Confirmed: Israeli Attack on Syria Air Defense Facility
by Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
October 31, 2013
Update: RT is now reporting that an Obama administration official has confirmed to CNN that this was in fact an Israeli attack. There is still no comment from the Syrian or Israeli government. (Source)
On the heels of a reported chemical attack committed by the death squads on the Syria/Turkey border, a massive explosion has completely destroyed a Syrian air defense base in Snobar Jableh, Syria which is located near Latakia, a port city on the coast of the Mediterranean. Snobar Jableh is just south of Latakia.
The attacks allegedly were to have taken place on Wednesday night.
Although no one has publicly claimed responsibility for the explosion, both Syrian and Lebanese media are attributing the attack to Israeli forces. Even Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya is now reporting Israeli responsibility for the attacks, citing anonymous sources.
Al-Arabiya also claims that the target of the attacks were two shipments of SA-8 Surface-To-Air missiles slated for delivery to Hezbollah. The organization claims that the two targets were successfully destroyed.
Syrian news agency Dam Press is reporting that the facility was indeed heavily damaged but that there were no injuries. Business Insider claims that a Syrian security official has confirmed the attack.
However, Voice of Russia reports that Syria Special Services are denying the destruction of the base. VOA quotes a representative of Syrian intelligence services saying that “It is a lie and a provocation.”
The conflicting nature of the official responses could be attributed to the fact that, while the attack did indeed take place, the level of damage was not as severe as that claimed by death squads and Western/Israeli media outlets.
Nevertheless, the targets appear to have been relatively sophisticated missiles housed at the facility. As Yasser Okbi of Ynetnews writes,
Channel 2 News reported that the attack’s target was a S-125 surface-to-air missiles battery.
Satellite images of the area obtained by Channel 2 show the Russian-made Neva missiles, as well as a SA-3 missile battery, that also includes a command center with a radar to track the missiles’ targets and broadcasting anthenas to track the missiles as they are launched. The missiles have a range of 35km. and a 70k. warhead.
Lebanese media has reported that six planes belonging to the Israeli Air Force flew over Ayta Ash Shab, Bint Jbeil, and Marjayoun located in southern Lebanon during the night.
These reports appear to be based an official press release from the Lebanese military and assert that “the airplanes entered Lebanese airspace at around 1:40 P.M. and circled over various places before leaving over the Mediterranean Sea near Tripoli and Naqoura at 5 P.M.”
As Business Insider reports, eyewitnesses noticed an suspicious amount of aircraft activity shortly before the blast. As Michael Kelley writes,
“During the night, we noticed much aircraft activity,” an eyewitness told a Lebanese Al-Mustaqbal news outlet. “At a certain point, we were woken up by the sound of blasts and we saw a large fire and many explosions at the agricultural institute. Military and security forces arrived at the scene, put out the flames, and closed off the entire area for kilometers.”
In addition, reports are also suggesting that the missiles which hit the Syrian Air Defense facility came from the sea.
Yet, while claims over Israeli responsibility for the attack can, at this point, only be considered speculation, all evidence does seem to point in the direction of Israel. Indeed, the track record of the Israelis lends a great deal of credence to the charges.
It is important to remember that Israel has launched attacks against Syrian forces and military convoys on at least four different occasions during the course of the current crisis.
In addition, it is generally understood that Israel was responsible for an attack on a shipment of missiles that were on their way from Syria to Lebanon last week, although the exact location – whether on Syrian or Lebanese soil – is still uncertain.
Recently From Brandon Turbeville:
- The Propaganda Narrative of a Peaceful Muslim Brotherhood
- New Rebel Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria
- Local Departments Fortify Police State With Armored Personnel Carriers
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.
Obscuring the Details: A Panoramic Look at America’s Case Against Syria
by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Global Research
October 13, 2013
The US federal government and the various agencies, media organizations, individuals, foreign governments, non-governmental organizations, lobbies, forces, and other entities that are tied to it have done everything in their power to obscure the details involving the chemical attacks that took place in Syria on August 21, 2013. The aim has been to justify the US-led foreign campaign that was launched against Syria in 2011 by making the Syrian government appear culpable of grievous crimes. The chemical attack on Ghouta has now come to represent the crux of the matter.
From the very start there was double-speaking coming from Washington and its cohorts about what happened in Ghouta. The Obama Administration and America’s allies deliberately ignored that chemical weapons were used in Syria prior to August 21, 2013. They have pretended that the United Nations investigation team that had arrived in Syria when chemical weapons were used in Ghouta had just stumbled there coincidentaly or with the purpose of «inspecting» the Syrian government’s chemical weapon depots.
Ignoring the Original Mandate of the UN Investigators
In reality, the UN team that arrived in Syria in August was not a team of weapons inspectors. It was a team of «investigators.» Even more importantly, the Syrian government had invited the UN investigation team to Syria in March 2013. This was because the insurgents had launched chemical attacks on March 19, 2013. The US and its allies tried to blame Syria, but they were embarrassingly contradicted by Carla Del Ponte, one of the UN investigators responsible for Syria, that said all the evidence pointed to the insurgents and not the Syrian government. Although she backed her conclusion with facts, Del Ponte was dismissed by the US, and NATO even abnormally took the time to make a statement against here. Moreover, the insurgents were even caught trying to sneak sarin gas into Syria from Turkey by Turkish security forces in May 2013.
Because the insurgents were behind the chemical attacks in March 2013, Syria’s government originally wanted the UN investigators to have the authority and mandate to officially assign blame on which party used the chemical weapons. The US, however, put all types of obstacles in place to prevent the UN from issuing a report that the US-supported insurgents were using chemical weapons. It was the US, Britain, and France that prevented an UN investigation that could assign responsibility for any chemical weapon attacks from taking place. Instead they wanted a politicized inspection team that would try to demonize Syria and write reports against Damascus. This led to a deadlock in the United Nations over the type of team that the UN would send to work in Syria. A settlement was eventually reached. The US and its allies eventually reduced the mandate of the UN inspectors to one of only determining if chemical weapons were used.
The United Nation’s team even spells out the fact that they had originally entered Syria to investigate the March 2013 chemical attacks all in their September 2013 report’s Letter of Transmittal signed by Ake Sellstrom, the head of the UN mission, Scott Cairns, the head of the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) component of the UN mission, and Maurizio Barbeschi, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) component of the UN mission. The UN team states the following on the report’s third page: «Having arrived in the Syrian Arab Republic on 18 August 2013, we were in Damascus on the 21 August preparing to conduct on-site inspections in connection with our investigation into the allegations concerning the use of chemical weapons in Khan al-Asal and in Sheik Maqsood and Saraqueb. Based on several reports of allegations on the use of chemical weapons in the Ghouta area of Damascus on 21 August 2013, you instructed us to focus our investigation efforts on the Ghouta allegations. We, therefore, proceeded to conduct on-site inspections in Moadamiyah in West Ghouta and Ein Tarma and Zamalka in East Ghouta».
Cooked US Intelligence and Implausible White House Stories
The narrative that the US government and its allies present about Ghouta is contradictory to logic and highly implausible. Added to the fact that the US has a track record of lying to create pretexts for aggression, Washington’s claims should be heavily scrutinized. So should the same group of non-governmental organizations that have consistently backed American wars and conjured instant reports to justify US foreign policy and war.
President Obama and John Kerry claimed that the Syrian military used chemical weapons while it was advancing militarily in Ghouta. This is contrary to any procedure that would be followed by an organized military force. An advancing military would not gas an area when it was entering it with its forces. Obama and Kerry might as well have claimed that the Syrian military had decided to reduce the number of its own troops by killing them.
Furthermore, there was no tactical need to use chemical weapons in Ghouta whatsoever. Ghouta did not have a large amount of anti-government fighters. Nor was Ghouta under the full control of the insurgents. Despite being in worse situations, the Syrian military never bothered using chemical weapons earlier in the conflict when things were dire for the Syrian government.
On the contrary, using chemical weapons would be a self-defeating and suicidal move by the Syrian government. Why would the Syrian government use chemical weapons when the combined UN team of OPCW and WHO investigators arrived in Syria to investigate the use of chemical attacks? Moreover, why would the Syrian military decide to use chemical weapons unnecessarily?
No evidence has been provided that the Syrian government was responsible for the chemical attack on Ghouta. On the contrary the US has only made claims and a series of contradictory statements. Using cooked Israeli evidence, Washington has claimed that the orders to use chemical weapons were intercepted, but has failed to provide the transcripts or to give any names of Syrian officials. In its own intelligence report the US government has also said that it knew in advance that the chemical attacks were going to happen. If the US government is to be believed, this would mean that the Obama Administration did not mention it and did nothing to prevent the use of chemical weapons from happening.
It turns out that the US government was given some type of advanced warning by the Iranian government about a chemical attack in Syria. The warning, however, was that the insurgents planned on using chemical weapons. This has been matched by statements from insurgents themselves that Saudi Arabia had provided the chemical weapons to the insurgents. Russian officials have also assessed that the chemical attacks in Ghouta were part of an intelligence operation conducted by Saudi Arabia.
VIDEO — Interview With The Syrian Electronic Army
Syrian Girl
October 3, 2013
Translated into english The first in person interview with the most powerful hacking organisation in the world
VIDEO — Massive blackout in Syria after rebels blast gas pipeline
RT
October 23, 2013
A gas pipeline was attacked near Damascus causing the capital and the southern part of Syria to suffer a blackout, SANA news agency reports. The electricity minister blamed the blast on rebels. READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/r3bt4d
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VIDEO — ‘Syria Blowback: EU turning blind eye to growing influence of radical Jihadists’
RT
October 22, 2013
The number of European Muslims joining the ranks of Islamist militants in Syria is growing every month. Now Norway has launched a hunt for two teenage sisters who have allegedly gone to the war-torn country to fight the regime alongside rebel forces.
For more on the dangers of European Muslims joining the Syrian Jihad, RT is joined by Middle East expert Mark Almond
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RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios. RT is the first news channel to break the 1 billion YouTube views benchmark.
Suicide Bomber Kills 31 in Syria’s Hamah
Almanar News
October 20, 2013
Local Editor
A suicide bomber blew up a truck laden with explosives at an army checkpoint in Syria’s central city of Hamah Sunday killing at least 31 people, a monitoring group said.
“At least 31 people, including regime troops, were killed when a man detonated a truck laden with explosives at a checkpoint near an agricultural vehicles company on the road linking Hamah to Salamiyeh,” the opposing UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
[h/t: FSA Crimes]
[related video: Deadly Impasse: Syrian army, rebels locked in battle over Damascus]
RCMP bring 60 drawn guns, dogs, assault rifles, to serve injunction on the wrong road
War Chief Seven Bernard wasunarmed, outmanned and off the path of SWN’s injunction. Was any of this necessary? [Photo: Miles Howe]
Halifax Media Co-op
October 18, 2013
After van, main blocker, removed the night before, RCMP seem hell-bent for violence in early dawn encounter with Warriors
Moncton, New Brunswick – I have been camping at the current blockade along highway 134 since the inception of the encampment, filing almost daily reports for the Media Coop. During June and July of this year, when protests against shale gas exploration in New Brunswick were of far less national interest, I was doing the same.
Around 6 am yesterday morning, October 17th, RCMP forces again blocked off both sides of the anti-shale gas encampment along highway 134,
Grappling with a young Warrior. [Photo: Miles Howe]
The move, of course, allowed traffic flow to resume to near normal. It also allowed unhindered access to RCMP, who as it will be made clear were scouting out the area and making plans for an ultimate take-down of the traffic-slowing, but completely peaceful, protest.
Elsipogtog youth runs in fear as RCMP descend into madness. [Photo: Miles Howe]
I could hear police beginning to identify themselves, and a rustling through the trees that suggested numerous bodies moving around. RCMP, I surmised, were everywhere, and the always-possible event of the RCMP serving SWN’s injunction against blocking their equipment was upon us.
Far from the Mi’kmaq’s last stand. District War Chief Jason Augustine faces down the barrels of 20 pistols. [Photo: Miles Howe]
Clearly not.
I grabbed my car keys and ran the 100-odd metres towards the Mi’kmaq Warrior encampment.
What I saw was surprising.
The ditch opposite me was already filled with 20-odd police in tactical blue uniforms, pistols already drawn. Three police officers dressed in full camouflage, one with a short-chained German Shepherd, were also near the ditch.
In the far field, creeping towards the Warrior encampment – which was comprised of one trailer and about ten tents – were at least 35 more police officers. Many of these wore tactical blue and had pistols drawn. At least three officers were wearing full camouflage and had sniper rifles pointed at the amassing group. The Warriors, for their part, numbered about 15.
Through a police loudspeaker towards the highway 11 off-ramp, an officer began reading the injunction against the blocking of SWN’s seismic equipment. This was all before dawn.
Still in the pre-dawn dark, about seven molotov cocktails flew out of the woods opposite the police line stationed in the ditch. I cannot verify who threw these cocktails. They were – if it matters – lobbed ineffectively at the line of police and merely splashed small lines of fire across the road. A lawn chair caught fire from one cocktail. Two camouflaged officers then pumped three rounds of rubber bullet shotgun blasts into the woods.
Shortly after, three so-called warriors with a journalist in tow – who claim to have arrived two nights ago from Manitoba – appeared to have determined that the situation was too extreme for them. Two of them have since been identified as Harrisen Freison and ‘Eagle Claw’. They promptly ran down the road towards the far end of the police blockade. Until last night no one had ever seen these individuals before.
About ten minutes later, with tensions now becoming highly escalated between the encroaching line of police in the field adjacent to the encampment and the Warriors now on a public dirt road, two officers approached Seven Bernard, chief of the Warrior Society. They attempted to serve Bernard with SWN’s contentious injunction. Dozens of guns from all angles were pointed at all of us.
Seven Bernard began to walk away from the officer attempting to serve him the injunction. If it matters, the officer in question was the same Sergeant Rick Bernard who had earlier in the summer arrested me on charges of threats and obstruction of justice – both of which amounted to nothing and were subsequently dropped.
Sergeant Bernard threw the injunction at his namesake, saying: “Consider yourself served.”
I could hear the RCMP surrounding us speaking about someone having a gun. I did not see any Warrior carrying a firearm. I can say with certainty, however, that no live round was ever fired by the Warrior side. If, as the RCMP are now claiming, a single shot was discharged, it was not from this altercation.
Before continuing, it is important to note that the Warrior encampment was on government – or Crown – land. Crown land, legally, is being held for Canada’s indigenous people, in this case the Mi’kmaq people. Through negligence of the Crown, this is often forgotten, especially by Canada’s non-indigenous populations.
Equally as forgotten is the fact that none of Canada’s Maritime provinces are ceded land. The Crown is tied to the original indigenous inhabitants – and their land – through treaties of peace and friendship. Nothing more.
It is also important to note that the entire encroaching police formation was focused on a group of about 15 Warriors, all of whom were now on a public dirt road, away from SWN’s so-called blockaded equipment.
The injunction was meant to focus on protestors blocking access to SWN’s equipment on highway 134. All of the subsequent arrests at this end of the altercation were made on Hannah Road.
With RCMP forces having entirely overwhelmed any remaining activists at the compound gate, the question must be asked:
Why focus on a small band of Warriors, clearly away from all of SWN’s equipment and entirely incapable of reforming a blockade, with over 60 guns of various calibre drawn on them?
Indeed, a van belonging to one Lorraine Clair from Elsipogtog First Nation had the evening before been removed from the compound gate. It was the main blocking factor to SWN’s – or anybody’s, really – access to their equipment.
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[Potent News editor’s note: I’ve actually met this author a couple times back when I lived in Halifax. I believe his heart is in the right place. While I disagree that the right thing to do is block a road leading to equipment involved with the raping of the land, this article was indeed valuable.
Some texas-based company is HERE in Canada (for some reason) being an example of typical globalization and destruction of sovereignty and killing the earth, at the cost of stuff like increased earthquakes and more.
RCMP will pounce on anyone that doesn’t enforce the status quo. We know that much.
That said, when you cross that line of not being peaceful anymore and you start doing aggressive stuff like parking a van, trees on a road … even if that’s not so bad, it’s still crossing a certain line, and when that line is crossed it opens up the opportunity for the government to be more successful with these shady provocateurs they’re obviously planting. Usually it’s better to take the “high road”, no pun intended.
If I blocked a road because Canadians weren’t paying attention to the blood they have on their hands with respect to Canada’s support for Israel, for example, and supporting the official bullshit narrative concerning the situation in SYRIA, I wouldn’t be taken very seriously. Even though my people are dying and a world conflict is increasingly being fomented, that’s not the route I would take.
I’m not saying “ignore the problem”. I’m saying people underestimate peace. I understand their frustration. I hate fracking. I even hate that spell-check on wordpress here doesn’t even think “fracking” is a word. I hate dependence on (possibly artificially) scarce natural resources. I hate that we don’t run our cars off of hemp, and it’s very possible that the road and the actual fracking they’re talking about wouldn’t have even existed here if North America wasn’t colonized in the first place (hah.. and maybe then I also wouldn’t be “me” too, right?)…
More importantly and more to the point, the mind is the ultimate battlefield and if people were armed with the Trivium Method they would long ago have put their “government” (aka mind-control) in its fucking place and banished it out of existence. Empire and enslavement, long ago, would be gone forever or at least as long as we remembered what “liberty” actually means and made the connection that it sounds like LIBRARY and so we free ourselves by learning and reading. A book is an extremely powerful tool. It allows people to crystallize their life experience and distill the most valuable insights from that experience. Learning about the world through a system of certainty and also learning about ourselves by looking inwards is what makes us strong and able to spot tricks in religion, media, school, etc. Even if the aboriginal people here are in the right, their audience has NO way to decipher fallacies presented in the media concerning their plight.
Fracking is crazy. If we’re going to have any government at all it should be one that outlaws fracking. The road and the people who work at the company are not the issue. Even if they’re successful at stopping fracking at this one site there’s still tons going on in the US, for example, and we can’t expect everyone to put tents near the place and do that shit when most people are living in poverty anyway. The Louisiana sinkhole is growing bigger and bigger everyday. To make matters worse, we’re seeing more crazy space-weather and hence Earthquakes in general too. This is insane. We’re hacking at branches and not getting to the route cause of the issue –> mind-control]
[related article & videos: Native Protestors And RCMP Clash In New Brunswick]
PN 