Report: Russia to deliver combat jets to Syria
Business daily Kommersant cites source close to Russia’s Rosoboronexport state arms trader, that $550-million deal envisages delivery of 36 Yak-130 aircraft.
Haaretz.com
January 23, 2012
Russia has signed a contract to sell combat jets to Syria in a show of support for President Bashar Assad’s regime, a newspaper reported Monday.
The business daily Kommersant said, citing a source close to Russia’s Rosoboronexport state arms trader, that the $550-million deal envisages the delivery of 36 Yak-130 aircraft. A spokesman for Rosoboronexport refused to comment on the report.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE…
[hat tip: Pakalert Press]
EU signs ACTA, global internet censorship treaty
By Rady Ananda
Activist Post
January 26, 2012
Today, the European Union and 22 member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. They have now joined the US and seven other nations that signed the treaty last October.
This signing ceremony merely formalized the EU’s adoption of ACTA last month, during a completely unrelated meeting on agriculture and fisheries, reports TechDirt.
Though initiated by the US, Japan is the official depository of the treaty.
Removal of the Three Strikes clause, in which users accused of three counts of piracy would be barred from the internet, paved the way for the EU to adopt ACTA last month.
Related to ACTA, a chapter in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) “would have state signatories adopt even more restrictive copyright measures than ACTA,” reports the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Both ACTA and TPP were developed without public input and outside international trade groups, like the World Trade Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Leaked cables published by WikiLeaks in 2009 exposed early drafts of ACTA, resulting in a firestorm of controversy. Those cables, coupled with later releases, showed that ACTA negotiations began in 2006 and were controversial even to participating states. An historical summary of the treaty’s progress through December can be found here.
ACTA Violates Magna Carta and US Constitution
Like PIPA and SOPA, two domestic internet censorship bills that prompted major websites to blacken their name or website in a Jan. 18th protest, ACTA allows accusers of copyright infringement to bypass judicial review. Lack of “due process” makes these bills and ACTA unconstitutional and violates the Magna Carta, a charter signed in 1215 on which most Western law is based, including the US Constitution. It is often cited as the most important legal document in the history of democracy.
(The USA PATRIOT Acts, Obama’s assassination program, and the National Defense Authorization Act that allows indefinite detention are among many recent laws passed in the US which directly breach the Magna Carta.)
“The Constitution states only one command twice,” explains Peter Strauss of Cornell University Law School, further elaborating:
The Fifth Amendment says to the federal government that no one shall be ‘deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.’ The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, uses the same eleven words, called the Due Process Clause, to describe a legal obligation of all states. These words have as their central promise an assurance that all levels of American government must operate within the law (‘legality’) and provide fair procedures.
[T]he bill’s wording is wide open to pursue American sites. Just one example: when describing an infringing site, it starts with those ‘that are accessed through a non-domestic domain name,’ but continues in section (8)(A)(ii) for any site that ‘conducts business directed to residents of the United States.’
Though involved in early ACTA negotiations, Switzerland and Mexico have not yet ratified it. However, “Since the agreement remains open to signature until May 2013, it is possible that other states may make a move to join it as well,” said Maira Sutton of EFF.
Rady Ananda is an investigative reporter and researcher in the areas of health, environment, politics, and civil liberties. Her two websites, Food Freedom and COTO Report are essential reading.
RECENT REPORTS BY RADY ANANDA:
Thyroid cancer, fracking and nuclear power
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[related: ENEMY EXPATRIATION ACT- (THE SOPA COVER-UP)]
What Is ACTA ? [video]
YouTube – 1TheRevolutionIsNow
January 18, 2012
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[hat tip: Activist Post]
[RELATED ACTIVIST POST ARTICLE: SOPA and PIPA Fully Alive — And a New Bill Joins Them]
Fukushima Saga, Seal 6 Psyop, Preppers – New World Next Week [video]
New World Next Week
January 26, 2012
Welcome to the 100th episode of http://NewWorldNextWeek.com — the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some
of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week:
Story#1: Who Knew What When? The Fukushima Saga Continues
http://ur1.ca/7spje
Calgary Sun: Fukushima fallout hit home
http://ur1.ca/7sx0o
Story#2: Nine Dead, Hostages Saved — SEAL Team 6 Does It Again
http://ur1.ca/7spk6
Obama State of the Union 2012 Transcript
http://ur1.ca/7spkq
Related: Inside Story of the UK’s Secret Mission to Beat Gaddafi
http://ur1.ca/7spkt
Story#3: Subculture of Americans Prepares for Civilization’s Collapse
http://ur1.ca/7spla
Video Flashback: In Hard Times, Some Flirt With Survivalism
http://ur1.ca/7splc
Visit http://NewWorldNextWeek.com to get previous episodes in various formats to download, burn & share. And as always, stay up-to-date by
subscribing to the feeds from Corbett Report http://ur1.ca/39obd and Media Monarchy http://ur1.ca/kuec Thank you.
Previous Episode: SOPA Backout, SCOTUS Copywrong, Abuse Archives
http://ur1.ca/7spld
The Syria debacle – part II
By Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
January 20, 2012
This is part two in my new series following the complex developments in the Syrian uprising which I began just days ago. For previous coverage of this issue please scroll to the bottomof the article to find a reading list of previous material I have written.
Today the Washington Post reported that senior officials in the Obama administration have said that they are preparing to close the American embassy in Damascus and evacuate all personnel if President Bashar al-Assad cannot provide additional security.
If Assad cannot give additional security to the U.S. embassy, they reportedly plan to close the facility by the end of January.
Officials said that the United States is not alone in pulling their diplomatic missions out of Syria with other Western countries and Arab embassies making similar moves over the past week.
Currently they are still in talks with Assad’s government and have not reached a final decision.
Yet, they do say that there have been no visible results in terms of additional protection for the embassy.
This is hardly a surprise given that U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford previously met with leading figures in the opposition, a move which not only rightly enraged the Assad government but also the Syrian people who reacted in a violent manner.
“We have serious concerns about the deteriorating security situation in Damascus, including the recent spate of car bombs and about the safety and security of embassy personnel,” said a statement from the United States’ State Department.
“We have requested that the government of Syria take additional security measures to protect our embassy, and the Syrian government is considering that request. We have also advised the Syrian government that unless concrete steps are taken in the coming days we may have no choice but to close the mission,” the statement said.
The car bombs mentioned are part of no less than three unexplained car bomb attacks recently which killed up to 80 people in the Syrian capital of Damascus which was previously relatively peaceful.
Emphasizing that these car bombings are unexplained is quite important as there is a good chance those responsible very well might be the Western-backed opposition forces and their armed insurgent arm (arguably a terrorist organization) known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
The FSA have bragged about attacking government targets in the past, so bombings in the capital very well might be an attempt to create chaos and further destabilize the Assad regime.
The process of removing personnel from the American embassy began last week, reportedly due to the bombings.
The Syrian government put the blame for the bombings on al Qaeda, while some activists predictably pointed the finger at the Syrian government itself, according to the Washington Post.
Of course, this would be completely illogical as car bombings in the nation’s capital only serve to further destabilize Assad’s power and erode his support.
A poll commissioned as part of the Doha Debates – thus sponsored by Qatar which has called for foreign military intervention in Syria – actually found that the majority of Syrians do not, in fact, want Assad to resign immediately.
The poll found that 81% of the Arabs questioned (over 1,000 which is far from a huge sample) wanted Assad to step down but since these individuals are not Syrians, their opinion is completely irrelevant.
Therefore, with 55% of the public supporting him, I can see absolutely no reason why he would seek to weaken such support by conducting bombings which make the Syrian people feel as though they are in danger under his rule.
The Obama administration has, unsurprisingly, not ruled out possible involvement in the attacks on the part of the Syrian government, but unnamed American officials stated that signs indicate Syrian and Iraqi militants linked to al Qaeda were involved.
“It smells like a terrorist attack and looks like a terrorist attack, but none of us knows for sure,” the anonymous official said, according to the Washington Post.
Logic alone would tell us that the most likely culprits would be militant opposition forces like the FSA who would benefit from such a terrorist operation.
By murdering innocent people in Damascus, they could say that Assad cannot even keep control over his own capital and keep his people safe, proving that he should step down from power immediately before more people die.
The specifics of the security measures being sought by the United States for the embassy have not been disclosed.
U.S. officials also refused to comment on if there had been specific threats to the embassy other than saying that the car bomb attacks “have brought the situation in Syria to another level.”
The Washington Post says that if Sunni extremists had come from Iraq to become involved in the Syrian uprising “it would add an alarming new dimension to what has been an overwhelmingly peaceful uprising that has been brutally attacked by the decades-old dictatorship.”
Of course, for those of us who have been paying attention, it is quite obvious that it has not been “an overwhelmingly peaceful uprising” but in fact both sides have engaged in violent acts since the beginning.
The Washington Post cites “Many Syrian opposition activists” (the typically ambiguous label leveraged by the Western media to control the narrative by giving a false sense of consensus) who “already are concerned about signs of a creeping Islamization of the revolt,” much like what is occurring in every other nation embroiled in the so-called Arab Spring revolts.
They claim nonsensically, “the failure of the West to intervene will open the door to Islamists, threatening the kind of destabilization that took hold in Iraq following the U.S. invasion there.”
Of course to most analysts like myself, this is nothing short of laughable.
Western intervention will not help stifle the Islamist element in the uprisings; in fact it will just serve to reinforce this anti-Western Islamist sentiment.
This is because many people will see the intervention has unwelcome meddling in their domestic affairs, which is exactly what it is.
Informed citizens would know immediately that the West will move in, destroy the infrastructure, and then loot the nation’s natural resources and wealth by getting all the contracts to rebuild the same infrastructure they destroyed.
We have seen this exact process in Libya and I do not see how any individual in the Arab world would think Western intervention is a good idea after seeing what happened there.
It appears that the car bomb attacks – if they are indeed carried out by the FSA – are achieving exactly what I believe they could be trying to do.
The anonymous senior official in the Obama administration cited by the Washington Post made this very clear in saying that the deteriorating security situation in Syria “demonstrates further that Assad is losing control of the country and reinforces our point that Assad has lost all legitimacy.”
Knowing that these bombings are in fact hurting the Assad regime, as I said, how could they still say that his government might be involved?
We can apply the classic qui bono logic here and in doing so realize that all roads lead to the armed insurgent groups like the FSA.
The Washington Post speculates that in explicitly warning that they might close the embassy, the Obama administration might be “signaling Assad that [the Obama administration’s] patience is running out.”
However, I would argue that they have been attempting to give that impression for months now and instead this move might be a warning that foreign military intervention is just over the horizon.
The Washington Post also mentions that Robert Ford returned to Syria last month after he was removed in October due to threats.
These threats were hardly surprising given that Ford not only vocally criticized the Assad government on the official embassy website (behavior hardly becoming of a diplomat) but even met with opposition leadership which clearly angered the many pro-Assad Syrians.
It seems the United States either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that Syrians do not take kindly to the United States openly getting involved in Syria’s domestic problems.
The Washington Post writes that, “Officials emphasized the importance of maintaining direct contact with opposition leaders and providing the opportunity of real-time reporting from Damascus.”
Do American officials really think that having a close relationship with opposition leaders will make them look impartial or evenhanded in their approach to Syria’s problems?
The Washington Post makes sure to highlight the Assad government’s security efforts, saying “Damascus felt as though it was under siege. Soldiers sealed off several major roads and checkpoints dotted the city. Outside one of the main offices of the security branches, there were sandbagged machine gun positions. Soldiers wearing flak jackets and machine guns kept guard.”
This is hardly a drastic measure given that the FSA has attacked government targets several times.
Furthermore, it is almost guaranteed that whatever police state measures they have in place pale in comparison to the security situation near American military facilities or in places like Washington.
Al Arabiya is also reporting today that “Pressure mounted on the Arab League Friday to seek U.N. intervention in the face of growing exasperation that the bloc’s hard-won observer mission in Syria has failed to staunch 10 months of killing as [the] death toll mounted across the country.”
However, U.N. intervention is very unlikely given Russia and China’s opposition to such an operation.
Many analysts, myself included, say it is much more likely for the West to create something like the “coalition of the willing” created to invade Iraq outside of the U.N.
General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi is preparing to report to foreign ministers of Arab League nations who will then decide if the Arab League’s observer mission will be extended for another month.
Meanwhile, Burhan Galiun, the head of the opposition’s Syrian National Council, traveled to Cairo in an attempt to get Arab ministers to refer the findings of the Arab League’s observer mission to the United Nations Security Council for what Al Arabiya called “tough action.”
Of course this is ignoring the veto power of Russia and China – both nations wholly opposed to another foreign intervention after the horrific Libyan intervention.
An official statement from the Syrian National Council (SNC) said that Ghaliun planned to “ask the head of the Arab League and Arab foreign ministers to transfer the file on Syria to the U.N. Security Council with a view to securing a decision to establish a buffer zone and a no-fly zone.”
It is hard to understand why anyone would call for a no-fly zone over Syria after seeing what NATO and the Arab League nations did in Libya, but then again given that many of the SNC’s members are not even inside Syria at the moment; it is somewhat understandable that they would be divorced from the situation on the ground.
“The SNC delegation will insist that the report contain a clear text concerning the ‘genocide’ and ‘war crimes’ carried out by the [Syrian] regime against unarmed civilians,” the SNC’s statement said.
This makes it clear that they care not what the observers actually find, but instead care only that they come to the conclusions the SNC and the West want.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the Arab League should urge the United Nations Security Council to impose more targeted sanctions which should include an arms embargo.
However, this is one again failing to recognize the strong opposition in the Security Council from Russia and China.
The Arab League’s panel on Syria is set to meet Saturday before the foreign ministers meet.
This panel is far from objective, with Qatar chairing the panel and calling for Arab troops to invade Syria, as I discussed in the previous part of this series.
However, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe claimed such an approach was not in the works in an interview published today in the French Ouest-France daily.
“In the present regional context we are not working towards such a scenario,” Juppe claimed.
On the other hand, French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave a much different impression of France’s position.
Sarkozy said that France would not silently stand by and watch the crackdown occur, hinting that indeed such an approach was being considered, if not planned as the Russians have been saying for a long time now.
“We cannot accept the ferocious repression by the Syrian leadership of its people, a repression that has led the entire country into chaos, and a chaos that will help extremists of all kinds,” Sarkozy said.
Sarkozy also seems to hold the delusional position that the United Nations Security Council must vote in condemnation of the crackdown and support the Arab League’s mission in Syria, despite the fact that Russia and China have made it clear no United Nations Security Council resolutions targeting Syria will be passed.
Repeatedly saying that the Security Council should do something doesn’t change this fact, although far too many individuals seem to not realize this.
In an interview with BBC’s world service recently, I heard a representative of the SNC repeating these same statements while constantly contradicting herself when confronted with the facts.
In a span of about five minutes the representative said that they represent the people demonstrating on the streets then said that they do not represent anyone and thus are not legitimate in the traditional sense because no one voted for them.
It was an incredibly painful interview with the BBC presenter lobbing softballs in the SNC representative’s direction just to have the representative fall on her face trying to swing at it.
The BBC presenter’s most important point, one which was likely made unintentionally, was made when the presenter pointed out that most of the SNC not only doesn’t live in Syria currently but in fact many haven’t lived there for years.
The woman being interviewed had not even been in Syria since she was around 10-years-old, proving that she is no more connected to Syria’s domestic affairs and on-the-ground daily reality that most Westerners.
Sufian Allaw, Syria’s Oil Minister said yesterday that the sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States were in fact having a drastic economic impact on Syria. “We have suffered important losses as a result of our inability to export crude oil and petroleum products,” Allaw said, citing over $2 billion in losses since September 1.
The sanctions have also hurt the Syrian currency, pushing it down to record lows which hurts the average Syrian civilian more than anyone else.
Adib Malayeh, the governor of Syria’s central bank said that they will be introducing a managed float of the currency this coming week, which is essentially devaluing the currency, according to the Financial Times.
MENA quoted Ahmed al-Tayyeb, the grand imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning according to Al Arabiya, urging “Arab rulers to take the necessary measures to halt bloodshed in Syria,” quite clearly hinting at foreign intervention.
In addition to all of the unilateral sanctions currently being leveraged against Syria, the European Union is expected to expand the sanctions against Syria to include individuals, institutions and companies as well.
Before the oil sanctions were imposed back on September 2, the European Union purchased the majority of Syria’s estimated 130,000 barrels of oil exports every day.
As we saw with Iraq, the people who are ultimately hurt the most by the sanctions aren’t the governments and corporations they are supposed to target, but instead everyday people who have absolutely no ability to change their government’s policies.
This led to the deaths of countless Iraqis and likely will lead to the deaths of many Syrian civilians.
The unfortunate reality is that we will likely not see the impact these sanctions have until years after they have already impacted the lives of innocent people.
The push for foreign intervention is only increasing by the day and I sincerely hope that people around the world – but especially in the Western nations that are pushing so hard to oust Assad like the United States and the United Kingdom – start fighting back against the tide of disinformation in order to give a more accurate impression of what is really going on there.
We must also realize that the majority of Syrians do not want Assad to be removed from power right now, and if the West really values democracy as they so often claim to, then this will be respected.
Unfortunately, democracy only counts to them when they say it does and when the democracy aligns itself with Western interests.
However I do think that through raising awareness of the situation in Syria and what is really going on there, we can avoid an all-out conflict which would undoubtedly involve Russia and whatever foreign powers decided to take part in the intervention.
Please take a few moments and share this with your friends, family and contacts in order to help us get this information out there.
If I missed anything or you would like to contribute to our coverage, please do not hesitate to email me at admin@EndtheLie.com with your tips, comments, or insults.
Recommended related reading (in chronological order, oldest to latest):
- Is Syria the next target for Globalist intervention?
- Propaganda Regarding Syria Intensifies to Justify Yet Another “Humanitarian Intervention”
- Libya redux? France and UK call for UN action against Syrian government
- Syria: Lybia 2.0? It looks more likely by the day
- Western funded groups continue to destabilize Syria, Germany calls for urgent UN Security Council meet among al Qaeda praise for the American-led “revolution”
- United Nations Security Council issues statement condemning Syrian violence, media still glossing over armed opposition
- Hypocritical insanity: U.S. demands China explain need for aircraft carrier
- Russia and China block UN resolution on Syria amidst fears it could mean another Libya-style intervention
- Is Syria the next target for Western Libya-style “humanitarian” intervention?U.S.-Syrian relations devolve further as Ambassadors are pulled out
- Syrian government decries America’s ‘blatant interference’ in uprising
- Russian warships entering Syrian waters to inhibit foreign invasion as opposition calls for no-fly zone
- Violence continues in Syria as Condoleezza Rice promotes unilateral U.S. action
- As predicted, Arab League and Turkey reportedly plan no-fly zone over Syria with U.S. logistical support
- Reports say Russian ships in Syrian waters delivered advanced anti-aircraft missile system and technicians
- Facebook page removed after uploading video exposing obviously skewed Barbara Walters interview with Assad
- US-NATO troops reportedly gathering on Jordan-Syria border
- Syrian state media reports Russian naval flotilla arrival in Tartus
- Foreign Syrian intervention and the Russian-Chinese opposition
- The Syria debacle – part I
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Resisting the Police State: Answers and Solutions [video]
Boiling Frogs Video
January 24, 2012
CONTINUE WATCHING: http://ur1.ca/7os9i
TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=3797
With TSA abuses back in the headlines, continued concern over the NDAA and other legislation codifying martial law, President Obama’s unchallenged use of his self-proclaimed authority to assassinate American citizens without trial, and an increasingly bewildering array of tracking, tracing and pain-compliance technology being used against law-abiding citizens, more and more people are becoming aware of the police state that currently exists in the US, and indeed throughout much of the so-called “free world.”
With this understanding comes a certain amount of apprehension: after all, the enemies of liberty are organized and persistent, and they inhabit positions of authority. The defenders of liberty, meanwhile, seem few and far between, and more time seems spent convincing others that the police state even exists than in working to dismantle these systems of control.
What these concerns obscure, however, is the simple fact that the police state constitutes a mental prison as much as a physical one, and that part of its power is in convincing the public that it is all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful. Once that illusion is shattered, the police state can be seen for what it is: a system of coercion that can only function if a majority of the people go along with it.
The Syria debacle – part I
By Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
January 18, 2012
I have been writing about Syria and the attempts at pushing a foreign intervention on the nation for months now (see the bottomof the article for a partial list of previous works on the subject).
I believe it has become such a multifaceted and important issue that I must devote a series to covering the developments as I have done with Iran and the global growth of the United States’ and NATO’s hegemony.
As the days go by the tensions between the West and Syria only get more pronounced, especially when it comes to the increasingly vocal opposition from Russia.
Russia’s opposition is far from something new. They were one of the first nations to come to Syria’s defense and protect – or at least attempt to protect them – from foreign meddling.
This has incarnated in many forms, some overt and military in nature – like the delivery of anti-aircraft missile systems and most recently a Russian naval group docking in the Syrian port of Tartus – others political, like the statements of the head of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev.
The political rhetoric has become increasingly heated and firm, and today’s news is no different.
The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reportedly had a phone conversation in which they “affirmed the need to defend the independence and [sovereignty] of Syria and Iran from the siege and interference in their internal affairs carried out by colonialist countries,” according to Syria’s SANA.
This is just another affirmation of Russia’s staunch opposition to any foreign intervention in Syria and Iran which is indeed a real threat, despite any assurances otherwise coming from the wholly untrustworthy Western establishment.
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said that Chavez and Putin also discussed the strategic ties between the two nations in the fields of finance, the economy, commercial and industrial matters and military cooperation as well.
What remains to be seen is how Russia will actually step in on Syria’s behalf if the press to intervene in Syria continues.
Russia and China have both blocked increased sanctions when they were brought to the United Nations Security Council, but it is unclear exactly what they would do if the West ignores the writing on the wall and conducts another intervention like in Libya.
Russia has made their military presence in the region very well-known and their transfer of advanced military equipment underlines their position.
China, on the other hand, is a bit of a more unknown variable in this equation.
They have repeatedly voiced their distaste with the Western attempts at intervening in Syrian domestic affairs and blocked new sanctions, but it is unclear if China would take up arms in defense of Syria if it came down to such a situation.
If Russia were to take action and come under threat from the Arab League, NATO or the West as a whole, I think it is only logical to assume that China very well might come to Russia’s aid.
The Arab League has had a very interesting role in the Syrian conflict, given that most leaders of Arab League states are little more than Western puppets.
The League’s observer mission has been characterized as a failure in some quarters, and I found the entire situation quite ironic given the presence of a general accused of creating the brutal “janjaweed,” which was responsible for some of the worst atrocities during the Darfur genocide, in the Arab League’s observer force.
Yesterday China’s Xinhua reported that the Syrian Foreign Ministry has totally rejected Qatari Emir’s suggestion of dispatching Arab troops into Syria, supposedly to help curb the violence.
This is hardly a stupid move on Syria’s part, given that Qatar is now openly admitting that their forces were running most of the ground operations for the rebels in Libya.
Knowing this, it is only logical to think that the Qatari forces would not, in fact, act to help stop the violence but instead encourage it and run operations for the armed opposition in order to enact regime change.
Ultimately, the whole uprising is about regime change, as the opposition has made it clear time and time again that they will not consider negotiations with President Bashar al-Assad nor any option that does not involve Assad being removed from power completely.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry stated that they absolutely reject any calls like the ones coming from Qatar as it could not only make the situation worse but also set the precedent for a greater foreign intervention in Syria’s domestic affairs.
Of course, al Jazeera, the Qatari state-funded propaganda house which operates under the guise of anti-Western alternative news (laughable though the claim may be, many consider it indeed to be such an outlet) would utilize their position to push for a greater intervention just as they did in Libya.
Pointing to the failure of the Arab League’s observers to stop the violence in Syria, Qatar Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani stated that he was in favor of deploying Arab troops into Syria.
Statements like this are regularly made, usually claiming that such a move would stop or at least decrease the violence.
Based on what we’ve seen in Libya, I think it is hardly an accurate assumption to make. Bringing in armed foreign troops to solve a domestic conflict is hardly conducive to peace.
In making the statement, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani made himself the first Arab leader to openly call for military intervention in Syria, saying, “For such a situation … some troops should go to stop the killing.”
Once again, this is operating on the nonsensical assumption that for some reason bringing armed troops into a conflict would not increase violence but in fact decrease it.
We saw how well that worked in Libya, not to mention Iraq, both of which are still rife with violence and civil strife.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry’s statement was quite strongly worded, saying that Syria “rejects all kinds of foreign intervention in its affairs, under any title, and would confront any attempt to infringe upon Syria’s sovereignty and integrity of its territories.”
What exactly they mean by “confront” isn’t quite clear but I believe it is safe to assume that they mean they would meet military intervention with military confrontation in hopes that Russia and perhaps China would come to their aid.
Syria also stated that while they are agreeing to stick to the Arab League’s plan, they ask for Arab nations and the Arab League as a whole to make an effort “to stop all instigating campaigns and media mobilization that aim to ramp up the situation in Syria.”
I believe this to be a not-so-subtle jab at Qatar which has used its propaganda arm to shape the narrative throughout the so-called Arab Spring since the beginning.
The statement also said that Arab states should assist Syria in blocking the movement of weapons into Syria in order to “reinforce stability and security that would pave the way for a constructive national dialogue that aims to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria.”
Unfortunately, it seems this hope is a bit misguided, as the Syrian opposition – especially the armed insurgent group the Free Syrian Army – have repeatedly stated that they have no interest in “a constructive national dialogue” nor a political solution unless it involves complete regime change.
The Arab League’s monitors began their mission in Syria on December 26, 2011 and they are due to issue an assessment on January 21.
Contrary to the Western narrative, the Syrian government states that the violence in Syria is being incited by terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs, which is not entirely untrue as the establishment media makes out.
Indeed the United States has been busted funding anti-government propaganda stations which were beamed into Syria via satellite.
The United States’ ambassador to Syria has also openly met with opposition leadership, a move which elicited a violent reaction from the Syrian people.
According to Syrian government reports, over 2,000 army and security personnel have been killed during the uprising.
The Free Syrian Army, for one, has openly bragged about attacking government forces, even blowing up government transport vehicles.
The United Nations has estimated the death toll to be over 5,000 although their numbers are based largely – if not entirely – upon the unverified reports of so-called “activists” and “human rights groups” which have dubious intentions.
While NATO has repeatedly denied that they are working towards a no-fly zone over Syria along with so-called “humanitarian corridors” or “buffer zones” along the borders, Russia today dismissed these claims and insisted that they have information that such tactics are currently being discussed.
“Our partners int he West are in fact discussing a no-fly zone, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow, according to Bloomberg.
“There are other ideas being realized, including humanitarian convoys, in the hope they could provoke a response from government forces, border guards,” Lavrov added.
Lavrov also said that Russia would continue to block any attempt at passing a resolution for military intervention in the United Nations Security Council.
He also dismissed the American condemnation of Russian arms shipments to Syria, saying that they were not violating international law by simply supplying Syria with weapons.
Indeed this is true and one must consider the almost laughable hypocrisy displayed by such statements coming from the United States when they are providing the weaponry to Bahrain used to crack down on their own domestic uprising.
Both the European Union and the United States have already put an arms embargo against Syria in place.
The United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, stated that the U.S. has “very grave concern[s]” about Russian arms being given to the Assad government.
One must wonder if this is because it would allow the government to put up a greater level of resistance to foreign intervention and Western-backed armed insurgent groups currently operating in Syria.
These statements echo ones I reported on previously made by Patrushev which at the time were by far the most heated we had seen.
Patrushev stated that Turkey may play a key role in such an operation and unsurprisingly the same day Turkey along with the United Kingdom and France all denied that such a move was a possibility.
However, the French denial makes very little sense when one remembers that in November Alain Juppe, the French Foreign Minister, suggested that military forces should establish humanitarian corridors to deliver aid in Syria.
Of course the aid would likely only be delivered to anti-Assad groups and insurgents, while pro-government demonstrators and citizens would probably end up getting shafted as they were in Libya.
There is very little we can do at this point to stop another bloody foreign intervention other than spreading the awareness of this campaign.
Please make an effort to share this article and other works by myself and the many others who have been bringing attention to this situation as much as humanly possible.
Only through a greater number of people becoming fully cognizant of the destabilization operation in Syria and other nations which don’t tow the Western line can we hope to stifle these deplorable efforts.
Please, take the less than 30 seconds to share this with your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, or whomever you can on whatever social network/medium you prefer.
Every single person who becomes aware of these issues is another person who can spread the truth and help push back against the wave of disinformation and warmongering.
Recommended related reading (in chronological order, oldest to latest):
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Is Syria the next target for Globalist intervention?
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Propaganda Regarding Syria Intensifies to Justify Yet Another “Humanitarian Intervention”
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Libya redux? France and UK call for UN action against Syrian government
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Syria: Lybia 2.0? It looks more likely by the day
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Western funded groups continue to destabilize Syria, Germany calls for urgent UN Security Council meet among al Qaeda praise for the American-led “revolution”
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United Nations Security Council issues statement condemning Syrian violence, media still glossing over armed opposition
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Hypocritical insanity: U.S. demands China explain need for aircraft carrier
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Russia and China block UN resolution on Syria amidst fears it could mean another Libya-style intervention
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Is Syria the next target for Western Libya-style “humanitarian” intervention?
U.S.-Syrian relations devolve further as Ambassadors are pulled out
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Syrian government decries America’s ‘blatant interference’ in uprising
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Russian warships entering Syrian waters to inhibit foreign invasion as opposition calls for no-fly zone
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Violence continues in Syria as Condoleezza Rice promotes unilateral U.S. action
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As predicted, Arab League and Turkey reportedly plan no-fly zone over Syria with U.S. logistical support
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Reports say Russian ships in Syrian waters delivered advanced anti-aircraft missile system and technicians
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Facebook page removed after uploading video exposing obviously skewed Barbara Walters interview with Assad
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US-NATO troops reportedly gathering on Jordan-Syria border
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Syrian state media reports Russian naval flotilla arrival in Tartus
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Foreign Syrian intervention and the Russian-Chinese opposition
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