US Prepares For Direct Intervention in Syria [video included]
As FSA proxies fail and psychological operations falter, US prepares more direct (and desperate) approach for long-sought regime change.
by Tony Cartalucci
July 22, 2012 – As it becomes increasingly clear that last week’s “surge” by NATO-backed so-called “Free Syrian Army” terrorists was a failed psychological operation, coordinated with meticulously timed assassinations the day of the UN Security Council vote designed to stampede the Syrian government out of power, the FSA’s foreign sponsors are preparing the public for a more direct intervention while desperately attempting to maintain the illusion of chaos and the imminent collapse of Syria’s government.
Video: Thierry Meyssan in Damascus, Syria. Please choose from “choose language” to see English subtitles.
Contradicting NATO’s narrative, was Thierry Meyssan in Damascus, Syria who reported that Syria’s continuity of government seamlessly moved forward after the assassinations last week, and that state institutions are still standing and very much functional. He describes Syria’s latest unrest as the result of a coordinated NATO-backed terrorist operation aimed at creating confusion and panic, coupled with Western propaganda – and warns that more operations are likely on the way.
The Telegraph’s, “Bashar al-Assad’s Syria is now in a death spiral,” and the Guardian’s “Syria endgame: who and what will emerge from the ruins?” both desperately attempt to write off the Syrian government as already finished, an unsubstantiated reoccurring narrative being repeated daily by the West. Both articles however, categorically fail in qualifying their premises with subsequent facts – instead they depend on rehashing the initial violence that accompanied last week’s assassinations – violence that has already been adequately dealt with by Syrian security forces.
In New York Times’ article, “US to Focus on Forcibly Toppling Syrian Government,” is all but an admission that indeed NATO’s FSA terrorists have failed, and that what is in reality imminent, is the restoration of order by the Syrian army after over a year of foreign subversion and armed infiltration. Essential to the West’s plan, is now fabricating a justification the US, Israel, and the Gulf despots currently do not have – to more directly intervene before the limitations of NATO’s proxy forces are irrevocably exposed.
To achieve this, the Western media has decided to continue depicting Syria as “collapsing” even as security has been fully restored in Damascus, border crossings retaken after NATO-harbored terrorists struck from across Syria’s borders, overrunning small platoon-sized garrisons, and now it is confirmed that bolstered Syrian border defenses near Daraa on the Jordanian-Syrian border, entirely balked FSA terrorists.
Despite this, the Western media is still reporting “battles” in Damascus, that have “spread” to Aleppo. Aleppo being another relatively unscathed city, is being purposefully attacked in order to enhance NATO’s campaign to terrorize, panic, and divide the Syrian people. Already, however, Syrian troops have begun security operations to surround and neutralize terrorist elements, just as they have done already in Damascus.
But before the violence ebbs, at least, before the Western media finds it no longer tenable to report battles that have subsided days ago, the West has stampeded through several declarations. New York Times’ article, in addition to admitting more direct military intervention is being prepared, admits that the US and France are putting their proxy “Syrian National Council” in place to lead a “transitional government.”
The West’s problem is that not a square-inch of Syrian territory is held by NATO’s terrorist proxies – unlike in Libya where NATO proxies were operating out of Benghazi – raising the specter that some larger military intervention emanating from Syria’s borders will take place. The most likely location of such an operation would be via Turkey to establish a seat of power for the Western client regime.
To justify more overt Western intervention, an incredible amount of time and energy has been invested in preparing the general public for the prospect of a “chemical attack.”Syria has never deployed its chemical weapons, nor does it stand to gain from any such deployment, tactically, politically, or geopolitically. The only beneficiaries of such an attack would be NATO, Israel, and the Gulf despots, who could then use it to justify the “forcible toppling” of the Syrian government they now openly seek. If chemical weapons are deployed in Syria, it will most certainly be the work of NATO and its FSA proxies, using Libya’s admittedly pilfered and proliferated arsenal.
The announcement that indeed the US and France are maneuvering their client regime into place, while they plan on openly intervening on behalf of the so-called “Free Syrian Army,” is the final nail in the “opposition’s” legitimacy, exposing them as place holders of Western geopolitical aspirations in Syria, and in the Arab World. Earlier it was reported that the Syrian opposition was literally being coached and tutored by the US State Department, via the US government-funded US Institute of Peace (USIP) who is literally writing Syria’s “new” constitution, as well as engineering the entire “transitional” process on their behalf.
Syria and its allies, should they remain resolved and react only to the actual conditions on the ground can continue to balk Western ambitions by standing united, as they have throughout their history. For now, it appears the West will be happy to divide Syria along sectarian lines, forcing the government’s supporters to flee to ethnic enclaves. This means that NATO death squads will be focusing primarily on attacking minorities – a campaign that seems to have already begun.
Above all, skepticism and vigilance is needed to objectively analyze further developments, with further NATO machinations all but assured to follow.
U.S. Writing New Syrian Constitution [video included]
by Tony Cartalucci, Contributor
Activist Post
July 21, 2012
The US State Department, via the “US Institute of Peace” is working directly with Syrian “opposition” groups to formulate a “government” to put into place, if and when NATO covert military operations succeed in collapsing the Syrian state.
The report written by Foreign Policy magazine titled, “Inside the quiet effort to plan for a post-Assad Syria,” indicates that the US State Department-funded USIP plans on releasing a report soon, detailing the US-crafted government being planned. The USIP, which already publishes details of how it has crafted, created, and is continuing to manage and facilitate the NATO-installed client regime now running Libya, constitutes nothing less than implementation of modern-day imperialism.
The USIP claims that it is involved in not only “advising” the Western-backed Libyan government, but that it is also involved in, “constitution making, transitional justice, women rights” and “education.” The USIP, US government-funded, will also be writing Syria’s “constitution” as well – which they are now calling a “transition strategy document.”
Foreign Policy magazine, in an attempt to water down the implications of the US government literally crafting the client regime they plan on placing into the vacuum their US-Israeli-Saudi-Qatari mercenaries (FSA) are attempting to create, by claiming:
The absence of Obama administration officials at these meetings, even as observers, was deliberate.
‘This is a situation where too visible a U.S. role would have been deeply counterproductive. It would have given the Assad regime and elements of the opposition an excuse to delegitimize the process,’ [Steven] Heydemann said.Steven Heydemann is heading the USIP Syrian project.
Unfortunately for this line of thinking, the USIP is in fact a direct functionary of the US government, and more specifically the US State Department, with acting members of the US State Department, including Michael Posner and members of the US Department of Defense, including James Miller, serving on the USIP board of directors. Other compromising BoD members include Amnesty International chairmen and policy makers drawn from Fortune 500-funded think tanks like the Hoover Institution and big-oil’s Belfer Center.
To complicate matters further for the so-called “Syrian opposition,” prominent members of the movement, including Radwan Ziadeh, is actually a “senior fellow” of the US-funded institution – meaning the opposition leaders were drawn from US institutions, not Syria. The Guardian’s article, “The Syrian opposition: who’s doing the talking?” has covered this in depth, illustrating that Ziadeh’s background is the rule, not the exception.
Readers should recall that US State Department’s Michael Posner, also serving on the USIP BoD, conceded in an AFP report in 2011 that the US had been funding, equipping, and training “activists” from across the Arab World 2 years in advance for the allegedly “spontaneous” “Arab Spring.” These included activists from Syria who created the rhetorical predication for the violence now unfolding across Syria.
This admission by the US State Department and the head of USIP’s Syrian project indicates the absolute illegitimacy of the so-called “Syrian opposition,” – a complete contrivance of the US government, a manifestation of its foreign policy toward Syria – and in no way representative of the Syrian people. The opposition is literally directed by the US government who is forming for them a government to replace the one they are purposefully destroying through a series of mutually supported economic sanctions, military attacks, and diplomatic undermining.
UPDATE: Thierry Meyssan of VoltaireNet updates us on the latest, from Damascus, Syria.
Video: Thierry Meyssan in Damascus, Syria. Please choose from “choose language” to see English subtitles.
Thierry Meyssan describes Syria’s latest unrest as the result of a coordinated NATO-backed terrorist operation aimed at creating confusion and panic, coupled with Western propaganda – and warns that more operations are likely on the way. NATO hopes to break the will of Syrians as well as its military which is still clearly intact despite assassinations and widespread violence. By falsely portraying Syria as “collapsing,” the so-called “Free Syrian Army’s” foreign sponsors may be able to justify more overt intervention on behalf of their so-far ineffectual proxies.
More from VoltaireNet can be found here.
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Tony Cartalucci’s articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at Land Destroyer Report. Read other contributed articles by Tony Cartalucci here.
U.S.-backed Syrian Opposition Linked to Bilderberg, CFR, Goldman Sachs & George Soros
by Alex Newman
The New American
July 19, 2012
The foreign-financed armed rebellion and the Western-backed opposition to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has been falsely portrayed as a spontaneous uprising of “democracy” activists since violence first broke out more than a year ago. But according to a recent investigation published in the U.K. Guardian, top figures in the “regime-change” coalition — most notably the Syrian National Council (SNC) — have intimate links to the highest ranks of the world elite: the shadowy Bilderberg conference, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Goldman Sachs megabank, billionaire financier George Soros, and, of course, the U.S. government. It is all out in the open, too.
On top of that, the report suggests that much of the war propaganda being used to promote international military intervention and “revolution” is actually slick public-relations gimmicks financed by large tax-exempt foundations and even the governments being asked to intervene. And there is big money behind the spread of the disinformation. Consider the seemingly never-ending reports about “civilian massacres” blamed on the Syrian tyrant — almost always from anonymous “activists” — that continually prove to be exaggerated, fabricated, or even perpetrated by the Western-backed rebels themselves, and then blamed on the regime.
The most recent example occurred just last week when anonymous “activists” prompted the global press and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to claim that over 200 civilians, including women and children, had been massacred, only to be contradicted later — even by a UN investigation and “opposition activists” themselves. What actually happened, as The New American originally reported even before the UN probe, was apparently a battle between armed Western-backed “rebels” and the dictatorship’s military forces that resulted in some deaths of combatants.
So who are the “opposition activists” in reality? “The mainstream news media have, in the main, been remarkably passive when it comes to Syrian sources: billing them simply as ‘official spokesmen’ or ‘pro-democracy campaigners’ without, for the most part, scrutinizing their statements, their backgrounds or their political connections,” observed Charlie Skelton in his detailed and well-sourced article for the Guardian, noting that many of the most frequently quoted sources are openly connected to what he calls “the Anglo-American opposition creation business.” As The New American documented a year ago, many of the Syrian “opposition” groups and leaders were being showered with American taxpayer dollars to undermine the regime long before the “Arab Spring” even erupted.
Aside from the “anonymous” sources, there are a few opposition players that seem to be doing virtually all of the accusing for the establishment press — not to mention making most of the demands for more “humanitarian” war. The first one cited by Skelton is Bassma Kodmani, one of the top leaders in the “Syrian National Council” — a foreign-based umbrella group for some opposition factions, including the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, which is widely touted by the establishment press and Western governments as the primary group representing the “people” of Syria. And Kodmani, who continues to loudly demand international military intervention to oust the Assad regime, has open links to the elite.
Consider, for example, that she was at this year’s Bilderberg conference in Chantilly, Virginia — a secret yearly meeting of the top global power brokers from media, finance, government, military, intelligence, business, and more, that has come under criticism from across the political spectrum. Kodmani was also at the 2008 Bilderberg conference, though she was listed as French then. Now, for reasons that are not entirely clear, her official affiliation is listed only as “international.”
Before Bilderberg, Kodmani was a former official with the massive Ford Foundation, an organization that has also come under fire for its controversial efforts to remake the world. More recently, she was serving as the executive director of the “Arab Reform Initiative” for the powerful U.S.-based globalist outfit known as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) — yet another controversial elite group that is often faced with severe criticism for its hostility to national sovereignty, as well as American traditions of self-governance and individual liberty. The CFR membership roster includes many of the most influential figures in U.S. politics, business, military, and more.
“At this level, the worlds of banking, diplomacy, industry, intelligence, and the various policy institutes and foundations all mesh together, and there, in the middle of it all, is Kodmani,” Skelton pointed out, noting that billionaire leftist financier George Soros, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Goldman Sachs International Chairman Peter Sutherland, as well as countless military and intelligence bosses from the West, were all tied to the “Arab Reform Initiative” in various ways. “A picture is emerging of Kodmani as a trusted lieutenant of the Anglo-American democracy-promotion industry.” Indeed.
Another senior representative of the SNC is Ausama (or Osama) Monajed, the founder and director of Barada Television. The “opposition” TV outfit, U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks showed, was actually being secretly financed with millions of American taxpayers’ dollars, starting under the George W. Bush administration. The Syrian regime “would undoubtedly view any U.S. funds going to illegal political groups as tantamount to supporting regime change,” noted the top U.S. diplomat in Damascus in a 2009 embassy cable. “A reassessment of current U.S.-sponsored programming that supports anti-[government] factions, both inside and outside Syria, may prove productive.”
State Department spokesmen later claimed that unconstitutionally showering U.S. taxpayer money on foreign propaganda aimed at fomenting revolution in Syria was not “necessarily” undermining the existing government. Of course, more recently, the U.S. government and assorted Arab dictatorships have been funneling arms and equipment to the rebels, too. Even more aid is expected soon.
Another senior figure demanding an international war on Syria is Radwan Ziadeh, until recently a “senior fellow” at the taxpayer-funded, establishment-linked “U.S. Institute of Peace,” and a “visiting fellow” at the London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs — the CFR’s counterpart in the U.K. Also doing much of the talking — including demands that American troops be unconstitutionally deployed to participate in Syria’s civil war — are Hamza Fakher and Michael Weiss, both darlings of the neoconservative, war-mongering establishment. The two are also deeply involved in marketing the proposed military intervention using PR trickery, evidence suggests.
Commenting on the “amazingly open ties of the Syrian opposition to their Western paymasters,” analyst Daniel McAdams offered a brief summary of the links in a piece for the liberty-minded site LewRockwell.com entitled “Syrian Opposition’s Amazing CIA Credentials.” His conclusion: “Down to the person these Syrian engines of regime change are products of the US empire and its interventionist, Trotskyite foreign policy of ‘global democratic revolution.’” More than a few observers have echoed those sentiments, especially in recent months, as the true agenda became even more transparent.
Meanwhile, one of the primary sources of alleged atrocities in Syria being perpetrated by the Assad regime is known as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a British-based outfit that seems to consist of just one man who passionately despises the Syrian dictatorship. Establishment media outlets around the world have written countless stories based just on this one entity — almost always presenting it as an unbiased observer merely reporting the facts on the ground. But what is the SOHR really?
“One would believe this to be a giant sprawling organization with hundreds of members working hard on the ground, documenting evidence in Syria with photographs and video, while coordinating with foreign press to transparently and objectively ‘observe’ the ‘human rights’ conditions in Syria, as well as demonstrate their methodologies. Surely that is the impression the Western media attempts to relay to its readers,” noted analyst Tony Cartalucci, who has been following the Syrian conflict in detail.
“However, astoundingly, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is none of these things,” he pointed out, citing a Reuters report about the SOHR and the activist behind it. “Instead, it is merely a single man, sitting behind a computer in a British apartment, who alleges he receives ‘phone calls’ with information always incriminating the Syrian government, and ever glorifying the ‘Free Syrian Army.’”
The press, of course, has come under heavy fire for its shoddy reporting and misleading use of supposed sources. “Syria: major media outlets shaming themselves over Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,” noted a recent headline in the respected Modern Tokyo Times in an article exposing the SOHR “so-called entity” and the deceptive reporting in the West that relies so heavily on it. The use of biased “anonymous sources” has also attracted scrutiny.
Some of the most high-profile “democracy activists” on the ground in Syria, for instance, have been caught staging events like massacres and killings in videos posted on YouTube. Sometimes the phony scenes have even been broadcasted by establishment media outlets such as CNN and the Qatari regime’s Al Jazeera. In several recent cases, slaughters blamed on the Assad regime — and widely touted as such by the international media — were later shown to have likely been committed by armed opposition groups.
Of course, none of these facts are meant to downplay the ruthless and barbarian character of the Syrian dictator, who at one time was torturing prisoners on behalf of the U.S. government as part of its “terror war.” Years of tyranny in Syria have shown conclusively that, despite his well-documented protection of persecuted Middle Eastern Christians now facing slaughter at the hands of the rebels, Assad is a nasty tyrant. And without a doubt, there are also many well-meaning people risking their lives to bring down the despotic regime, most of whom are probably unaware that the foreign-based “opposition” figureheads purporting to speak and plan for them are so closely linked to the Western establishment.
There are also numerous other factions, including al-Qaeda, battling the regime in Syria right now. So despite the carefully constructed media-created perception of an opposition unified behind the Western establishment-backed SNC for “democracy,” there are actually numerous armed revolutionaries who are at odds with each other. Those divisions will eventually explode if and when Assad is finally ousted.
What the facts show, however, is that there is another, more sinister agenda to the war propaganda, the foreign backing of often-times brutal “rebels,” and the incessant calls for international military intervention to install a new regime in Syria. Amid all of the deception, it has become clear that there is much more going on than Western powers and the establishment media are admitting. And stuck in the crossfire between the establishment-backed rebels, Islamist terrorists, and the dictator’s armed forces, thousands of innocent civilians are being slaughtered.
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[hat tip: Infowars]
NATO Encouraging Unrest in Syria [video]
Charlie Skelton of The Guardian Exposes the NATO Networks Spreading Big Lies Against Syria.
Webster G. Tarpley, Ph.D.
PressTV – Tarpley.net
July 17, 2012
Charlie Skelton’s article, “The Syrian opposition: who’s doing the talking?” can be read here. For more news and analysis by Dr. Webster Tarpley, please tune in to his weekly radio show, World Crisis Radio.
Bomb kills Syria defense minister, Assad’s brother-in-law and key aides
By Al Arabiya with Agencies
Al Arabiya
July 18, 2012
A suicide attack Wednesday which struck at the heart of Syria’s security apparatus killed defense minister General Daoud Rajha and President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, state media said.
Syrian General Hassan Turkmani, a former defense minister and senior military official, died of wounds sustained in a bomb attack in Damascus, Hezbollah’s al-Manar television and a security source said. Hafez Makhlouf, head of the investigations at the Syrian Intelligence Agency died in the Damascus explosion, Al Arabiya reported citing Syrian sources.
The bombing, which for the first time in a 16-month anti-regime uprising managed to strike at Assad’s inner core, adds urgency to a U.N. Security Council debate on Syrian sanctions later on Wednesday, when a showdown between Western powers and Russia and China is expected.
Officials said the bomber struck as ministers and security officials were meeting at the heavily guarded National Security headquarters in Damascus.
President Assad appointed Fahd al-Freij as a new defense minister right after the explosion.
Five more of explosions were heard on Wednesday near the northwestern Damascus district of Muhajireen, close to the base of the Fourth Armored Division that is led by President Bashar al-Assad’s brother Maher, residents told Reuters.
‘Ready-to-quit’ Assad sparks media rumor frenzy
Russia Today
July 20, 2012
Bashar Assad is ready to leave power, while his wife Asma has fled to Russia – these are just some of the rumors circulating amid the Syrian conflict, as it enters a new stage. Russia has called on the media not to fall into “disinformation traps”.
On Friday morning, Russian Ambassador to France Aleksandr Orlov gave an interview to French radio station RFI. In it, he said that following recent talks in Geneva, the Syrian President is “ready for negotiations. He is prepared to hand over power, but in a civilized manner.”
Orlov then claimed “I believe it will be difficult for Assad to stay in power.”
A hungry news media pounced on the interview, which was seen as a major shift in Russia’s stance. Previously, Moscow had insisted that Assad shouldn’t necessarily be forced to hand over power – and definitely not ahead of any transition negotiations.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry was immediately forced into making a statement.
“The ambassador’s words were misinterpreted, and pulled out of context,” said the ministry’s twitter account.
“The Syrian people are the only ones who can decide on the future of the Syrian Arab Republic, including the fate of its leaders. This is clearly stated in the Geneva declaration adopted on June 30.”
Orlov also clarified his comments, saying that he felt that Assad may be prepared to quit, but only “as a result of negotiations.”
This closely matches Syria’s own position. Assad gave an interview last week in which he said that he was prepared to sit down and talk with the rebels, and step down if he no longer has the “confidence of his people.”
Another widely reported story claims that Asma Assad, Syria’s first lady, who holds British citizenship, left for Moscow in the wake of the explosion that killed Syria’s top security officials.
“I believe this is a mendacious disinformation trap,” an indignant Aleksandr Lukashevich, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry representative, told journalists during a Q&A session. “I advise you not to fall into it.”
Fog of war fuels rumor machine
Together with China, Russia has played a major part in opposing the West’s position regarding the civil war in Syria, which has killed more than 16,000 since breaking out in 2011. Many in the Western media tie Russia’s position to Assad’s future. There is little doubt that during a recent upsurge in fighting around Syria’s capital, journalists are looking for signs that the situation is shifting.
Another problem appears to be a lack of information from Damascus itself. A lack of a comprehensive descriptions of the circumstances of the explosion that killed Assad’s top lieutenants on Wednesday has given birth to outlandish rumors, including speculation that the ministers were poisoned by Assad himself.
Another rumor claims that Assad was wounded in another rebel attack. The rumor gained currency when Assad did not make a public appearance in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s blast, but was quickly dispelled when he swore in the new Defense Minister on TV.
Even Assad’s physical whereabouts have not been established, as some believe he has left his residence in Damascus to go to the Alawite stronghold of Latakia, where he enjoys the greatest support.
As the world press’ insistent gaze seeks exclusives while being multiplied by scant information, it is likely that these rumors will persist and grow as long as fighting continues in Syria.
‘Assad represents Syrian sovereignty’
President Bashar al-Assad is a symbol of Syrian sovereignty, and if he leaves or is removed from power the country could plunge into chaos, Syrian activist and blogger Mimi al-Laham told RT.
“Even as not being a government supporter, Assad right now is representative of Syrian sovereignty,” she said. “So for Assad to go right now means an end to basically Syria. It means an end to a free country. Its interests are going to be totally controlled by the US and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.”
It will not only bring more death and destruction, but will also degrade Syria’s way of life, which is mostly secular, she says.
“In spite of Syria being majority Sunni, or majority Muslim in fact, our people are secular at heart,” she said. “We have a long history of many religions living together in harmony.”
Syrian people warned against ‘fake TV channel’
PressTV
July 21, 2012
At the moment a fake channel is broadcasting Syrian national songs as well as its national anthem to lay the ground for broadcasting the programs that their nature is clear, the ministry said in a statement.
It issued the warning after armed terrorists kidnapped Mohammed Saeed, a broadcaster of the Syrian television, in Jdeidet Artouz area of the capital Damascus.
The ministry also warned that it is possible that the Syrian national TV is taken off air any moment and replaced by the fake channel.
PN 