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 

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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.”

 

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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

 

UN Investigator ‘Stupefied by Syrian Opposition Sarin Use’


UN Investigator ‘Stupefied by Syrian Opposition Sarin Use’

Video

A leading United Nations investigator says she is ‘stupefied’ by the testimony from victims of the Syrian conflict that rebels have used nerve agent sarin.

Carla del Ponte said over the weekend that there are “strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof” that it’s the rebels, not President Bashar Assad‘s forces, who have used chemical weapons.

President Obama has said the Assad regime would be crossing “a red line” if it used such weapons against its own people. But that though there is evidence that such weapons have been deployed, it still isn’t known for sure “how they were used, when they were used [or] who used them.”

Posted May 06, 2013

US: ‘No information’ Syria rebels used chemical arms: The United States said Monday it was “highly skeptical” of an assertion that Syrian rebels had used chemical weapons, after a UN human rights investigator suggested the opposition had deployed sarin gas. (*** of course they are highly skeptical it ruins their plans, for an invasion when proven that the rebels have used the gasses against the people it’s a case proven of the criminality of the West with the terrorists… I would like to see how they will get out of this one).

source:informationclearinghouse.info

United Nations lifted hazard ratio and America is considered the events in Libya, “a violation of democracy”


United Nations lifted hazard ratio and America is considered the events in Libya, “a violation of democracy

The United Nations Mission lifted degrees of risk to five percent, for members of the mission staff in Tripoli. Considered a spokeswoman for the UN Mission Radhia Achouri that this “routine and normal procedure” in the state in conflict and lack of security.

She said on Wednesday that the action “aimed at staff in the performance of their functions accordingly are not circulated, because the United Nations is responsible for the security and safety of its employees.”

For his part, spokesman for the U.S. Department of State Patrick Ventral, that the siege imposed on the headquarters of the Libyan Foreign Ministry is “a violation of the principles of democracy,” and urged the protesters to resort to peaceful means in cooperation Beran positions.

He sees a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs to the National Conference Fawzi punishment that out of Libya this face, especially as they are on the verge of establishing a state and election of the committee preparing the constitution, making the international powers worried about the future of the country.

The United Nations Mission issued a statement on Tuesday, which stressed the need to provide the right climate for state institutions to be able to perform its functions, and the adoption of dialogue to solve problems.

source: The Gaddafi International News Agency – Tripoli

 

“war through deception” Israel orchestrating world war


“war through deception” Israel orchestrating world war

DEBKA openly admits plans to move Israeli troops into Syria and Iraq, to “con” Turkey, Jordan and the Arab and Gulf States into a war intended to, not just destroy Iran and Pakistan but China and Russia as well, pitting them against NATO in the fatal Armageddon they and their followers believe will ensure Satan’s dominion over man. 

Do people really think like that?

Yes, they actually do, the Zionists, the Neocons, and the Dominionists, a vast worldwide network of financial criminals, corrupt politicians and power-mad tyrants. In America, those now seeking to stage a military coup in the United States, submit to full Israeli control and lead the world into a new “dark age.”

Conspiracy theory? Of course, very much so, but not just a theory but plans long whispered now made clear, plans impossible to misconstrue.

Plans in motion

The plans are clear, an invasion of Syria, splitting the Kurdish region of Iraq off, into an Israeli controlled military bastion for an invasion of Iran. What isn’t being said, however, is that, in order to push the United States back to war after a decade of military and economic disasters, assassinations, false flag terror and a campaign of counterfeit WMD intelligence is planned.

The proposed moves, as outlined below and confirmed through DEBKA, would require the United States to return to “Bush era unilateralism,” moves unlikely if President Obama, Secretaries Kerry and Hagel and JCOS Chief, General Martin Dempsey were still alive, despite wild conspiratorial claims quoted below.

Softening up the Goyim

The American president is a likely assassination target. A new 9/11 style terror attack is a necessity, the groundwork already laid at Sandyhook and the Boston Marathon.

The preparations are already underway, with political and military division in the US being contrived, “sequestration,” threats of gun seizure and a planned economic crash, another “pump and dump.”

The terrorism is underway as seen in Boston, hoax articles outlining an imaginary 20,000 man US force to move into Syria as a “buffer” have been placed in American newspapers.

World conquest and planetary annihilation

In the Middle East, Israel is coordinating with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States along with Turkey, the Mossad supported Communist PKK terrorists in Turkey, key leaders in the Kurdish Regional Government of Iraq, Al Qaeda led rebels and Druze militias inside Syria.

Syria and Iraq will be dismembered. Jordan has already fallen to Israel and their Al Qaeda allies, now Israel’s base of operations against not just Syria but Iraq as well.

From there, the move will be Iran, then Afghanistan and the Caspian Basin.

If China and Russia fail to recognize the threat in time and “go nuclear” to block this move against Asia, the planned attack on Pakistan, scheduled for a 2015-2017 time frame will bring about a world war.

Beginning with deception and cover

More stories have been planted, more hoaxes, describing an agreement allowing Israel to build an air base in Turkey to attack Iran. Turkey has failed to issue denials though such an act would label them a rogue state. They are playing a very dangerous game and can well expect the betrayal any “friend” of Israel suffers.
Turkey is fully “onboard,” cutting a deal with the Kurdish PKK, a first step toward joining Israel in a conquest of Northern Iraq. Israel has also promised Turkey an “occupation zone” comprising nearly a third of Syria.

Azerbaijan has long been steeped in Israeli/Turkish plots. They have been promised Iran’s Caspian oil reserves.

They actually put it in writing

Key to this is getting the United States to follow the plans DEBKA clearly outlines for them.

Issue 585, dated April 26, 2013 has laid out their startling plans beginning with a broad move into Syria. Israel has no plans to use its own troops, of course. Since their defeat in Lebanon in 2006, the IDF has been shown as capable of mass punishment and reprisals against unarmed civilians inside Israel and the occupied zones.

DEBKA’s “fairytale” is carefully coordinated with terror cells and death squads in the US, all working under the broad cover of America’s Israeli controlled press:

“On Friday, April 26, a few hours after this issue reaches DEBKA-Net-Weekly subscribers, Jordan’s King Abdullah II will be sitting down at the White House with President Barack Obama. When they finish talking, they will shake hands on the exact date in the coming days for the consignment of 20,000 American troops to the Hashemite Kingdom.

Obama has ordered the biggest overt surge of US troops in six years in any Middle East country.

This air base will be home to the incoming American troops. US engineering corps units have been working 24/7 to expand the base, adapt it to its new functions and construct accommodation for the GIs.

Most of the contingents will be airlifted to their new base from US and Europe through Israeli air space, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s exclusive military sources.

Israeli Air Force jets will escort the transports over the eastern Mediterranean until they touch down in Jordan and keep an air umbrella in place over the American force for the duration of its stay.

The heavy equipment – tanks, missiles, self-propelled artillery, armored vehicles and Patriot missile intercept batteries – will be transported by sea to two destinations: Jordan’s Red Sea port of Aqaba and the Israeli port of Haifa.

These arrangements were tied up by Defense Secretary Hagel in his talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.

In those conversations, our sources disclose, Israeli leaders offered every assistance, including air and intelligence resources, needed for preserving the Hashemite throne in Jordan, including support for the incoming US force. Netanyahu gave his pledge to King Abdullah on the four occasions that they met in Amman.”

The plans, quoted directly from the highest Israeli and Jordanian sources, could never be realized without an America crippled by powerful terrorist organizations like AIPAC, long above any law.

Current American doctrine prohibits any military action without, not only a UN Security Council resolution but a new National Intelligence Estimate. Previous “NIE’s” had found no evidence of nuclear programs in Iran. Similarly, current Israeli claims of WMD use by Syria were rejected by Washington this week.

Israel’s plans are clear. What is also clear is that many Americans will die to get Israel the war they want, the war that Zionism needs to survive.

What is also clear is that, in order to get that war, more Americans will die and that many have died already.

source:theyellowbrickroadfreeblog.wordpress.com

 

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

 

Israel injecting dangerous viruses into Palestinian prisoners


Israel injecting dangerous viruses into Palestinian prisoners

menorah

A Palestinian released from Israeli jails, Rania Saqa, has brought to light that the Israeli regime injected detainees that are out of prisons with dangerous viruses.

Noting that Palestinian prisoners suffer from serious and chronic diseases such as bladder cancer and liver disorders, Rania has revealed that the Tel Aviv regime injects prisoners with dangerous viruses before releasing them.

Israel injecting dangerous viruses into Palestinian prisoners. 49882.jpeg

The released prisoner  has asked the many institutions and the international community to examine them carefully.

Most former inmates die after being released from Israeli jails.

Saqa Rania criticized the neglect of the Palestinian state to the situation in which the prisoners and their families find themselves and added that “the prisoners are subjected to the most cruel tortures.”

A suspiciously large number of Palestinian prisoners are suffering from incurable diseases or permanent disabilities as a result of the critical situation in prisons that they suffer at the hands of Israeli regime.

Recently, the International Solidarity for Human Rights Institute warned that the Israeli regime uses and abuses Palestinian prisoners to test their new drugs, and this contradicts international medical and moral principles.

Currently, about 5,000 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, are crowded in the jails of the regime in Tel Aviv. Most have not been tried and some have no formal charge against them, a strategy that the Israeli regime called “administrative detention.”

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, voicing deep concern over what he called the “rapidly deteriorating condition” of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody who are on hunger strike, urged a solution to the matter be reached without delay.

“International human rights obligations towards all Palestinian detainees and prisoners under Israeli custody must be fully respected,” Mr. Ban’s spokesperson said in a statement that also underlined the importance of full adherence by all sides to previous agreement on the issue, including the implementation of prisoners’ family visitation rights.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights came in into force 23 March 1976. Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that any person deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and dignity.  The article imposes a requirement of separation of prisoners in pre-trial detention from those already convicted of crimes, as well as a specific obligation to separate accused juvenile prisoners from adults and bring them before trial speedily.

There is also a requirement that the focus of prisons should be reform and rehabilitation, not punishment. These provisions apply to those in prisons, hospitals (particularly psychiatric hospitals), detention facilities, correction facilities or any other facility in which a person is deprived of their liberty. The article compliments article 7 of the Covenant, which bans torture or other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, by guaranteeing those deprived of the their liberty with the same conditions as that set for free persons.

Translated from the Spanish version by:

Lisa Karpova
Pravda.Ru

 

What happened to the missing children of Libya?


What happened to the missing children of Libya?

Approximately 105 children from a Libyan government home for orphans and abused children located in Misrata have been missing since February 2011. Groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reported that rebel forces entering Misrata abducted the children.

However the events remain a mystery. The Gaddafi government claimed that the children were taken hostage by a group of rebels. Reports based on testimonies state that the children were seen for the last time while being taken into a Turkish, Italian or French ship, and one witness claims that some of the children were sold in Turkey.

bac3

The National Transitional Council denied the allegations on children trafficking and accused the Gaddafi Government of using them as human shields in the Bab al Azizya complex in the center of Tripoli. No human rights organization or journalists who have investigated this claim have seen any indication of the presence of children in Bab al Azizya. NATO, UNICEF, Save the Children or the office of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have not been able to provide information about missing children.

Title: Where Have Libya’s Children Gone?

Author: Franklin Lamb

Publication: Counterpunch

 

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

 

UN report reveals Libya as hub for arms deliveries to insurgents in Syria and Mali, fails to identify state sponsors of terrorism and elicits systemic flaws of UN System


UN report reveals Libya as hub for arms deliveries to insurgents in Syria and Mali, fails to identify state sponsors of terrorism and elicits systemic flaws of UN System

by: Christof Lehmann (nsnbc),-

A report, issued by the United Nations Security Council´s group of experts who monitor an arms embargo imposed on Libya in 2011 stresses, that arms shipments which have been organized from various locations in Libya, including Misurata and Benghazi  were transferred to Syria via Turkey and northern Lebanon. The report also confirms that Libya has developed into a hub for illegal arms deliveries to insurgents in Mali and beyond. The report is stopping short of identifying those state actors, who overtly and covertly finance and arm insurgents, including internationally outlawed terrorist organizations, and state actors use of these organizations as mercenaries in unconventional warfare. The report fails to call for an investigation into the arms trade and state sponsored terrorism and reveals deep systemic problems with the UN System as a whole.

The arms shipments, so the report, contain substantial amounts of light and medium caliber weapons, artillery, as well as large quantities of shoulder fired surface to air missiles. Libya, so the report, has become a key source of weapons in the region. The report also stated, that the significant size of some of the shipments and the logistics involved suggest, that representatives of Libyan local authorities might at least have been aware of these shipments, if they were not directly involved.

According to the report, the spreading of weapons from Libya is happening at an alarming rate and fueling the war in Syria, Mali and other countries, thus enhancing the arsenals of extremists and criminal gangs throughout the region. “Illicit flows from Libya are fueling the existing conflicts in Africa and the Levant and enhancing the arsenals of a large number of non-state groups, including terrorist groups”, the report stated.

The report however, stopped short at identifying state actors who are involved in the proliferation of the weapons through Libya as well as beyond. Likewise, the report stopped short of placing responsibility for severe violations of international law by state actors or of calls for investigations into, and the prosecution of the crimes committed by state actors who sponsor terrorism and the illegal trafficking of weapons and funds to terrorist organizations.

Overt and Covert State Sponsoring of Terrorism. 

Foreign fighters in Iraq - by nationality

US Administration Aware of Cooperation with Al Qaeda in Libya. Already at the onset of the “Arab Spring” in Libya in 2011, it transpired that the US Administration was aware of, that the USA would be supporting and cooperating with al-Qaeda. Statements by the former Libyan head of state, the late Muammar Gadhafi, that the“protesters” , which the US and several NATO and GCC member states were supporting were “Al-Qaeda”, The statement by Muammar Gadhafi, which was widely published in a BBC interview, were brushed off as rhetoric and propaganda by the Libyan “regime“.

An anti-terrorism study conducted by the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy at West Point from 2007,  ”Al – Qai´da´s Foreign Fighters in Iraq however, showed that Libya has not only been the largest per capita contributor of Al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq. The report also documented that the overwhelming majority of the Libyan fighters came from the cities Derna and  Benghazi where the armed insurgency in Libya began in 2011. (1

Libyan fighters per hometown

If the US Administration was not aware of the fact that the armed Libyan uprising was predominantly being organized via the predominantly Derna and Benghazi based Libyan Al-Qaeda franchise, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) before, experts overwhelmingly agree, that the US Administration latest must have become aware of the fact, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dispatched a CIA team to investigate who the “Rebels and the Transitional National Council were.

By failing to identify the state sponsors of the terrorist organizations and the flow of arms, the UN report is also omitting, that the commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Groups, Belhadj, according to the former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, was the main responsible person behind the 2004 Madrid train bombings which killed 191 people and caused the Spanish Parliament to vote for a prolongation of Spanish troops deployment to Afghanistan. After the ousting of the Libyan government in 2011, the Libyan Al-Qaeda leader became the military governor of the Libyan capital  Tripoli, and his organization was partially transformed into the “Tripoli Military Council”. The LIFG / Tripoli Military Council has since been playing a central role in two failed major military campaigns in Syria, with the participation of at least 20,000 fighters under the command of Belhadj.

John_Kerry_official_Secretary_of_State_portrait

While it was already unofficially known in 2011, that the USA, NATO, Saudi-Arabia, Qatar and Turkey were covertly financing, arming and training the “Free Syrian Army” as well as foreign terrorist groups in their fight to subvert Syria, the state sponsorship of terrorism has since developed into overt, confirmed and systematic violations of international law, that is, an overt, illegal and undeclared war by means of mercenaries and terrorist organizations.

While the report warns of the proliferation of weapons, it fails for example to recognize the statement by US Secretary of State John Kerry, from February 2013, which was an open admission of the fact that the USA has chosen to ignore international law, and to overtly finance, arm, and otherwise support known terrorist organizations. After a meeting of the Friends of Syria group in Rome, the US Secretary of State declared, that the USA would increase its aid to both the political and the armed Syrian “opposition” with USD 6 million. (2

Libya only part of an illegal state-sponsor-network with multiple hubs. While the report of the UN Security Council´s expert team correctly identifies that Libya is a hub for the illegal trafficking of arms, it fails to identify Libya as being merely one such hub in a well-organized arms trafficking network of an alliance of state parties, which is centered around the USA and other major NATO member states, as well as the same constellation of Gulf Arab nations who took part in the subversion of Libya.

victory-signs-sam-7-rebel_n

In September 2012, the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA published an article, based on an investigation of the British journalist Sheera Frenkel, who had discovered the, at that time, largest known shipment of weapons from Libya to Turkey.

According to Frenkel, a member of the Free Syrian Army stated, that the shipment contained over 400 ton of weapons from Libya, including SAM-7 surface to air missiles and rocket propelled grenades. According to the the British journalist, the Libyan ship, the Intisaar (victory), was berthed at the Turkish port of Iskenderun and its captain had been given papers by the port authority and Omar Mouaseeb. Omar Mouaseeb is a Libyan from Benghazi and the head of an organization called the Libyan Council for Relief and Support, which is delivering supplies to armed groups in Syria. (3

Even though names of organizations and persons like the Libyan Council for Relief and Support and Omar Mouaseeb are publicly known, the report did not deliver detailed information about them or about other known organizations background and ties to governments. Neither did the report recommend a thorough investigation to which governments precisely, were responsible for liaison and cooperation with an organization that delivered SAM-7 surface to air missiles to known terrorist organizations. Each of the SAM-7 surface to air missiles can be used for bringing down a civilian airliner. The international threat to air safety, in the light of state parties involvement in the proliferation of these weapons was not addressed in the report.

Not long after the statement of US Secretary of State John Kerry, a report which had been produced by plane spotters, detailed that the delivery of weapons to Syria also had been organized by air lift operations. While Libya is not part of this specific report, it involves the same state sponsors of arms to terrorist organization in Syria, who also have been involved in delivering weapons to Libyan terrorist organizations, and who are still using Libya as a hub for weapons deliveries to Mali and beyond. (4

Without Libya as a base of operations, it would most likely have been impossible for France, that is, NATO, to organize the arming and the procurement of Al-Qaeda troops in northern Mali, which have been used for manufacturing the crisis which created the pretext for a French / NATO intervention and a re-occupation of the country.

Ivo Daalder

The failure of the UNSC expert team to address the international dimensions of the 2011 arms embargo on Libya in the lights of the current situation, and the implicit omission of the fact that the proliferation of weapons through Libya is part of a problem that has its root in a network of states who are systematically sponsoring terrorism, and finally the fact, that NATO itself has proclaimed that it would be using terrorist organizations in future“interventions”, elicits, that the Security Council and the UN System is undergoing a deep systemic crisis.

An objective reassessment of the 2011 arms embargo on Libya for the UN Security Council, would at the very least have contained a reference to NATO´s description of Libya as “teachable moment and model for future interventions”, as it expressed by the U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO, Ivo H. Daalder, and the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and Commander of the U.S. European Command, James G. Stavridis.  The statement was initially published in an article in “Foreign Affairs”. It has since been repeated at NATO´s 25th Summit in Chicago in 2012, when NATO adopted “Libya Style Interventions” as part of NATO´s modern military doctrine. (5 There would have been sufficient available evidence for the UNSC experts to document, that NATO member states and allied nations systematically and consequently emulate the Libyan model in unconventional warfare in Syria, Mali, the Central African Republic, and that the trend is likely to continue unless will be appropriately addressed at the United Nations.

Evidence for the direct distribution of weapons from Libya and other countries of origin, by NATO military personnel. One of the most serious omissions of the UN Security Council´s experts report pertaining the 2011 arms embargo on Libya is the omission of the fact, that there are countless reports which document the direct involvement of NATO military personnel, in the distribution of weapons to members of known, internationally outlawed terrorist organizations.

In September 2012 the Workers´Party – Turkey, filed a lawsuit against the Turkish government of Prime Minister R. Tayyip Erdogan. In statements to the press and an article on the party´s website, the Deputy President of the Workers´Party – Turkey, Bayram Yurtçiçek stated that the “Apaydın Camp” in Hatay is a camp, established to conduct and administrate terrorist and destructive activities against Syria.

He went on to note that this fact, published in Turkish and foreign media, has been proven via several interviewsYurtçiçek said that the commanders of the terrorist group which organizes the terror activities in Syria and calls itself the ‘Free Syrian Army’ acknowledged that they are based in the ‘Apaydın Camp’ and that they are attacking Syria from this camp. Yurtçiçek filed a complaint about this camp -established illegally according to the national legislation- and about those who were responsible of the establishing of the camp. (6 The camp is on the territory of a NATO country.

In August 2012 the Iranian FARS news agency reported about the arrest of a Turkish General in the Syrian city of Aleppo. (7 In June 2012 a senior member of the British Ministry of Defense publicly stated, that both Turkish, British and other nations special forces were operating in Syria, providing non-lethal military aid.(8

On 20 August 2012 a journalist from the Lebanese TV Channel al-Jadeed witnessed and documented Turkish military officers distributing weapons to terrorist organizations in Syria. The Turkish NATO officers were on Syrian territory while distributing the weapons. (9 - 9a

Belhadj Tripoli 20111004

During the spring of 2012 Turkish Intelligence opened a recruitment and intelligence office in Amman, Jordan. Subsequently more than 20,000 Libyan mercenaries under the command of Abdelhakim Belhadj were deployed to the region around the Jordanian town of al-Mafraq. The mercenaries took part in the two failed campaigns to conquer the Syrian city of Aleppo in June and July 2012. Shortly before the deployment of the Libyan mercenaries, under the command of a known Al-Qaeda terrorist, the USA had re-deployed US troops from Iraq to Jordanian air bases as well as to Al-Mafraq.

The UN Security Council´s experts who wrote the report pertaining the arms embargo on Libya could have found countless other examples for the fact that Libya is one hub in a network of hubs, maintained by NATO and GCC member states, and not to forget, with the participation of Israel. Israeli weapons were among other delivered to Syria via the leader of the Lebanese Druze community Walid Jumblatt. Another admission of direct Israeli control over parts of the arms deliveries is the fact that Israel is involved in making decisions about which arms can be delivered to the insurgents, and which weapons it would consider a threat to its own security.

Deep Systemic Crisis of the UN Security Council and UN System as a whole is not surprising and warrants urgent and comprehensive reform. The failure of the report to, at the very least, refer to the proliferation of weapons via Libya to terrorist organizations as one part of a larger problem, and the failure to recommend a thorough investigation of this wider context, is representative for the deep systemic crisis of the UN Security Council and the UN System as a whole.

UN DONE!!!

One obvious example for “what” is wrong with the UN Security Council is the fact, that one of its permanent members, the USA, is publishing a training circular for special forces and “foreign students”, in which it step by step details how to subvert a stable country to bring about regime change. In the introduction of the training circular, the TC 18-01, which was published in 2010, one can read, that the USA, for the foreseeable future, will predominantly be involved in unconventional warfare. (10 This overt admission of the fact, that the USA has made the subversion of sovereign nations a predominant part of its military strategy is, as long as it remains unaddressed and unchallenged by the United Nations, direct evidence for the fact that the UN fails to protect the sovereignty of its member states. It is also direct evidence for the fact that superpowers can overtly admit to the most serious crimes as “strategy” while there is no mechanism to oppose the despotic arrogance.

Another demonstration for the deep systemic crisis of the United Nations Security Council and the UN System as a whole is the US veto against a Russian sponsored resolution to condemn terrorism in all of its form, regardless of when and where it is committed or by whom it is carried out.

The resolution was drafted and sponsored by Russia, after the detonation of a car bomb in the Syrian capital, not far from the headquarter of the Arab Socialist Baath Party of Syria and the Embassy of the Russian Federation killed scores of unarmed civilians. The US against the condemnation of the attack and terrorism in all of its forms, prompted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to voice the Russian governments frustration over the fact, that the UNSC standards, according to which all nations, without exclusion, would condemn terrorism, regardless of the perpetrator, place or motives, was no longer upheld.

Lavrov stated, “Russia sees in the American position the use of double standards and a dangerous approach in terms of the Americans moving away from the main principle of condemning terrorism in all its forms”.(11

The report of the expert team of the UN Security Council, as an assessment of the 2011 arms embargo on Libya, is at its best one more example for double standards and a dangerous removal from the principle to condemn terrorism in all of its forms. Terrorism has become the official military doctrine of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Unless this situation will be successfully challenged, adjusted and adjudicated, it is most likely that the UN will be disintegrating within a decade.

Notes:

1) Al – Qai´da´s Foreign Fighters in Iraq, A first look at the Sinjar records. Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Published online by Tarpley.Net at http://tarpley.net/docs/CTCForeignFighter.19.Dec07.pdf

2) Kerry after Friends of Syria Meeting clarifies, US determined to initiate World War III in Syria, Christof Lehmann, 2013, published on nsnbc international at: http://nsnbc.me/2013/03/01/kerry-after-friends-of-syria-meeting-clarifies-us-determined-to-initiate-world-war-iii-in-syria/

3) Largest Shipload of Libyan Weapons Heading to Armed Groups in Syria. SANA, September 2012, published online at nsnbc international at:  http://nsnbc.me/2012/09/15/largest-shipload-of-libyan-weapons-heading-to-armed-groups-in-syria/

4) CONFIRMED: US Shipping Weapons to Syria – Al Nusra’s “Mystery” Sponsors Revealed, Tony Cartalucci, 2013, LandDestroyer, published online at nsnbc international at: http://nsnbc.me/2013/03/27/confirmed-us-shipping-weapons-to-syria-al-nusras-mystery-sponsors-revealed/

5) NATO`s 25th Summit in Chicago in Preparation of Global Full Spectrum Dominance, Christof Lehmann, 2012, published online at nsnbc international at: http://nsnbc.me/2012/05/20/natos-25th-summit-in-chicago-in-preparation-of-global-full-spectrum-dominance-interventionism-possible-preparations-for-a-regional-war-directed-against-russia-and-china-and-developments-in-global/

6) WORKERS’ PARTY (TURKEY) FILED A CRIMINAL COMPLAINT ABOUT THE TERROR CAMPS IN HATAY! Workers´Party Turkey, 2012, published on nsnbc international, online at: http://nsnbc.me/2012/09/14/workers-party-turkey-filed-a-criminal-complaint-about-the-terror-camps-in-hatay/

7) Turkish General Arrested in Aleppo, Syria; Turkey Denies, Iran Calls for Consequences. Christof Lehmann, 2012, published on nsnbc international, online at: http://nsnbc.me/2012/08/06/turkish-general-arrested-in-aleppo-syria-turkey-denies-iran-calls-for-consequences/

8) NATO Special Forces in Syria now Official. Christof Lehmann, 2012, nsnbc international, published online at: http://nsnbc.me/2012/06/04/nato-special-forces-in-syria-now-official/

9) Al-Jadeed TV video published on Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kjQJeWkZ_3Q#!

9 a) Turkey´s Decision to allow Cross-Border Military Operations violates Constitution, International Law, and endangers National Integrity. Christof Lehmann, 2012, nsnbc international, published online at: http://nsnbc.me/2012/10/07/turkey%C2%B4s-decision-to-allow-cross-border-military-operations-violates-constitution-international-law-and-endangers-national-integrity/

10) Special Forces Unconventional Warfare, TC 18-01. US Army, 2010, published on nsnbc international at: http://nsnbc.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/special-forces-uw-tc-18-01.pdf

11) Permafrost; Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Blasts USA and Allies for Arming Syria´s Opposition. Christof Lehmann, 2013, nsnbc international, published online at: http://nsnbc.me/2013/03/14/permafrost-russian-foreign-minister-lavrov-blasts-usa-and-allies-for-arming-syrian-opposition/