in response from Tehran and from the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it was unclear whether the second such raid in 48 hours would elicit any greater reaction than an Israeli attack in the same area in January, which was followed by little evident change.The Syrian government accused Israel of effectively helping al Qaeda Islamist "terrorists" and said the strikes "open the door to all possibilities"; but Israeli officials said that, as in January, they were calculating Assad would not pick a fight with a well-armed neighbor while facing defeat at home.Denying it was weighing in on the rebel side on behalf of Washington - which opposes Assad but is hesitating to intervene - officials said Israel was pursuing its own conflict, not with Syria but with Iran, and was acting to prevent Iran's Hezbollah allies receiving missiles that might strike Tel Aviv if Israel made good on threats to attack Tehran's nuclear program.What Israel was not doing, they stressed, was getting drawn into a debate that has raged in the United States lately of whether the alleged use of poison gas by Assad's forces should prompt the West finally to give military backing to oust him.Israel was not taking sides in a civil war that has pitted Assad's government, a dour but mostly toothless adversary for nearly 40 years, against Sunni rebels, some of them Islamist radicals, who might one day turn Syria's armory against the Jewish state.It is a mark of how two years of killing in which at least 70,000 Syrians have died has not only inflamed a wider, regional confrontation between Shi'ite Muslim Iran and Sunni Arabs, some of them close Western allies, but have also left Israel and Western powers scrambling to reassess where their interests lie.Egypt, the most populous Arab state and flagship of the 2011 Arab Spring revolts where elected Islamists have replaced a Western-backed autocrat, has no love for Assad. But on Sunday it condemned Israel's air strikes as a breach of international law that "made the situation more complicated".ROCKETS TARGETEDIsrael does not confirm such missions explicitly - a policy it says is intended to avoid provoking reprisals. But an Israeli official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the strikes were carried out by its forces, as was a raid early on Friday that U.S. President Barack Obama said had been justified.A Western intelligence source told Reuters: "In last night's attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah."Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his aim for Israel was to "guarantee its future" - language he has used to warn of a willingness to attack Iran's nuclear sites, even in defiance of U.S. advice, as well as to deny Hezbollah heavier weapons.He later flew to China on a scheduled trip, projecting confidence there would be no major escalation - though Israel has reinforced its anti-missile batteries in the north.Syrian state television said bombing at a military research facility at Jamraya and two other sites caused "many civilian casualties and widespread damage", but it gave no details. The Jamraya compound was also a target for Israel on January 30.Hezbollah's Al-Manar television showed a flattened building spread over the size of a football pitch, with smoke rising from rubble containing shell fragments. It did not identify it.Syrian state television quoted a letter from the foreign minister to the United Nations saying: "The blatant Israeli aggression has the aim to provide direct military support to the terrorist groups after they failed to control territory."Obama defended Israel's right to block "terrorist organizations like Hezbollah" from acquiring weapons after Friday's raid, and a White House spokesman said on Sunday: "The president many times has talked about his view that Israel, as a sovereign government, has the right to take the actions they feel are necessary to protect their people."It was unclear that Israel had sought U.S. approval for the strikes, although the White House spokesman said: "The close coordination between the Obama administration, the United States of America, is ongoing with the Israeli government."Obama has in recent years worked to hold back Netanyahu from making good on threats to hit facilities where he says Iran, despite its denials, is working to develop a nuclear weapon.On Sunday, some Israeli officials highlighted Obama's reluctance to be drawn into new conflict in the Middle East to explain Israel's need for independent action.Syria restricts access to independent journalists. Its state media said Israeli aircraft struck three places between Damascus and the nearby Lebanese border. The city also lies barely 50 km (30 miles) from Israeli positions on the occupied Golan Heights.Tehran, which has long backed Assad, whose Alawite minority has religious ties to Shi'ite Islam, denied the attack was on armaments for Lebanon and called for nations to stand firm against Israel. A senior Iranian commander was quoted, however, as saying Syria's armed forces were able to defend themselves without their allies, though Iran could help them with training.Hezbollah, a Shi'ite movement that says it is defending Lebanon from Israeli aggression, declined immediate comment.ISRAELI CONCERNSAnalysts say the Fateh-110 could put the Tel Aviv metropolis in range of Hezbollah gunners, 100 km (60 miles) to the north, bolstering the arsenal of a group that fired some 4,000 shorter-range rockets into Israel during a month-long war in 2006."What we want is to ensure that inside the Syrian chaos we will not see Hezbollah growing stronger," Israeli lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi, a confidant of Netanyahu, told Army Radio."The world is helplessly looking on at events in Syria, the Americans in particular, and this president in particular," he added of Obama. "He has left Iraq, Afghanistan and has no interest in sending ground troops to Syria ... That is why, as in the past, we are left with our own interests, protecting them with determination and without getting too involved."Video footage uploaded onto the Internet by Syrian activists showed a series of blasts. One lit up the skyline of Damascus, while another sent up a tower of flames and secondary blasts.Syrian state news agency SANA said Israeli aircraft struck in three places: northeast of Jamraya; the town of Maysaloun on the Lebanese border; and the nearby Dimas air base."The sky was red all night," one man said from Hameh, near Jamraya. "We didn't sleep a single second. The explosions started after midnight and continued through the night."Central Damascus was quiet on the first day of the working week, and government checkpoints seemed reinforced. Some opposition activists said they were glad strikes might weaken Assad, even if few Syrians have any liking for Israel: "We don't care who did it," Rania al-Midania said in the capital. "We care that those weapons are no longer there to kill us."(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Marwan Makdesi in Damascus, Maayan Lubell, Dan Williams, Jeffrey Heller and Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Roberta Rampton Aboard Air Force One and Arshad Mohammed and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Will Waterman)
5 Mei 2013
Arab League slams Israeli Syria strike, UK calls to lift
rebel arms embargo
Syria says Israel has effectively declared war, after its planes bombed targets in Damascus, the second airstrikes in as many days. Syria's state media says Israeli rockets targeted a military research centre on the outskirts of the capital. Video footage and eye witness accounts suggest the attacks hit weapons dumps, triggering large explosions.Syria says a number of people were killed and wounded amid widespread destruction. The Arab League has condemned the strikes and demanded the UN Security Council act to stop any more. The League say there has been a "dangerous violation of an Arab state's sovereignty". Article 2 of the United Nations Charter bans the use of force against the territorial integrity of any state. RT's Gayane Chichakyan in Washington and Polly Boiko in London told RT more about the reaction coming from the UK and the US.RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 500 million YouTube views benchmark.
May 5, 2013
Strong blasts hit the outskirts of Syria’s capital early on Sunday, with reports saying that they were results of Israeli airstrikes on a military research center and Damascus Airport. Israel is thought to have carried out a similar attack days ago.
Syrian TV accused Israel of the attack and of being in alignment with rebel forces.
“The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army,” the report said.
The notion was backed by Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, who said the attack proved that there is an alliance between Israel and Islamists trying to topple the Syrian government. In an interview with CNN he said the airstrikes are a “declaration of war” by Israel and that Syria would retaliate in its own time and way.
Massive explosions have been heard near Mount Qasioun in Damascus. The area hosts the Jamraya military research center, which came under Israeli attack earlier in January and marked the first incursion by Israel into Syrian airspace in six years.
A senior US official confirmed to NBC News that Israeli Air Force bombed the military research center.
5 May 2013 01:37The overnight Israeli strike reportedly targeted Iranian-supplied missiles to Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, a Western intelligence source told Reuters. “In last night’s attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah,” the source said.
Assad "to declare war" on Israel following fresh airstrikesReports suggest that Syria's embattled dictator, Bashar al-Assad, is shortly set to declare war on Israel after interventions against the regime
Following evidence of chemical warfare and an increasinly reticent US position, Israel has in recent days taken widely reported steps to neutralise threats emanating from within civil war-torn Syria.
While strikes from Lebanese airspace this weekend are not thought to have been on chemical weapons caches, the recent Israeli intelligence regarding the use of such weaponry is thought to have spurred on a round of strikes, including the latest just hours ago.
The Syrian state news agency SANA, citing initial reports, said early Sunday that Israeli missiles struck a military research center near the capital Damascus.
Syrian state television has reported that a major strike on an ammunition depot in Qassiyoun mountain shook Damascus, while Hezbollah's Al-Manar station claimed the explosion may have been a downed Israeli jet.
Rumours are surfacing online that following the latest volley of attacks on the Syrian regime, President Bashar al-Assad will soon officially declare war on Israel, with speculators pointing to 5am local time for official confirmation. This information continues to persist despite the technical state of war that currently exists between the two states.
Many however, have been quick to dismiss these reports as strictly rumour, with various commentators claiming that such a move would be sure to end Assad's reign of terror in Syria "within a week".
The news of an Israeli intervention in Syria has caught the Obama administration on the back foot, with the US president refusing to comment at length about the strike. Obama said, "The Israelis, justifiably, have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah."
May 5, 2013The US president made no mention of supposed "red lines" being crossed, despite evidence of Syria's used of chemical weapons against rebel forces. Critics have hit out at Barack Obama in recent days for failing to put forward any coherent strategy to bring the violence in Syria to an end. The inaction, according to some, is another example of Obama's "lead from behind" strategy, the same tactic he employed during the intervention in Libya.UPDATE 03:15am GMT: 5am local time in Syria has passed without comment from military authorities or the Assad regime. Speculation continues about the nature of the attack with some insisting that Israel's weaponry was "nuclear-like", that chemicals can be "smelt" in the air, and that the attack was co-ordinated by Israel with help from Syrian rebel forces.UPDATE: 04:36am GMT: Sources suggest that Qassiyoun mountain was the home to many stationed Assad forces, with some projections claiming over 10,000 could have been stationed in and around the area.UPDATE: Sunday morning: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to call a cabinet meeting for 3pm today to discuss the ongoing situation
Tony CartalucciInfowars.comUnprovoked, Israel has attacked Syria numerous times over the past 2 days, including attacks on the Syrian capital of Damascus, in what appears to be a series of intentional provocations designed to drag the region into a wider conflict its US sponsors can then enter militarily. Neither attacked directly by Syria, nor able to cite credible evidence in regards to perceived threats Israel claims to be reacting to, the assault on Syria represents a Chapter VII breach of the United Nations Charter.
What’s more, is that while the US feigns disassociation with Israel’s breach of international peace, after jointly fueling a genocidal sectarian conflict within Syria’s borders for the past two years, it is documented fact that the US and Saudi Arabia planned to use Israel to conduct military attacks against Iran and Syria, they themselves could not justify politically, legally, or strategically.
What is now hoped is that Syria and Iran retaliate militarily, allowing the “other shoe to drop,” and for the US, UK, France, and their regional axis to directly intervene in Syria, and with any luck, Iran.
Insidious Ploy Engineered and Documented in 2007-2009
As early as 2007, it was reported that a US-Saudi-Israeli conspiracy to overthrow the governments of Iran and Syria by arming sectarian terrorists, many linked directly to Al Qaeda, was already set in motion. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his 2007 New Yorker article, “The Redirection,” stated (emphasis added):“To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.”
Of Israel and Saudi Arabia’s partnership it specifically stated:“The policy shift has brought Saudi Arabia and Israel into a new strategic embrace, largely because both countries see Iran as an existential threat. They have been involved in direct talks, and the Saudis, who believe that greater stability in Israel and Palestine will give Iran less leverage in the region, have become more involved in Arab-Israeli negotiations.”
Additionally, Saudi Arabian officials mentioned the careful balancing act their nation must play in order to conceal its role in supporting US-Israeli ambitions across the region. It was stated even then, that using Israel to publicly carry out attacks on Iran would be preferable to the US, which would ultimately implicate the Saudis. It was stated:“The Saudi said that, in his country’s view, it was taking a political risk by joining the U.S. in challenging Iran: Bandar is already seen in the Arab world as being too close to the Bush Administration. “We have two nightmares,” the former diplomat told me. “For Iran to acquire the bomb and for the United States to attack Iran. I’d rather the Israelis bomb the Iranians, so we can blame them. If America does it, we will be blamed.””
This ploy was further developed in 2009 by the Fortune 500-funded (page 19) Brookings Institution in their document, “Which Path to Persia?” In regards to Iran, and now clearly being utilized against Syria, the gambit was described as follows (emphasis added):“…it would be far more preferable if the United States could cite an Iranian provocation as justification for the airstrikes before launching them. Clearly, the more outrageous, the more deadly, and the more unprovoked the Iranian action, the better off the United States would be. Of course, it would be very difficult for the United States to goad Iran into such a provocation without the rest of the world recognizing this game, which would then undermine it. (One method that would have some possibility of success would be to ratchet up covert regime change efforts in the hope that Tehran would retaliate overtly, or even semi-overtly, which could then be portrayed as an unprovoked act of Iranian aggression.) ” -page 84-85, Which Path to Perisa?, Brookings Institution.And:“Israel appears to have done extensive planning and practice for such a strike already, and its aircraft are probably already based as close to Iran as possible. as such, Israel might be able to launch the strike in a matter of weeks or even days, depending on what weather and intelligence conditions it felt it needed. Moreover, since Israel would have much less of a need (or even interest) in securing regional support for the operation, Jerusalem probably would feel less motivated to wait for an Iranian provocation before attacking. In short, Israel could move very fast to implement this option if both Israeli and American leaders wanted it to happen.However, as noted in the previous chapter, the airstrikes themselves are really just the start of this policy. Again, the Iranians would doubtless rebuild their nuclear sites. They would probably retaliate against Israel, and they might retaliate against the United States, too (which might create a pretext for American airstrikes or even an invasion).” -page 91, Which Path to Perisa?, Brookings Institution.
And Israel not waiting for a plausible justification to attack Syria is exactly what has just happened. It should also be noted in particular, the last paragraph which gives insight into what the US-led axis plans to do after this egregious international crime – that is – to incrementally engulf the region into a conflict it finally can justify its own entry into open military aggression.What Should Syria and its Allies Do?
Syria, Iran, Russia and other nations that support the besieged nation most certainly were aware of the Brookings document “Which Path to Persia?” and familiar with this strategy. It would be hoped that anything of value that the Israelis would seek to attack in order to provoke a much desired retaliation and subsequent war, would have been provided additional protection, or moved entirely out of range of potential Israeli attacks.
A media campaign to illustrate the hypocritical and very revealing convergence between Al Qaeda (the so-called Free Syrian Army or FSA) and Israeli interests would undermine whatever remaining support the battered and failing Western-backed terror campaign inside Syria may still have.
Additionally, Israel’s selection by the US to carry out this attack was done specifically because Israel has long-ago exhausted its international legitimacy. What it is doing in Syria is a blatant international crime, in direct violation of international law. Currently, Syria and its allies hold the moral high ground against an enemy who is no longer fooling the world. If it is calculated that Syria can survive Israel’s unprovoked brutality, it would be best to do little or nothing, and incur internationally the same outrage that accompanies Israel’s brutality against the Palestinians.
In light of the US using Israel as its proxy against Syria, should Syria and its allies retaliate, it would be best to do so through any proxies they themselves have at their disposal. Just as Hezbollah and the Palestinians now routinely defeat Israel both strategically and politically, Syria now faces an opportunity to do so again, only on a much bigger scale.
The outrageous actions of Israel, the despicable double-game the US attempts to play by feigning disassociation with its regional beachhead in Tel Aviv, and the silent complicity of the UN, has people around the world desperately seeking retaliation from Syria, or Iran, or both. In reality, this is precisely what the West hopes to achieve – a wider conventional war in which they hold the advantage. By refusing to retaliate directly, Syria cripples the West politically, highlighting the unprovoked nature of their attacks on a nation they claim is a threat, yet fails to strike back even when its capital is under bombardment. By responding through its own plausibly deniable proxies, tactical and political pressure can be put on Israel to end its aggression.
It appears that the Western-backed terrorist front in Syria has been dealt a fatal blow and is in the process of complete collapse. The attack by Israel is a sign of desperation, seeking to expand a conflict that is about to end. Syria and its allies face difficult decisions and dangerous desperation in the coming days and weeks – with an axis of rogue states committing increasingly heinous atrocities in search of a response.This article was posted: Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 6:34 am
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 5, 2013
May 5, 2013
According to the Israeli intelligence asset DEBKAfile, the IDF crossed into Lebanon following a second Israeli attack on a military research facility located on the outskirts of Damascus early Sunday morning.
“One Lebanese source claimed Israeli ground troops had descended from the Mt. Dov-Hermon range, crossed the Lebanese border and entered the Shebaa Farms region,’ DEBKAfile reports.
The Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms were captured by Israel during the 1967 War. Although the Israelis claim the area is a strategic military asset, many argue that Israel occupied the region for its water resources.
None of these reports are confirmed by Israel, Lebanon or Syria. But DEBKAfile notes that if Israeli troops have indeed penetrated Lebanon to a depth of 5-7 kilometers and reached the Shebaa Farms, they have taken up positions opposite the 30 Syrian Shiite villages guarded by incoming Iranian elite Basij militiamen.
DEBKAfile reported exclusively Friday that thousands of Basij militiamen had just been airlifted from Iran to Syria, establishing an Iranian military presence opposite Israel from Syria as well as Lebanon. They joined a comparable number of Hizballah militiamen fighting for the Bashar regime.
The Basji (Persian for mobilization) receive orders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and have pledged their loyalty to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. According to the commander of the Basij, Hasan Taeb, the paramilitary organization numbers 12.6 million members, or approximately 20 percent of Iran’s population.
“Syria is the 35th province [of Iran] and a strategic province for us. If the enemy attacks us and wants to take either Syria or Khuzestan [in western Iran], the priority for us is to keep Syria,” a senior Iranian cleric, Mehdi Taeb, said in February.
Taeb told the English-language Lebanese news website Ya Libnan that Iran helped Syria establish a paramilitary group based on the Basji to fight against the CIA’s FSA and al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. “The Syrian Basij was formed with 60,000 [members] of Hezbollah, who took over the war in the streets from the army,” Taeb said.
In February, the neocon organization the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) cited multiple sources stating Israel is preparing for another war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. A senior Israeli official told the FDD “the world needs to be prepared for the next war with Lebanon.”FDD is closely linked to the National Endowment for Democracy, the quasi-governmental organization funded by the U.S. that conducts covert operations under NGO cover designed to overthrow governments unacceptable to the global elite, a job once entrusted to the CIA.DEBKAfile’s report is suspect due to the fact that it operates as an Israeli military intelligence asset. If, however, the IDF and Basij militiamen are squaring off in Syria it represents a significant escalation in the conflict and may soon result in a regional war.This article was posted: Sunday, May 5, 2013 at 8:00 am
5 May 2013 Last updated at 01:40 GMT
'Israel rockets' hit Damascus military site
4 Mei 2013
خطير وهام جداً جداً أقوى انفجار تشهده دمشق على جبل قاسيون(Serious and very important too powerful explosion witnessed in Damascus on Mount Qasion)أضاء الانفجار مدينة دمشق بأكملها وهز اركان المنازل بقرابة الساعة 1:50 بتوقيت دمشق(Lit up the entire city of Damascus blast shook the pillars of homes at approximately 1:50 pm Damascus time)
WATCH : HERE
- Syrian state TV says Israeli rockets have hit a military research centre on the outskirts of the capital Damascus.
- Huge explosions have been heard in the Mount Qassioun area of the city. The research centre there was the target of a Israeli strike in January.
- Earlier, Israeli officials speaking on condition of anonymity said that on Friday Israeli aircraft had attacked a shipment of missiles inside Syria.
- The missiles were believed to be destined for Lebanon's Hezbollah.
- Heavy explosions shook Damascus overnight. Amateur footage posted online claimed to show the explosion near the Jamraya military research facility, with a huge ball of fire seen rising into the night sky.
"The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups, which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army," Syrian state TV said, referring to recent offensives by President Bashar al-Assad's forces against rebels.There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials on the latest explosions."We don't respond to this kind of report," an Israeli army spokeswoman told Reuters news agency.Red line
May 4, 2013Earlier, unnamed US-based Israeli officials confirmed Israel had launched an air strike inside Syria, targeting a consignment of missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah on Friday.Israel has repeatedly said it would act if it felt Syrian weapons, conventional or chemical, were being transferred to militant groups in the region, especially Hezbollah, the BBC's Wyre Davies, in Jerusalem, reports.Earlier this week, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon acknowledged that Israel had already launched an air strike in January against a Syrian target, identified by previous reports as the Jamraya military research centre.Mr Yaalon said that the transfer of sophisticated weapons to radical militant groups like Hezbollah was a red line, and Israel had acted when it was crossed.Syrian forces and rebels have been fighting around Damascus for months but with neither side gaining the upper hand.More than 70,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
Tony Cartalucci
Infowars.com
Infowars.com
Once again, Israel is “leaking” information about alleged airstrikes it claims it has conducted against Syria along the Lebanese-Syrian border. According to CNN’s “Sources: U.S. believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria,” it was stated that:The United States believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria, two U.S. officials tell CNN.
And:The Israelis have long said they would strike at any targets that prove to be the transfer of any kinds of weapons to Hezbollah or other terrorist groups, as well as at any effort to smuggle Syrian weapons into Lebanon that could threaten Israel.This was the same flimsy pretext used in an earlier alleged Israeli attack on Syrian territory earlier this year.In reality, the “other terrorists groups” Israel claims to worry about, are indeed funded and directed by the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia as part of a long-standing, documented conspiracy to overthrow the nations of Iran and Syria.Reported by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his 2007 New Yorker article, “The Redirection,” it was stated (emphasis added):“To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.”Of Israel it specifically stated:“The policy shift has brought Saudi Arabia and Israel into a new strategic embrace, largely because both countries see Iran as an existential threat. They have been involved in direct talks, and the Saudis, who believe that greater stability in Israel and Palestine will give Iran less leverage in the region, have become more involved in Arab-Israeli negotiations.”Additionally, Saudi Arabian officials mentioned the careful balancing act their nation must play in order to conceal its role in supporting US-Israeli ambitions across the region:“The Saudi said that, in his country’s view, it was taking a political risk by joining the U.S. in challenging Iran: Bandar is already seen in the Arab world as being too close to the Bush Administration. “We have two nightmares,” the former diplomat told me. “For Iran to acquire the bomb and for the United States to attack Iran. I’d rather the Israelis bomb the Iranians, so we can blame them. If America does it, we will be blamed.””This, in fact, reveals the true nature of the attacks, a result of US, Saudi, and Israeli proxies failing inside of Syriaand the desperate need to carryout military intervention to save them, while leaving intact whatever remaining legitimacy and plausible deniability the US holds globally, and Saudi Arabia holds across the Muslim World.What Israel’s Strike May Really MeanIndeed, Israel’s explanation as to why it struck neighboring Syria is tenuous at best considering its long, documented relationship with actually funding and arming the very “terrorist groups” it fears weapons may fall into the hands of.In reality, the pressure placed on Syria’s borders by both Israel and its partner, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey in the north, is part of a documented plan to relieve pressure on the Western, Israeli, Saudi-Qatari armed and funded terrorists currently collapsing inside Syria.The Fortune 500-funded (page 19), US foreign-policy think-tank, Brookings Institution – which has blueprinted designs for regime change in Libya as well as both Syria and Iran – stated this specifically in their report titled, “Assessing Options for Regime Change.”Image: The Brookings Institution, Middle East Memo #21 “Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf),” makes no secret that the humanitarian “responsibility to protect” is but a pretext for long-planned regime change.
….Brookings describes how Israeli efforts in the south of Syria, combined with Turkey’s aligning of vast amounts of weapons and troops along its border to the north, could help effect violent regime change in Syria:“In addition, Israel’s intelligence services have a strong knowledge of Syria, as well as assets within the Syrian regime that could be used to subvert the regime’s power base and press for Asad’s removal. Israel could posture forces on or near the Golan Heights and, in so doing, might divert regime forces from suppressing the opposition. This posture may conjure fears in the Asad regime of a multi-front war, particularly if Turkey is willing to do the same on its border and if the Syrian opposition is being fed a steady diet of arms and training. Such a mobilization could perhaps persuade Syria’s military leadership to oust Asad in order to preserve itself. Advocates argue this additional pressure could tip the balance against Asad inside Syria, if other forces were aligned properly.” -page 6, Assessing Options for Regime Change, Brookings Institution.Of course, airstrikes inside Syria go beyond “posturing,” and indicate perhaps a level of desperation in the West who appear to have elected their chief villain, Israel, to incrementally “intervene” just as they had planned in regards to attacking Iran – also documented by Brookings in a report titled, “Which Path to Persia?”In regards to Iran, in Brookings’ “Which Path to Persia?” report, it states specifically (emphasis added):“Israel appears to have done extensive planning and practice for such a strike already, and its aircraft are probably already based as close to Iran as possible. as such, Israel might be able to launch the strike in a matter of weeks or even days, depending on what weather and intelligence conditions it felt it needed. Moreover, since Israel would have much less of a need (or even interest) in securing regional support for the operation, Jerusalem probably would feel less motivated to wait for an Iranian provocation before attacking. In short, Israel could move very fast to implement this option if both Israeli and American leaders wanted it to happen.However, as noted in the previous chapter, the airstrikes themselves are really just the start of this policy. Again, the Iranians would doubtless rebuild their nuclear sites. They would probably retaliate against Israel, and they might retaliate against the United States, too (which might create a pretext for American airstrikes or even an invasion).” -page 91, Which Path to Perisa?, Brookings Institution.And in this statement we can gather insight behind both Israel’s otherwise irrational belligerent posture throughout its brief history, as well as its more recent acts of unprovoked aggression against Syria. Israel’s role is to play the “bad guy.” As a regional beachhead for Western corporate-financier interests, it provides a “foot in the door” to any of the West’s many desired conflicts. By bombing Syria, it hopes to provoke a wider conflict – an intervention the West has desired and planned for since it tipped off Syria’s violent conflict in 2011.For Syria and its allies – the goal now must be to deter further Israeli aggression and avoid wider conflict at all costs. If NATO’s proxy terrorist forces are as weak as they appear – incapable of tactical or strategic gains, and tapering off into desperate terrorist attacks, it is only a matter of time before NATO’s campaign grinds to a halt. As mentioned before, such a failure on NATO’s part will be the beginning of the end for it, and the Western interests that have been using it as a tool to achieve geopolitical hegemony.Israel should be expected to commit to increasingly desperate acts to provoke Syria and Iran – as its leadership represent directly corporate-financier interests abroad, not the Israeli people, or their best interests (including peace and even survival). For the people of Israel, they must realize that their leadership indeed does not represent them or their best interests and is able, willing, and even eager to spend their lives and fortunes in the service of foreign, corporate-financier interests and global hegemony.Tony Cartalucci is the writer and editor at Land Destroyer
Related Articles
3 May 2013
Israeli Defense Forces Strike Target Inside of Syria
U.S. Pentagon officials are confirming that at least two Israeli warplanes have bombed a warehouse inside Syria. The Pentagon believes that two planes, possibly F-15's or F-16's, carried out the strike.This is the second strike by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Syrian soil, the first occurred when Israeli warplanes struck an truck convoy believed to be transporting Russian-made missiles near the Lebanese border.The Israeli press is reporting that several of these planes were "hovering" over the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Stephen Lendman
Activist Post
Activist Post
It doesn't surprise. On April 27, WikiLeaks Supporters Forum headlined "Syria False Flag Chemical Weapons - Obama sets up America for invasion," saying:
US intelligence "actively promot(es)" a false flag attack. Assad's wrongfully blamed. Obama's heading closer to full-scale intervention.Britain's "David Cameron demonstrates a willingness to assist the US military and Intelligence agenda." UK controlled "BBC obediently falls into line, assisting in disseminating (false) information."
US media scoundrels are worst of all. More on that below.A previous article discussed hacked emails. They revealed Washington's approved plan to stage a false flag Syrian chemical attack.Doing so crosses Obama's "red line." Planned US intervention may follow. On May 1, US-enlisted death squads used chemical materials against Syrian civilians. They did so during a Idlib area attack.Those affected were taken cross border to Turkey. It's a thinly veiled scheme. Expect Assad to be falsely blamed.Victims are hospitalized in Reyhanli. It's in Hatay province on Syria's border. Blood samples were sent to Turkey's Forensic Medicine Institute.Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organization Dr. Ubada Alabrash said:
Doing so crosses Obama's "red line." Planned US intervention may follow. On May 1, US-enlisted death squads used chemical materials against Syrian civilians. They did so during a Idlib area attack.
Those affected were taken cross border to Turkey. It's a thinly veiled scheme. Expect Assad to be falsely blamed.Victims are hospitalized in Reyhanli. It's in Hatay province on Syria's border. Blood samples were sent to Turkey's Forensic Medicine Institute.Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organization Dr. Ubada Alabrash said:Those affected were taken cross border to Turkey. It's a thinly veiled scheme. Expect Assad to be falsely blamed.Victims are hospitalized in Reyhanli. It's in Hatay province on Syria's border. Blood samples were sent to Turkey's Forensic Medicine Institute.Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organization Dr. Ubada Alabrash said:Victims are hospitalized in Reyhanli. It's in Hatay province on Syria's border. Blood samples were sent to Turkey's Forensic Medicine Institute.
Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organization Dr. Ubada Alabrash said:When wounded people arrived at the Bab-al Hawa crossing they were suffering from suffocation, breathing difficulties, they were vomiting and large tears welled up from their eyes. These are symptoms of chemical gas.We cannot be certain, but we are waiting for blood test results from the Turkish government.On May 1, Syrian state media accused terrorists of exposing civilians to an "unknown powder" believed to contain toxic chemicals. A follow-up report said an unknown liquid killed a number of people."Mounting fumes from gallons containing some liquid materials, which were stored by a shepherd in his house in Saraqeb town in Idlib countryside, have killed his guest and him as one of the children in the house opened one of the gallons," it added.An "armed terrorist group" gave a housewife and her children protective masks. They forced three kidnapped victims to inhale toxic fumes.They died after doing so. Their bodies were transferred to Turkey. Blood samples are being tested for toxic chemicals exposure.Earlier, Syria's Foreign Ministry said:"Terrorist groups may resort to using chemical weapons against the Syrian people….after having gained control of a toxic chlorine factory" near Aleppo.On May 1, Reyhanli Mayor Huseyin Sanverdi said:We are taking the necessary precautions as we have received unconfirmed information on the use of chemical weapons.So far I have not received confirmation from medical institutions but there is a possibility that the weapons were used and we have to act with caution in case.Thirteen Syrians were exposed. The Reyhanli hospital is sealed off. An unnamed employee said an emergency medical team is involved.We were given special apparel but it was the emergency team which took care of those patients. Doctors suspected sarin or mustard gas because the patients had breathing difficulties.Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations Dr. Wassim Taha said patients were washed at the border. Doctors feared toxic gas exposure.Dr. Alabrash said test results aren't yet known."I don't think the Turkish government would hide the results from us, but I understand they must be careful with it because NATO and other international bodies are also involved in this issue," he added.Now we are waiting for the blood test results from Ankara. We have asked to be informed. We can only say after the test results if chemical weapons were used or not.He stopped short of saying who bears responsibility. Expect Washington, Britain and other US allies to blame Assad. Whether US-led NATO intervention follows remains to be seen.US media scoundrels support it. On April 23, The New York Times featured Senator Bob Corker's (R. TN) op-ed. He headlined "Dithering While Damascus Burns," saying:America must get involved, he stressed. US "leadership, including providing arms and training to moderate rebels, are likely to be the only things that can tip the balance, help end the bloodshed and halt brewing threats to us and our allies."(T)he time for 'leading from behind' is over.The United States must also be more aggressive in stopping Iranian support for Mr. Assad.(E)nding the violence in Syria will require the United States to play an even greater role, and it will force both us and our partners to make difficult decisions.The consequences of our continued collective failure are unthinkable, and grow more serious every day.New York Times editors claim Assad distorts the conflict by accusing US-backed death squads of terrorism. Washington exploits the notion. Its "war on terror" does so on humanity. Don't expect Times editors to explain.Washington Post editors crossed the line. They urge US intervention. They want Syria bombed. They recommended doing so "with missiles and stealth bombers."They urge circumventing the Security Council. Otherwise they'll be "more crossings of (Obama's) red line - and grave damage to US interests."
Los Angeles Times editors headlined "A 'red line' on Syria." saying:If the Assad regime has indeed used chemical weapons, the US must honor its commitment to act….Obama must respond.
Foreign Affairs contributor Josh Rogin headlined "State Department: Syria must answer questions about secret nuclear program."
No evidence suggests one. At issue was Israel's September 2007 attack. Four Israeli aircraft lawlessly entered Syrian airspace. Secret unprovoked bombing followed.
At the time, anonymous sources claimed Israel destroyed a partially constructed nuclear reactor. None existed.
Whatever was attacked had nothing to do with nuclear reactor development. Israel committed premeditated aggression. It wasn't the first time.
The State Department revived an old canard. Assistant Secretary of State for International and Non-Proliferation, Tom Countryman, said:
With regard to Syria, it has been nearly two years since IAEA Director General Amano reported that the facility destroyed in 2007 at Deir Ez-Zour was ‘very likely a nuclear reactor' that should have been declared to the agency pursuant to Syria's safeguards agreement.
To date, Syria has not taken any concrete steps to address the outstanding serious questions about its clandestine nuclear activities.
Countryman lacks credibility. So does Amano. He's a pro-Western stooge. Washington installed him to serve US interests. Take nothing he says at face value. He falsely accused Iran numerous times.
America's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) features state-sponsored propaganda. On April 29, its nightly NewsHour program discussed Syria.
What should America do, was asked? One-sided views followed. Alternative voices are suppressed. It's official PBS policy.
The so-called UN Institute for Peace (USIP) is a pro-Western front group. Washington generously funds it. The Day After Project is one of its initiatives. It's a US-led effort for a post-Assad Syria.
Its representative Murhaf Jouejati appeared on NewsHour. He claimed "overwhelming evidence that this dictator (Assad) is out to kill as many Syrian opponents of his regime as possible."
He mentioned alleged chemical weapons use as one example. "I think the US should do more than it is doing," he urged.
Syria Comment editor Joshua Landis said Syria "exploded into civil war." There's nothing civil about Syria's conflict. Western-recruited death squads invaded. Assad's confronting them responsibly. Most Syrians support him. Landis didn't explain.
Jouejati called what's ongoing "a national uprising." Until Washington sent in its dogs, Syria was peaceful. Obama bears full responsibility. NewsHour guests didn't explain. They never discuss what viewers most need to know.
Obama's already waging multiple direct and proxy wars. He's incrementally heading toward another. Syrian intervention appears likely. Libya 2.0 could happen anytime.
Advancing America's imperium alone matters. Rogue governments operate that way. America's by far the worst.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War. Also visit his blog site at HERE and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening. HERE
WASHINGTON | Fri May 3, 2013 8:41pm EDT
U.S. believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria:
CNN
(Reuters) - The United States believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria, CNN reported on Friday, citing two unnamed U.S. officials.CNN quoted the officials as saying Israel most likely conducted the strike "in the Thursday-Friday time frame" and that Israel's warplanes did not enter Syrian airspace.It said the officials did not believe Israel had targeted a chemical weapons facility.There was no immediate confirmation. A White House spokeswoman referred questions on the CNN report to the Israeli government. In Jerusalem, an Israeli defense official declined comment, and a military spokeswoman said, "We do not comment on reports of this kind."The CNN report said that during the time frame of the attack, the United States had collected information showing Israeli warplanes overflying Lebanon.Israel has made clear in the past that it might intervene to prevent Syrian advanced weapons falling into the hands of militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.In January this year, Israel bombed a convoy in Syria, apparently hitting weapons destined for Hezbollah, according to diplomats, Syrian rebels and security sources in the region.(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, and by Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Writing by Sandra Maler; Editing by Peter Cooney)
USA TODAY8:23 p.m. EDT May 3, 2013
Obama doesn't foresee U.S. boots on the ground in Syria
Aamer Madhani
The president's comments came Friday during his visit to
Costa Rica.
President Obama said on Friday he does not foresee a situation in which deploying U.S. troops to Syria would be helpful."As a general rule, I don't rule things out as commander-in-chief, because circumstances change," Obama told reporters during his visit to Costa Rica on Friday. "Having said that I do not foresee a scenario in which boots on the ground in Syria — American boots on the ground in Syria — would be good for America but would also be good for Syria."Obama's comments come a little more than a week after the White House said it is very likely that Syrian President Bashar Assad had used chemical weapons against his people. The president had previously set use or transfer of chemical weapons by Assad as a "red line" that would elicit an unspecified response from the Obama administration.Obama, however, has cautioned that more proof is needed before the United States escalates its involvement in Syria.The two-year conflict has left more than 70,000 dead. While the U.S. has provided tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to rebel groups, the Obama administration has thus far resisted arming the resistance."In terms of any additional steps we take, it's going to be based number one on the facts on the ground, number two what's in the interest of the American people and our national security," Obama said. "As president of the United States, I am going to make those decisions based on the best evidence and after careful consultation. Because when we rush into things, when we leap before we look, then not only do we pay a price, but we often also see unintended consequences on the ground. It's important for us to do it right and that's exactly what we're doing right now."
This is the reason for Syria’s crisis:
An oil pipeline from Kirkuk (Iraq) through Syria for israHELLi U$/£/€U! (satanic crooks) Wake up!! An attack on Bashar Al-Assad (Syria) is an attack on IR Iran!! israHELL (global mainstream media) supports FSA free Syrian ants!! Watch videos here, etc.: HERE
 |
| Source : Here |
Syria what's really going on and why it is an attack on Iran. israHELLi AIPAC in the US is involved 1000%!! (Oil pipeline through Syria = $£€ for israHELL & its COhorts) | HERESyria being punished for supporting Hezbollah (IR Iran). That's why an attack on Bashar Al-Assad and Syria is an attack on IR Iran: | HERE
“USA asked Damascus to cut its ties with Tehran as a precondition to prevent the present war in Syria”,said Damascus's Envoy to Tehran Adnan Mansour at a meeting with Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, a senior Iranian religious leader. | HERE
Leader of the Islamic revolution Seyyed Ali Khamenei: “The Iranian nation will not negotiate under pressure.”“If anyone wants the return of U.S. dominance here, people will grab his throat.”
“I’m not a diplomat; I’m a revolutionary, and speak frankly and directly.”
“I’m not a diplomat; I’m a revolutionary, and speak frankly and directly.” Full text, etc.: HERE
The fate of Western theories..Leader of the Muslim Ummah Ayatullah Khamenei Farsi sub English HERE
- “If my sons did not want war, there would be none.”Gutle Schnapper Rothschild (German Jew) HERE
- Nathan Mayer Rothschild (German Jewish bankster):
- “I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England to rule the empire on which the sun never sets.The man that controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply.” Study more here: HERE
- A world declaration of liberation from criminal Rothschilds, israHELL & CO.:HERE
- 9/11 was a Mossad operation!! Jesuit (crypto-Jews)/Rothschild (Jews) israHELLi Zionist control America, etc.:HERE
- Capitalism = corruption!!Hang Jewish banksters!! (aka Rothschild & COhorts) Show no mercy!!HERE
We have no Al-CIAda in Iran!!Who the heck tells you this!?The Jewish controlled mainstream media (liars)!!Please, go back to sleep, if you believe this shit!!Or hit the streets to protest against satanic governments and to stop all Jewish steered "star wars" as soon as possible!! | Just follow the money!! (banks) | HERE
“Islamic nations and the suppressed worldwide must discover the power within Islam. They must not fear the threats of the East and West and their allies and puppets. They must rise with faith in God and Islam and dislodge the criminals from their countries.” IRI founder Imam Khomeini | HERE
Christian and Muslim alliance prophecy January 2012.
- Sheikh Imran Hosein: HERE
- Fuck Free Syrian ants!! (israHELL) HERE
- Dear 99% unchain yourselves!! We are not their slaves!! Please, rise up!! HERE
- “The Ottoman is pregnant with Europe, and it will give birth to European one day.
- And Europe is pregnant with Islam; one day it will give birth to Islami.” | HERE
May 2, '13
The Syria-Iran red line show
By Pepe EscobarThis eminently Bushist Obama "red line" business, applied to Syria, Iran or both, is becoming a tad ridiculous.
Take Pentagon head Chuck Hagel's tour of Israel and the "friendly" GCC (the de facto Gulf Counter-revolution Club) last week. US defense contractors had the Moet flowing as Hagel merrily congregated with that prodigy of democracy - United Arab Emirates (UAE) Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed - to celebrate the sale of 25 F-16 fighter jets.
There's more on the way; 48 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD missile interceptors, at a cool US$1 billion. The Pentagon is sending one of its only two of such systems to Guam this month to counter that other threat - missiles from North Korea.
The weaponizing free fest to Israel and the Gulf petro-monarchies - missile defense, fighter jets, mega-bombs - could not but be duly hailed as the proverbial "message" to "counter Iran's nuclear ambitions", or "the air and missile threat posed by Iran", or the general "worry about Iran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon" or "Washington's determination to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."
There's no "red line" here; just hardcore weaponizing of Israel and the GCC. Any doubts, blame it on Iran. And this while Saudi-controlled media in the Middle East - roughly everything except al-Jazeera - was breathlessly spinning that Tel Aviv is pursuing a deal to use Turkish soil for an attack on Iran.
Wait; there's more weaponizing on the way - bound to neighboring latitudes. Kraus-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) from Germany closed another $2.48 billion deal with Qatar - five years in the making - to deliver 62 Leopard 2 tanks and 24 self-propelled howitzers. Qatar is not exactly using them for the 2022 FIFA World Cup; they are bound to "friendly groups in other countries" - as in Syria's "rebels", via Turkey.
Ask the NenetsNow take the Syria chemical weapons charade. The White House now seems to be convinced that the CIA believes, with "varying degrees of confidence", that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons. Secretary of State John Kerry - an "intervention" cheerleader posing as a dove - was already convinced.
But then Hagel said, "Suspicions are one thing; evidence is another." Just to flip-flop a little while later, during his visit to Israel, he became convinced Bashar al-Assad was using sarin gas. Of course; after all, Hagel finally had unimpeded access to Israeli - not US - intel.
And now for the beauty of Hagel's marketing; what about embarking as a traveling salesman to "our bastards" with a sales pitch of " Look, Iran and Syria are both crazy, you might consider stacking up on this, this and this."
The Nenets of Siberia - crossing the Ob river to enter the Arctic Circle - could teach a thing or two about real strategy to those limping armchair warriors in US Think Tankland. Even the Nenets would know that the current chemical weapons hysteria is a total fabrication by the CIA, MI6 and Israeli intelligence - corroborated by zero evidence. Still, the prevailing Washington "wisdom" is that a "red line" must be enforced over Syria so a "red line" must be enforced on Iran.
The fact is that the al-Assad government initially accused the "rebels" of using chemical weapons - and asked the United Nations for an official investigation.
Even the New York Times was forced, grudgingly, to admit the "rebels" acknowledged an attack happened in territory controlled by the government, with 16 Syrian Army dead, plus 10 civilians and over a hundred injured. But then the "rebels" changed the narrative, blaming Damascus of bombing their own soldiers. It was Moscow that introduced a measure of reality, detailing how Washington was stalling the UN investigation.
Our Nenets of Siberia would also know there's hardly anything secular leading the "rebels" in Syria; it's a motley crew of varying degrees of fanaticism. Once again, the Nenets would not need to freeze to death reading the New York Times to find out that the CIA is "secretly" funneling a free for all weaponizing to the "rebels" via Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Still the Obama administration peddles the fiction that Washington only supplies "non lethal" aid as Capitol Hill nutters keep insisting that Obama install a "no fly zone" over Syria - as in Libya-style NATO war remix.
Follow-on strike package, anyone?
- US Think Tankland nonetheless is ecstatic that the GCC petro-monarchies now have access to precision-guided munitions to "strike Iranian targets".
- But nothing compares to the cheerleading of Israel's new access to KC-135 aerial refueling tankers - or Stratotankers. Then there's the imminent transfer of anti-radiation missiles as well - advanced versions of the AGM-88 HARM missiles. These toys will "reduce the threat to Israel's follow-on strike package."
- No, this is not exactly about "US circumspection", or "US resolve in the campaign against Iranian nuclear weapons"; it's unqualified Dog of War barking.
- Meanwhile, that police state run by King Playstation, also known as Jordan, has opened its airspace to Israeli drones now engaged in "monitoring" Syria.
- As Asia Times Online has repeatedly warned, Obama in Syria is fast becoming a remix of Reagan in 1980s Afghanistan. We all know what came out of those "freedom fighters" afterwards. In this context, Robert Ford, Obama's alleged Syria expert, telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that it's important for Washington to "weigh in" to affect "the internal balance of power in Syria" qualifies as a joke line, not a red line.
- There's wild speculation that after the Boston bombing Obama and Russia's Vladimir Putin made a deal; Washington lets Moscow do whatever it wants in Chechnya like, forever, but gets a nod to install a "no-fly zone" and further mayhem in Syria. There's no evidence to that. What a geopolitically savvy Putin wants to know is what does he get out of Syria in practical terms (and Obama does not have a clue). Crumbs from a NATO banquet don't apply.
- As for allowing Syria to become a "Western-friendly" Wahhabi emirate or yet another failed Muslim Brotherhood fiefdom, one needs to go no further than Hezbollah's Sheikh Nasrallah ... "the goal of anyone standing behind the war in Syria, is destroying Syria so that a strong, centralized state would not be established in it, and so that it would become too weak to take decisions related to its oil, sea, or borders."
Now that's what a red line is all about.(Copyright 2013 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
May 1, 2013
White House set to green light weapons to jihadists who have
vowed to destroy America
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Infowars.com
President Barack Obama has signaled that he will green light the transfer of lethal weapons to FSA militants in Syria within weeks despite the fact that such groups are being led by Al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for killing U.S. troops in Iraq who have vowed to destroy America.“Obama is preparing to send lethal weaponry to the Syrian opposition and has taken steps to assert more aggressive U.S. leadership among allies and partners seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, according to senior administration officials,” reports the Washington Post.Although no final decision has been made on the weapons transfer, Obama is set to reach a verdict before a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, during which he will attempt to convince Putin to abandon his support for Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad.The White House is preparing to send heavy weaponry to groups that have committed numerous terrorist attacks over the last 18 months, including an incident this week where FSA rebels targeted a Russian airliner with 159 passengers on board with two ground-to-air missiles which exploded near to the civilian aircraft.As we have exhaustively documented, opposition fighters in Syria are now dominated by sectarian extremists and jihadists who have repeatedly emphasized their hatred for America and their allegiance to Al-Qaeda.Multiple reports now confirm that the individuals responsible for a plethora of atrocities, many of them part of the Al-Qaeda group Jabhat al-Nusra which “killed numerous American troops in Iraq,” are leading western-backed rebel forces in Syria. After the organization was declared a terrorist group by the US State Department, 29 different US-backed Syrian opposition groups pledged their allegiance to al-Nusra.An article by McClatchy Newspapers’ David Enders documents how Jabhat al Nusra, “has become essential to the frontline operations of the rebels fighting to topple Assad,” that the group is “critical to the rebels’ military advance” and how it conducts the “heaviest frontline fighting” in “battle after battle across the country.”A journalist cited in the article also discovered “Nusra’s fighters on every frontline he visited.”The article quotes one of the members of the group, who stated unequivocally, “When we finish with Assad, we will fight the U.S.!”In July 2012, the London Guardian reported that Al-Qaeda militants meet “every day” with Syrian rebels in order to train them how to build bombs.The administration has already sent well over half a billion dollars in aid to such groups, while the CIA has overseen “a secret airlift of arms and equipment” to rebels since early 2012, according to the New York Times.The very insurgents who Obama now plans to arm with lethal weaponry have openly espoused their radical anti-American agenda as they ransack Christian churches, burn US flags, chant anti-American slogans and sing the praises of Osama Bin Laden while glorifying the 9/11 attacks.The same rebels set to receive weapons courtesy of US taxpayers have also made clear their intention to fly the Al-Qaeda flag over the White House.In arming Al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria, Obama is clearly committing an impeachable offense by empowering America’s enemies, repeating the process that unfolded in Libya, where the arming of jihadists in the effort to overthrow Colonel Gaddafi led to the attack on the US consulate carried out by some of the very same NATO-backed insurgents.
April 29th, 2013
Author: PatriotPosted in Zionist Threat
April 17, 2013 -- Updated 1706 GMT (0106 HKT)
By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon CorrespondentU.S. military to step up presence in Jordan in light of Syria civil war
Washington (CNN) -- In a critical indication of growing U.S. military involvement in the civil war in Syria, CNN has learned Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is ordering the deployment of up to 200 troops to Jordan, according to two Defense Department officials. The troops, which will come from the headquarters of the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, "creates an additional capability" beyond what has been there, one official said. The group will give the United States the ability to "potentially form a joint task force for military operations, if ordered," he said. The new deployment will include communications and intelligence specialists who will assist the Jordanians and "be ready for military action" if President Barack Obama were to order it, the official said. This comes as the Pentagon has recently reviewed military options for Syria although Obama has not ordered any to be put into action. There have been several dozen American troops, mainly special forces, in Jordan for the past year assisting the Jordanians. But that group has been very ad hoc, the official said. This new deployment makes the U.S. military presence more official and is the first formalized ongoing presence of an American military unit in the Kingdom in recent years.
April 18, 2013 6:16AM
- Rebels in Syria are fighting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
- More than 450,000 Syrians are registered as refugees in Jordan.
US to send 200 troops over Syria: JordanTHE United States plans to deploy 200 troops in Jordan because of "the deteriorating situation" in war-torn Syria, Jordan's Information Minister Mohammad Momani says. "The deployment of the troops is part of US-Jordanian military cooperation to boost the Jordanian armed forces in light of the deteriorating situation in Syria," Momani told AFP. He did not say when the troops were scheduled to arrive in Jordan. "US and Jordanian officials have been in touch for the past two days," he said. "It is still unclear if military equipment and weapons will arrive with the group, who will come to the kingdom in the coming stage." Jordan, a key US ally in the region, says it is hosting around 500,000 Syrian refugees. Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur told parliament on Sunday that the impact of Syria's war posed a threat to the kingdom's security and Jordan would seek the UN security council's help to tackle the fallout.
Syrian civil war [1]
The Syrian civil war, also commonly known as the Syrian uprising,is an ongoing armed conflict in Syria between forces loyal to the Syrian Ba'ath Party government and those seeking to oust it. The conflict began on 15 March 2011, with popular demonstrations that grew nationwide by April 2011. These demonstrations were part of the wider Middle Eastern protest movement known as the Arab Spring. Protesters demanded the resignation of President Basharal-Assad, whose family has held the presidency in Syria since 1971, as well as the end to over four decades of Ba'ath Party rule
3/13/2013
As the conflict in Syria reaches its third year with more than 70,000 killed, children are becoming ever more drawn into the warfare. Some young boys are being used by armed groups as porters, runners and human shields, bringing them close to the front line, while many girls are being married off early to protect them from a widely perceived threat of sexual violence."For millions of Syrian children, the innocence of childhood has been replaced by the cruel realities of trying to survive this vicious war," said Justin Forsyth, Save the Children's chief executive.
"We cannot afford to lose any more time. We certainly cannot afford to lose another year. We risk creating a generation of children who have seen, or know, only fighting, and may well end up perpetuating that cycle of violence," said UNICEF spokesman Patrick McCormick. Syria:millions of children facing abuse and attacks
3/14/2013
EU countries imposed the embargo in May 2011, prohibiting “the sale, supply, transfer or export of arms and related materiel of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment and spare parts for the aforementioned.” But its renewal would be automatically ruled out if there was not unanimity between all 27 EU member states. Britain and France seek end to arms embargo on Syria
3/19/2013
The Syrian state news agency SANA said “terrorists” fired a rocket “containing chemical materials” into the area around the village of Khan al-Assal in the northern province of Aleppo. The regime regularly uses the term terrorists to refer to rebels fighting to overthrow authoritarian President Bashar Assad. SANA said about 15 people, most of them civilians, were killed and a number of others were wounded. An activist in the area said rebels had recently seized much of the village of Khan al-Assal including a facility that housed a military academy. BREAKING:Syria accuses rebels of firing chemical weapon
Moscow said the intensifying conflict was raising the likelihood that chemical weapons would be turned on civilians.
"We are very seriously concerned by the fact that weapons of mass destruction are falling into the hands of the rebels, which further worsens the situation in Syria and elevates the confrontation in the country to a new level," the foreign ministry statement said.Syria:regime accuses rebels of killing 25 in chemical weapons attack
Following unconfirmed reports al-Qaeda used chemical weapons, the top U.S. commander in Europe told the Associated Press NATO is preparing to intervene in Syria. NATO recommendations include imposing a no-fly zone over Syria, providing “lethal support” for the FSA and al-Qaeda, and imposing an arms embargo on the country. Admiral:U.S. will attack Syria “if called upon”
3/20/2013
Washington, meanwhile, has signaled its support for British and French moves to directly arm the anti-Assad forces. On Monday, US Secretary of State John Kerry declared that “the United States does not stand in the way of other countries that made a decision to provide arms, whether it’s France or Britain or others.” US, NATO prepare Syria intervention -
3/21/2013
UN leader Ban Ki-Moon gave no immediate sign as to how he would respond to the calls for an investigation. UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said a written request has been from the Damascus government "and it is being studied." Westcalls for UN inquiry into Syria chemical attacks
The Obama administration has now sent almost half a billion dollars to Syrian rebels (manyof whom aren’t even Syrian) – $500 million dollars to militants who have publicly embraced the group responsible for the kind of gruesome beheadings depicted in the video above.
Given the fact that the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi was carried out by some of the very same terrorists the administration armed in the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi, for how much longer can Obama hide the fact that the US is once again throwing its weight behind bloodthirsty jihadists who hate the United States, hate the ideals of justice and freedom, and who are willing to commit the most savage acts of barbarity in pursuit of their extremist doctrine? GruesomeVideo Shows Syrian Rebel Beheading Civilian
In the name of democracy, the US government has supported a variety of armed opposition fighters in Syria seeking to overthrow that country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, who according to a wide variety of sources information enjoys support from the majority of the Syrian people. So to promote democracy in Syria, the US government has taken it upon itself to choose a new leader for Syria. And in keeping with the US tradition of supporting the Chalabis of the world, this democratic answer to Syria’s problems lives in Dallas, TX, and was educated in Indiana. He has not set foot in the country he now “rules” in more than thirty years. Also, he is, like the other US puppets to emerge from the phony “Arab Spring” an Islamist from the Muslim Brotherhood.
That is what the US government calls “democratic
legitimacy.”
It would be comical if the US was not onthe verge of attacking Syria, perhaps on the false Tonkin pretense that the Syrian government recently used a chemical weapon in Aleppo. And irony is always lost on bulllies: we are just ten years out from the last time the neo-cons neo-conned us into a war based on a lie. Oh…but this time it is different, we are told. This one is really for democracy!
UPDATE: See this fascinating interview for a glimpse of the real feeling on the ground
in Aleppo”
“People here don’t like the regime, but they hate the rebels even more. …I, and many other residents of Aleppo saw firsthand how the armed rebels were acting on the ground, and the various crimes and looting they were committing with impunity. Another reason is that there are foreign jihadi fighters with extremist ideologies here. US‘Elects’ New Syrian Leader…A Guy From Dallas!
3/21/2013
Starting a two-day visit to Israel on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama issued bellicose threats against both Syria and Iran. The visit, which plainly has the character of a US-Israeli war council, makes clear that ten years after the US invasion of Iraq, US imperialism is preparing even greater crimes in the Middle East. Hands off Syria !
3/22/2013
While attacks in the capital during Syria's two-year-long rebellion have become almost commonplace, an attack on a mosque was deeply shocking to both sides in the conflict. The health ministry said at least 42 people had been killed in the blast at the Iman Mosque, with 84 wounded. Suicide bomber kills Syria's most senior Sunni cleric
Israel has said for months that it expects Assad's government to fall and has voiced concern that its chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas and al Qaeda. Israeli President Shimon Peres has called for Assad to step down. Israel Fires into Syria Following Golan Attack on Troops
3/20/2013
In the end, whatever the reasons are for being for or against the arming of a certain side in a civil war in Syria, the media has overwhelmingly failed to ask important questions: should the UK even be considering playing a role in a civil war 2,000 miles away, and if so, why? By not addressing such basic, fundamental questions, the media once again legitimises the peculiar yet deeply embedded assumption that the UK government is for some reason entitled to intervene in other countries around the world as and when it wishes. Reporting on Syria: How the Media Designates a Role for the UK
American-Israeli plans for a more directed military intervention in Syria are accompanied by a diplomatic offensive by both countries to forge a regional pro-war alliance to topple Assad and prepare for war against Iran. In a move welcomed by the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and announced the restoration of normal diplomatic relations with Turkey. He apologized for the death of Turkish activists during an Israeli raid on the so-called Gaza flotilla in 2010. With Israel, Turkey is one of Washington’s main regional allies; it has repeatedly called for direct military intervention in Syria to bring down Assad. US steps up waragainst Syria after Obama’s “peace” trip to Israel
The latest developments in the struggle by the CIA to topple al-Assad arrives after an unsubstantiated chemical attack inside Syria failed to produce the desired result despite a letter sent to EU foreign policy boss Catherine Ashton and Obama’s “red line” speech. The CIA has apparently launched another chemical attack following its previous failure.
On Monday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Syrian “opposition campaigners” as stating that the al-Assad government has fired chemical weapons from rocket launchers at mercenaries surrounding an army base in the town of Adra outside Damascus. There was no independent confirmation of the attack, the newspaper reported. CIAOrchestrated Syrian Opposition Crumbles
While US President Barack Obama and the Western media lied in concert to the world regarding America’s role in supporting terrorists operating in Syria, it is now revealed that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been shipping weapons to Syria via NATO-member Turkey and Jordan since at least early 2012. The New York Times in their article titled, “Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With C.I.A. Aid,” admits that: With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders. The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.The New York Times piece attempts to spin America’s role in arming militants in Syria. The Times continues by stating: The American government became involved, the former American official said, in part because there was a sense that other states would arm the rebels anyhow. The C.I.A. role in facilitating the shipments, he said, gave the United States a degree of influence over the process, including trying to steer weapons away from Islamist groups and persuading donors to withhold portable antiaircraft missiles that might be used in future terrorist attacks on civilian aircraft.
This is categorically false. Already, in 2007, US officials had divulged plans to destroy Syria by arming sectarian extremists, using Saudi Arabia and other regional actors as proxies to launder US and Israel support through – maintaining a degree of credibility amongst the terrorist receiving the aid, as well as a degree of plausible deniabiliy for Washington and Tel Aviv politically. In Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s 2007 New Yorker article, “The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in thewar on terrorism?” the strategy was described as follows:
To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.
Perhaps more importantly, the report would also state:
Some of the core tactics of the redirection are not public, however. The clandestine operations have been kept secret, in some cases, by leaving the execution or the funding to the Saudis, or by finding other ways to work around the normal congressional appropriations process, current and former officials close to the Administration said. Clearly, that “sense that other states would arm the rebels anyhow” was gleaned from premeditated conspiracies long-ago hatched between Washington, Tel Aviv, and Riyadh. And as the terrible consequences of this conspiracy come to fruition with tens of thousands dead, the West is eager to disclaim any and all responsibility, hoping sincerely that the public hasn’t the collective memory or intelligence to pick up a newspaper from 2007 and read what they had already admitted to planning.
“Mystery” of Al Qaeda’s al-Nusra Sponsorship Revealed
The confirmed admission implicates NATO directly in militarily intervening in Syria’s ongoing conflict and reveals the source of arms and cash that have ended up primarily in the hands of Al Qaeda’s Syrian franchise, US designated terror front, Jabhat al-Nusra. (see here for other examples of US arming listed terror organizations) The CIA, Western media, and Western politicians insist that they have taken every precaution to ensure the now admitted torrent of cash and weapons that have been flowing into Syria to compound and perpetuate the bloodbath, did not end up in the hands of terrorists. However, no plausible explanation has been given as to where al-Nusra is getting its cash and weapons from, or how it has managed to eclipse the extensively Western-backed “moderates,” to become the premier front in the fight against the Syrian people.
Indeed, the New York Times’ article “Syrian Rebels Tied to Al Qaeda Play Key Role in War,” states:The lone Syrian rebel group with an explicit stamp of approval from Al Qaeda has become one of the uprising’s most effective fighting forces, posing a stark challenge to the United States and other countries that want to support the rebels but not Islamic extremists.Money flows to the group, the Nusra Front, from like-minded donors abroad. Its fighters, a small minority of the rebels, have the boldness and skill to storm fortified positions and lead other battalions to capture military bases and oil fields. As their successes mount, they gather more weapons and attract more fighters.
The group is a direct offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Iraqi officials and former Iraqi insurgents say, which has contributed veteran fighters and weapons.
While the London Telegraph reports in their article, “Syria : how jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra is taking over Syria’s revolution,” that:
And in recent weeks it is Jabhat al-Nusra, a radical jihadist group blacklisted by the US as terrorists and a group that wants Syria to be an uncompromising Islamic state governed by sharia, that is holding sway.
The group is well funded – probably through established global jihadist networks – in comparison to moderates. Meanwhile pro-democracy rebel group commanders say money from foreign governments has all but dried up because of fears over radical Islamists.
The effect is changing the face of the Syrian revolution
“The group is well funded – probably through established global jihadist networks – in comparison to moderates.” Could the London Telegraph be capable of such incomplete or incompetent reporting regarding what it seems to allude to as an unsolvable “mystery” regarding al-Nusra’s sponsors?
In October of 2012, the Land Destroyer Report published, “NATO Using Al Qaeda Rat Lines to Flood Syria With Foreign Terrorists,” which traced the logistical network now admitted to by the New York Times. This logistical network was then overlaid with Al Qaeda’s regional networks, documented extensively during the US occupation of Iraq by the US Army’s own West Point Combating Terrorism Center. The very regions along the Turkish-Syrian border, the Jordanian-Syrian border, and the Iraqi-Syrian border which served as recruiting and staging grounds for Al Qaeda terrorists during the Iraq War, now serve as the primary logistical hubs admittedly overseen by the CIA.
It is now admitted that thousands of tons of weapons have been smuggled into Syria by the US and its regional allies. While the Western media has attempted in the past to feign ignorance as to where Al Qaeda’s al-Nusra was getting their weapons from, it is now abundantly clear – al-Nusra’s power has expanded across Syria in tandem with the CIA’s ever-expanding operations along the nation’s borders. If the US is working directly with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, to arm militants, who else could possibly be working to arm and fund al-Nusra on a greater scale if not this axis itself?
This criminal conspiracy appears to have escaped the UN’s competence and capabilities, requiring that states around the world mobilize an expedient response to the dangerous, unhinged and genocidal campaign being waged by the West against Syria. If the West refuses to end its direct fueling of the Syrian crisis or answer for how their weapons have ended up almost exclusively in al-Nusra’s hands, Syria’s allies must begin contemplating open and extensive aid to help the nation defend itself against overt international terrorism.
Reports indicate that it was al-Nusra who used chemical weapons in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo, according to the London Telegraph. An Al Qaeda terror front wielding WMDs, we are told, is the sum of all fears and the ultimate impetus driving the unending “War on Terror.” Through direct, intentional actions by the West itself, this nightmare has become a reality – one that must be addressed, lest the world descend into global anarchy or worse.
Tony Cartalucci’s article first appeared on his
blog landdestroyer.blogspot.com.
This article was posted: Monday, March 25, 2013 at
2:36 pm
“With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders,” the New York Times writes. The CIA war against Syria
3/26/2013
Baba Amr, a poor neighborhood in southwest Homs, emerged early in the uprising as a symbol of the rebel movement, first for its protests and later for the armed groups who held it against regime troops. While not strategically important in the two-year civil war, the loss of Baba Amr is a symbolic blow to the rebels. The Arab League has blown up all its charters and pledges to preserve common Arab security, and the shameful decisions it has taken against the Syrian people since the beginning of the crisis and until now have sustained our conviction that it has exchanged its Arab identity with a Zionist-American one," said an editorial in the Al-Thawra newspaper, a government mouthpiece.The Syrian government says the conflict is an international conspiracy to weaken Syria being carried out by terrorists on the ground.
Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati announced his resignation and that of his Hezbollah-backed cabinet Friday, following months of political conflicts. He called for the formation of a national unity government. Mikati will continue as acting prime minister until a new government can be formed.Growing social and political tensions in Lebanon have been stoked by outside intervention, most powerfully from Washington, Paris and Riyadh via their client politicians, as part of their broader plans to topple Syria’s regime of President Bashar al-Assad and reorganise the oil-rich Middle East in their interests. HERE
US Secretary of State John Kerry left Kabul for Paris yesterday, after a Middle Eastern tour to Jordan and Afghanistan to plan broader wars across the region. In Paris today, he is expected to discuss arming opposition forces fighting Washington’s proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with French officials.During his unannounced two-day visit in Kabul, Kerry held a joint press conference with President Hamid Karzai, the leader of the American puppet regime in Afghanistan.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest confirmed that the US “has provided some logistical nonlethal support that has also come in handy for the Syrian rebels.” Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani officially welcomed Moaz al-Khatib, the former imam of Damascus’ Umayyad Mosque who recently stepped down as the Syrian opposition’s official leader, to represent Syria. Al-Khatib was replaced by Ghassan Hitto, a US-based information technology executive. This move apparently aimed to present the opposition as less Islamist and reliant on Al Qaeda-linked forces from Libya, Iraq and Chechnya. Al-Khatib’s speech at the Arab League made no secret of the Syrian opposition’s continuing ties to far-right Islamist elements. Denouncing Assad and supporting Hitto, he defended the presence of foreign jihadist fighters among the anti-Assad militias—though he awkwardly tried to downplay this by suggesting that if Islamist fighters’ families needed them at home, they should return to their families. HERE
Kofi Annan claims it is too late for outside intervention in Syria
Syria's civil war cannot be resolved by outside meddling as the regime and the rebels are committed to the fight for control of the divided state, Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general has said. Mr Annan said he believed that Western powers had left it too late to intervene effectively in the situation."I don't see a military intervention in Syria. We left it too late. I'm not sure it would not do more harm," he told the Graduate Institute in Geneva on Tuesday night.
"Further militarisation of the conflict, I'm not sure that is the way to help the Syrian people. They are waiting for the killing to stop. You find some people far away from Syria are the ones very keen for putting in weapons. While delivering a bleak judgement on the appetite for compromise and negotiated solutions, he said it remained the only route out of the crisis. "My own view is that as late as it is we have to find a way of pouring water on the fire rather than the other way around," he said. "Once you talk of a transitional government with full executive authority, it means the existing government is on its way out and you are going to work to make a change. But they didn't do that. They left Geneva and started fighting again," Mr Annan acted as the international mediator when world powers set down a set of principles for transition of power in Syria last year. His successor, Lakhdar Brahimi, has pursued the Geneva plan, but has failed to bridge gaps between the United States and Russia, which resists Western demands for Assad's removal.
Meanwhile Moaz al-Khatib, the leader of the Syrian opposition has said he was "scared" by the Western failure to protect civilians under attack by the regime. Mr Khatib, a popular figure in the opposition, also said he would not rescind his resignation as leader of the main anti-Assad alliance but he would still perform leadership duties for the time being.
Nato said on Tuesday it had no intention of intervening militarily in Syria after Mr Khatib said he had asked the United States to use Patriot missiles based in southern Turkey to protect rebel-held areas from Assad's air power.
"Yesterday I was really surprised by the comment issued from the White House that it was not possible to increase the range of the Patriot missiles to protect the Syrian people," he told Reuters. "I'm scared that this will be a message to the Syrian regime telling it 'Do what you want'."
Asked about his resignation on Sunday as leader of the rebel coalition - which he has said was motivated mainly by frustration at Western reluctance to increase support for the opposition - he said: "I have given my resignation and I have not withdrawn it. But I have to continue my duties until the general committee meets." The Syrian National Coalition took Syria's vacant seat at an Arab League summit in Qatar on Tuesday, deepening the Assad government's diplomatic isolation two years into a conflict that has cost an estimated 70,000 lives. The 22-nation League lent its support to giving military aid to the Syrian rebels and a summit communique also offered some of its sternest language yet against Assad, affirming member states had a right to offer help.Mr Khatib indicated irritation with the efforts of outside powers to influence the course of the rebellion."This is a game that the Syrian people are now used to. They say 'do this and we'll help you, do that and we'll help you," he said, without naming individual countries.But he also sought to play down internal differences within the coalition."The most distinguished parliaments in the world have differing points of view. That's normal. There are lots of different point of view. We have already come up against some obstacles and we have overcome them."
Western-Backed“Arab Spring” Leads to Persecution of Christians
Christians jailed, tortured, killed in Egypt, Libya, Syria
Christians across the Middle East and North Africa are now being persecuted and tortured as a result of the western-backed “Arab Spring” that has allowed extremist Muslims to seize power and impose a sectarian crackdown.
Whereas Christians were relatively free to practice their faith and preach under the rule of leaders like Hosni Mubarak, Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar Al-Assad, the new regimes that have emerged in Egypt, Libya and now Syria have made the subjugation of Christians a centerpiece of their agenda.
A new report out of Egypt reveals how, “Islamic hard-liners stormed a mosque in suburban Cairo, turning it into torture chamber for Christians who had been demonstrating against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood in the latest case of violent persecution that experts fear will only get worse.”
This is merely the latest of innumerable examples where Coptic Christians have been ordered by the country’s new Muslim Brotherhood rulers to accept radical Islam or face death.
Christian churches in Egypt have been targeted with car bombs as worshippers face daily threats of rape, torture and intimidation.
“It’s not the first time. This is happening every day,” said Adel Guindy, president of Coptic Solidarity and a member of Egypt’s Coptic community who travels between Paris and Cairo. “This one incident caught the attention of the news agencies, but there are worse things happening to the Christians every day in Egypt,” he said.
Meanwhile, after the NATO-backed overthrow of Gaddafi in Libya, citizens are being jailed and tortured to death for “proselytizing” Christianity in Benghazi, one of numerous examples of persecution that were rare under the previous regime.
Libyan Christians are being treated similarly to blacks, who since the rebel uprising have been rounded up in their thousands, detained and tortured to death in prison camps merely on the accusation that they worked for Gaddafi, in a barbarous act of ethnic cleansing
In Syria, Christians have been forced to flee in country in droves – 80,000 from the area of Homs alone – as NATO-backed rebels ransack and blow up churches.
As the London Independent highlighted in a report last year, Christians are “facing persecution and death” from radical Islamists who have made clear their plan to impose Sharia law and eliminate anyone who doesn’t ascribe to their extremist doctrine.
According to Archbishop Issam John Darwish, “an influx of jihadists in the rebels,” has led to Christians being targeted for torture and death. In one incident a young Christian named Andrei Arbashe was beheaded by rebels and fed to the dogs.
Human Rights Watch reports that Syrian rebels have burned and looted the religious sites of minorities.”
“The destruction of religious sites is furthering sectarian fears and compounding the tragedies of the country, with tens of thousands killed,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director of the US-based rights group.
Why are western nations supposedly founded on Christian principles eagerly supporting an “Arab spring” that has made persecution of Christians a priority across the region?
- US-led campaign against Syria destabilises Lebanon - 3/27/2013
- American Terrorist in Syria Was Working For CIA, Says Father
- Washington escalates Syria intervention - 4/4/2013
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The Syrian civil war is an ongoing armed conflict in Syria between forces loyal to the Syrian Ba'ath Party government and those seeking to oust it. The conflict began on 15 March 2011, with popular demonstrations that grew nationwide by April 2011. These demonstrations were part of the wider Middle Eastern protest movement known as the Arab Spring. Protesters demanded the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has held the presidency in Syria since 1971, as well as the end to over four decades of Ba'ath Party rule. In April 2011, the Syrian Army was deployed to quell the uprising, and soldiers were ordered to open fire on demonstrators. After months of military sieges, the protests evolved into an armed rebellion. Opposition forces, mainly composed of defected soldiers and civilian volunteers, became increasingly armed and organized as they unified into larger groups. However, the rebels remained fractured, without organized leadership. The Syrian government characterizes the insurgency as an uprising of "armed terrorist groups and foreign mercenaries". The conflict has no clear fronts, with clashes taking place in many towns and cities across the country. The Arab League, United States, European Union, Arab States of the Persian Gulf, and other countries condemned the use of violence against the protesters. The Arab League suspended Syria's membership because of the government's response to the crisis, but granted the Syrian National Coalition Syria's seat on 6 March 2013. The Arab League also sent an observer mission in December 2011, as part of its proposal for peaceful resolution of the crisis. A further attempt to resolve the crisis was made through the appointment of Kofi Annan as a special envoy. On 15 July 2012, theInternational Committee of the Red Cross assessed the Syrian conflict as a "non-international armed conflict" (the ICRC's legal term for civil war), thus applying international humanitarian law under the Geneva Conventions to Syria. With growing involvement of foreign actors the conflict is sometimes described as a proxy war. Following disagreements, split and even clashes between different opposition fractions, the war became a stalemate in early 2013, though with the opposition gaining steady ground. On 2 January 2013, the United Nations released an estimate that the war's death toll had exceeded 60,000; on 12 February, this figure was updated to 70,000. According to various opposition activist groups, between 62,550 and 74,470 people have been killed, of which about half were civilians, but also including 30,520 armed combatants consisting of both the Syrian Army and rebel forces, up to 2,715 opposition protesters and 1,000 government officials. By October 2012, up to 28,000 people had been reported missing, including civilians forcibly abducted by government troops or security forces. According to the UN, about 1.2 million Syrians have been displaced within the country. To escape the violence, as many as 1 million Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring countries. In addition, tens of thousands of protesters have been imprisoned and there were reports of widespread torture and psychological terror in state prisons. International organizations have accused both government and opposition forces of severe human rights violations. However, human rights groups report that the majority of abuses have been committed by the Syrian government's forces, and UN investigations have concluded that the government's abuses are the greatest in both gravity and scale.
Friday,
April 12, 2013
NYT
admits fraudulent Syrian human rights group is UK-based "one-man
band" funded by EU and one other "European country."
Tony
Cartalucci
In reality, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights haslong ago been exposed as an absurd propaganda frontoperated by Rami Abdul Rahman out of his house in England's countryside. According to a December 2011 Reuters article titled, "Coventry - an unlikely home to prominent Syria activist," Abdul Rahman admits he is a member of the so-called "Syrian opposition" and seeks the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad:
After three short spells in prison in Syria for pro-democracy activism, Abdulrahman came to Britain in 2000 fearing a longer, fourth jail term.
"I came to Britain the day Hafez al-Assad died, and I'll return when Bashar al-Assad goes," Abdulrahman said, referring to Bashar's father and predecessor Hafez, also an autocrat.
One could not fathom a more unreliable, compromised, biased source of information, yet for the past two years, his "Observatory" has served as the sole source of information for the endless torrent of propaganda emanating from the Western media.
The
NYT piece admits:
Military analysts in Washington follow its body counts of Syrian and rebel soldiers to gauge the course of the war. The United Nations and human rights organizations scour its descriptions of civilian killings for evidence in possible war crimes trials. Major news organizations, including this one, cite its casualty figures.
Yet, despite its central role in the savage civil war, the grandly named Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is virtually a one-man band. Its founder, Rami Abdul Rahman, 42, who fled Syria 13 years ago, operates out of a semidetached red-brick house on an ordinary residential street in this drab industrial city [Coventry, England].
The New York Times also for the first time reveals that Abdul Rahman's operation is indeed funded by the European Union and a "European country" he refuses to identify:
Money from two dress shops covers his minimal needs for reporting on the conflict, along with small subsidies from the European Union and one European country that he declines to identify.
Photo: From Reuters: "Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, leaves the Foreign and Commonwealth Office after meeting Britain's Foreign Secretary, William Hague, in central London November 21, 2011. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor" Abdul Rahman is not the "head" of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, he is the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, run out of his UK-based house as a one-man operation.
And while Abdul Rahman refuses to identify that "European country," it is beyond doubt that it is the United Kingdom itself - as Abdul Rahman has direct access to the Foreign Secretary William Hague, who he has been documented meeting in person on multiple occasions at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. The NYT in fact reveals that it was the British government that first relocated Abdul Rahman to Coventry, England after he fled Syria over a decade ago because of his anti-government activities:
When two associates were arrested in 2000, he fled the country, paying a human trafficker to smuggle him into England. The government resettled him in Coventry, where he decided he liked the slow pace.
Abdul Rahman is not a "human rights activist." He is a paid propagandist. He is no different than the troupe of unsavory, willful liars and traitors provided refuge in Washington and London during the Iraq war and the West's more recent debauchery in Libya, for the sole purpose of supplying Western governments with a constant din of propaganda and intentionally falsified intelligence reports designed specifically to justify the West's hegemonic designs.
Abdul Rahman's contemporaries include the notorious Iraqi defector Rafid al-Janabi, codename "Curveball," who now gloats publicly that he invented accusations of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the West's casus belli for a 10-year war that ultimately cost over a million lives, including thousands of Western troops, and has left Iraq still to this day in shambles. There's also the lesser known Dr. Sliman Bouchuiguir of Libya, who formed the foundation of the pro-West human rights racket in Benghazi and now openly brags in retrospect that tales of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's atrocities against the Libyan people were likewise invented to give NATO its sought-after impetus to intervene militarily.
Unlike in Iraq and Libya, the West has failed categorically to sell military intervention in Syria, and even its covert war has begun to unravel as the public becomes increasingly aware that the so-called "pro-democracy rebels" the West has been arming for years are in fact sectarian extremists fighting under the banner of Al Qaeda. The charade that is the "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" is also unraveling.
It is unlikely that the New York Times' limited hangout will convince readers that Rami Abdul Rahman is anything other than another "Curveball" helping the corporate-financier elite of Wall Street and London sell another unnecessary war to the public.
Monday,
April 8, 2013
Brandon
Turbeville
Sunday,
March 31, 2013
Saturday,
March 30, 2013
Thursday,
March 28, 2013
Tuesday,
March 26, 2013
Monday,
March 25, 2013
Sunday,
March 24, 2013
Thursday,
March 21, 2013
Tuesday,
March 19, 2013
Saturday,
March 16, 2013
As Britain and France Beg EU to Ship Arms,
Their Proxy Rebels Establish Sharia Law in Parts of Syria
Wednesday,
March 13, 2013
Saturday,
March 9, 2013
Friday,
March 8, 2013
Thursday,
March 7, 2013
Monday,
March 4, 2013
Thursday,
February 28, 2013
Tuesday,
February 26, 2013
Monday,
February 25, 2013
Sunday,
February 24, 2013
Saturday,
February 9, 2013
Monday,
February 4, 2013
Sunday,
February 3, 2013
Thursday,
January 31, 2013
Monday,
January 28, 2013
Sunday,
January 27, 2013
Wednesday,
January 16, 2013
Tuesday,
January 8, 2013
Friday,
December 28, 2012
Monday,
December 24, 2012
Tony
Cartalucci, Contributor
Friday,
December 21, 2012
Saturday,
December 15, 2012
NATO
tells tales of recently launched "Scud missiles" to retroactively
justify Patriot missile deployment months in the making.
Thursday,
December 13, 2012
Wednesday,
December 12, 2012
Monday,
December 10, 2012
Sunday,
December 9, 2012
Saturday,
December 8, 2012
Friday,
December 7, 2012
Thursday,
December 6, 2012
Wednesday,
December 5, 2012
Tuesday,
December 4, 2012
US
repeats same tired, desperate accusations that the Syrian army is preparing to
use "chemical weapons."
Saturday,
December 1, 2012
Thursday,
November 29, 2012
Wednesday,
November 28, 2012
Al
Qaeda terrorists, backed, armed, funded, and diplomatically recognized by the
West, have detonated 2 car bombs in Christian-Druze quarters in Damascus,
killing dozens.
Sunday,
November 25, 2012
Thursday,
November 22, 2012
As
predicted, Israel accepts humiliating ceasefire to bolster partners in Syrian
subversion - Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar.
Wednesday,
November 14, 2012
Smokescreen
meant to cover open-backing of foreign Al Qaeda terrorists inside Syria, while
panicking & disrupting Syrian unity.
Wednesday,
November 7, 2012
Most
irrelevant election in US history comes and goes as long-planned regime change
using Al Qaeda death squads against Syria continues unabated.
Thursday,
November 1, 2012
US
dumps Syrian proxy political front in latest move to accelerate long-stalled
regime change.
Thursday,
October 25, 2012
2007-2008
US West Point reports reveal Al Qaeda network behind NATO's so-called
"freedom fighters." Extremists were behind Iraq War foreign terrorist
influx, not the Syrian government.
Saturday,
October 20, 2012
Wednesday,
October 17, 2012
Saturday,
October 13, 2012
Thursday,
October 11, 2012
Part
of long-planned attempt to spur defections, divide and destroy Syria, as
articulated in Brookings Institution's "Assessing Options for Regime
Change."
Saturday,
October 6, 2012
Bloomberg,
Guardian, Ynet, all air unconfirmed report on "agreement" for
Turkish-Syrian "buffer zone."
Friday,
October 5, 2012
Thursday,
October 4, 2012
Turkey
fires rounds into Syria after unknown attackers fire mortars into Turkish
border town.
Wednesday,
October 3, 2012
Al
Qaeda-style terrorist bombings slaughter/maims scores, Western media spins war
crime as terrorists "targeting government forces."
Tuesday,
October 2, 2012
Saturday,
September 29, 2012
US
inundates terrorist legions with cash and support after regional embassy
attacks and death of own ambassador.
Wednesday,
September 26, 2012
France
seeks no-fly zone over Syria to repeat Al Qaeda Benghazi-blowback.
Saturday,
September 15, 2012
Wednesday,
September 12, 2012
Monday,
September 10, 2012
Meanwhile,
US-backed terror rips across Iraq, as Saudi-Qatari coddled Iraqi vice president
is sentenced to death.
Tuesday,
September 4, 2012
Saturday,
September 1, 2012
Friday,
August 31, 2012
Reuters
lays groundwork for Western support of Al Qaeda terrorists in Russia's Caucasus
region.
Wednesday,
August 29, 2012
Sunday,
August 26, 2012
With
zero mandate, SAS allegedly "hunts for WMDs" as West attempts
intervention at any cost.
Friday,
August 24, 2012
Foreign
Policy plums new depths of own legendary depravity.
NYT
embeds with war criminals, spin and excuse craven human rights violations as
"cunning."
Wednesday,
August 22, 2012
Tuesday,
August 21, 2012
Friday,
August 17, 2012
Wednesday,
August 15, 2012
Tuesday,
August 14, 2012
Sunday,
August 12, 2012
US,
UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey stand accused of state sponsorship of
terrorism. UN failure to enforce their own resolutions will resign their
legitimacy, necessitate their expedient removal and replacement with multipolar
system.
Saturday,
August 11, 2012
Al
Qaeda militants funded, armed and arrayed against Syria by the West since at
least 2007 receive PR boost from Western media as public awareness grows of
their presence.
Friday,
August 10, 2012
US-UK
listed terror organization Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) fighters and
commanders are clearly amongst militants underwritten by latest UK funding.
Thursday,
August 9, 2012
Astounding
hypocrisy, self-censorship, and complicity by the West regarding one of the
most regressive regimes on Earth.
Tuesday,
August 7, 2012
Monday,
August 6, 2012
PM
was only in office since June 2012 - had been planning "defection"
for at least as long based on battlefield before "Damascus Volcano"
fizzled.
Sunday,
August 5, 2012
Saturday,
August 4, 2012
Brandon Turbeville Interviewed on Flow of
Wisdom Radio: Mass Vaccinations, Syria, and Staged Attacks
UN
Syria Resolution Signals Ebbing Western Legitimacy, Growing Western
Aggression
Friday,
August 3, 2012
Wednesday,
August 1, 2012
Monday,
July 30, 2012
Saturday,
July 28, 2012
Friday,
July 27, 2012
Reports
of Libyan chemical weapons brought in through Turkey, caches discovered in
Damascus point to possible false flag.
Friday,
July 27, 2012
US
fails to sell militants in Syria as "freedom fighters," tells truth
for pretext to liquidate monsters of their own creation.
Thursday,
July 26, 2012
Wednesday,
July 25, 2012
BBC
Covers Up War Crimes - Misleads Over Syrian Security Operations.
Syrian
Opposition Signs Pro-War Neo-Con Letter to Obama.
Tuesday,
July 24, 2012
Monday,
July 23, 2012
Wider
UNSC dissension, Turkish offensive against its own "rebels," and
Iraq's rejection of latest "Arab League" statement before massive Al
Qaeda attacks.
Sunday,
July 22, 2012
As
FSA proxies fail and psychological operations falter, US prepares more direct
(and desperate) approach for long-sought regime change.
Saturday,
July 21, 2012
Friday,
July 20, 2012
Monday,
July 16, 2012
Sunday,
July 15, 2012
Bombshell
revealed in Telegraph interview: Western-coddled Nawaf Fares admits he
organized "Jihadi units" to fight US troops in Iraq
Saturday,
July 14, 2012
Claim:
"UN blames regime forces for Syria massacre," admits "neither
activists' claims nor the videos could be independently verified."
Friday,
July 13, 2012
Wednesday,
July 11, 2012
Monday,
July 9, 2012
Sunday,
July 8, 2012
Globalization
exposed as self-serving, driven by elitist special interests.
Friday,
July 6, 2012
Friday,
July 6, 2012
Thursday,
July 5, 2012
Wednesday,
July 4, 2012
Canadians Protest Against Endless Wars as
Western Backed Destabilization in Syria Threatens World Peace
Tuesday,
July 3, 2012
Media PSYOP to Justify NATO Invasion? 'Crimes
Against Humanity' Cited in Report on Syria's Torture Network
Diplomatic
attempts to solve the Syrian crisis have been rejected by both members of the
Syrian government and the opposition. As Ankara laments bold rhetoric and
militarizes its border with Syria, this article attempts to foresee three
possible outcomes to the ongoing crisis.
Friday,
June 29, 2012
Bypassing
the UN to "end violence" of its own creation, West plumbs new depths
of own depravity.
Warns
Syria about defending its own borders - brazen act of war, crime against world
peace ignored by feckless United Nations.
Wednesday,
June 27, 2012
NATO
attempts to use own act of war to justify escalation - also, NATO-backed
terrorists murder/kidnap journalists with absolute impunity - setting dangerous
precedent.
Monday,
June 25, 2012
Sunday,
June 24, 2012
Friday,
June 22, 2012
As
West berates Syria for "killing civilians" Western weapons flow into
terrorist hands from NATO.
Wednesday,
June 20, 2012
Sunday,
June 17, 2012
Torrent
of propaganda, foreign arms, and political sabotage seek to fulfill broader
plans for destabilization.
Thursday,
June 14, 2012
Tuesday,
June 12, 2012
Monday,
June 11, 2012
Sunday,
June 10, 2012
Unconfirmed
reports warn of possible plot to deploy chemical weapons, then blame Syrian
government.
Sunday,
June 10, 2012
Also,
German paper FAZ reports Houla was the work of rebels, not pro-Assad
militias.
Saturday,
June 9, 2012
Alex
Thomson narrowly escapes attempt to kill his Channel 4 team, "clear the
rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the Syrian Army."
Thursday,
June 7, 2012
FDD's
Clifford May admits Syria is a proxy war with Iran and Russia, Neo-Cons in bed
with Al Qaeda. Human rights merely a pretense.
Wednesday,
June 6, 2012
US
Attempts to Mass-Murder Its Way to Victory in Syria.
Tuesday,
June 5, 2012
Admission
that sectarian extremism, not democracy or freedom, drives vicious killing,
means West, not Russia must back off arming belligerents in Syria.
Monday,
June 4, 2012
Opposition
propagandist in England apartment is, and has been, the sole source cited by
the Western press.
Sunday,
June 3, 2012
Latest
fabrications includes defected "air force officer" with superhuman
hearing and sight, and miraculous satellite imaging.
Saturday,
June 2, 2012
Tuesday,
May 29, 2012
Sunday,
May 27, 2012
UN
fails to condemn rebel army's pledge to expand violenc
Saturday,
May 26, 2012
Western
propagandists unanimously defer to "activists" despite hundreds of UN
monitors on the ground in Syria.
Friday,
May 18, 2012
Kurdish
groups have thus far stayed out of NATO's destabilization of Syria, US threats
to arm and unleash Kurdish groups aims at coaxing Turkey to act.
Thursday,
May 10, 2012
Syrian War - The Prequel: 2007 New Yorker
Article Exposed US-Israeli-Saudi Conspiracy to Overthrow Assad
Wednesday,
May 9, 2012
After
admitting UN peace plan was a ploy, Brookings predictably scraps it and begins
promoting expanded military conflict.
Wednesday,
May 2, 2012
UN's
silence over Syrian opposition terrorism lays bare the illegitimacy of
"international law."
Tuesday,
April 24, 2012
Sunday,
April 22, 2012
Saturday,
April 21, 2012
Friday,
April 13, 2012
But
prefers "cheapest" method possible - exposes Annan "peace
deal" as insidious gambit to "buy time."
Tuesday,
April 10, 2012
Dear
New York Times: It Takes Two to Tango
Monday,
April 9, 2012
Turkey
begins fabricating "cross border" incidents to justify Brookings
prescribed "safe havens" inside Syria.
Monday,
April 2, 2012
'Friends
of Syria' summit in Istanbul seeks means of rehabilitating, rearming, and
redeploying hobbled terrorist proxies.
Wednesday,
March 21, 2012
Tuesday,
March 20, 2012
"Peace
envoy" sits on board with traitors, meddlers, and warmongers.
Monday,
March 19, 2012
Sunday,
March 18, 2012
Latest
terrorist attack in Damascus illustrates illegitimacy of both Syria's rebels
& the UN/NATO backing them.
Friday,
March 16, 2012
US
State Department-run Amnesty International demands Russia allow US & NATO
to commence the ruination and plundering of Syria.
Tuesday,
March 13, 2012
Friday,
March 9, 2012
Tuesday,
March 6, 2012
Syrian
Activists Caught Lying, Syrian Rebels Caught Committing Atrocities.
Saturday,
March 3, 2012
Tony
Cartalucci, Contributing Writer
Saturday,
February 25, 2012
Thursday,
February 23, 2012
Alleged
death of two Western journalists in Syria used to dance around UNSC
veto.
Tuesday,
February 14, 2012
Sunday,
February 12, 2012
US
plan-B after UN veto - deploy Al Qaeda "foreign legion."
Friday,
February 10, 2012
Thursday,
February 9, 2012
US
"prepares military options" to back terrorists in Syria.
Friday,
February 3, 2012
West
& Arab proxies fail to swindle world with genocidal Libya-style regime
change resolution at UNSC.
Monday,
January 30, 2012
Saturday,
January 21, 2012
Wednesday,
January 18, 2012
Saturday,
January 14, 2012
Sunday,
December 18, 2011
Channel
4 makes Goebbels proud with conveniently timed propaganda piece.
Monday,
December 12, 2011
Tuesday,
December 6, 2011
Clinton
met for the first time with members of Syria's disparate opposition in
Washington on August 2nd.
Tuesday,
November 29, 2011
Monday,
November 28, 2011
Wednesday,
November 23, 2011
Emergency
Message for U.S. Citizens
Friday,
November 18, 2011
Thursday,
November 17, 2011
Friday,
November 4, 2011
Monday,
September 26, 2011
Tuesday,
September 6, 2011
Monday,
September 5, 2011
Saturday,
September 3, 2011
Wednesday,
August 24, 2011
Friday,
August 19, 2011
Call
for regime change signals Libya replay
Thursday,
August 18, 2011
Thursday,
August 11, 2011
Saturday,
August 6, 2011
Brookings'
Shaikh: BRIC Nations are Spoiled Brats
Friday,
August 5, 2011
Tuesday,
August 2, 2011
Monday,
August 1, 2011
Wednesday,
July 13, 2011
Monday,
July 11, 2011
Saturday,
July 9, 2011
Perception
of Syrian conflict defined by baseless "activist"
statements.
Thursday,
July 7, 2011
Saturday,
June 25, 2011
Sunday,
June 19, 2011
Saturday,
June 18, 2011
Tuesday,
June 14, 2011
Thursday,
June 9, 2011
Cartoonish
propaganda punctuates the last leg of the "Arab Spring."
Wednesday,
June 8, 2011
Globalist
degenerates seek UN resolution against Syria.
Sunday,
June 5, 2011
Monday,
May 30, 2011
Friday,
May 27, 2011
Saturday,
May 21, 2011
Friday,
May 20, 2011
Thursday,
May 19, 2011
Wednesday,
May 18, 2011
Syria,
Libya, and beyond, Globalists prepare for second phase.
Tuesday,
May 17, 2011
Monday,
May 16, 2011
Sunday,
May 8, 2011
US-funded
sedition and the responsibility to restore order.
Friday,
May 6, 2011
Wednesday,
May 4, 2011
Soros
think-tank concedes to "possible foreign involvement."
Monday,
May 2, 2011
More
reports of armed gangs, snipers, and dead Syrian security forces.
Friday,
April 29, 2011
Wednesday,
April 27, 2011
Tuesday,
April 26, 2011
Just
like Libya, a civil war fought between a desperate regime and a western-backed
force of Islamic militants is being misrepresented as a genocide against
“pro-democracy” protesters in order to lay the groundwork for another contrived
“humanitarian” war
Saturday,
April 23, 2011
Propagandists
seeking US intervention, shift blame on puppet Obama.
Friday,
April 22, 2011
Saturday,
April 16, 2011
Syria
told to yield to "peaceful" arsonists or suffer Libya's fate.
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