Syria Exposed

Why Syria? AMMAN, Jordan—The oil ministers of Iraq, Iran and Syria Monday signed a preliminary agreement for a $10 billion natural-gas-pipeline deal, the official Iranian News Agency IRNA and other Iranian media reported. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424053111903591104576467631289250392 The document was inked in the Assalouyeh industrial region located in the southern province of Bushehr by Iranian oil minister Mohammad Aliabadi, Iraq's oil minister Abdul Kareem Luaiby, and Syrian counterpart Sufian Alow, the agency said. Iraqi oil officials confirmed that Mr. Luaiby was in Iran to sign the agreement. They gave no further details. Iranian oil officials said Syria would purchase between 20 million to 25 million cubic meters a day of Iranian gas. Iraq has already signed a deal with Tehran to purchase up to 25 million cubic meters a day to feed its power stations. The project requires some $10 billion investment and will be constructed within three years, the semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr reported. The pipeline length is more than 1,500 kilometers and will run from Assalouyeh to Damascus while passing through Iraq, with a transfer capacity of 110 million cubic meters of natural gas a day, it said. The gas will be produced from the Iranian South Pars gas field in the Gulf, which Iran shares with Qatar, and holds estimated reserves of 16 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas. Iranian officials have said Iran is producing some 600 million cubic meters of gas a day, of which only 37 million cubic meters are exported. Tehran also aims to extend the pipeline to Lebanon and the Mediterranean to supply gas to Europe, they said. Iran has been approaching its allies in the region such as Iraq and Syria to export its gas after western firms have pulled out of Iran's lucrative energy sector because of international dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, which the West and the U.S. suspect is aimed at producing nuclear bombs. The report noted especially that Syria is among several "downstream countries that are becoming increasingly water scarce as their populations grow", increasing a risk of conflict. Thus, although the RAND document fell far short of recognising the prospect of an 'Arab Spring', it illustrates that three years before the 2011 uprisings, US defence officials were alive to the region's growing instabilities, and concerned by the potential consequences for stability of Gulf oil. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/aug/30/syria-chemical-attack-war-intervention-oil-gas-energy-pipelines These strategic concerns, motivated by fear of expanding Iranian influence, impacted Syria primarily in relation to pipeline geopolitics. In 2009 - the same year former French foreign minister Dumas alleges the British began planning operations in Syria - Assad refused to sign a proposed agreement with Qatar that would run a pipeline from the latter's North field, contiguous with Iran's South Pars field, through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and on to Turkey, with a view to supply European markets - albeit crucially bypassing Russia. Assad's rationale was "to protect the interests of [his] Russian ally, which is Europe's top supplier of natural gas." Instead, the following year, Assad pursued negotiations for an alternative $10 billion pipeline plan with Iran, across Iraq to Syria, that would also potentially allow Iran to supply gas to Europe from its South Pars field shared with Qatar. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the project was signed in July 2012 - just as Syria's civil war was spreading to Damascus and Aleppo - and earlier this year Iraq signed a framework agreement for construction of the gas pipelines. The Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline plan was a "direct slap in the face" to Qatar's plans. No wonder Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, in a failed attempt to bribe Russia to switch sides, told President Vladmir Putin that "whatever regime comes after" Assad, it will be "completely" in Saudi Arabia's hands and will "not sign any agreement allowing any Gulf country to transport its gas across Syria to Europe and compete with Russian gas exports", according to diplomatic sources. When Putin refused, the Prince vowed military action. It would seem that contradictory self-serving Saudi and Qatari oil interests are pulling the strings of an equally self-serving oil-focused US policy in Syria, if not the wider region. It is this - the problem of establishing a pliable opposition which the US and its oil allies feel confident will play ball, pipeline-style, in a post-Assad Syria - that will determine the nature of any prospective intervention: not concern for Syrian life. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has started construction on a $10 billion natural gas pipeline to key ally Syria, a news agency reported Monday, in an apparent nod of support to President Bashar Assad's embattled regime and a further attempt by Tehran to boost energy exports battered by international sanctions. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/iran-starts-building-gas-pipeline-syria The 1,500-kilometer (750-mile) project was first announced in July 2011 as Syrian rebels began stepping up the fight to topple Assad. Many analysts predicted the pipeline would remain in the planning stages because of the countless risks involved, but Iran's decision to start work — even just the beginning sections — is seen a public show of confidence in Assad's ability to ride out the uprising. It also reflects Iran's wider efforts to expand natural gas and oil pipeline to Middle East and Asian markets as Western sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program cut into sales. The United States and its allies accuse Tehran of seeking to develop atomic weapons, an allegation the Iranians deny. The semiofficial Fars news agency said Iran has already begun construction of the first phase of the project involving a 225-kilometer (140-mile) stretch at an estimated cost of $3 billion. The pipeline will carry gas from the giant South Pars field in the Persian Gulf to Syria via Iraq, whose government has close ties with Iran. Fars said the entire project is to be completed in the second half of 2013. Economist Saeed Leilaz, however, described it as more showmanship than a serious plan at this stage. "Given the ongoing civil war in Syria, such a project can't be implemented now. Lack of security and political instability in Iraq and Syria doesn't allow this project to be enforced at least at this point," Leilaz said. "This is a symbolic gesture by Iran to show that it can bypass Western sanctions." Iran already supplies gas to several other countries, including Armenia and Turkey, and has plans to build a pipeline to Pakistan. Iran has the world's second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia. The key “chemical weapon” involved in this conflict is natural gas. http://blog.shaleshockmedia.org/2013/09/07/gas-pipeline-war-in-syria/ Quatar wants a gas pipeline to Europe – through Syria. The Turks want the Quatar pipeline to Europe – through Turkey and Syria. Assad has blocked this pipeline. So now the Turks and Quatar both support the imported al Qaeda fighters who are trying to overthrow Assad. Iran does not want the Quatar pipeline to Europe. They want their own pipeline to Europe – via Syria. So the Iranians are supporting Assad. But this proposed line goes through Lebanon (and then under sea to Europe) bypassing Turkey - who now want to get rid of Assad. Russia does not want the proposed Quatar gas pipeline to Europe, where they export most of their gas. So they have supported the Assad military dictatorship, their client and puppet, who has blocked it on their behalf - until Assad agreed to the Iranian pipeline to Europe. That’s when his troubles began: By signing on to the Iranian pipeline, Assad angered his benefactors the Russians, his neighbor, Turkey, and Quatar. Leaving Iran his only friend in the region. The USA (and the Israelis) do not want the Iranian pipeline project to go through. Civil war broke out shortly after the Assad regime signed on for the Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon route, cutting Quatar and Turkey out and elevating Iran. The Syrian rebels were subsequently bankrolled by Quatar and supported logistically by Turkey. The CIA started supplying arms to the Syrian rebels via Turkey and Jordan after Assad cut the pipeline deal with Iran. (Who is making also making nice in the US to get a pipeline through Pakistan to China) There are reports that some third countries are training Syrian rebels to use chemical weapons in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. The intention is to put the skill to use in new false flag actions in Syria, he explained. http://rt.com/news/lavrov-afghanistan-chemical-weapons-036/ The suspected training happened in Afghan territories not under control of the government in Kabul, Lavrov said. “Some reports indicate that [Al-Qaeda-linked radical] Al-Nusra Front is planning to smuggle toxic compounds and relevant specialists into Iraqi territory to stage terrorist attacks there this time,” Lavrov said. The Russian minister, who spoke after meeting his Kuwaiti counterpart Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, warned against any possible provocations in Syria related to the ongoing process of its chemical weapons disarmament. “We are standing for conducting the work in a precise manner in accordance with the roadmap and without any hindrances. We warn against any possible provocation,” Lavrov said. Al-Nusra Front is considered one of the most combat-worthy parts of the militants fighting against Damascus. It has said that it takes orders from an Al-Qaeda branch operating in Iraq. Many countries, including the United States, list the group as a terrorist organization over several high-profile bombings it organized in Syria. The use of chemical weapons in August near Damascus triggered a serious international crisis. The US threatened to use military force against the government of President Bashar Assad, which it blamed for the attack. The tension was defused after a Russian-brokered deal to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal. Damascus insists that the August incident and several previous cases of alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria were provocations by opposition forces. Russia shares this view. Earlier Russian diplomatic sources said the August sarin gas attack was a special operation of Saudi Arabian intelligence conducted with the help of a radical Islamist militant group operating near Damascus. The group called Liwa Al-Islam is headed by the son of a Saudi cleric. US Covered-Up for Decades the Largest Use of Biological & Chemical Weapons in History There are many reasons why one should oppose the military action against Syria being planned by the Obama administration. But given that the action is being trumpeted as a righteous response to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government, there is one reason to oppose the U.S. action that carries with it more than the usual amount of painful irony. It is difficult to know how to introduce this subject, as it is so dark and evil, and the U.S. population has been lied to for so long about it, that I fear the initial reaction very likely can only be shock and denial. And yet, the crimes to which I am about to refer are quite well documented, and were themselves the focus of a Congressional bill in 2000 directing the National Archives to specially search for and release the relevant documentation. The deaths involved are said to approach half-a-million souls, and the injuries of many are still ongoing. Kept “Top Secret” in “Intelligence Channels” Here, in summary, are the primary facts. As you read this, remember that the U.S. government not only amnestied those involved in the following war crimes, but paid them for the information they could provide, and in some cases hired them. The decision was made by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the State Department, and possibly the new CIA and the new president, Truman. The idea for the deal was prompted by General Douglas MacArthur, military doctors at Ft. Detrick, and officials in the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service. It was famously decided that all that you are about to read now would be kept as “top secret,” not to be released outside “intelligence channels.” And it wasn’t… for about 35 years. From the time the Japanese Imperial Army occupied Manchuria (in the early 1930s) until the end of World War II, its special Unit 731, and dozens of associated units, engaged in wide-scale lethal experiments on biological and chemical warfare, including the use of poisons for assassination purposes and the wide-scale use of herbicides. These experiments were conducted on thousands of prisoners, estimates ranging from 3000 to 20,000 POWs and civilian prisoners. The exact number may never be known. Many of these prisoners were experimented upon without anaesthesia and by way of vivisection. The prisoners at the central Unit 731 facility at Pingfan in Manchuria were incinerated in crematoria after the military doctors were done with them. As I recently was able to derive by research into Soviet documents, some of the prisoners — called “marutas” or “logs” by Japanese researchers and military officials – sent for lethal experimentation by Unit 731, Unit 100, and like facilities were military or intelligence agency prisoners who could not be trusted to remain silent about the torture they had received from Japanese interrogators. As did the Nazis, Japanese researchers conducted experiments on malaria, syphilis, and on freezing. (Japanese and German collaboration on these programs was likely closer than previously thought.) Male prisoners were forced to rape female prisoners in order to inoculate them with venereal disease. Other prisoners were forced to stay outside in sub-zero temperatures, as part of Japanese military frostbite experiments. Some prisoners were tied to stakes and had munitions loaded with bacteria exploded nearby them, the shrapnel embedding itself in their exposed skin. Other prisoners were tricked into taking food or medications that had cyanide, hallucinogenic substances, and opiates. Though the US government specifically denies it, some of the prisoners were also US POWs held at Japan’s Mukden POW camp, and possibly other camps as well. (An academic book on the subject was published by Naval Institute Press a few years ago.) Large-scale Use of Biological Weapons in War Was Covered-Up But the experiments were only part of the crimes, as the Imperial Army implemented the use of the bacteriological weapons against the Chinese and Soviets during World War II, killing, according to recent estimates, somewhere between a quarter and half-a-million people with plague, typhoid, and other diseases, and leaving others injured for life. Japan bombed cities with specially constructed bacterial bombs, as part of a plan that included well-poisonings, the release of infected rats and fleas (bred specially for the purpose), and other forms of mass inoculations. After World War II and the blanket amnesty for all the BW researchers, who were led by Kwantung Army Lt. General Shiro Ishii, British and Canadian researchers have alleged that some of the Japanese personnel were utilized in a campaign of biological warfare by the United States during the Korean War. The issue is still hotly debated today, and the U.S. still keeps secret today many documents related to that war. The crimes of Unit 731 and assorted entities, the U.S. amnesty of those involved, and collaboration with Ishii and others in collecting the “scientific” information taken from the murder of thousands, would have remained secret forever, had it not been for the conscience of a few of those Japanese scientists and technicians involved who came forward to talk to Japanese researchers in the mid-1970s. In America, the revelations were due to the tireless work of journalist John W. Powell, who used FOIA extensively to document the case of the U.S. cover-up, publishing in 1981. Even so, the subject has never entirely entered the mainstream of U.S. consciousness. Japan’s Use of Chemical Weapons in China The crimes of the Japanese Imperial Army were not limited to bacteriological weapons. They also used chemical weapons extensively in China from 1937 until 1945, according to declassified US records. But you won’t read much about that in any secondary sources, as the records on this were scooped up by the Americans and Soviets, and the event practically written out of history. None of the Japanese military hierarchy tried after the war for war crimes were charged with use of chemical or bacteriological weapons. Those involved were protected by the U.S. military and amnestied for any crimes. The knowledge of the weaponry involved, including that derived through lethal experiments, was sent to Ft. Detrick, the CIA, and other “intelligence channels.” If anything, the size of the chemical war and the damages and fatalities wrought thereby are even more secret today than Japan’s biological weapons program. The scope of the chemical war unleashed in China can be ascertained by the damage left afterward. According to Nationalist Chinese sources in Taipei, approximately 700,000 chemical munitions were left abandoned in China after World War II. The Chinese government says that approximately 2,000 people still die each year from encounters with such ordinance. An ongoing clean-up of the chemical mess, in part paid for by Japan, is still ongoing in 2013. When recently, for a longer article I am writing relating to this subject, I asked DoD for official response to these issues, the DoD spokesperson referred me to Ft. Detrick’s public affairs office. The official at Ft. Detrick said they had no knowledge of these events and could not comment, all relevant material having been sent to the National Archives years ago. Meanwhile, a former official at Ft. Detrick confirmed to me a statement that he made to historian Sheldon Harris in 1999 concerning the destruction of records on Unit 731 at Ft. Detrick occurring as late as 1998. I’ll have more to say about that in the future, but meanwhile those interested can pursue the matter at this link from the Congressional Record. U.S. Record Makes It Impossible to Trust Their Statements on Chemical or Biological Warfare Dangers The final point concerns the relevancy of the material above with the aims of the U.S. government to bomb Syria for the purported use of chemical weapons. The argument is simple. The actions of the U.S. government for decades on the matter of biological and chemical weapons demonstrate that it cannot be trusted on this matter. The government was intimately involved with cover-ups on the use of these weapons. Their cover-up is likely still ongoing. Recently, the Washington Post published an article by Joby Warrick on possible dangers from Syrian use of biological weaponry. The story is specious on its own account, but it is also telling that Warrick never refers to any of the facts I’ve related above about the U.S. history with Unit 731. Furthermore, as awful as the material involved here is, it must be assessed in the context of other U.S. criminal activities associated with biological and chemical warfare, from the lies told about WMD, leading to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, to experiments done on U.S. citizens, to the facilitation of chemical weapon attacks by other countries, e.g., Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Certainly, the videos released on the Internet, most lately with the imprimatur of Congressional Intelligence committees, contain scenes of ghastly deaths that are frightening to watch. The constant bombardment of propaganda from media and government sources, not least supposed “liberal” or “progressive” politicians, is meant to achieve a sense of urgency and fear in the population that will allow at the least acquiescence towards the military’s new war actions in the Middle East. I hope that bringing up the history of the United States in relation to the largest operational use of biological and chemical weapons in history will give pause to those who are otherwise credulous of U.S. intentions. The record is clear: the U.S. has lied and covered-up when it comes to biological and chemical weapons, and government sources cannot be trusted, certainly not when the bulk of their information is kept secret from the public.

We, The Thildren Of Iran, Are The Messengers Of Peace

Investigation Into When The US Decided To Bring Down The Assad Government Of Syria

Hi folks. I will attempt to document the US involvement in the overthrow of the Syrian government. I am doing this due to the almost blackout on the MSM of what the US has been doing. Please understand that it is almost impossible to find Western MSM reports on this. This interview of Abdul Halim Khaddam is dubed in English. In this interview Abdul Halim Khaddam admits that he has accepted funds from the US and others to overthrow the government of Syria, led by Assad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-F0jwD0qxg The embedding feature has been disabled. http://lebanonspring.com/2011/05/17/khaddam-the-idiot-traitor/ Khaddam: the idiot traitor 17 Tuesday May 2011 Posted by Zak in Media Monitoring, Politics, Syria, TV Al-Manar, a Hezbollah controlled Lebanese TV channel, broke the news last Friday to the Lebanese & Arab audience, about the interview Abdul Halim Khaddam, the Syrian ex-Vice President, gave to the Israeli TV Channel 2 from his exile. Al-Manar closely monitors the Israeli media sources. Their monitoring proved to be efficient in managing the physiological and military war with Israel. I think they made a scoop this time, but I have a view on it! At the first instance, I thought that can’t be right. Why the ex-Syrian senior official wants to do such an interview. What’s the benefit for him? As if, there are no enough Arab stations to go for. Why he wants to prove something, he is being accused of – a ‘traitor’! I know traitors are not usually idiots, and can well stay undercover. Khaddam’s office issued a statement on the following day explaining that he didn’t know anything about an Israeli channel, and the interview was supposed to be done by a Spanish channel. They quoted too, some email exchanges to prove their point. Al-Manar TV picked on two main points against Khaddam: the first one was that he knew/involved with the NATO to overthrow the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad. Fair enough, although it was not shown in his own words in Arabic, only in Hebrew through the Israeli commentator. The other point was that Khaddam thought a potential new Syrian regime should adopt the King Abdullah peace initiative with Israel (which is based on 1991 Madrid Conference). Hence, Al-Manar TV proved his treason. Note how the video is edited to make the talk on peace follow the talk on ‘priorities’ (@ 3:01). Anyway, I got baffled here with the attack on the ‘peace’ with Israel: isn’t this the official line of the Lebanese and Syrian governments, with the rest of Arab states, which was adopted and repeated in many Arab League summits? The funnier thing was when the Syrian State TV copied Al-Manar’s tone, and he became a ‘traitor’ on the Syrian Tv. Of course I am not defending Khaddam here, but I am just seeking some objectivity in reporting the news from our Lebanese stations (at least). If I want to be mild, I would say it’s often based on emotions and instinct – sadly. I don’t defend Khaddam because he is indefensible. He held what was called then the ‘Lebanese file’ in the Syrian leadership, so we know him well in Lebanon! He was the Syrian Foreign Minister (1970) and Vice-President (1982) and stayed until 2005. So he pretty much covered the Lebanese Civil War. According to a recent Syrian drama series Laanat El Toeen (the mud curse) – approved by the Syrian government - he was the ultimate master for all the crimes and corruption in the regime. Ironically, he is a great ally now for Saad Hariri, America and other Western governments, instead of trialing him. If I go to the Israeli reporting side, I see Channel 2 was hypocrite. They conspired on their guest to get the interview, without making it clear where this interview will end up. I base my view on what the interviewer Henryk Zimmerman said @ 3:34 in the enclosed video (in Arabic & some Hebrew), that Khaddam ‘practically’ knew. What does that mean? This means they haven’t discussed it, and he hasn’t made it clear to Khaddam that they are from the Israeli TV. I couldn’t e-search a related profile for Henryk Zimmerman (not sure about the spelling too), but it would be useful to see his CV! If Khaddam didn’t know about interview identity (which is likely), then he is an idiot because he should have known. However, if he knew about it directly or indirectly, then he is an idiot ‘traitor’! ................... http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL33487_20100426.pdf Although it is difficult for opposition activists to organize inside Syria, an array of dissident groups freely operate abroad, particularly in Western Europe. In March 2006, former Syrian VicePresident Abd al Halim Khaddam and Sadr al Din al Bayanuni, the London-based leader of Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, formed The National Salvation Front (NSF), a coalition of secular and Islamist opposition activists based primarily outside of Syria. The NSF, which attempts to bridge the gap between religious and secular Syrians, is non-sectarian though its membership appears to be mostly Sunni. It has called for the peaceful removal of the Asad regime without outside intervention, though some analysts doubt that the NSF will be able to make inroads within Syrian society due to the regime’s effective security apparatus. Syrian authorities have prevented many dissidents from leaving Syria. Reportedly, the NSF held regular meetings with Bush Administration officials from the State Department and National Security Council in order to discuss ways of promoting democracy in Syria.5 ................ . http://news.intelwire.com/2011/05/declassified-state-department-cables-on.html Another cable dated May 10, 2002 described a meeting between former U.S. Ambassador Theodore Kattouf and former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam: The Ambassador interjected that the U.S. was not concerned about Hizballah's past resistance activities inside Lebanon. Although we strongly disagree with Hizballah's aims, we did not take issue with it playing a social and political role in Lebanon. But Hizballah was implicated in the 1996 Khobar Tower bombings in Saudi Arabia, something the ambassador knows firsthand, since he was the charge, and in bombings in Argentina in the early 90s. Beyond this, the U.S. would neither forget nor forgive Imad Mughniyeh and his associates for their attacks on U.S. personnel in Lebanon during the 1980s. .... what this report fails to mention is his family relationship with harii and his taKING FUNDS FROM THE us TO DESTABILIZE sYRIA AND OVERTHROW aSSAD. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/former-syrian-vp-set-to-form-government-in-exile-1.62220 Asked in an interview with the Spiegel news magazine if he was forming a government-in-exile, Khaddam said: "That is correct." He said he was willing to cooperate with all political forces in Syria, from Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood to disenchanted members of the ruling Baath Party. .... .... http://www.voltairenet.org/article176401.html THIERRY MEYSSAN The war against Syria was decided by George W. Bush in a meeting at Camp David on September 15, 2001 only a few days after the attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon. At that time, they prepared a list of the countries they would be attacking, and now it’s time for Syria. During the past 11 years, the U.S. has been trying to start a war with Syria, and you remember that they had accused President Bashar al-Assad of being responsible for the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. This war against Syria began in February 2011, at the same time with the war against Libya, and many people are confused, because quite at the same moment, we have the revolutionary events in Tunisia, and some may think that the revolution in Tunisia is equal to the imperialist wars in Libya and Syria. Of course, when the U.S. sent some troops to Syria to wage a war, it didn’t send men in uniform; they used secret agents to make trouble inside Syria and justify an international military action. Because Russia and China vetoed their draft resolutions at the UN, they weren’t able to enter Syria with the assistance of NATO, as they did in Libya. So they choose the plan b, and this plan was to send mercenaries with the financial aid of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and destabilize the country and to provoke a military coup d’etat inside Syria, and Ms. Clinton repeatedly talked about such a coup in Syria. But as this plan failed, we saw two big operations; one being the July 18 when they bombed the residence of the main leader of the National Security Council of Syria, and also September 26 plan when they tried, but failed, to kill the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff. A great resistance by the army hindered their plans for a military coup. So, they don’t have any other solution, and probably they will accept the peace plan of Russia. ............ TEHRAN TIMES Some critics of President Assad have said that the government has been killing unarmed civilians and opening fire on its own citizens since the beginning of unrest in the country. Is this true? THIERRY MEYSSAN This is absolutely wrong. During the first days of the unrest in Syria, President Assad gave the instruction to the army not to use firearms when they think they could harm the civilians and I have definitely carried out some research and conducted several interviews with different military officials in different places of the country and all of them can testify that during the first period of the unrest, the army never used firearm against the civilians; never. Because of that, during this period, the army has suffered many loses and the number of army people killed was far greater than the number of army people killed during the war with Israel. So, that belief is absolutely wrong. However, things changed a little bit after the July 18 bombing of Damascus. After that, President Bashar al-Assad gave the order to army to kill the terrorists, and the army now has the mission to kill the rebels, instead of imprisoning them. So of course now, the action is now much more deadly and some civilians will naturally be killed during the fights. There’s no other choice. Another point is that the strength of the national army is about 400,000 soldiers and of course there may be some war criminals inside the army; it’s possible. They have to be arrested, prosecuted, condemned and put in jail. But the president has not so far given such an order, although some war criminals of the army have been arrested, but it’s difficult in this situation to make the whole things clear. .............. Please do check links under Syria on the left hand side, as embeded links can be found, such as this one... http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/Report_of_Arab_League_Observer_Mission.pdf ...........

Snowden's Ecapade Exposes The Decline Of US Hegemony

US Demands Land On Deaf Ears


The world remains enthrall today, as the Obama follies continue. Snowden, neither a spy nor a hero remains at large, while US elected representatives of We The People stamp their feet in frustration. These same senators and reps want us to enter the Syria conflict, while some 86% of We The People don't. In my opinion, rarely overtly expressed on my blog posts, the world is weary of the US's endless wars of choice, which have resulted in hundreds of millions of displaced people, not to mention the dead, and disabled.

True, the countries mentioned in the video have suffered repeatedly at the hands of the US, but the defiance exhibited by Russia, China, Hong Kong, to name the first three, is more than just tit for tat. The US has lost the respect of these entities.

Causes Of Unrest In Syria

Bashir al Assad became King of Syria after 2 decades of worsening drought, and at the beginning of the Iraq war which flooded Syria with refugees. Sadly, relief efforts were designed for temporary relief, in the expectation that eventually the drought would end. It did not, and the past ten years have been the worst, destroying the fertile farms of Syria's heartland.

Climate Change Ravages Syria:



This is a humanitarian crisis.



For the past decade Syria has been surrounded by war on four sides.



Syria's Grand Mufti rails against Sunni Wahhabism that incites strife between Shia and Sunni Muslims.



The Mufti of Syria, a Sunni Muslim, speaks about the Wahabi media machine that has faithfully continued the work of the Umayyad media machine that started 14 centuries ago in distorting historic facts to justify their false supremacy over humanity and other Islamic schools of thought.

In this short clip, the Mufti contrasts Imam Ali and Muawiya, without mentioning any names of course. Ironically, the sermon is given in the city that was once Muawiya's capital city.

Yet another confirmation that Wahabiism is a cancerous tumor that continues to cause strife between Sunnis and Shia and Muslims and Non-Muslims.
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http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/05/syrian-conflict-failed-sectarian-analysis.html

Christians forced into exile



Christians live in fear of FSA



It has been reported that the Obama Administration is making "deals" in the mid east to ensure they can keep air bases in Afghanistan.

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8000 Saudi Terrorists, Armed With Weapons Made In America, Continue Killing Syrians.

President Obama promises to send weapons to the 'moderate rebels' fighting jihad against Syria,a secular Muslim state. The reality is, they already have US arms, and the Saudis are sending them missiles. Does Obama really thing this will 'help' the Syrian people? Or bring the end of war any sooner?



Syrian army forces have killed a large number of Saudi militants during
mop-up operations against armed groups in the strategic city of Aleppo.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/06/17/309436/syrian-army-kills-saudi-militants/

On Sunday, a number of Saudi gunmen were killed during intense clashes with Syrian troops in the Kafr Hamra district of Aleppo, situated about 310 kilometers (193 miles) northwest of the capital, Damascus, the official SANA news agency reported. 
The development comes as the bodies of 70 Saudi nationals fighting against the Syrian government have been returned to Saudi Arabia. 

A Saudi source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the bodies were delivered to the country at King Fahad International Airport in the city of Dammam. 

The source said the Saudi regime had sent a number of diplomats to Turkey in order to facilitate the transfer process. 

He also said there are currently about 8,000 Saudi nationals in Syria fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 

Additionally, Syrian troops clashed with militants affiliated to the terrorist group al-Nusra Front near Aleppo’s Kilikia Association, Maaret al-Artik and Einjara School. Dozens of gunmen were killed in the heavy exchange of fire. Two 23mm anti-aircraft guns and a number of heavy machineguns were destroyed. 

A terrorist hideout was also raided by the Syrian forces in the village of Daret Azza, and several gunmen were killed. 

Meanwhile, Syrian troops inflicted heavy losses on terrorists during offensives on the outskirts of Damascus. 

Syrian troops clashed with militants in the town of al-Ahmadia, killing and injuring a number of them. 

Government forces also stormed a terrorist hideout in the city of Douma, located about 10 kilometers (six miles) northeast of Damascus, and shot dead scores of militants.



In clashes between the Syrian troops and militants in the city of al-Zabadani, a Takfiri militant commander, identified as Suleiman Tinawi, was killed. (Tinawi was a sargent in the Syrian military before he defected 8 months ago.)

A unit of the Syrian army also attacked gunmen in the town of Babila, where a large amount of arms and munitions was destroyed, and the leader of a local militant group, Amer Rashwan, was killed. 

Syrian troops also engaged al-Nusra militants in the town of al-Hajar al-Aswad. 

Syria has been gripped by a deadly unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of Syrian soldiers, have been killed in the violence. 

On June 14, Louay Meqdad, a representative of the so-called Free Syrian Army, said the terrorist group will ask for tanks, warplanes and other heavy weapons during an upcoming meeting with US and Western officials in Turkey. 

“We are going to ask them directly and clearly that we need tanks and the air jets, all weapons that they can offer us,” the representative stated. 

President Assad said in May that militants from as many as 29 different countries were fighting against the government in different parts of the country.



The 'moderate rebels' work together with the 'extremist rebels.' When faced with Syrian troops, the foreign backed commanders pull back the 'Free Syrian Army,' and send al Nusra to the front lines. 



Folks, you can be sure that any arms Obama sends to the 'moderate rebels' will be TAKEN by the 'extremist rebels' so they can use them to fight against the Syrians.



Meanwhile, the Taliban open a political office in Qatar. 
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Guardian's Reports of Surveillance of Diplomats Blows G8 Ship Off Course!

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Leaders of the Group of 8 (G-8) nations were supposed to be talking about economic growth and trade deals at their meeting in Northern Ireland. But events in Syria and the continuous string of leaks from Edward Snowden have derailed that agenda.

Read more at http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/06/17/Syria-Snowden-Threaten-to-Derail-G-8-Talks.aspx#sVFpRgtrhMq3MoKr.99

The Guardian cited more than half a dozen internal government documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden as the basis for its reporting on GCHQ's intelligence operations, which it says involved, among other things, hacking into the South African foreign ministry's computer network, targeting the Turkish delegation at the 2009 Group of 20 summit in London and using the vast spying base at northern England's Menwith Hill to monitor the satellite communications of Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev.


http://www.thepublicopinion.com/news/associated_press/national/europe/article_9030a589-7ded-5532-80f5-e8c4080b74d1.html


One document cited by the Guardian _ but not posted to its website _ appeared to boast of GCHQ's tapping into smartphones. The Guardian quoted the document as saying that "capabilities against BlackBerry provided advance copies of G-20 briefings to ministers." It went on to say that "Diplomatic targets from all nations have an MO (a habit) of using smartphones," adding that spies "exploited this use at the G-20 meetings last year."


Another document cited _ but also not posted _ concerned GCHQ's use of a customized Internet cafe which was "able to extract key logging info, providing creds (credentials) for delegates, meaning we have sustained intelligence options against them even after conference has finished." No further details were given, but the reference to key logging suggested that computers at the cafe would have been pre-installed with malicious software designed to spy on key strokes, steal passwords and eavesdrop on emails.


Aldrich said that revelation stuck out as particularly ingenious.


"It's a bit `Mission Impossible,'" he said.


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Our Country In Distress

Today, after months of refusing to allow the US to be sucked into the Syrian conflic, Obama announced that 'we' would arm the 'good' Syrian rebels, as opposed to the nasty Syrian Rebels. He was provoked to take this action due to Bashir al Assad driving the ruthless al Q linked 'rebels,' called terrorists by President Assad, out of Qusair. Sadly, Obama has not armed the Syrian rebels due to fear the arms would get into the hands of these al Q rebels, so, there is agreement on that front between the two presidents. 

Flying an American flag upside down is a distress signal, and in my opinion the wrongful decision to get involved in another war of choice puts us, the US, in distress. 

Benghazi Cover up?

There has been no acceptable explanation for not rescuing Americans under siege in Benghazi, and nothing less than a special House committee investigation will satisfy the retired U.S. Army general who played a key role in organizing a letter signed by more than 700 special operations veterans in demanding the formation of the special committee.

Sharyl Attkisson interviews Lt. Colonel Andrew Wood about Benghazi on October 8, 2012

Looks like the State Department systematically REMOVED security around Ambassador Stevens despite repeated requests for more. Hillary Clinton was head of the State Department at the time. Was Hillary acting on orders from President Obama or was her orders to remove security around Ambassador Stevens a rogue life-costing mistake?

Sharyl Attkisson, CBS, computers hacked!!!

Why did Obama announce he would arm Syrian rebels now? Would this announcement get the NSA PRISM story off the front pages?

HK Protesters march on US Consulate in support of Snowden, who exposed the NSA spying on Hong Kong and China. How very embarrassing for Obama, who just met with President Xi, while publically shaming China for spying on the US.

Meanwhile, Bradley manning is on trial for his life, and Jullian Assange is in virtual house arrest in Embassy in London. Daniel Ellsberg raises the key issue.

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2013-06/14/content_29120530.htm
Taking Liberty

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Fast and Syrious

http://raymondpronk.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/fast-and-syrious-obamas-gun-running-benghazie-cia-operation-with-syrian-rebels-strawmen-for-al-qaeda-videos/

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US MSM A Tool Of US Government

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I will be villified, and the government will use the media to do it....Snowden

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James Snowden has 'fled' to Hong Kong, after the Washington Post revealed to the US Government that there was a leak. 
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/06/10/edward-snowden-the-washington-post-whistleblowers/

Hong Kong was returned to Chinese sovereignty amid MSM protestations that Chinese "jack boot" troops would destroy the British Colony. China promised to preserve the so called freedoms people in Hong Kong enjoyed. Just this past week 10s of thousands commemorate the Tienanmen demonstration. Obviously China was true to her promises and the MSM was overexcited. I selected this video to capture the nature of freedom that Snowden described as his reason to seek refuge from US persecution, because this video presentation doen not claim there was a 'massacre' in Tiananmen, and in fact, there was no massacre. However, due to massive MSM excitement, most folks continue to believe there was a massacre and that China is covering it up. 

I was there at the time, and when I returned home, I called the DOS to complain that the MSM was brainwashing American People into believing there was a massacre when there was not. I was "informed" by the DOS that "in America" we have a "free press" that can report anything they want, that the public does NOT have the right to know, and although the DOS knows the truth, under US law, they are NOT required to inform the American People as to the facts.

Obama loves leaks, hates whistleblowers!

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/the-administration/300981-president-obama-loves-leaks-despises-whistleblowers


It is ironic that The Washington Post and The New York Times claim that the Obama administration has aggressively pursued leakers seeing that both media sources have happily provided Obama administration officials with anonymity so they can leak classified information favorable to the President without consequence.

Somehow, The Washington Posts’ June 1, 2012, report on the Obama administration’s use of cyber warfare must have slipped through the cracks at the White House and the DOJ. The Washington Post reported that the U.S. and Israel were behind Stuxnet, the cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Prior to this report, there had been speculation that the U.S. and Israel were behind the attack, but no official confirmation. Confirmation was provided to The Washington Post by an official “speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the classified effort code-named Olympic Games.”

These cracks must be enormous to have let the three dozen current and former Obama administration officials who contributed to The New York Time’s expose on drones slip through them. On May 29, 2012, The New York Times revealed that Obama maintains a ‘Kill List’ and that he counts all military-age males killed in drone strikes as combatants unless proven innocent posthumously. Regarding the president’s indiscriminate counting method, one official “requested anonymity to speak about what is still a classified program.”

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has charged six whistle-blowers, a term apparently not in The New York Times’s or The Washington Post’s editorial vocabulary, under the Espionage Act. These six individuals have revealed government waste, fraud, and abuse, acts of aggression, torture and war crimes. Yet, it is those who have revealed the criminal activity that have suffered prosecution by the Obama administration while those who actually committed the crimes have gone unpunished.

On Feb. 22, 2012, in response to Obama’s deserved glowing praise of journalists in Syria, Jake Tapper asked White House press secretary Jay Carney, “How does that square with the fact that this administration has been so aggressively trying to stop aggressive journalism in the United States by using the Espionage Act to take whistle-blowers to court?”

The Obama administration has sent a clear message. Government officials and journalists who wish to work together to create news stories through the leak of classified information that portray the president and his administration in a positive light should have no fear. And to the journalists and whistle-blowers thinking about publishing that other kind of classified information, be prepared to have your emails read, your phones tapped without your knowledge and your life and career turned upside down.



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Obama's Malicious Prosecution Of Whistleblowers.

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Attorney Jesslyn Radack: More whistle blowers have been charged during Obama admin. then all other presidents together (speech at Sam Adams Awards).




Jesselyn Radack was the Justice Dept attorney who stood up for the Constitutional rights of John Walker Lindh, a young U.S. citizen captured in Afghanistan and widely denigrated as the "American Taliban." Lindh became the first American to be tortured by Americans there. Radack revealed Lindh had not been allowed a lawyer and other rights. The Justice Department then made Racack a target of a criminal investigation and put her on the "No-Fly" List. She is now the Human Rights Director for the Government Accountability Project.

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Radack sued DOJ, alleging that its Office of Professional Responsibility violated the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Administrative Procedure Act in connection with its referral of professional misconduct allegations to District of Columbia and Maryland Bar officials.[17] The lawsuit was dismissed in 2006.[31]

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Sometimes the Journalists and the MSM do their duty to inform the public, while, at other times, some Journalists, are in league with those Government, and/or business entities, to defame and discredit the Whistle blowers, permitting massive fraud and unconstitutional wrongdoing to continue.

Even today, the US Government continues to prevent the American People from hearing Bradley Manning.

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Ironically, Bradley manning is being prosecuted for aiding the enemy, al quada, while al quada was still being used as a US asset! The US Government continues to cover up our involvement with terrorists.

http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/whistleblower-al-qaeda-chief-u-s-asset/

A whistleblower has revealed extraordinary information on the U.S. government’s support for international terrorist networks and organised crime. The government has denied the allegations yet gone to extraordinary lengths to silence her. Her critics have derided her as a fabulist and fabricator. But now comes word that some of her most serious allegations were confirmed by a major European newspaper only to be squashed at the request of the U.S. government.

In a recent  book Classified Woman, Sibel Edmonds, a former translator for the FBI, describes how the Pentagon, CIA and State Department maintained intimate ties to al-Qaeda militants as late as 2001. Her memoir, Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story, published last year, charged senior government officials with negligence, corruption and collaboration with al Qaeda in illegal arms smuggling and drugs trafficking in Central Asia.

In interviews with this author in early March, Edmonds claimed that Ayman al-Zawahiri, current head of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s deputy at the time, had innumerable, regular meetings at the U.S. embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, with U.S. military and intelligence officials between 1997 and 2001, as part of an operation known as ‘Gladio B’. Al-Zawahiri, she charged, as well as various members of the bin Laden family and other mujahideen, were transported on NATO planes to various parts of Central Asia and the Balkans to participate in Pentagon-backed destabilisation operations.

According to two Sunday Times journalists speaking on condition of anonymity, this and related revelations had been confirmed by senior Pentagon and MI6 officials as part of a four-part investigative series that were supposed to run in 2008. The Sunday Times journalists described how the story was inexplicably dropped under the pressure of undisclosed “interest groups”, which, they suggest, were associated with the U.S. State Department.

Shooting the Messenger

Described by the American Civil Liberties Union as the “most gagged person in the history of the United States of America,” Edmonds studied criminal justice, psychology and public policy at  George Washington and George Mason universities. Two weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, her fluency in Turkish, Farsi and Azerbaijani earned her an FBI contract at the Washington DC field office. She was tasked with translating highly classified intelligence from operations against terrorism suspects in and outside the U.S..

In the course of her work, Edmonds became privy to evidence that U.S. military and intelligence agencies were collaborating with Islamist militants affiliated with al-Qaeda, the very forces blamed for the 9/11 attacks – and that officials in the FBI were covering up the evidence. When Edmonds complained to her superiors, her family was threatened by one of the subjects of her complaint, and she was fired. Her accusations of espionage against her FBI colleagues were eventually investigated by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, which did not give details about the allegations as they remained classified.

Although no final conclusions about the espionage allegations were reached, the Justice Departmentconcluded that many of Edmonds’ accusations “were supported, that the FBI did not take them seriously enough and that her allegations were, in fact, the most significant factor in the FBI’s decision to terminate her services.”

When she attempted to go public with her story in 2002, and again in 2004, the U.S. government silenced Edmonds by invoking a legal precedent known as “state secrets privilege” – a near limitless power to quash a lawsuit based solely on the government’s claim that evidence or testimony could divulge information that might undermine “national security.” Under this doctrine, the government sought to retroactively classify basic information concerning Edmonds’s case already in the public record, including, according to the New York Times, “what languages Ms. Edmonds translated, what types of cases she handled, and what employees she worked with, officials said. Even routine and widely disseminated information — like where she worked — is now classified.”

Although certainly not the first invocation of “state secrets privilege”, since the Edmonds case the precedent has been used repeatedly in the post-9/11 era under both the Bush and Obama administrations to shield the U.S. government from court scrutiny of rendition, torture, warrantless wiretapping, as well as the President’s claimed war powers.

Other intelligence experts agree that Edmonds had stumbled upon a criminal conspiracy at the heart of the American judicial system. In her memoirs, she recounts that FBI Special Agent Gilbert Graham, who also worked in the Washington field office on counter-intelligence operations, told her over a coffee how he “ran background checks on federal judges” in the “early nineties for the bureau… If we came up with shit – skeletons in their closets – the Justice Department kept it in their pantry to be used against them in the future or to get them to do what they want in certain cases – cases like yours.”A redacted version of Graham’s classified protected disclosure to the Justice Department regarding these allegations, released in 2007, refers to the FBI’s “abuse of authority” by conducting illegal wiretapping to obtain information on U.S. public officials.

Incubating Terror

Five years ago, Edmonds revealed to the Sunday Times that an unidentified senior U.S. State Department official was on the payroll of Turkish agents in Washington, passing on nuclear and military secrets. “He was aiding foreign operatives against U.S. interests by passing them highly classified information, not only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in exchange for money, position and political objectives”, Edmonds told the paper. She reported coming across this information when listening to suppressed phone calls recorded by FBI surveillance, marked by her colleague Melek Can Dickerson as “not pertinent”.

In the Sunday Times exposé, Edmonds described a parallel organisation in Israel cooperating with the Turks on illegal weapons sales and technology transfers. Between them, Israel and Turkey operated a range of front companies incorporated in the U.S. with active “moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions”, supported by U.S. officials, in order to sell secrets to the highest bidder. One of the  buyers was Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) – which often used its Turkish allies, according to the Times, “as a conduit… because they were less likely to attract suspicion.”

The Pakistani operation was, the paper reported,  “led by General Mahmoud Ahmad, then the ISI chief” from 1999 to 2001, when the agency helped train, supply and coordinate the Afghan Taliban and gave sanctuary to their Arab allies brought together in the coalition named al-Qaeda. Ahmad, as theTimes noted, “was accused [by the FBI] of sanctioning a $100,000 wire payment to Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, immediately before the attacks.”

According to Indian intelligence officials, they had assisted the FBI in “tracing and establishing” the financial trail between the General and the chief hijacker. The discovery was, they allege, the real reason behind the General’s sudden retirement in October 2001. The Pakistani daily, The News, reported on 10th September 2001 that the ISI chief held several “mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council” that week, including with CIA director George Tenet.

In an interview with this author in March, Edmonds raised the question of whether U.S. officials’ liaisons with an espionage network overseen by Ahmad, and the FBI’s suppression of related intelligence, played a role in facilitating the attacks.

“Following 9/11, a number of the foreign operatives were taken in for questioning by the FBI on suspicion that they knew about or somehow aided the attacks”, reported the Sunday Times. The paper related that according to Edmonds, the senior State Department official received a call from a foreign agent under FBI surveillance asking for help to “get them out of the U.S. because we can’t afford for them to spill the beans.” The official promised “he would ‘take care of it’.”

Edmonds told this author that high-level corruption compromised the ability of the U.S. intelligence community to pursue ongoing investigations of those planning the 9/11 attacks. “It was precisely those militants that were incubated by some of America’s key allies”, she said. Corruption helped  guarantee Congressional silence when that incubation strategy backfired in the form of 9/11. “Both Republican and Democratic representatives in the House and Senate came up in FBI counterintelligence investigations for taking bribes from foreign agents”, she said.

Al-Qaeda: Enemy or Asset?

In her interview, Edmonds  insisted that after its initial exposé, the Times‘ investigation had gone beyond such previous revelations, and was preparing to disclose her most startling accusations. Among these, Edmonds described how the CIA and the Pentagon had been running a series of covert operations supporting Islamist militant networks linked to Osama bin Laden right up to 9/11, in Central Asia, the Balkans and the Caucasus.

While it is widely recognised that the CIA sponsored bin Laden’s networks in Afghanistan during the Cold War, U.S. government officials deny any such ties existed. Others claim these ties were real, but were severed after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989.

But according to Edmonds, this narrative is false. “Not just bin Laden, but several senior ‘bin Ladens’ were transported by U.S. intelligence back and forth to the region in the late 1990s through to 2001″, she told this author, “including Ayman al-Zawahiri” – Osama bin Laden’s right-hand-man who has taken over as al-Qaeda’s top leader.

“In the late 1990s, all the way up to 9/11, al-Zawahiri and other mujahideen operatives were meeting regularly with senior U.S. officials in the U.S. embassy in Baku to plan the Pentagon’s Balkan operations with the mujahideen,” said Edmonds. “We had support for these operations from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but the U.S. oversaw and directed them. They were being run from a secret section of the Pentagon with its own office”.

Edmonds clarified, “the FBI counterintelligence investigation which was tracking these targets, along with their links to U.S. officials, was known as ‘Gladio B’, and was kickstarted in 1997. It so happens that Major Douglas Dickerson” – the husband of her FBI co-worker Melek whom she accused of espionage – “specifically directed the Pentagon’s ‘Gladio’ operations in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan at this time.”

In testimony under oath, Edmonds has previously confirmed that Major Doug Dickerson worked for the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) under the weapons procurement logistics division on Turkey and Central Asia, and with the Office of Special Plans (OSP) overseeing policy in Central Asia.

Gladio B

Edmonds said that the Pentagon operations with Islamists were an “extension” of an original ‘Gladio’ programme uncovered in the 1970s in Italy, part of an EU-wide NATO covert operation that began as early as the 1940s. As Swiss historian Dr. Daniele Ganser records in his seminal book, NATO’s Secret Armies, an official Italian parliamentary inquiry confirmed that British MI6 and the CIA had established a network of secret “stay-behind” paramilitary armies, staffed by fascist and Nazi collaborators. The covert armies carried out terrorist attacks throughout Western Europe, officially blamed on Communists in what Italian military intelligence called the ‘strategy of tension’.

“You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game” explained Gladio operative Vincenzo Vinciguerra during his  trial in 1984. “The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people… to turn to the State to ask for greater security.”

While the reality of Gladio’s existence in Europe is a matter of historical record, Edmonds contended the same strategy was adopted by the Pentagon in the 1990s in a new theatre of operations, namely, Asia. “Instead of using neo-Nazis, they used mujahideen working under various bin Ladens, as well as al-Zawahiri”, she said.

The last publicly known Gladio meeting occurred in NATO’s Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) in Brussels in 1990. While Italy was a focal point for the older European operations, Edmonds said that Turkey and Azerbaijan served as the main conduits for a completely new, different set of operations in Asia using veterans of the anti-Soviet campaign in Afghanistan, the so-called “Afghan Arabs” that had been trained by al-Qaeda.

These new Pentagon-led operations were codenamed ‘Gladio B’ by FBI counterintelligence: “In 1997, NATO asked [Egyptian President] Hosni Mubarak to release from prison Islamist militants affiliated to Ayman al-Zawahiri [whose role in the assassination of Anwar Sadat led to Mubarak’s ascension]. They were flown under U.S. orders to Turkey for [training and use in] operations by the Pentagon”, she said.

Edmonds’ allegations find some independent corroboration in the public record. The Wall Street Journal refers to a nebulous agreement between Mubarak and “the operational wing of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which was then headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri…  Many of that group’s fighters embraced a cease-fire with the government of former President Hosni Mubarak in 1997.”

Youssef Bodansky, former Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, cited U.S. intelligence sources in an article for Defense and Foreign Affairs: Strategic Policy, confirming “discussions between the Egyptian terrorist leader Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and an Arab-American known to have been both an emissary of the CIA and the U.S. Government.” He referred to an “offer” made to al-Zawahiri in November 1997 on behalf of U.S. intelligence, granting his Islamists a free hand in Egypt as long as they lent support to U.S. forces in the Balkans. In 1998, Al Zawahiri’s brother, Muhammed, led an elite unit of the Kosovo Liberation Army against Serbs during the Kosovo conflict – he reportedly had direct contact with NATO leadership.

“This is why”, Edmonds continued in her interview, “even though the FBI routinely monitored the communications of the diplomatic arms of all countries, only four countries were exempt from this protocol – the UK, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Belgium – the seat of NATO. No other country – not even allies like Israel or Saudi Arabia, were exempt. This is because these four countries were integral to the Pentagon’s so-called Gladio B operations.”

Edmonds did not speculate on the objectives of the Pentagon’s ‘Gladio B’ operations, but highlighted the following possibilities: projecting U.S. power in the former Soviet sphere of influence to access previously untapped strategic energy and mineral reserves for U.S. and European companies; pushing back Russian and Chinese power; and expanding the scope of lucrative criminal activities, particularly illegal arms and drugs trafficking.

Terrorism finance expert Loretta Napoleoni estimates the total value of this criminal economy to be about $1.5 trillion annually, the bulk of which “flows into Western economies, where it gets recycled in the U.S. and in Europe” as a “vital element of the cash flow of these economies.”

It is no coincidence then that the opium trade, Edmonds told this author, has grown rapidly under the tutelage of NATO in Afghanistan: “I know for a fact that NATO planes routinely shipped heroin to Belgium, where they then made their way into Europe and to the UK. They also shipped heroin to distribution centres in Chicago and New Jersey. FBI counterintelligence and DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) operations had acquired evidence of this drug trafficking in its surveillance of a wide range of targets, including senior officials in the Pentagon, CIA and State Department. As part of this surveillance, the role of the Dickersons – with the support of these senior U.S. officials – in facilitating drug-trafficking, came up. It was clear from this evidence that the whole funnel of drugs, money and terror in Central Asia was directed by these officials.”

The evidence for this funnel, according to Edmonds, remains classified in the form of FBI counterintelligence surveillance records she was asked to translate. Although this alleged evidence has never made it to court due to the U.S. government’s exertion of ‘state secret privilege’, she was able to testify in detail concerning her allegations, including naming names, in 2009.

Censorship

In recent interviews, two Sunday Times journalists confirmed to this author that the newspaper’s investigation based on Sibel Edmonds’ revelations was to break much of the details into the open.

“We’d spoken to several current and active Pentagon officials confirming the existence of U.S. operations sponsoring mujahideen networks in Central Asia from the 1990s to 2001,” said oneSunday Times source. “Those mujahideen networks were intertwined with a whole range of criminal enterprises, including drugs and guns. The Pentagon officials corroborated Edmonds’ allegations against specific U.S. officials, and I’d also interviewed an MI6 officer who confirmed that the U.S. was running these operations sponsoring mujahideen in that period.”

But according to Edmonds, citing the investigative team at the paper, the last two articles in the series were spiked under U.S. State Department pressure. She recalled being told at the time by journalists leading the Sunday Times investigation that the newspaper’s editor had decided to squash the story after receiving calls from officials at the U.S. embassy in London.

A journalist with the Sunday Times‘ investigative unit told this author he had interviewed former Special Agent in Charge, Dennis Saccher, who had moved to the FBI’s Colorado office. Saccher reportedly confirmed the veracity of Edmonds’ allegations of espionage, telling him that Edmonds’ story “should have been front page news” because it was “a scandal bigger than Watergate.” The same journalist confirmed that after interviewing Saccher at his home, the newspaper was contacted by the U.S. State Department. “The U.S. embassy in London called the editor and tried to ward him off. We were told that we weren’t permitted to approach Saccher or any other active FBI agents directly, but could only go through the FBI’s press office – that if we tried to speak to Saccher or anyone else employed by the FBI directly, that would be illegal. Of course, it isn’t, but that’s what we were told. I think this was a veiled threat.”

Saccher’s comments to the journalist never made it to press.

A lead reporter on the series at the Sunday Times told this author that the investigation based on Edmonds’ information was supposed to have four parts, but was inexplicably dropped. “The story was pulled half-way, suddenly, without any warning”, the journalist said. “I wasn’t party to the editorial decision to drop the story, but there was a belief in the office amongst several journalists who were part of the Insight investigative unit that the decision was made under pressure from the U.S. State Department, because the story might cause a diplomatic incident.”

Although the journalist was unaware of where this belief came from – and was not informed of the U.S. embassy’s contact with the paper’s editor which the other journalist was privy to – he acknowledged that self-censorship influenced by unspecified “interest groups” was a possible explanation. “The way the story was dropped was unusual, but the belief amongst my colleagues this happened under political pressure is plausible.” He cryptically described an “editorial mechanism, linked to the paper but not formally part of it, which could however exert control on stories when necessary, linked to certain interests.” When asked which interests, the journalist said, “I can’t say. I can’t talk about that.”

Edmonds described how, due to the U.S. government’s efforts to silence her, she had no option left except to write her story down. The resultant book, Classified Woman, had to be submitted to an FBI panel for review. By law, the bureau was required to make a decision on what could be disclosed  or redacted within 30 days.

Instead, about a year later, Edmonds’ lawyer received a letter from the FBI informing them that the agency was still reviewing the book, and prohibiting her from publishing it: “The matters Ms. Edmonds writes about involve many equities, some of which may implicate information that is classified… Approval of the manuscripts by the FBI will include incorporation of all changes required by the FBI. Until then, Ms. Edmonds does not have approval to publish her manuscripts which includes showing them to editors, literary agents, publishers, reviewers, or anyone else. At this point, Ms. Edmonds remains obligated not to disclose or publish the manuscript in any manner.”

The block was another example, Edmonds said, “of the abuse of ‘national security’ to conceal evidence of criminality.” She said that this forced her to release the book herself in March 2012, as no publisher would risk taking it on.

Sibel Edmonds memoirs, Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story, is available from all good online booksellers.