End the Lie – Independent News
November 16, 2013
Libyan protesters gather during a demonstration calling on militiamen to vacate their headquarters in southern Tripoli on November 15, 2013. (AFP Photo / Mahmud Turkia)
A 48-hour state of emergency was declared in the Libyan capital of Tripoli after fresh clashes erupted on Saturday. Vehicles full of fighters from Misrata headed to Tripoli from the eastern suburb of Tajura, according to media reports.
Violence in Tripoli reignited at sundown as fighting between militia groups intensified, Ukranian medics working on the ground told ITAR-TASS.
“After a break in fighting, you could hear shots being fired once again over Tripoli,” one medic said. “Hospitals received more dead and wounded. We haven’t seen this in Tripoli since the 2011 armed conflict.”
The state of emergency was declared in the city after at least one person was killed and dozens wounded in another wave of violence on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported. The unrest began in the capital on Friday. More than 40 people were killed and another 400 were wounded.
“Officially, there were more than 40 victims in the clashes in Tripoli in the past two days, but according to our data, the number of victims is much larger,” one of the medics said.
Due to the situation in Tripoli, some of the streets in the city were blocked off. Local residents formed protection brigades by their houses in order to ensure safety from the militias, the medics added.
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan has appealed for restraint, stating that “the coming hours and days will be decisive for the history of Libya and the success of the revolution.”
On Saturday, thousands of protesters gathered to remember those who died in Friday’s clashes, as the government declared three days of mourning. Zidan also demanded that all armed militias leave Tripoli “without exception.”
“The existence of weapons outside the army and police is dangerous,” he said. “All armed militias need to leave Tripoli, without exception.”
Friday’s clashes began as thousands of protesters gathered in Tripoli on Friday, calling to intensify the security presence and end the militias’ rule which was established in 2011 after the uprising that ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi. The protesters marched from a downtown mosque to the headquarters of the militia waving Libyan flags and chanting slogans such as “We want an army, we want police.”
According to a Reuters report, the militia fired an anti-aircraft cannon into the crowd. The protesters initially fled, but then returned heavily armed. The majority of stores in the city were closed following the clashes.
The main cause of the violence is Libya’s weak government and armed forces which are struggling to control militias, Islamic militants, and other fighting groups which have refused to surrender their weapons two years after assisting the NATO-backed ouster of Gaddafi.
Part of the militia was formed from local brigades of rebels, including Islamic militants who fought against Gaddafi’s government. After the fall of the leader, the government tasked the former rebel forces with maintaining security. However, the militia has not been put under state control, prompting the armed groups to act on their own agenda.
Source: RT
November 17, 2013 | Categories: co-opting and/or destabilization, Libya, news, protests, sovereignty, tyranny, war | Leave a comment
CounterPsyOps
November 7, 2013
Pakistan could be given the responsibility for training two militant brigades in Syria, with about 5,000-10,000 militants.
Saudi Arabia, one of the biggest spenders of the foreign-sponsored war in Syria is turning to Pakistan to train militants, repeating a partnership that once failed in Afghanistan, a new report says.
The Foreign Policy Magazine wrote in an article on Thursday that Saudi Arabia is embarking on a major new effort to train Syrian rebel forces.
The article cites three sources with knowledge of the program that say Riyadh has enlisted the help of Pakistani instructors to do it.
According to the sources Pakistan could be given the responsibility for training about 5,000-10,000 militants from two brigades.
The report says the main goal of the Saudi project is to unite the mainstream armed opposition in Syria, many of whom are extremist forces, under the banner of a unified army.
The decision came after signs of rift in relations between Washington and Riyadh became evident.
Saudi Arabia’s decision to move forward with training the Syria militants independent of the United States is the latest sign of a split between the two longtime allies.
In Syria, Saudi officials were aggrieved by Washington’s decision to cancel a strike on the Syrian government in reprisal for a chemical attack on the Damascus suburbs this summer.
A top Saudi official told the Washington Post that Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan was unaware of the cancelation of the strike. “We found about it from CNN,” he said.
As a result, Saudi Arabia has decided to follow its own plans which rely on a network of Saudi allies in addition to Pakistan, such as Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and France.
“As the Saudis expand their effort to topple Assad, analysts say the central challenge is not to inflict tactical losses on the Syrian army, but to organize a coherent force that can coordinate its actions across the country. In other words, if Riyadh hopes to succeed where others have failed, it needs to get the politics right — convincing the fragmented rebel groups, and their squabbling foreign patrons, to work together in pursuit of a shared goal,” the article writes.
“The biggest problem facing the Saudis now is the same one facing the US, France, and anyone else interested in helping the rebels: the fragmentation of the rebels into groups fighting each other for local and regional dominance rather than cooperating to overthrow Assad,” said David Ottaway, a scholar at the Wilson Center who wrote a biography of Prince Bandar.
Syria militants are facing with deep divisions and rivalries with every now and then several of them pledging alliance together to form independent armies.
On Thursday, al-Qaeda leader Aymen Zawahiri who has the strongest militant groups on the ground in Syria fighting alongside the US-backed opposition urged all armed groups to be united and overthrow the Syrian government and set up their own ruling system.
Source: Alalam
November 12, 2013 | Categories: co-opting and/or destabilization, news, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, tyranny, war | Leave a comment
Friends of Syria
November 12, 2013
Syrian/Al-Qaeda rebels funded and armed by Obama did this. That makes Obama guilty of war crimes and mass murder.
The bodies of 30 Christian civilians, including women and children, killed by Islamist militias, have been found in two separate mass graves, in the city of Sadad. The number of Christian civilians confirmed dead in this small town halfway between Homs and Damascus has reached 45. Many are injured and several are missing.
According to eyewitnesses, many of the civilians were killed by militia gangs of ‘Al- Nusra Front’ and ‘Daash’. The city has been completely destroyed and looted. Some of the militants who invaded the city were holed up in the Syriac Orthodox Church of St Theodore, which was profaned. Sadad is an ancient Syriac village which dates back to 2000 BC located in the region of Qalamoon, north of Damascus. It had 14 churches, a monastery, temples, historic landmarks and archaeological sites.
Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh said: “What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two and a half years… 45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing.
G_K
Syria News
November 12, 2013 | Categories: co-opting and/or destabilization, news, sovereignty, Syria, tyranny, US, war | Leave a comment
by Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
November 6, 2013
Last week, Syrian death squads (aka Syrian “rebels”) sent shockwaves of horror through many casual observers when a video was posted to YouTube showing the fighters slaughtering cats for food. The video, which was intended to be used for propaganda purposes, showed the “rebel” fighters after having corralled several domesticated housecats, catching a cat, killing it, and then cooking and eating the feline for the camera. The death squad fighter told the camera how hungry the people of Syria had become that they were resorting to eating cats to survive, as the Syrian military had effectively cut off food to the area.
Although the video did not include the full graphic slaughter, it did show a man beheading a cat, the animal shrieking in terror and pain as he slits its throat, and the subsequent skinning, butchering, cooking, and eating it.
While none of the men in the video openly admitted to being a part of the death squad ranks, the group that posted the video to YouTube calls itself the “South Damascus Media Bureau,” and has, in the past, posted mostly videos of death squads in battle.
Even the dialogue of the individuals featured in the video is quite similar to that seen in countless other death squad produced material. For instance, the narrator of the video states, “To whom don’t believe it, this is the situation of the people in the south of the capital Damascus. The Shiekhs have issued fatwas and the people are now following these fatwas.”
After the man on screen finishes killing the cat, he holds the liver up to the camera and states, “This is the liver. This is the most delicious part of the body.”
The narrator chimes back in and says, “This is the final round, the man is cooking the cat who was slaughtered.”
What would you like to say to the people,” the narrators asks. “What people?” the man responds.
“The people who are watching you now.”
“Only Allah will help us,” the man says. “We told Allah about our problems and that’s it. We told Allah about the Muslims watching us eat cats and doing nothing.”
“May God be with you, have a nice meal,” retorts the narrator.
Later, the narrator sarcastically states, “Thank you for ignoring us and doing nothing about dire humanitarian issues and thank you for caring about us.”
Yet, while it is true that some Damascus imams have issued fatwas allowing the consumption of cats and dogs by starving Syrians, and that food is scarce in areas of heavy fighting around the capital, there are many reasons to believe that the video itself was staged in order to gain sympathy for death squad fighters and drum up anger at the Assad government for allegedly keeping food out of those specific neighborhoods.
In an interview with France 24, even a “pacifist anti-regime activist,” was forced to admit that there were several questionable aspects to the video. The “activist,” Omar, stated,
The video is described as having been filmed in a neighborhood that’s under siege by the army, where there’s no food coming in, and no one is allowed out. You would think that in a situation like this, the residents would be starved and weak. But that’s really not the sense I get from these two men in the video: they look healthy, well-dressed, and cleanly-shaved. They really don’t look like they live in a zone where fierce fighting is taking place. I also noticed that they are cooking the cat in a pot that looks quite new.
The last part of the video struck me as odd: the man eats a little bit of what is in his spoon – supposedly, the cat – then puts it back down in the pot, though there is still meat in the spoon. This is really not behaviour I would expect from a starved man.
France 24 goes even further by stating,
There are other strange details in the video. The footage, which is edited in several parts, doesn’t include any wide shots, making it impossible to identify the place where it was filmed – and whether this is indeed a neighborhood where fighting is taking place. The title of the video is also uncharacteristically vague for Syrian activists’ video, describing the location as only “south” of Damascus. It is also interesting to note that the scene in which the cat is killed seems to have been edited out of the video.
The video was posted online on October 28. The very next day, October 29, was “National Cat Day” in the United States, which aims to promote the adoption of stray cats. If those who filmed these images wanted to create a buzz in the United States, they couldn’t have chosen a better day.
Still, the scarcity of food in contested areas of the country is a very real concern for the people living there. Without a doubt, the assaults being launched by the Syrian army is one contributing factor to the lack of adequate food supply. However, to portray the Syrian army’s attempt to liberate the areas from death squad control as a “blockade” or anything other than a military assault would be dangerously close to propaganda as there is no evidence that the Syrian military is intentionally withholding food from citizens.
The death squads, however, are an entirely different story. While propaganda videos have been created to promote the perception that citizens and death squads alike are being forced to eat cats to survive, it appears that the death squads have a somewhat better diet at the expense of the rest of the population of the areas still under their control.
Evidence for this can be seen in the recently uploaded video that shows death squad members “capturing” a young boy for “smuggling” food into his neighborhood in Aleppo. NOTE: The translation of this video was provided by Syrian Perspective.
In the video, death squad members can be seen threatening and bullying the boy, who was merely attempting to sneak a few packs of chicken into his neighborhood. The boy can be heard saying “take them, take them” to the men surrounding him, obviously in fear for his life and hoping to surrender his food in exchange for it.
The fighters continue to mock the boy as he says, “We need food. What can we eat?” They respond to him by saying “You don’t need to eat.”
Such an exchange is interesting indeed since the suffering of the citizens in areas still controlled by the death squads is blamed on Assad by the Western media outlets and the death squads operating inside the country. After viewing this video, however, it should be understood that the death squads themselves are the responsible party for hindering the importation of food to starving citizens.
Indeed, even as far back as July, 2013, Reuters was forced to report that the death squads were implementing a blockade against supplies entering certain areas of Aleppo, resulting in thousands of hungry Syrians. The death squads, whom Reuters claims were aiming their blockade against the army, even hung signs in front of their checkpoint outside of Aleppo neighborhood Bustan al-Qasr which read, “”Food, medicine, oil, babies’ products, milk, vegetables, meat, bread: completely forbidden (from crossing).” Reuters fails to explain how “babies’ products” would be beneficial to the Syrian military and why these products necessitated a blockade.
In the end, the propaganda videos coming out of Syria and produced by the death squads are nothing more than just that – propaganda. Amidst the atrophy of the death squad forces as a result of the recent American pause of open and heavy funding and a series of political mistakes, as well as the growing victories of Assad’s forces, propaganda attempts are becoming more and more desperate.
Indeed, the propaganda narratives surrounding Syria on the part of the Anglo-Americans have always been absurd and there is no reason to expect any abrupt change of tactics.
Recently by Brandon Turbeville
Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, and The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria. Turbeville has published over 275 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.
November 8, 2013 | Categories: co-opting and/or destabilization, news, Syria, tyranny, war | 1 Comment
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research
November 5, 2013
According to Turkish press reports, Turkey’s High Command will be hosting NATO’S Invitex military exercise in the Eastern Mediterranean in a clear act of provocation directed against Syria.
The Invitex-Eastern Mediterranean war games are scheduled from November 4 to 14.
Deafening silence. Not a single Western media has reported on these war games.
The official release by the TKS High Command suggests a war games scenario involving a regional war, under the assumption that the ongoing US-NATO-Israeli covert war on Syria could lead to military escalation. The countries considered to be a threat to Turkey and NATO are not mentioned.
According to the press dispatch of the Turkish Armed forces, various types of naval operations are envisaged. While the word “war” is not mentioned, the stated objective consists in the “handling of a regional crisis”, presumably through military rather than diplomatic means.
Turkish frigate F-245 TCG Oruç Reis
The focus is intended “to enhance co-operation and mutual training between participant countries.” Reading between the lines this suggests enhanced military coordination directed against potential enemy countries in the Middle East including Syria and Iran.
“NATO, the U.S. Navy and the Turkish Navy-Air Force-Coast Guard platforms will participate in the exercise, a statement from Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) said Nov. 4.”(Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey)
A significant deployment of both naval and air power is envisaged. According to the TKS communique, the participant units are:
NATO SNMG-2 (three frigates), U.S. Navy (one frigate), Turkish Navy (three frigates, two corvettes, four fast attack boats, three submarines, two oilers, two patrol boats, one landing ship, one tug boat, one maritime patrol aircraft, five helicopters, one amphibious team, one Naval WMD Destroy Team, (Multi National Maritime Security Center of Excellence), Turkish Coast Guard (three Coast Guard Boats) and Turkish Air Force aircrafts. (Ibid)
[READ THE FULL ARTICLE]
November 5, 2013 | Categories: co-opting and/or destabilization, NATO, news, sovereignty, Syria, Turkey, tyranny, US, war | Leave a comment
Aftermath of last week’s shelling of the Aaisha al-Sidiqa School in Damascus.
PN 