Syria and Bulgaria: U.S. Double Standards on Terrorism
Voice of Russia
July 20, 2012
New confirmation of US double-standard policy
Konstantin Garibov
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“The US has once again confirmed its position regarding the priorities of its foreign policy. It supports its ally on any issues and ignores the negative events their opponents live through. This time Washington repeatedly made it clear that it would not revise its foreign policy. Actually it never did so in its history. The goals and priorities of US foreign policy on the Middle East are unchangeable and they won’t change. It sounds trivial but it is so. The US reaction to the events in Burgas and Damascus has confirmed it.”
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On July 20, the mandate of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria expires. After the intrigue regarding the mission’s prolongation lingered in the UN Security Council, now it looks like 300 unarmed servicemen will stay in that country.
It is quite likely that on Friday the UN Security Council will approve the resolution on the technical prolongation of the mission for 30 more days. By now the mission has worked for 90 days in Syria. Russia’s permanent ambassador in the UN Vitaly Churkin expressed confidence that the mission would be prolonged. The diplomat also welcomed Pakistan’s intention to submit its draft on the technical prolongation of the mission to the UN Security Council.
Russia plans to increase its monitoring mission in Syria by 30 servicemen. President Putin signed a ruling to that effect about Russia’s willingness to dispatch up to 30 liaison and staff officers, as well as military observers to the UN monitor mission at the expense of the United Nations.
The intrigue regarding the mission’s prolongation lingered after Russia and China vetoed the draft resolution on Syria proposed by the UK. That draft contained a proposal to prolong the UN mission but also an initiative to introduce tough sanctions against the regime in Damascus and an option to use military force if Damascus did not withdraw troops from Syrian cities. Russia and China’s veto of that unilateral resolution suspended the question about the mission’s technical prolongation. However, right after the vote the ambassadors of Russia and China in the UN Vitaly Churkin and Li Baodong said that they would vote for the prolongation.
The US reaction to it was inadequate. Washington said that it would support the prolongation of the mission’s mandate only if a tough anti-Syrian resolution is approved, in other words a resolution aimed at overthrowing Bashar Assad’s regime. In fact the UN supervision mission served as a bargaining chip for US plans on Syria. Later the US position slightly changed. Washington made a statement that it was ready to consider the mission’s prolongation.
The US reaction to the terrorist attacks in Damascus, in which three generals were killed including Syria’s Defense Minister, was quite remarkable. The US statement did not contain any condemnation of the attacks. Moreover Barack Obama accused Bashar Assad of what had happened, saying that the assassinations of the ministers were the consequences of his policy.
At the same time Barack Obama condemned the terrorist attack in Bulgaria where a suicide bomber carried out an attack that killed eight people in a bus transporting Israeli tourists, because that attack concerned Israel’s international image. Obama’s statement expressed firm determination to support its Mideast ally. Again the US activates its double-standard policy mechanism, fighting terrorism when it is targeted against its allies and ignoring attacks when the targets are US opponents. We hear from Sergey Demidenko, an analyst at the Institute of Strategic Studies.
“The US has once again confirmed its position regarding the priorities of its foreign policy. It supports its ally on any issues and ignores the negative events their opponents live through. This time Washington repeatedly made it clear that it would not revise its foreign policy. Actually it never did so in its history. The goals and priorities of US foreign policy on the Middle East are unchangeable and they won’t change. It sounds trivial but it is so. The US reaction to the events in Burgas and Damascus has confirmed it.”
Meanwhile reports about ongoing military actions in Syria are controversial. The opposition claims that it has taken control over all the checkpoints on the border with Iraq and two check points on the border with Turkey. The authorities deny this information. It has been rumored that Damascus is preparing repressions in response to the murders of Bashar Assad’s associates. The authorities have warned the population that in some regions the insurgents dressed in the uniforms of government troops are going to perpetrate massacres and later shift the blame onto the military.
Dr. Bashar Al Jaafari speech – Russia and China veto resolution on Syria at UN [video]
Friends of Syria
July 19, 2012
To Whom It May Concern
Friends of Syria
July 19, 2012
Damascus, Syria
07/19/2012
My name is Bassam Al-Kadi (48 years old), a Syrian human rights activist, especially the rights of women and children.
I opposed the Syrian regime since 1982 for justice, freedom and democracy, and I was arrested four times (1985 to 2012), including a total of 7 and a half years.
I supported the Syrian civil movement for freedom and democracy until it turned into a battle waged by criminal fundamentalist forces aiming to divide Syria and transfer it into terrorist emirates subjected to Israel and US
I declare the following:
In the light of Foreign Military threats against my country, under the pretext of security situation, I assure that I will immediately become a suicide bomber to kill all those who contributes in any military action against my country, whether by a single country or a group of states, whether by a Security Council decision or the United Nations or NATO or any other party.
I assure that every diplomat and politician in the enemy states that are involved in the attacks on Syria, including of all civilians in those countries who support the attack on my country, and every facility I can access in the countries that participated in the invasion, are legitimate targets for me.
All written laws of earth and heaven have ensured the people’s right to defend their country, and I am going to exercise this right against you without hesitation, and with me hundreds of thousands of Syrians who are willing to sacrifice their bodies and their lives in defense of Syria.
My position, if you are interested to know, has nothing to do with neither the Syrian regime nor any of its apparatuses. Whether the regime decided to confront you or not, I will fight you without hesitation or mercy.
Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and Libya will be nothing but a simple walk in front of what you will face if you think to take any military action against Syria.
Bassam Al-Kadi
Syrian Citizen
[Potent News Editor’s note: Let me be clear. I am not the author of this letter and I do not condone the killing of innocent civilians. I merely posted this Friends of Syria article because it illustrates the depth of the crisis that Syria (and the world) is facing at this critical juncture.]
Battle for Damascus: Rebels break capital peace [video]
Russia Today
July 17, 2012
Syrian opposition fighters have taken their battle to the neighbourhoods of Damascus, with reports that the city has witnessed explosions and intense daylight shootouts.
RT’s Maria Finoshina is in the capital. Follow her on twitter for updates: http://twitter.com/MFinoshina_RT
Latest Syria “Massacre” – Goebbelsesque Propaganda
by Tony Cartalucci
July 14, 2012 – Surely if nothing “activists” have so far said about latest so-called “massacre,” in Tremseh, Syria can be verified, it is impossible to “blame” anyone for the alleged deaths that are said to have occurred. Nevertheless, the Associated Press, Reuters, AFP, and many other mainstays of the West’s corporate-run media machine ran with titles such as, “UN blames regime forces for Syria massacre” (AP), “Syrian regime condemned for Tremseh massacre” (Reuters), “Syria crisis: Tremseh ‘massacre’” (Guardian), and “Syria unrest: Kofi Annan shocked at Tremseh ‘atrocities’” (BBC).
Photo: Unarmed civilians? From the US State Department and outward through its tentacles across the corporate media, the so-called “Free Syrian Army” is continuously referred to interchangeably as “civilians” and “activists.” In reality they are heavily armed, foreign-backed, and include amongst their ranks a sizable proportion of foreign fighters – betraying the very name Free “Syrian” Army. Even by “activist” accounts however, the recent “massacre” in Tremseh, Syria appears to be in fact a battle militants lost, with the vast majority of the deaths being armed fighters, not civilians.
And even below these deceitful titles, clearly implicating the Syrian government and its security forces in what is portrayed as a callous act of mass murder against defenseless civilians, each report concedes, buried toward the end, that Tremseh was in fact the site of a vicious battle between heavily armed NATO-backed “Free Syrian Army” militants and the Syrian military. Under the deceitful headlines and beyond the first several paragraphs purposefully loaded with manipulative Goebbelsesque propaganda, what the Western corporate-media is actually reporting is terrorist forces being defeated by the Syrian military in violence growing SOLELY because the West continues to funnel cash, increasingly advanced arms, and even foreign fighters into the country.
BBC even went as far as literally admitting, after offering up another “Houla-style” narrative, that (emphasis added):
…later, activists told the AFP news agency that rebel fighters had attacked an army convoy, but were beaten back and many were killed in a counter-attack.
“At this stage, though we do not yet have the final count, the number of civilians killed by shelling is not more than seven,” said Jaafar, an activist from the anti-regime Sham News Network.
“The rest were members of the Free Syrian Army.”
So despite even the “activists” themselves admitting they attacked the Syrian military first and simply lost the subsequent battle which appears to have led back to their base of operations in Tremseh, the Western media decided to spin it as a calculated, mass murder of civilians, as the Guardian puts it, “timed” for “boosting morale of Assad’s armed supporters and scuppering attempts to find a political solution,” quoting a member of the overtly Western-backed “Syrian National Council” (SNC).
Perhaps the most ridiculous display put on however, was performed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who claimed, “accounts of the attack on the village of Tremseh, including the use of artillery, tanks and helicopters, provide indisputable evidence that the regime deliberately murdered innocent civilians.” Clinton, unhindered by the fact that she herself used the word “accounts” rather than “documented evidence,” claims that the incident, described by even the rebels as a pitched battle between Syrian troops and FSA militants, was a deliberate mass murdering of civilians.
Clinton is attempting to solicit sympathy from the public over the defeat of her funded, armed, and propped up front of sectarian extremists, the FSA. The FSA who consist of Libyan mercenaries (and here), extremists fresh back from killing US and British troops in Iraq now employing their bombing tactics against the people of Syria (and here), and members of Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood who were approached as early as 2007 by the US, then under the Bush administration, to begin creating a violent front with which to overthrow the Syrian government.
These are militants who received Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) commander Abdul Hakim Behaj, and secured from him weapons, cash, and fighters despite to this very day, LIFG being listed by Hillary Clinton’s own US State Department, as a listed Foreign Terrorist Organization (#28) – thus making US funding and support for the FSA a violation of its own anti-terrorism laws.
The aim Clinton hopes to achieve is to stampede the latest US-British backed UN resolution through the Security Council, by shaming Russia and China for defending Syria regarding atrocities it never committed. The trick is to rush this propaganda ploy through before the facts of what actually occurred in Tremseh emerge.
A Threat to World Peace
There is indeed a grievous threat to world peace. It is not the Syrian security forces attempting to restore order for the vast majority of its people not engaged in violence and foreign-funded subversion. It is the West, particularly the governments and corporate-financier interests of the US, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, along with their proxies not only employing a campaign of willful deceit to manipulate public perception, but demonstratively providing weapons, cash, and political support for terrorists they themselves have asked their populations for the last decade to shed their blood and treasure fighting in the so-called “War on Terror.”
As many others have repeatedly said, it is not that the Syrian people, or any other people around the world don’t deserve a better lot in life, it is the fact that this violence in Syrian unfolding now most definitely won’t lead to a better lot. It is a deception conducted by foreign powers seeking regional hegemony merely couched within rhetoric of “human rights,” “freedom,” and “democracy.” It is an orchestrated deception costing thousands of lives on both sides, and as seen in Libya, will leave the nation shattered, divided, destitute, and at the complete mercy of the West’s corporate-financier interests.
Image: A particularly relevant exhibit at the Washington D.C. Holocaust Museum. President Obama, has used the museum as a backdrop to set the stage for the continuation of Wall Street and London’s own crimes against humanity. Students of history however, will understand that Hitler’s Nazis weren’t pioneers of genocide and global domination, but merely clumsy imitators inspired by what the Anglo-Americans were already in the process of perfecting.
Joseph Goebbels, a Nazi propagandist whose deception laid the foundation of Adolf Hitler’s support, enabling him to carry out his vastly destructive campaign of military aggression stretching out across Europe, into Russia, and deep into North Africa and the Middle East, is remembered as a criminal war propagandist – the embodiment of the dangers of state propaganda. Others who assisted him were convicted during the Nuremberg trials for war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, and conspiracy to wage aggressive war -many were given lengthy jail terms, some some sentenced for life, some sentenced to death.
What the Western media is doing, and above all, what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is promoting, is without a doubt criminal – with a historical precedent already set leveling serious charges and penalties against such intolerable activities. Just because a government with the perception of legitimacy claims something is true, that a war is necessary, that its intentions are good – doesn’t mean that it is so – for every brutal imperialist throughout history has in one way or another attempted to dress its naked military aggression, subjugation, and exploitation toward others with good intentions and just causes.
The Syrian Conflict is Not Sectarian – Ahmed Versi [video]
108morris108
July 20, 2012
Bashar Assad married a Sunni (from Homs), of the three high officials assassinated the other day, there was one Sunni, one Christian and one Alawite.
The West is interfering in these uprisings it will not allow the people’s will to win, and the policies of the Muslim Brotherhood has changed and they are now more Western aligned.
Huge pressure on the Gulf States to be Sectarian, with accusations of an Arc of Shia
The Sectarianism started when Iraq invaded Iran.
Ahmed is the Editor and Publisher of http://muslimnews.co.uk
… the oldest and most well established and respected Muslim newspaper in the UK.
The only independent monthly Muslim newspaper in the UK which is neither backed by any country nor by any organisation or party…
Russia and China slap down yet another Western-backed UN Security Council resolution on Syria
By Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
July 19, 2012
As I have pointed out in the past, Russia and China have been providing a pretty significant stumbling block for the Western nations which have so clearly been attempting to ratchet up the United Nations sanctions against Syria, likely in an effort to legitimize foreign intervention.
This has led to some heated statements, especially from Hillary Clinton. The most astounding, however, came earlier this month when she actually said that Russia and China “will pay” for supporting the sovereignty of Syria.
On July 19, Russia and China stepped up and vetoed yet another resolution which threatened Syria with even more crippling sanctions. According to the Washington Post this left “the United States and its allies grappling for a new strategy to end the violence at a time of spreading chaos within the country.”
This move supposedly “upended months of U.N. diplomacy aimed at stemming the crisis,” which, if true, would make both Russia and China look like vicious nations which could not care less about human life.
In reality, however, the West has been fueling the conflict for quite some time now, and has no interest in peace. Furthermore, a significant number of the attacks pinned on government forces are actually the work of rebel terrorists.
The Washington Post also throws out what seems like a ludicrously inflated casualty number of “at least 14,000,” a number which is compiled from an assortment of dubious sources including, “Syrianshuhada.com via United Nations Institute for Training and Research; Institute for the Study of War; State Department; CIA; syriamap.wordpress.com; [and] staff reports.”
Unsurprisingly, Susan Rice, the United States ambassador to the United Nations was quick to condemn China and Russia’s decision, which marks the third time they have vetoed a Western effort to pass an anti-Syrian resolution.
“The Security Council has failed utterly in its most important task on its agenda this year,” Rice said, adding that the Russia and Chinese decision was “pitiful and deeply regrettable.”
In defense of the move, Russian envoy to the UN Vitaly Churkin pointed out that the resolution was inherently “biased.”
He said that it targeted only the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, not the heavily armed opposition which has engaged terrorist activity for quite a while, although just recently it has become increasingly hard to ignore, even for the mainstream media.
However, since the West blindly supports these terrorists, they can never actually call a spade a spade, instead opting to call the terrorist attacks “violent attacks against government targets.”
Of course, if these same attacks were to occur anywhere else there would be no hesitation in rightfully labeling them as terrorist incidents. Yet since we are supposed to picture the Syrian opposition as some kind of lovey-dovey peaceful pro-democracy movement, no such factual statements can be made.
With the UN’s monitoring mission in Syria’s mandate set to expire at the end of the day Friday, there is much left uncertain about what strategy the West will use moving forward.
Meanwhile, there are reports of armed Syrian rebels (read: terrorists) seizing border crossings on the borders between Syria and Iraq and Syria and Turkey. Yet the most touted capture on the border with Turkey was not actually held “because they knew they couldn’t withstand the superior firepower of Assad’s troops,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Clearly, they’re not going to push through a Security Council resolution any time soon, no matter how much heated rhetoric and attempts at demonization are used.
“It pains me to say, but we are not on the track for peace in Syria, and the escalations we have witnessed in Damascus over the past few days is a testimony to that,” said Major General Robert Mood, the head of the monitoring mission, at a news conference before the vote.
A spokesman for the UN-Arab League emissary to Syria, Kofi Annan, stated that he was “disappointed that at this critical stage the U.N. Security Council could not unite and take the strong and concerted action he had urged and hoped for.”
Why Annan would ever be silly enough to hope for such a thing is beyond me, especially when we have such a clearly established precedent.
Russian envoy Churkin also stated that the West’s approach to Syria is actually designed to “fan the flames” of violence and it is actually about making way for a military intervention and regime change. I couldn’t agree more. To posit otherwise seems ludicrous at this point.
Churkin said that Russia “simply cannot accept” any resolutions which could make the way for foreign military intervention.
They can hardly be condemned for taking such an approach after seeing how Libya turned out.
Unsurprisingly, the West disagrees, with British UN envoy Mark Lyall saying that Russia and China’s “arguments are irrational.”
Regardless of these claims and baseless attacks seen above, an informed individual can likely see through the thickening smokescreen of lies and obfuscation in order to see the truth: the West is backing the terrorists once again in an effort to topple the Syrian government, just as they helped topple that of Gaddafi.
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[hat tip: Activist Post]
