A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria

[Adele Edisen]

Thu, July 19, 2012 12:09:08 PM
Cunningham: Syria's Deadly Bomb Attack on Assad Cabinet - Is This 'The Price' Clinton Warned Of?
From: Global Research E-Newsletter <crgeditor@yahoo.com>

Syria's Deadly Bomb Attack on Assad Cabinet: Is This The Price' Clinton Warned Of?
By Finian Cunningham

Global Research, July 18, 2012

URL of this article: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=31972


The deadly bomb attack on the top-level meeting of President Bashar Al-Assad's senior cabinet ministers leaves little doubt that Western intelligence was involved.

Among the victims were defence minister Daoud Rajiha and his deputy and the president's brother-in-law Assef Shaukat who were killed when a suicide bomber reportedly set off a powerful explosive device as the cabinet meeting got underway at the security headquarters in Damascus, Wednesday, around mid-day local time.

A third fatality was Hassan Turkomani, the country's deputy vice president and Assad's chief of crisis management.

The wounded included Hisham Ikhtiar, director of the National Security Bureau, and interior minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar.

This was the deadliest attack yet on the inner circle of President Assad. It is not clear if he was due to attend the meeting.

While two groups claimed responsibility the Syrian Free Army and a little-known jihadi organisation calling itself the Lord of the Martyrs Brigade the weight of evidence points to crucial Western military support in executing the strike.

Over the past 16 months, the armed opposition groups in Syria have been transformed from disorganised gangs engaged in hit-and-run skirmishes with the Syrian state forces to what is now a formidable insurrection capable of mounting bomb and mortar in the capital, Damascus.

During March and early April, up until the Kofi Annan peace plan was announced in mid-April, the Syrian government forces had made significant gains in routing the armed groups from strongholds in Homs and other northern towns. Since the Annan initiative was attempted, however, there has been a sea-change in military capability among the so-called rebels groups.

These groups never even pretended to implement the Annan six-point plan and were given strident support by American, British and French leaders in their rejection of any political process to find a peace settlement. Western governments have resolutely demanded that Assad step down as a prerequisite for any political transition, thus giving a green light to further violence.

The surge in opposition violence which does not have any internal popular base among Syrians can be traced to the Western-backed so-called Friends of Syria meeting in Istanbul on 1 April, which pledged $100 million in funding for the armed opposition groups.

The latest deadly attack at the heart of the Syrian government points to high-level intelligence and coordination. This dramatic rise in military capability by the armed groups is a culmination of steadily increasing involvement of Western and Turkish Special Forces since conflict erupted on 15 March 2011, and the flow of weapons into Syria from Turkey funded by the Western-allied Persian Gulf Arab sheikhdoms.

Since the beginning of this year, there have been a string of sophisticated, lethal no-warning car bombs in Damascus and Syria's second city, Aleppo. On 10 May, twin bombs outside the Syrian military intelligence headquarters claimed 55 lives. The involvement of suicide bombers also points to the Saudi and Qatari-backed Sunni extremists of Al Qaeda ilk, operating out of Libya, Iraq and Lebanon. These groups have a long, murky history of liaison with Western intelligence agencies going back to Soviet-era Afghanistan and more recently in the NATO toppling of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In the aftermath of the Cabinet meeting explosion, there are reports of fierce gun battles across the capital between Syrian security forces and opposition groups. The sound of grenades, mortars and other explosions were also heard in different quarters of Damascus. There were unconfirmed reports of an explosive attack near parliament buildings and on elite army barracks responsible for guarding the presidential palace.

Last night, the Syrian authorities were claiming that many arrests of armed groups had been made and that order had been restored. The information ministry blamed Arab news channels, Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, for exaggerating and distorting the violence.

Nevertheless, it seems clear that the armed groups have gained substantially greater military power and logistics to take their fight for the past three days to the centre of the Syrian government's administration. The apparent confidence espoused by opposition spokesmen, in what they are calling Operation Damascus Volcano, suggests that these groups have received some kind of external assurance as to their objective of bringing down the Assad government.

The assault on the capital comes as Washington and London step up political pressure this week on Russia and China to back a UN Security Council resolution that would pave the way for a Libya-style NATO military intervention.

Speaking on a visit to Israel only two days ago, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton declared that the government of Bashar Assad "cannot survive". Clinton said: "We are going to continue to press forward in the Security Council. We are going to continue to press the Russians. I believe I cannot give a timescale on it that this [Syrian] regime cannot survive."

Earlier, Clinton had provoked international consternation when she issued a grim warning to Russia and China that they would be made to "pay a price" for not backing Western efforts to put tougher sanctions on Damascus an ally of Moscow of Beijing.

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov decried the use of such threatening language and said that the Western powers were trying to blackmail Moscow into adopting their adversarial position towards Syria.

Following the killing of Syria's Cabinet members, Britain's foreign secretary William Hague reacted immediately to renew the pressure on Russia and China to accept the Western sponsored resolution. He said: "All such events increase the arguments for a strong and decisive resolution from the United Nations. I think it is clear that situation is deteriorating rapidly." Somewhat knowingly, Hague added that Syria was threatened with "chaos and collapse".

Since May 24, several massacres in villages across Syria by Western-backed mercenaries have so far failed to dislodge Russia and China's support for Damascus. Is the latest atrocity against Assad's Cabinet and members of his own family "the price" that Hillary Clinton warned of?

Finian Cunningham is Globalresearch's Middle East and East Africa Correspondent cunninghamfinian@gmail.com

GLOBAL RESEARCH | PO Box 55019 | 11 Notre-Dame Ouest | Montreal | QC | H2Y 4A7 | Canada

Adele

[Magda Hassan]

Syrian Truth l Lama Al Attassi resigns from her post as spokesperson for the FSA during an interview with Monte Carlo radio.

After being asked if this is the end of the Syrian regime, she answered: No, it's not.

I am no longer the spokesperson of the FSA. We don't want the Western tanks to enter Syria. We don't want another Iraq or Afghanistan in Syria.

Syria is the world's axis of balance. The last explosion has shaken the regime, but it's still too early to confirm that it has fallen.

Lama Attassi has also criticized , at the beginning of the interview, the Arab media in specific, and the global media in general, saying that it's like they are playing a symphony to please the listeners, without any single realistic aspect.

[Magda Hassan]

FSA militas admit being 'coordinated' by US
Fadi Salem @FadiSalem
FSA declares "Islamic State" on Turkish boarders! FYI, this guy does not sound very Syrian too! #Syria #FSA #Turkey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_m0NqL7Ulc

Aziza @Aziza23
@Aziza23 (Last Tweet) #FSA militias admitted to @kellymcevers that they are getting more arms from GCC but being "coordinated" by US. #Syria

[Magda Hassan]

Barak Orders Israeli Military to Prepare for Syria Invasion

Israeli Troops Would Seize 'Advanced Weapons' From Syria

by Jason Ditz, July 20, 2012

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In an interview with Israeli Channel 10 today Defense Minister Ehud Barak confirmed that he has ordered the military to prepare for a full-scale invasion of neighboring Syria, with the goal of seizing weapons from the Syrian military, currently embroiled in a civil war.
Barak sought to justify the move, saying that it was possibleSyria might transfer "anti-aircraft missiles" or even chemical weapons to Hezbollah, a militant faction operating out of neighboring Lebanon.
There were some reports that Syria was hoping to ditchsome of its less useful weapons on Hezbollah, because they weren't of much value in the ongoing civil war and were costing resources to protect from looters. Though this would be the case with some weapons, it is unlikely Syria would want to reduce its anti-aircraft arsenal, particularly with Western nations chomping at the bit for a NATO attack and imposed regime change.
Early this week it had been reported Israel was considering such a step, and that Pentagon officials had been dispatched to try to talk Israel out of the invasion,warning it would bolster Assad's position.
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/07/20/barak...-invasion/

[Peter Lemkin]

The LAST thing Syria would do now is invade Israel..they have their hand full with insurgents. The FIRST thing Israel would like to do is to invade Syria through some false flag excuse. IMHO

[Magda Hassan]

It's all set up. Syria is not going to invade anywhere. But the government is not going any where soon either. Despite the bombing the other day and the murder of on of the countries top missile scientist and his family last night the government force still seem well and truly in control. They have retaken all the border posts and parts of the city. One of my friends there says it has been very quiet. But I have also seen videos of FSA prisoners surrendering not all of whom are Syrian either as well as many bodies from shoot outs with government forces. So it seems their proxy FSA forces are not up to it and are splintering in to nothing. Their spokesperson resigned yesterday. So maybe Israel will step into the breech. The script must be followed. They have the new Syrian constitution, created at the Orwellian US Institute for Peace ready to go as soon as this government is felled. And one of the personal involved in the bombing is hiding in the US embassy in Damascus. So Israel is 'worried' that Assad is going to release (chemical) weapons into the hands of Hezbollah to help him eliminate the foreign Sunni Salafists mercenaries of the FSA and this will be their pretext to go in.

And if that doesn't come to pass there is Plan B. They have their bus bombing in Bulgaria, a NATO country. An attack on a NATO country is an attack on them all, remember? Because the bus had Israeli tourists and not New Zealanders or Tanzanians it brings Israel in to it. Israel is now blaming Hezbollah which they say is directed by Iran even is it is Lebanese. They are in part sponsored by secular Syria and theocratic Iran. Syria is also probably the Palestinians biggest supporter in the Arab countries too. If they can't get what they want through the UN, as is looking increasingly so with the continued veto of China and Russia, they will use NATO. Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN, has already indicated that this is their next move as she chastised China and Russia saying if they can't use the UN against Syria they will be forced to go 'outside' the UN to get what they want against Syria.

The road to Iran goes through Damascus. And both the US and Israel have been keen to travel that road and neutralise them for some time. Either they'll take the high road or the low road. All roads lead to Iran but they do go through Damascus. Israel gets what they want. The US gets what they want. Everyone has a fig leaf to stand behind.

[Magda Hassan]

Turkey has deployed ground-to-air missiles on its border with Syria, a report says.


The Turkish Anadolu Agency reported the development on Sunday.

The report comes at a time when relations between Ankara and Damascus have deteriorated.

On June 22, Syria said its air defense forces shot down a Turkish F-4 Phantom in the Syrian airspace "according to the laws that govern such situations." The aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/07/22/...ia-border/

[Magda Hassan]

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[TD="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"][B]Syrian TV Shows Bodies of Terrorists of Arab Nationalities Killed by the Syrian Army in al-Qaboun Neighborhood[/B]

Jul 23, 2012

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DAMASCUS, (SANA) The Syrian TV showed footage of bodies of terrorists from Egypt and Jordan who were killed by the Syrian armed forces when it was clearing al-Qaboun neighborhood in Damascus from armed terrorist groups.
The terrorists are Abdullah al-Desuqi Musa'ad Bassal and Yasser Abdelrazzaq Kamel Ibrahim from Egypt, Fares Faleh al-Ghazi, Usama Abdelqader Ahmad al-Zahabi, and Ahmmad Abullah al-Zahabi from Jordan.

Earlier, the Syrian TV showed footage of other terrorists who came from Tunisia and Libya, with Turkey and other neighboring countries providing facilitations to allow these murderers to enter Syria and kill its people.
The Times newspaper had reported that the so-called "rebels" in Syria are no more than mercenaries who are funded and given weapons from external sides.

H. Sabbagh

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http://208.43.232.81/eng/337/2012/07/23/432866.htm

[Magda Hassan]

Did US Special Forces Murder Syrian Defense Minister Gen. Daoud Rajha?

Posted on July 18, 2012 by willyloman
by Scott Creighton

De Oppresso Liber "To Free the Oppressed." 7th Special Forces Motto

Yet again, just hours before a critical UN Security Council vote on yet another Syrian resolution (this one put forward by the Brits), a terrorist attack has claimed the lives of several Syrian people as well as high ranking military personnel. Here's the question: whose fingerprints are all over this cowardly attack?

"Russia has accused the West of inciting the Syrian opposition after a suicide bomber killed the defense minister and President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law…
… Lavrov says a British resolution that would impose sanctions and allows for possible military intervention "would amount to direct support of the revolutionary movement."" Washington Post

This time they killed the Syrian Defense Minister, Gen. Daoud Rajha, and President Bashar Assad's brother-in-law. the attack also wounded Syrian intelligence chief Hisham Bekhtyar, his fate is yet to be determined. It is reported to have been a suicide bombing carried out by one of Assad's own security team members.
In the past these security council per-cursor terrorist events have been immediately framed by the complicit media outlets as the work of the dreaded Assad regime. But later it turned out that those reports were premature and based on "activists say" "journalism" when in fact they were either the work of the State Department backed international mercenary terrorists (Houla Massacre) or they were simply a terrorist strike on Syrian army regulars which had gone bad for Hillary's global agenda.
This latest pre-vote attack is clearly the work of terrorist groups operating inside Syria on behalf of the US, Britain, and a host of complicit puppet regimes including (but not limited to) Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
In keeping with the new "Putin Approach" to international diplomacy, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov did not mince words:

"instead of calming the opposition down, some of our partners are inciting it to go on." Lavrov

Several organizations have claimed responsibility for the attack including the head of the Free Syrian Army and Liwa Al-Islam, a so-called "Syrian rebel Islamic group" (which translates to a for-profit terrorist organization paid for by the same bank that laundered all that Saudi terrorism money?)
These claims highlight an important connection in Syria and that is that these foreign terrorist organizations are actually in bed with the Free Syrian Army which of course is in bed with Hillary Clinton. (2 degrees of separation is not that far, at least that's the way the US government looks at it when they decide to raid someone's home for giving support to terrorist organizations)
Perhaps this is why we suddenly saw a rash of "news" stories this past week falsely claiming the Obama administration wasn't going to provide assistance to the "rebels" till after the election.

"Despite mounting fury from the Syrian rebels, who are seeking assistance for their efforts to overthrow the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the White House has refused all requests for heavy weapons and intelligence support." Telegraph July 16th 2012

Seems like the policy makers in Washington knew something was in the works and they wanted to spin-up up some preemptive plausible deniability for the Peace Prize President.
I guess they figured we would forget that the CIA has been doling out weapons and aid to the various groups in Syria while our puppet regimes in Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been paying them (and that is to say nothing of Israeli weapons being found on the terrorists by the Syrian military) or the fact that the Obama administration has already admitted that they are supplying communications equipment and logistical support to the roving band of terrorists.

"A small number of C.I.A. officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to American officials and Arab intelligence officers." New York Times

Now, what exactly are we looking at? Does this pattern seems familiar to anyone? Is there any kind of program that we know of that sounds a lot like this?
First, we have a targeted regime, ripe for the picking, being defended (partially at least) by large outside forces (Russia and China… kinda). Our owners (and I choose that word deliberately) want to inflict neoliberalism on the nation of Syria in the worse way so Hillary is doing what Secretaries of State have done in this country for decades… warmongering.
The justification for this greedy globalist enterprise is the same that it has been for years upon years: humanitarian intervention.
Take Operation 40 for example, there are far too many others: here is a case where the CIA, on behalf of US corporations (like United Fruit) launched terrorist campaigns to destabilize governments of Cuba, Central America, and Mexico because they dared hold revolutions or the dreaded "free elections" that weren't fomented or paid for by US special interest groups and corporate heads.
Our freedom loving CIA directly employed terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles who blew up Cubana Flight 455 and Orlando Bosch who murdered Chilean former minister Orlando Letelier in Washington DC. All this was to replace the heads of various nations, to force "regime change" in countries that didn't want to play ball as it were.
Now we have Syria and as we have already established, the pattern exists, in plain view, that has been seen before: indigenous actors are employed and supported either by our secret agencies or surrogate nations, to wreak havok on the targeted population until the will of the people and the targeted regime breaks. It is the purest definition of the word "terrorism" that exists.
Look at how NBC News reported on this morning's assassination in Syria:

"A suicide bomber struck the National Security building in the Syrian capital Wednesday, killing the defense minister and wounding other senior officials in a major psychological and tactical blow to the regime of President Bashar Assad." NBC News

A "major psychological and tactical blow"
This is an extrajudicial assassination, something that used to be considered illegal in this country as far as I can tell, and NBC simply refers to it as a major blow?
And also look at the choice of the word "psychological". It's almost as if the person writing that article has read the US's handbook on what they call "unconventional warfare"

"A broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations, normally of long duration, predominantly conducted through, with, or by indigenous or surrogate forces who are organized, trained, equipped, supported, and directed in varying degrees by an external source. It includes, but is not limited to, guerrilla warfare, subversion, sabotage, intelligence activities, and unconventional assisted recovery"
"The U.S. defines sabotage as "an act or acts with intent to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense of a country by willfully injuring or destroying, or attempting to injure or destroy, any national defense or warmateriel, premises, or utilities, to include human and natural resources."
"Subversion is formally defined as "action designed to undermine themilitary, economic, psychological, or political strength or morale of a regime." Wikipedia page on unconventional warfare

Well heck, that NBC quote seems to come straight from an understanding of what unconventional warfare actually does, undermine the military and psychological morale of a regime.
But do we have forces still practicing unconventional warfare? I mean it sounds almost ghoulish in the wake of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Fighting terrorism with terrorism?
Well, there is the 7th Special Forces Group. There motto is De Oppresso Liber or "To Free the Oppressed." (there's a very touching picture on their website of a special forces soldier showing a random brown child a 50 caliber mounted weapon)

"The 7th Special Force Group is one of five active Special Forces Groups providing specialized support to the combatant commanders.
Special Forces units perform seven doctrinal missions: Unconventional Warfare, Foreign Internal Defense, Special Reconnaissance, Direct Action, Combatting Terrorism, Counter-proliferation, and Information Operations." 7th Special Forces Group website

The 7th has a rather interesting background association with Syria actually.
Back when the CIA decided to destabilize El Salvador and break it up into privatized bits and pieces, it was the men of the 7th with their "unconventional warfare" skills who stepped up to the plate:

"Throughout the 1980s, 7th Special Forces Group played a critical advisory role for the El Salvadoran armed forces. The Salvadoran military became a highly trained counter-insurgency force under the tutelage of 7th Group.
The 7th Special Forces Group also played a very important role in preparing the Honduran military to resist and defeat an invasion from Nicaragua. 7th Group also trained the Honduran military in counter-insurgency tactics, which enabled Honduras to defeat the Honduran communist-backed guerrillas. The 7th Special Forces Group also became involved in counter narcotics operations in the Andean Ridge countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia." 7th Special Forces fact sheet

The 7th was all over the CIA's little Latin American project from El Salvador to Honduras to Nicaragua and back. And at the helm of all of it, keeping peaceful solutions from being realized, keeping the terror campaigns rolling, was Reagan's own corporatist pitbull, John Negroponte.
Bush would later put Negroponte in as Ambassador to Iraq from 2004-2005 when the terrorist destabilization campaign of that country really took off.
You see, when people are simply worried about being blown up or finding their brother in Abu Ghraib, they don't pay much attention to puppet politicos stealing the natural resources of their nation or re-writing the constitution to suit their globalist agenda. Just ask any Libyan about that.
Assisting Negroponte in the destabilization campaign of Iraq was a guy named Robert Stephen Ford. Robert Ford was appointed to be the Ambassador to Syria by the Obama administration a mere two months prior to the start of the so-called "revolution"

"Modeled on US covert ops in Central America the Pentagon's "Salvador Option for Iraq" initiated in 2004 was carried out under the helm of the US Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte (2004-2005) together with Robert Stephen Ford, who was appointed US Ambassador to Syria in January 2011, less than two months before the beginning of the armed insurgency directed against the government of Bashar Al Assad." Global Research

Ford is a career politician and one who served a number of years in one of our client states, Bahrain.
In July of 2011, Ford went to a "protest" in Hama and was "cheered" by the so-called protesters. A few days afterwards, Hillary Clinton announced that Assad had "lost legitimacy' and the game was a foot.

"Acquaintances say Ford is hardly the sort to seek the limelight. But his trip to Hama where he was greeted by cheering demonstrators waving olive branches was the most significant gesture that the United States has made to support the Syrian protesters…
…After months of cautiously increasing U.S. criticism of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared for the first time Monday that he had "lost legitimacy." Washington Post July 2011

A video was produced of Ford's visit to Hama and it appears that they got about 15 to 20 people (probably contractors) to dance around Ford's car carrying a few (two) olive branches. In the video you can clearly seem some young white guys wearing hats and glasses trying not to look American.
There's another guy in a red shirt with red facial hair and a red bandana wrapped around his head so you can't see his red hair. That guy is obviously someone from Ford's security detail.
As the 15 or so military aged guys hop around Ford's vehicle, you can clearly see the rest of the people on the street in the background looking on in curiosity then turning their backs and going on with the business of their day.
In fact looking at the video more closely, you can tell the majority of the guys hopping around the car look to be American ex-military in civilian clothing with rags tied to their heads so you can't see their hair.
It's clearly a staged event designed to gin up the narrative of the "revolution" in Syria. It's ridiculous looking especially at the end when you get the close-up on Ford trying to look to busy saving Syria to notice the 15 guys hopping around his car waving olive branches at the camera.

Ford's link to Negroponte doesn't prove Hillary ordered the murder of a Syrian official or the murder of 32 children in Houla for that matter.
But what it does prove is the fact that this staged "revolution" not only has the LOOK of previous staged "revolutions" in the past, but it also has some of the same actors and plot lines.
And let's face it, these kinds of destabilization campaigns have proven to be extremely profitable in the past while the war-criminals and terrorist supporters who orchestrate them are never held accountable, but rather, they are often promoted and given cushy new assignments.
Our unconventional warfare program is still alive and well while some of it's leading actors are are still treading the boards as they say (a fitting reference considering Ford's performance in his truck)
Given the mass of propaganda that we have been exposed to like Syrian Danny, the Gay Girl from Damascus, and Mr. Ford's little psyop truck ride (not to mention the horrendously flawed coverage of the Houla Massacre) how are we not to conclude that everything that happens in Syria with the apparent design to derail any peace initiative, isn't the work of US and British planners?
Did our special forces plan and conduct an unconventional warfare operation in Syria against Gen. Daoud Rajha at the request of Amb. Ford or Hillary Clinton? Is that what Lavrov was getting at with his statement?
Unfortunately I think it is entirely possible, probable even. It just adds up.
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2012/07/...oud-rajha/

[Bill Kelly]

I'm disappointed there are no Tunisian or Libyan revolutionaries among those in Syria, because I think they have an obligation, now that they have rid themselves of decades old dictators, to educate and assist and even fight alongside the Free Syrian Army, just as the French supported the Americans during their revolution.

Of course when the American revolution reached France a few years later, the radicals took over, took things to the extreme and beheaded everybody, allowing the rise of Napoleon. That can still happen in Egypt and Syria, unless those who take over are faithful to what they say are the goals of the revolution -getting rid of the Assad dynasty, ending dictatorship, opening the economy to all, establishing some form of democracy and maintaining a secular society that is not dominated by any one group or religion.

While Hilary Clinton has been one of the biggest supporters of the Arab Spring revolts and seeing them through to an open, democratic societies, I don't think she would approve of using political assassination in any case, but I don't put it past others in the US government, and wouldn't be surprised if the evidence indicated that US forces actively supported the FSA, especially in arms and communications.

I think however, that being so close to where the ancient order of the Hashish Assassins originated centuries ago, the Arabs have no need to bring in outside forces to affect an assassination, as they were the first assassins.

Bill Kelly
Revolutionary Program