On February 17, subscribers to the mailing list of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) received a message entitled “Want to Know What’s Going On in Syria?” inviting them to a special conference call briefing from Farid Ghadry, co-founder of The Reform Party of Syria. The invitation from the hawkish Israel lobby think tank — whose half-accurate motto is “Securing America, Strengthening Israel” — to the February 22 briefing reads:
In October of 2001, Mr. Ghadry, along with several Syrian-Americans, formed the Reform Party of Syria. A constitution was written and a constructive and comprehensive program has been put in place to bring regime change to Syria. Today, the party is enjoying the tacit support from many organizations and people in the U.S. administration and think tanks in Washington.
Mr. Ghadry and the other co-founders of RPS are hoping to return to Syria one day to rebuild the country on the basis of principles of real economic and political reforms that will usher democracy, prosperity, freedom of expression, and human rights in addition to lasting peace with open borders with all of Syria’s neighboring countries.
Not mentioned but well-understood by the men from JINSA is that the well-connected Syrian “reformer” has been groomed to facilitate that unlikely democratic utopia by leading Iraq war architect Richard Perle, a prominent member of JINSA’s advisory board until a few weeks ago. But as the Prince of Darkness’s biographer wrote in a 2007 Los Angeles Times article:
Unfortunately for Perle, Ghadry is seen in many quarters as a front man for Israel. Not only is he a dues-paying member of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful Israeli lobby in Washington, but a recent column on his Web site, titled “Why I Admire Israel,” seems to play right into the hands of those who believe the Bush administration’s obsession with regime change in the Middle East is really all about protecting Israel. Did Perle, the savviest of Washington power players, believe that Ghadry’s tub-thumping for Tel Aviv would make him more popular in Syria?
“No,” Perle replied. “I don’t. But he’s his own man. I don’t always understand what he’s doing and why he’s doing it.”
So, in his quest for idealistic dissidents to do in the Middle East what the Walesas and Havels achieved in Eastern Europe, Perle and his acolytes have tapped the discredited Ahmad Chalabi for Iraq, the suspect Amir Abbas Fakhravar for Iran and the allegiance-challenged Fahrid Ghadry for Syria. They’re just not making heroes like they used to.
Perhaps Farid Ghadry’s pro-Israel image problem is why there appears to be no mention of his conference call briefing on the JINSA website. There is, however, one rather revealing reference to Perle’s Syrian Chalabi. In its Events & Programs section, under “New York Cabinet Meetings 2009, 2010 & 2011,” there is the following brief entry:
“The Role of Syria in the Middle East: Friend of Iran, Host to Hamas, and Patron of Hizbullah” – Farid Ghadry, President, Reform Party of Syria
To put all this into the broader context of the supposedly Israel-threatening “Arab Spring” — which the LA Times reference to Perle’s “quest for idealistic dissidents to do in the Middle East what the Walesas and Havels achieved in Eastern Europe” seems to prefigure — a seminal event, which I have previously written about, was held almost five years ago that brought together Israel partisans concerned with “rolling back Syria” among other regional rivals and their native collaborators:
Under the direction of Natan Sharansky, the former Israeli minister who resigned his cabinet seat in 2005 in protest over Ariel Sharon’s Gaza disengagement plan, the [Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies] held a “Democracy and Security” conference in Prague in 2007. It brought together Israeli officials; their American neoconservative sympathizers with their favourite Middle Eastern dissidents in tow — most notably, Richard Perle’s Israel-admiring Syrian protégé Farid Ghadry; and the newly-installed Eastern European democrats swept to power in the wake of a wave of neocon-backed “color revolutions,” the latter group presumably serving to inspire the Arab and Iranian participants to emulate them.
So, if you want to know what’s going on in JINSA’s road to regime change in Damascus, please RSVP to jcolbert@jinsa.org or call 202-667-3900 , Ext. 224.
Members of al-Qaeda have infiltrated Syrian opposition groups, and likely executed recent bombings in the nation’s capital and largest city, the United States’ top intelligence official said Thursday.
The remarks by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper are the most definitive to date from a senior Obama administration official on al-Qaeda’s efforts to insert itself into the Syrian uprising.
Two bombings in Damascus in December, as well as deadly attacks on security and intelligence buildings in Aleppo last week, “had all the earmarks of an al-Qaeda-like attack,” Clapper said, adding that the network’s affiliate in Iraq “is extending its reach into Syria.”
But Clapper suggested that al-Qaeda has so far not sought to call attention to its presence, and that its operatives may have slipped into groups of fighters opposed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Al-Qaeda extremists “have infiltrated” opposition groups that “in many cases may not be aware they are there,” Clapper said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services committee.
U.S. intelligence agencies have not detected an influx of fighters from neighboring countries into Syria, where opposition forces are fragmented and often feuding, with little indication that a leader will soon emerge, officials said.
So far there has been no “clarion call to outsiders coming in,” said Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. “We haven’t seen much of that up to this time, so basically the team that’s on the ground is playing with what it has.”
Burgess’s comments came just days after al-Qaeda leader Aymen al-Zawahiri released a video message urging fighters in Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to mobilize against Assad.
Al-Qaeda has largely been relegated to the sidelines in a series of uprisings across the Arab world over the past year, and its affiliate in Iraq has struggled to regroup after being hunted to near extinction by Shiite militias aligned with the American military “surge.”
U.S. officials for several weeks have been saying that the bombings in Syria bore certain characteristics of previous al-Qaeda operations, but that no definitive evidence had surfaced to establish that link.
Clapper seemed to go a step farther, describing al-Qaeda’s presence among militant groups as “another disturbing phenomenon that we’ve seen.”
Clapper said that the fighting in Syria is likely to remain at a stalemate without external intervention. Assad may see no alternative to extending the crackdown against opposition groups “because of his psychological need to emulate his father,” who controlled the country for decades with a similarly ruthless approach.
Even so, U.S. intelligence agencies have seen indications that members of Assad’s inner circle are already preparing for a possible coup. “We’ve seen signs of some of the senior [leaders] in the Assad regime making contingency plans to evacuate, move families, move financial resources,” Clapper said. “To this point, they’ve held together.”
Coordinating help for Syrian opposition was high on the list in Paris talks between the French and British leaders on Friday. Anti-government troops lack unity and training, so sending military advisors could change the situation, the sides agreed.
rt.com
The leaders of the two countries spoke of the need to find new ways of getting rid of “brutal dictator” Assad, who is “butchering and murdering” his own people.
“We have to put all the pressure we can on Bashar al-Assad to make him stand down,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said during the press conference on Friday. “I want us to go on working and thinking and asking ourselves what more we can do.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy believes that the Syrian opposition needs outside assistance in coming together for joint action.
“The Syrian opposition has to unite and organize to help us help them,” Sarkozy said at a press conference. “We never could have done what we did in Libya without the NTC taking the initiative.”
Behind the scenes, Cameron and Sarkozy are believed to have discussed further ways of helping the armed branch of the Syrian opposition, the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
Both countries said officially they do not plan to provide arms or troops to support the uprising. They pledged they would limit their aid to diplomatic support and help to human rights groups in documenting alleged atrocities.
However the Syrian opposition remains disorganized and divided. Some British cabinet level officials believe a more substantial support of the FSA is needed, possibly organizational in nature, according to Guardian newspaper.
Britain and France may send military advisors to teach the Syrian insurgents combat tactics, communication and other skills needed to attack governmental forces. Earlier unconfirmed reports said that British military are already on the ground in the besieged city Homs doing the job.
The summit in Paris comes ahead of the fist meeting of the Friends of Syria group in Tunisia on February 24. The international team aims to further isolate Bashar Assad’s government and whip up support for the opposition.
Britain and UK were the champions in the last year’s bombing campaign in Libya, which ended with the ousting of the country’s leader Muammar Gaddafi and transition of power to the rebels. They used their Navy and Air Force to attack pro-government forces, sent military advisers to the rebels and even supplied them with arms in violation of the UN embargo. The operation was called the biggest success in NATO history.
A group called Friends of Libya, which included France and Britain, was used for diplomatic support of the Libyan opposition and coordination of the NATO operation. It also handled the post-war settlement in the country, which included confirmation of Gaddafi-era contracts with members of the group, handing over of seized Syrian assets to the new government and distribution of contracts for rebuilding the country.
Sec.-Gen. Anders Fogh Rasmussen urges Middle East countries to find solution for violence
ed note–remember as you read this–
Wilson promised to keep America out of WWI.
FDR promised to keep America out of WWII.
–promises, promises…
And if indeed there is ANY truth to Rasmussen’s statements, it is ONLY because Zionist-owned Nato knows that military action in Syria equates to problems with Russia.
jpost.com
ANKARA – NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Western alliance had no intention of intervening in Syria even in the event of a UN mandate to protect civilians, and urged Middle East countries to find a way to end the spiraling violence.
Rasmussen told Reuters on Friday he also rejected the possibility of providing logistical support for proposed “humanitarian corridors” to ferry relief to towns and cities bearing the brunt of President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
“We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria,” Rasmussen said in an interview, during a visit to mark the 60th anniversary of Turkey joining the alliance.
While NATO had acted under a United Nations mandate to protect civilians in Libya and had also received active support from several fellow Arab countries, neither condition had been fulfilled in Syria.
Asked if NATO’s stance would change if the United Nations provided a mandate, Rasmussen was doubtful.
“No, I don’t think so because Syria is also a different society, it is much more complicated ethnically, politically, religiously. That’s why I do believe that a regional solution should be found,” he said.
Thousands of civilians have been killed by Syrian security forces since an uprising against Assad’s rule began last March. The government says more than 2,000 soldiers and police have been killed by foreign-backed “terrorists”.
International powers along with the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League will meet in Tunis on Feb. 24 as part of a newly-created “Friends of Syria Group” to look for a way out of a crisis that has raised fears of wider sectarian strife between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.
Trying Diplomacy
Turkey, a Muslim NATO member bordering Syria, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has been at the forefront of regional efforts to persuade Assad to end the brutal repression and give way to protesters’ demands for more democracy and freedom.
Earlier this month, China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Syria that was partly based on an Arab League plan, prompting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to accuse major powers of regarding Syria as a “bargaining chip.”
Iran is the Assad government’s other main source of support. Turkey has sought to play the role of “honest broker” between its Western partners and neighbouring Iran, over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.
Iran was irked by Turkey’s agreement to host a NATO anti-missile radar defense system.
And concern has been voiced inside Turkey over the possibility that information provided by the radar system could be passed to Israel. Rasmussen sought to dispel such concerns.
“It is a NATO system and the data within that system will not be shared with third countries. It is a NATO system and of course we will share data within the NATO framework,” he said.
Having championed the cause for a Palestinian state, Turkey is now on bad terms with Israel, which is a regional partner of NATO, while not a member.
BEIRUT — With his nation plunging toward civil war, Syrian President Bashar Assad said Wednesday that a nationwide referendum would be held this month on a new constitution that is the centerpiece of what he says is a plan to reform the country.
The opposition dismissed the announcement as an effort to buy time, and it was not clear how the a vote could be carried out in a country torn by violence. Large areas of Syria are no longer under government control.
The new constitution would enshrine freedom of speech and worship and end the current monopoly on power held by Assad’s Baath party, which has ruled for four decades. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said it could “turn Syria into an example to follow in terms of public freedoms and political plurality.”
Assad’s foes say the government regularly tramples rights guaranteed in the current constitution. They scoffed at the proposed changes as a sign of desperation.
“This shows Assad is living in an alternate reality,” said Rafif Jouejati, a U.S.-based spokeswoman for the Local Coordinating Committees, a Syrian opposition network. “It’s completely impractical.”
White House spokesman Jay Carney labeled the proposed referendum “laughable. … It makes a mockery of the Syrian revolution,” Carney said.
The referendum is probably meant in part to please Syria’s dwindling list of foreign allies, notably Russia, which along with China vetoed a Security Council resolution this month for Assad to give up power. Russia has pressed Assad to push ahead with reforms.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking in The Hague, Netherlands, called the plan for a referendum “a step forward.”
As Assad announced the referendum, a thick plume of smoke billowed from a fuel pipeline in the city of Homs, which has become a focus of the escalating conflict. The government and the opposition accused each other of attacking the pipeline in Syria’s third-largest city.
Opposition activists said the government had launched new assaults on Homs and other rebel strongholds. The opposition reported at least 32 people were killed across the country, reported Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite network.
Syrians fleeing the violence have flooded into Lebanon, though not in the numbers the United Nations had expected. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has registered more than 6,000 Syrian refugees in Beirut and northern Lebanon and estimates 2,000 to 3,000 more are living in the Bekaa Valley, in eastern Lebanon.
Lebanese activists who have formed a coalition of groups to aid refugees estimated the number of Syrians that have fled since mass demonstrations against the Syrian government began nearly one year ago could be as high as 20,000. They said many of those don’t bother to register with the U.N. because they don’t need aid. Others avoid registering out of fear of being identified by the Syrian government.
At the U.N., diplomats were working on a General Assembly resolution condemning the Syrian government, which may come Thursday. General Assembly action carries less weight than a Security Council resolution, but cannot be vetoed.
Here is the NYT openly reporting that the Jordan Muslim Brotherhood as well as Al Qaeda are taking part in the Syrian conflict by sending in “jihadists.” Also reporting the words of an arms trader: “Five months ago I was told that the Syrian brothers are in need of weapons” – this in an uprising we’ve been told for months on end is “mostly” non-violent or “mostly” unarmed. Or skip the qualifiers, entirely unarmed. The paper is also reporting that according to “unidentified American officials” the Aleppo bombing, which opposition informants were quick to blame on the Assad government, was the work of Al Qaeda.
Some still seem to be under the impression that the Free Syrian Army is an adjunct of the Zapatistas. For them, I recommend the materialist imperialists of the NYT:
In Jordan, the influential Muslim Brotherhood issued a call to arms of its own, calling it a duty for Muslims everywhere to oppose Mr. Assad’s government in Syria in a holy war, using any means necessary. “Supporting the Syrian people and Free Syrian Army is a duty, as they are facing the injustice and oppression of the regime,” the group said on its Web site.
Do leftists or kindred freedom fighters accept the support of those calling for a “holy war”? I don’t think so, nor do they carry out public hangings.
Against those going on about the disgusting and murderous Russian veto, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said today that “In other words, it is necessary to agree to something like a cease-fire, but the tragedy is that the armed groups that are confronting the forces of the regime are not subordinate to anyone and are not under control.” The armed forces of the Syrian government won’t agree to a cease-fire until the terrorist mujahedeen also agree to withdraw from the fray. The problem is that they there’s no one to whom they necessarily answer. Funding is a separate issue, coming from Gulf Cooperation Council states and also as the archives will doubtless show in 30 years, the United States.
It won’t be enough to take down the Assad government, merely enough to further militarize the uprising. As Patrick Cockburn notes, “Untrained militias and Syrian army deserters cannot stop armoured columns. Most probably insurgent leaders know this and their real intention is to do enough militarily to provide political cover for creeping international intervention on their side. This might be sold as a Nato-protected safe haven for insurgents and refugees in north-west Syria, but in fact would be a declaration of war.”
Prince Saud of Saudi Arabia, which is probably sending in arms – some will cavil at my “probably,” insisting that we have documentary evidence before accusing the reactionary Saudi Kingdom of doing something nasty in the region – said that “The lack of commitment of the Syrian government is obvious…What Syria is witnessing is not racist, nor sectarian, nor guerrilla war, but a mass purge without any humanitarian considerations.” As opposed to in the area near Qatif, in eastern Saudi Arabia, where the crackdown continues and the Saudi mukhabarat have killed several protesters over the last week as they broke up a non-violent protest there.
Truth is the rarest commodity of all. Even sports reporting involves bribery. International relations, history books, newspapers, simply forget it.
How do you find truth, where do you start? You certainly don’t go to Pravda. We talk about “money in politics” turning government into a sewer.
News, universities, all sources of knowledge are polluted by payoffs, often orchestrated as complex game theory intelligence operations, in fact, this is almost invariably the case.
Whoever pretends to be involved, even Tel Aviv’s Al Qaeda franchise, there is a real revolution in Syria. Those who state otherwise do so knowing they are lying
VT has become an international news service. Wherever we don’t have people on the ground, those with the right contacts and the ability to understand lies when they hear them, we are paralyzed. Almost everything else that we get as “corrected” or “independent” news is a blend of occasional brilliance, usually “borrowed,” followed by “dot connnecting” that is beyond silly.
I still have a few crazy people trying to tell me how Libya was plotted against, the haven for mankind, the perfect government, overthrown by Jewish bankers and NATO.
Gaddafi vacationed with the Jewish bankers, was a NATO stooge all his life and, though was killed to silence what he knew, was a brutal animal.
Every rumor, the banks, the oil deals, the NATO invasions, his African Bank, the denials of his Israeli partnership and the thousands of mercenaries, many still being sorted out, all were proven false.
We got to get those Al Qaeda guys while we have them out in the open!!
Remember how thousands of Al Qaeda were on the ground in Libya? How many times did you read dozens of “pundits” quote that one, using the same terms.
Not one of them has been found. Where do you go to apologize to Al Qaeda, Tel Aviv or Washington? Funny thing, those who wrote so many times that the CIA ran Al Qaeda were willing to change tunes when told to.
We call that “moral flexibility.” I call it folks I don’t care to hear from anymore.
VT had people on the ground, with the rebel army, infiltrating Gaddafi’s forces and eventually hunting him down.
So, when do all those who were caught lying in broadcast and column after column apologize for their lies now that the thousands of Israeli mercenaries are caught, now that the Central Bank rumor is disproven, now that 100,000 Marines that never existed turns out to be four maintenance workers?
BP still has their oil contract, everything is, if anything, too much the same.
Everything reported by dozens of “independent journalists” was either error or, in many cases, we tracked laundered payoff money from Israel to their secret accounts.
Having a vote is nothing but a chance to fix things -That’s all
What damage did these fools and liars do? Now we face Syria and we can’t move because we are paralyzed by the Libyan liars brigade of hotel bound fantacists, many of whom were on the payroll of Tel Aviv, the Neocons of Washington or the brutal Gaddafi dictatorship.
Most important of all is real freedom for the people of Egypt. They are key.
They sit next to Israel, help control Gaza, have real power and are very much the victim of international plots.
A year after Mubarak falls, so much is still at risk and real freedom is still in doubt.
As is so often the case, dislodging the rats is a job nobody is trained for and, too often, only other rats can dislodge rats.
Let me put some of the Pravda email online, the one infecting the internet, the blend of truth and fantasy:
The west, and particularly the USA, have engineered, financed, armed, trained and encouraged civil war in the Middle East and Africa. In truth, the so-called “Arab Spring” was an Arab spring cleaning.
That is to say, time for the Empire to “clean out” those nations that won’t cooperate with their disgusting full spectrum world domination plan.
They have deliberately and with malice of forethought fomented these civil wars and “rebellions” that are destroying the tranquil, peaceful lives of men, women and children. They pretend to have an interest in the peace and safety of the people, when the opposite is true. They have no interest in seeing the violence come to an end.
This is while they continue to prop up disgusting fascist, racist, genocidal regimes such as in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, etc.
Once again, that pig-headed, big mouth flap jaw sinister female, Susan Rice, had to get her digs in with yet another verbose dishonest statement oozing of arrogance and stupidity.
“The United States is disgusted that a couple of members of this Council continue to prevent us from fulfilling our sole purpose,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said.
Yes, we know your purpose, Ms. Rice. To destabilize countries. To kill their people. To destroy their way of life. To take over the world and make it groan under your heels.
“For months this Council has been held hostage by a couple of members,” she said, referring to Russia and China, who she said had been “delaying and stripping bare any text to force Assad to stop his actions.”
Taking a moment here, our writer is correct about Ms. Rice. What I don’t have is a staff in Syria I have known for years and I trust. In fact reporting from Syria is confusing to all of us.
I know Syria to be a vicious police state whose people have lived in fear for decades and that Assad minimally needs to step down and that a democratic government that serves the people needs to replace him.
I also know that doing that will draw in western intelligence agencies and that the Soviet Union, that chooses to pretend it is now “Russia,” has a vested interest in Syria. But, the writer is correct, those of the Gulf states have proven their worthlessness when they went into Bahrain.
And who, Ms. Rice, is going to stop YOU from your murderous, evil, demonic actions?
Without referring to Russia by name, she said the vetoes were “even more shameful” given that Russia has continued to sell weapons to to Syria. She called the vetoes “unforgivable” and said “any further blood that flows will be on their hands.”
Yes, Ms. Rice you only want weapons in the hands of the murderers, the terrorists and the population of Syria left defenseless.
The topper whopper of them all: Russia and China “remain steadfast in their willingness to sell out the Syrian people and shield a craven tyrant.”
Who does she think she’s kidding??
“Don’t I look beautiful in this blue uniform?”
Yes, there are lessons from Libya. Was it necessary for the west, not NATO as France was the primary operator there and hasn’t been in NATO since 1959, but was it necessary for forced “regime change.”
I have my own opinions on that, opinions with foundation. Gaddafi choose to run to Israel and his friends in Washington, the Neocons, for protection from Obama and Sarkozy.
He assumed that if he promised undying love to Israel, promised to continue his secret WMD pact with them that Obama would back off.
Then, by going to Obama’s enemies, the Neocons, believing somehow that he was invisible, he felt he had found another ally ready to take his cash.
Little did he know of the rifts, how Obama had been betrayed by Israel and the Koch Brothers cash that tried to undermine reform in America, all with Neocon/Israel blessing.
He had stuck his head into the badger’s den and had it handed to him on a platter. He was stupid.
Sell out the Syrian people? How about them perpetrating the murders of hundreds of Syrian people and disrupting their lives, peace and safety so that they could get an inconvenient government out of their path to world domination?
Ms. Rice is fooling no one. It’s amazing she can lie like that with a straight face. It didn’t pass without notice that while the Syrian representative to the UN, Bashar Al Jaafari, spoke, she removed her ear piece to show her utter classless disrespect for the Syrian people. She wouldn’t even listen…what does that say?
All the blood that flows in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan is the direct responsibility of the United States and its overlords in Tel Aviv. Disgusting USA and Rice, are you going to STOP now? The terrorists in Syria have Israeli weapons. How does she justify that?
Funny thing, the Israelis use American weapons. Go look? America M-4 and M- 16 rifles, American jets, bombs, the rest of it. Israel makes weapons, mostly for export and sells them. Were weapons brought into Syria, they would be chosen based on their ability to use captured ammunition, 7.62×39 and that AK-74 stuff, 5.34 caliber, not NATO 5.56.
There are hundreds of thousands of Soviet weapons in Israeli hands, they are cheap and efficient and this story we now read has the same credibility as the old tale from Kuwait of babies being taken out of incubators.
It is an embellishment.
As for Pravda’s statement that Assad represents the Syrian people, get real. Syria is a police state. I have friends who had to pay massive bribes just to move to a different apartment. It is and has been one of the nastiest places on earth.
I don’t hate Syria but I always felt horribly sorry for people who had to live under Syria’s insane police state government. We aren’t all idiots who buy the Kool Aid of Pravda, especially after their unmasking over Libya.
Exactly who is supplying weapons to terrorists, both in Syria and Libya? The United States and its sycophant “allies.” Who is telling the so-called “opposition” not to negotiate under any circumstances? The United States.
Who is providing the Goebbels propaganda machine of lies and disinformation? The United States and its sycophant allies. The United States arms expansionist, colonialist Israel and funds their ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
I have to decide if this was included just to put in an occasional fact or to propagandize and play to the crowd. Either way, it is truth among statements far less than true and, yes, America is untrustworthy.
As for serious and meaningful attacks on Israel, known well for its ability to orchestrate American policy, they seem strangely absent as is any mention of the strong decades old partnership between Israel and the Soviet Union against the United States. We aren’t children and we are hardly blind.
The position of Russia and China is clearly correct, moral and just. The vetoes by Russia and China now make it possible for the people of Syria to resolve their own issues.
The lesson of Libya was not lost on Russia and China, but was unfortunately on 13 other collaborator countries who voted, in essence, to approve of American domination and aggression.
When someone can prove the statements, that the Syrian deaths are actually films made in Qatar, prove it rather than simply say it as though it were true, I will be more than ready to listen.
Where are the Russian News Crews?
In a world where every child has an IPhone, and email or upload capability though many Arab nations are restrictive and not at all free, I still expect evidence. Thus far, no evidence of any substance, though we are dealing with a news agency with full access to all of Syria, has come forward.
If you have it, if no military action has been perpetrated against civilians in Syria and you can prove it, please do. You do not do it here and have not yet done it.
Even Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News turned out live video in Tripoli with bullets going everywhere, actual quality journalism, obviously not staged.
Why can’t Pravda send satellite TV crews through Syria, to the front lines and talk to people among those who they tell us are not rebels and have us hear, first hand, how it is all being invented.
There was nothing correct in the resolution that was clearly one-sided, totally oblivious to the reality on the ground that Syria is under siege from without by foreign terrorist elements, armed and agitated by the west.
Russia and China refused to become part of the problem, which is western interference and bullying.
The resolutions on Libya merely called for a no-fly zone and the west so bastardized the wording that they turned it into an excuse for regime change, bombing the living daylights out of Libya, destroying its environment, infrastructure and civilian population, totally depopulating at least two cities, the ethnic cleansing of its black population, the rape of its women, seizure of its oil, use of illegal weaponry and a ground invasion.
Thousands of foreign troops have invaded Libya. They armed one side and denied the necessities of life to the other. How balanced is that? How just and fair is that?
There are no foreign troops in Libya. You just shot yourself in the foot, making statements where several million people all failed to film one second of video or a single photograph. The nation of Stalin now attacks the nation of Hitler.
Hitler is dead but do we now have proof that Stalin is alive and well? Seemingly so it seems.
How Hitlerian is that?
One can only say to Ms. Rice and her cohorts: Enough! You lose! You stink! Go to hell! Enough of your duplicitous hypocrisy and lies.
Lisa Karpova
Pravda.Ru
This diatribe of occasional truth mixed with propaganda and childish fantasy has moved around the world. What has it really done? It discredits those who seek the truth. Yes, we know the west has tried to undermine Assad.
We also know most of his own people would chop him to bits if they got a hold of him, same as with Gaddafi who you also defend.
Who is Conning Who?
We also know Assad made peace with Israel long ago, as did Mubarak and Gaddafi and Russia, who used Israel to spy on America for decades during the Cold War, a Russia that we now are increasingly finding to still be the Soviet Union of old.
Yes, America lies, Russia lies, China lies and the Gulf states are puppets with no respect for human freedom.
We also know Pravda lies.
All lies are equal, all enslave men, attempt to use and mislead for evil purpose, in this case, to enslave on behalf of the Soviet Regime which is alive and well in the Oligarchs and their Israeli and Neocon friends.We watch and learn.
With access none of us have, with endless funds, with the ability to move anywhere in Syria, segments of uncut film would have been nice.
[Editors Note: Dear Pravda. This Syria thing has been going on a long time. Where have you been hiding the foreign mercenaries captured in Syria for display to the Western media...You know, the confession videos?...Jim Dean]
Our mistrust goes much further than Assad and Israel and Pravda or the Americans and their puppets in the Gulf. We are all sick of lies.
New ones only make it worse. If Assad has a story to tell, I have a film crew, a passport and no fear of being shot at. Invite Veterans Today. We have the “stones” to do what is needed and the reputation. We are hated by all the right people.
We have been on the correct side every time. This is because we work from information, from truth and not for profit.
No, send me no money, no new car, I have no private charity paying me 2 million a year like others around me. We don’t have a side other than reporting the truth, something we can’t afford in Syria, something that makes me feel
The volatile situation in Syria generated by the Saudi-Qatar-funded Wahhabi armed group known as the Free Syrian Army and backed by the West is now an accident waiting to happen.
There is certainly one ulterior motive behind the US-friendly Syrian crisis extravagantly fuelled by the presstitute media which keep distorting the facts on the grounds. A recent article published by the New York Times by Efraim Halevy, who headed Mossad from 1998 to 2002, sheds light on this motive. He states that Iran’s foothold in Syria has enabled Tehran to pursue its “reckless” regional policies, and to stop those policies, Iran’s presence in Syria must be ended.
To this end, the events in Syria must be so choreographed that they should lead to the overthrow of Assad regime and consequently “result in a strategic debacle for the Iranian government.”
“THE public debate in America and Israel these days is focused obsessively on whether to attack Iran in order to halt its nuclear weapons ambitions; hardly any attention is being paid to how events in Syria could result in a strategic debacle for the Iranian government,” he said.
So, it seems that the fate of Syria is intimately interwoven with that of Iran. The exorbitant efforts the West is expending in Syria to overthrow the Assad regime are in fact directed against the Islamic Republic. Once the regime of Assad is trampled under the imperialist boots, the political influence of Iran will be severely damaged. In the meantime, some media such as the state-funded BBC, the Qatar-funded Al Jazeera and the Saudi-run Al Arabiya are carving out a similar scenario in league with western imperialists.
In point of fact, Qatar’s sabotage activity in Syria started in February 2011 when Al Jazeera embarked on a pointlessly mischievous act. A page titled “The Syrian Revolution 2011” was created on Facebook which was an open invitation to rebellion in Syria. It was sonorously called “Day of Wrath” in the manner of similar Facebook pages created for uprisings in the region. Instantly, the page received over 80000 likes which was of course a technical manipulation to create multiple accounts. Interestingly, the only channel which promoted and highlighted the spurious event was Al Jazeera which was bitterly disappointed with the failed attempt as the snare it laid failed to catch any game.
Furthermore, Al Jazeera’s reporting is partly based on what it receives from the London-based “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights”, an ostensibly independent institute which has recently come into limelight thanks to its fallacious name. Funded by the Qatari and Saudi Wahhabis, the institute is composed of two groups: some members of the extremist Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and some elements from the PKK, a branch of the terrorist PKK groups who are scattered in parts of Syria, Iraq and Turkey.
Along the lines of the same policy, Saudi-run Arabic channel Al Arabiya keeps delivering exaggerated reports on the number of those killed in Syria and pointing the finger of blame at the Syrian government while independent reports reveal that the terrorists financed by the West and the Wahhabis are behind the killings. On 13 December 2012, armed terrorists exploded a gas pipeline in the Syrian province of Homs. In Idleb province, a homemade bomb killed six workers of a textile factory and wounded 16 others who were going to work on a minibus. The terrorists have also engaged in a number of sabotage activities including attacking Syrian military facilities and law enforcement agencies, exploding oil pipelines, railroads, and killing citizens, burning schools and killing students and teachers all in the name of Syrian government.
On January 18, the Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani in an interview called for deployment of Arab troops in Syria in order to put an end to what he described as “deadly crackdown” in Syria.
Also, a recent report by DEBKAfile reveals that “British and Qatari troops are directing rebel ammunition deliveries and tactics in the bloody battle for Homs”.
According to the report, Britain’s intelligence arm MI6 has set up four operation centers in the city with the troops on the ground gearing up for an undercover Turkish incursion into Syria.
Reportedly, part of the talks between Syrian officials and head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Fradkov which took place on Tuesday (7 February) was focused on the presence of British and Qatari forces in Homs.
Apart from the extremist Wahhabis, the US and Turkey have been training Syrian armed groups in southeastern Turkish city of Hakkari. A former employee with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Sibel Edmonds says the US is involved in smuggling arms into Syria from Incirlik military base in Turkey in addition to providing financial support for Syrian rebels.
The US has reportedly released hundreds of terrorists from its prisons in Iraq provided that they leave the country for Syria and fight against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The terrorists have entered Syria via Turkey.
Therefore, the US and Turkey have been paving the ground for military intervention in Syria by providing the terrorists with training and arms. Large caches of weapons including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, mortar bombs and heavy machine guns have been sent via ground to major unrest-wracked Syrian cities.
Add Israel to this list of anti-Syria and anti-Iran groups.
In recent years, Qatar and Israel have cemented their ties to brotherly levels. In January 2008, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak met former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Thani at the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland.
In line with this meeting hitherto kept secret by Israel, a senior Qatari figure reportedly paid a visit to Israel in mid-January 2008 and met Israeli officials with a common agenda: Iran. Also, former Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni visited Qatar in April 2008 and met the Emir, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Oil and Gas. Numerous meetings between the two sides have taken place since then under different pretexts; yet, they have agreed on a number of points, inter alia, diminishing Iran’s influence in the Middle East.
Be it as it may, they are all moving in one single direction in targeting Syria without consciously wishing to form a concerted front.
What a farce!
The extremist Wahhabis, the neo-colonist Zionists and the Western imperialists have taken up arms against those who fly in the face of extremism and expansionism in the region each with its own agenda on Syria as a whipping boy with the ultimate goal of relegating Iran to the outer fringes of political power.
Arab League Report Shows that Syria Has Been Mischaracterized
While the Western media act like the Syrian government is wantonly and indiscriminately killing its own people without provocation, an independent investigation has found a different reality on the ground.
Specifically, over 160 monitors from the Arab League – comprised of both allies and mortal enemies of Syria – toured Syria and published areport on January 27th showing that the situation has been mischaracterized.
Initially, thereport noted general cooperation by the Syrian government:
The Mission [i.e. the Arab League investigative team] noted that the Government strived to help it succeed in its task and remove any barriers that might stand in its way. The Government also facilitated meetings with all parties. No restrictions were placed on the movement of the Mission and its ability to interview Syrian citizens, both those who opposed the Government and those loyal to it.
The reportnoted that the media has greatly exaggerated the amount of violence in Syria:
The Mission noted that many parties falsely reported that explosions or violence had occurred in several locations. When the observers went to those locations, they found that those reports were unfounded.
The Mission also noted that, according to its teams in the field, the media exaggerated the nature of the incidents and the number of persons killed in incidents and protests in certain towns.
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Since it began its work, the Mission has been the target of a vicious media campaign. Some media outlets have published unfounded statements, which they attributed to the Head of the Mission. They have also grossly exaggerated events, thereby distorting the truth.
Such contrived reports have helped to increase tensions among the Syrian people and undermined the observers’ work.
Indeed, some of the observers themselves violated their oath of neutrality and exaggerated the violence:
Some observers reneged on their duties and broke the oath they had taken. They made contact with officials from their countries and gave them exaggerated accounts of events. Those officials consequently developed a bleak and unfounded picture of the situation.
While the government has exaggerated the number of detainees released, it has in fact thousands of detainees:
On 19 January 2012, the Syrian government stated that 3569 detainees had been released from military and civil prosecution services. The Mission verified that 1669 of those detained had thus far been released. It continues to follow up the issue with the Government and the opposition, emphasizing to the Government side that the detainees should be released in the presence of observers so that the event can be documented.
The Mission has validated the following figures for the total number of detainees that the Syrian government thus far claims to have released:
Before the amnesty: 4,035
After the amnesty: 3,569.
The Government has therefore claimed that a total of 7,604 detainees have been released.
The Mission has verified the correct number of detainees released and arrived at the following figures:
Before the amnesty: 3,483
After the amnesty: 1,669
The total number of confirmed releases is therefore 5152. The Mission is continuing to monitor the process and communicate with the Syrian Government for the release of the remaining detainees.
While the government has not withdrawn all of its forces, the military has withdrawn from many areas:
Based on the reports of the field-team leaders and the meeting held on 17 January 2012 with all team leaders, the Mission confirmed that all military vehicles, tanks and heavy weapons had been withdrawn from cities and residential neighbourhoods. Although there are still some security measures in place in the form of earthen beams and barriers in front of important buildings and in squares, they do not affect citizens.
Perhaps most importantly, the report notes that the Syrian people do not want foreign intervention:
However, the citizens believe the crisis should be resolved peacefully through Arab mediation alone, without international intervention. Doing so would allow them to live in peace and complete the reform process and bring about the change they desire.
The report condemns violence by both sides, but stresses that much of the violence has been perpetrated by the rebels against government forces:
In Homs and Dera‘a, the Mission observed armed groups committing acts of violence against Government forces, resulting in death and injury among their ranks. In certain situations, Government forces responded to attacks against their personnel with force. The observers noted that some of the armed groups were using flares and armour-piercing projectiles.
In Homs, Idlib and Hama, the Observer Mission witnessed acts of violence being committed against Government forces and civilians that resulted in several deaths and injuries. Examples of those acts include the bombing of a civilian bus, killing eight persons and injuring others, including women and children, and the bombing of a train carrying diesel oil. In another incident in Homs, a police bus was blown up, killing two police officers. A fuel pipeline and some small bridges were also bombed.
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Recently, there have been incidents that could widen the gap and increase bitterness between the parties. These incidents can have grave consequences and lead to the loss of life and property. Such incidents include the bombing of buildings, trains carrying fuel, vehicles carrying diesel oil and explosions targeting the police, members of the media and fuel pipelines. Some of those attacks have been carried out by the Free
Syrian Army [the main opposition group] and some by other armed opposition groups.
Why Hasn’t The Report Received Media Coverage?
Why hasn’t the Arab League reportreceived any press, given that it provides a much more reassuring and less apocalyptic picture of what is going on in Syria?
When the over 160 monitors, after one month of enquiries, issued their report … surprise! The report did not follow the official GCC [i.e Arab League] line – which is that the “evil” Bashar al-Assad government is indiscriminately, and unilaterally, killing its own people, and so regime change is in order.
The Arab League’s Ministerial Committee had approved the report, with four votes in favor (Algeria, Egypt, Sudan and GCC member Oman) and only one against; guess who, Qatar – which is now presiding the Arab League because the emirate bought their (rotating) turn from the Palestinian Authority.
So the report was either ignored (by Western corporate media) or mercilessly destroyed – by Arab media, virtually all of it financed by either the House of Saud or Qatar. It was not even discussed – because it was prevented by the GCC from being translated from Arabic into English and published in the Arab League’s website.
Until it was leaked.
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Still [the U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar - what Escobar calls the NATOGCC], blocked from applying in Syria its one-size-fits-all model of promoting “democracy” by bombing a country and getting rid of the proverbial evil dictator, won’t be deterred. GCC leaders House of Saud and Qatar bluntly dismissed their own report and went straight to the meat of the matter; impose a NATOGCC regime change via the UN Security Council.
So the current “Arab-led drive to secure a peaceful end to the 10-month crackdown” in Syria at the UN is no less than a crude regime change drive. Usual suspects Washington, London and Paris have been forced to fall over themselves to assure the real international community this is not another mandate for NATO bombing – a la Libya. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described it as “a path for a political transition that would preserve Syria’s unity and institutions”.
But BRICS members Russia and China see it for what it is. Another BRICS member – India – alongside Pakistan and South Africa, have all raised serious objections to the NATOGCC-peddled draft UN resolution.
There won’t be another Libya-style no fly zone; after all the Assad regime is not exactly deploying Migs against civilians. A UN regime change resolution will be blocked – again – by Russia and China [this happened last week]. Even NATOGCC is in disarray, as each block of players – Washington, Ankara, and the House of Saud-Doha duo – has a different long-term geopolitical agenda. Not to mention crucial Syrian neighbor and trading partner Iraq; Baghdad is on the record against any regime change scheme.
member – India – alongside Pakistan and South Africa, have all raised serious objections to the NATOGCC-peddled draft UN resolution.
