A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria

[Magda Hassan]

Syrian rebels "seeking advice" from ex-KLA

Source: Tanjug DAMASCUS, PRIÅ TINA -- The Syrian opposition is seeking advice from a former member of the ethnic Albanian KLA - "now a politician" - on "how to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's regime".


This is according to "a Syrian dissident", who was quoted by news agencies.
The AP reported that Amar Abdulhamid, "an activist in exile", said that "an example of a country emerging from a nightmare and appearing as a state" can be inspiring for Syria's "dissidents".

The statement was made in apparent reference to the unilateral declaration of independence made ​​by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo some four years ago.

According to reports on Thursday, Abdulhamid is "one of three Syrian opposition activists visited Kosovo, where they met with former members of the KLA".

The now disbanded so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was considered to be a terrorist group by the Serbian authorities.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said that clashes Syria, which began in March last year, left more than 9,000 people dead, while the government in Damascus said that the lives of 3,838 people - 2,493 civilians and 1,345 members of the Syrian security forces - were lost.
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-art...v_id=79976

[Magda Hassan]

I expose an other deliberate attempt to blame the Syrian government for atrocities committed by the so-called "Free Syrian Army" supported by the USA. This video proves the horrible fact that video uploaded by so-called "activists" are in fact the work of US backed terrorists. US backed terrorists commit torture and murder in Syria just in order to upload the gut wrenching video on YouTube and blame the Syrian government for their terror. The horrible realization is that this has become an industry financed by the USA and Arab Gulf countries and propagated by so called activists like unscrupulous and terrorist YouTuber "2011RevolutionSyria". These videos effectively terrorizes the Syrian population with the consent of the USA while gaining support from a gullible world audience to attack Syria militarily.

2011RevolutionSyria video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsDG3Bn5J88

Another fraudulent uploader propagandist Buzz Syria:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsyXWp0-7og

Full video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51I4nwiNRtA

[Jan Klimkowski]

Syrian rebels "seeking advice" from ex-KLA

Source: Tanjug DAMASCUS, PRIÅ TINA -- The Syrian opposition is seeking advice from a former member of the ethnic Albanian KLA - "now a politician" - on "how to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's regime".


This is according to "a Syrian dissident", who was quoted by news agencies.
The AP reported that Amar Abdulhamid, "an activist in exile", said that "an example of a country emerging from a nightmare and appearing as a state" can be inspiring for Syria's "dissidents".

The statement was made in apparent reference to the unilateral declaration of independence made ​​by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo some four years ago.

According to reports on Thursday, Abdulhamid is "one of three Syrian opposition activists visited Kosovo, where they met with former members of the KLA".

The now disbanded so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was considered to be a terrorist group by the Serbian authorities.

Well, I'm sure the KLA can teach the "Syrian rebels" how to establish drugs, guns and human trafficking networks.

Who is Amar Abdulhamid?

He's American educated, a one time visiting fellow at the spooky Brookings Institute, and currently a fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).

The FDD's board and directors are listed on wiki as follows, and include key neocons:

FDD's chairman is James Woolsey. FDD's president is Clifford D. May and its executive director is Mark Dubowitz. Its Leadership Council is composed of prominent thinkers and leaders from the defense, intelligence, and policy communities including Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes, Bill Kristol, Louis J. Freeh, Joseph Lieberman, Newt Gingrich, Max Kampelman, and Robert McFarlane.

Its Board of Advisors include Gary Bauer, Rep. Eric Cantor, Gene Gately, General P.X. Kelley, Charles Krauthammer, Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland, Richard Perle, Steven Pomerantz, Oliver "Buck" Revell, Bret Stephens, and Francis J. "Bing" West.[2]

Foundation fellows and senior staff are Jonathan Schanzer, Vice President of Research, Khairi Abaza, Senior Fellow, Tony Badran, Research Fellow, Levant, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Director, Center for Study of Terrorist Radicalization, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Senior Fellow. Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Military Affairs Fellow, Thomas Joscelyn, Senior Fellow and Co-Chair, Center for Law and Counterterrorism, Jonathan Kay, Visiting Fellow, Dr. Michael Ledeen, Freedom Scholar, Andrew C. McCarthy, Co-Chair, Center for Law and Counterterrorism, Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi, Senior Fellow, Dr. J. Peter Pham, Non-Resident Senior Fellow, David B. Rivkin, Jr., Senior Fellow and Co-Chair, Center for Law and Counterterrorism[3]

See also here.


Footsteps in the shifting sand....

The subversion of the democratic process...

[Magda Hassan]

Libyan weapons seized in Lebanon- headed for NATO's terrorists in Syria


Only the first 20 seconds is relevant, the rest is the usual media perception management!

[video=dailymotion;xqg8ee]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqg8ee_weapons-bound-for-syria-seized-in-lebanon_news#from=embediframe[/video]
Weapons bound for Syria seized in Lebanon by euronews-en

Who organized this shipment?

Since we know NATO's goons are running Libya, simply connect the dots.

Lebanese authorities seized a large consignment of Libyan weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy calibre ammunition from a ship intercepted in the Mediterranean, the army said on Saturday.

Labelling on one box said it contained fragmentation explosives, and several identified them as coming from Libya.

One was marked "Tripoli/Benghazi SPLAJ", referring to Libya's formal name during the 42-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi - the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

Another was stamped Misrata, the Libyan town which formed a base for rebels who overthrew Gaddafi last year in one of several uprising which swept the Arab world.

Misrata is contained with the 'independant' Eastern Libyan state that is aNATO protectorate

This "independent" eastern Libya would-be emirate is already recognized by a few countries, Sarkozy's France included. No wonder; it is already configured as a NATO protectorate.

Therefore these weapons, originating from Libya, would have had to leave with the full knowledge of NATO. It would be pretty hard to think otherwise.

A thought- Though this type of warfare would be called a covert, if you have been paying attention long enough, you realize just how overt and in your face this weapons shipment really is. It has been very clear for a long, long time now that NATO has it's sites set on Syria.




You may recall that after the NATO bloodbath in Libya there was much fretting about the Libyan armaments falling into the 'wrong' hands....


There were a number of concerns expressed at that time. Scenarios.
I entertained one myself

"Al-Qaeda's North African branch, AQIM, has expanded from northern Niger, Mali and Mauritania into northern Nigeria and southern Senegal.

How swimmingly does that work out for the Western/NATO world army?
The seed planted with news of looting in Libya. Al quaeda/quaida. Always there when western powers need them.

Reviewing: We have armed activists and Al quaeda flooding into Syria.
What we need is a people's army.. Yes, a people's army for all the fighters and arms to flow to
Cue: Free Syrian Army.
Is this for real?
Or, are these Al Quaeda members imported in from elsewhere?

Weapons from Libya- check!
"Free Syrian Army' appearing - check!
Who was instrumental in making this happen- Why our great AVAAZ humanitarian Wissam Tarif- from Lebanon

Recall this?

The Telegraph has also learned that preliminary discussions about arms supplies took place when members of the Turkish-based Syrian National Council [SNC] the country's main opposition movement visited Libya earlier this month.

"The Libyans are offering money, training and weapons to the Syrian National Council," added Wissam Tariff, a human rights campaigner with links to the SNC.

And AVAAZ.
The scummiest human rights organization of them all. Or maybe one of many?


Back to today's weapons confiscation-

The army said in a statement the weapons were found in three containers carried by the Sierra Leone-flagged Letfallah II, which was impounded along with its 11-man crew and taken to a navy port in Beirut.

Khafaji said a broker from Lebanon (Wissam Tarif?) had made contact, asking originally for a shipment of 12 containers of "general cargo" to be shipped from Libya to Lebanon. In the end, after two days' delay, the ship left with just the three containers, he said. Incredible. Truly. How many Syrians would NATO's terrorists have killed with these weapons?



Some further news-
Syria takes Ban Ki-moon to task. Justifiably. For his one sided condemnations which serve to embolden the NATO terrorists-

Tishrin said Ban has avoided discussing rebel violence in favour of "outrageous" attacks on the Syrian government.

"The continued disregard of the international community and its cover for armed groups' crimes and terrorist acts ... is considered as direct participation in facilitating and carrying out the terrorism to which Syria is subjected," the editorial said.

"Such a stance seemingly encourages those groups to go on committing more crimes and terrorist acts," Tishrin said.

It most certainly does.

-The Syrian capital was hit by four explosions on Friday that left at least 11 people dead and dozens wounded.
- Military units stationed off the Mediterranean foiled an infiltration attempt by "armed groups" from the sea in the early hours of the day.

How come whenever NATO's extremist nut jobs appear, suicide bombers blow themselves up?

-There was also a horrific suicide bombing, that killed many.

[url=http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqg8ee_weapons-bound-for-syria-seized-in-lebanon_news#from=embediframe][/url]http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com.au/

[Magda Hassan]

An unbelievable leaked video of an auction for a suicide bomber against Syria! This takes place in a hotel conference room in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The atmosphere is festive, and the audience has children in it. But the merchandise auctioned is human flesh and blood!
The video shows the father, abu-salah, attending the auction and offering his son Khaled as sacrifice.The father receives 1.5 million Riyals ($400,000) as future compensation for his son's demise in Syria. At one point in the video, the father is elated at the high bids.
What kind of father sells his son? What kind of person pays to have a stranger blow himself up? These are questions that Saudi Arabia, Gulf Arab states, Obama, Hillary Clinton and Europeans must answer because of their support of these terrorists in Syria.

Not sure about this one...

[Jan Klimkowski]

Magda - thanks for posting.

You were right to post caveats about the video.

It may be genuine, but I would need an independent translation and objective, verifiable, information about the context: location, audience, identity of father and son, identity of auctioneer etc.

For those who care about high standards of research, this can be termed due diligence.

If the video clip was subjected to due diligence, and was proven to be what is claimed - ie the auction by a father of his son for a "martyr suicide bombing operation" in Syria, then it is both horrific and another nail in the coffin of the official narrative of the true nature of the so-called "War on Terror".

[Magda Hassan]

Kosovo Terror Training Camps Re-Open for Syrian Rebels

by grtv (Global Research TV)

A delegation of Syrian rebels has made a deal with Pristina authorities to exchange experience of partisan warfare. Syrian opposition is sending militants to Kosovo for adopting tactics and being trained to oust President Bashar Assad's regime.
On April 26, a delegation of Syrian opposition members made a stop in Pristina on their way from the US to hold talks on how to make use of the experience of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Syria, reports Associated Press.
So far, a poorly-organized Syrian opposition has proven unable to self-organize and form a steady front against the forces of President Assad. Terror tactics used by militants allow them to kill military and governmental officials, but do not help to hold positions against a regular army.
"We come here to learn. Kosovo has walked this path and has an experience that would be very useful for us," says the head of the Syrian delegation Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian-born human rights activist and dissident. "In particular, we'd like to know how scattered armed groups were finally organized into KLA."
Syrian opposition leaders have promised to immediately recognize Kosovo once they seize power in the country.
"We're in vital need of joint actions as a coalition opposition," stressed Ammar Abdulhamid, a long-time opponent of the Syria's President Bashar Assad. In 2005, he left Syria to settle in the US.
The training camp on the Albanian-Kosovo border that has welcomed Syrian attendees was originally organized by the US to help the KLA train its fighters.
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was considered a terrorist organization by the US, the UK and France for years until, in 1998, it was taken off the list of terrorists with no explanation given. The KLA used to have up to 10 per cent of underage fighters in its ranks.
There were numerous reports of the KLA having contacts with Al-Qaeda, getting arms from that terrorist organization, getting its militants trained in Al-Qaeda camps in Pakistan and even having members of Al-Qaeda in its ranks fighting against Serbs.
The same horrors that were witnessed during the war in Kosovo are now apparently being prepared for the multi-confessional Syrian population by Islamist Syrian Liberation Army trained in Muslim Kosovo in the middle of Europe.
The Syrian Liberation Army group that actually formed the delegation to Kosovo has been fighting with the Syrian government for over a year now. This stand-off has claimed well over 9,000 lives, about half of them Syrian servicemen, law enforcers and officials.
Lately, the militants have been squeezed out of the Syrian cities and their positions along the Syrian-Turkish border. Being unable to turn the tide independently, the Syrian Liberation Army has been addressing to its foreign sponsors to start a military intervention into Syria to topple President Bashar Assad.
However, researcher and GlobalResearch.ca contributor Benjamin Schett told RT the Syrian rebels would not learn much in terms of military tactics from the KLA.
"The so-called Kosovo Liberation Army this terrorist group had in fact already been defeated by the Serbian army in 1998."
Schett says that once Serbia agreed on a ceasefire, pulled back troops, and let in OSCE observers, the KLA used this situation to intensify their attacks so as to provoke a military reaction.
He continued that by presenting themselves as freedom fighters and victims to the Western media, the KLA secured a Western intervention in March 1999 after they staged a fake massacre in Račak.
Schett believes the Syrian rebels would go to Kosovo for knowledge in public relations techniques. He says despite their lack of military prowess, they were adept at making the Western public believe they were fighting for a justified cause amid reports they had committed a slew of war crimes and human rights abuses.
Marauder and ethnic-cleansing tactics
Wiping out local minorities after an extensive NATO air-strike were the only combat tactics the KLA had mastered and the only thing the Syrian opposition can really learn from them, foreign affairs editor for the US-based Chronicles magazine, Srdja Trifkovich, told RT.
RT: Just what might the Syrian opposition learn at these camps?
Srdja Trifkovich: Well, first of all I don't think they can learn much from the KLA veterans in terms of combat efficiency because the KLA was singularly unsuccessful in its rebellion against the Serbian security forces until the NATO bombing. They started their terrorist ambushes in 1997. They intensified their activities in 1998. But all along it was atrocity management that they wanted, for instance, the famous case of Racak where the combat victims were presented as innocent civilian dead slaughtered by the Serbs.
But even during the bombing the Serbian forces maintained full control of all of the key population centers and they even kept the roads open. It's only that the KLA came in after the Serbs started withdrawing under the terms of the ceasefire with NATO. And even then they were not engaging in combat, they were acting as marauders ethnically cleansing non-Albanians. So the first point is that there is nothing to learn in terms of combat efficiency and in terms of actually organizing a successful guerilla force.
RT: Words that have been associated with the KLA assassination, terror, bombings is that really the kind of thing that the Syrian opposition wants to be associated with?
ST: It seems that they don't care, because I understand that Ammar Abdulhamid, one of the Syrian opposition leaders who came to Pristina and actually spoke to an AP reporter, said "We are here to learn." Now this should be a huge wake-up call for those Syrians who are not supportive of the opposition, especially the minorities: the Alawites, the Christians either Orthodox or Greek Catholic the Shiites, the Kurds. The moderate Sunni Muslims should remember that if the Syrian rebels learn from the KLA, that means there will be a bloodbath after the fall of Assad and there will be no room for anyone but the majority group which subscribes to its extremist credo, whether it is that of greater Albania in Kosovo or the Muslim Brotherhood offshoot in Syria.

http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2012/05/koso...ian-rebels

[Jan Klimkowski]

The Syrian Liberation Army, eh?

Reminds me of another false flag, intelligence agency construct with the initials SLA.

The Symbionese Liberation Army.

Here's Project Censored on the KLA:

U.S. and Germany Trained and Developed the KLA

Sources: THE PROGRESSIVE, August 1999, Title: "Mercenaries in Kosovo: The U.S. Connection to the KLA" Author: Wayne Madsen; COVERTACTION QUARTERLY, Spring-Summer 1999, Title: "Kosovo `Freedom Fighters' Financed by Organized Crime," Author: Michel Chossudovsky

Faculty Evaluators: Rick Luttman, Ph.D. & Phil Beard, Ph.D.
Student Researchers: Michael Spigel & Jeremiah Price

Germany and the U.S. collaborated in supporting the development and training of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to deliberately destabilize a centralized socialist government in Yugoslavia.

Since the early 1990s, Bonn and Washington have joined hands in establishing their respective spheres of influence in the Balkans. Undercover support to the Kosovo rebel army was established as a joint endeavor between the CIA and Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). The task to create and finance the KLA was initially given to Germany:

"They used German uniforms, East German weapons, and were financed in part by drug money," according to intelligence analyst John Whitley. As the KLA matured, the U.S. and Germany recruited Mujaheddin mercenaries, financed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, to train the KLA in guerrilla and diversion tactics.

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a small handful of Pentagon contractors or private military companies providing support to the KLA. One of these contractors is the Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI). In a recent interview retired Army Colonel David Hackworth gave to Catherine Crier of Fox Television, he states that the MPRI used former U.S. military personnel to train KLA forces at secret bases inside Albania.

The MPRI has a starting lineup comprised of retired Pentagon top brass. Its roster includes one retired admiral, two retired major generals, and 10 retired generals. The MPRI employs more than 400 personnel and can access the resumes of thousands of former U.S. military specialists from cooks and clerks to helicopter pilots and Green Berets.

The MPRI has been in the Balkans for years. MPRI military advisers helped plan Storm and Strike, the Croatian offensive that was responsible for driving out 350,000 Croatian Serbs from the Krajina province. In 1996, just one year later, the MPRI received a $400 million State Department contract to train and equip the Bosnian Croat-Muslim Federation Army.

Some of the KLA's military leadership includes veterans of the MPRI-planned operation Storm and Strike. Agim Ceku is the military commander of the KLA and was a former brigadier general in the Croatian army. According to the London Independent's Robert Fisk, Ceku is an ethnic cleanser in his own right. Ceku, along with MPRI military advisers, helped plan the Croatian military offensive that resulted in the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs from Krajina.

UPDATE BY AUTHOR WAYNE MADSEN: The story on the U.S. mercenary connection to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was virtually ignored by the corporate-controlled media during NATO's Balkans War. Playing into the hands of the Pentagon's information warfare and perception management cadres, as well as Clinton Administration spinmeisters, the major media sang the praises of the KLA, refusing to peer inside the covert assistance program rendered by Pentagon "private military contractors" to this shadowy group long connected to criminal enterprises in both Eastern and Western Europe.

The U.S. private military contractors and police advisory teams associated with the Justice Department's and United Nations peace monitoring teams continue their activity in the world's most volatile trouble spots. As private entities, these companies are not subject to congressional oversight or Freedom of Information requests.

MPRI stepped up its military training activities in Bosnia after the suspension of the firm's arms transfers to the Bosnian army was lifted by the State Department. MPRI activities included training a rapid reaction Bosnian special forces unit and providing direct support to the Bosnian Defense Ministry. Pentagon insiders reported that MPRI also provided weaponry to paramilitary forces loyal to Montenegro's pro-Western President Milo Djukanovic and continued covert assistance to the KLA in Kosovo.

Also, MPRI's activities in Africa increased. Not only did the company's personnel increase their profile in Angola, helping that nation in its war against Washington's former UNITA allies, but the firm's representatives showed up in Abuja, Nigeria, after the swearing in of democratically elected president Olusegun Obasanjo. MPRI is a central player in the Pentagon's African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) and Nigeria was long sought as a military partner of the United States in that effort. However, neither former dictator Sani Abacha nor former president-elect Chief Moshood Abiola were acceptable to Washington as military partners. Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering provided much of the high-level liaison between Obasanjo's government and MPRI. Ironically, Dickering was present during a July 1998 meeting with Chief Abiola when the imprisoned president-elect suffered a heart attack and died minutes later. MPRI is also active in counter-narcotics military operations in Colombia.

There has also been a blurring of law enforcement and military activities of companies like Dyncorp and Science Application International Corporation (SAIC). One of Dyncorp's U.N. police monitors was wounded by pro-Indonesian East Timorese militiamen in the post-referendum violence that swept the ravaged territory. Others, providing police services in NATO-occupied Kosovo, were attacked by both Serb and Albanian militia groups.

SAIC became more active, through the CIA-connected ICITAP, in paramilitary counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency operations in Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Haiti, and Panama-all long-time favorite haunts of CIA operatives. ICITAP also stepped up training of Bosnian federal and cantonal police units and various South African police services. Former ICITAP director Janice Stromsem was joined by another ICITAP employee, Mick Andersen, who charged that agencies other than the Justice Department were engaging in "illegal activities" in Haiti. Stromsem and Andersen were both forced from their jobs with ICITAP and have been effectively ostracized within the government after blowing the whistle.

During 1999, Dyncorp faced charges that it was raiding police departments around the country luring away experienced officers with six-figure salaries. In September 1999, the mayor of Surf City, New Jersey filed suit against one of his police officers for abandoning his job to join Dyncorp's force in Kosovo. A retired Bloomington, Indiana police officer returned home from Kosovo after becoming disenchanted with his duties. Still others cited difficulties in dealing with the Albanian Mafia in Kosovo. Moreover, some 10 percent of the U.N. police candidates dropped out of Dyncorp's Fort Worth-based training program after they initially signed up. Aside from radio interviews with progressive radio stations in New York, there was no other media reaction to the story.

For more information peruse the following Web sites:

http://www.mpri.com
http://www.dyncorp.com/areas/intlpm.htm
http://www.saic.com (key site's search engine for ICITAP)
http://www.ciponline.org/facts/icitap.htm
http://www.us.net/cip/icitap3.htm
http://www.ndu.edu/inss/strforum/ forum84.html
http://www.whistleblower.org/www/antigag.htm
http://www.eucom.mil/programs/acri/

UPDATE FROM AUTHOR: MIOHEL CHOSSU-DOVSKY: As Western leaders trumpet their support for democracy, state terrorism in Kosovo has become an integral part of NATO's post-war design. The KLA's political role for the "post-conflict" period had been mapped out well in advance. NATO had already slated the KLA "provisional government" (PGK) to run civilian state institutions. In the weeks following NATO's military occupation of Kosovo, the KLA took over municipal governments and public services including schools and hospitals. The KLA has a controlling voice on the U.N.-sponsored Kosovo Transitional Council, UNMIK. In the weeks following the military invasion, the KLA "Provisional Government" established links with a number of Western governments.

Under NATO occupation, the rule of law has visibly been turned upside down. Criminals and terrorists are to become law-enforcement officers. With the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops and police, the KLA without delay took control of Kosovo's police stations. Under the formal authority of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Coop-eration in Europe (OSCE) was entrusted with the task of training and installing a 4,000-strong police force with a mandate to "protect civilians" under the jurisdiction of the KLA-controlled "Ministry of Public Order." The evidence suggests that the KLA-controlled police force was also responsible for the massacres of civilians organized in the immediate wake of NATO's military occupation of Kosovo.

Moreover, despite NATO's commitment to disarming the KLA, the Kosovar paramilitary organization is slated to be transformed into a modern military force. So-called "security assistance" has already been granted to the KLA by the U.S. Congress under the Kosovar Independence and Justice Act of 1999. While the KLA's links to the Balkans narcotics trade (served to finance many of its terrorist activities) had been highly publicized, the paramilitary organi-zation was granted an official U.S. seal of approval as well as being deemed a "legitimate" source of funding. In turn, Washington's military aid package to the KLA was entrusted to Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI) of Alexandria, Virginia, a private mercenary outfit run by high ranking former U.S. military officers.

In September 1999, the KLA was officially dissolved and transformed into the newly formed Kosovo Protection Force that was funded by U.S. military aid. Shift in military labels: KLA Commander Agim Ceku was appointed Chief of Staff of Kosovo's newly created armed forces.

Barely a few weeks after Commander Ceku's NATO sponsored appointment, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced that it was "investigating Ceku for alleged war crimes committed against ethnic Serbs in Croatia between 1993 and 1995" (AFP, October 13,1999). This information had been withheld by the ICTY during the mandate of Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour. In other words, the U.N. and NATO knew that Agim Ceku was an alleged war criminal prior to the onslaught of NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia in March 1999. More-over, KFOR Commander Mike Jackson and UNMIK head Dr. Bernard Kouchner (and 1999 Nobel Peace Laureate as cofounder of Doctors Without Borders) were fully aware of the fact that an alleged war criminal had been appointed as Commander in Chief of the KPF: "If we lose him it will be a disaster," said a diplomat close to Bernard Vouchner, the U.N. s special representative. "When you get to the second level of the TMK [Kosovo Protection Force], you're down to a bunch of local thugs." American diplomats have suggested any indictment of Ceku would most likely be "sealed" and thereby kept out of the public domain [meaning that public opinion will not be informed of the Court's decision]. Another diplomat said he believed KFOR, the NATO-led peace-keeping force, could not contemplate a public relations disaster with the Albanians by arresting Ceku (Tom Walker, "Kosovo Defense Chief Accused of War Crimes, Sunday Times, October 10, 1999).

The ICTY also cautioned that the inquiry did not necessarily imply that Ceku was responsible for wrongdoings in Kosovo: "The court's inquiries relate to atrocities committed in Krajina between 1993 and 1995." Ceku's record in Kosovo itself is not thought to be in question, although the office of Carla del Ponte, the new chief prosecutor, said an investigation into his activities with the KLA could not be ruled out. The possibility that Ceku, a respected figure in Kosovo, could be accused of war crimes, has sent "shivers through the international community in Kosovo…" (Ibid.).

In other words, the so-called "international community" has firmly relied on an "alleged war criminal" to replicate in Kosovo the massacres and ethnic cleansing conducted in Croatia against Krajina Serbs. Visibly what was shaping up in the wake of the bombings in Kosovo was the continuity of NATO's operation in the Balkans. Military personnel and U.N. bureaucrats previously stationed in Croatia and Bosnia had also been routinely reassigned to Kosovo. In this context, the assignment of Mike Jackson to Kosovo as KFOR Commander was remarkably consistent with the appointment a few months earlier of Brigadier General Agim Ceku as Commander of the KLA.

KFOR Commander Mike Jackson had also been routinely reassigned to Kosovo following his earlier stint in Bosnia/Herzegovina and Croatia. His experience in "ethnic warfare," however, predates the Balkans. From his earlier posting, while in Northern Ireland as a young captain, Jackson was second in command in the "Bloody Sunday" massacre of civilians in Derry in 1972. Under the orders of Lieutenant Derek Wilford, Captain Jackson and 13 other soldiers of the parachute regiment opened fire "on a peaceful protest by the Northern Ireland civil rights association opposing discrimination against Catholics. In just 30 minutes, 13 people were shot dead and 13 injured. Those who died were killed by a single bullet to the head or body, indicating that they had been deliberately targeted. No weapons were found on any of the deceased" (Julie Hyland, "Head of NATO Force in Kosovo, Second-in-Command at Bloody Sunday' Massacre in Ireland," World Socialist Web site, June 19, 1999).

Jackson's role in "Bloody Sunday" "did not hinder his Military career" (Ibid.). From his early stint in Northern Ireland, he was reassigned to the theatre of ethnic warfare in the Balkans. In the immediate wake of Operation Storm and the ethnic massacres in Krajina, Jackson was put in charge as KFOR commander, for organizing the return of Serbs "to lands taken by Croatian HVO forces in the 1995 Krajina offensive." And in this capacity General Mike Jackson had "urged that the resettlement of Krajina Serbs not be rushed to avoid tension with the Croatians while also warning returning Serbs of the extent of the land mine threat (Jane's Defense Weekly, Vol. 25, No. 7, February 14, 1996). In retrospect, recalling the events of early 1996, very few Krajina Serbs were allowed to return to their homes under the protection of the United Nations. According to Veritas, a Belgrade based organization of Serbian refugees from Croatia, some 10,000-15,000 Serbs were able to resettle in Croatia.

A similar process took place in Kosovo where the conduct of senior military officers conformed to a consistent pattern because the same key individuals were reassigned to a "peace-keeping" role in Kosovo. While token efforts were displayed to protect Serb and Roma civilians, those who fled Kosovo were not encouraged to return under U.N. protection. In post-war Kosovo, ethnic cleansing was carried out by the KLA while under the auspices of NATO and the U.N. It has been accepted by the "international community" as a fait accompli.

Moreover, while calling for democracy and "good governance" in the Balkans, the U.S. and its allies have installed in Kosovo a "civilian paramilitary government" with links to organized crime. The outcome is the outright "criminalization" of civilian state institutions in Kosovo and the establishment of what is best described as a "Mafia State." The complicity of NATO and the Alliance governments (namely their relentless support of the KLA) points to the de facto "criminalization" of KFOR and of the U.N. peace-keeping apparatus in Kosovo. The donor agencies and governments (e.g., the funds approved by the U.S. Congress in violation of several U.N. Security Council resolutions) providing financial support to the KLA are, in this regard, also "accessories" to this criminalization of state institutions. Through the intermediation of a paramilitary group (created and financed by Washington and Bonn), NATO ultimately bears the burden of responsibility for the massacres and ethnic cleansing of civilians in Kosovo.

[Magda Hassan]

If you can stand it. But it is interesting to see.

Saving Syria: Assessing Options for Regime Change

Syria, Middle East, The Arab Awakening and Middle East Unrest, International Relations,Democracy Assistance
Daniel L. Byman, Director of Research, Saban Center for Middle East Policy
Michael Doran, Roger Hertog Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Saban Center for Middle East Policy
Kenneth M. Pollack, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Saban Center for Middle East Policy
Salman Shaikh, Director, Brookings Doha Center
The Brookings Institution

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MARCH 15, 2012
Syria is trapped on a crumbling precipice, and however it might fall will entail significant risks for the United States and for the Syrian people.

The brutal regime of Bashar al-Asad is employing its loyal military forces and sectarian thugs to crush the opposition and reassert its tyranny. Even if Bashar fails, Syria may not be out of the woods: an increasingly likely alternative to the current regime is a bloody civil war similar to what we saw in Lebanon, Bosnia, Congo, and most recently in Iraq. The horrors of such a war might even exceed the brutal reassertion of Asad's control, and would cause spillover into Syria's neighborsTurkey, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israelthat could be disastrous for them and for American interests in the Middle East.

But the unrest in Syria, which is now entering its second year, also offers some important opportunities, ones that would come from the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Asad, whose family has ruled the country with an iron grip for over forty years. Syria is Iran's oldest and most important ally in the Arab world, and the Iranian regime has doubled down on Asad, providing him with financial aid and military support to shore up his regime. Asad's departure would deal a significant blow to Tehran, further isolating it at a time when it has few friends in the region or the world. In addition, Damascus is steadfast in its hostility toward Israel, and Asad's regime is also a longtime supporter of terrorist groups like Hizballah and Hamas, and has at times aided al-Qa'ida terrorists and former regime elements in Iraq. The regime's collapse, therefore, could have significant benefits for the United States and its allies in the region.

Actually ousting Asad, however, will not be easy. Although the Obama administration has for months called for Asad to go, every policy option to remove him is flawed, and some could even make the situation worseseemingly a recipe for inaction. Doing nothing, however, means standing by while Asad murders his own people, and Syria plunges into civil war and risks becoming a failed state. Already the violence is staggering: as of March 2012, at least 8,000 Syrians have died and thousands more have been arrested and tortured in trying to topple the regime. At the same time, Syria is fragmenting. The Syrian opposition remains divided, and the Free Syrian Army is more a brand than a meaningful, unified force. Al- Qa'ida is urging fighters to join the fray in Syria, and sectarian killings and atrocities are growing. Should the violence continue to intensify, Syria's neighbors may increase their meddling, and instability could spread, further weakening already-fragile neighbors like Iraq and Lebanon.

So to protect U.S. interests, Asad cannot triumph. But a failed Syria, one wracked by civil war, would be just as bad. Thus, U.S. policy must walk this tightrope, trying to remove Asad, but doing so in a way that keeps Syria an intact state capable of policing its borders and ensuring order at home. At the end of the day, however, removing Asad may not be doable at a price the United States is willing to pay. If so, the U.S. government may be forced to choose between living with a brutal but weakened Asad or getting rid of Asad regardless of the consequences.

This memo lays out six options for the United States to consider to achieve Asad's overthrow, should it choose to do so:

1. Removing the regime via diplomacy;
   
2. Coercing the regime via sanctions and diplomatic isolation;
   
3. Arming the Syrian opposition to overthrow the regime;
   
4. Engaging in a Libya-like air campaign to help an opposition army gain victory;
   
5. Invading Syria with U.S.-led forces and toppling the regime directly; and
   
6. Participating in a multilateral, NATO-led effort to oust Asad and rebuild Syria.
   

The options are complex, and policymakers will probably try to combine several in an attempt to accentuate the positives and minimize the negatives, which will inevitably be difficult and bring out new complications. But by focusing on discrete approaches, this memo helps expose their relative strengths and weaknesses. For each course of action, this memo describes the strategy inherent to the option and what it would entail in practice. It also assesses the option's advantages and disadvantages.

This memo does not endorse any particular policy option. Rather, it seeks to explain the risks and benefits of possible courses of action at this moment in time. As conditions change, some options may become more practical or desirable and others less so. The authors mostly agree on the advantages and disadvantages of each approach but weigh the relative rewards and costs differently.

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Full document here; http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2012/0315_syria_saban/0315_syria_saban.pdf

[Jan Klimkowski]

If you can stand it. But it is interesting to see.

A textbook lesson in the use of banal and tedious language by brutal geopolitical power.