How we know what we know about Syria - America's Syrian Jihad AND MORE
Enrique Ferro
TWO ENLIGHTENING ARTICLES OVER THE SYRIAN CONFLICT:
How we know what we know about Syria
By Michael Collins (about the author)
Become a Fan (66 fans) -- Page 1 of 2 page(s)
Obama administration support for Syrian rebels is based on a United
Nations authorized report from November 2011. In that document, Syria is
accused of committing "crimes against humanity." The report's co-author
is a board member at a Washington, D.C. based think tank that just
happens to have the former chairman of ExxonMobil, a consultant for the
Saudi Binladin Group, and a former CIA executive on its board of directors.
Much of the U.S. and European press on the so-called civil war originates from a tiny organization in the United Kingdom called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (the Observatory). The one man operation is run by a longtime opponent of Syrian Bashar Hafez al-Assad.
For the most part, this is how we know what we know about Syria. 
The "human rights" rationale
The United Nations Human Rights Council authorized an independent committee to study human rights in Syria in 2011. The committee didn't visit Syria, claiming that the three members lacked access. Instead members set up a safe house in Switzerland, brought in individuals who claimed to have fled Syria, and took anonymous testimony on human rights concerns. This was the basis of the November 23, 2011 report to the UN HRC criticizing the Assad regime.
The report co-author, Karen Koning AbuZayd, is on the board of directors for the Middle East Policy Council in Washington DC. The board's vice chairman is the former head of a non-government organization that received over $50 million in 2011from U.S. Agency for International Development and other government agencies. The council received a $1 million grant from a Saudi prince in 2007.
The council strongly supports regime change in Syria as evidenced by the selection the spokesperson from the rebel Syrian National Council as a presenter for its July 23 Capitol Hill briefing for Congress.
The UN HRC failed to report on foreign fighters in Syria, foreign funding of the rebels, and human rights violations by the rebels over the past year, including terrorist suicide bombing. The report is selective, biased, and one sided. It is also the basis for of sanctions plus NATO and Gulf oil oligarch aid that turned an armed conflict into a civil war.
News from the front, Coventry, UK
The Syrian Human Rights Observatory is a one man operation located in Coventry, United Kingdom. Rami Abdul Rahman dispatches reports to the Western media from his apartment. He claims to have 200 sources on the ground in Syria. The sources don't know other sources and their names are a secret that only Abdul Rahman knows. He has not been there since his self-exile in 2001. He claims to be self-funded. He was part of the resistance to Assad and supports the Free Syria Army. Rahman is hardly objective yet his operation serves as the preeminent source for much of the Western media reporting on Syria.
Here are some recent examples of the Observatory in action. Their allegations are often cited in the first or second paragraphs of stories on the conflict,
MSNBC uses the Observatory for day to day reports on battles and outcomes: "The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,
an opposition group, reported helicopter attacks on the central
Salaheddine district of Aleppo and fighting elsewhere in the city." MSNBC, July 28
Bloomberg
cited the Observatory for summary statistics on total deaths in the
conflict on both sides: "International and regional efforts have failed
to end the violence in Syria, which began in March 2011 and has left at
least 19,000 people dead, including about 5,000 government troops, according to the Observatory." Bloomberg, July 27
Even
Aljazeera uses the observatory as a primary source: "Civilians crowded
into basements seeking refuge from the bombing, with the SOHR's Rami Abdel Rahman describing the clashes as the uprisings fiercest". Aljazeera, July 29
The Western media apparently ignores itself. Reuters, which uses Observatory reports, did a profile of the organization and concluded that "it is virtually impossible to verify any data trickling out of the country." The media also ignored a major investigative article in Alakhbar, January 26. It provides more than enough reasons to question the death toll estimates, action reports, and the stability of the Observatory.
If regime change is such a great idea, why twist the truth and torture logic?
1 | 2
http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-we-know-what-we-know-a-by-Michael-Collins-120730-692.html
July 29, 2012
America's Syrian Jihad
Anyone really paying attention to US policy in the Middle East these past several months must be wondering whether Washington has gone insane. US foreign policy under the triple threat of Susan Rice, Samantha Power, and Hillary Clinton has gone to openly supporting what the German intelligence services (echoed in several prominent and panicked mainstream German media sources) have found to be predominantly al-Qaeda-backed terrorist attacks inside Syria. Americans can be forgiven for scratching their heads at the reality that the United States government is actively supporting in Syria what it has spent the last eleven years fighting just a few thousand miles away in Afghanistan.
As RT so poignantly puts it: ‘America’s Syrian friends and Afghan foes are same people’
When Syria's Christian defense minister was murdered last week by a suicide bomber using signature al-Qaeda techniques, the United States pointedly refused to condemn it as an act of terrorism. Can you imagine how the US would react if the US defense secretary and Obama's national security adviser were blown up by a radical Islamic suicide bomber? Would we not characterize it as terrorism?
On RT, which has been one of the sole voices of objective journalism and in-depth reporting, author and journalist Afshin Rattansi today makes this critical observation:
"As for the blowback for the United States, last time they went around arming these jihadists, sending in special forces and so forth, we got September 11th, 2001...As for the United States and NATO nations, one does not want to sectarianize it the way the international media do, but you never see on corporate stations anything about the Christians. The suicide bomb who killed the Syrian defense minister — that guy was a Christian. I have a figure here that 50,000 Christians are fleeing from Homs because of American and European-backed Islamism in Syria." (emphasis added)
Is the US inviting another 9/11-style attack? Even the conspiracy theorists must have a hard time getting their heads around this mind-boggler.
Here is how the Vatican sees the US-backed Free Syrian Army's assault on Homs, Houla, Damascus, and now Aleppo:
"The Vatican has received reports deemed credible that Sunni rebels financed by Qatar were attacking churches and ordering Christians to leave their homes.
"The reports, which stemmed from leading Catholic clerics, said the most threatened were Christians in rebel-held areas of Syria.
"'The picture for us is utter desolation,' Bishop Philip Tournyol Clos, a Greek Catholic cleric, said.
"The bishop, who holds the title of archimandrite, said a leading church in Syria, Mar Elian, has been destroyed. He said another church, Our Lady of Peace, was occupied by the rebels...
"The Vatican determined that some of the Sunni attackers were aligned with the Free Syrian Army, based in Turkey. An FSA commander, identified as Abdul Salam Harba, was said to have ordered Christians out of central Syria."
Islamic jihadists backed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and, as we now know, supported by the US from a secret base in Turkey, have laid siege to the largest Syrian city, Aleppo, forcing the population to flee in terror. US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta preposterously claimed today that the Syrian army's attempts to liberate Aleppo from the Saudi-backed Salafi extremists was "the nail in Assad's coffin."
On Friday, the US Treasury granted an exception to sanctions to allow the extremely spooky Syrian Support Group, led of course by an American lobbyist, Brian Sayers, to provide logistical and financial support to the armed Syrian rebels. The no-doubt well-compensated American war lobbyist Sayers — wait for it — "previously worked for six years in NATO operations in Brussels." A great humanitarian, no doubt. Said Sayers: “The OFAC decision is huge. It gets us the leeway to support the Free Syrian Army in broad terms.” Here is the public-private partnership of regime change operations writ large!
It is to be a backdoor war, as there is simply no popular support in Syria for overthrowing the regime. As British Channel 4 journalist Alex Thomson — no Assad partisan to be sure — put it in this very informative piece:
"[f]or sure this is not Egypt — there are no Tahrir Squares or vast protests against the regime.
"There is no discernible sign in any of the big cities — Homs, Aleppo and Damascus for example,that the people even wish to rise up against the regime.
"The state is firmly in control- there are secret and overt police and army on pretty much every major street and junction in these cities.
"The police state is alive and well. Most people appear either to support the regime still or they are hedging their bets and don’t want to confront men with AK47s as yet.
"The safe bet is that regime support remains considerable across many urban areas."
Sadly under US schizophrenic foreign policy "democracy is what we say it is," so because those three million residents of Aleppo who turned out to the streets in support of Assad are not favored by the US, they do not count as legitimate democratic voices. It reminds one of how the Soviets tried to claim that the fixed elections in Eastern Europe after World War II were in fact the birth of the "people's democracies." After all, only the reactionaries would be against progress and they should not be allowed to count!
Anti-interventionists should not call on the US government to support Assad or his regime. But they damn well should fight against the years-long US program to use extremist Islamists to overthrow the Syrian government. We did that in Afghanistan to overthrow the Soviet-backed puppet government once upon a time and we hopefully know enough history to remember what that got us...
Syria 25-5-2012 These are the killers in Syria.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPOHly7_1n0&feature=em-subs_digestLibya rebels move onto Syrian battlefield
- More than 30 men who fought against Libya's regime are moving into Syria
- One fighter says: Libya was a walk in the park compared to Syria
- Unlike Libya, in Syria fighters have no base and no cover from a no-fly zone
- Libya's government and people have been vocal supporters of Syria's opposition
Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Their war for freedom in Libya may be over, but almost a year after they won the battle for the Libyan capital, a group of fighters have a new battlefield: Syria.
Under the command of one of Libya's most well known rebel commanders, Al-Mahdi al-Harati, more than 30 Libyan fighters have made their way into Syria to support the Free Syrian Army rebels in their war against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Al-Harati, who commanded the Tripoli Revolutionary brigade -- which was the first group of rebels to enter the Libyan capital last August -- has been in Syria for months leading some of his former men and Syrian military defectors who have joined his "Liwaa al-Umma" or "The Banner of the Nation" brigade.
Recent YouTube videos show at least two different Syrian rebel factions announcing that they are part of the Liwa al-Umma.
Heavy fighting in Syrian city of Aleppo
Al-Harati, who has dual Libyan and Irish citizenship, first visited Syria last year on what he calls a "fact finding mission" to see the situation on the ground and find out what Syrian rebels needed.
"After many Syrians approached me asking for my help, I felt it was time to do more and due to the great success of the Tripoli Brigade we felt it was time to act and that meant the formation of the Banner of the Nation," Al-Harati told CNN in Skype messages this week.
Al-Harati said: "With the prior success in Libya I decided to leave nationality aside and, just like world organizations helped Libya in its time of need, I decided to pass my experience to others to benefit."
In the past week, at least three more former members of the Tripoli Revolutionary Brigade traveled from the Libyan capital to join their former commander in Syria, two former members of the TRB says.
Al-Harati, who describes himself as a "commander and facilitator" says there were no active efforts to recruit Libyans.
"These are grown men with their own minds and do not need convincing about this cause," Al-Harati said.
Mohammed, 23, fought in some of the fiercest battles against Moammar Gadhafi's troops in Libya's Western Mountains.
One year on, he dreams of fighting al-Assad's troops. He does not want his last name disclosed because he does not want his family to know he wants to go to Syria.
"What Bashar al-Assad is doing is unacceptable in Islam ... He is killing children and wiping out entire cities ... The Syrians need people to fight with them, this is Jihad, it does not have to be my (personal) cause ... As a Muslim I have to go and help them," he said.
Mohammed smiles as he recalls the fighting in Libya last year, like now he says, it was during the Holy Month of Ramadan.
"There is nothing better than Jihad during Ramadan ... There are some people who look at us and say we are Jihadist extremists, we are not. In Libya we experienced Jihad, tasted the beauty of Jihad. We are not going to Jihad like al-Qaeda and others. We are going to support our brothers in Syria," he said.
Another fighter is Housam Najjair. He is 33, al-Harati's brother-in-law, and had never used a weapon until he fought in Libya last year.
He said: "When I watch TV reports ... you hear the cries of an old woman or a mother of a child who has been killed, or some of the brutal pictures that we have seen of children being killed ... I can not sit back and watch that," Najjair told CNN in a Skype interview from one of Turkey's borders with Syria hours before making the dangerous journey into Syria.
"I have to do whatever I can to make that journey. Because I feel guilty putting my head down at nighttime knowing that last year I was given an amazing opportunity to learn how to use weapons, for good, all for good, learn how to use weapons, how to maneuver, how to travel, how to attack, how to defend, all these things," Najjair said, adding that his aim is to share these experiences with Syrian rebels.
During the interview, Najjair got the phone call he had been waiting for, his group of fighters is mobilizing to go into Syria.
"It is a rollercoaster of different kinds of emotions, you get excited, you get adrenalin, fear, anticipation, all these feelings come into it, fear is not the main factor and in my mind will never be ... it will impair your judgment ... Libya was a walk in the park compared to Syria, I know this going in there," Najjair said as he prepared to leave.
Najjair says the no-fly zone enforced in Libya last year helped rebel fighters and allowed them to make great advances. Without that in Syria, operating will be much harder.
He says they do not have a military base, there are makeshift barracks; they are constantly on the move and cannot spend more than a day in one location. Fighters, he says, are scattered across different areas.
A Syrian town's 'Street of Death'
Last month, a senior Libyan security official told CNN the government was aware of Libyans fighting in Syria, but they were individuals and not government sponsored.
Earlier this year, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, accused Libya of hosting and training Syrian rebels. A claim denied by the Libyan prime minister.
But Libya's government and people have been vocal in their support for the Syrian opposition.
Libya was one of the first countries to recognize the opposition Syrian National Council as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people and in February, Tripoli expelled Assad's diplomats and closed down their embassy.
Many in Libya say they relate to Syrians who want to overthrow the regime. It was not too long ago that they lived a similar experience.
But not everyone chooses to express support militarily.
Some show solidarity by hanging the Syrian opposition flag outside their shops in Tripoli, flying alongside the Free Libya flag.
In a YouTube video posted on July 4, a group of six Libyan doctors is seen being greeted by Free Syrian Army troops as they enter Syria.
"We are coming for you Bashar," says one of the doctors as they shake hands with the heavily armed Syrian fighters.
There are no official figures on how many Libyans are currently in Syria. In February, reports of at least four Libyan fighters killed in Syria circulated, but there has been no government confirmation.
For fighters like Najjair, the risk of death is a matter of faith.
He said: "You have to have faith and you have to say to yourself, "if it's my time, I will be gone. If it's not my time it will be another amazing journey another amazing victory.""
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/28/world/meast/syria-libya-fighters/index.html
"As soon as Assad has fallen, these fighters want to introduce Islamic law, Sharia, in Syria," said Oerlemans.
‘British-born jihadists fighting Assad in Syria’ – captured photographer
Published: 30 July, 2012, 08:01
Armed members of the Free Syrian Army are seen in the western border town of Zabadani in this undated still image taken from amateur video obtained by Reuters (Reuters / Reuters TV)
TAGS: Conflict, Politics, War, Syria
Radical Islamists with “British accents” are among the coalition forces looking to topple Bashar Assad, says Jeroen Oerlemans, a photographer who was held hostage in Syria for a week. The UK Foreign Office has launched an investigation.
Oerlemans, a famous Dutch photo journalist, and John Cantlie, another photographer from the UK, were captured by a group of between 30 and 100 anti-Assad fighters when crossing the Syrian border from Turkey last week. They were then blindfolded.
"One of the black jihadists freaked out and shouted: 'These are journalists and now they will see we are preparing an international jihad in this place.'" Oerlemans told NRC Handelsblatt newspaper. He said that none of the fighters was Syrian.
"They all claimed they came from countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh and Chechnya and they said there was some vague 'emir' at the head of the group."
About 40 per cent of the militants spoke English. In fact, several apparently talked with recognizable regional British accents, from Birmingham and London.
The two photographers suspected that a ransom would be demanded for their release and tried to escape. Oerlemans was shot twice in the leg during the failed attempt and Cantlie, who has so far not spoken to any media, was wounded in the arm.
The pair’s ordeal ended when the Free Syrian Army, the main anti-Assad force, demanded that their nominal allies hand them over.
"They took us with them like a bunch of gangsters," Oerlemans said, "Shooting in the air as we rode out of there.”
The Free Syrian Army released the men and the two are now resting in Turkey. They expect to travel home in the coming days.
If it is confirmed, Oerleman’s story will add to reports that Syria has become a magnet for radical Islamists, who are there either as mercenaries or because of ideology.
"As soon as Assad has fallen, these fighters want to introduce Islamic law, Sharia, in Syria," said Oerlemans.
http://www.rt.com/news/british-jihadists-fighting-syria-360/
Syrian ethnic, sectarian conflicts deepen as US plots to install client regime
By Niall Green
30 July 2012
Fighting intensified in the Syrian city of Aleppo over the weekend, with the government of President Bashar al-Assad deploying troops and aircraft to retake neighborhoods captured by opposition militants in a major offensive last week.
There were reports of heavy fighting in the historic city center and old fort areas of Aleppo, Syria’s most populous city and its main commercial center. The BBC, which has a correspondent inside the city, reported that the Syrian army was shelling militia positions in the suburb of Salah al-Din, and that thousands of civilians are fleeing Aleppo.
While the rural districts around Aleppo have experienced frequent clashes between government forces and opposition militants during the sixteen-month civil conflict, the city had until recently seen relatively little violence. However, there have been a growing number of deadly attacks on government facilities and personnel in Aleppo this year, with anti-Assad fighters strengthened by increased weapons supplies flowing across the border from neighboring Turkey.
In response to the fighting in Aleppo, Sayda Abdulbaset Sayda, the leader of the US-backed Syrian National Council, urged the West and the Gulf monarchies to increase their support to the opposition militias. “We want weapons that would stop tanks and jet fighters,” Sayda said during a visit to the United Arab Emirates.
Syria’s foreign minister, Walid Moualem, stated Sunday that government troops would continue to reinforce Aleppo and other areas held by the opposition. Speaking during a visit to Iran, Syria’s principal regional ally, Moualem claimed that while he backed the UN-sponsored ceasefire plan for Syria, the regime would continue to fight what he called a foreign-backed terrorist conspiracy.
The Gulf sheikhdoms, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have supplied millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to the Syrian opposition and pledged to pay salaries to “rebel” fighters. While Washington has claimed that it is providing “non-lethal” supplies to the opposition, such as night vision glasses and communications equipment, teams of CIA operatives are acknowledged to be working inside Turkey to coordinate the distribution of money and arms to the various militant groups.
Last week, CNN reported an increased presence of foreign opposition fighters, particularly from Libya, in and around Aleppo. The US cable news channel’s correspondent in Syria, Ivan Watson, in a report to the “Amanpour” program on Friday, stated that foreign militants were being drawn to the Syrian conflict, “because they see this as a jihad … as a fight for Sunni Muslims.”
The United States and its allies are escalating their intervention in Syria despite growing concerns over the character of the Islamist forces they are supporting. Having stoked the conflict in Syria to the point of civil war, Washington now faces the prospect of an ethno-sectarian break-up of the country and the spread of fighting throughout the region.
A column in the New York Times Sunday, titled “Syria After the Fall,” warned that while Washington has been happy to destabilize the Assad regime to weaken Iran’s regional influence, the Syrian conflict threatens to set off a “chain of events” that could pose “a greater threat to the Middle East and to America’s long-run interests in the region than does Iran’s nuclear program.”
“If the Syrian conflict explodes outward,” the Times column says, “everyone will lose: it will spill into neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. Lebanon and Iraq in particular are vulnerable; they, too, have sectarian and communal rivalries” connected to the fight between the Assad regime and the Sunni-dominated, US-backed opposition.
The piece, written by Vali Nasr, Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies, warns that if Assad should fall from power, over 100 different opposition groups inside Syria would continue to fight for power with each other and with members of the Alawite, Shiite, Christian, and Druze religious minorities, threatening to turn Syria into “a larger version of Lebanon in the 1970s … There would be ethnic cleansing, refugee floods, humanitarian disasters and opportunities for Al Qaeda.”
The author advises that to avoid such a collapse, it is necessary for the US to foster a “power-sharing agreement” between elements of the opposition and members of the Assad regime.
The New York Times’ modest proposal, which amounts to a call for a post-Assad regime comprised of Sunni Islamist forces and Syrian military brass, echoes the line now being advanced by the Obama administration. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the US government is “discussing ways to place Syria’s highest-ranking military defector [General Manaf Tlass] at the center of a political transition.”
Gen. Tlass, until recently a senior commander of Assad’s elite Republican Guard, defected to Turkey July 6, before traveling on to Paris with his family. He is currently engaged in a visit to Saudi Arabia, reportedly orchestrated by Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
Even if Washington could cobble together such a military-Islamist alliance to replace the current regime in Damascus, it would be no less brutal or reactionary than that of Assad. On the contrary, Washington would demand that its new client ruthlessly put down all opposition and impose US interests in Syria.
Adding further fuel to the explosive situation, an armed secessionist movement is spreading among Syria’s Kurdish minority. The Egypt Independent reported Saturday that Kurdish fighters have overrun several Syrian army installations and raised the slogan, “Free Kurdistan.”
Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters and the Kurdish Workers Party, which has waged a protracted struggle with the Turkish state, are reported to be sponsoring the militants in northeastern Syria.
The presence of a Kurdish rebellion against Assad further expresses the deeply divided character of the Syrian opposition. The Syrian National Council (SNC), though headed by an ethnic Kurd, is opposed to Kurdish secession. The Turkish government, which plays host to the SNC and the Free Syrian Army command, is deeply opposed to any demands for an independent Kurdish state, however.
Despite the danger to the lives of millions in Syria and throughout the Middle East, Washington and its allies are escalating their reckless proxy war. To this end, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta began a five-day tour of the Middle East Sunday, during which he will discuss joint plans for regime-change in Syria with the governments of key US allies Israel, Egypt and Jordan.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jul2012/syri-j30.shtml
The Next Stage In The Destruction of Syria
By Shamus Cooke
30 July, 2012
Countercurrents.org
The U.S. media has made its intentions clear: the 'rebels' attacking Syria's government must have more support to advance Syria's "revolution.” This was the result of the much-hyped advance of Syria's rebels into the country’s two largest cities, which the western media portrayed as a defining moment in global democracy. But "journalists" like these have blood on their hands, with much more in the works.
The systematic dismantling of Syria has more to do with western media lies and geo-politics than "revolution;” and the more that the U.S. media cheers on this bloodletting, the more politicians feel enabled to spill it.
The rebel attacks on the cities of Damascus and Aleppo were, in actuality, meant to convince the western media that the rebels are near victory, with the hopes of attracting more direct military support from abroad. In reality, however, the attacks in Damascus were instantly crushed by the Syrian government, but the U.S. media predicted "victory just around the corner" for the rebels.
Suddenly Syria is becoming a U.S. presidential topic of debate. Republicans have accused Obama of "outsourcing" the Syrian conflict, refusing to be involved when the rebels deserve extra support (guns mainly). But Obama is the principal cause of this humanitarian catastrophe. Middle East expert Robert Fisk explains:
"While Qatar and Saudi Arabia arm and fund the rebels of Syria...Washington mutters not a word of criticism against them. President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, say they want a democracy in Syria. But Qatar is an autocracy and Saudi Arabia is among the most pernicious of caliphate-kingly-dictatorships in the Arab world."
Fisk fails to mention that Qatar and Saudi Arabia are virtual puppets of U.S. foreign policy; they would never act independently to overthrow a regional neighbor; they do so on command.
Syria is conveniently surrounded by close allies of the U.S., and it is through these allies that guns and foreign fighters have poured into Syria to cause massive destruction. The rebel-held areas of Syria exist only on the rural borders of Turkey, Jordan, and Northern Lebanon, areas in alignment with U.S. foreign policy.
Revolutions are city affairs, but the Syrian revolution has been a rural undertaking ever since foreign powers decided to destroy the country. It is fortunate for the rebels that Syria's two largest cities are close to these border countries: the rebels made a quick foray into the cities for some high profile attacks, and then drifted back to the border areas to seek protection from their friends.
Although it is true that the so-called Free Syrian Army includes defectors from the Syrian military, it is possible that these defectors are simply betting that, in the long term, the U.S. will spare no expense in overthrowing the Syrian government.
The commonsense question that the U.S. media never explores is whether Syrians want their country destroyed, the inevitable result of this conflict. In fact, there are numerous indications to the contrary. After constant cheerleading of the Syrian rebels, The New York Times has been forced to admit on several occasions that massive pro-government rallies have been held in Syria's only two large cities:
"The turnout [at least tens of thousands] in Sabaa Bahrat Square in Damascus, the [Syrian] capital, once again underlined the degree of backing that Mr. Assad and his leadership still enjoy among many Syrians... That support is especially pronounced in cities like Damascus and Aleppo, the country’s two largest."
This was further confirmed by a poll funded by the anti-Syrian Qatar Foundation, performed by the Doha Debates:
"According to the latest opinion poll commissioned by The Doha Debates, Syrians are more supportive of their president with 55% not wanting him to resign." (January 2, 2012).
This should be of zero surprise. Syrians have seen Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya destroyed by U.S.-style "liberation.” Americans should know better too — and many do — regardless of their media's blatantly criminal behavior.
The United States is using a strategy in Syria that has been perfected over the years, starting with Afghanistan (in the 1980's) Yugoslavia, and most recently in Libya: arming small paramilitary groups loyal to U.S. interests that attack the targeted government — including terrorist bombings — and when the attacked government defends itself, the U.S. cries "genocide" or "mass murder,” while calling for foreign military intervention.
In each instance the targeted society is dismembered, mass murder and ethnic/religious violence is consciously used to gain military advantage that inevitably spirals out of control; refugee crises are also natural consequences, which inevitably lead to cross border destabilization and wider regional conflicts. Millions of lives are completely ruined in each instance, if not ended.
There is every indication that the Syrian conflict has the potential — as the Iraq war before it — to cause incredible ethnic and religious violence on a multi-nation scale. Neighboring Lebanon has already experienced armed conflict as a direct result of Syria and is a powder keg of ethnic and religious tension that needs only a spark to explode, and Syria promises to spew flames.
The U.S. population has largely been spared images of the incredible suffering and social destruction caused by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Syria's crisis is thus happening in an already-destabilized region, having the potential to completely tear the social fabric of the larger Middle East.
These war crimes benefit nobody except the very rich who take over the helm of governments and use these positions to privatize the invaded country’s economy, though especially the oil. The people in Syria, however, are being used as cannon fodder for an additional reason: so that the U.S. can have a steppingstone towards destroying Iran (Syria is Iran's close ally). But Russia and China are acting more boldly against this genocidal behavior, and may act with more vigor in defending their allies, a dynamic that could easily lead to a regional or even world war.
Thus, the hell that has become the Middle East is being poked and prodded by U.S. foreign policy with absolutely no regard for the global implications. Both U.S. major presidential candidates are cheerleading the flood of blood to different degrees, ensuring that the next election will provide fresh "legitimacy" to an equally barbarous U.S. foreign policy.
Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (www.workerscompass.org) He can be reached at shamu...@gmail.com
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/07/29-1
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/world/middleeast/syrians-rally-in-support-of-assad.html
http://www.thedohadebates.com/news/item/index.asp?n=14312
http://www.countercurrents.org/cooke300712.htm
Sub Categories: » HOMEPAGE / TURKEY/ POLITICS
Monday,July 30 2012, Your time is 23:24:42
Israel sole winner in Syria : CHP leader
ANKARA - Radikal
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu
This is because a Kurdish state is in the works, Kılıçdaroğlu said. Turkey’s foreign policy has been focused on removing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power, without asking what will follow it, he said. “Syria is very important for Russia, too. This was discounted as well,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, adding “our foreign policy has become chaotic.” He accused the government of “play[ing] backgammon on behalf of others,” on the Syria issue. “They don’t know what to do next,” he said.
July/27/2012
How to "Liberate" a Pro-Army, Pro-Syrian City - Use Terrorism, Brutality, Intimidation
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=630935
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NATO Terrorists Come to Overrun, Not `Liberate,` Aleppo.
by Tony Cartalucci July 25, 2012 - A pivotal conflict is unfolding in northern Syria in the city of Aleppo - one told with two narratives. For the Western media, speaking on behalf of US foreign policy and the corporate-financier interests behind both their "journalism" and the subversion of Syria, the "Battle for Aleppo" constitutes brave "pro-democracy" fighters rising up in the streets of the ancient city to do battle with invading "regime thugs." This despite a year and a half of reporting Aleppo as admittedly a pro-government bastion. 
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An Invasion, Not an Uprising The second narrative is discerned not from official Syrian government talking points, but from a more critical examination of the Western media's own reports, which exposes what is instead, indeed a pro-Syrian Army, pro-Syria city being overrun by so-called "Free Syrian Army" militants pouring in from two specific points - Aleppo's northeast facing Azaz, and Aleppo's northwest facing Bab al-Hawa. Militants emanating from these directions come from areas directly across from the Turkish border. We know this, because BBC and other Western networks rode in with the militants on their way to Aleppo. One report, by BBC's Ian Pannell, describes how he came in on just such a convoy. Clearly, these are not "sons of Aleppo" rising up. The offensive was coordinated with an assassination bombing and a similar militant assault on Damascus - timed so closely with the UN Security Council vote, the vote was pushed back a day only to be vetoed by Russia and China, with Pakistan and South Africa abstaining in protest of the US-UK backed resolution. It appears that the operation in Damascus was expected to last longer and cause more chaos amongst the ranks of the Syrian military. It also looks like a large psychological operation planned by NATO was attempted, but failed, or pushed back at the very least - one involving the seizing of Syrian broadcasting and replacing it with false reports of the government's imminent demise. The lightning fast defeat of FSA militants in Damascus lent the Syrian people and their army a morale boost, instead of the psychological defeat NATO had intended to deal. With Damascus secured and slowly returning back to normal, all eyes have fixated on Aleppo. The Western media is now portraying security operations in the city as "brutal" with verified lies of "Russian-made MIGs" "bombing" civilian populations being spread. With FSA militants seemingly trapped in the center of the city, and with the Syrian Army allegedly bringing in reinforcements, the Western media has attempted to portray what was a militant infiltration of the city, as instead, an invasion of Syrian military forces against "city defenders." How to "Liberate" a Pro-Army, Pro-Syrian City - Use Terrorism, Brutality, Intimidation Also discerned from the Western media's own reports is just how the FSA is trying to "liberate" Aleppo. BBC's Ian Pannell claims militants are attempting to "extend their control" while "seeking revenge." His narrative is accompanied by video footage of FSA militants rounding up what he claims are "suspected shabiha," kicking them and firing weapons at their feet. The fate of these unarmed, terrorized men is never revealed by BBC, and Pannell excuses the FSA's behavior by claiming, "there is little justice on either side."  Image: From BBC's Ian Pannell - young men "suspected" of being "Shabiha" are rounded up as the FSA "seeks revenge." BBC fails categorically to explain how NATO-backed terrorists can "liberate" a city that is admittedly pro-government - but it appears it will be done through terrorism, brutality, mass murder, and intimidation.
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CNN also adds inadvertently contradictory facts to their fallacious narrative. In an article titled, "Faces of the Free Syrian Army," we are treated with a grossly unsubstantiated narrative, seemingly meant to counter evidence reported on by outlets such as French intellectual Thierry Meyssan's VoltaireNet. VoltaireNet's article, "Who is Fighting in Syria?" reveals that the FSA's ranks consist of mostly radicalized gangs, many not even Syrian. Further more, the article points out that the Syrian Army is conscripted from amongst the nation's citizens. It is a "people's army." CNN's article, despite attempting to allay fears that the FSA consists of foreign terrorists, still admits:
Clearly, foreign-armed militants storming a city, many of whom are not even citizens of Syria, is not a "liberation," but rather an invasion. Especially when these foreign fighters are facing an army conscripted from the Syrian people themselves. And as with any invasion, a degree of "shock and awe" is required to create the necessary fear and panic in order to subjugate the invaded. The atrocities BBC alludes to reaffirm reports from both Human Rights Watch and the UN describing widespread war crimes carried out by the FSA. This, above all else, is how they "take" and "hold" territory, especially in areas where the Syrian Army enjoys widespread support, like in Aleppo. This is not "liberation," this is terrorism and invasion. |
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“They have succeeded in dominating us more
through ignorance, than through force”.
Simon Bolivar
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire
"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed" - Steve Biko