Former Bush Administration Official Blames Israel for Use of Chemical Arms in Syria


Former Bush Administration Official Blames Israel for Use of Chemical Arms in Syria

source:Fars News Agency 

A1139616

TEHRAN – Retired US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who once served as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff, believes that the chemical weapons used in Syria may have been an Israeli “false flag” operation aimed at implicating Bashar Assad’s regime.

Wilkerson made his astounding assertion in an interview on Current TV, the network once owned by former Vice President Al Gore and recently purchased by Al-Jazeera, Haaretz reported.

Wilkerson said that the evidence that it was Assad’s regime that had used the chemical weapons was “flaky” and that it could very well have been the rebels or Israel who were the perpetrators. Asked why Israel would do such a thing, Wilkerson said, “I think we’ve got a basically geostrategically, geopolitical inept regime in Tel Aviv right now.”

“I think we saw really startling evidence of that,” Wilkerson continued, “in the fact that President Obama had to tell Bibi Netanyahu ‘Pick up the phone, you idiot, call Ankara and get yourself out of this strategic isolation you’re in right now.’”

A “false flag” operation is a covert attack on foreign or domestic soil carried out by governments or organizations under a false identity, aimed at placing blame on the enemy. It originates with a ruse once used in naval warfare in which ships would hoist the enemy’s flags in order to infiltrate his ranks.

Wilkerson,63, a former Army helicopter pilot who flew combat missions in Vietnam, served as Colin Powell’s chief of staff in 2002-2005. He was responsible for reviewing the intelligence information used by Powell in his by now infamous February 2003 United Nations Security Council appearance on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

After his retirement, Wilkerson described this presentation as “a hoax” and became an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration’s handling of the Iraq war. He now serves as a professor at Virginia’s William and Mary College and is a guest commentator on several US television networks.

Speaking on the Current’s Young Turks program, Wilkerson said that because of the instability in the Middle East, Israel’s current geo-strategic situation is “as dangerous as it’s been since 1948.” He added that President Obama “has got to be very circumspect about what he does in exacerbating that situation”.

“Netanyahu is clueless as to this,” Wilkerson said. “I hope President Obama gave him a lecture in geostrategic realities.”

 

About these ads

Iran ready to ‘train’ Syrian army – commander


Iran ready to ‘train’ Syrian army – commander

Syrian soldiers celebrate in the al-Midan area in Damascus (AFP Photo)

Syrian soldiers celebrate in the al-Midan area in Damascus (AFP Photo)

Iran has denounced a reported Israeli attack on Syria and offered to assist ‘train’ the Syrian army if Damascus asks for help, commander of country’s ground forces stated. Iran has been urging for neighboring nations to stand against the assault.

“As a Muslim nation, we back Syria, and if there is need for training we will provide them with the training, but won’t have any active involvement in the operations,” IRNA news agency quoted the commander of the Islamic republic’s army ground forces, General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan as saying.

“The Syrian army has accumulated experience during years of conflict [with Israel], is able to defend itself and doesn’t need foreign assistance,” he added.

Israel reportedly carried out its second airstrike in three days on Syria early on Sunday, a Western intelligence source confirmed to Reuters, targeting Iranian-supplied missiles to Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. The attack hit the Jamraya military research center, Syria’s state TV reported; while a senior Israeli official told AFP that the Israeli airstrike was carried out near Damascus Airport.

Iran has spoken out against the alleged airstrike, arguing that it was meant to create instability and insecurity in the region and urging the countries in the region to remain united against Israel, the Fars news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.

Events in Syria show the intent to weaken the existing government and give more room to the terrorists, RT Arabic quoted the opening statement of the Iranian parliament’s session. According to the statement, the reasons behind the Israeli attack are the success of Syrian national army is battling against the armed groups.

Iran also urged other countries in the region to stand united against Israel’s’ actions and demand a stop to unwarranted attacks, RT Arabic reports.

So far Israel has remained silent on the issue. Earlier Israel stated that they would not tolerate Hezbollah being supplied with arms, as Tel Aviv considers Lebanon’s Hezbollah a terror organization.

source: rt.com

 

Zionists and Gulf Monarchs Ponder Pushing Al Qaeda to Take on Hezbollah


Zionists and Gulf Monarchs Ponder

Pushing Al Qaeda to Take on Hezbollah

by FRANKLIN LAMB

Beirut

“This is one damn fine idea, what took us so long to see a simple solution that was right in front of our eyes for Christ’s sake”, Senator John McCain of “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” and “no-fly zones for Syria” notoriety, reportedly demanded to know from Dennis Ross during a recent Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) brain storming session in Washington DC.

Ross, a founder of WINEP with Israeli government start up cash (presumably reimbursed unknowingly, one way or another by American taxpayers) and currently WINEPs “Counselor”, as in “consigliere” reportedly responded to the idea of facilitating Al Qeada to wage jihad against Hezbollah with the comment: “Shiites aren’t the only ones seeking death to demonstrate their ‘resistance’ to whatever. Plenty of other Muslims also want to die as we saw last week in Boston. Let ‘em all go at it and Israel can sweep out their s— when it’s over.”

One Congressional staffer attending the WINEP event emailed to Beirut: “Dennis spoke in jest—well I assumed he did- but who knows anymore? Things are getting ever crazier inside some of these pro-Israel ‘think tanks’ around here.”

Featured on the front page of its 25/4/13 edition, the Zionist compliant New York Times writes that the Assad regime is apparently recovering but, “it must be understood that for all of the justified worries about the (al Qaeda affiliated) rebels “Assad remains an ally of Iran and Hezbollah.”

The Times adopts the views of Islamophobe, Daniel Pipes, who recommends that the US try to keep the two sides in Syria fighting as long as possible until they destroy each other. Pipes, now serving as an advisor to John McClain, wrote in the Washington Times of 11/4/13 “ Evil forces pose less danger to us when they make war on each other. This keeps them focused locally, and it prevents either one from emerging victorious and thereby posing a greater danger. Western powers should guide enemies to a stalemate by helping whichever side is losing, so as to prolong their debilitating conflict.”

Both Jeffrey Feltman, U.N. Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs and Susan Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N, have at a minimum impliedly joined in the intriguing idea of sic’ing Jabhat al Nusra on the Party of God. This scheme, if launched, would be Feltman’s 14th attempt to topple Hezbollah and defeat the Lebanese National Resistance to the occupation of Palestine since he first arrived in Beirut from Tel Aviv in 2005 to become US Ambassador to Lebanon. This observer, among others in this region sense that given the aura still enveloping the American Embassy here, that Jeffrey never really left his Lebanese ambassadorial post and continues to occupy this position from his new UN office.

This week Feltman warned that the spillover of Syria’s war continues to be felt in Lebanon as Susan Rice, echoed him and condemned Hezbollah for “undermining the country’s “dissociation policy.” The latter being a bit obscure in meaning but connoting something like sitting around doing nothing while this country is being shelled by jihadists from among the 23 countries currently fighting in Syria. Feltman informed the media on 22/4/13 that “The Secretary-General is concerned by reports that Lebanese are fighting in Syria both on the side of the regime and on the side of the opposition, hopes that the new government will find ways to promote better compliance by all sides in Lebanon with the “disassociation policy.”

Given current divisions in Lebanon that will not happen anymore than Lebanon’s June 9th Parliamentary elections will be held on time.

For her part, Susan lectured the UN Security Council that “Hezbollah actively enables Assad to wage war on the Syrian people by providing money, weapons, and expertise to the regime in close coordination with Iran.” This position was expressed also through a statement by US. State Department spokesman, Patrick Ventrell, who said that Washington “has always been clear concerning Hezbollah’s shameful role and the support it is providing for the Syrian regime and the violence it is inducing in Syria.” Ventrell added: “We were clear from the start concerning the destructive role played by Iran as well as the Iranian role.”

Several Israeli agents in Congress are today promoting a Jabhat el Nusra-Hezbollah war even as the Obama administration terror-lists the jihadist group. Meanwhile, Senator Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), McCain’s neocon Islamaphobe acolyte, goes a bit further and explains to Fox News, once Assad falls and Hezbollah is out of the picture “We can deal with these (jihadist) fellas.”

Recent history in Libya instructs otherwise. As Turkish commentator Cihan Celik recently noted: “A divorce with al-Nusra will not be easy in Syria.”

The past two years in Libya, that shadow of a country, reveals countless examples, three witnessed firsthand by this observer, during the long hot summer of 2011. What we saw was Gulf sponsors and funders offering young men, often unemployed, $ 100 per month, free cigarettes, and a Kalashnikov to do jihad. Plenty down and out lads still accept these offers in Libya, as they do in Syria. One reason why the militias proliferated so quickly in Libya and never melted away was the phenomenon of a wannabe jihadists deciding to be a leader and recruiting perhaps a brother or two, maybe a few cousins or tribe members, and presto, they have created a militia with power they never dreamed of. Their new life can offer many perceived benefits from running roughshod over the civilian populations and setting up myriad mini but potent criminal enterprises specializing in kidnappings, robberies, drugs, trafficking in women, and assassinations for cash. How many of these young men have turned in their weapons in Libya and returned to their former lives? Or will do so when instructed by the likes of McCain or Graham?

On 24/4/13 Jabhat Al-Nusra Front intensified its threats to officials here including the Lebanese president by releasing a challenge from its media office: “…we inform you – and you may think of that as a warning or an ultimatum – that you must take immediate measures to restrain Hezbollah, otherwise, the fire will reach Beirut. If you do not abide by this within 24 hours, we will consider that you are taking part in the massacres committed by the Hezbollah members and we will unfortunately have to burn everything in Beirut.” In addition they are calling for Jihad and the establishment of the “Resistance Factions for Jihad against the Regime in Syria” and also in Saida and Tripoli, Lebanon.

Israeli officials appear to be in agreement with the Ross/Pipes proposal to arrange for Al Qeada to launch a war against Hezbollah. The Director for External Affairs at “The Mosche Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, repeatedly claimed that the Shia are the real threat to Israel, not the Sunni and with the least threat coming from the Gulf monarchs. He offered the view recently that “Israel is now a partner of the Sunni Arab states.” Indeed, Israel hopes that Hezbollah will forget Israel when tasked with trying repel Al Nusra and other al Qaeda affiliate attacks.

According to various Israel officials who have issued statements on the subject, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan and several other members of the Arab League constitute an “alliance of anxiety for Israel” because they claim that Sunni Arabs are not as competent as the Shia and Iran and as a result they express doubts that Israel can rely on the Sunni states in the same way that the Sunni states can reply on Israel.”

In a documentary about the Iraq war, an American soldier explains: “Actually, we don’t really have much of a problem with the Sunnis. It’s the Shias who we are afraid of. The problem has something to do with their leader who was killed centuries ago and these fellas are willing to lay their life down for the guy. Anyhow, that is that they told us in Special Ops class.”

Al Nusra fighters currently occupying parts the south west areas of Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in south Damascus, recently expressed eagerness to fight Hezbollah which they claim would give them credibility with Sunni Muslims and, oddly, in this observers view, “ credibility with western countries”, who supposedly are al Qaeda’s sworn enemies. It’s sometimes hard to know who precisely is whose enemy these days in Syria as the rebels continue using areas east and southwest of Damascus as rear bases and as gateways into the capital.

Despite boasts to the contrary from Jihadist types in Syria and Lebanon, it is not clear to this observer if Jihadist and al Qaeda-affiliated groups living among Hezbollah communities in Lebanon like Fatah al Islam, Jund al Sham or Osbat al Ansar which have been here for years would actually join the Zionist promoted anti-Hezbollah jihad.

But it is evident that some Lebanese Islamists and jihadists directly connected to al Qaeda do have the ability to target Hezbollah. Elements from each of these groups are startling to associate and identify with al Nusra inspired partly by the latter’s successful military operations of Jabhat al Nusra in Syria. Again, we saw the same thing in Libya. Enthusiastic, ambitious young men who want to improve their lot in life try to go with a winner. According to sources in the Ain al Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, jihadist leaders such as Haytham and Mohammed al Saadi, Tawfic Taha, Oussama al Shehabi and Majed al Majed are recruiting followers and fighters in Lebanon and offer a ticket out the the squalid army surrounded, Syrian refugee inflated camp.

Homs-based media activist Mohammad Radwan Raad claims that “the embattled residents of the rebel-controlled Homs province town of Al-Qusayr welcome Saida, Lebanon based Sunni Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir’s call for Jihad in Syria.” Claims Raad, “Al-Qusayr residents welcome Assir’s call and hope the Lebanese people help kick out Hezbollah members in the area…We need anyone who can get rid of them.” This week Assir urged his followers to join Syrian rebels fighting troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah. Al-Qusayr has been under rebel control for more than a year and on the scene reports indicate that it is about to be returned to central government control.

In response, two Salafist Sunni Lebanese sheikhs urged their followers to go to Syria to fight a jihad (religious war) in defense of Qusayr’s Sunni residents. “There is a religious duty on every Muslim who is able to do so… to enter into Syria in order to defend its people, its mosques and religious shrines, especially in Qusayr and Homs,” Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir told his followers. For now, experts say, such calls on the part of Lebanon’s Salafists are largely bluster because the movement is far from able to wield either the arsenal or the fighting forces of Hezbollah.

Local analysts like Qassem Kassir argue that Jabhat al Nusra and friends are not organized enough to fight against Hezbollah in a conventional war, but they could cause great damage by organizing bomb attacks against the Party of God’s bases and militants. The latter would be enough initially for Ross and WINEP and their Zionist handlers. Creating chaos in Lebanon being one of their goals but more importantly weakening the National Lebanese Resistance led by Hezbollah and also challenging Syria and Iran.

In a recent speech, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah offered his party’s view about a promoted Sunni-Shia clash with Al-Nusra, AlQaida and all the groups which flocked to Syria, saying that what was wanted of them by those who sent them was to kill and get killed in Syria, in a massacre which will only serve the enemies of the Arabs and Muslims.

The coming months will reveal to us if the several pro-Zionist Arab regimes and Islamophobes including those at WINEP and other Israel first “think-tanks” are delusional in believing a “simple solution” in John McCain’s words, to those resisting the Zionist occupation of Palestine would be to assist Jabhat el Nusra type jihadists to make war against Hezbollah. And whether they could defeat Hezbollah or even whether Jabhat al Nusra and friends are capable of igniting yet another catastrophe in this region.

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and Syria and can be reached c/o fplamb@gmail.com

source: Counterpunch

 

Report of the Libyan Jamahiriya (20 to 25/04/2013): Converted into Sponsor of International Terrorism Under the Macabre U.S. Interest


Converted into Sponsor of International Terrorism Under the Macabre U.S. Interest

* Libya is “central warehouse” group of Al Qaeda: The terrorist attack against French colonialist invader embassy in Libya is just “a prelude to another series of attacks,” says political analyst Conchetta Dellavernia.

A car bomb exploded Tuesday morning in front of the gala embassy building in the Libyan capital, TripoliTwo security guards were injured, one seriously. According Dellavernia, radical groups have warned that France thus should be left “to stick their noses where they do not belong”. “Libya now is a swamp in which extremist groups are trying to take full control,” said the analyst.

He insisted, moreover, that the attempt of NATO to “implant” in Libya a democracy that could control failed. “Think you will have control over the situation, but it will have.’s Government is a puppet, it means nothing,” he said and stressed that in reality what they did was change the Western powers to Gaddafi “by leaders Al Qaeda “.

“What they have done in Libya has been mislead and lie and deceive the population of the whole planet, because there is no democracy could lead to the gentlemen that they have been, as it will happen in Syria,” says Dellavernia . “Libya now is the central store of Al Qaeda groups,” according to the analyst insists. Emphasizes that thanks to weapons that entered circulation in a practically free after the death of Muammar Gaddafi, today terrorists are funded and arming. As one example puts Mali where the weapons from Libya destabilized the situation completely.

* “The Algerian secret services” puppet have supplied the Libyan government in the name of one of the accused of the attack on the French Embassy in Tripoli.

* Arrives information they murder Omar Faisal, a battalion of mercenaries fired shots at their vehicle when it is not identified in front of the camp and died on the way to hospital.

* Body of a girl tortured and raped by mercenaries by the facto government of NATO in Libya was found about 20 km from the port of Zarzis with signs of torture and burns and the effects of a bullet in the head.

* The British and German embassy in Tripoli temporarily suspended operations after the attack on the French Embassy: In addition, Western diplomatic sources in Tripoli, the British Embassy has suspended the activities of the embassy temporarily, did not begin its work after granting more embassy staff left open, which can last for several days before resuming their work. The Ambassador adding that there are fears of a car bomb attacks, which has become a state of fear and anxiety in most diplomatic missions operating in Libya, including British and German Embassy.

 * 3 women killed, 2 seriously injured from different countries, France, Italy, Libya and Germany, making up a command spy who sought to infiltrate the Resistance were killed in a car accident.

* An official of the civil registry, Kerkom Yusuf, was abducted by gunmen after leaving a radio station where he was interviewed, for now his whereabouts are unknown.

 

* Air traffic at the airport in Tripoli interrupted due to lack of visibility and bad weather.

* The traitor who serves as Libya’s defense minister publicly acknowledged the existence of foreign elements in and out of the Libyan nation, these are mercenaries brought to the training camps that the British and Americans have in Libyan territory and is not controlled bythe Current government. Prepared sending mercenaries tofight in Syria and others to reassure international companies steal Libyan wealth.

 

* We report that an airplane the pilot had a seizure while trying to land in the airport of Tripoli from Benghazi some of the passengers were injured and others severely injured.

 * West of Tripoli Three dead and wounded in clashes between militias and Alzeramqh Sabratha where the murder of a young family Moneim Shtiwi and normal injuries that led to cutting the fingers of their hands.

 * Zintan Militia attacked the building of the Interior Ministry called on Tripoli and attacked the guards and some of them taken to hospital due to injuries in their ranks. This operation came in the context of the allegations of the Interior and its implication in the killing of Anas Mliqth while being transferred from prison.

 * 2 billion to Egypt is not a decision of the puppet government of Libya, but was imposed by the colonial invader NATO / USA

 * A terrible news today a young man who was burned because he wanted a visa to travel and get treatment in Germany, after being expelled from Greece, the Office of Tourism and Trade denied the pass then resorted to Maqrif for help, but there was no response from the puppet government and is now his in intensive care.

 

* Libyans trample the dirty rag representing puppet government vandals

* Qatar citizenship delivering the cowardly and treacherous former Foreign Minister Musa Kusa

 * Mohammed Gheriani recovery section enters hospital after being beaten by Mohamed Maqrif Brigades chief General National Congress during its coverage of the children of the South reconciliation conference held in Tripoli.

- Sabha.  Attorney General confirmed that more than 60 people managed to escape the prison of Sabha. This is the fourth time the prison inmates manage to escape Sabha

- Benghazi:  Hundreds of people linked to the education sector massively demonstrated in Benghazi to demand the expulsion of the Minister of Education, they called retrograde Islamist and accused him of promoting Shia sect in the new curriculum, contrary to the history of Libya.

* The international terrorist “philosopher” Bernard-Henri Levy in his article in the magazine Le Point makes harsh statement against the puppet President of the Libyan Transitional Council Mustafa Abdul Jalil, by the adoption of Islamic Sharia Law in Libya legislation . In a nest of contradictions questions that NATO endorses the law

- Bani Walid: there has been a fire in a shopping complex Alkaaimi, of unknown origin are victims not

- Sorman: Office of the fight against crime in the city of Surman exposed to armed attack

Libyan oil against human rights

 

 

- The danger Taliban in Libya and the international media disinformation

- Shootings and clashes on the streets of Libya

- Egyptian Protesters burn monarchist flag of the rebels Libyans Salafists 

- And in solidarity with the Libyan and Syrian in Tunisia

A large gathering of displaced Libyans in Tunisia and Arab brothers do PAUSE solidarity with Libya and Syria and against calls Arab Spring revolutions, which not only bring destruction and devastation to these countries

* Tunisia border clashes have occurred between criminal and civil Libyan Tunisian. And witnesses said Libyan militias entered Tunisian territory to steal nearly 10 km, with the pretext of pursuing traffickers

- Tawergha: A new crime against young people of Tawergha in Tripoli Medical Center: 20 young people from Tawergha bodies killed in Misurata, under torture, this Tripoli Medical Center, rejected the reception of the people because the medical report of the autopsy, by lies and deceit, where the Lord of the report that some of the bodies were the causes of death injury pressure and sugar, While death was under torture, and the news the escape of one of the doctors, because of the pressure on him for the previous version of the report, please, everyone, move before the bodies are buried. And in order not to hide the evidence.

- Gharyan: Power plant was bombed by beasts mercenary in the city of Gharyan, on Saturday, was attacked by unknown Bakazv RPG took off the station. The sources said that the plant was attacked Bakazv RPG took off temporarily. 

Libyan mercenaries cruelly tortured by NATO and the U.S. 

- Misurata : unconfirmed news about the death of two truckers city of Misurata and the third wounded and was in serious condition at the hospital reported that the incident occurred in the area of the tribe Warfalla. The news that young people are working on big cars serving mercenaries from Misurata

- Turkey – Libya: Disobeying his criminal government, agents of the Turkish Customs Police discovered and seized thousands of illegal weapons in Libyan vessel was in Istanbul, according to the source, police found a thousand assault rifles, hundreds of guns and large quantities of ammunition on the ship “The Intizar”, anchored in the port of Tuzla, east of Istanbul, from April 4.

The ship, which had declared unloaded, came from Malta and would continue to Libya after a “technical stop” at the industrial port of Istanbul.

But the police were able to verify that the weapons had been delivered to the ship just in Turkey, all weapons were stamped Turkish, so it has been determined that the army material smuggled via Syria to Libya

The finding reminds pistols container from Turkey, designed to Yemen and discovered in Dubai in 2011, even then it seemed to be more of parts for gifts or cargo rendering it useful in an armed conflict.

The heroic and martyr city of Sirte, golpada by NATO bombs and US

 source: by Mirko Senda

http://libia-sos.blogspot.ch/

If you Want to go to Heaven, You had Better get Busy Overthrowing Syria


If you Want to go to Heaven, You had Better get Busy Overthrowing Syria

By Paul Craig Roberts

The United States government has been at war for eleven years. The US military destroyed Iraq, leaving the country and millions of lives in ruins and releasing sectarian bloodletting that had been kept in check by the secular Saddam Hussein government. On any given day in “liberated” Iraq, the death toll is as high as during the height of the US attempted occupation.

In Afghanistan eleven years of US attempted occupation has had no more success than a decade of Soviet occupation. The Afghans are still not worn down despite more than two decades of war with the two superpowers. Like the Soviets, the Americans have managed to kill many women, children, and village elders, but precious few warriors. In place of the Soviet puppet government there is Washington’s puppet government. That is the only change, and Washington’s puppet is no more secure than the Soviet one was.

In Libya, Washington used its corrupt NATO puppets and CIA-recruited bandits to overthrow another stable government, that of Muammar Gaddafi, leaving Libya mired in sectarian violence. A stable prosperous country has simply been destroyed by western governments that profess human rights values and condemn China and Russia for not having any. 

Washington has also been killing civilians with drones and air strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, two countries with which Washington is not at war but has purchased the governments, paying the Pakistani and Yemeni governments for the right to murder their citizens and destabilizing both countries in the process.

And now in Syria Washington is at work destroying another stable secular government headed by a British trained eye doctor. 

Washington’s eleven years of illegal aggression against Muslim countries--war crimes according to the Nuremberg trials of Nazis–have resulted in civilian deaths far in excess of military casualties and in a domestic American police state that has destroyed the rule of law and the constitutional protections of US citizens. Washington and its presstitutes have emphasized that these costs are necessary to save Americans from al-Qaeda terrorists, none of whom have ever been apprehended in the United States. 

Having listened to the propaganda line pumped out by Washington and its Ministry of Propaganda for eleven years, imagine my astonishment when I saw two juxtaposed headlines: “Al-Nusra pledges allegiance to al-Qaeda” (BBC) and “Move to Widen Help for Syrian Rebels Gains Speed in West” (NY Times). Al-Nusra is the main military component of the “Syrian rebels,” and it has allied itself with our mortal enemyOsama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda.

Wait a minute! Our government told us for eleven years that we blew trillions of dollars on wars to protect Americans from al-Qaeda, endangering Social Security, Medicare, the social safety net, the dollar’s exchange value, the credit rating of the US Treasury, and our civil liberties in order to save America from al-Qaeda terrorists. So why is Washington now supporting al-Qaeda’s overthrow of the secular, non-Islamist government in Syria which has never ever done anything whatsoever to Americans!?

The New York Times presstitutes, Michael R. Gordon and Mark Landler, elevated the terrorist al-Qaeda organization to the status of “the Syrian opposition.” At a lunch meeting hosted by Washington’s puppet, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, and US Secretary of State John Kerry, “the Syrian opposition,” aka al-Qaeda, requested antiaircraft and antitank weapons. A senior Washington official said: “Our assistance has been on an upward trajectory, and the president (Obama) has directed his national security team to identify additional measures so that we can increase assistance.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry announced a $123 million “defense aid package” to “the Syrian opposition” that now includes al-Qaeda. Washington had already sent $117 million in “food and medical supplies” to “the Syrian opposition,” and ordered its Middle Eastern puppets to send arms. Note the Orwellian language: support for an outside terrorist force seeking to destroy a government and a people is called a “defense aid package.” 

On April 11 the establishment French newspaper, Le Monde, reported that the al-Nosra organization affiliated with al-Qaeda is the dominant force in “the Syrian opposition,” not democratic revolutionaries. Despite this fact, Washington’s puppets, France and Britain, are pushing the European Union to send arms to the al-Qaeda affiliated “Syrian opposition.” And Senator John McCain wants US airstrikes on Syrian government forces with whom the US is not at war, in order to provide air cover for al-Qaeda’s takeover of Syria.

Meanwhile, the Islamist Shiites, whom the Americans left in control of Iraq, have announced that they have joined the battle against the American-supported al-Qaeda forces seeking to radicalize Syria. 

So far at last count, the UN reports that the military attack on Syria organized by Washington’s proxies has killed 70,000 people. But americans are preoccupied with the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed 3. 

Once again “the indispensable people” are bringing death and destruction to an entire country in order to bring to the dead “freedom and democracy.” No Syrian asked for this “liberation” from his life.

Be a Proud American. We are doing our duty to our rightful hegemony over the world and to Israel, which has purchased our government. It is our right to be the hegemonic power on the planet earth, and that includes the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore it is Washington’s right to overthrow Syria in order to get rid of the Russian naval base there. The Romans would never have put up with a foreign power having a naval base in the Mediterranean, and we can do no less, unless we are some kind of pansy state afraid of our own shadow. The Mediterranean was mare nostrum–our sea–for the Romans. Now it is our sea, and by god we are going to claim it by overthrowing Syria.

Israel, of course, was given the rights to Greater Israel” by God himself–who am I to question the Christian Zionist preachers who are growing fat on Israeli money–and part of “Greater Israel” is the river in southern Lebanon that supplies precious water.

Hizbollah, provisioned by Syria and Iran has prevented Israel from confiscating southern Lebanon in order to acquire the water rights that God gave them. Therefore, to fulfill our obligations as Israel’s puppet, we are required to destroy both Syria and Iran so that Hizbollah is isolated and out of the way and “Greater Israel” can be created. 

The Christian Zionist churches in the US repeat this message every Sunday. If you don’t believe it, you are some kind of anti-american anti-semite and should be exterminated. Or you could be a despicable Muslim terrorist to be waterboarded into confession. Homeland Security will make short work of you just like they did to those Russian Muslim terrorists in Boston who tried to blow up the Marathon race. 

I mean, really, how can we indispensable people bring freedom and democracy to the world if the Russians have a naval base in our sea? How can we project strength if we project such weakness by permitting a foreign power’s presence in our exclusive sphere of influence many thousands of miles away from our borders. Don’t forget, America’s borders are the world’s borders. It says so in our song–”From sea to shining sea.” Don’t forget it. 

Of course, we don’t want to go head-to-head with another well armed nuclear military power, but the way around that is to demonize the Syrian government and Russia for supporting an eye doctor who is “a brutal dictator” who is resisting an Islamist al-Qaeda takeover of Syria financed by Washington. Our masters in Washington can use the UN and all our well-paid puppet states to pressure the Russians to shut up and get out of our way. I mean, really, does Putin want all those Russian NGOs that we finance to bring their operatives out onto the streets in Moscow and bring down his government? I mean, really, who does Putin think he is standing up to our god-given hegemony over the world, much less Israel’s god-given hegemony over the Middle East? I mean, Putin is in for it, and so are those goddamn Chinese. I mean, really, who do they think they are? Americans? Don’t those Chinks know about our control of the Pacific? I mean, really, are they out to lunch?

And, I mean, really, how can all us get to heaven if we don’t do God’s will and deliver the Middle East to Israel as Israel says the scriptures require. I mean, really, do you want to oppose God and burn in hell? Instead of all those virgins Muslims promise you, you will be devoured by fire. You better get on the right side before you die.

I mean, really, who wants this fate. We had better get rid of Syria sooner than ordered.
If we don’t do what Israel tells us God requires, we are finished. That’s for sure.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal.

source: Information Clearing House

 

Robert Fisk: Beware wishful thinking. Assad isn’t going soon


Robert Fisk: Beware wishful thinking. Assad isn’t going soon

by ROBERT FISK

The West has an odd habit of assuming dictators we don’t like will simply disappear

Syrians who settled down to listen to Bashar Assad’s independence day speech two nights ago were sorely disappointed. He didn’t exactly offer blood, sweat and tears. Just more war, and the assurance that he would win. Up to 7,000 prisoners would be released to celebrate Syria’s freedom from French rule 67 years ago – which goes to show how many prisoners are still held in the country’s jails – but Assad wanted to assure his people that this really was a war. As if they didn’t know. It was not sectarian. Foreign news media were portraying a lie: that “a president was holding on to his seat against a population who want him gone, but that is not the case”. France still regarded Syria as its colony. Western nations wanted the Arabs to submit to them. “We saw their humanitarian intervention in Iraq, in Libya, and now we see it in Syria.”

But Assad had a point. London, Paris and Washington love exiles. Into Iraq, we tried to inject the ghastly and wealthy exile Ahmed Chalabi. And we all know how reliable he turned out to be. We pretended that Libya’s freedom fighters were Homeric warriors; and now they control their little Islamist fiefdoms in Benghazi and Tripoli (having done away with the US ambassador), courtesy of Nato air strikes against Gaddafi. If Algeria was not such a loyal ally of Syria, Assad might have pointed out that the French handed their colony over to the Algerian exiles who had largely avoided the war of independence – and who produced the autocratic and vicious state which slaughtered its own people in the Islamist struggle of the 1990s and which remains a corrupt and corrupted regime to this day.

And then we have the Syrian “opposition”, insofar as it exists, with its endless fraternal arguments and juvenile infighting – what on earth does dear leader Khatib think he is doing? Has he resigned or not resigned? – and its alliance with the very same al-Qaida groupuscules that are supposed to be the centre of jihadism in Mali. Remember Mali? This was the centre of world terror back in January. Now the centre of world terror is supposed to be in northern Syria – fighting on “our” side against the hated Assad. And we brave Westerners are worried, supposedly, that Bashar’s chemical weapons will fall “into the wrong hands” – being presumably in the “right hands” (Assad’s) now! It makes you wonder who writes the Assad speeches. Can’t they do better than the curmudgeonly interview that Assad gave on Wednesday night?

Remember Mali? This was the centre of world terror back in January

But we still don’t understand the autocracies of the Middle East, both those we love – Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other well-known freedom-loving, pro-American democracies  – and those we loathe – Syria, Iran, possibly a future Iraq (if it does not obey our orders) and potentially Egypt (unless the army takes over and returns the country to a Mubarak lookalike). Never will I forget the fantasist Daniel Pipes’ suggestion that what Iraq needed in the aftermath of Saddam was “a democratically minded strongman”. Isn’t that what Assad would claim to be?

And all the while, we are content to see Arab nations ganging up on the Syrian regime, pushing more and more weapons into the war – which is indeed, contrary to what Assad says, more and more sectarian – even though the Islamist al-Nusra movement is now by far the strongest among the rebels. Yet we are outraged that Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah might be involved – in Hezbollah’s case, there is no “might” about it – in the same war. Up to 40 Hezbollah fighters are now said to have died in the Syrian conflict, most in Shia Lebanese villages on the Syrian side of the border. In Qusayr last week, at least five Hezbollah fighters were killed. One of them, Assad Ali Assad – and here we have a name, in case anyone cares to deny the story – was buried in southern Lebanon at the weekend.

But Hezbollah’s involvement is important because Iran and its allies are also part of the reason for this conflict. And it remains a fact, even though Assad did not – could not – mention this in his independence day speech, that Iran is the target of the Syrian war, the overthrow of Assad part of our plan to destroy his Iranian ally – just as it was part of Israel’s plan to de-construct Iran by fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. Israel lost its war. Will Assad’s enemies lose, too?

We have, in London, Paris and Washington, an odd habit. We believe that those dictators we don’t like will actually go – “step down”, “step aside”, lose the war, whatever phrase we like to use – because we want them to go. Wasn’t Saddam destroyed? Wasn’t Gaddafi liquidated? Didn’t Milosevic go to the Hague? All true. But Stalin survived. Kim Jong-un isn’t doing too badly, either – though that’s probably because he actually has nuclear weapons, as opposed to Iran which might or might not be trying to acquire them and thus remains on the Israeli-American target list. And here’s some bad news for Assad’s foes.

The Syrian army is tired of corruption. It is tired of party nepotism. It is becoming very angry with those it blames for the war

He mentioned the Syrian government army on Wednesday night. What he did not do was refer to their recent expansion of territory. His soldiers have now retaken most of rebel Deraya and are advancing into Harasta in the suburbs of Damascus. The 100-mile highway to Tartus, and thus to Latakia – long closed by the armed opposition – has just been reopened by Assad’s divisions. For the first time in months, Syrians can now drive from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast. The rebels so beloved of Nato nations are losing their hold of Damascus. Yes, they may get it back. The road to Latakia may close again. This war – beware – may last another two, three or more years. Nobody will win.

But the power that will have to be reckoned with – barring some mass mutiny – will be the Syrian army of Bashar Assad. It is tired of corruption. It is tired of party nepotism. It is becoming very angry with those it blames for the war: not just al-Qaida, al-Nusra, defectors and Nato, but with the intelligence services whose brutality in Daraa struck the match to the  Syrian uprising. And just at the moment it is fighting back against Assad’s enemies. Western “statesmen”, diplomats, “analysts” and those absurd think-tankers so beloved of the networks may yet have to buy a new crystal ball.

source: independent.co.uk

 

The cynic Salafists terrorism against sacred religious symbols


The cynic Salafists terrorism against sacred religious symbols

It is a common tactic of the U.S. special services, French and English pa ra humiliate believers of different religions and stoke the collective punishment and indiscriminate killing. Imperialism as a tool using criminal gangs funded Salafi fanatics Saudi Arabia creates complete chaos to justify military invasions and looting of the resources of the people.

Serbian Orthodox Churches in Kosovo-Metohija, Serbia Yugoslavia and destroyed by Albanian terrorists Muslims allegedly gang KLA NATO serving

Shiite Muslim shrine in Karbala, Iraq, destroyed by Al Qaeda in the service of U.S. tactic to divide and destroy Iraq
Sunni Mosque in Damascus attacked savagely by the CIA’s Salafis
Syria: Ancient synagogue was looted and burned in Damascus
Old Damascus synagogue destroyed and burned by the same criminals

 

Syriac Christian Church of Homs ravaged by mercenaries and criminal gangs trained by the CIA and paid by Saudi Arabia

West paid dearly for its support to mercenaries and terrorists in Syria

source: by Mirko Senda

 

 

Syria is a machine to eliminate terrorists, the CIA and NATO failed abandon their useless mercenaries “Syrian opposition”


Syria is a machine to eliminate terrorists, the CIA and NATO failed abandon their useless mercenaries “Syrian opposition

Destroyed several hideouts of terrorists in Army operating in several areas of the country: Damascus and Idlib, Homs and Aleppo

In the framework of its national tasks to pursue armed terrorist groups, units of our armed forces conducted several operations in which destroyed hideouts of terrorist groups and eliminated some of its members, in the provinces of Homs and Idleb.

A source at Idleb Governorate reported that a military unit directed blows to the terrorist groups in various locations in the province, leaving many dead and wounded terrorists.

The source added that a dispute between members of the Frente al-Nousra and other armed terrorist group in a village in Idleb, ended in the death of a number of terrorists, including the leader of the self-styled “Orabi Brigade”.

On the other hand, the engineering units of the army defused two bombs, one of 50 kg and the second is 20 kg in weight, were placed by terrorists both on the road between Ariha and Mastouma, and are equipped to detonate a distance.

Deleted terrorists, including a leader, in the town of Rastan in Homs

A unit of our armed forces destroyed a hideout of a terrorist group armed, in the town of Rastan in Homs province …

Provincial sources quoted by SANA, secured the left operating as several terrorists dead including the leader of a group calling itself as “Women of Allah”.

The same fate befell the members of a terrorist group in the neighborhood of al-Karabis.

And in the neighborhood of al-Nasirah in Teldau in the countryside of the province the army left the members of a terrorist group killed or wounded.

Armed terrorist groups inflict casualties in Harasta and Yobar

Units of our armed forces killed or wounded left numerous terrorist operations carried out against their concentrations, in the cities of Yobar and Harasta in Damascus countryside.

A responsible source reported that army units clashed with terrorist groups in the north and east of Yobar, eliminating several terrorists. The source added that an army unit chased a terrorist in the city of Harasta, where liquidated three terrorists and destroyed a vehicle gunship, killing the terrorists who were on their board.

To this, an army unit terrorists ambushed a band near the al-Iman mosque in Harasta, leaving dead or injured members.

Armed Forces take control of Adra Power Plant in Damascus-field

According to a responsible source, units of our armed forces carried out a series of operations that extended from the town of al-Ateibeh located in East Ghouta depth to the Adra al-Balad, where they succeeded in destroying hideouts and concentrations of terrorists in the town of al-Ateibeh and take control of the area where the power plant situated in Adra, where they were eliminated several terrorists among them are seven members of the so-called “al-Farouk Brigade“.

The source added that an army unit collided with a terrorist group in Adra road, and eliminated terrorists and injured nine others.

Around Adra, Armed Forces perpetrating terrorist liquidated looting, robberies and killings near the cardboard factory, market al-Ghanam, Tal Sauan and Hosh al-Khayat.

While in the city of Darayya Army swept pursued terrorists and their hideouts along with arms and ammunition that were in them, and removed and injured several militants, according to a source charge.

The source added that were destroyed several vehicles and motorcycles with terrorists aboard.

And in the city of Duma our armed forces conducted two operations leaving several terrorists killed or wounded.

Also an Army unit command conducted an operation in the town of al-Sbeneh, in which two vehicles swept by the weapons they carried and left several casualties among members of a terrorist group.

To all our armed forces continued hunting down terrorists in the Bab Hud in the city of Homs, where a group decimated and conducted a raid against a terrorist hideout in the same neighborhood liquidating several of them and seizing a number of sophisticated communications devices, as well as an explosive device was deactivated.

Similarly Army undertook a squad against a terrorist group in the neighborhood of Wadi al-Sayeh eliminating most of the group members, including several snipers.

Armed Forces eliminated large number of terrorists in Aleppo and its field

The units of the armed forces continued their operations against terrorist groups in the city of Aleppo and its field, making kill large numbers of its elements and destroying their vehicles.

According to SANA correspondent a detachment of the army carried out an operation in Minneg, Al Alkamie, Merenaz, Handarat and around Al Kindi Hospital in the area of ​​Aleppo, where they were liquidated terrorist group components.

Similarly, an Army squads faced with terrorist groups on the road When Mselmiye and destroyed a mortar cannon near the Cement Factory.

An official source, an Army unit destroyed an armored vehicle in Khan Al Asal and eliminated a number of terrorists.

In the city of Aleppo, the source said that the units of our army unleashed a crackdown on centers for terrorists in Bab Al Hadid, Al Nakkarin, Al Moul, Karaj Shwehini, Makhzan Al Saad and Al Sqef, leaving many terrorists among dead and wounded.

And in al-Nakarin Army in Aleppo charred 10 vehicles, some of these equipped with machine guns, with terrorists aboard and loaded weapons and destroyed a 130 mm mortar in al-Zorba.

Destroyed an armored vehicle and a missile base in the field of Idleb

A unit of the armed forces destroyed an armored terrorists Kafer in northeastern Basim, belonging to Khan Shekhun in the field of Idleb and eliminated a number of terrorists.

 According to a military source, another Army unit destroyed a base for launching missiles used by the terrorist groups in their attacks on civilians and military forces in the town of Tal Aas Idleb in the field.

And in the neighborhood of al-Sheibeh in Yiser al-Shugur an army unit attacked a terrorist group, leaving 11 of its members killed and several others injured, according to a military source.

 Dozens of mercenaries died while trying to infiltrate Damascus

Idleb – Quality processes for our brave army of mercenaries hiding hit

Criminals “Syrian opposition” who murdered children and placed car bombs were eliminated by the heroic Syrian army

the video has been removed as violation of YOUTUBE’s policy on shocking and disgusting content… while it was not shocking  the lynching and sodomizing of Qadhafi my ass YOUTUBE is on the side of the US and does not us to see the winnings of Syria.

source: by Mirko Senda

 

 

 

The Islamic Emirate of Syriastan


The Islamic Emirate of Syriastan

By Pepe Escobar

PARIS – And now some breaking news coming from the Islamic Emirate of Syriastan. This program is brought to you by the NATOGCC corporation. Please also tune in for a word from our individual sponsors, the United States government, Britain, France, Turkey, the House of Saud and the Emir of Qatar.

It all started early this week, with a proclamation by the elusive leader of al-Qaeda Central, Ayman “The Doctor” al-Zawahiri, hidden somewhere in the Pakistani tribal areas; how come Double O Bama with his license to kill (list) and prime drone fleet cannot find him?

Al-Zawahiri called for all the Islamist brigades in the Jihad Inc business fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al- Assad to found an Islamic emirate, the passport du jour leading to an Islamic caliphate.

Two days later, the Islamic State of Iraq – for all practical purposes al-Qaeda in Iraq – announced, via a video starring its leader Abu Bakr al-Husseini al-Qurashi al-Baghdadi, a mergers and acquisition spectacular; from now on, it would be united with the Syrian jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra, and be referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

But then, the next day, the head of Jabhat al-Nusra, the shady Abu Muhammad al-Joulani, said that yes, we do pledge our allegiance to al-Qaeda Sheikh, Doctor al-Zawahiri; but there has been no M&A business whatsoever with al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Puzzled infidels from Washington to Beijing may be entitled to believe this is straight from Monty Python – but it’s actually deadly serious; especially as the House of Saud, the Emir of Qatar, the neo-Ottoman Erdogan in Turkey and King Playstation from Jordan – vastly supported by Washington – continue to weaponize the Syrian “rebels” to Kingdom Come. And one of the top beneficiaries of this weaponizing orgy has been – who else – the M&A gang now known as the Islamic State of the Iraq and Levant.

Let’s hit them with our option

Every grain of sand in the Syrian-Iraqi desert knows that the “rebels” who really matter in fighting terms in Syria are from Jabhat al-Nusra - hundreds of transnationals fond of beheading and suicide bombings.

They control, for instance, a few important suburbs of Aleppo. They’ve perpetrated scores of kidnappings, torture and summary executions. Crucially, they killed a lot of civilians. And they want to impose no-compromise, hardcore Sharia law. No wonder middle-class, educated Syrians fear them more than anything lethal the government might resort to.

Al-Baghdadi admitted the obvious: Syrian jihadis are an annex to Iraqi jihadis, from whom, crucially, they have been receiving on-the-ground battle experience. After all, it was these hardcore Iraqis who fought the Americans, especially from 2004 to 2007. The plum tomato in the kebab is that al-Nusra itself was founded by Sunni Syrians fighting alongside Sunni Iraqis in Iraq.

Then there’s what the House of Saud is up to. The Saudis are competing in a regional marathon against al-Qaeda to see who enrolls more Sunni fanatics to fight those apostate Iranians, both in Iraq and the northern Levant. The House of Saud loves any jihadi, local or transnational, as long as he does not raise hell inside Saudi Arabia.

The alphabet soup of US intel agencies should know all that by now; otherwise suspicion that they spent all this time watching Monty Python reruns will be proven correct. Reason seemed to have prevailed when a puzzled State Department, via Secretary John Kerry, reversed Hillary Clinton’s Artemis syndrome and last month called for the Assad regime and the “rebels” to negotiate – anything – although he also had the temerity to proclaim there are “moderates” among the jihadis.

But then, earlier this week in Jerusalem, just as the jihadi merger and acquisition was about to be announced in Syria/Iraq, Kerry insisted that for the Obama administration “no option is off the table” in terms of a US attack on – Iran.

Abandon all hope all you geopolitical dwellers in this valley of tears. The State Department does remain as puzzled as ever, as no rational adults seem to be able to distinguish between hardcore Sunni jihadis – of the 9/11 kind – and “axis of evil” Iranians.

The Europeans at least seem to be having second thoughts. The French announced this week they want to convince the European Union and the UN Security Council to brand Jabhat al-Nusra as a “terrorist organization”. Yet everybody runs for cover when the question of what happens to the weaponizing of the Syrian “rebels” arises; it’s obvious that Jabhat al-Nusra is having a ball with the status quo.

And still, next week, they will meet again – the main producers of this ghastly Z-movie, Regime Change Special Ops, plus some marginal players. It will be the US, the Brits and the French, Turkey, Germany, Italy, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. They will agree to keep the weaponizing going – and actually turbo-charge it.

So what is the CIA doing in all this mess? Well, hoping it gets messier, by supporting Baghdad-approved Shi’ite Iraqi militias to go after the jihadi superstars of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki even asked for CIA drones to bomb them to paradise. No luck – for now.

Baghdad has seen the writing on the wall – a direct consequence of the divide and rule, Sunni-against-Shi’ite games the Americans have been encouraging for 10 years now; the next stage is set for a civil war, Syria-style, in Iraq. Iraqi intelligence is seriously infiltrated by Islamic State of Iraq jihadis. There are no desert borders to speak of; Anbar province is watching what’s unfolding in Syria as a dress rehearsal for what will happen in Iraq.

It’s as if the brand new Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant cannot wait for Iraq to be back to that sinister, gruesome period between 2004 and 2008, when the body count could make Bruce Willis cringe. So what’s a Pentagon in retreat to do? Shock and awe them all over again? Oh, no; this option is not for Iraq or the Islamic Emirate of Syriastan; it’s only on the table for Iran.

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

source:www.atimes.com

 

The Arab Spring Reaches Israel


The Arab Spring Reaches Israel

By Shahab Jafry

The 40-year lull at Golan Heights is unraveling

So the Arab spring rebels finally reached the Syrian-Israeli “border” and the first stray Al Qaeda bullets begin rattling the nerves of those stationed across the Golan Heights – and across the Atlantic. It was natural that most of the 20,000 regular troops stationed at the Golan Heights were relocated as fighting intensified near Damascus. In fact, had Bashar’s inner core been a tad smarter, the withdrawal would have been sounded much earlier, making way for Jabhat al-Nusra – the local Al Qaeda affiliate – and impressing upon Israelis, and their American friends, the real danger of playing Afghanistan Part-3 in Syria, using the Saudi jihadi card to unseat leaders unpopular in Washington.

It is interesting that this development was followed by the announced merger between Iraqi and Syrian Al Qaeda outfits, and reports that Jabhat al-Nusra’s imposition of Shari’a law in parts of Aleppo and Racca has led to serious differences within the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), the face of the opposition that Americans and Turks wish to portray to the world. In reality, though, the FSA’s influence has waned considerably in comparison to Jabhat al-Nusra over the last year. And since theirs is an expansionist agenda, not confined to Syria’s borders, it is finally dawning on some players that Baath’s brutes weren’t nearly as bad as the petrodollar mullahs that Wahabi monarchies have funneled into the country in the wake of the Arab Spring.

The 40-year lull at the Golan Heights, achieved after painstaking deliberations between the Americans, Soviets, Israelis and Bashar’s father Hafez following the 1973 Yom Kippur war, has started to unravel. UNDOF, the United Nations observer force on the Golan Heights is disintegrating – some members have withdrawn their contingents, others are entertaining similar thoughts – and the Israeli military is fortifying the border.

“We’re seeing terror organisations gaining footholds increasingly in the territory,” Israeli military chief Lt Gen Benny Gantz said last week, the first admission that Tel Aviv’s concerns are shifting. Till now it was happy helping tighten the noose around Damascus, but a fresh fear is now emerging. “For now they are fighting Assad. Guess what? We are next in line,” Gen Gantz added.

Yet there seems little appreciation of these dangers where it matters. John Kerry’s whirlwind tours to the region invariably reinforce the Saudi-Qatari-Turkish position of strengthening the rebels, providing them with training, arms, and Syria’s seat at the Arab League. Sure, there’s the occasional chatter about ensuring arms smuggled into Syria don’t fall into the Jabhat’s hands, yet there is never any mention of who might be arming these radicals so successfully, or what mechanism could possibly ensure supplies don’t end in their warehouses.

With the collective diplomatic and military weight of the US, EU, GCC, Turkey and Israel bearing down so heavily on Damascus, it is only a matter of time before the capital is exhausted. The most likely outcome is a partitioning of Syria, with the now ruling Alawis retreating to the Mediterranean coast-land around Latakia, Bashar’s hometown, and rebels continuing the fight for Damascus.

Syria is a rare prize for the Salafi core of Al Qaeda, raised on long years of indoctrination focused on nurturing hatred against two prime groups, the “yahood” infesting the holy land, and the Shia concentrated in Iran and Iraq. By taking Syria, they come within striking distance of both. It will be interesting to see if differences begin to emerge between official FSA sponsors, especially as infighting intensifies on ground. There are already numerous accounts of rebel commanders’ unhappiness with the Jabhat’s designs for Syria. Al Qaeda is not fighting the dictatorship to establish a people’s government, a secular democracy or a functioning market economy. They want their own obscure caliphate back, and will die trying.

Bashar called Turkey’s PM Erdogan “foolish and immature” for continuing arming and sheltering the FSA, warning of years if not decades of war should Syria really break. But while Ankara’s position is still the same, could it be that the Israelis are finally beginning to see the truth in the assertions of a long-time enemy, whose fall has been their core objective for decades? Soon Tel Aviv’s most fearsome nemesis will change from Hezbollah and its Iranian backers to Al Qaeda proper, whose uprisings will almost definitely envelop the region far beyond Syria. It is already pretty much underway in Iraq.

Things will still get much worse, and more confusing, before they get any better in the Syrian civil war, which has already taken close to 100,000 lives. Going by the trend, with Al Nusra gaining ground and influence, the Israeli border will come under frequent rocket and mortar attack, forcing Tel Aviv to strike at rebel advances it has so far backed. And once CIA drones begin targeting bloating Jabhat encampments, much to the dislike of regional power blocs that have invested so much in the war, some loyalties are bound to shift.


The writer is Middle East correspondent, Pakistan Today, and can be reached at jafry.shahab@gmail.com