Washington’s Salafist Quagmire in Syria
by Christof Lehmann
nsnbc
October 14, 2012
The Obama administration and the Turkish government of Prime Minister Erdogan are faced with a Syrian quagmire that is prompting them to send a signal to Saudi Arabia. Riyadh´s support of fundamentalist Salafi Jihadi groups in Syria is becoming increasingly counter productive. Riyadh is not only creating a public relations dilemma for Washington and Ankara, the influx of fundamentalist Salafists which have been streaming to Syria over recent months is making it increasingly difficult, if not impossible to build a coherent and credible Syrian opposition that could be used as an argument for regime change.
Two defeated campaigns of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in June and July failed to secure the city of Aleppo and depleted the FSA of its best trained and best armed Syrian and foreign fighters. The defeat also made it impossible to emulate the strategy that had been successful in Libya. To secure Aleppo as a seat for a Transitional Syrian Government that could have called on the international community, that is the USA, NATO and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states, to implement a No-Fly-Zone and to provide other military support.
The defeat of the campaign for Aleppo has changed both the military and political dynamics of the Syrian crisis. Saudi Arabia increased its support of fundamentalist Salafist groups to compensate for the FSA´s losses. Since the end of July and the beginning of August there has been a significant influx of Saudi sponsored foreign fighters and in particular an influx of fundamentalist Salafist fighters in Syria. A recent report issued by the International Crisis Group recognizes the influx and a cohort of both military, political and security problems it implies.
The problem for Washington and the pro-opposition coalition is that a coherent and political opposition has failed to manifest. The National Transitional Council of Syria has always been an incoherent group that was plagued by internal rivalries. Since the failed campaign for Aleppo it has more or less entirely collapsed. The influx of Salafist groups which are fighting in Syria has also led to, that ever more radical elements are demanding political influence, and Washington has difficulties to overtly negotiate with known terrorist groups about the future of a free and democratic Syria.
The lost battles for Aleppo and the subsequent influx of Salafists has also been noticed by prominent commanders within the Free Syrian Army. On 28 September the prominent FSA commander Captain Khaled Abdel Rahman al-Zamel, accompanied by ten other FSA officers, took part in a conference of Syrian opposition groups who are seeking a Syrian solution to the crisis and who are tolerant of the Baath Party and President al-Assad.
Syrians have closely followed the protracted civil war in Lebanon and the devastation of Iraq first by the USA and allies, and subsequently by religious fanaticism and terrorism. Both the military and the political Syrian opposition are becoming increasingly concerned about the prospect of Syria degenerating into a spiral of religious and ethnic violence.
Washington seems to have interpreted the trend correctly. Knowing that the influx of Salafists and other radicals is making it difficult to argue for the overt support of an almost non existing political opposition and to argue for a continuation of material support for known terrorist organizations it is asking Saudi Arabia to back off a little.
The recent aggravation of border incidents between Syria and Turkey could indicate a change of strategy. Lacking a credible political opposition to support and not being able to overtly support organizations that are otherwise designated terrorist organizations, it is not unlikely that a direct military confrontation between Turkey and Syria is the next best option. It is however, questionable whether Erdogans AKP government can rally the support of Turkey´s population behind a military campaign against Syria. An escalation of the border clashes into an full scale military confrontation would most likely be met with massive popular opposition that could lead to the fall of the AKP government. A subsequent military disengagement would be equivalent to a defeat of Turkey and NATO.
The Turkish parliament´s decision on 4. October to allow cross border military operations, after a mortar shell that was fired from within Syrian territory killed a Turkish family of four was met with massive protests and demonstrations in Ankara and in cities throughout Turkey. The Turkish population is becoming increasingly worried by the influx of Salafist and other extremist fighters who either use Turkey as base of operations or as transit for waging Jihad in Syria. Critique has further increased after it transpired that the mortar that was used in the attack is identical to a model Turkey provided for the FSA. Turkey has also been widely critisized for endangering air-safety by forcing a Syrian A-320 Airbus to land in Ankara.
Regardless whether the support of Salafists by Saudi Arabia continues overtly or covertly, it is presenting both Washington, Turkey and other ”Friends of Syria” with a serious quagmire.
There is no credible political opposition that supports the continuation of a military campaign, and a continuation of a military campaign with the help of imported extremists is likely to undermine both the political and the armed Syrian opposition.With winter approching, it looks as if the Arab Spring in Syria is turning into NATO´s Fall.
Christof Lehmann
14.10.2012
British Troops Join US Forces on the Jordan-Syria Border
CounterPsyOps
October 14, 2012
According to ANSA, the Italian News Agency, “several hundred British soldiers and military advisors are in Jordan to monitor the Syria situation, Western diplomatic sources said on Thursday.”
One hundred US troops are already stationed on the Syria-Jordan border. They were deployed on the orders of the US president and commander in chief without seeking the approval of the US Congress.
Sources do not indicate the composition of these US and British troops, as to whether they are regular troops or in large part special forces.
The New York Times confirms the presence of 150 British troops,: The Times of London reported “on an undisclosed number of British troops. The troops have been in Jordan since participating in joint military maneuvers in the past months. They remained on concerns over Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, Jordanian military sources said, adding that French troops might also be in place. ANSA, the Italian News Agency, October 11, 2012, emphasis added)
[hat tip: Friends of Syria]
Intercepted: First VIDEO aboard Syria-bound plane diverted by Turkey
Russia Today
October 13, 2012
The first public video from aboard the Syria-bound plane intercepted by Turkish authorities. Passengers filmed the Turkish F-16s that intercepted the plane, and then Turkish soldiers boarding the aircraft. The plane’s flight engineer later bandages his handcuff-scarred hands.
Turkish F-16 fighter jets forced a Syrian Air passenger plane to land in Ankara over suspicions that it was carrying “non-civilian” cargo. The Damascus-bound plane, en route from Moscow, has departed after a nine-hour inspection.
FULL STORY http://on.rt.com/ul4tsw
RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air
Subscribe to RT! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=RussiaToday
Like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/RTnews
Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/RT_com
Follow us on Google+ http://plus.google.com/+RT
RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 500 million YouTube views benchmark.
Israel sole beneficiary of Turkey-Syria war: Kevin Barrett [video]
PressTV
October 14, 2012
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has called on Turkey to show restraint with regards to its recent conflict with Syria. Westerwelle, who is in Istanbul for talks with Turkish officials, made the remarks in a meeting with his counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday. “It is important that no one pours oil on the fire,” he said. However, he backed Turkey’s decision to intercept a Syrian plane flying from Moscow.
Tension between Turkey and Syria soared on October 3 after a mortar shell fired from Syria landed in Turkey’s border town of Akcakale, leaving five people dead. Ankara promptly responded with retaliatory fire that continued through the next days, and Turkish lawmakers also authorized the government to use military force against Syria when deemed necessary.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Kevin Barrett, Islamic Studies expert from Madison, to further discuss the issue.
Follow our Facebook on: https://www.facebook.com/presstvchannel
Follow our Twitter on: http://twitter.com/presstv
Follow our Tumblr on: http://presstvchannel.tumblr.com
US Deploying Military Personnel to Syrian-Jordanian Border [video]
NileBowie
October 10, 2012
Nile Bowie speaks to RT on the developing situation in Syria and the ramifications of Washington’s decision to deploy military personnel to Jordan.
‘War Plans secretly made against Syria’
CounterPsyOps
October 13, 2012
Americans have been told that 150 troops have been sent to Jordan to help with refugee problems from Syria.
Britain is doing the same. A hundred and fifty can be “150” or it can be 800, two countries can be a dozen.
Combine this with the Turkish moves, forcing down a Syrian airliner flying out of Russia, handcuffing and abusing passengers, bizarre tales of imaginary electronics, a brazen confrontation, not just with Syria but Russia, a major and quite relentless nuclear power, and the desperation of the failures to crush Syria according to a long-established timetable become clear.
Intelligence agencies analyze patterns, making up a mosaic that reveals intentions. Our mosaic includes recent claims by the US that Iraq is now the home for a massive new Al-Qaeda force, one made up entirely of former Ba’athists that had been in the pay of the US.
Our source on this is the fleet’s then chief political officer and former presidential advisor Gwyneth Todd, who was, last year, subject to a kidnap/assassination attempt by US government personnel.
Ms. Todd is living in Australia, married to a Defense official, the mother of three. Silencing her, for some reason, had become a priority.
Adding to the “witches brew” of plots against Syria is the corridor Israel has established across Jordan and Iraq to supply their new airbase at Mosul in Iraq’s Kurdish region.
Now the Israeli papers report a “massive air defense exercise” involving the United States, with naval forces to be stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Our first serious question is the troops in Jordan. There is no rationale for the US, Britain and other NATO powers to use Special Operations forces to provide “humanitarian services” to refugees. The United Nations does this as do other NGO’s and, of course, the government of Jordan, which has funds available by agreement, from Saudi Arabia.
The troops, minimally, are involved in intelligence gathering, interviewing refugees, but, additionally, are establishing a foothold for a larger potential force in the immediate future.
Similarly, the current and unsubstantiated misrepresentation of sectarian strife in Iraq, is hardly proof of a “massive” Al-Qaeda cell planning attacks on the United States, as expressed by extremist elements in the American press, more honestly, much of the American press.
We have two uses of the term “massive” as though it had some magic meaning, as though it were a justification for military action.
One problem has been the consistency within the Obama administration, in assuring Iran that no attack will be made until every imaginable diplomatic means is exhausted.
However, Syria has no such blanket protection and, moreover, Secretary of State Clinton has been particularly belligerent in her recent pronouncements.
We seem to be seeing a repetition of recent events in Libya. There has been continual discussion of “buffer zones” and “safety corridors” or rumors of deals to split Syria up or force a “regime change” though no legal authority for any involvement in Syria has been established.
The most recent meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Tehran was particularly clear, 120 nations selected Iran as the movement’s president, representing a majority of the member states of the United Nations.
The ability of the five permanent member states, the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China to veto any military action or authorize it, to support any sanction, was clearly recognized as undemocratic and a relic of both the Cold War and 19th Century colonialism, a disease that seems to be re-infecting the world.
The additional issue, of course, is the use of unauthorized and unrestricted unilateral sanctions, actions that clearly qualify as acts of war in accordance with international law, acts that, in a democratic United Nations, should, in fact, bring about a vote of the General Assembly which, by all that is reasonable, require “reverse sanctions” on the aggressor nations.
An examination of the intended impact of sanctions is directly parallel to the blockade of Europe used by the Allied powers against Germany. The intent, normally part of a combined operation of unrestricted bombing of cities, as with Dresden in 1945, represents a strategic program of unlimited warfare against a civilian population, disease and starvation the desired result.
The targets are clear. Syria is to fall, followed by Lebanon, then the renewal of operations in Iraq and a program of selected destabilization of Iran by nations that, frankly, lack both the will and ability to fight a sustained ground war in Iran.
The intent is clear, mischief, intimidation and enslavement in all cases, the model in place currently in Afghanistan, or intended to be in place anyway.
One might ask, why would a nation being so soundly defeated in an adjacent country want to repeat the same disaster multiplied by ten?
The new schedule is clear, based on the “informed” belief that the American election will be rigged for Romney and his friends in organized crime to win and immediately authorize military action which will, very possibly, end in a world war.
Wilder and more conspiratorial “polls” come out every day; the control of the press is so obvious as to be laughable.
The Libyan attack, one clearly orchestrated from Tel Aviv, one intended to be used by the Romney camp to attack the Obama presidency is, as planned, the primary foreign policy issue.
No American president could live a day telling the truth, “Israel did it.”
Intelligence agencies have been backdating phony reports to invent imaginary Al-Qaeda cells operating for years in Libya, a nation that was the bulwark of the Bush-Blair rendition program.
The new wars will be chasing imaginary Al-Qaeda from Syria to Iraq to Iran and from Yemen to Somalia to Mali and Niger to Nigeria and Cameroon and then to Uganda and Kenya.
The plans are on the drawing board though nobody has told Al-Qaeda yet.
GD/HJL
Source: PressTV
Divide and Conquer Still Works in Lebanon – Lebanese Girl [video]
108morris108
October 8, 2012
A good overview of all the forces at work in Lebanon – the 1975 Civil War was never resolved.
Info on Hezbollah, and what happens in Lebanon cannot be separated from what is happening in Syria.

