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A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria - Seamus Coogan - 16-08-2012
I see them all in there and the Russians. It looks just like another jostling match between two different sets of assholes. I have to say however, this sort of thread is a pleasure to read. Despite our differences obviously I think it's great that you are here Bill awesome.
A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria - Magda Hassan - 16-08-2012
Lebanon kidnap fans fear of Syria spillover
By Dominic Evans and Hadeel Al Shalchi
BEIRUT/ALEPPO | Wed Aug 15, 2012 7:32pm EDT
(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has told citizens to leave Lebanon after a mass kidnapping in retaliation for events in Syria raised fears that violence may be spilling across a region riven by sectarian rancor and great power rivalries.
On a day when Lebanese captives held by Syrian rebels were among the wounded in a deadly air strike by government forces, citizens of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, key backers of the mainly Sunni Muslim insurgency, were seized along with about 20 Syrians by Beirut Shi'ites in an area run by Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
Their threat to take more Saudi, Turkish and Qatari hostages to secure the release of a kinsman held by Syrian rebels in Damascus bore ominous echoes of still deeply polarized Lebanon's own, long civil war - and Gulf Arab governments lost no time in urging visitors to leave Beirut's popular summer tourist haunts.
"The snowball will grow," warned Hatem al-Meqdad, a senior member of the powerful Lebanese Shi'ite Meqdad family who said his brother was detained by the Free Syrian Army two days ago.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite minority is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, has long relied on support from Shi'ite Iran and its Hezbollah allies. He accuses the Sunni powers of the Gulf and Turkey of promoting the revolt against him, which grew out of Arab Spring demonstrations 18 months ago.
While his opponents, and the Western powers which sympathize with them, insist they want to avoid the kind of sectarian blood-letting seen in Iraq, rebels who mostly come from Syria's disadvantaged Sunni majority have seized Iranians and Lebanese there in recent weeks, saying they may be working for Assad.
On Wednesday, the Meqdad clan said it was holding more than 20 people, including a Saudi, a Turkish businessman and several Syrians they described as anti-Assad fighters. Its action was a blow to a Lebanese economy for which Gulf tourists have played a part in recovery after 15 years of civil war ended in 1990.
"We still haven't even done one percent; we still haven't really moved," said a man who told reporters late on Wednesday in Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled Dahiya district that he and his fellow masked gunmen from the Meqdad clan's "military wing" were ready to take more action against Syrian rebels in Lebanon.
Fighting in Syria has triggered violence across the border before - some of it linked to Syrian rebels bringing arms and supplies across Lebanon. But the round of hostage-taking, on both sides, adds a new factor for regional states engaged in advancing their strategic interests while the world powers are deadlocked by a split over Syria between Russia and the West.
Against that backdrop, the bloodshed in Syria continues.
AIR STRIKE, WAR CRIMES
In Azaz, near the heavily contested northern economic hub of Aleppo, bombing by Assad's air force killed 30 people according to a local doctor and wounded scores more as buildings were flattened. Among those hurt, a rebel commander said, were seven Lebanese being held captive, while a further four were missing.
Assad's forces have increasingly been using their air power against the lightly armed insurgents - a tactic which featured in fresh accusations of war crimes leveled by United Nations human rights investigators on Wednesday.
They said rebels had also committed war crimes, but the violations "did not reach the gravity, frequency and scale" of those by state forces and the pro-Assad shabbiha militia.
Last month, Assad's troops successfully counter-attacked after rebels seized parts of Damascus. They are still trying to dislodge insurgents from Aleppo, Syria's biggest city.
A Syrian air strike has wrecked a hospital in a rebel-held area of Aleppo, a doctor there said on Wednesday, an attack that New York-based Human Rights Watch said violated international law. At least two holes gaped in the walls of Al Shifaa Hospital and four floors were heavily damaged by Tuesday's raid.
Most Western and Arab governments have called on Assad to go, saying his government's violent response to initially peaceful protests give him no place in a future Syria.
Russia has opposed tougher U.N. sanctions against Damascus, a long-time strategic ally, but denies it is actively helping Assad remain in power. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western governments of reneging on a deal among world powers made on June 30 to push for a transitional government in Syria.
Washington shot back that it was Russia and China which had blocked efforts to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution.
LEBANESE NIGHTMARE
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the kidnappings, but his government seemed largely powerless to act.
"This," he said, "brings us back to the days of the painful war, a page that Lebanese citizens have been trying to turn."
Saudi Arabia "called on Saudi citizens currently in Lebanon to leave immediately given the latest developments in Lebanon and the appearance of some explicit threats to abduct Saudi citizens and others", the Saudi state news agency said.
A diplomat said the Turkish businessman had been kidnapped shortly after arriving in Lebanon on Wednesday: "He was here for business, arrived today, and was kidnapped near the airport."
Air France diverted one of its planes away from Beirut on Wednesday evening for "security reasons" after the kidnappings. The road from the airport has regularly been blocked by protesting families of Lebanese being held in Syria.
The Turkish hostage told a Lebanese television channel he was being treated well. Another station broadcast footage it said showed two Syrian hostages in the custody of masked gunmen from the Meqdad clan wearing fatigues and armed with rifles.
A clan member said the detained Syrians included an army lieutenant who had deserted to join the rebels. He added that Syrians who were not rebel fighters had been freed.
One of the detainees, shown looking tense in a room full of gunmen, identified himself as a captain and said his role was to help supply the FSA. The other man said he was his assistant.
The rebels in Damascus had accused their captive, Hassan al-Meqdad, of being sent to Syria by Hezbollah to aid Assad.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Issam Abdullah and Erika Solomon in Beirut; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Myra MacDonald)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/15/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8610SH20120815
A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria - Adele Edisen - 18-08-2012
Sat, August 18, 2012 6:07:58 AM
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya: Israeli-US Script - Divide Syria, Divide the Rest
From: Global Research E-Newsletter <crgeditor@yahoo.com>
Israeli-US Script: Divide Syria, Divide the Rest
By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Global Research, August 15, 2012
Press TV - 2012-08-14
URL of this article: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32351
What is happening in Syria is a sign of things to come for the region. Regime change is not the sole goal of the US and its allies in Syria. Dividing the Syrian Arab Republic is the end goal of Washington in Syria.
Britain's Maplecroft, which specializes in consulting on strategic risk, has said that we are witnessing the balkanization of the Syrian state: "Kurds in the north, Druze in the southern hills, Alawites in the coastal northwestern mountainous region and the Sunni majority elsewhere."
We are already hearing people like White House advisor Vali Nasr talking about all this. The religious and ethnic cleavages in Syria are not demarcated in purely geographic terms and the balkanization process could play out as a lebonization process, which means that Syria will be divided along violent sectarian fault lines and face political deadlock like Lebanon during its civil war without formally breaking up. Lebonization, a soft form of balkanization, has already taken place in Iraq under federalism.
The events in the Middle East and North Africa are seeing the animation of mass movements against local tyrants, like in Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia, but there is also a vicious script from Israel's Yinon Plan and its offshoots. The Yinon Plan and similar schemes want a contrived Shitte-Sunni war amongst the Muslims as the central piece of the sectarian divisions - or fitna in Arabic - that are to include Christian-Muslim, Arab-Berber, Arab-Iranian, Arab-Turkish, and Iranian-Turkish animosity.
What this process intends to do is create sectarian hatred, ethnic divisions, racism, and religious wars. All the countries that the US and its allies are destabilizing have natural dividing lines, and when tribal, ethnic, confessional, and religious animosity is ignited in one country, it will spill over into other countries. The problems in Libya have spilled into Niger and Chad and the problems in Syria are spilling over into Turkey and Lebanon.
Egypt is the venue of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary currents that have kept the largest Arab power busy with its attention on domestic politics. While Egypt is facing domestic upheaval, the US is attempting to play the country's military and the Muslim Brotherhood against one another. Before the upheavals Sudan was formally balkanized by Tel Aviv and Washington through the manipulation of identity politics, which led to the secession of South Sudan.
Libya has been neutralized and divided by various groups. Lebonization, as mentioned earlier, has also taken root in Iraq as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) with foreign support - specifically foreign support from the US, Western Europe, Israel, and Turkey - begins to act more and more as if Northern Iraq or Iraqi Kurdistan is a separate country from the rest of Iraq.
Dore Gold, the President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is worth quoting for his views: "What you have in Syria is that the Middle East is coming apart; a new form of chaos is replacing what has existed." This of course is part of the wishful thinking of Israeli policy makers who have an interest in seeing this. Originally, the position of Tel Aviv was ignored when the crisis in Syria began, but it is clear now that Israel has an interest in seeing Syria fragmented into pieces and in a state of continuous civil war. This is what the Yinon Plan and its successors have outlined as being Israel's strategic objectives in both Syria and Lebanon.
Kurdish Nationalism
Syria, like Iraq, can be viewed as a key pressure point in the Middle East. Disarray in both will create a regional meltdown. As things heat up in Syria, fragile Iraq is also beginning to pulse as a regional geo-political volcano simmers.
For those who have doubts that the US is fanning the flames of a fire to create a meltdown in the Middle East or that the events in Syria are beginning to have regional ramifications, they merely need to look at the region of Kurdistan. Kurdish nationalist fighters have begun to mobilize in Syria and in Turkey and Turkish troops have been attacked by them. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has begun to take major steps that signify its independence from Iraq.
In Iraq, the KRG is essentially a de facto state with its own parliament, flag, army, visa regime, armed forces, police, and laws. In violation of Iraq's national laws, the KRG has even made illegal arms and oil deals on its own with foreign governments and entities without even so much as notifying the government in Baghdad. Moreover, the KRG has even prevented Iraqi troops from going to Iraq's northwest border with Syria to ensure that weapons smuggling and lawlessness end.
Turkey, which maintains close ties to the KRG, has also been encouraging this behavior and has even treated the KRG like a national government by having diplomatic contacts without consulting the Iraqi government in Baghdad. The leaders of the Kurdistan Regional Government are also allowing their country to be used as a Mossad operation base against Syria and Iran.
Ironically, Turkey has warned that it will take military action against Kurdish separatists in Syria while Ankara is supporting separatist tendencies amongst the KRG and the division of Syria. Aside from creating tensions between the Turkish and Iraqi governments, this has had consequences in Turkey. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has begun to remobilize. The PKK has claimed that it is in control of the Semdinli (Semzinan) District in Turkey's Hakkari Province and fighting has broken out in southeast Turkey.
Casualties have begun to mount as Turkish troops and security forces have begun to face attacks. Martial law has also been declared in Hakkari Province according to the Turkish press. Turkey itself now faces its own fight against anti-government forces as it appears unable to rule its own territory. A Turkish opposition MP from the People's Republican Party has also been kidnapped by the PKK. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has tried to blame Syria for fighting that has erupted in Turkey's Kurdish areas, but he omits the fact that the violence in Turkey is a direct result of Turkish interference in Syria. If they already have not, the weapons that Erdogan is sending into Syria will eventually find their way back into Turkey where they will be used by anti-government forces.
Tel Aviv Targets Lebanon: A Second Levantine Front is Opened?
The case of the Israeli tourist bus attack in Bulgaria is ominous to say the least. What is striking about the incident is that Israel blamed Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran immediately, before an hour even passed after the attack or an investigation was conducted.
What is worth noting is that just a few weeks earlier officials in Tel Aviv were threatening to attack Lebanon again, saying that they would totally destroy Lebanon in a third Israeli-Lebanese war. The Israeli comments were made by Brigadier-General Hertzi Halevy, the commander of Tel Aviv's 91st Division, just a week ahead of the sixth anniversary of Hezbollah's victory against Israel in the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon. Halevy and other Israeli leaders have repeatedly threatened to reduce Lebanon to ashes by launching an all-out attack
Syria's allies are all being pressured in a multi-dimensional war. Iran, Russia, Lebanon, Iraq, and the Palestinians are being put under increasing pressure to abandon their Syrian allies. The Israeli threats are aimed at putting psychological pressure on Lebanon and Hezbollah as a means to expand the psychological, media, economic, diplomatic, intelligence, and political siege against Syria into Lebanon. US sanctions against Syria are already incorporating Iran and Hezbollah and Lebanese banks have faced cyber attacks and pressure from Washington and its allies.
Looking at the Coming Horizon: Welcome to America's Arc of Instability?
The US-sponsored siege of Syria is part of its attempts to divide Eurasia and maintain its global primacy as a superpower. Washington has no mercy for its friends or its foes either and countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia will eventually be used as cannon fodder. US strategists want the area running from North Africa and the Middle East to the Caucasus, Central Asia, and India to be turned into a black hole of fighting, Ã la Brzezinski's "Eurasian Balkans."
The Arabs, Iran, and Turkey are being lined up for a major conflict, because the US is losing its superpower status. All that remains of Washington's superpower status is its military power. Towards the end of its relatively short life, the Soviet Union only had it military power too. The Soviet Union experienced social unrest and was in economic decline before it collapsed. The situation for the US is not much different, if not worst. Washington is broke, socially divided, becoming racially polarized, and declining rapidly in its international influence. US elites, however, are determined to resist what more and more looks like the unpreventable loss of their country's superpower status and their empire.
Igniting Eurasia with fire and sedition appears to be Washington's answer to preventing its own decline. The US plans on starting a great fire from Morocco and the Mediterranean to the borders of China. This process has essentially been begun by the US through the destabilization of three different regions: Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. The first steps that the US and its NATO and Arab allies took to do this did not start in Syria.
In the Middle East, this process started through the siege of Iraq that eventually gave way to the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of that country in 2003. In Central Asia, the process started with the destabilization of Afghanistan during the Cold War and US support for fighting between different fractions, including what would become the Taliban; 9/11 merely gave the US and its NATO allies an opportunity to invade. In North Africa, finally the US and Israel balkanized Sudan through years of pressure and covert operations.
In the three regions mentioned above we are seeing the second wave of destabilization now. In Central Asia, the war in Afghanistan has been extended into Pakistan by NATO. This has given way to the term "AfPak" to describe Afghanistan and Pakistan as one theatre. In North Africa, Libya was attacked in 2011 by NATO and the Jamahiriya has essentially been divided by various groups. In the Middle East, this second wave of destabilization operations is targeting the Syrian Arab Republic as a continuation of what happened in Iraq.
Washington seems to be dreaming of this scenario: Kurdish revolts taking place in Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran; sectarian civil wars consuming Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen in fire; instability and fighting bleeding Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Pakistan, and Sudan; Berbers and Arabs fighting one another across North Africa; insecurity and political uncertainty spreading in Central Asia; a war in the South Caucasus consuming Georgia, Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan; revolts igniting amongst the Balkars, Chechens, Circassians, Dagestanis, Ingush, and other local Caucasian peoples against Russia in the North Caucasus; the Persian Gulf being a zone of instability; and Russia at loggerheads with the European Union and Turkey. Such a conflagration is steadily being buoyed by Washington.
Ultimately all this is meant to disrupt some of the world's major energy routes and supplies to hurt the energy-importing economies of China, the major European powers, India, Japan, and South Korea. This could force the European Union to become more militaristic out of desperation to save its economy.
Such a scenario could be dangerous for energy-supplier Russia as well as OPEC states, which would have to choose between the EU and China if there are energy shortages. A resource war - like World War I - could be ignited that would bring ruin to a great deal of Africa and all the industrialized regions of Eurasia. This would happen while the US would stand by in the Western Hemisphere, watching from a safe distance, just like it did during the First World War and the Second World War, before it steps in to pick up the pieces as the economic benefactor of a devastating war.
An award-winning author and geopolitical analyst, Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is the author of The Globalization of NATO (Clarity Press) and a forthcoming book The War on Libya and the Re-Colonization of Africa. He has also contributed to several other books ranging from cultural critique to international relations. He is a Sociologist and Research Associate at the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), a contributor at the Strategic Culture Foundation (SCF), Moscow, and a member of the Scientific Committee of Geopolitica, Italy. He has also addressed the Middle East and international relations issues on several TV news networks including Al Jazeera, teleSUR, and Russia Today. His writings have been translated into more than twenty languages. In 2011 he was awarded the First National Prize of the Mexican Press Club for his work in international investigative journalism.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Globalization of NATO (Clarity Press) by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya.
Foreword by Denis J. Halliday.
GLOBAL RESEARCH | PO Box 55019 | 11 Notre-Dame Ouest | Montreal | QC | H2Y 4A7 | Canada
Adele
A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria - Magda Hassan - 19-08-2012
An investigation by BBC's Radio4 Today programme has revealed a growing number of British men going to fight in Syria.
The report revealed that dozens of men have traveled from London and the Midlands to assist the Syrian rebels, in what some fear is a theatre of jihad'.
Security Correspondent Frank Gardner was tipped off to the movement by testimony from British photographers kidnapped by the Free Syrian Army last month. The photographers reported hearing British accents among their captors. Gardner traveled to Birmingham to investigate and found that scores of young men had already made the trip.
The concept of volunteer fighters from the UK is not new. Last year saw many British based Libyans, particularly from Manchester, going to join the uprising. However, those traveling to Syria are not Syrian and have no national or ethnic connection to the struggle. Instead, Gardner suggested, they are taking part in an international jihad.
Birmingham Labour MP Khalid Mahmood worries about the long term consequences of the rebel movement, likening the conflict to British support of the Afghanistan war, which toppled the Russian invasion and led to the implementation of the Taliban.
I am extremely concerned at the moment because I see similar things to what has happened during the initial stages of the Afghanistan war, where we were supporting the Mujahideen against the Russians. We wanted to get the Russians out and we encouraged people, and armed people, to go out there and fight. To go and fight for the jihad,' he told Gardner.
The British government is adamant that it is not arming anybody, and officials said they would discourage Britain thinking of fighting.
Help or hindrance?
Syrian freelance journalist Malik Al-Abdeh explained to Gardener how outsider help isn't always welcome.
People inside Syria, they don't necessarily want those people coming to fight,' he said in an interview. I head from Free Syrian Army contacts that actually we're not in great need of foreigners coming to fight. Actually these foreigners hamper the effort inside Syria, because you've got language barrier, different culture, they don't have knowledge of the local area and so on.'
Theatre of jihad
Experts now worry that the Syrian conflict could become an Al-Qaida training camp for international jihadists.
Peter Neumann, professor of Security Studies at Kings College London, told the Today Programme, Certainly Al-Qaida is trying to take advantage of the situation in Syria. When the Arab revolutions first happened early last year Al-Qaida was fairly silent… it was not the sort of this that was supposed to happen, because Al-Qaida is about armed revolution and these revolutions are peaceful. Now with the situation in Syria Al-Qaida a suddenly perceives an opportunity.'
In a Russian television interview posted by the Guardian Syrian president Bashar al-Assad confirms the presence of foreign fighters saying, Yes there are some foreign mercenaries, some of them are alive. They were detained and we are going to expose them.' He goes on to explains that the Free Syrian Army is obtaining weapons from outside the country, mostly from Lebanon and Turkey, but that their governments are not necessarily involved.
Meanwhile an article in the Washington Post earlier this week examined how US economic sanctions on the Syrian government may inadvertently be harming the resistance movement. Sanctions put in place by the Obama administration have lead to many Western technology firms breaking relations with Syria. However this has also had consequences for the rebel movement as it has restricted online tools, such as e-mails, blogs and anti-tracking software that could be used to covertly coordinate rebel groups. Social media proved a key tool in many of the Arab Spring' uprisings last year.
The conflict in Syria is far from over. Bloody images of destruction, inflicted by both sides of the conflict, are hard to ignore. But the impact of foreign influence is yet to be fully seen.
Listen to the Today Programme [URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/b006qj9z/console"]here.
[/URL]http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/08/16/british-mercenaries-fighting-in-syria/
A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria - Adele Edisen - 24-08-2012
WMD 'Excuse for US to Intervene in Syria'
U.S. Has Contingency Plans to Invade Syria.
The contingency plans call for sending U.S. special forces into Syria to protect or destroy any unguarded stockpiles to keep them from militants, officials say.
By David S. Cloud and Shashank Bengali
August 23, 2012 "Los Angeles Times" -- WASHINGTON The Pentagon has made contingency plans to send small teams of special operations troops into Syria if the White House decides it needs to secure chemical weapons depots now controlled by security forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, senior U.S. officials said.
President Obama warned this week that any effort by Assad to move or use his arsenal of chemical munitions in the country's conflict would cross a "red line," implying it could prompt swift U.S. intervention.
But Pentagon planners are more focused on protecting or destroying any Syrian stockpiles that are left unguarded and at risk falling into the hands of rebel fighters or militias aligned with Al Qaeda, Hezbollah or other militant groups.
Securing the sites would probably involve stealthy raids by special operations teams trained to handle such weapons, and precision airstrikes to incinerate the chemicals without dispersing them in the air, the officials said. U.S. satellites and drone aircraft already maintain partial surveillance of the sites.
U.S. intelligence agencies believe Syria has over the years produced or acquired hundreds of tons of sarin nerve agent and mustard gas, a blister agent, and has sought to develop VX, another powerful nerve gas. The toxicity of some chemical agents degrades significantly over time, so it is unclear how lethal the stockpiles are.
Experts say the chemical agents are stored in bunkers and other sites around the country. Four production facilities are near the cities of Aleppo, Hama and Homs, all tinderboxes in the 17-month uprising, as well as the coastal city of Latakia, an area considered a stronghold for Assad's Alawite religious sect.
An unclassified report by the director of national intelligence this year said Syria's chemical agents "can be delivered by aerial bombs, ballistic missiles and artillery rockets." But Syrian rockets, including Scud missiles procured from North Korea, are notoriously inaccurate, making them ineffective for delivering a heavy concentration of toxic chemicals to a specific target.
They can be very effective, however, at creating chaos.
"The actual killing may be less important than the panic they would induce," said Leonard Spector, who heads the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Although he did not make an explicit threat, Obama's comments at the White House on Monday were widely seen as a direct warning to Assad that the U.S. would take military action if necessary to stop the use of chemical weapons. But officials said later that no large-scale U.S. intervention is likely unless it is part of an international coalition.
"You shouldn't interpret what Obama said to mean that there would be automatic military action, but rather that we would respond as part of an international effort," said one senior official.
Officials said Obama could make a unilateral decision, however, to order special forces teams to stop weapons of mass destruction from falling into the wrong hands.
Pentagon officials and senior military officers said the Syrian stockpiles seem well guarded for now, and they stressed that the White House has not ordered detailed planning of operations aimed at securing the facilities.
"We have done contingency planning but we're not doing detailed planning identifying numbers [of troops], units and platforms until the White House tells us we need a specific plan for this," a senior officer said.
Although U.S. officials said they are closely monitoring the unconventional weapons sites, they also acknowledge the stockpiles are large enough that some materials, such as small artillery shells filled with chemical agents, could be relocated without their knowledge.
U.S. officials told reporters last month that they had evidence Syrian forces were moving some chemical arms, apparently to keep them away from areas of fighting.
Assad's government has said it will not use chemical munitions against the Syrian people, though it has implied they could be used if foreign troops sought to intervene in the war.
"Any chemical or bacterial weapon will never be used and I repeat will never be used during the crisis in Syria, regardless of the developments," Jihad Makdissi, a Syrian government spokesman, told reporters last month. "These weapons are stored and secured by Syrian military forces and under its direct supervision and will never be used unless Syria faces external aggression."
Analysts say it's unclear how much of the chemical arsenal could be deployed, and they note that the agents, particularly VX and sarin, may have weakened if the regime isn't regularly refilling its stocks. U.S. intelligence officials have said that Syria, which is under international sanctions, relies heavily on foreign sources for chemicals and other key parts of its weapons program.
The VX stockpiles maintained by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's government had a shelf life of about six months, and the sarin less than two years, the EU Non-Proliferation Consortium, a network of European think tanks, said in a report last month.
"To keep those sorts of quantities replenished, you have to have a very robust program," said Charles P. Blair, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based group.
In response to a reporter's question Monday, Obama mentioned Syria's biological weapons program. But that appears a minor concern at this point.
In 2008, Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, then director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, testified before Congress that Syria had "a program to develop select biological agents as weapons" and that the program was "in the research and development stage."
U.S. officials no longer appear to believe that Syria is actively pursuing a biological weapons program. The unclassified U.S. intelligence report this year said only that Syria had the infrastructure to support the development of biological weapons.
david.cloud@latimes.com
sbengali@latimes.com
Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information ClearingHouse endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Adele
A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria - Bill Kelly - 30-08-2012
I keep waiting for the predicted American NATO invasion that everyone keeps saying is going to happen. What's the holdup? - BK
BBC:
The Syrian uprising has its roots in protests that erupted in March 2011 in the southern city of Deraa after the arrest and torture of some teenagers who painted revolutionary slogans on a school wall. After security forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing several, more took to the streets.
The unrest triggered nationwide protests demanding President Bashar al-Assad's resignation as shown in this video report from May 2011.
By July 2011, hundreds of thousands were taking to the streets in towns and cities across the country.
More than a year after the uprising began in Syria, the opposition remains fractious and deeply divided.
The wide variety of political groups, exiled dissidents,grassroots activists and armed militants have been unable to agree on how tooverthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
Several groups, however, have tried to form coalitions tounite opposition supporters in Syriaand gain international help and recognition.
Here is a guide to some of the most prominent groups.
Syrian National Council (SNC)
The Syrian National Council (SNC) is a coalition of seven opposition groups aimed at offering a credible alternative to President Assad's government and serving as a single point of contact for the international community.
Abdelbaset Sayda (L) replaced Burhan Ghalioun ® as leaderof the SNC in June
Its formation in October recalled that of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), which earned international recognition through its opposition to the rule of Col Muammar Gaddafi and has formed an interim government.
The SNC includes:
The Damascus Declaration for Democratic Change grouping - amovement born during the so-called "Damascus Spring" of 2000/2001which called for broad democratic reform, and was soon suppressed
The Muslim Brotherhood
Local Co-ordination Committees - grassroots movements thathave led and documented demonstrations
Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) - a coalition of40 opposition grassroots groups
Kurdish factions, tribal leaders and independent figures
The SNC has a Secretariat General composed ofrepresentatives of the various member groups, which elect a 10-member ExecutiveCommittee and a president whose term is renewable every three months.
The current president is Abdelbaset Sayda, a Kurd who haslived in exile in Swedenfor a number of years.
He replaced Paris-based academic Burhan Ghalioun as leaderof the SNC on 9 June with a mandate to reform and restructure the organisation.
Mr Ghalioun stepped down in May 2012 after criticism that inhis nine months as leader, he had failed to reconcile different groups withinthe opposition and present a united front.
The SNC's website says it is committed to the followingprinciples:
They will have a seat at the table as a representative ofthe Syrian people"
Hillary ClintonUS Secretary of State
Affirming national unity among all components of Syriansociety and rejecting all calls for ethnic strife
Safeguarding the non-violent character of the Syrianrevolution
Protecting national independence and sovereignty, andrejecting foreign military intervention
However, at a press conference in Parison 1 March 2012, the SNCannounced that it had created a military bureau to co-ordinate the variousarmed anti-government groups in Syria.
Mr Ghalioun told reporters at the conference that althoughthe uprising had begun as a non-violent movement, "the reality today isdifferent and the SNC must shoulder its responsibilities". He also saidthat any weapons flowing into the country should go through the council to tryto avoid a civil war.
At the time, he said the bureau would function like adefence ministry and would be staffed by soldiers from the Free Syrian Army(see below) as well as civilians.
But the FSA, the main armed opposition group in Syria,responded by saying it would not co-operate with the new bureau. The head ofthe FSA, Col Riyad al-Assad, said the group does not want any politicalinterference and has its own military strategy.
Military issues aside, the SNC says it has a clear vision tocreate a civil, modern and democratic Syria,and issued a political programme in November for a post-Assad future.
It has laid out plans for a transitional period, similar tothose of Libya'sNTC, which would see it:
Form an interim administration
Hold an all-inclusive national convention on democraticchange
Organise the election of a constitutional assembly within ayear to draft a new constitution and hold free parliamentary elections withinsix months of the new constitution being approved
Form a judicial commission to investigate crimes againsthumanity and form a national reconciliation commission
The new Syria, the SNC states, will be a "democratic,pluralistic, and civil state; a parliamentary republic with sovereignty of thepeople based on the principles of equal citizenship with separation of powers,smooth transfer of power, the rule of law, and the protection and guarantee ofthe rights of minorities".
The SNC, which is dominated by Syria'smajority Sunni Muslim community, has struggled to win over Christians andmembers of President Assad's Alawite sect, who each make up about 10% of thepopulation and have so far stayed loyal to the government.
Western diplomats say the SNC is far from achieving therecognition given to Libya'sNTC
The council's primacy has also been challenged by theNational Co-ordination Committee (NCC), anopposition bloc that still functions within Syriaand is led by Hussein Abdul Azim and other longstanding dissidents, some ofwhom are wary of the Islamists within the SNC.
The SNC, which is trying to keep the uprising peaceful, hasalso found it difficult to work with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), a group ofarmy defectors which is seeking to topple Mr Assad by force. However, the twogroups have agreed to co-ordinate their operations more closely.
Western diplomats say the SNC is far from achieving therecognition given to Libya'sNTC at an early stage of the revolt against Gaddafi, and many are encouragingthe group to merge with the rival NCC.
Nevertheless, USSecretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters ahead of the "Friends ofSyria" meeting in Tunis on24 February: "They will have a seat at the table as a representative ofthe Syrian people.
"We think it's important to have Syrians represented.And the consensus opinion by the Arab League and all the others who are workingand planning this conference is that the SNC is a crediblerepresentative."
National Co-ordination Committee (NCC)
The National Co-ordination Committee (NCC),formed in September, is made up of 13 left-leaning political parties, threeKurdish political parties, and independent political and youth activists.
It is led by the veteran opposition figure Hussein AbdulAzim.
The slogan 'the overthrow of the regime' is unpractical, unrealisticand useless"
Qadri JamilNational Co-ordination Committee member
The NCC differs from theSyrian National Council (SNC) on the questions of dialogue with the governmentand foreign intervention.
The NCC calls fordialogue conditional on the withdrawal of the military from the streets, theend of attacks on peaceful protesters by security forces, and the release ofall political prisoners.
The group is strongly opposed to any form of foreignintervention that would involve military measures, such as a no-fly zone, andwould prefer economic sanctions and other diplomatic measures to increasepressure on President Assad.
"We reject foreign intervention - we think it is asdangerous as tyranny. We reject both," Mr Azim said last year.
It is the only group still calling for conditional dialoguewith the government, arguing that it remains the least costly route topolitical transition.
Despite this, the NCC hasrefused to engage in the government's national dialogue initiative, saying thatthe authorities are merely trying to buy time while they ''liquidate the forcesof the uprising''.
The NCC has also beenreluctant to affiliate itself with the SNC and challenged its primacy, withsome members said to be wary of the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood on theumbrella group.
A leading opposition voice within the NCC,Haytham Manna, has even described the SNC as "a Washingtonclub" and said he considers anyone calling for foreign intervention a"traitor".
SNC chairman Burhan Ghalioun said in October that bothgroups were agreed on "a complete break with the regime and are clearlydemanding its departure". But Qadri Jamil of the NCCretorted: "The slogan 'the overthrow of the regime' is unpractical,unrealistic and useless."
Free Syrian Army (FSA)
The Free Syrian Army was formed in August 2011 by armydeserters based in Turkeyand led by Riyad al-Asaad, a former air force colonel.
At its founding, the group said it would seek to "workhand in hand with the people to achieve freedom and dignity, topple the regime,protect the revolution and the country's resources and stand up to theirresponsible military machine which is protecting the regime".
Former officer Col Riyad al-Asaad now leads the rebel FreeSyrian Army
Col Asaadclaims to have as many as 40,000 men under his command and that soldiers aredefecting every day and being assigned tasks by the FSA. However, analystsbelieve there may be no more than 10,000.
They are also still poorly armed, and many have only basicmilitary training. The FSA has admitted that it is unable to directly confrontthe Syrian army, which is estimated to have 200,000 soldiers, and hold on toterritory.
Nevertheless, a growing number of defections, partly causedby sectarian division, is weakening the military, strengthening the FSA andincreasing the violence. The army's rank and file is largely Sunni while itsleadership is mainly Alawite.
'Liberated'
The FSA's fighters were limited at the start of the uprisingto small-scale attacks on military convoys and patrols in the north-western province of Idlib, which borders Turkey.
FSA fighters began by launching small-scale attacks in thenorth-western province of Idlib
However, it was not long before operations spread to thecities of Homs and Hama,and major rebellions were launched, triggering a series of governmentcrackdowns.
In September 2011, FSA fighters and other army defectorstook control of parts of the town of Rastan,just north of Homs. In earlyOctober, government forces launched an offensive involving hundreds of armouredvehicles, only recapturing Rastan after a week of clashes.
Over the next two months, the FSA carried out increasinglyeffective attacks on security forces, particularly in Idlib. In late December,the army stormed the mountain stronghold of Jabal al-Zawiya and killed some 200rebels and male civilians, according to activists.
In January 2012, residents of Zabadani, a mountain townnorth-west of Damascus, said it hadbeen "liberated" by the FSA and that the army had agreed to a ceasefire.The truce lasted for several days before troops launched an assault to retakethe town.
Later that month, a string of the capital's eastern suburbsbriefly fell into FSA control, bringing the armed rebellion to the city'soutskirts for the first time. However, security forces forced the rebels toretreat within days.
The FSA suffered a major setback in February, when themilitary launched a major offensive on its strongholds in Homs,notably the district of Baba Amr. Activists said an estimated 700 people werekilled as rockets and shells rained down for nearly a month. Troops moved intothe city in early March after the FSA staged a "tactical withdrawal".
Jeremy Bowen goes inside Syria's"free" town of Zabadani
The insurrection appeared to be on the verge of beingcrushed, and the rebels spent the next two months regrouping.
In early April, the FSA received a much-needed boost whenseveral Western powers announced that they would provide millions of dollars in"non-lethal" aid, including communications and intelligence support. Gulf states meanwhile agreed to set up a fund to pay thesalaries of FSA fighters, and reportedly discussed plans to send money to therebels to help them buy weapons and ammunition on the black market.
Later that month, the FSA and the government said they wouldabide by the ceasefire negotiated by the UN and Arab League's envoy, KofiAnnan, as part of his peace plan. However, both sides accused each other ofviolating the conditions and fighting resumed.
By the beginning of June, dozens of people were dying everyday despite appeals for calm. The FSA announced it was no longer committed tothe ceasefire and had resumed operations to "defend our people".
'Guerrilla tactics'
In mid-July, the rebels launched audacious and deadlyattacks in the heart of Damascusfor the first time, targeting military and intelligence bases and brieflytaking control of several areas before the government sent in large numbers oftroops and tanks to recapture them.
About 500 Syrian troops appeared to announce their defectionfrom the army in Idlib in February
The group also claimed that an affiliate was behind thebombing inside the headquarters of the National Security Bureau (NSB) in Damascuson 18 July, which killed President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, Gen AssefShawkat, Defence Minister Gen Daoud Rajiha, former Defence Minister Gen HassanTurkomani and NSB chief Gen Hisham Ikhtiar.
Less than a week later, the FSA launched a large-scaleattack on security forces in Aleppo, reportedly prompting the military to sendthousands of reinforcements, as well as deploying warplanes to straferebel-held areas for the first time in 16 months.
Col Malik al-Kurdi, a spokesman for the FSA command, saidthe rebels would not try to hold on to the territory they had seized in Syria'stwo biggest cities because they could not confront the better-equipped regulararmy or the elite Republican Guards.
"The Free Syrian Army is carrying out a war ofharassing the regime army until it is exhausted, using guerrilla tactics,"he told the Washington Post. "We can't keep control of an area, so this isa circular operation, moving from one place to another, one city toanother."
Col Kurdi pointed to the capture of a number of bordercrossings with Turkeyand Iraq, someof which changed hands several times over the period of a few days.
The FSA has so far had to rely on the black market to armits badly-equipped fighters
"We cannot say the Free Syrian Army is in completecontrol, and we cannot say the regime army is in complete control, and thiswill stay the same until the Free Syrian Army gets heavy weapons and there aremore defections."
FSA fighters began by using only light weapons, but doalready have more sophisticated and heavier weaponry that has either beencaptured or smuggled in from abroad.
US officials and Arab intelligence officers told the NewYork Times in June that automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunitionand some anti-tank weapons were being funnelled, mostly across the Turkishborder, by way of a "shadowy network of intermediaries", includingSyria's Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
A small number of CIAofficers were also operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decidewhich Syrian opposition fighters would receive the weapons, in an effort toprevent them falling into the hands of groups allied to al-Qaeda, they added.They were also reportedly providing satellite imagery and intelligence on troopmovements, and advising how to establish command and control systems.
Human rights abuses
Up until now, the FSA has functioned primarily as anumbrella group for army defectors, civilians who have taken up arms andIslamist militants. Fighters are believed to have only limited or no contactwith each other or the FSA's leaders in Turkey.
The FSA leadership in Turkeysays it does not issue orders to commanders on the ground in Syria
Though they are working towards a similar goal - theoverthrow of President Assad - many are thought to adopt the name "Free SyrianArmy" to underscore their revolutionary aspirations, their army backgroundor that they are not pro-government militiamen.
The FSA leadership told the UN Human Rights Council inFebruary that commanders in the field did not receive orders from it andcurrently made their own rules of engagement. The leadership saw its role asfacilitating co-ordination and ensuring media outreach.
The council said it had documented instances of gross humanrights abuses committed by members of various FSA groups. In Homs,FSA members were found to have tortured and executed suspected members of thepro-government militia, the Shabiha, in retaliation for abuses committed bythem.
Some armed civilians in Homs, including those belonging tothe FSA, have also allegedly sought to kill the family members of Shabiha andsecurity forces personnel to exact blood revenge, or take them hostage.
The FSA's leadership has also found it difficult to workwith the main opposition coalition, the Syrian National Council (SNC), which haspublicly stated that it wants to safeguard the uprising's "non-violentcharacter".
However, in January the two groups agreed to co-ordinatetheir operations more closely through a liaison office and the SNC has appealedto the international community to support the rebels "by means of militaryadvisers, training and provision of arms to defend themselves".
The FSA has also acknowledged that some foreign jihadistmilitants, including those linked to al-Qaeda, have travelled to Syriato join its ranks, but claims they do not play a decisive role. A shadowy groupcalling itself the al-Nusra Front has said it was behind a series of suicidebombings which have rocked Damascussince January.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19014880
As the battle for Aleppointensifies, the Syrian army and rebels have sent reinforcements to thecountry's second city. Ian Pannell visits a school that has been taken over byrebel fighters, who are now using it as their base.
She was the girl with no name. When we returned to the rebelbase, she was lying on her back on the floor, where she appeared to besleeping. The teenager had a pale complexion and wore a pretty red dress, herlower body draped in a blanket.
I noticed our translator, sat at her side, was crying. I hadbeen wrong, the girl was not sleeping - she was dead, killed in a governmentartillery strike, the blanket masking her wounds.
"Who is she?" I asked. No one knew. She had been foundin the road near to where the shell had landed. A nameless victim of a warwhere it is the blameless who suffer the most.
This was the scene in one of the classrooms of the localprimary schools, now a temporary rebel base. When the war came to Aleppo,the children were kept at home although many of them have now fled the city,along with their families.
Today the corridors are filled with the sounds of gunmenchecking their weapons, the animated talks of attacks being planned, ofshouting, crying and praying - and of dead bodies.
A government tank captured by the rebels had been parkedjust outside the school gates on a patch of rough ground. When a militaryhelicopter attacked the area, the tank's massive anti-aircraft gun was turnedtowards the sky where it erupted with a ferocious roar.
What had been a playground was now a staging area for rebelvehicles, where men and munitions, food, medical supplies and prisoners areferried in and out.
A constant stream of detainees was brought to the base - menaccused of being members of the Shabiha, a feared government militia that hasbeen implicated in some of the massacres committed in this war.
They were dragged in, hands tied behind their backs, manybearing the marks of having been beaten. Some cried as they were brought in,pleading with their captors that they were innocent. Others were more defiant.
"Start Quote
In the space of a week Aleppohas become the main battle ground in this conflict"
Most were held in a classroom. But standing next to acupboard where pens and textbooks were once stored, I heard the sound ofknocking. At first I could not work out where it was coming from. Then itbecame clear. It was inside the tiny metal cupboard where those prisonersdeemed to be the highest threat were being held.
Later a group of them were bundled into a van. I asked oneof the fighters where they were going. "To see a judge," he replied.
"Will they be killed?" I asked. He looked at me."If the judge decides they have got blood on their hands, then yes, theywill be killed."
This is a brutal conflict where the line between right andwrong has become blurred. Human rights abuses are being committed by bothsides, although pro government forces bare the vast brunt of responsibility.
The United Nations estimates that more than 10,000 peoplehave died in this conflict. Activists say it is far more than that.
In the course of just a few hours at the school we witnessedthe number of dead rise. First there was the deathly crash of an artilleryshell smashing to the ground nearby, shaking the windows and sending everyonerunning for cover.
Until now Aleppohad been largely excluded from the violence of Syria's16-month uprising
The government says it only targets rebel fighters - men itcalls terrorists. But what their artillery shells invariably hit are civilians,and in this case someone's house.
The victims were rushed into the school and anotherclassroom that has become a makeshift clinic.
Pools of blood on the floor marked a terrible trail to wheretwo young boys were being treated.
In one bed eight-year-old Mohammed wept and cried out forhis father. "Baba, Baba" he said.
Shrapnel from the shell pock-marked his small body and hescreamed as the fragments were gouged out.
In the other bed lay his older brother. He was dead.
It is a mark of how war brutalises a society when a schoolis a morgue for children, classrooms are emergency clinics and store cupboardsprisons.
In the space of a week Aleppohas become the main battleground in this conflict. The city is the largest inthe country and its economic capital. Neither side can afford to lose here. Andas a government counterattack gathers pace, so more children will die, as Syriaseems to pull itself apart.
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A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria - Adele Edisen - 08-09-2012
Putin Warns West's Syria Policy could Backfire
By RIA
September 06 2012 "RIA Novosti" - Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned Western powers that their "dangerous" stance on the Syria crisis could come back to haunt them.
"Today some want to use militants from Al Qaeda or some other organizations with equally radical views to accomplish their goals in Syria," Putin said in a wide-ranging interview with the RT international news channel. "This policy is very short-sighted and is fraught with dire consequences."
Putin compared alleged Western funding of radical Islamic militants to help topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with U.S. support for Afghan rebels after the Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of its Central Asia neighbor.
"When someone aspires to attain an end they see as optimal, any means will do," Putin said "As a rule, they will try and do that by hook or by crook and hardly ever think of the consequences."
"That was the case during the war in Afghanistan," he added. "At that time, our present partners supported a rebel movement there and basically gave rise to Al Qaeda, which later backfired on the United States itself."
Putin also hit out at Western criticism of the Kremlin's refusal to back proposed UN sanctions against the Assad regime Syria over the ongoing bloodshed in the Middle East country and dismissed suggestions that Moscow could alter its position.
"How come Russia is the only one who's expected to revise its stance? Don't you think our counterparts in negotiations ought to revise theirs as well?" Putin said "Because if we look back at the events in the past few years, we'll see that quite a few of our counterparts' initiatives have not played out the way they were intended to."
"Look at what's going on in Arab countries. There have been notable developments in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, etc. Would you say that order and prosperity have been totally ensured for these nations? And what's going on in Iraq?"
"In Libya, there are armed clashes still raging among the country's various tribes," he said.
And Putin suggested the key to ending the conflict in Syria was to halt weapons deliveries to Damascus.
"I believe that the first thing to do is to stop shipping arms into the warzone, which is still going on," he said. "We should stop trying to impose unacceptable solutions on either side, because it is a dead-end. That's what we should do. It is that simple."
The Kremlin has said its arms shipments to Syria do not violate international law and do not include equipment that could be used against "peaceful protesters."
Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed UN resolution on Syria on July 19 over fears that it would lead to foreign military intervention in the Middle East country, a move that United States envoy to the United Nations Susan Rice called "paranoid if not disingenuous."
The resolution was tied to Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which would have provided for the use of force to put an end to the rapidly escalating conflict.
Russia says it has no special interest in seeing Assad remain in power, but that the "Syrian people" should decide his fate.
And Putin vowed earlier this year not to allow a repeat of the "Libya scenario" which saw the ouster and murder of long-time Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi after a NATO military campaign last year.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information ClearingHouse endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
Adele
A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria - Magda Hassan - 08-09-2012
Bill Kelly Wrote:I keep waiting for the predicted American NATO invasion that everyone keeps saying is going to happen. What's the holdup? - BK
And I keep waiting for the overwhelming popular uprising against Dr Evil de Jour Assad to succeed. As in Libya it just doesn't seem that the people are really all that behind the 'popular uprising' Or as I like to call it 'The Destabilisation of Syria by Outside Foreign Interests Using Mercenaries'. It only took the Bolsheviks 10 days to be done with the Provisional government and the Tsar because that really was a popular revolution and 99% of the people refused to comply with their oppression any longer. They didn't need, nor have access to NATO or western armies to help them. With the exception of a free train ticket from Switzerland. But remember that train ticket was not purchased to relieve the long suffering Russians from their oppressors but to free up the Eastern Front.
A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria - Adele Edisen - 08-09-2012
Putin said:
Quote:"That was the case during the war in Afghanistan," he added. "At that time, our present partners supported a rebel movement there and basically gave rise to Al Qaeda, which later backfired on the United States itself."
He is referring to the time in the late 1970s when the Soviet-friendly government of Afghanistan was under attack by Afghani rebels and Soviet troops were sent into Afghanistan to help protect the government. Quite soon Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to US President Jimmy Carter, whose agenda was to destroy the USSR, saw an opportunity to use this situation to draw in the Soviets and deplete them in a costly war for his purposes. Osama bin Laden was used by the US to train and develop the rebel soldiers and Al Qaeda was born, and the US was surreptitiously involved in the processs of supplying arms and training in military tactics to bring down the Afghani government. The Soviet soldiers spent ten years in fighting in Afghanistan and withdrew eventually in defeat; it was their Vietnam. Brzezinski boasted of his victory to a French news magazine which has been circulated online. An American movie, "Charlie Wilson's War," was made of our involvement in the early days of Al Qaeda, depicting the Texas congressman, as spokesman in Congress for soliciting monies to keep arming the Afghani rebels. The Afghan government was then replaced by the Taliban, and Osama bin Laden kept his headquarters for Al Qaeda in Afhanistan. American troops were sent to Afghanistan to fight at the beginning of the first presidential term of George W. Bush, and Osama bin Laden became our enemy. Even though the FBI had no evidence that he had been responsible for the World Trade Center bombings, as stated in their Wanted Posters offering a reward for the capture of Osama bin Laden, his Al Qaeda was linked to two US embassy bombings in Africa, and to the bombing of the ship USS Cole in Yemen.
Putin is warning the West to not repeat the mistakes of the past.
Adele
A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria - Magda Hassan - 09-09-2012
And if they get rid of Assad they will always be under the rule of others. No freedom in this. Just a new master.
Quote:http://www.debka.com/article/22336/Turkish-officers-take-command-of-Syrian-rebel-brigades-N-Israel-on-alertTurkish officers take command of Syrian rebel brigades. N. Israel on alert
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 6, 2012, 10:59 AM (GMT+02:00)Tags: TurkeySyrian rebels
Syrian rebels under Turkish command
Turkish army officers have assumed direct command of the first two Syrian rebel brigades fighting Bashar Assad's government forces, according toDEBKAfile's exclusive sources. This step has sent military tensions rocketing on Israel's northern borders with Syria and Lebanon in case of a backlash.
The rebel North Liberators Brigade in the Idlib region of northern Syria and the Tawhid Brigade fighting in the Al-Bab area northeast of Aleppo are now taking their operational orders from Turkish officers, who exercise their authority from headquarters outside Syria in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep. Nonetheless, Turkey is considered to have stepped directly into the Syrian conflict marking the onset of foreign intervention.
Western and Arab military circles in the Middle East expect Turkey to extend its command to additional rebel units not all of them part of the Free Syrian Army.
This first step has already caused waves.
1. The consequences of Turkish military action in Syria were urgently aired with CIA Director David Petraeus when he arrived in Ankara Monday, Sept. 3, DEBKAfile's intelligence sources reveal. After hearing how and when Ankara proposed to expand its role in the Syrian conflict, Petraeus discussed with Turkish military and intelligence chiefs the likely Syrian, Iranian and Hizballah responses.
He then flew to Israel to continue the discussion there.
2. By then, US, Turkish and Israeli intelligence watchers were reporting unusual military movements in Syria and on Hizballah turf in southern Lebanon suspected of being preparations for a blowback from the Turkish intervention in Syria.
3. The IDF countered by placing its units guarding the Syrian and Lebanese borders on a state of alert. Wednesday, Sept. 5, an Iron Dome battery was installed in Gush Dan to head off a potential Hizballah missile barrage on central Israel and its hub, Tel Aviv.
4. Later that day, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan commented: "The regime in Syria has now become a terrorist state."
Only a few of Erdogan's listeners understood he was laying international legal grounding for expanding Turkish military intervention in Syria.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that Thursday, Sept. 6, military temperatures remained high-to-feverish along Syria's borders with Turkey and Israel, and along Lebanon's borders with Syria and Israel.
![[Image: SyrianRebeles-Turkey6.9.12.jpg]](http://www.debka.com/dynmedia/photos/2012/09/06/big/SyrianRebeles-Turkey6.9.12.jpg)