SEVERAL ITEMS ON SYRIA + 2 ON EGYPT
Enrique Ferro
http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20120824291605000.htm
WORLD AFFAIRS
Terror as weapon
JOHN CHERIAN
| Syria: Bomb blasts in Damascus kill the Defence Minister and three senior officials, while the West keeps working hard for a regime change. |
Smoke billows over Damascus on July 18 after a bomb ripped through a high-level security meeting.
JULY became one of the bloodiest months for Syria as the foreign-backed armed groups made a concerted attempt to further destabilise the government led by Bashar al Assad. The terror attack on July 18, which claimed the lives of Defence Minister Dawoud Rahja and three senior officials (Assef Shawkat, deputy head of the Syrian Army and brother-in-law of Bashar al Assad; Hassan Turkmani, Chief of Crisis Operations; and Hisham Bakhtiar, head of Intelligence) who were in the forefront of the security drive to clear the armed groups from their strongholds, was indeed a serious blow to the government. The fact that the bombing occurred in the National Security Building where meetings are often chaired by the President himself is a serious cause for alarm as it could not have happened without the help of hostile foreign powers.
The Turkish newspaper Habberturk reported that Israeli Intelligence played an important role in the attack. It quoted an unidentified former American intelligence analyst as saying that the “entire attack smelled of Mossad”. Israeli President Shimon Peres has publicly stated that he wants the Syrian government to collapse. If a pro-Western government is installed in Damascus, then Israel can turn its full attention to Hizbollah, and the United States can focus on regime change in Iran.
The Syrian government said that foreign powers were behind the attack and named “Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel” as the countries responsible for the act of terror. A Reuters report in the last week of July said that a secret base located in Adana province near Turkey’s border with Syria was the “nerve centre” from where operations to topple the government in Damascus were being launched. The U.S’ military base of Incirlik is also based in Adana.
The leaders of the countries ranged against Syria virtually applauded the terror attack. The U.S. State Department spokesman, while saying that Washington was against further bloodshed in Syria, “noted” that those killed and injured “were key architects of the Assad regime’s assault on the Syrian people”. A palpable regret could be noticed in the statements issued by some governments that the primary target of the bombing – the President – was not among the casualties. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the American reaction to the Damascus blasts “as a direct endorsement of terrorism”. He said that the position Washington had adopted was “a sinister one”.
The terror groups operating in the country have been lavishly funded and trained by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and also by Turkey and the U.S., two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking after the rebels had briefly seized two border crossings and massacred the soldiers manning the posts, said that cooperation with the armed rebels should increase. Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al Assadi told the media that the Turkey-based Free Syrian Army (FSA) “executed 22 Syrian soldiers in front of the eyes of Iraqi soldiers” after they briefly overran a border post at Abu Kamal, in eastern Syria, close to Iraq, in the third week of July.
According to reports, most FSA commanders are Iraqi Sunnis. A series of terror attacks had taken place in the Shia-dominated areas in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities in July. It is not surprising that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Malki has refused to endorse the Arab League’s call to Bashar al Assad to step down. The Iraqi government has obviously drawn a parallel with what is happening across its borders to the recent terror attacks in Iraq. Many of the Iraqi “jehadis” have transformed themselves into Syrian freedom fighters.
It is estimated that more than a hundred armed groups are operating in the urban areas of the country. The U.S. media have finally acknowledged that Al Qaeda and Salafist fighters who infiltrated from the neighbouring countries were responsible for the spectacular suicide bombings and sectarian attacks. Randa Kassis, one of the leading figures of the FSA, told the German magazine Der Spiegel that “the Islamist groups, which are superbly financed and equipped by the Gulf states, are ruthlessly seizing decision-making power for themselves”. Muslim clerics in many Arab countries are urging young people to turn Syria into another Afghanistan. German intelligence has estimated that around 90 per cent of the armed insurgents owe their allegiance to Al Qaeda. A recent Time magazine report said that Al Qaeda flags dominate in rural areas currently occupied by the armed groups.
U.N. CHARTER
Immediately after the Damascus terror attack, Washington and its allies started piling pressure on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to invoke Chapter Seven of the U.N. Charter, which allows the use of outside military force against Syria. It was the third time in nine months that the U.S. and its allies tried to force a resolution on Syria. Russia and China once again vetoed the resolution. South Africa (a member of BRICS, an association of the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and Pakistan chose to abstain. But India, which currently occupies a seat in the UNSC, once again voted with the West. Russia and China have remained steadfast on the side of the beleaguered Syrian government even as traditional friends such as India have virtually deserted it in its time of need.
President Bashar Al Assad, left, with Defence Minister Gen. Dawoud Rahja, right, at a ceremony in Damascus in October 2011 to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Gen. Rahja died in the July 18 blast.
South Africa, in fact, criticised the one-sided nature of the draft resolution. India, which had chosen to abstain on the crucial resolution which led to outside military intervention in Libya last year, changed its stance in the case of Syria. New Delhi has been consistently siding with the West and the Sunni Arab monarchies on issues ranging from Libya to Iran. The BRICS countries are supposed to present a united front on crucial foreign policy issues. The final declaration issued at the 2012 BRICS summit held in New Delhi in March, stressed the need for cohesiveness while voting on important political issues in international forums.
Vitaly Churkin, the Russian Ambassador to the U.N., accused the Western members of the U.N. of attempting “to fan the flames of confrontation in the Security Council”. He said that the draft resolution on Syria, which was put to vote, was “biased”, adding that “the threat of sanctions was exclusively aimed at the government of Syria, and does not reflect the reality of the country today. It is especially ambiguous in the light of what happened with the grave terrorist attack that took place in Damascus.”
The Russian Foreign Minister said in Moscow that the position of the West in practical terms meant that they “are going to support such acts of terrorism until the UNSC acts on their demands”. He emphasised that the West was not interested in solving the crisis in Syria, which had been dragging on for more than a year, in a collective manner. The resolution presented in the UNSC made no mention of the terror groups inside Syria being backed by outside forces. Nor was there any suggestion from the West and its allies about stopping support for the armed militants fighting the Syrian government. The rebels in Syria know fully well that without outside intervention they will never be able to defeat the Syrian Army. The Security Council had invoked Chapter Seven against Libya last year, following which the West immediately started a bombing campaign and openly trained and armed the anti-government militias there. The result was more bloodshed and carnage. The goal of regime change was achieved, but instability in the region only increased, with civil war engulfing neighbouring Mali and militant groups, armed with weapons looted from Libya, creating havoc even in countries such as Nigeria. Libya itself is in danger of being balkanised, with the eastern part threatening to secede.
Washington was also not keen to extend the terms of the Kofi Annan-led Peace Mission to Syria. China, along with India, wanted to give the mission another 45 days. A compromise was finally reached on July 20, extending the mission by another 30 days with the possibility of a further extension provided there was a cessation of the use of heavy weapons. The tactics of the armed groups is to occupy sections of cities and towns, leaving the government with little option but to drive them away using heavy artillery at times. This happened in Damascus in late July. When the rebels were driven out of Damascus, they opened up another front in a section of Aleppo, the largest city in the country. Washington, which anyway was never too enamoured of the Annan plan, wants to give it a formal burial after the latest extension.
The Barack Obama administration knows fully well that the rebels it is arming and financing will keep on fighting and the Syrian state will respond to preserve law and order. The pliant media under its control will pin all the atrocities happening in the country on the government or groups supporting it. The veteran German war correspondent Jurgen Totenhofer, writing in the widely circulated newspaper Bild, accused the rebels of “deliberately killing civilians and then presenting them as victims of the government”. He described this “massacre marketing strategy” as being “among the most disgusting things I have ever experienced in an armed conflict”.
The Syrian government seems determined to ride out the maelstrom currently buffeting it. Besides diplomatic support from Russia and China, Syria is also assured of military backing from traditional allies such as Iran. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Muallem was in Teheran on an unscheduled visit at the end of July. He said in Teheran that the bulk of the anti-government fighters were now staging a last-ditch fight in Aleppo. “They will definitely be defeated,” he told a joint press conference along with his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi. Muallem said that his country “is a target of a global plot whose agents are in this region”. Salehi warned about the adverse consequences for the entire region if the Bashar al Assad government was ousted by force. He said that the consequences “would engulf the region and eventually the entire world”.
Iran’s Vice-President in charge of international affairs, Ali Saeedlou, told a visiting Syrian delegation in the last week of July that his country was ready to share its “experience and capabilities with the brother nation of Syria”. In the same week, General Massoud Jazayeri said that Syria had friends in the region who were ready to “strike out”. He was probably referring to the Hizbollah in Lebanon. The Hizbollah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, in an important speech delivered in the third week of July to commemorate the 2006 war against an Israeli invasion force in Lebanon, said that “Syria is a genuine problem for the U.S. and Israel” because it is “a linking bridge between Iran and the resistance and, in better words, the principal supporter of the resistance at a special military level”.
He went on to say that it was Syria’s help that proved crucial in its victory against the Israeli forces. He said that Syria gave most of the arms and missiles to the resistance forces during the 33-day war in 2006. Nasrallah blamed the West for sponsoring terrorist activities in Syria and blocking a national dialogue. He said the main reason why the U.S. was trying to destabilise Syria was the country’s support for the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance against Israel, “the gendarme of the region”. Almost on cue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the U.S. media that his government was ready to take military action against Syria to prevent chemical weapons from falling into the hands “of Hizbollah and other terror groups”. U.S. and Israeli officials are now citing the pretext of “chemical weapons” to intervene militarily in Syria. The U.S. had used the non-existent threat of weapons of mass destruction as a ruse to invade Iraq in 2003.http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20120824291605000.htm
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-syria-aleppo-20120814,0,4861280.story
Syria: Some in opposition fear rebels miscalculated in Aleppo
The Syria activists fear that the Aleppo offensive may lead to a humanitarian crisis and undermine the revolution by turning the city against them.
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Syrian rebels keep watch during their battle against the Syrian army on a street near Aleppo. (Cem Ozdel / Anadolu Agency, European Pressphoto Agency / August 14, 2012)
August 13, 2012, 8:15 p.m.
But as the call for night prayers rang out from the minaret of the nearby mosque on a recent day, two loud explosions boomed.
"Do you hear that?" a father of seven asked, briefly looking away from the TV. "It's like this every night."
From the balcony, which on this night let in a little cool summer breeze, his family can occasionally see smoke rising above other Aleppo neighborhoods that are under attack by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
The father is solidly opposed to Assad, but he fears the prospect of rebels who have filtered in from the suburbs seizing his neighborhood as they try to take Syria's largest city and commercial hub.
"What [the rebels] did was wrong, coming in and forcing all these civilians to flee and live in schools. You came to protect civilians, but now you're hurting them?" said the father, one of the city's merchants. "It's wrong what they did."
As the fighting intensifies in a city once regarded as immune to the violence racking much of Syria, some opposition activists are concerned that those who have taken up arms against Assad have made a serious miscalculation here. They fear that the offensive is creating a humanitarian crisis they are ill-equipped to handle and turning many of those affected against the rebels.
"The military campaign for Aleppo came too, too early," said Marcell Shehwaro, a dentistry graduate and a prominent activist. "Because people here didn't see the government violence that would make them believe the Free Syrian Army was needed."
Even now, weeks into the battle for Aleppo, the traffic of everyday routines still snarls roundabouts in safer parts of the city. Syria's national flag still flies freely here, and the walls are devoid of antigovernment graffiti that festoon rebel-held areas.
Pricey restaurants in nice neighborhoods open — expectantly — every night.
Abdulaziz "Abu Jumuah" Salameh, who heads a coalition of dozens of militias called the Al Tawheed Brigade, acknowledged that the city may not have wanted the rebel offensive to begin so soon. But that didn't matter: The revolution has its own timing.
"Other provinces finished their revolution, and Aleppo hadn't started yet," he said, speaking from his headquarters in Tal Rifaat, a town north of the city. "You could wait 100 years, and Aleppo still won't be ready."
Even as rebels continue to stream into Aleppo, there is bitter disagreement over whether they can win over its residents.
*
The park was full, but few customers made their way to the man selling balloons and small bags of cotton candy from his cart.
Throughout Aleppo's Ashrafieh park, families had spread out their belongings on blankets or hung them from the trees that provided a bit of relief from the summer sun. They had been here for days, refugees in their own city, poor people forced to flee fighting in other parts of Aleppo.
Just a couple of months ago, most opposition protests in Aleppo didn't last for more than half an hour. Now some streets are lined with crumbling buildings. Most public transportation has disappeared, and few taxis or microbuses are still operating. Gasoline is scarce.
"For so long, Aleppo residents said, 'Nothing is happening, nothing is happening.' They can't say that anymore," Ali, a rebel and former carpenter from the embattled Salahuddin neighborhood, said as he walked past homes missing chunks of concrete and surrounded by piles of reeking garbage.
Activist Shehwaro, a member of the Christian minority, which has tended to view Assad as a protector, said that many of the internally displaced refugees she talks to blame the rebels for their situation. Others agree with that assessment.
Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
Al-Qaeda flags fly over rebel-held Syria
By John Rosenthal
There has recently been a small stir in the American media, as media organizations from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal to the Associated Press have finally gotten around to acknowledging a "presence" of al-Qaeda and like-minded jihadist groups among the Syrian rebel forces seeking to topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
It is difficult to see what the cause of the excitement is. After all, such a presence has been blindingly obvious for many months: whether as a result of the dozens of suicide attacks that have
plagued Syria or the numerous videos that have emerged showing rebel forces or supporters proudly displaying the distinctive black flag of al-Qaeda.
But observations made by German journalist Daniel Etter during a recent visit to rebel-controlled towns near the embattled city of Aleppo suggest that there is no mere "presence" of jihadists among the rebels: religiously-inspired mujahideen is what the rebels are. The real question is whether there is a presence of anything else. Etter's report, which appeared in the leading German daily Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, also provides evidence that rebel authorities are subjecting civilians to arbitrary detention and torture and summarily executing captured members of the regular Syrian armed forces.
In the town of Maraa, north of Aleppo, Etter saw some 120 prisoners, apparently civilians, "herded into a large classroom" in what had previously been a school. Many of the prisoners showed signs of abuse. The prison director, whom Etter identifies only as "Jumbo," refused to allow Etter to speak with them alone. Etter notes that Jumbo "looks like his name." "Jumbo is not someone with whom you would like to pick a fight," Etter writes:
[N]ot someone whom as a prisoner you would like to have as your jail keeper. Thus the detainees say that their wounds and bruises are the product of falls or shrapnel. They say how well they are treated here, and they swear loyalty to the Free Syrian Army. Much of what they say is not credible.
The most gruesome wounds that Etter describes involve a certain "Tamer" from Aleppo: until recently an enthusiastic supporter of Assad - so enthusiastic that he had a portrait of the Syrian president tattooed on his chest. In the meanwhile, the tattoo has been excised from Tamer's body with a razor blade. Tamer insists that he did the deed himself after rebel forces entered Aleppo. He says that he ran to the rebels' headquarters and sliced at the tattoo while yelling, "I give my blood for the Free Syrian Army!"
In a remarkable journalistic leap of faith, Etter writes, "Tamer's story cannot be independently verified either, but it is unlikely that Jumbo would have let a journalist speak with him if his scars were the result of abuse." As made clear by Etter's own description of the circumstances under which he was able to speak with the detainees, it is surely far more unlikely that Tamer would have accused his captors with "Jumbo" present.
Moreover, even supposing that Tamer did indeed inflict his own wounds, why would he commit such an act of self-mutilation if he did not expect worse from the "new authorities," as Etter puts it, if the tattoo was discovered? Rebel groups have repeatedly made clear that they feel entitled to target any and all supporters of the ancien regime.
Jumbo says that Tamer was a member of a pro-Assad militia: a so-called "shabiha". But there is no evidence presented for this in the article. "I have no proof that he killed anyone," Jumbo concedes.
It is equally unclear what "crimes" the other detainees are supposed to have committed. But their daily routine makes clear, at any rate, the ideological orientation of their captors. "They pray five times a day," Etter writes:
[A]nd study the Quran. Perhaps out of a sense of remorse, perhaps to please their jailers, perhaps because they are forced to do so. Jumbo seems to be convinced that their turn to God is doing good. "They are happier and they are changing their attitude," he says.
In the neighboring town of Azaz, Etter encountered a less didactic form of Islamism: namely, in the person of rebel commander Abu Anas. Etter describes meeting Abu Anas in his office: a Koran and a "silver sword" were lying on his desk and a black flag hung over it. An Arabic inscription on the flag proclaimed, 'There is no God but God. Mohammed is his Prophet" "It is the flag that al-Qaeda also used," Etter remarks.
Seemingly taking his cue from Western supporters - or perhaps indeed advisors - Abu Anas emphasized that the black flag was also used before al-Qaeda. But if it is the distinctive black flag with the circular white "seal of Mohammed" in the middle, there appears to be no evidence that this is the case.
This is the flag made famous by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq: notably, as a result of the group's notoriously harrowing videos documenting the executions of captured Iraqi security personnel and American and other hostages. Indeed, even Zarqawi's group went through various versions of its flag before settling on the version that has since become the standard banner of al-Qaeda affiliates around the world.
In any case, it is not only the choice of flag that appears to have been inspired by al-Qaeda in Iraq. The rebel leader tells Etter that his forces captured Syrian government troops in the battle for Azaz. Asked what became of the government soldiers, Abu Anas responds, "We could not take care of them. Most of them are dead."
"Earlier," Etter explains, "when Abu Anas was not yet in the room, a smiling subordinate of his showed with gestures how they bound prisoners and shot them."
While there is not much he can do to put a positive spin on the actions of Abu Anas and his men, Etter labors mightily to try at least to cast "Jumbo" and his prison in Maara in a more positive light. In one somewhat surreal paragraph, he even praises the rebels for their supposed efforts to build a "fairer" system of justice in Maara - after he has raised the specter of prisoner abuse in Jumbo's prison.
Jumbo tells him about one case involving a group of Alawites who were detained by the rebels, but then later released since "we had no evidence against them". Etter does not ask: evidence of what? But even supposing that Jumbo's claim is true, it amounts to an admission that Alawites are being detained in rebel-controlled territories simply because they are Alawites.
In the language of international humanitarian law, what Etter has described in his article are clearly war crimes and probably too crimes against humanity. But when it is a matter of the crimes of the Syrian rebels, the West's otherwise supposedly so acute moral sensibilities appear to have become dull.
John Rosenthal is a journalist who specializes on European politics and transatlantic security issues. His website is Transatlantic Intelligencer
(Copyright 2012 John Rosenthal.)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NH14Ak01.html#.UCrLVshePyk.twitter
What if the Empire Project Fails in Syria?
By Michael Collins
Al Jazeera’s weekend coverage of the critical battle for Aleppo, Syria reveals a major obstacle for the United States-NATO Empire Project. Hardly anyone in Aleppo is signing up to fight with rebels.
Syrian rebels get limited support in Aleppo, Al Jazeera, August 11
Reporter Anita McNaught: “[The rebels] know they have to win if the revolution is to succeed but Aleppo was slow to demonstrate any widespread support for the opposition.” The reticence was due to fear of Syria’s intelligence service a local claimed.
McNaught followed up: “Why now, when the Free Syrian Army was so quickly consolidating its hold, were its ranks not being swelled by volunteers from the city?”
One of the rebels (gesturing in image) responded: “They are afraid of the situation now. It’s new to them. It’s not like the countryside all around here which has had time to get used to the fighting.” Trauma requires practice.
The government of Qatar owns Al Jazeera. Qatar partnered with NATO in Libya by providing troops on the ground and cash to the Libya rebels. The built in bias gives credibility to the claim of tepid local support. Like the people of Damascus who also kept their distance from rebels, Syrians in Aleppo are not consumed by anti-regime passion. That may have something to do with public polling showing that “most Syrians are in favour of Bashar al-Assad remaining as president.”
What kind of revolution is this? Fighters from the countryside plus foreign fighters including al Qaeda move into the nation’s largest city, attack police and government security installations inspiring … nothing much. The response of citizens both cities show that this is more an attack on cities rather than a broad based revolution.
There are a number of ways the revolution can succeed. However, success will be meaningless if the cause can’t even inspire noticeable support from citizens in the two largest cities.
Over time, the ruling Ba’ath party of Bashar al-Assad relied on
strong support from rural areas and the military. City dwellers were less inclined
to support the regime, particularly in Aleppo. The rebels have not
inspired much support in an area where support was expected. Where will
they find it?
Turkey is the designated U.S.-NATO proxy. The Asia Times reported a
conversation between President Obama and Turkey’s President Erdogan in
which Obama urged Turkey to send al-Assad on a permanent vacation.
However, Turkey is experiencing some immediate blowback from its
alliance with the West.
Long term hostilities between the Turkish state and its huge Kurdish population (nearly 20%) have been inflamed by the Syrian conflict. The Kurdish military arm, the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), recently set up a base in Iraq. The PKK launched attacks on Turkish officials and facilities in the Kurdish region.
This is President Recep Erdoğan’s worst nightmare. He’s set up his Foreign Minister as the fall guy if things go terribly wrong for Turkey (e.g., Syria survives as a viable state, a robust conflict with the Kurds).
There are few voices out there predicting that the Syrian government will survive the rebel assault. But the rebels can’t find any open support in an area that should be sympathetic during the critical battle (Aleppo). Therefore, it is reasonable to ask: what happens if the enterprise falls on its face?
The United States and NATO would have to question the viability of its Libyan formula for regime change.
1. Take advantage of a political clash between a used up/undesirable leader and some internal faction (the rebels).
2. Covertly arm and otherwise assist the rebels;
3. Get a UN resolution decrying human rights violations based on evidence from an NGO aligned with the rebels;
4. Overtly arm and otherwise assist the rebels;
5. Win the battle for the rebels.
The steps must be followed in sequence. The current effort in Syria has stalled on step three.
This gives the Obama administration an opportunity. It can stop interfering with a sovereign state that poses no imminent threat to the United States and refocus its time and efforts on the people who are sinking in a very real economic depression.
http://www.themoneyparty.org/main/2012/08/what-if-the-empire-project-fails-in-syria/#more-4817
END
Yara Saleh’s kidnappers deny having ties with Paris
An Al-EkhbariyaTV crew was kidnapped by the Free Syrian Army when filming the clashes taking place in Al-Tal.
A group of fighters has entrenched itself in this small city which was immediately abandoned by the population. The national army moved in to surround the area, ordering the combatants to lay down their arms.
The Free Syrian Army announced several times the release of the Al-EkhbariyaTV team, including journalist Yara Saleh. Finally, it communicated its demands through a video.
To be noted:
The FSA officer in Al-Tal is reading a text not written by him.
The
FSA does not consider the kidnapped journalists as "hostages", but as
"guests." It specifies, however, that they are serving as human shields
(to prevent the national army from bombing or attacking) and that their
safe return would be jeopardized if the FSA’s demands are not met.
The
FSA presents itself as an Islamist organization. (1) The statement is
preceded by a Koranic verse; (2) it contains an implicit reference to
Islam; (3) the negotiator is referred to as "brother"; (4) while Islam
prohibits the taking of women and children as hostages, journalist Yara
Saleh is being held and forced to wear a veil.
The
FSA says that civilians are being bombarded by the regular army from
which it is trying to protect them, while stating at the same time that
they have actually fled the city. Then it calls for the lifting of check
points allegedly to allow people to return, whereas in reality it is to
permit its fighters to escape.
Strikingly,
for the first time since the outbreak of the crisis, the FSA has named
as negotiator a contact in Saudi Arabia. This is an attempt to
camouflage that its orders come from the NATO headquarters in Incirlik.
On this air base in southwestern Turkey, the U.S., France and Turkey are
working hand in hand. The FSA prefers to acknowledge its lack of
independence and present itself as an organization run by the Saudis
rather than unveiling its ties with Paris. With a touch of unintentional
humor, the officer reading the paper ends with "Long live independent
Syria!."
To obtain the release of Yara al Saleh-Abbas and her team, write to the real sponsors of the FSA at the Elysée presidential palace, "Mr. Hollande, stop supporting terrorism! Free Yara!"
http://www.voltairenet.org/Yara-Saleh-s-kidnappers-deny
Jihadists Ambush checkpoint in Hama Province, Syria
(31/07/2012) Audacious ambush by Islamist group Aharar Al Sham in Al-suqaylabiyah, Hama governorate.
Ahrar
Al Sham, a Salafist extremist group based in Idlib are probably the
most powerful insurgent group in Syria, their operations are often
celebrated on Al Qaeda forums.
The Jihadists drive right up to
the checkpoint before opening fire and jumping out. The tactic strongly
resembles those employed by Al Qaeda in Iraq in their latest video
release and appears to be an attempt to by Ahrar Al sham to emulate
them. They do not however meet with the same success, the vehicle takes
fire, one of the attackers doesn't appear to return to the car and the
the vehicle is seen taking fire, one of the men in the back seems to be
shot in the shoulder towards the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbtBimDu6IA&feature=player_embedded
Warning: Graphic Content (18+, Not for Shock, for educational purposes to bring awareness of the human rights abuses of the Free Syrian Army) More
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/08/west-celebrates-as-dark-age-descends.html
Monday, August 13, 2012
West Celebrates as Dark Age Descends over Egypt
Morsi
of the Muslim Brotherhood begins rounding up outspoken journalists as
Egypt arrays itself with West against Syria and Iran.
Tony Cartalucci, Contributor
Activist Post
US State Department's Voice of America boldly proclaimed "Egyptian Media: Military Shakeup 'Revolutionary',"
airing proclamations from the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood that,
"Egyptians have been “dreaming of a fair democratic system for more than
60 years."
It is unlikely that Egyptians have been "dreaming" of an end to
their secular system of governance, or "dreaming" of a sectarian
extremist political party coming to power, notorious for thuggery,
violence, and for being a stalwart pillar of Western machinations.
Image:
Mohamed Morsi - hardly a "hardline extremist" himself, he is the
embodiment of the absolute fraud that is the Muslim Brotherhood - a
leadership of Western-educated, Western-serving technocrats
posing as "pious Muslims" attempting to cultivate a base of fanatical
extremists prepared to intimidate through violence the Brotherhood's
opposition. Failing that, they are prepared to use (and have used)
extreme violence to achieve their political agenda.
And already, Egypt's "democratic
dreams" are vanishing like the last wisp of morning mist, as the ruling
Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt begins rounding up critics amongst
the media. AFP recently reported in their article, "Egyptian journalists to be tried for insulting Mursi,"
that "television boss Tawfiq Okasha and newspaper journalist Islam
Afifi will be tried for "incitement" and insulting Egyptian President
Mohammed Mursi."
Strangely,
while similar actions around the world beget howling indignation from
organizations including Freedom House, Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch, and IFEX - not to mention the US State Department itself
which underwrites each of these faux-human rights advocates - there is
not only absolute silence regarding this assault on "freedom of
expression," but instead, a collective chorus of support from the
Western media, hailing Morsi's increasingly despotic dismantling of
Egypt's checks and balances through an increasing aggressive
consolidation of power, as a "step forward for revolution."
Morsi's assault on Egypt's press has coincided with "mysterious" sectarian extremist attacks
on Egyptian security forces on the Sinai Peninsula, most likely the
collective work of Israel and Hamas. Of course, Hamas, an affiliate of
the Muslim Brotherhood, is a direct creation of Israel (and here), and like the Muslim Brotherhood, is a pillar of US-Israeli machinations throughout the region.
Morsi quickly used the convenient attacks as a pretense to sack various security officials, the momentum of which carried forward to the forced "retirement" of Egypt's military leadership.
Fortune 500-funded think-tanks including the Council on Foreign
Relations and the Brookings Institution would gush over Morsi's move to
extra-legally procure more power - with CFR's Steven Cook declaring
Morsi as "extraordinarily powerful." Cook would concede however that "in
theory," this is a "more healthy place for Egypt to be in a democratic
transition, but you have to raise questions about the democratic
credentials of the Muslim Brotherhood."
So What are the Brotherhood's "Democratic Credentials?"
The
Muslim Brotherhood is a theocratic sectarian extremist movement; and
not only that, but a regional movement that transcends national borders.
It is guilty of decades of violent discord not only in Egypt, but
across the Arab World and it has remained a serious threat to secular
systems from Algeria to Syria and back again.
Today, the Western press has decried Egyptian and Syrian efforts to
hem in these sectarian extremists, particularly in Syria where the
government was accused of having "massacring" armed Brotherhood
militants in Hama in 1982. The constitutions of secular Arab nations
across Northern Africa and the Middle East, including the newly rewritten Syrian Constitution,
have attempted to exclude sectarian political parties, especially those
with "regional" affiliations to prevent the Muslim Brotherhood and Al
Qaeda affiliated political movements from ever coming into power.
And while sectarian extremists taking power in Egypt and attempting
to take power in Syria may seem like an imminent threat to Western
(including Israeli) interests - it in reality is a tremendous boon.
Morsi himself is by no means an "extremists" or an "Islamist." He is a US-educated technocrat
who merely poses as "hardline" in order to cultivate the fanatical
support of the Brotherhood's rank and file. Several of Morsi's children
are even US citizens. Morsi will gladly play the part of a sneering
"anti-American," "anti-Zionist" "Islamist," but in the end, no matter
how far the act goes, he will fulfill the West's agenda.
Already, despite a long campaign of feigned anti-American, anti-Israel propaganda during the Egyptian presidential run-up, the Muslim Brotherhood has joined US, European, and Israeli
calls for "international" intervention in Syria. Alongside the CIA,
Mossad, and the Gulf State despots of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the Muslim
Brotherhood's Syrian affiliates have been funneling weapons, cash, and
foreign fighters into Syria to fight Wall Street, London, Riyadh, Doha,
and Tel Aviv's proxy war.
In a May 6, 2012 Reuters article it stated:
Working quietly, the Brotherhood has been financing Free Syrian Army defectors based in Turkey and channeling money and supplies to Syria, reviving their base among small Sunni farmers and middle class Syrians, opposition sources say.
The
Muslim Brotherhood was nearing extinction in Syria before the latest
unrest, and while Reuters categorically fails in its report to explain
the "how" behind the Brotherhood's resurrection, it was revealed in a
2007 New Yorker article titled, "The Redirection" by Seymour Hersh.
The Brotherhood was being directly backed by the US and Israel who
were funneling support through the Saudis so as to not compromise the
"credibility" of the so-called "Islamic" movement. Hersh revealed that
members of the Lebanese Saad Hariri clique, then led by Fouad Siniora,
had been the go-between for US planners and the Syrian Muslim
Brotherhood.
Hersh reports the Lebanese Hariri faction had met Dick Cheney in
Washington and relayed personally the importance of using the Muslim
Brotherhood in Syria in any move against the ruling government:
[Walid] Jumblatt then told me that he had met with Vice-President Cheney in Washington last fall to discuss, among other issues, the possibility of undermining Assad. He and his colleagues advised Cheney that, if the United States does try to move against Syria, members of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood would be 'the ones to talk to,' Jumblatt said. -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh
The article would continue by explaining how already in 2007, US and Saudi backing had begun benefiting the Brotherhood:
There is evidence that the Administration’s redirection strategy has already benefitted the Brotherhood. The Syrian National Salvation Front is a coalition of opposition groups whose principal members are a faction led by Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian Vice-President who defected in 2005, and the Brotherhood. A former high-ranking C.I.A. officer told me, 'The Americans have provided both political and financial support. The Saudis are taking the lead with financial support, but there is American involvement.' He said that Khaddam, who now lives in Paris, was getting money from Saudi Arabia, with the knowledge of the White House. (In 2005, a delegation of the Front’s members met with officials from the National Security Council, according to press reports.) A former White House official told me that the Saudis had provided members of the Front with travel documents. - The Redirection, Seymour Hersh
It
was warned that such backing would benefit the Brotherhood as a whole,
not just in Syria, and could effect public opinion even as far as in
Egypt where a long battle against the hardliners was fought in order to
keep Egyptian governance secular. Clearly the Brotherhood did not
spontaneously rise back to power in Syria, it was resurrected by US,
Israeli, and Saudi cash, weapons and directives.
Likewise, its rise into power in Egypt was facilitated by
Western-backed and funded destabilization, sometimes referred to as the
"Arab Spring."
US-backed Sedition, Not Revolution Has Seized Egypt
In January of 2011, we were told that "spontaneous," "indigenous"
uprising had begun sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, including
Hosni Mubarak's Egypt, in what was hailed as the "Arab Spring." It would
be almost four months before the corporate-media would admit that the
US had been behind the uprisings and that they were anything but
"spontaneous," or "indigenous." In an April, 2011 article published by
the New York Times titled, "U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings," it was stated (emphasis added):
A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region, including the April 6 Youth Movement in Egypt, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and grass-roots activists like Entsar Qadhi, a youth leader in Yemen, received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington.
The article would also add, regarding the US State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED):
The Republican and Democratic institutes are loosely affiliated with the Republican and Democratic Parties. They were created by Congress and are financed through the National Endowment for Democracy, which was set up in 1983 to channel grants for promoting democracy in developing nations.
The National Endowment receives about $100 million annually from Congress. Freedom House also gets the bulk of its money from the American government, mainly from the State Department.
It
is hardly a speculative theory then, that the uprisings were part of an
immense geopolitical campaign conceived in the West and carried out
through its proxies with the assistance of disingenuous organizations
including NED, NDI, IRI, and Freedom House and the stable of NGOs they
maintain throughout the world. Preparations for the 'Arab Spring' began
not as unrest had already begun, but years before the first 'fist' was
raised, and within seminar rooms in D.C. and New York, US-funded
training facilities in Serbia, and camps held in neighboring countries,
not within the Arab World itself.
In 2008, Egyptian activists from the now infamous April 6 movement were in New York City for the inaugural Alliance of Youth Movements (AYM) summit, also known as Movements.org. There, they received training, networking opportunities, and support from AYM's various corporate and US governmental sponsors, including the US State Department itself. The AYM 2008 summit report (page 3 of .pdf)
states that the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and
Public Affairs, James Glassman attended, as did Jared Cohen who sits on
the policy planning staff of the Office of the Secretary of State. Six
other State Department staff members and advisers would also attend the
summit along with an immense list of corporate, media, and institutional
representatives.
Image: The Serbian Otpor fist... in Egypt?
The same US organizations that trained & funded Serbians to
overthrow their government in 2000, were behind the April 6 Movement and
the Egyptian "Arab Spring." Sun Tzu in the Art of War said, "all
warfare is deception." In fourth generation warfare, no deceit is
greater than convincing people they are "liberating" themselves when in
reality they are dividing and destroying their nation so that Wall
Street & London's network of already in-place NGOs can take over.
This, while a suitable proxy is put in office as PM or president. In
Egypt, these NGOs would already have a new constitution drafted and ready before the fall of Hosni Mubarak.
Shortly afterward, April 6 would travel to Serbia to train under US-funded CANVAS, formally the US-funded NGO "Otpor" who helped overthrow the government of Serbia in 2000. Otpor, the New York Times would report,
was a "well-oiled movement backed by several million dollars from the
United States." After its success it would change its name to CANVAS and
begin training activists to be used in other US-backed regime change
operations.
The April 6 Movement, after training with CANVAS, would return to
Egypt in 2010, a full year before the "Arab Spring," along with UN IAEA
Chief Mohammed ElBaradei. April 6 members would even be arrested
while waiting for ElBaradei's arrival at Cairo's airport in
mid-February. Already, ElBaradei, as early as 2010, announced his
intentions of running for president in the 2011 elections. Together with
April 6, Wael Ghonim of Google, and a coalition of other opposition parties, ElBaradei assembled his "National Front for Change" and began preparing for the coming "Arab Spring."
Photo: From left to right, ICG members Shlomo Ben-Ami, Stanley Fischer, Shimon Peres, and Mohamed ElBaradei. Despite claims that Mohomed ElBaradei is "anti-Israeli" or "anti-West,"
it is a documented fact that he is indeed an agent of the Wall
Street-London corporate-fascist global oligarchy, and a member of the
International Crisis Group which includes several current and former
senior Israeli officials. The same charade is now taking place with
Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
An April 2011 AFP report would confirm
that the US government had trained armies of "activists" to return to
their respective countries and enact political "change," when US State
Department's Michael Posner stated that the "US government has budgeted
$50 million in the last two years to develop new technologies to help
activists protect themselves from arrest and prosecution by
authoritarian governments." The report went on to explain that the US
"organized training sessions for 5,000 activists in different parts of
the world. A session held in the Middle East about six weeks ago
gathered activists from Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon who returned
to their countries with the aim of training their colleagues there."
Posner would add, "They went back and there's a ripple effect."
That ripple effect of course, was the "Arab Spring" and the
subsequent destabilization, violence, and even US armed and backed
warfare that followed. While nations like Libya and Tunisia are now run
by a BP, Shell, and Total-funded Petroleum Institute chairman and a US NED-funded "activist" respectively, Egypt had managed to ward off and expose the US' first proxy of choice, Mohammed ElBaradei, who's own movement was forced to denounce him as a Western agent.
The Egyptian military would then strike at seditious Western-funded NGOs, seeking to undermine the source of destabilization, the conduit through which US money and support was being funneled through to "activists," and expose the true foreign-funded nature of the political division that has gripped the nation for now over a year.
A February 2012 AP article reported that Egypt's generals declared, "we face conspiracies hatched against the homeland, whose goal is to undermine the institutions of the Egyptian state and whose aim is to topple the state itself so that chaos reigns and destruction spreads." Clearly, this was an accurate observation, not a political ploy to undermine "opposition" activists, with similar US-hatched conspiracies documented and exposed from Tunisia all the way to Thailand.
With the more "blunt" instrument of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood taking the reins in the wake of ElBaradei's fall, the West will inevitably face a reckoning in the distant future after the Muslim Brotherhood has served its purpose. Until then, it seems to be doing a masterful job disassembling the institutions, checks, and balances of Egypt's secular government. Egypt's "revolution" has gone from a quasi-pliable proxy dictatorship, to one both more hardline and brutal domestically, and more pliable and willing in terms of serving Western interests abroad.
A Dark Age Descends Upon Egypt
For the average Egyptian, a dark age has begun to descend - one where freedom of speech is still curbed, the press still muzzled, an autocratic despot still holding the reins of power, but also one where the largest military in the Arab World is commanded by hardline theocratic sectarian extremists with regional ambitions and affiliations along with a proven track record of shedding blood within and beyond its own borders.
McCain
(left) and Kerry (right) gesticulate as they explain Wall Street and
London's agenda within the confines of an Egyptian Coca-Cola factory.
This was part of a trip surveying the effects of their US-funded opposition overthrowing Hosni Mubarak's government. While war and destruction seem approaching over the immediate horizon, the final goal is global corporate-financier hegemony
being extended over Egypt and its neighbors. Morsi will inevitably, but
quietly prepare the grounds for the machinations described by McCain
and Kerry in 2011. With the NATO-created terrorist safe-haven of Libya to Egypt's west, and the epicenter of Arab World despotism, Saudi Arabia to its east, a corporate-financier underwritten terrorist empire is rising from the barren north of Mali, to the oil rich shores of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
There is no revolution. Instead, a violent, extremist multinational front has been assembled, as it was planned since 2007, to array sectarian extremists against the collective influence and interests of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the government of Syria, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. By consequence, this brazen geopolitical conspiracy targets both Russia and China as well, setting the stage for even greater global conflict. It is a conspiracy that will be paid for with secular, moderate Muslim, and non-Muslim blood across the region, the destruction of ancient culture and traditions, and the regression of all social and economic progress made since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
Egyptian President Mursi claims military junta’s dictatorial powers
By Alex Lantier
13 August 2012
On Sunday, Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi moved to concentrate in his own hands the dictatorial powers of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) junta that has ruled Egypt since mass working class protests forced President Hosni Mubarak to resign last year.
He sent Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the junta’s leader, into retirement and issued a new constitutional declaration modifying the declaration under which the junta has ruled Egypt since March 30, 2011.
Mursi’s document abrogates the “addendum” promulgated by SCAF on June 17, 2012, which assigned control of the legislature, the budget and the drafting of the constitution to the junta. It also rewrites Article 25 of the constitution, removing the executive and legislative powers outlined in Article 56 of the constitution from the junta and reassigning them to the presidency.
A third provision gives Mursi effective control over the drafting of a new constitution. It states: “If the current constituent assembly is prevented from doing its duties, the president can draw up a new assembly representing the full spectrum of Egyptian society mandated with drafting a new national charter within three months of the assembly’s formation.”
In addition to sending Field Marshal Tantawi into retirement, Mursi announced the retirement of Army Chief of Staff Sami Anan. He awarded both men “Order of the Nile” decorations and gave them positions as presidential advisors.
The commanders of the other branches of the armed forces were also replaced. Navy Commander Mohab Memish became head of the Suez Canal authority and Air Force Commander Reda Hafez was appointed minister of military production.
Former military intelligence chief Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi is to replace Tantawi as defense minister. Al-Sisi has run Egyptian intelligence, which works closely with the CIA, since the junta took power on February 11, 2011.
Al-Sisi came to prominence last year when he embarrassed the junta by confirming reports that Egyptian soldiers had carried out “virginity tests” on female demonstrators detained during street protests. There were also reports that he has Islamist sympathies and that his wife wears a niqab.
If his power grab should prove successful, Mursi’s move would signal a significant shift inside the Egyptian ruling elite. The army has been the backbone of the Egyptian state since Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser came to power in 1952, leading a coup against the pro-British King Farouk. Before last year’s mass protests, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB)—Egypt’s traditional right-wing opposition party, of which Mursi is a member—was a semi-legal organization.
Mursi’s attempt to assert what is effectively a presidential dictatorship to replace the military dictatorship exercised by SCAF comes amid rising popular opposition to his administration, which came to power on June 30. Since then, there have been waves of strikes in key industries, including textiles and services, as economic conditions worsened after Mursi’s inauguration. The central concern of the Egyptian bourgeoisie, as well as its US and European imperialist backers, is to avoid renewed revolutionary struggles like those of last year.
There are also rising criticisms of both the army and Mursi after a group of armed men in the Sinai Peninsula mounted a raid on posts at the Egypt-Israel border. Mursi responded with a heavy-handed security crackdown in the Sinai (See: “Egypt launches Sinai crackdown in collusion with Israel”).
One woman whose husband was detained by Egyptian forces during security sweeps in the Sinai asked Al Ahram to relay a message to the president: “Mursi, we had great hopes for you… But we are now back to the same old ways. Nothing has changed, only the names.”
The crackdown in the Sinai has apparently increased US officials’ confidence in the reliability of Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had both pressed Mursi to work with Washington in the Sinai in the weeks before the attack. Mursi took the attack as an opportunity to line up with US policy.
The New York Times wrote: “After the attack, Egypt appears to have overcome its sensitivities about sovereignty and accelerated talks over the details of new American assistance, which would include military equipment, police training, and electronic and aerial surveillance… American and Israeli officials see Egypt’s response to the attack as an important test of Mr. Morsi’s nascent presidency and, more broadly, the country’s commitment to security after the uprising in 2011 that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.”
Neither the Egyptian Army nor Washington made an official statement on Mursi’s attempt to take over the junta’s powers. US officials told the Wall Street Journal they were “monitoring” the situation.
There were indications of concern from the Egyptian Islamists that they might face internal opposition. Essam Al-Arian, the vice-president of the MB’s Freedom and Justice Party, said Mursi’s move aimed to “thwart the plans of the counter-revolution and expose the third party that wants to obstruct the path of Egypt’s democratic transition.”
Television presenter Hamdi Qandil called the event a “civilian coup,” speculating that it could have been staged to head off a “military coup against Morsi planned for August 24.”
However, General Mohamed Al-Assar, who was named deputy defense minister after serving as chief of military armaments under Tantawi, said the junta had approved Mursi’s action. “The decision was taken,” he stated, “based on consultations with the field marshal [Tantawi] and the rest of the military council.”
Significantly, large sections of Egypt’s liberal and petty-bourgeois “left” have echoed Al-Arian’s reactionary claim that Mursi’s action—effectively, his attempt to claim for himself the dictatorial powers held by SCAF—was a step towards greater democracy in Egypt.
Ahmed Maher, the co-founder of the April 6 youth movement, said he supported Mursi’s annulment of the constitutional referendum. “These decisions demand our support,” he declared. “I believe this was what we asked for.”
Television presenter Qandil said that now that Mursi controlled the government, he could fulfill his promises, “at the top of which is the reformation of the constituent assembly.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/egyp-a13.shtml
--
“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
