"Obama now confronts the most urgent foreign policy issue of his second term, one in which he must weigh humanitarian impulses against the risk to American lives.... the United States and its allies may not wait for an international green light to become more actively engaged. There are several options for escalation of US involvement, from arming the rebels to targeted airstrikes and imposing no-fly zones.... The Obama team could help to put Assad on the defensive by arming selected rebel groups and directing US air power to strike at Assad’s key military bases, drive Assad from power, and deal with the inevitable mess that will be left in his wake."
It's IRAQ ALL OVER AGAIN!!!
"White House convenes talks on arming Syria’s rebels; Crisis deepens as Hezbollah forces aid regime’s push" by Bradley Klapper | Associated Press, June 11, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Monday discussed whether the Assad regime’s rapid military advance across the heart of Syria necessitates a drastic US response, with officials saying a decision on arming beleaguered rebels could happen later this week.
Top aides from the State and Defense Departments, the CIA, and other agencies gathered for a ‘‘deputies meeting’’ at the White House. They were seeking to lay the groundwork for a meeting that President Obama will hold with his senior national security staff, planned for Wednesday, said US officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the closed-doors talks.
Who leaked this?!
In addition to discussing arms for the rebels, the president and his advisers will consider the merits of a less likely move to send in US airpower to enforce a no-fly zone over the civil war-wracked nation, officials said.
The White House meetings are taking place as President Bashar Assad’s government forces are apparently poised for an attack on the key city of Homs, which could cut off Syria’s armed opposition from the south of the country.
As many as 5,000 Hezbollah fighters are now in Syria, officials believe, helping the regime press on with its campaign after capturing the town of Qusair near the Lebanese border last week.
Syrian rebels battled Monday in a renewed push to capture a government air base in the north, while the regime was said to be preparing for a major offensive to retake opposition-held areas in the province of Aleppo.
Rebels captured a building inside the large base in Mannagh, near Turkey. The opposition’s Aleppo media center said rebels destroyed several army vehicles and captured the observation tower at the base, which has been under siege for months.
Aleppo-based activist Mohammed al-Khatib said military reinforcements, including Hezbollah fighters, have been sent to parts of Aleppo, including the two Shi’ite villages and northwestern parts of the city. He said the government was using helicopters to reinforce its positions and resupply in those areas.
Opposition leaders have warned Washington that their rebellion could face devastating and irreversible losses without greater support.
Secretary of State John Kerry postponed a planned trip Monday to the Mideast to participate in White House discussions, officials said. He may travel to the region later in the week. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday internal administration discussions were focused on ‘‘helping the Syrian opposition serve the essential needs of the Syrian people and hasten a political transition.’’
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama’s Syria policy was under constant review to find ‘‘what policy tools will help achieve our goal, which is a transition in Syria to a post-Assad government that respects the rights of the Syrian people and that gives that country a chance for a better future, a democratic future, and an economically prosperous future.’’
That's what they said about Iraq.
While nothing has been concretely decided, US officials said, Obama was leaning closer toward signing off on sending weapons to vetted, moderate rebel units.
Pffft!
The United States has spoken of possibly arming the opposition in recent months but has hesitated because it doesn’t want groups that are linked to Al Qaeda and other extremists fighting alongside the anti-Assad militias to end up with the weapons.
Related: "US intelligence agents have helped funnel arms to rebel groups."
Hey, what's one more lie in a paper full of them?
Obama already has ruled out any intervention that would require US troops on the ground. Other options such as deploying American air power to ground the regime’s jets, gunships, and other aerial assets are being more seriously debated, officials said, but they cautioned that a no-fly zone or any other action involving US military deployments in Syria were far less likely right now.
So we are told by this lying government and its mouthpiece.
The United States can provide weapons without sending soldiers into Syria, either by sending materiel to rebels in neighboring Turkey and Jordan or working with regional allies.
Yeah, moving weapons in through Turkey and Jordan is no big problem.
The president has declared chemical weapons use by the Assad regime a ‘‘red line’’ for more forceful US action. American allies including France and Britain have said they’ve determined with near certitude that Syrian forces have used low levels of sarin in several attacks, but the administration is still studying the evidence.
UN says no, but we will get to that below!
The US officials said this week’s meetings concern the deteriorating situation on the ground in Syria, independent of final confirmation of possible chemical weapons use.
US lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, are clamoring for greater action. In a letter to Obama on Monday, Bob Corker of Tennessee, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the president to start providing lethal aid as soon as possible to ‘‘shift momentum away from radical Islamist groups, the Assad regime, and its militias toward more moderate elements.’’
But Representative Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the United States should not get drawn into the conflict. ‘‘We have a poor track record of intervening in sectarian civil wars,’’ he said. ‘‘We need to be mindful of limitations in our ability to shape the outcome and very resistant to being pulled in in a way that we cannot later extricate ourselves very easily.’’
Any intervention could have wide-reaching ramifications for the United States and the region. It would bring the United States closer to a conflict that has killed almost 80,000 people since Assad cracked down on protesters inspired by the Arab Spring in March 2011 and sparked a war that has been increasingly defined by interethnic clashes between the Sunni-led rebellion and Assad’s Alawite-dominated regime.
That's the Zionist narrative.
And it would essentially pit the United States alongside regional allies in a proxy war against Iran, which is providing much of the materiel to the Syrian government’s counterinsurgency and, through Hezbollah, more of the manpower.
It already is that!
--more--"
Related:
"The push by Assad’s forces has raised alarms in Washington and added a sense of urgency to calls for the international community to arm the rebels. US officials said President Obama and his senior national security staff plan to meet Wednesday to weigh options for providing assistance to the rebel fighters, and a decision could happen later this week."
That's what happens when you believe your own lies.
"US to give Syrian rebels military aid; Finds regime used chemical arms" by Karen DeYoung and Anne Gearan | Washington Post, June 14, 2013
WASHINGTON — The United States has concluded that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in its fight against opposition forces, and President Obama has authorized direct US military support to the rebels, the White House said Thursday.
Oh, that is what they concluded, huh?
‘‘The president has said that the use of chemical weapons would change his calculus, and it has,’’ said Benjamin J. Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser.
Who is Ben Rhodes because this is the first I've heard of him.
Rhodes said US intelligence had determined with ‘‘high certainty’’ that Syrian government forces have ‘‘used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year.’’
Related: Syria, rebels accuse each other of chemical attacks
"Assad’s military is known to have large stockpiles of chemical arms; however, Obama does not have all the facts."
"A senior US official said Thursday that the United States now has strong indications that no chemical weapons were used in the attack."
"At the UN, Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general, appointed Ake Sellstrom, a Swedish scientist, to investigate allegations that chemical weapons were used last week. Sellstrom has previous experience in the region, having been the chief inspector of the UN team that worked to find and dismantle Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons programs in the 1990s. He returned to Iraq in 2002 to work with UNMOVIC, the UN team that found no solid evidence that Saddam Hussein had resurrected the program to build banned arms before the March 2003 invasion."
They found no evidence at all! I really am sick of the shit word games, too!
"In the northern city of Aleppo, a government air raid on the disputed Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood killed at least four people and wounded more than a dozen others, the Observatory said. It added that doctors treating the wounded said many showed symptoms of inhaling toxic gas, such as severe vomiting and irritation to the nose and eyes."
"None of the assertions — by Israel, Britain, or France — have been made with physical proof of chemical weapons use."
Because they HAVE NONE! We have SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE, and it is DAMN OFFENSIVE that they are putting this s*** out again!
"Syria possesses one of the world’s largest inventories of chemical weapons, including sarin and other nerve agents. US officials invoked the mistakes of the Iraq War as they urged caution. The administration of George W. Bush invaded in 2003, based on notoriously erroneous intelligence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction."
They were LIES, folks!
"Intelligence agencies believed that there had been small-scale use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime."
Oh, they "believe," huh?
"Further complicating the president’s choices is the murky nature of the evidence against Syria, a concern because of the lingering memories of mistaken intelligence on Iraq’s weapons a decade ago. US intelligence agencies have medium to high confidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, but it is not completely clear who was using them. The Obama administration recognizes that the rebels and their supporters have an incentive to assume or even exaggerate the use of such weapons because it may be the one thing that could draw in direct Western military intervention against Assad. The rebels have access to Internet information about the effects of the weapons, so they may know what symptoms to describe to make their claims seem real."
The propaganda really doesn't get any better than that. Already down to a medium certainty, 'eh?
"New accusations emerged that insurgents seeking to overthrow President Bashar Assad may have used an illegal nerve agent. There were strong suspicions that the rebels seeking Assad’s overthrow had themselves used sarin, a nerve agent, but there was no “incontrovertible proof” that they had."
Gee, I WONDER WHERE THEY GOT THAT!
"The chemical weapons argument is now under surprising attack, with former war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte saying she and fellow members of a four-member UN human rights panel have indications the nerve agent sarin was used by Syrian rebel forces but not by government forces. Despite a clarification from the United Nations that it has not yet made any definitive determination on chemical weapons use, Washington pushed back on Del Ponte’s assertion, saying it is highly likely that the Assad regime, and not the rebels, has been behind any chemical weapons use."
Yeah, WE DON'T CARE WHAT THE EVIDENCE IS!!
Also see: Obama wary in comments on Syria weapons
That's what happens when you tell lies!
"Claims by Erdogan that the Syrian regime has fired about 200 missiles tipped with chemical weapons."
"Israeli officials have cited but not revealed evidence that the government of President Bashar Assad has repeatedly used chemical weapons, and the White House has said that US intelligence agencies have determined with varying degrees of confidence that it used sarin on a small scale."
How f***ing SHAMELESS!!!!!!!
"Worries about the use of sarin nerve gas in the conflict intensified, as Britain joined France in asserting that the evidence of such use by the government was more persuasive."
(Blog editor is astounded and astonished at the brazen boldness of the regurgitated lies)
And if that doesn't convince you to invade, how about cluster bombs?
Intelligence agencies estimate that 100 to 150 people have died as a result of chemical weapons use, he said.
Of course, when Israel and AmeriKa dump white phosphorous or cluster bombs on people that's okay.
Rhodes did not detail what he called the expanded military support, but it is expected initially to consist of light arms and ammunition. He said the shipments would be ‘‘responsive to the needs’’ expressed by the rebel command.
They want heavy weapons.
Obama has ‘‘not made any decision’’ to pursue a military option such as a no-fly zone and has ruled out the deployment of US ground troops, Rhodes said.
Related: Jordan says 900 US troops boost defense in country
But they won't be crossing the border. I guess that's why my Globe didn't tell me about it.
Syria’s outgunned rebels have issued urgent appeals this week for antitank and antiaircraft weaponry to counter a government offensive that is backed by Hezbollah fighters and Iranian militia forces....
I had been told for months they were winning.
The shipments, to begin in a matter of weeks, probably will be undertaken by the CIA, which has been the primary US government interlocutor with the opposition’s Supreme Military Council, led by Salim Idriss. Such covert action requires a signed presidential finding.
That method avoids what the administration previously has said are legal restraints against supplying arms for attacks against another government without approval by an international body such as the United Nations, according to US officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity about intelligence matters.
The weapons would probably be delivered by air to Turkey or Jordan, or both, and by land into Syria along rebel-held corridors.
Except there are no longer any rebel-held corridors.
Related:
"The bombings will increase the pressure on President Barack Obama next week to do something to show support for Turkey when Erdogan visits Washington, said Soner Cagaptay, an expert on Turkey at the Washington Institute. ‘‘Washington will be forced to take a more pro-active position on Syria, at least in rhetoric, whether or not there is appetite for such a position here.’’ Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center, said the attack may force Turkey to take action."
"Sabah, a Turkish newspaper close to the government, reported Sunday that authorities suspect the leader of a former Marxist group, Mirhac Ural, now thought to be based in Syria, may have revived his group and ordered the attack. The group, Acilciler, was one of many Marxist groups active in Turkey in the 1970s and 1980s, and was long-rumored to have been formed by the Syrian intelligence agency. Turkey has sided with the Syrian opposition, hosting its leaders along with rebel commanders and providing refuge to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees."
As well as weapons, and this whole Marxist thing proves it was a false-flag attack along the Gladio line.
"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that Syria was behind the attacks ‘‘with certainty.’’ He said Turkey is not ruling out retaliation but will act with caution and avoid being drawn into the civil war. Syria has vehemently denied Turkey’s accusations. There has been no claim of responsibility for the blasts in the town of Reyhanli."
Related:
4 more suspects held in Turkish blasts
US, Turkey project unity in call for Assad to step aside
And who benefited?
The opposition’s requests for antitank and antiaircraft weaponry are still under discussion.
The CIA declined to comment on the new direction in Syria policy.
Despite its long insistence that Syrian President Bashar Assad must leave power and its recognition of the opposition as ‘‘a legitimate representative of the Syrian people,’’ the United States and most of the world still officially recognizes the Assad government.
Rhodes said the administration would continue to push for a negotiated political settlement of the Syrian conflict, including a proposed conference between opposition leaders and government representatives that is on hold.
Related:
"Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Moscow on Monday to discuss the situation in Syria with President Vladimir Putin. The administration hopes to convince Russia and other countries of the need to remove Assad from power before the war becomes a full-scale regional conflict."
Also see:
US, Russia join to push for end to Syria’s war
Kerry seeks support for Syrian peace talks
Kerry warns Russia against Syrian missile deal
Russia says it will keep selling missiles to Syria
"Secretary of State John Kerry headed back to the Middle East Monday to press his case for peace talks between Syrian rebels and Assad’s regime amid increasing signs the new US strategy to halt the war is being undermined by Russia."
"Also Friday, a squadron of five Russian Navy ships from the Pacific Fleet arrived in the port city of Limassol in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, a Russian Navy statement said. Russia has pledged to revive a permanent presence in the Mediterranean its navy had during Soviet times. Rotating squadrons of Russian Navy ships have visited the area repeatedly over the past two years in what was seen as a demonstration of its military’s global reach and a gesture of support for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime."
Yup, it's a Russian invasion!
"Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday strongly criticized Russia’s pledge to send advanced antiaircraft weapons to Syria, saying that its actions threatened to disrupt efforts to negotiate a political settlement of the Syrian conflict and posed an unacceptable risk to Israel. “Whether it’s an old contract or not, it has a profoundly negative impact on the balance of interests and the stability of the region, and it does put Israel at risk,” Kerry said at the State Department."
He really is Israel's bitch. It's no wonder they wanted him over Rice.
Opposition group wants guarantee of Assad’s departure
Despite recent rebel setbacks.
Syrian rebel group denies seeking power
Syrian rebels won’t commit to peace conference
Kerry warns Assad regime it must attend peace talks
Kerry, allies urge Syrian regime to participate in talks
He's got to convince the insurgents instead!
Assad agrees ‘in principle’ to join Syria peace talks
Syria says Assad will remain president until 2014
John Kerry suggests US late in addressing Syria crisis
Syria will be at the top of the agenda when Obama meets with leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations, including Russia, in Northern Ireland next week. Russia, Assad’s primary arms supplier and diplomatic backer, has blocked harsher international action against him at the United Nations.
The Obama administration has provided more than $515 million in humanitarian and nonlethal military assistance to the Syrian opposition, including food and medicine.
It's actually up to $800 million now -- as you suffer under the lash of austerity, American.
This week, the United Nations put the death toll in the conflict, now in its third year, at more than 90,000. Millions have been displaced inside the country, and more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees are in neighboring countries.
Related:
"Last week, the United Nations said the number of registered refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, and North Africa had reached 1 million."
"Reaction by New England Syrian-Americans was mixed. The UN estimates that the Syrian conflict has created more than 1 million refugees, many in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey."
Related: UN says money for Syria coming in slowly
"Donor governments, grappling with the scale of demands for Syria, have expressed concern about the implications for assisting in other humanitarian crises, for example, in Mali and Sudan."
That's what happens when you have a world war going.
But while regional governments have been funding weapons supplies for the rebels, the United States and its closest allies, including Britain and France, have been reluctant to do so.
LIE!
See:
"The German news magazine Der Spiegel, quoting participants, reported this week that US trainers are showing rebels how to use the antitank weapons at a camp in Jordan. It was unclear, the magazine said, whether the trainers were US soldiers or contract personnel. British Prime Minister David Cameron, responding to questions from reporters, said London will abide by the EU embargo for now but reserves the right to supply arms independently if other European nations refuse to change their minds in the near future."
That was in March!
"Foreign aid and training of rebels in Jordan ramping up could unleash lawlessness on Jordan’s northern border and send jitters across the kingdom, a key US ally which fears Islamic extremist groups on its doorstep."
"In recent months, the rebels have chipped away at the government’s hold in northern and eastern Syria. They have also made significant gains in the south between Damascus and the Jordanian border, helped in part by a recent influx of foreign-funded weapons."
More on the rebel gains and victories below.
"US officials said the Obama administration is poised to send millions of dollars worth more in nonlethal military aid. Also, the European Union is looking for ways to bolster the forces fighting to oust Assad, and is set to ease its oil embargo on Syria, two diplomats said Friday. The decision would allow the import of oil production technology and the sale of crude from territory held by the Syrian opposition."
"The Obama administration was reassessing its stance on providing weapons to the rebels. Obama is looking at every option to end the bloodshed in Syria, a way for the White House to look responsive."
"The United States so far has balked at sending weapons to the rebels."
"Washington still unwilling to join those providing the rebels with lethal military aid. Obama will not send American troops to Syria. But...."
Also see:
Syrian regime warns Jordan for aiding rebels
Kerry, allies seek common policy on aid to Syrian rebels
EU ends arms embargo on Syrian opposition
EU’s target was Assad, Russia in lifting arms embargo
Oh, that's what it was about all along!
This week, demands from numerous US lawmakers that Obama authorize the delivery of arms — despite persistent US public reluctance reflected in opinion polls — escalated after the rebels’ loss of a key town near the Lebanese border and reports that government forces were massing with Hezbollah and Iranian fighters to retake rebel-held portions of the northern city of Aleppo.
Yeah, ONCE AGAIN it is TO HELL with what the AMERICAN PEOPLE WANT!!!
Officials described Obama’s decision as a gradual one, as intelligence assessments on chemical weapons use became more firm. After an initial, inconclusive assessment in April, the president ‘‘directed our intelligence community to further investigate the use of chemical weapons and to seek credible and corroborative information,’’ Rhodes said in a briefing for reporters Thursday afternoon.
The US investigation, he said, was conducted separately from, but in conjunction with, an UN effort to confirm chemical weapons use.
Except the U.N. said it was U.S.-supported rebels that used the stuff.
‘‘Following a deliberative review, our intelligence community assesses that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year,’’ Rhodes said. ‘‘Our intelligence community has high confidence in that assessment given multiple, independent streams of information.’’
Back to high confidence. Btw, we heard all this about Iraq.
Intelligence committees in Congress were briefed on the arms decision earlier this week and on the chemical weapons conclusions Thursday.
Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina welcomed the chemical weapons assessment.
That's gross! They are happy they were used!
The two have been among the sharpest critics of the administration, saying it has not been doing enough to help the rebels.
‘‘US credibility is on the line,’’ they said in a joint statement. ‘‘Now is not the time to merely take the next incremental step. Now is the time for more decisive actions,’’ they said, such as using long-range missiles to degrade Assad’s air power and missile capabilities.
You have lost all credibility, assholes!
--more--"
"Syrian rebels want big weapons; US assistance welcomed but called ‘late step’" by Loveday Morris | Washington Post, June 15, 2013
BEIRUT — Syrian rebels on Friday described the US decision to provide them with arms as a ‘‘late step’’ and called for shipments to include heavy weaponry capable of tipping the balance of power on the battlefield.
The United States has said it would be ‘‘responsive to the needs’’ of the increasingly desperate rebels, but has not given details of what assistance will include.
Initial consignments are expected to consist of small arms and ammunition, which the rebel Free Syrian Army said on Friday would be largely ‘‘meaningless.’’ The Syrian Opposition Coalition called for ‘‘strategic and decisive’’ support.
They were already getting those things.
The use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar Assad, confirmed by the White House on Thursday, coupled with increasing gains on the battlefield by the Syrian military in recent days, have left the United States and European nations scrambling to reassess their Syria policies.
Emboldened by their gains, the Syrian Army appears to be pushing on to try to secure the central cities of Hama and Homs, as well as Aleppo, to the north, where a buildup of troops has been reported....
Hezbollah’s leader vowed that his militants would keep fighting in Syria ‘‘wherever needed’’ after the United States agreed to arm the rebels, the Associated Press reported. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah signaled for the first time the Iranian-backed militant group will stay involved in the civil war after helping Assad’s army recapture the key town of Qusair in central Homs Province from rebels.
Related:
Hezbollah leader pledges full battle to save Assad rule
Syrian rebels want Hezbollah to retreat
Clashes in Lebanon feed fear of Syria spillover
"In Lebanon, the prospect of all-out conflict here still seems remote to most, but after the rocket strikes Sunday, anxieties seemed to run higher than at any point over the past few years, and a parade of Lebanese officials called for calm."
"Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive monthlong war in 2006 and are bitter enemies. During that war, sparked by a Hezbollah cross-border raid, the militant group fired some 4,000 rockets into Israel."
Nothing about Israel's use of white phosphorous, cluster bombs, or the flattening of Beirut.
Violence at the Lebanon border increases
Hezbollah stronghold hit by rockets from Syria
Hezbollah critics attacked in Beirut
President Obama had long said the use of chemical weapons would be a ‘‘red line’’ for his administration, but he lagged behind allies France and Britain in saying there was compelling evidence of their use....
US officials are expected to meet with General Salim Idriss, head of the rebel Supreme Military Council, over the next two days to discuss details of military assistance that Washington can provide. Rebel leaders said Idriss will urge the US officials to offer a wider range of support....
US officials said the administration could provide the rebels with small arms, ammunition, assault rifles, and a variety of antitank weaponry such as shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenades and other missiles, the Associated Press reported.
In comments carried by the state news agency, the Syrian government said the White House’s statement on the use of chemical weapons was based on fabricated information and ‘‘full of lies.’’
It wouldn't be the first time!
It accused the United States of a ‘‘flagrant double standard policy’’ by providing arms, money, and political cover to ‘‘terrorist groups,’’ while claiming it wants to combat terrorism. The Syrian government generally refers to rebel forces as ‘‘terrorists.’’
This semantic s*** game sucks!
Britain and France have also been weighing whether to arm the rebels, after a European Union arms embargo that prevented them from doing so expired at the end of May.
The White House has said it has not made any decision to pursue a no-fly zone, which would involve targeted airstrikes in order to remove air defenses.
You see where this is going, right?
--more--"
"Aid for Syria rebels heightens need for continuing caution" June 15, 2013
While the United States has an interest in assisting the rebels, it must avoid being drawn into the sectarian fray; the perception that the United States is pro-Sunni and anti-Shiite would dramatically alter American standing throughout the region. That’s why Obama is wise to keep US involvement limited, and to emphasize that American objections to Assad are strictly on the grounds that he’s an abusive dictator and user of chemical weapons, not because of any US preference for one religious group over another. Further, by restricting aid to small arms, Obama is protecting the United States against the possibility that weapons of unusual destructive force might end up in the hands of pro-Al Qaeda factions in the Syrian resistance.
So many interests and forces collide in the Middle East that all steps must be taken with care. That’s why Obama’s long deliberations, which might look to some like a sign of weakness, are ultimately wise. Obama’s decision to offer limited help to the rebels, which came after a close analysis of changes on the ground, should mark an extension of that policy of caution, not a shift away from it.
--more--"
"US warns hopes dim for Syrian settlement" by Bassem Mroue | Associated Press, June 16, 2013
Well, that's going happen when you are supplying terrorists.
BEIRUT — The United States and Russia have been pressing for a peace conference to end Syria’s civil war in Geneva, but prospects for that have been dampened after regime battlefield victories and hardened positions by both sides. The death toll from the two-year war has surged to nearly 93,000.
Yeah, right, the U.S. has been pressing for peace.
President Obama’s decision to send lethal aid to Syrian rebels and the deepening involvement of trained Shi’ite fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah group also has raised the stakes, setting up a proxy fight between Iran and the West that threatens to engulf more of the Middle East.
Secretary of State John Kerry was quoted in a statement as saying the United States continues to work aggressively for a political solution with the goal of a second Geneva meeting. But ‘‘the use of chemical weapons and increasing involvement of Hezbollah demonstrates the regime’s lack of commitment to negotiations and threatens to put a political settlement out of reach,’’ he said in a phone call Friday with Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari of Iraq.
Egypt’s Islamist president said Saturday that he was cutting off diplomatic relations with Syria and closing Damascus’ embassy in Cairo, decisions made amid growing calls from hard-line Sunni clerics in Egypt and elsewhere to launch a ‘‘holy war’’ against Syria’s embattled regime.
Mohammed Morsi told thousands of supporters at a rally in Cairo that his government was also withdrawing the Egyptian charge d’affaires from Damascus. He called on Hezbollah to leave Syria, where the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militant group has been fighting alongside troops loyal to Assad against the mostly Sunni rebels.
Trying to suck up to USrael so the IMF gives them the loan?
The US reversal after months of saying the United States would not intervene in the conflict militarily came after Washington said it had conclusive evidence the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons, something Obama had said would be a ‘‘red line.’’
Yeah, WHO CARES if it is a LIE?!
Syria has denied the accusations, saying Obama was lying about the evidence to justify his decision to arm the rebels.
He is!
Syria’s ally Russia also suggested Saturday that the evidence put forth by the United States of the use of chemical weapons does not meet stringent criteria for reliability.
They know what the U.N. knows!
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia said the US evidence does not include guarantees that it meets the requirements of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
He said the group specifies that samples taken from blood, urine, and clothing can be considered reliable evidence only if supervised by organization experts from the time they are taken up to delivery to a laboratory. The organization is the autonomous body for implementing the international Chemical Weapons Convention that went into effect in 1997.
Its website says Syria is one of six countries that have not signed or acceded to the convention. Lavrov, after meeting with his Italian counterpart, Emma Bonino, scoffed at suggestions that Assad’s regime would use chemical weapons in light of its apparent growing advantage against the rebels.
--more--"
Also see:
Globe and the G8
G8 Update
"Syria steps up attacks on rebel forces; Warplanes hit targets in two Aleppo villages" by Barbara Surk | Associated Press, June 19, 2013
BEIRUT — Syrian warplanes struck rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad, who have for months been trying to take Kweiras and two other military air bases nearby without success, activists said....
The violence along sectarian lines also continued to spill over the border in southern Lebanon, killing two people, officials said....
The clashes broke out in an eastern suburb of Sidon on Tuesday after several people threw stones and shattered windows in a car belonging to Amjad al-Assir, the brother of Hezbollah critic and hard-line cleric Sheik Ahmad al-Assir, the officials said. A statement from Assir’s office said he was not driving it at the time. Assir then gave Hezbollah a one-week ultimatum to vacate apartments occupied by the group’s supporters in the mostly Sunni city as clashes erupted with gunmen wielding automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Officials believed the gunmen fighting Assir’s followers to be Hezbollah sympathizers.
Lebanese army troops deployed in the area of the fighting, which subsided after several hours. The military called on gunmen to immediately withdraw from the streets.
Earlier Tuesday, Lebanon’s official news agency said gunmen shot and wounded a Syrian man, whom it said was believed to have been involved in a deadly attack on four Shi’ite youth in Ras Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold in a volatile area near the border with Syria.
The National News Agency did not elaborate on the suspected connection between the attack on the Syrian in the town of Labwa and the killing of four Shi’ites in a Sunday ambush nearby.
The Syrian uprising began more than two years ago with peaceful protests against Assad, but later grew into a civil war that has killed 93,000 people and likely many more, according to the UN.
Millions of Syrians fled their homes and sought shelter in neighboring countries, with Jordan and Lebanon hosting the bulk of them, further fueling fears that the Syrian conflict’s sporadic spillovers across the border into Lebanon, which is still recovering from its own 15-year civil war, will turn into a full-blown war.
In Syria meanwhile, an explosion inside a housing complex in a rebel-held village in the country’s northern Idlib province killed 20 people, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It was not immediately known what caused the explosion and who was behind it. Nobody claimed responsibility for the blast.
The complex belonged to a member of Parliament, the group said.
Hmmmmmmm! STINKS of CIA-DUH!
The lawmaker, Ahmed al-Mubarak, was not in the area at the time of the explosion but his brother was among those killed, the Observatory’s director Rami Abdul-Rahman said.
--more--"
"Hezbollah fighters join Assad’s forces near shrine" by Zeina Karam | Associated Press, June 20, 2013
BEIRUT — The international community has been largely unable to end the Syrian civil war, now in its third year, which has killed 93,000 people, and Obama last week authorized supplying rebel groups with weapons but speaking in Berlin on Wednesday, Obama refused to be drawn about how the United States might supply the rebels.
‘‘I cannot and will not comment on specifics around our programs related to the Syrian opposition,’’ he said.
The Syrian war is increasingly pitting Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims against each other and threatening the stability of Syria’s neighbors....
that's the Jewish War Paper narrative.
Related:
"A suicide bombing tore through a mosque in the Syrian capital Thursday, killing a top Sunni Muslim preacher and longtime supporter of President Bashar Assad and at least 41 other people. The assassination of Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti removes one of the few remaining pillars of support for the Alawite leader among the majority sect that has risen up against him.... Buti, the most prominent religious figure killed so far in the 2-year-old conflict, had supported the regime since the early days of Assad’s father and predecessor, the late President Hafez Assad, providing legitimacy to their rule."
Gee, who would want him dead.
"Rebels captured a progovernment Sunni Muslim cleric in the fighting, killed him, and then paraded his body through the neighborhood. State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV identified the cleric as Hassan Seifeddine. It said he was decapitated and his head was placed on the minaret of Al-Hassan Mosque where he used to lead the prayers.... Seifeddine was a strong supporter of the Assad regime."
"Also on Friday, activists said rebels clashed with troops in the northeastern border city of Qamishli, 2 miles away from the border with Turkey. Fighting is rare in the predominantly Kurdish and Christian city."
"A Syrian Army official was assassinated northeast of the capital, Damascus. The assassination was the latest in a series of killings of government and security officials and regime supporters in the capital. A day earlier, Ali Ballan, the head of public relations at the Ministry of Social Affairs and a member of Syria’s relief agency, was killed by gunmen as he was dining in a restaurant in Mazzeh, a western Damascus neighborhood."
"Assad draws his support largely from fellow Alawites as well as other minorities including Christians and Shi’ites. He is backed by Shi’ite Iran, Hezbollah, and Iraqi Shi’ites, US officials estimate."
"Since the beginning of the uprising in March 2011, Assad’s regime has tried to portray the movement as being driven by what it called terrorists and foreign-backed mercenaries. “The regime is trying, and succeeding unfortunately, in brainwashing some segments of society into thinking that they are their protectors and whoever follows will massacre them,” said opposition figure Kamal Labwani. Many Syrians acknowledge feeling more secure under Assad. A Christian tailor who fled last month to Lebanon said at least Assad was a known quantity. He said people fled when “heavily armed and bearded gunmen” from an anti-Assad group arrived in his hometown last month."
Translation: The SYRIAN PEOPLE do NOT LIKE the AL-CIA-Duh army that has come to "liberate" them!
"Several lawmakers — including Representative Peter T. King, a New York Republican and a member and former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Representative C.A. ‘‘Dutch’’ Ruppersberger of Maryland, a ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee — appeared on the Sunday talk shows and underscored an argument frequently heard from the administration: that arming the rebels carries a serious risk of lethal weapons ending up in the hands of Al Qaeda sympathizers, possibly even helping them seize control of the country."
I was told that wouldn't happen.
"There was no responsibility claim for Tuesday’s blasts, but past suicide attacks and strikes on security installations have been claimed by the Al Qaeda- linked Jabhat al-Nusra group. The style of attacks also is a tactic commonly used by Al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists."
"At least 30 Shi’ite Muslim residents of a village in eastern Syria were killed in a reprisal raid by rebels, the government, opposition fighters, and activists said Wednesday, the latest in a string of massacres underscoring the increasingly sectarian nature of the Syrian conflict."
Remember way back when Saudi said if Shi'ites come to power they would back Sunni insurgencies across Middle East? Was when Saudis were concerned about US troops leaving, blah, blah, blah. And now they are going to deport their Lebanese slaves.
It's the old divide and conquer strategy, and I'm no longer buying it!
Hezbollah fighters joined Syrian forces in battling rebels in a Damascus suburb that is home to a revered Shi’ite Muslim shrine, in a push to secure the area around the ornate, golden-domed mosque.
Protection of the Sayida Zeinab shrine has become a rallying cry for Shi’ite fighters backing President Bashar Assad, raising the stakes in a conflict that is increasingly being fought along sectarian lines.
What's odd is those domes and mosques stood for centuries despite the alleged enmity -- until we got there.
The fighting in the area south of the capital is part of a wider military offensive by Assad’s forces to recapture suburbs held by rebels and areas in the country’s strategic heartland....
--more--"
"Syrian rebels’ backers agree to send weapons" by Karen DeYoung | Washington Post, June 23, 2013
DOHA, Qatar — ‘‘Something different happened today,’’ Secretary of State John F. Kerry said after a four-hour meeting of foreign ministers from 11 Western and Middle Eastern governments. Because of Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons and the large-scale intervention of Hezbollah and Iranian militia fighters in Syria’s civil war,’’ he said, ‘‘we have decided that we have no choice . . . but to provide greater assistance.’’
Although the rebels have been receiving arms from Persian Gulf nations, reportedly including a recent influx of surface-to-air missiles from Libya via Qatar, officials said the Doha decision will ensure a continuous, coordinated flow and procedures to ensure the weapons will be kept from Islamic militants.
So the weapons Khadafy kept from terrorists are now going to them? Another little side benefit to dumping him, 'eh?
Officials from participating governments spoke about their closed-door discussions here and in other recent talks on the condition of anonymity.
Who leaked?!
A European official described Saturday’s decision as a ‘‘collective answer’’ to desperate appeals from General Salim Idriss, head of the opposition’s Supreme Military Council, in the wake of recent rebel defeats....
Agreement was not unanimous in the Saturday meeting, and officials said Germany led a small minority opposed to the provision of arms to the rebels on the grounds that it would intensify Syria’s humanitarian crisis and promote, rather than restrain, sectarian war between Sunnis and Shi’ites in the Middle East....
--more--"
I'm stunned by this turn of events, readers. For so long I was told the rebels were winning. I was told Assad was appealing for help and warning of a domino effect, what with all the defections and the opposition setting up a shadow government, the air bases being seized, the artillery strikes in the capital, fighting over key highways or the prison, and on and on:
"The conflict remains deadlocked, despite some recent military gains by the rebels."
"A significant morale victory for the opposition at a time when the war has ground into a stalemate in most large cities."
"On Friday, the rebels celebrated their latest victory after forces of President Bashar Assad’s regime all but withdrew from the area..... the rebels have recently gone on the offensive, expanding their presence with a renewed sense of purpose.... In recent weeks, they have made significant advances."
"A Western diplomat who monitors Syria from his base in Jordan said the fall of Daraa appeared imminent, possibly in the next few days or weeks."
"The country’s two-year revolt has moved close to the heart of Damascus."
"President Bashar Assad’s forces are stretched thin and much of the country has been allowed to slip into the hands of the rebels. Syria’s rebels have gained momentum and made significant gains in the past weeks, largely due to an influx of arms. Arab officials and Western military experts say Mideast powers opposed to Assad have stepped up weapons supplies to Syrian rebels, with Jordan opening up as a new route. While much of the recent fighting has focused in Daraa, rebels have also made advances in Homs Province near Lebanon."
Even as the Syrian government goes on the offensive.
"Rebels also have made significant gains in recent weeks"
"The latest rebel gains came during a government counteroffensive that has scored successes in the central and northern regions in recent days. The alternate gains highlight the shifting nature of the conflict in Syria, where victories in one area are often followed by reverses in another."
"The regime has gone on the offensive. Despite losing large swaths of territory in northern and eastern Syria, Assad’s military has retained his firm grip on Damascus, his seat of power, and key coastal areas."
So being in the heart of Damascus.... sigh. Never mind.
"The [Israeli] attacks could end up providing a psychological and perhaps military assist to the Syrian rebels, who over the last several weeks have faced losses in a series of government offensives around Damascus and the city of Homs to the north."
So now the Israelis are helping Al-CIA-Duh?
"Both sides have depicted the fighting in Qusayr as a turning point in the war, in which regime forces appeared to be gaining ground"
"Wednesday’s meeting came after several weeks of military gains by the Assad regime, including the reopening of a key southern highway to Jordan and a push into a strategic rebel-held western town over the weekend."
"Rebel reinforcements infiltrated the besieged area to fight government forces."
"In Israel, the defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, said that Assad controlled only 40 percent of the territory of Syria and that the rebels fighting the Syrian government now held four neighborhoods of Damascus, the Syrian capital."
What a lie!
Assad forces regain part of strategic Syrian city
Syrian army takes pivotal city
Syrian rebels lose key village
"Regime forces aggressively pressed ahead with an offensive on rebel strongholds elsewhere in the country, as insurgents the ability to strike deep in the heart of President Bashar Assad’s regime despite a series of recent setbacks on the battlefield."
Of course, it always Syrian government bombing; Syrian government massacres (even though "the attacks appeared to be an escalating campaign by rebels to sow fear" in a "public campaign to persuade, or frighten" -- including an alleged video that shows them eating the internal organs of the dead); the civilians fleeing the shelling by the Syrian government; students being killed as it all gets worse; more massacres, more airstrikes, more dead children; another massacre; let's make it even more sectarian with women and children being killed by the Syrian government (looks like a staged and scripted photo of crisis actors to me); McCain calls it a massacre, more airstrikes, and let's not forget the government torture.
As the mercenary army is defeated expect more of this and this and this and this in Syria.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Bombings in Syrian capital kill 8 people; Assad’s forces press offensive on Damascus" Associated Press, June 24, 2013
DAMASCUS — Suicide bombers targeted security compounds in Damascus and a car bomb exploded in a pro-regime district there Sunday, killing at least eight people, the latest in a surge of civil war violence in the capital.
In northern Syria, a car bomb killed 12 soldiers in Aleppo, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists in Syria for information. It had no other details, and the government did not comment....
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the Damascus explosions, but they bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda-linked groups....
And we know who they are!
The attacks came as government forces pressed an offensive on the outskirts of the capital.
The state-run news agency SANA carried a statement by the Interior Ministry saying that the Damascus attacks were a ‘‘new escalation by terrorist groups,’’ a term used by the government to refer to the rebels.
More than 93,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict that started in March 2011 as peaceful protest. In the past year, the war has taken on sectarian overtones.
--more--"
As the mercenary army is defeated expect more of this and this and this and this in Syria.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Bombings in Syrian capital kill 8 people; Assad’s forces press offensive on Damascus" Associated Press, June 24, 2013
DAMASCUS — Suicide bombers targeted security compounds in Damascus and a car bomb exploded in a pro-regime district there Sunday, killing at least eight people, the latest in a surge of civil war violence in the capital.
In northern Syria, a car bomb killed 12 soldiers in Aleppo, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists in Syria for information. It had no other details, and the government did not comment....
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the Damascus explosions, but they bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda-linked groups....
And we know who they are!
The attacks came as government forces pressed an offensive on the outskirts of the capital.
The state-run news agency SANA carried a statement by the Interior Ministry saying that the Damascus attacks were a ‘‘new escalation by terrorist groups,’’ a term used by the government to refer to the rebels.
More than 93,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict that started in March 2011 as peaceful protest. In the past year, the war has taken on sectarian overtones.
--more--"
"The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces said in a statement that there could be “no comparison between those who systematically drop fatal explosives, killing innocent women and children to suppress a popular revolution, and those who bear light and medium arms to defend unarmed civilians.” Both sides have adopted siege tactics, trapping civilians in their homes and cutting off supplies of food, water, medicine and electricity, the report stated, in clear breach of international law. The panel also reported that forces of both sides had used or threatened attacks to drive civilians out of particular areas, which would also constitute a war crime."
The comparison reminds me of Israelis and Palestinians.
The comparison reminds me of Israelis and Palestinians.
And then there is the pot-hollering kettle media talking about propaganda to add insult to injury, as "a war in which information is a weapon and each side seeks to demonize the other." Assad should be confident in facing the storm and be defiant because he is calling them out.
And what is this about Dell computer assisting Assad and the hacking of E!? Why would they bother?
And what is this about Dell computer assisting Assad and the hacking of E!? Why would they bother?
And at the bottom of all the worries:
"The UN Security Council also reviewed the deployment of an observer force in the Golan Heights, after the brief abduction of 21 Philippine soldiers by Syrian rebels."
Who would want the U.N. out of there?
Who would want the U.N. out of there?
"The escalation in the southern Quneitra region along the cease-fire line separating Syria from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights accented concerns that Islamic extremists among the rebel forces could take over the front line opposite Israeli troops."
And then Israel would have to invade, right?
And then Israel would have to invade, right?
"A senior Israeli official signaled Wednesday that, “if Syrian President Assad reacts by attacking Israel, or tries to strike Israel through his terrorist proxies, he will risk forfeiting his regime, for Israel will retaliate.”
Of course, Israel can attack all it wants, no problem.
"Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Assad’s comments on the Golan were worrisome."
"Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Assad’s comments on the Golan were worrisome."
"Syrian rebels seize border crossing at Golan Heights, bringing the Syrian war closer to Israeli-held lands. The Kuneitra crossing is patrolled by Austrian UN peacekeepers, who were ordered to pull back for their own safety. Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing regret about Austria’s decision and said it hoped the Austrian withdrawal would “not be conducive to further escalation in the area.” But one senior Israeli government official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, downplayed the importance of peacekeepers and said that in general there was “skepticism among the senior Israeli leadership as to the utility of international forces or monitors when things get tough.”
Yeah, who doesn't need the U.N. at the border, especially if they want to rioll in the tanks?
The Syrian forces then routed the rebels and retook control.
The Israeli military also confirmed that two injured Syrians had reached Israeli forces at the frontier and had been taken for treatment at a hospital in northern Israel. Israel Radio 12 said the trauma unit at the hospital in Safed had to be temporarily evacuated after staff found a live fragmentation grenade in the pocket of a Syrian. A bomb disposal unit disarmed the grenade; staff continued to treat the fighter, the report said. SANA, Syria’s news agency, said Israeli ambulances transported some of the injured rebels, whom it called terrorists, into the Israeli-occupied land, which it said constituted “new proof of the close link between these terrorist groups and the Israeli occupation.”
The Israeli military is treating and taking care of Al-CIA-Duh terrorists?
"President Vladimir Putin of Russia volunteered troops as replacements for the Austrian members of a UN peacekeeping force who are vacating the disputed Golan Heights area along the Israel-Syria border, where violence has intensified. UN officials declined Putin’s offer."
Putin called their bluff!
Yeah, who doesn't need the U.N. at the border, especially if they want to rioll in the tanks?
The Syrian forces then routed the rebels and retook control.
The Israeli military also confirmed that two injured Syrians had reached Israeli forces at the frontier and had been taken for treatment at a hospital in northern Israel. Israel Radio 12 said the trauma unit at the hospital in Safed had to be temporarily evacuated after staff found a live fragmentation grenade in the pocket of a Syrian. A bomb disposal unit disarmed the grenade; staff continued to treat the fighter, the report said. SANA, Syria’s news agency, said Israeli ambulances transported some of the injured rebels, whom it called terrorists, into the Israeli-occupied land, which it said constituted “new proof of the close link between these terrorist groups and the Israeli occupation.”
The Israeli military is treating and taking care of Al-CIA-Duh terrorists?
"President Vladimir Putin of Russia volunteered troops as replacements for the Austrian members of a UN peacekeeping force who are vacating the disputed Golan Heights area along the Israel-Syria border, where violence has intensified. UN officials declined Putin’s offer."
Putin called their bluff!
Related:
Yes, I spent over a week falling behind while catching up an all the lies regarding Syria, and they have been retold and reprinted ever since.
It is sad, dear readers, that this is the shit shoveled at us every day. One can tell Syria is a top priority of the war paper by its appearance every single day.
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Operation Mockingbird
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
Operation Mockingbird
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
Now it all makes sense.
UPDATES:
"Syria calls arming rebels ‘dangerous’" Associated Press, June 25, 2013
DAMASCUS — The decision by the United States and its allies to arm rebel groups in Syria is ‘‘very dangerous’’ and will prolong the violence and killing, Syria’s foreign minister said Monday.
The warning came as an artillery shell slammed into a village in central Syria and killed 11 people, including a woman and six of her children, activists said, and a leading human rights group charged that Syrian forces are abusing women in custody for supporting the opposition to President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Okay, the chemical weapons didn't get you to go for invasion. How 'bout for the women and children?
Walid al-Moallem said sending more weapons to the opposition would also hinder efforts to convene a peace conference in Geneva to work on a negotiated solution.
I think that was the point. By now everyone knows U.S.-sponsored peace talks are a sham.
He said his country remains ready to take part but added that Assad will not step down. His resignation is a key opposition demand....
Moallem spoke two days after an 11-nation group that includes the United States met in Qatar and agreed to step up military and other assistance to the Syrian rebels. He said all those who met in Qatar ‘‘have Syrian blood on their hands.’’
US Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who took part in the conference, would not disclose the aid details, saying only that it would rebalance the fight between the rebels and the government....
--more--"
Related:
"Lebanese troops battle Sunni cleric’s followers in Sidon" Associated Press, June 25, 2013
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s third-largest city was turned into a battle zone Monday as the military battled heavily armed followers of an extremist Sunni cleric holed up in a mosque in a southern port city.
Residents fled as machine gun fire and grenade explosions shook the coastal area in one of the deadliest rounds of violence, seen as a test of the weak state’s ability to contain the furies unleashed by Syria’s civil war.
At least 16 soldiers were killed in two days of clashes with armed followers of Ahmad al-Assir, a maverick sheik whose rapid rise among the ranks of some Sunnis is a symptom of the deep frustration among many who resent the Hezbollah-led Shi’ite ascendancy to power in Lebanon.
The fierce fight that Assir’s fighters were putting up showed how aggressive Sunni extremists have grown in Lebanon, building on anger not only at Syria’s regime but also Hezbollah.
As Saudi Arabia and the other 11 nations $upport and $upply them.
‘‘Sidon is a war zone,’’ said Nabil Azzam, a resident who returned to Sidon briefly Monday to check on his home after having fled a day earlier with his family. ‘‘This is the result of all the sectarian rhetoric that has been building as a result of the war in Syria. It was bound to happen,’’ he said by telephone, his speech interrupted by a burst of gunfire.
And who benefits?
The fighting in Sidon is the bloodiest involving the army since the military fought a three-month battle in 2007 against the Al Qaeda-inspired Fatah Islam group inside the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in northern Lebanon.
Hint, hint. This is another western-backed intelligence agency plot in line with the geopolitical moves being made by the globe-kickers.
--more--"
UPDATES:
"Syria calls arming rebels ‘dangerous’" Associated Press, June 25, 2013
DAMASCUS — The decision by the United States and its allies to arm rebel groups in Syria is ‘‘very dangerous’’ and will prolong the violence and killing, Syria’s foreign minister said Monday.
The warning came as an artillery shell slammed into a village in central Syria and killed 11 people, including a woman and six of her children, activists said, and a leading human rights group charged that Syrian forces are abusing women in custody for supporting the opposition to President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Okay, the chemical weapons didn't get you to go for invasion. How 'bout for the women and children?
Walid al-Moallem said sending more weapons to the opposition would also hinder efforts to convene a peace conference in Geneva to work on a negotiated solution.
I think that was the point. By now everyone knows U.S.-sponsored peace talks are a sham.
He said his country remains ready to take part but added that Assad will not step down. His resignation is a key opposition demand....
Moallem spoke two days after an 11-nation group that includes the United States met in Qatar and agreed to step up military and other assistance to the Syrian rebels. He said all those who met in Qatar ‘‘have Syrian blood on their hands.’’
US Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who took part in the conference, would not disclose the aid details, saying only that it would rebalance the fight between the rebels and the government....
--more--"
Related:
"Lebanese troops battle Sunni cleric’s followers in Sidon" Associated Press, June 25, 2013
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s third-largest city was turned into a battle zone Monday as the military battled heavily armed followers of an extremist Sunni cleric holed up in a mosque in a southern port city.
Residents fled as machine gun fire and grenade explosions shook the coastal area in one of the deadliest rounds of violence, seen as a test of the weak state’s ability to contain the furies unleashed by Syria’s civil war.
At least 16 soldiers were killed in two days of clashes with armed followers of Ahmad al-Assir, a maverick sheik whose rapid rise among the ranks of some Sunnis is a symptom of the deep frustration among many who resent the Hezbollah-led Shi’ite ascendancy to power in Lebanon.
The fierce fight that Assir’s fighters were putting up showed how aggressive Sunni extremists have grown in Lebanon, building on anger not only at Syria’s regime but also Hezbollah.
As Saudi Arabia and the other 11 nations $upport and $upply them.
‘‘Sidon is a war zone,’’ said Nabil Azzam, a resident who returned to Sidon briefly Monday to check on his home after having fled a day earlier with his family. ‘‘This is the result of all the sectarian rhetoric that has been building as a result of the war in Syria. It was bound to happen,’’ he said by telephone, his speech interrupted by a burst of gunfire.
And who benefits?
The fighting in Sidon is the bloodiest involving the army since the military fought a three-month battle in 2007 against the Al Qaeda-inspired Fatah Islam group inside the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in northern Lebanon.
Hint, hint. This is another western-backed intelligence agency plot in line with the geopolitical moves being made by the globe-kickers.
--more--"
