Will Kurds Fight Kurds – Roy Gutman [video]
108morris108
July 29, 2012
The Kurds of Northern Iraq have the most Independence of all Kurds and they are closely aligned with Turkey, will they allow the newly found autonomy for Syrian Kurds to be become a springboard for Anti Turkish activities?
Roy Gutman is a specialist in this area.
Although there was not time for me to present my question would other outside forces (NATO or Israel?) blackmail Turkey into being more antagonistic to Syria by supporting (militarily) the Kurds of Turkey?
This is his recent and often quoted article on this issue:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/26/157943/assad-hands-control-of-syrias.html
Apologies for the poor internet connection, which is why I allowed myself in the video – because his image becomes frozen.
Hillary Clinton Must Resign (Op-ed)
Cites false reports regarding Syria “massacre” to call for UN Chapter 7. Irresponsible warmongering leaves American credibility irrevocably damaged.
editorial by Tony Cartalucci
Image: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has attempted on numerous occasions to leverage fabricated atrocities to stampede UN resolutions through the Security Council to allow the same destructive, tragic military campaign against Syria that was waged against Libya. Her latest outburst was so overtly fraudulent and patently false, her continuation as Secretary of State risks a permanent and exponentially accelerating decline in US legitimacy worldwide.
July 14, 2012 – The unhinged state of US foreign policy is exemplified best by this week’s Tremseh, Syria “massacre.” Before any confirmations could be made, and based solely on “activist” accounts, Hillary Clinton penned a US State Department statement that read:
I was deeply saddened and outraged to learn of reports of yet another massacre committed by the Syrian regime that has claimed the lives of over 200 men, women, and children in the village of Traymseh. Credible reports indicate that this unconscionable act was carried out by artillery, tanks, and helicopters – indisputable evidence that the regime deliberately murdered innocent civilians. Syria cannot be peaceful, stable, or democratic until Assad goes and a political transition begins. We call for an immediate ceasefire in and around Hama to allow the UN observer mission to enter Traymseh. Those who committed these atrocities will be identified and held accountable.
As long as the Assad regime continues to wage war against the Syrian people, the international community must keep increasing the pressure on the regime to halt the violence and allow for a political solution to go forward. The Security Council should put its full weight behind the Annan plan for an immediate ceasefire and a political transition and make clear to the Syrian regime that there will be consequences for non-compliance. History will judge this Council. Its members must ask themselves whether continuing to allow the Assad regime to commit unspeakable violence against its own people is the legacy they want to leave.
The Security Council of course would be putting its “full weight” behind Kofi Annan’s “peace plan” with Chapter 7 provisions in place – meaning that sanctions and military intervention, as it was in Libya, would be subsequently implemented.
What US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attempted to do, was propose a UN Security Council resolution authorizing military intervention (and by consequence, long sought after regime change), then used fabricated reports to sell the resolution in the court of global public and diplomatic opinion. It constitutes an overt crime against peace, and conspiracy to wage aggressive war -both Nuremberg offenses.
Libya 2.0: Media Hysteria Over Syria “Bombing” City of Aleppo
If tired WMD lies won’t convince the public to back foreign intervention, perhaps recycled lies from Libya?
by Tony Cartalucci
July 24, 2012 – The Telegraph has reported (emphasis added), “fighter jets have reportedly launched bomb attacks on Syria’s second city of Aleppo, which, if confirmed, would be the first time Assad forces had used war planes against citizens.”
Image: A sole”tweet” from BBC’s Ian Pannell, who has yet to provide any source, evidence, or details regarding his vague claim, immediately made headlines across the Western media.
The claim is based on a single “tweet” from BBC’s Ian Pannell who, after hours of making his his claim that, “fighter jets have bombed eastern #Aleppo city. A significant escalation and perhaps the first time they’ve been used in #Syrian conflict,” has failed categorically to cite his source, provide any evidence of his claims, or provide details of the targets and context of the attacks, if indeed they took place. Yet the Western media “echo chamber” began repeating the story seconds after it was posted, and through this alone it attempted to validate the claim while building momentum behind NATO insinuations.
Image: Taken from an official Defense Department transcript, the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Admiral Michael Mullen both concede they’d seen no confirmation “whatsoever” regarding claims by the corporate media that Libya’s Qaddafi had used airstrikes against his own people. However, this fabrication would be used for very real airstrikes, not by Qaddafi, but by NATO under the guise of the “Responsibility to Protect.”
Narratives of “brutal dictators” bombing civilians with aircraft have been used before, most notably in Libya where verified lies were told regarding Qaddafi’s use of aircraft against the city of Benghazi. These fabrications were used to justify foreign military intervention and regime change under the guise of a “no-fly zone” to “protect civilians.”
However, the US Department of Defense itself noted that none of these accusations were founded in fact or confirmed in any way, and the Russian government went as far as providing satellite imagery of sites allegedly bombed to show no such strikes were made.
Ironically, NATO’s subsequent “protection of civilians” flattened several cities across the country, slaying thousands of civilians.
Syria’s Violence in Context
The Syrian military cannot, however, rule out the use of airstrikes considering the overt manner in which foreign interests such as the US, Israel, and the Gulf States are increasingly sending heavily armed militants over their borders to destabilize their nation. It must be taken into consideration that FSA militants have been conducting indiscriminate bombings across Syria for months now, and with their latest assassinations and offensive, have shed the ability to play to role of “victim-civilians.”
Image: The West’s “lightly armed” FSA. ABC (Australia) claims this is a picture taken this week of an FSA-seized tank on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. One wonders if this tank was rolling along the outskirts of Washington in the middle of a war, whether or not the US would use airstrikes to neutralize it.
The West has eagerly described this violence in Syria as a “civil war,” yet has conveniently continued to depict their heavily armed, foreign-backed fighters streaming across Syria’s borders as “citizens” and “civilians,” even as their ties to Al Qaeda and other foreign militant groups become ever more apparent. In fact, Iraqi officials are already linking the recent bombings in their country by Al Qaeda to the same forces and backers of the so-called “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) in Syria.
Image: Al Jazeera was running this picture along with the description, “Syrian rebels near Aleppo city, as they took much of the formerly loyalist city from the government [EPA].” Heavy weapons can be seen mounted on several of the trucks, and images like this are increasingly common as militants attempt to enter cities like Damascus and Aleppo where there are more cameras, and hiding these weapons from the general public becomes increasingly difficult.
Additionally, despite a repeated mantra by the Western media that the FSA is “lightly armed,” these same media outlets have shown columns of trucks mounted with heavy weapons, and even captured tanks identified as FSA forces. While the US conducts airstrikes on entirely unarmed civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and with Turkey likewise brutalizing its own “rebels” in Kurdish dominated provinces from the air, NATO and its allies attempt to condemn Syria for doing likewise against heavily armed militants like those pictured above.
Fishing for a Pretext
Between lies revolving around distorted statements regarding chemical weapons, fabricated atrocities, and now claims of airstrikes being used upon “civilian populations,” the West is desperately running down the list for a “casus belli” that will stick. The Syrian government, after a year and a half of being undermined by foreign interests and hordes of foreign militants, has maintained both the faith and trust the majority of its population has put into it. If it is deploying airstrikes, it can be assured they are doing so with keeping that faith and trust intact – and as the West often claims in the midst of its military adventures, doing so to minimize as much as possible collateral damage.
Recent attacks by the FSA have aimed at undermining that faith and truth, and militants in the northern city of Aleppo have purposefully moved to the commercial center of the city to draw in the heavy weapons necessary to neutralize them. While the Western press portrays this move toward the center of Aleppo as “progress,” it should be noted that the Syrian military operates out of bases on the city’s outskirts.
This means the further militants push toward the center of the city, the further from engaging the military directly they become. While the FSA claims they are “liberating” Aleppo, even the Western media concedes it is a bastion of government support. This indicates that terrorism, intimidation, and panic, not “liberation” are the FSA’s goals in Aleppo, and that the government is justified to take any measures necessary to stop them.
Conversely, NATO and its allies see Syria’s vigorous defense capabilities as an obstacle to Western-planned regime change – therefore if neutralizing them through covert means is not possible, they will attempt to neutralize them by declaring them a threat to “civilians,” invoking “Responsibility to Protect,” and initiating foreign military intervention.
Israel Wants The Syrian Government to Fall [video]
Syrian Girl
July 29, 2012
One might think such an obvious statement as the title need not defending. In a world of so much lies and disinformation I’m afraid it does.
There has been a ridiculous notion amongst numerous left groups and those opposed to the Syrian government, that the Israeli regime does not want to see Assad fall. This video debunks this notion
All sources used are featured in my article with Lizzie Phelan on the subject
http://lizzie-phelan.blogspot.ca/2012/07/how-leftist-anti-zionists-are-allied…
Also available here
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/07/20/debunking-the-myth-of-assad-zionist-c…
I want to mention Israel is not affraid of islamic countries, its best friend in the region is Saudi Arabia. The muslim brotherhood is not a bad thing for Israel either, look at turkey it is MB run and is allies with Israel. And the US and Israel are not Afraid of “Al Qaeda”, because they control all under that banner since its inception.
BREAKING: US Supported “Free Syrian Army” Defeated in Damascus, In Retreat in Aleppo
Global Research
July 29, 2012
Confirmed by press reports, the US-NATO supported “Free Syrian Army” has been defeated in Damascus.
Government forces are in full control of the nation’s capital. The Syrian government has declared victory in Damascus.
In Aleppo, government forces have regained control of most of the city with pockets of rebel fighters still active in the south-western Aleppo district of Salaheddine.
“The government of Bashar al-Assad declared victory on Sunday in a hard-fought battle for Syria’s capital Damascus, and pounded rebels who control parts of its largest city Aleppo… Helicopter gunships hovered over the city shortly after dawn and the thud of artillery boomed across neighborhoods. Syrian state television said soldiers was repelling “terrorists” in Salaheddine and had captured several of their leaders.” (Reuters, July 29, 2012)
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem stated during a visit to Tehran: “Today I tell you, Syria is stronger… In less than a week they were defeated [in Damascus] and the battle failed. So they moved on to Aleppo and I assure you, their plots will fail.”
[hat tip: NWO Truth]
Syrian Government and Military reclaim Sovereignty and liberate civilians throughout the Country.
nsnbc
July 28, 2012
Christof Lehmann – nsnbc/SANA and Sources. – After months of Syrian, Russian and Chinese diplomatic initiatives have failed to stop the anti Syrian coalitions massive financial, and military support of a wide variety of state sponsored terrorist organizations which are either branded euphemistically as “Free Syrian Army” or as “Al Qaeda Terrorists” when their utility is to argue for the protection of civilians, the Syrian government and military have taken up the responsibility to reestablish national sovereignty, security for civilians and the rule of law in areas that were held by the Western-Backed Terror Consortium. Western Media cry wolf, reporting about a massive military operation. In fact, the Syrian counter insurgency strategy is as effective as it is a de-escalation strategy, more humane than any international body of law would recommend.
Offensive seems to be based on de-escalation model, preventing casualties.
On Friday the Syrian Armed Forces initiated a carefully planned offensive. Contrary to Western Main Stream Media reports the Syrian Military is doing the utmost possible to prevent civilian casualties and damage infrastructure and civilian property.
Military operations against the insurgents in urban areas are generally conducted after a carefully drafted strategy along the guidelines of international law and more importantly with the greatest possible care to prevent civilian casualties. The strategy also seems to be based on a de-escalation model that allows insurgents to leave the combat zone together with the civilian population if they leave their arms behind.
Operations in Damascus and Damascus Region.
The city of Damascus is relatively calm after military forces cleared the al-Hajar al-Haswad neighborhood for insurgents. Also here the insurgents were offered to leave the area together with civilians before the military attacked. After the offer to leave the area without arms and heavy fighting, a large number of the insurgents were killed in an attempt to flee the districts with their weapons, failing to surrender. Weapons caches were confiscated in al-Qtaifeh, Daraya, and Yabous.
In al-Qtaifeh, a rural area near Damascus, Syrian authorities seized a Volkswagen car that was being transported on a lorry, under the pretense of taking it to the town of Harasta for repairs. The Volkswagen was loaded with weapons, including automatic rifles, RPG launchers, a DShK machine-gun, sniper rifles, and a large amount of ammunitions and cameras.
An official Syrian source informed a SANA reporter, that military engineering units had dismantled 8 explosive devices, each of them containing 20 kg of explosives. The devices had been placed near the al-Rahman Mosque in the al-Hahar al-Aswad area.
During counter insurgency operations in the Damascus area, two Italian nationals who had been kidnapped and held hostage by insurgents were liberated by Syrian military forces. The Italians were, according to a source at the Electricity Ministry Italian Experts who were working at the Deir Ali Electric Power Station.
Aleppo
On Friday Syrian military forces clashed with armed insurgents that were moving from the Daet Azzeh area in the countryside near Aleppo and inflicted heavy casualties on them. The successful operation was conducted, based on information by local residents who had informed the military about the insurgents movements. The military destroyed five pick-up trucks with mounted heavy machine-guns, of which one also contained explosive devices.
Hasaka Province.
In the province of Hasaka, Syrian authorities recovered most of the items which insurgents had stolen from private properties and buildings, including items that had been stolen from the Syrian-Iraqi border crossing in al-Yarubiya. The list of items included TVs, office equipment as well as weapons that are belonging to the security personnel at the border. Dozens of insurgents or terrorists were arrested, their weapons confiscated.
Daraa and Deir Ezzor.
In Daraa, four insurgents were killed in clashes with security forces. The insurgents attempted to launch an attack after Friday prayers at the al-Hassan Mosque in Daraa. According to SANA, four insurgents were killed in the incident.
In the province of Deir Ezzor the security authorities chased down an armed terrorist group in the city of al-Mayadin, killing some, arresting others of it´s members. Another clash took place in Ali Beik al-Kabir Street in Deir Ezzor, resulting in heavy casualties among the insurgents.
Homs
Late on Thursday, Syrian authorities raided hide-outs of terrorist groups in the al-Qseir area and the villages of al-Nahriyeh, Abu Houri and al-Jadiriyeh in the countryside near the city of Homs. SANA reports about heavy losses and many injured among the terrorists and insurgents.
Hama City
In the city of Hama, engineering units of the Syrian military dismantled two 50 kg explosive devices. According to SANA, one of the explosive charges had been placed near the al-Nahra roundabout while the other was placed to the opposite of the Hama Traffic Department. The explosive devices contained nails and sharp iron fragments, and could have been exploded by remote control. The devices were obviously constructed and placed to cause the maximum possible amount of casualties and injuries.
So-Called Humanitarian Corridors.
With such good friends, who needs any enemies !!!
The Syrian government as well as sources within the Russian and Chinese Ministries of Foreign Affairs refuse to agree to the establishment of so-called humanitarian corridors. The establishment of such corridors, as proposed by some of the self-proclaimed “Friends of Syria” would invariable be equivalent to the Syrian government giving up sovereignty of parts of Syrian territory, resulting in the government’s failure to protect Syrian citizens from the insurgents. The corridors would invariably become secure pathways for the weapons which are being funded and provided by some NATO member states, GCC member states, some Lebanese players like Hariri and Jumblatt, Israel, and others. The corridors would invariably be used to ease the insurgents free movement throughout Syria.
In cases where the Syrian military has to conduct larger military operations, such as the ones in Damascus and Aleppo, the military prepares a staging area, helps civilians, which are often held as human shields and hostages by insurgents to safely evacuate; the Syrian military offers insurgents free passage by offering them to leave the area together with the civilian population, but without their weapons. What other humanitarian corridor would be needed other than this offer to leave the combat zone without weapons, as a free person, alive, unharmed, and with the possibility to leave Syria, to return to their country of origin and to stay away. Neither the Geneva Convention nor any other body of international law provides that largeness for any troops, let alone irregular mercenary forces who do not adhere to any military code of conduct and systematically use terrorism as their preferred tactic.
Christof Lehmann
28.07.2012
Related Article:
Terrorists suffer heavy losses in Aleppo province and various other areas…Infiltration attempt foiled in Homs
Editors Note:
The daily abuse of corporate and state funded media for the manufacturing consent with the illegal wars on Libya and Syria have made it abundantly clear that “independent” media are more needed than ever before. The word “independent media” however, is misleading. nsnbc has daily expenses that have to be covered. The most important ones are: safe lines of communications with whistle-blowers and citizens reporters, transportation, money for keeping nsnbc on-line, let alone compensation for the lost income due to hours spent on delivering news, opinion and analysis to the readers, which otherwise would have been spent on paid consultations. In fact, “independent media” don´t exist. nsnbc is dependent on donations by it´s readers and subscribers. Please help me to keep Your Media on-line by making a modest donation. To keep Your Media on-line use the link below. You can donate by PayPal or by Bank Transfer. Thank you for reading and subscribing to nsnbc. Christof Lehmann – editor.
CONFIRMED: Turkey Running Proxy-Invasion of Syria
Admits hosting foreign fighters seeking to enter Syria, trucks in weapons to rearm terrorist groups.
by Tony Cartalucci
July 26, 2012 – The Washington Post has just published an article with the very misleading titled, “Turkey a hub for Syria revolution as illegal border crossing points abound,” in which it describes “Salafi Muslims,” who have “come to offer help from the countries of the Persian Gulf region” arming and joining the so-called “Free Syrian Army.” The article also claims “weapons are ferried into Syria, delivered by Turkish military trucks and picked up by fighters on the other side in the dead of night.”
A more apt title would be, “Turkey hosts invading Saudi and Qatari mercenary army.”
This confirms earlier reports featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post, that not only are the Gulf States of Saudi Arabia and Qatar funding and arming militants via Turkey, but that the US is coordinating the logistical aspects of the operation as well.
Likewise, CNN has attempted to spin concessions made by its own Ivan Watson, traveling with sectarian extremists into Syria, where it was admitted:
Meanwhile, residents of the village where the Syrian Falcons were headquartered said there were fighters of several North African nationalities also serving with the brigade’s ranks.A volunteer Libyan fighter has also told CNN he intends to travel from Turkey to Syria within days to add a “platoon” of Libyan fighters to armed movement.
On Wednesday, CNN’s crew met a Libyan fighter who had crossed into Syria from Turkey with four other Libyans. The fighter wore full camouflage and was carrying a Kalashnikov rifle. He said more Libyan fighters were on the way.
The foreign fighters, some of them are clearly drawn because they see this as … a jihad. So this is a magnet for jihadists who see this as a fight for Sunni Muslims.
CNN then attempts to claim the “real” Syrian “revolutionaries” “do not want an Islamist political agenda to be mixed in with their revolution.”
Photo: The face of Libya’s “revolution” was literally Al Qaeda. Abdul Hakim Belhaj, commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) listed by the US State Department as a “Foreign Terrorists Organization,” was armed and backed by NATO (including the US) in his efforts to topple the government of Libya. Belhaj more recently pledged (NATO) weapons, cash, and Libyan militants to the “Free Syrian Army.”
Unfortunately for CNN, despite its best efforts, it cannot qualify its claim that these foreign fighters are “unwanted,” – for the so-called “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) has long since exposed itself as a sectarian extremist front infiltrated with foreign fighters and foreign weapons, stretching back as far as 2007.
Saudis and Qataris Attempt “Arab League-UN” Rescue of Faltering Mercenaries
Perhaps as a sign the Gulf States of Saudi Arabia and Qatar are stretched to the limits of their ability to covertly undermine Syria, they have announced plans to seek “UN General Assembly action” for a “political transition and establishment of a democratic government in Syria.” For the despotic, unelected, grandiose nepotism of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to call for a “democratic government in Syria” is truly a move made as much out of desperation as it is one of farcical hypocrisy.
Image: In “progressive” Saudi Arabia, who is calling for a “democratic transition” in Syria, women are not even allowed to drive, let alone vote for their leaders – who with Qatar, are amongst the few remaining absolute monarchies on Earth.
Both Gulf State nations are run by absolute monarchies – some of the only kind still left in the world. In Saudi Arabia, not only are elections out of the question, but women are in fact, prohibited from even driving. How the Saudis themselves are not subject to UN resolutions, open condemnations, sanctions of all kinds, and ultimatums over their own dictatorship is a true indication of the bankrupted, hypocritical, self-serving dysfunction that punctuates a Western corporate-financier dominated “international order.” It is an “international community” that creates the illusion of urgency and injustice when it seeks to expand its interests into one nation, but conveniently ignores real injustice when it jeopardizes their interests elsewhere.
Turkey Supports Subversion of Syria, While Crushing Dissent at Home
Turkey itself has been waging a decades-long bloody campaign against its own armed uprising in predominately Kurdish areas bordering Syria, Iraq, and Iran. In fact, at one point, the US allowed Turkish tanks to cross into American-occupied Iraq to attack villages suspected of harboring armed Kurdish separatists in 2008, mirroring the very tactics Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is now condemning Syria for. The Guardian reported in their 2008 article, “Iraq demands Turkey withdraw from border conflict with Kurds,” that the conflict had been raging since 1984 and had cost the lives of 40,000 people.
Turkey has in recent weeks, violated Iraq’s airspace in order to strafe and bomb Kurdish villages inside Iraqi territory. Iraq has lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council – a complaint likely to go unnoticed.
One can only imagine the “threat” Syria would be portrayed as if it were to likewise strafe and bomb targets beyond its borders in pursuit of now admittedly foreign-armed, foreign fighters invading its country via Turkey. Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, would most likely invoke “Chapter V” of NATO’s treaty, a mutual defense clause that makes an attack on one alliance member an attack on all members – thus opening up the door for more direct foreign military intervention.
Turkey’s ruling government led by PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is in fact undermining its own national security by running errands for NATO versus Syria. By supporting foreign terrorists invading neighboring Syria, it undermines the legitimacy of its own campaign against Kurdish rebels within its borders, not to mention beyond them. Turkey’s current stance vis-a-vis Syria is not shared by all members of Turkey’s government, and at this critical stage, now more than ever they need to make their voices heard both to the Turkish people and to the people of the world.
Carving Out “Safe Havens” for the US State Department’s SNC
The ultimate goal of inundating Syria with foreign fighters and weapons while Saudi Arabia and Qatar farcically call for a “democratic transition” in Syria is to create a “safe haven” from which the US State Department coached and directed “Syrian National Council” (SNC) can rule from – further dividing and undermining the Syrian nation-state.
This geopolitical objective was first summarized in the Fortune 500-funded Brookings Institution’s March 2012 Middle East Memo #21 “Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf) and recently reiterated almost verbatim by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The US foreign-policy think-tank, Brookings Institution blueprinted designs for regime change in Libya as well as both Syria and Iran. In their report, “Assessing Options for Regime Change” it is specifically stated (emphasis added):
“An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annan’s leadership. This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power. This would, of course, fall short of U.S. goals for Syria and could preserve Asad in power. From that starting point, however, it is possible that a broad coalition with the appropriate international mandate could add further coercive action to its efforts.” –page 4, Assessing Options for Regime Change, Brookings Institution.
Image: Also out of the Brookings Institution, Middle East Memo #21 “Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf),” makes no secret that the humanitarian “responsibility to protect” is but a pretext for long-planned regime change.
The Brookings Institution’s “safe havens” and “humanitarian corridors” are meant to be established by NATO-member Turkey, who had been threatening to partially invade Syria in order to accomplish this. And while Turkey claims this is based on “humanitarian concerns,” examining Turkey’s abysmal human rights record in addition to its own ongoing armed campaign against the Kurdish people both within and beyond its borders, it is clear they are simply fulfilling the agenda established by their Western patrons on Wall Street and in the city of London.
There is still extreme danger that with Aleppo still under threat by foreign fighters and the so-called “Free Syrian Army,” NATO is preparing cross-border provocations to justify the “limited military power” Brookings calls for in establishing its prescribed “safe havens.” Fabricated “massacres,” “humanitarian crisis,” and false flag attacks involving chemical weapons are also pretexts the West might use for a limited military incursions into Syria in an attempt to cripple its military and lend its militant proxies a “safe haven” in Syria to rule over.
PN 