A Mediterranean Battlefield - Syria

[Keith Millea]

[URL="http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/10-4"]

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

Textbook lessons?.....We have Textbooks all right...........

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/10-4[/URL]

Published on Thursday, May 10, 2012 by Common Dreams

US Military Taught Officers: Hiroshima' Tactics For Total War' On Islam

"Taking war to a civilian population wherever necessary"

- Common Dreams staff

The U.S. military has been teaching its future leaders that a "total war" against the world's 1.4 billion Muslims will be necessary to protect America from terrorists, according to documents released today in a stunning story in Wired's Danger Room.



A cartoon included in the Joint Staff Forces College presentation on "Jihad: Defined and Operationalized" contains a number of ugly stereotypes. Hundreds of US military officers have enrolled in the course on Islamic radicalism since it was first offered four years ago at the Defense Department's Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia.

Among the other chilling assertions in the documents:

• advocating "total war" against the world's Muslims
  
• "taking war to a civilian population wherever necessary"
  
• using the lessons of "Hiroshima" to wipe out whole cities at once
  
• applying "the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki" to Islam's holiest cities, and bringing about "Mecca and Medina['s] destruction."
  
• "By conservative estimates," 10 percent of the world's Muslims, "a staggering 140 million people … hate everything you stand for and will never coexist with you, unless you submit" to Islam
  
• International laws protecting civilians in wartime are "no longer relevant"
  

"We have now come to understand that there is no such thing as moderate Islam,'" a July 2011 presentation states. "It is therefore time for the United States to make our true intentions clear. This barbaric ideology will no longer be tolerated. Islam must change or we will facilitate its self-destruction."

The class, led by Army Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley, was cancelled last month, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently ordered the military to reexamine training material to be sure no similar content exists. Lt. Col. Dooley, still holds his position at the Joint Forces Staff College.

* * *

Wired's Danger Room reports:

The course, first reported by Danger Room last month and held at the Defense Department's Joint Forces Staff College, has since been canceled by the Pentagon brass. It's only now, however, that the details of the class have come to light. Danger Room received hundreds of pages of course material and reference documents from a source familiar with the contents of the class.

The commanders, lieutenant colonels, captains and colonels who sat in Dooley's classroom, listening to the inflammatory material week after week, have now moved into higher-level assignments throughout the U.S. military.[...] the officer who delivered the lectures, Army Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley, still maintains his position at the Norfolk, Virginia college, pending an investigation. The commanders, lieutenant colonels, captains and colonels who sat in Dooley's classroom, listening to the inflammatory material week after week, have now moved into higher-level assignments throughout the U.S. military.

For the better part of the last decade, a small cabal of self-anointed counterterrorism experts has been working its way through the U.S. military, intelligence and law enforcement communities, trying to convince whoever it could that America's real terrorist enemy wasn't al-Qaida but the Islamic faith itself. In his course, Dooley brought in these anti-Muslim demagogues as guest lecturers. And he took their argument to its final, ugly conclusion.

"We have now come to understand that there is no such thing as moderate Islam,'" Dooley noted in a July 2011 presentation (.pdf), which concluded with a suggested manifesto to America's enemies. "It is therefore time for the United States to make our true intentions clear. This barbaric ideology will no longer be tolerated. Islam must change or we will facilitate its self-destruction."

International laws protecting civilians in wartime are "no longer relevant," Dooley continues. And that opens the possibility of applying "the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki" to Islam's holiest cities, and bringing about "Mecca and Medina['s] destruction."

Dooley's ideological allies have repeatedly stated that "mainstream" Muslims are dangerous, because they're "violent" by nature. Yet only a few of al-Qaida's most twisted fanatics were ever caught musing about wiping out entire cities.

"Some of these actions offered for consideration here will not be seen as political correct' in the eyes of many," Dooley adds. "Ultimately, we can do very little in the West to decide this matter, short of waging total war."

* * *

Among the class materials:
Former FBI employee John Guandolo's action items (.pdf) for US military officers on what they can do to in their own communities to fight the "enemy."

What Can You Do

1. Educate yourselves about the true nature of the threat.
   
2. Assign someone within your group to do a deep dive on this so you begin developing an internal expert on this material.
   
3. Study the "Usual Responses" document.
   
4. Begin sharing this information with close friends and selected others individually. Then in very small groups. Learn from these encounters, and encourage them to challenge you.
   
5. Study Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies. Understand that LOCAL POLICE are the tip of the spear, and this problem will be solved by citizens at the LOCAL level.
   
6. Know the ideological literature when you see it (Qutb, Maududi, etc). Possession of this material may change the threshold for "reasonable suspicion" and "probable cause" for law enforcement.
   
7. Identify key individuals in your community who are likely to be open to listening to this information. Prepare yourself. Practice. Give the presentation. Encourage them. Follow up.
   
8. Identify key Muslim Brothers and MB organizations in your community.
   
9. Develop a small group of like-minded patriots who have studied and understand the threat. Strategize to regain control of your community.
   
10. Do NOT over-organize. Think like the enemy. Be fluid.
    
11. Do not discuss your strategy publicly.
    
12. Know your allies.
    
13. Consider joining a grassroots organization - locally and nationally (ACT! For America for instance).
    
14. Those in the community who are assisting the enemy (wittingly or unwittingly) should be exposed. This can be done in a number of ways. Consider spending time recruiting/educating a member of the local media - especially a young, aggressive reporter from the local paper.
    
15. Put the heat on those elected officials helping the enemy. Be aggressive. Take a crowd to a city council meeting and demand action. This is one tactic that works.
    
16. Push back at every turn. Do not allow any compliance with Shari'ah at any level.
    
17. Study the foundational principles of America, the Declaration and the Constitution. We must know the enemy AND we must know ourselves.
    
18. Create an education campaign for the community that stresses TRUTH and FACTS.
    
19. Engage your local police department and city attorney on this issue. When speaking with attorneys ensure you keep your language focused on Islamic LAW and that it is diametrically opposed to Article 6 of the US Constitution.
    
20. Engage leaders of local churches and synagogues.
    
21. Initiate a relationship with a key member of your local town council, your state representative/senator, and your US Congressmen and Senators. Go slowly. Don't give them the entire block of information in one sitting. Ask them the questions - act concerned not over-the-top. Remain objective and UNEMOTIONAL. Be consistent.
    
22. Speak to the leadership of your state National Guard about the Islamic Movement.
    
23. Learn what is going on at the Islamic Schools and Mosques in your community. Request to see the teaching materials.
    
24. Attend functions at the local college when someone speaks truthfully about Islam and observe the reaction.
    
25. Go to the local mosques and ask them if you can speak at Friday prayers and share the Gospel with the attendees.
    
26. Engage your local FBI Field Office and ask them about the amount of training they receive on the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Doctrine, and the Islamic Movement in the U.S. and across the globe.
    
27. Know that if you are effective, there will be push back from the other side - the MB. Have a TEAM assembled. Don't go it alone. Remember to target the good guys who are helping the bad guys first. If 'you go after a Muslim Brother to create a public issue, get help from someone with a deep level of knowledge on this and plan well. The MB has an entire machine ready to pounce on you. Don't give them the opportunity.
    
28. Remember - we are at war. Act like it. You are part of a resistance movement, not a social club.
    

# # #

[Jan Klimkowski]

Keith - great find.

Let's remind ourselves of the philosophical inheritance of the US Military's renewed lust for "Total War".

The phrase can be traced back to the 1936 publication of General Ludendorff's World War I memoir Der Totale Krieg ("The Total War"). The concept is extended by some authors back as far as Clausewitz's classic work On War as "absoluter Krieg" (however, the relevant passages have been interpreted in diverging ways by different authors[2]), and to the French "guerre à outrance" during the Franco-Prussian War.[3][4][5]

USAF General Curtis LeMay updated the concept for the nuclear age. In 1949, he was first to propose that a total war in the nuclear age would consist of delivering the entire nuclear arsenal in a single overwhelming blow, going as far as "killing a nation".

Source.

Killing a nation.

Taking war to a civilian population wherever necessary.

Using the lessons of "Hiroshima" to wipe out whole cities at once

"What about ordering a village of resistants to be massacred? ... Is that a power that the president could legally -"
"Yeah," Yoo replied, according to a partial transcript included in the report. "Although, let me say this: So, certainly, that would fall within the commander-in-chief's power over tactical decisions."
"To order a village of civilians to be [exterminated]?" the OPR investigator asked again.
"Sure," said Yoo.

Remember this thread.

Ben Tre.

"It became necessary to destroy the town to save it," a U.S. major said Wednesday. He was talking about the grim decision that allied commanders made when Viet Cong attackers overran most of this Mekong Delta city 45 miles southwest of Saigon. They decided that regardless of civilian casualties they must bomb and shell the once placid river city of 35,000 to rout the Viet Cong forces.

[Lauren Johnson]

Once upon a time, there was this general and he alone decided to let a course and its content be taught to some officers. The course was Unthinkable as well as Unspeakable. But indeed it was spoken by an "expert." Gasp! How could this happen? And so it is stopped and all the content was found and destroyed and the general was not reprimanded. And everyone lived happily ever after.

Doesn't this all seem a little too convenient? Is it just too doppelgangery? Too much cognitive dissonancy? What is it that we are being prepared for?

[Magda Hassan]

Top U.S. Officer: Stop This Total War' on Islam Talk

• By Spencer Ackerman
  
• Email Author
  
• May 10, 2012 |
  
• 3:50 pm |
  
• Categories: Crime and Homeland Security, Military Life
  

Photo: Department of Defense

America's top military officer condemned in the strongest possible terms a Defense Department course that taught troops to prep for a "total war" on Islam using "Hiroshima"-style tactics.
"It was totally objectionable, against our values and it wasn't academically sound," Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a Pentagon press conference on Thursday. The instructor responsible for the course, Army Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley, is "no longer in a teaching status," Dempsey added but he is still employed at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va.
Dempsey's comments were prompted by a Danger Room report on Thursday that described Dooley's course in detail. For at least a year, Dooley taught an optional course at the college for lieutenant colonels, colonels, commanders and Navy captains that proposed taking a war on Islam "to the civilian population wherever necessary," which he likened to the bombardment of Dresden and nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Guest lecturers in the course encouraged those senior officers to think of themselves as a "resistance movement" to Islam.
Dempsey and his deputy for military education, Marine Lt. Gen. George Flynn, pulled the plug on the course last month. The general said he was "quite thankful" for an unnamed military officer who brought word of the anti-Islam material to his attention. Dempsey and his staff launched an investigation into "what motivated that elective to being part of the curriculum," as he put it on Thursday, and the general also sent a letter to the heads of every military service and regional command instructing them to jettison any similar material, as per a White House directive issued last fall.
The inquiry, conducted by Army Maj. Gen. Frederick Rudesheim, is scheduled to conclude on May 24. Any disciplinary action against Dooley; the college's commandant, Maj. Gen. Joseph Ward; or any other officer is contingent on its findings.
"Final judgment should await General Rudesheim's findings, but it's not too early to say that these excerpts are offensive (though that word may be a bit mild here)," e-mails Douglas Ollivant, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Iraq veteran who has taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. "Further, presentations like this do real harm to those trying to carefully distinguish extremism and support for it from otherwise admirable religious devotion."
The harm perpetuated on student officers "who accepted the implied authority of the instructor," Ollivant added, "is obvious."
The military is hardly alone in dealing with anti-Islam instructional material passing itself off as responsible counterterrorism. Over the years, hundreds of documents claiming "mainstream" Muslims are "violent" have made their way into FBI curricula, alongside internal claims that agents working on counterterrorism cases could "bend or suspend the law."
"Plenty of U.S. military officers and troops were inspired by their service in either Iraq or Afghanistan to learn Arabic or Dari and study the peoples of the region. I left the Army in 2004, as a matter of fact, to pursue a master's degree in Middle Eastern Studies at the American University of Beirut," says Andrew Exum, a retired Army captain who now serves as a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. "But plenty of other officers and troops began their own amateurish studies of Islam and now, like Lt. Col. Dooley, peddle claims to know the truth about the violence and hatred at the heart of Islam. Pope's warning that a little learning can be a dangerous thing is certainly relevant here. These hucksters, like the Robert Spencers of the world, know just enough to make themselves sound credible to an uninformed audience and hide their prejudices under a thin layer of amateurish, ideologically motivated scholarship."

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/...sponsible/

[Peter Lemkin]

Pentagon Course Taught "Total War" Against Islam - [NICE! ]

New details have been revealed on a military course recently cancelled by the Pentagon for teaching senior military officers the United States is at war with Islam. According to course materials obtained by Wired magazine, the class instructor Army Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley of the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia taught that the United States will need to fight a "total war" against the world's Muslims to protect the nation. Dooley also instructed that the United States should "[take] war to a civilian population wherever necessary" and apply the "the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki" to Islam's holiest cities, bringing about "Mecca and Medina['s] destruction." Dooley also told his pupils : "By conservative estimates, a staggering 140 million [Muslims] ... hate everything you stand for and will never coexist with you, unless you submit [to Islam]." In addition, Dooley's course declared international laws protecting civilians are "no longer relevant" in the fight against Islam. A presentation from July 2011 declared: "This barbaric ideology will no longer be tolerated. Islam must change or we will facilitate its self-destruction." Finally, Dooley instructed his students: "Remember we are at war. Act like it. You are part of a resistance movement, not a social club." Dooley's course was suspended last month, but he remains on staff at the college.

[Adele Edisen]

Tue, June 19, 2012 6:09:32 AM
Michel Chossudovsky: Hidden US-Israeli Military Agenda - "Break Syria into Pieces"
From: Global Research E-Newsletter <crgeditor@yahoo.com>

Hidden US-Israeli Military Agenda: "Break Syria into Pieces"
By Prof. Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, June 16, 2012

URL of this article: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=31454 (selecting the website here will provide the reference maps listed below. - A E)

Detailed analysis on Syria.

Over 30 chapters, available from Global Ressearch at no charge:

SYRIA: NATO's Next "Humanitarian" War?
ONLINE INTERACTIVE I-BOOK
- by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky - 2012-07-15

A timely article in the Jerusalem Post last month brings to the forefront the unspoken objective of US foreign policy, namely the breaking up of Syria as a sovereign nation state --along ethnic and religious lines-- into several separate and "independent" political entities. The article also confirms the role of Israel in the process of political destabilization of Syria. The JP article is titled: "Veteran Kurdish politician calls on Israel to support the break-up of Syria' (by Jonathan Spyer) (The Jerusalem Post (May 16, 2012)

Sherkoh Abbas, President of the US based Kurdistan National Assembly of Syria (KNA) has "called on Israel to support the break-up of Syria into a series of federal structures based on the country's various ethnicities." (Ibid)

The objective of the US sponsored armed insurgency is --with the help of Israel-- to "Break Syria into Pieces".

The "balkanisation of the Syrian Arab Republic" is to be carried out by fostering sectarian divisions, which will eventually lead to a "civil war" modelled on the former Yugoslavia.

One possible "break-up scenario" pertaining to Syria, which constitutes a secular multi-ethnic society, would be the formation of separate and "independent" Sunni, Alawite-Shiite, Kurdish and Druze states: "We need to break Syria into pieces," Abbas said. (Quoted in JP, op. cit., emphasis added).

"The Syrian Kurdish dissident argued that a federal Syria, separated into four or five regions on an ethnic basis, would also serve as a natural "buffer" for Israel against both Sunni and Shi'ite Islamist forces." (Ibid.).

Ironically, while Islamist forces are said to constitute the main threat to the Jewish State, Tel Aviv is providing covert support to the Islamist Free Syrian Army (FSA).


Map 1

Meeting behind Closed Doors at the US State Department

A top level US State Department meeting was held in May with members of the Syrian Kurdish opposition. In attendance were representatives of the Kurdish National Council (KNC), Robert Stephen Ford, the outgoing US ambassador to Syria (who has played a key role in channelling support to the rebels) as well as Frederic C. Hof, a former business partner of Richard Armitage, who currently serves as the administration's "special coordinator on Syria". (Ibid). The delegation also met with Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman.

Frederic C. Hof, Robert Stephen Ford and Jeffrey Feltman are the State Department's key Syria policy-makers, with close links to the Syrian Free Army (SFA) and the Syrian National Council (SNC).

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman

Frederic C. Hof, The Administration's "special coordinator on Syria"

Robert S. Ford, outgoing US Ambassador to Syria

The public statements of KNA leader Sherkoh Abbas in the wake of the State Department meeting suggest that the political fracturing of the Syrian Arab Republic along ethnic and religious lines as well as the creation of an "independent Kurdistan" were discussed. "State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner described [the meeting's] purpose as part of 'ongoing efforts... to help the Syrian [Kurdish] opposition build a more cohesive opposition to Assad.'" (Ibid).

The KNA leader called upon Washington to support the creation of a separate Kurdish State consisting of "an autonomous region in Syria; joining the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq which borders the Kurdish region in Syria; or perhaps an even larger Kurdish state" [Greater Kurdistan].

"The Kurdish people, in all parts of Kurdistan, seek the right to form an independent Kurdish state. We can only achieve this cherished goal with the help of the western democracies, and first and foremost the U.S." said Sherkoh Abbas. (Syria: An Alternative, Choice, Ekurd.net, May 22, 2012)

It is worth noting, in this regard, that the creation of a "Greater Kurdistan" has been envisaged for several years by the Pentagon as part of a broader "Plan for Redrawing the Middle East".(See map 2 below)

This option, which appears unlikely in the near future, would go against the interests of Turkey, a staunch ally of both the US and Israel. Another scenario, which is contemplated by Ankara would consist in the annexation to Turkey of parts of Syrian Kurdistan. (See map above).

"Greater Kurdistan" would include portions of Iran, Syria, Iraq and Turkey as conveyed in Coronel Ralph Peters (ret) celebrated map of "The New Middle East" (see below). (For Further details see Mahdi Nazemroaya's November 2006 Global Research article).

Colonel Peters taught at the US Military Academy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Plans for Redrawing the Middle East: The Project for a "New Middle East"
- by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya - 2006-11-18
Towards the balkanization (division) and finlandization (pacification) of the Middle East

Map 2. The New Middle East

The following map was prepared by Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters. It was published in the Armed Forces Journal in June 2006,
Peters is a retired colonel of the U.S. National War Academy. (Map Copyright Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters 2006).

Although the map does not officially reflect Pentagon doctrine, it has been used in a training program at NATO's Defense College for senior military officers.
This map, as well as other similar maps, has most probably been used at the National War Academy as well as in military planning circles.


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

[Lauren Johnson]

The New ME Map (Map 2) does not favor Israel. It shows Israel with its pre-1967 borders and the West Bank as "yet to be determined." It seems to suggest that Israel will not be occupying the Golan. This is despite the current regime thinks in terms of Greater Israel. There has to be a Map 3 somewhere.

[Peter Lemkin]

The New York Times is reporting CIA officers are secretly aiding the struggle against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by helping decide which anti-government fighters will receive arms. A small number of CIA officers are operating in southern Turkey, where weapons are being funneled across the border into Syria. The Obama administration has denied giving arms to the rebels, and a U.S. official said the CIA is there in part to prevent the wrong people from getting their hands on the weapons. One Arab intelligence officer told the paper, "CIA officers are there and they are trying to make new sources and recruit people."

[Adele Edisen]

Thu, June 21, 2012 7:04:45 PM
New Cold War: The War by Proxy in Syria
From: Global Research E-Newsletter <crgeditor@yahoo.com>

New Cold War: The War by Proxy in Syria
Selected Articles

Global Research, June 21, 2012

URL of this article: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&aid=31512

History books tell us that the Cold War was a period of tensions between the two superpowers which emerged after the second world war, the U.S. and the Soviet Union and their respective allies. Always on the brink of war, the two super powers never reached military confrontation. Or so we are told.

The reality is quite far from that mainstream history revisonism. The Cold War was a period of constant armed confrontation, which took the form of proxy wars on almost every continent. The Mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War illustrate that phenomenon which is replicated today in Syria: "rebels" sponsored by the U.S and their allies are seeking to instate a puppet regime....

Scott Taylor notes in Syria Strategy looks like Bloody Repeat :

Now, even as our NATO allies continue to take mounting casualties in Afghanistan, western reporters embedded with Syrian rebel forces are painting the Islamic fundamentalists as heroic freedom fighters.

Last week, a report by David Enders, of the American media outlet McClatchy Newspapers, revealed that the Syrian rebels are using explosively formed penetrators to knock out Assad's armoured vehicles. It was noted that these same penetrators were the bane of U.S. forces during their occupation of neighbouring Iraq.

Again, this might make one contemplate the possibility that Assad is not beyond reason when he claims to be combating "foreign fighters bent on establishing an Islamic republic."

In Washington Arming Syrian Insurgents, Stephen Lendman observes :

It's no surprise. It's an open secret. It's been ongoing since early last year directly and/or indirectly. Rhetorically supporting peace while waging war exposes Washington's transparent hypocrisy.

On June 15, the UK Daily Telegraph headlined "US holds high-level talks with Syrian rebels seeking weapons in Washington," saying:

In the past week, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) representative met with outgoing Syrian ambassador Robert Ford and special Syrian coordinator Frederick Hof at the State Department.

Washington's Blog says a "Cold War II" Has Begun … In Syria

We noted in February:

The U.S. is supporting the Syrian opposition (and see this), considering military options for ousting the Syrian government, American allies Britain and Qatar allegedly already have foreign troops inside Syria, and the U.S. has been planning regime change in Syria for over 50 years.

Indeed, the United States is fighting on the same side as 3 terrorist groups in Syria.

Even Pat Buchanan asks:

If its good for Al Qaeda, can it be good for us?

Indeed, terrorist rebels have been responsible for much of the violence inside Syria. And outside monitors have confirmed that the situation on the ground is much different than it is being portrayed in the Western media. (And according to the large German newspaper FAZ, those recently massacred in Hama were on the same side as Syrian leader Assad).

According to Michel Chossudovsky: "The objective of the US sponsored armed insurgency is --with the help of Israel-- to "Break Syria into Pieces".

The "balkanisation of the Syrian Arab Republic" is to be carried out by fostering sectarian divisions, which will eventually lead to a "civil war" modelled on the former Yugoslavia. Last month, Syrian "opposition militants" were dispatched to Kosovo to organize training sessions using the "terrorist expertise" of the US sponsored Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in fighting the Yugoslav armed forces."

Global Research invites its readers to take a look at the latest news items on the proxy war in Syria.


SELECTED ARTICLES

BREAKING: "Private Security Companies" in Syria, Supporting Rebels: Foreign Mercenaries Detained
- by Christoph R. Hörstel - 2012-06-20

Fake News: Russia denies planning war games in Syria
- 2012-06-19

Syria: Media Lies, Hidden Agendas and Strange Alliances
- by Richard Lightbown - 2012-06-18

Russia Announces It Will Send Warships to Syria

- by Kurt Nimmo - 2012-06-18

Russian Navy squadron to sail to Syrian port
- 2012-06-18

Syria Strategy looks like Bloody Repeat
- by Scott Taylor - 2012-06-18
Washington Arming Syrian Insurgents
- by Stephen Lendman - 2012-06-18

Imperialism and the Houla massacre
- by Alex Lantier - 2012-06-17
US Attempting to Trigger Full Proxy War in Syria
Torrent of propaganda, foreign arms, and political sabotage seeks to fulfill broader plans for destabilization
- by Tony Cartalucci - 2012-06-17

Pentagon finalizes "Contingency Plans" for Syria Invasion
- 2012-06-16

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung confirms: Houla massacre committed by Syrian "rebels"
- by Clara Weiss - 2012-06-16

Hidden US-Israeli Military Agenda: "Break Syria into Pieces"
- by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky - 2012-06-16
The objective of the US sponsored armed insurgency is --with the help of Israel-- to "Break Syria into Pieces". The "balkanisation of Syria" is to be carried out by fostering sectarian divisions, which will eventually lead to a "civil war" modelled on the former Yugoslavia.

Death of Spanish Mercenaries in Syria Revealed
- by Claudia Gomez - 2012-06-16

U.S. Exploits Syrian Situation For Showdown With Russia
- by Rick Rozoff - 2012-06-15

The New Obama Doctrine, A Six-Point Plan for Global War
Special Ops, Drones, Spy Games, Civilian Soldiers, Proxy Fighters, and Cyber Warfare
- by Nick Turse - 2012-06-14

"Cold War II" Has Begun … In Syria
The U.S. and Russia Are In a New Cold War … And China May Join In
- by Washington's Blog - 2012-06-13


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

[Jan Klimkowski]

Saudi money to bankroll the balkanization of Syria.

Saudi Arabia plans to fund Syria rebel army

Exclusive: Command centre in Turkey organising weapon supply to opposition

Martin Chulov in Beirut, Ewen MacAskill in Washington, John Densky in Idlib province

guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 June 2012 18.03 BST

Saudi officials are preparing to pay the salaries of the Free Syria Army as a means of encouraging mass defections from the military and increasing pressure on the Assad regime, the Guardian has learned.

The move, which has been discussed between Riyadh and senior officials in the US and Arab world, is believed to be gaining momentum as a recent flush of weapons sent to rebel forces by Saudi Arabia and Qatar starts to make an impact on battlefields in Syria.

Officials in the Saudi capital embraced the idea when it was put to them by Arab officials in May, according to sources in three Arab states, around the same time that weapons started to flow across the southern Turkish border into the hands of Free Syria Army leaders.

Turkey has also allowed the establishment of a command centre in Istanbul which is co-ordinating supply lines in consultation with FSA leaders inside Syria. The centre is believed to be staffed by up to 22 people, most of them Syrian nationals.

The Guardian witnessed the transfer of weapons in early June near the Turkish frontier. Five men dressed in the style of Gulf Arabs arrived in a police station in the border village of Altima in Syria and finalised a transfer from the Turkish town of Reyhanli of around 50 boxes of rifles and ammunition, as well as a large shipment of medicines.

The men were treated with deference by local FSA leaders and were carrying large bundles of cash. They also received two prisoners held by rebels, who were allegedly members of the pro-regime militia, the Shabiha.

The influx of weapons has reinvigorated the insurrection in northern Syria, which less than six weeks ago was on the verge of being crushed.

The move to pay the guerrilla forces' salaries is seen as a chance to capitalise on the sense of renewed confidence, as well as provide a strong incentive for soldiers and officers to defect. The value of the Syrian pound has fallen sharply in value since the anti-regime revolt started 16 months ago, leading to a dramatic fall in purchasing power.

The plan centres on paying the FSA in either US dollars or euros, meaning their salaries would be restored to their pre-revolution levels, or possibly increased.

The US senator Joe Lieberman, who is actively supporting the Syrian opposition, discussed the issue of FSA salaries during a recent trip to Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

His spokesman, Wayne Phillips, said: "Senator Lieberman has called for the US to provide robust and comprehensive support to the armed Syrian opposition, in co-ordination with our partners in the Middle East and Europe. He has specifically called for the US to work with our partners to provide the armed Syrian opposition with weapons, training, tactical intelligence, secure communications and other forms of support to change the military balance of power inside Syria.

"Senator Lieberman also supports the idea of ensuring that the armed opposition fighters receive regular and sufficient pay, although he does not believe it is necessary for the United States to provide this funding itself directly."

US defence secretary Leon Panetta said this week Washington was not playing a direct role in gun-running into northern Syria. "We made a decision not to provide lethal assistance at this point. I know others have made their own decisions."

Earlier this week the New York Times reported the CIA was operating in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which opposition fighters would get weapons.

Diplomatic sources have told the Guardian two US intelligence officers were in Syria's third city of Homs between December and early February, trying to establish command and control within rebel ranks.

Interviews with officials in three states reveal the influx of weapons which includes kalashnikovs, rocket propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles started in mid-May, when Saudi Arabia and Qatar finally moved on pledges they had made in February and March to arm rebel forces.

The officials, who insisted on anonymity, said the final agreement to move weapons from storage points inside Turkey into rebel hands was hard won, with Ankara first insisting on diplomatic cover from the Arab states and the US.

Turkey is understood to view the weapons supply lines as integral to the protection of its southern border, which is coming under increasing pressure as regime forces edge closer in an attempt to stop the gun-running and attack FSA units.

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were all allies of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad until several months into the uprising, which now poses a serious threat to his family's 42-year rule over the country.

All three states have become increasingly hostile as the revolt has continued, with Saudi Arabia in February describing the suggestion to arm rebel groups as an "excellent idea" and Qatar having offered exile to Assad and his family.

For the first few months of this year the three states were waiting for the US to take a proactive role in intervening in Syria, something Washington has so far not seriously considered.

With a presidential election later this year, and weighed down by the troubled legacy of Iraq, Barack Obama has shown no enthusiasm for a major foreign policy play. Polling in the US has consistently shown that voters have little appetite for intervention in Syria, while officials from Washington to London and Brussels have warned of grave risks to the region which may follow the fall of Damascus.

Assad continues to cast his regime's battle for survival as an existential threat from radical Sunni Islamists, who he says are backed by foreign states.

The Free Syria Army says its members are almost exclusively Syrian nationalists who disavow the world view of jihadists who flocked to neighbouring Iraq from 2004-07. It acknowledges that some foreign Arab fighters have travelled to Syria to join its ranks, particularly in Homs and in Douma near Damascus, but claims they do not play a decisive role.

Intelligence officials say a power vacuum would provide an attractive environment for militants who espouse a global jihad world view. "The next three to six months are crucial in Syria," one official said. "The ingredients are right for them [jihadists] to turn up and start acting decisively. That would not be a good outcome."