Putin Welcomes Crimea Home

Here is the full speech... ‘In Ukraine the West crossed the red line’ In fact, it was Russia that defended international law and its institutions, while western countries have been diminishing them. The situation in Crimea is just a reflection of this broader process, which has been happening for decades now. “In the practical application of policies, our western partners – the United States first and foremost – prefer to be guided not by international law, but by the right of strength. They believe in their exceptionalism, that they are allowed to decide on the fate of the world, that they are always right,” Putin charged. This disregard to rule of law was evident in Yugoslavia in 1999, when NATO bombed the country without a UN Security Council mandate, the Russian president said. There was Afghanistan, Iraq and the perversion of the UNSC resolution on Libya, when instead of imposing a no-fly zone NATO bombed the country into submission. There were also orchestrated “colored revolutions” in Europe and the Arab World, which cynically used the feelings of people tired with corruption and poverty. The latest Ukrainian events are just the latest of such actions, and Russia’s willingness to seek dialogue and compromise was stonewalled again, Putin said. http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=wars&FileName=wars_crimean.php

Putin Draws A Red Line And Stands By It

Is there any truth to Putin's concern that fascists, Neo Nazis and others in Ukraine want to kill Russians, Jews and Communists? Ukrainian nationalist party Right Sector has announced it holds the acting Interior Minister Arsen Avakov accountable for the death of notorious radical militant Aleksandr Muzychko and will avenge it, Ukrainian media reports. “We will take revenge on Arsen Avakov for the death of our brother,” said Rovno coordinator of the Right Sector Roman Koval, as cited by charivne.info news portal. “The shooting of Sashko Bilyi [Muzychko’s nom de guerre] is an assassination ordered by the minister. Muzychko never received any notices concerning criminal offences and was never summoned anywhere.” Earlier, Muzychko, also known as Sashko Bilyi, was proclaimed dead after a police raid against his gang in Rovno, western Ukraine. During the raid, Muzychko opened fire wounding an officer. He continued shooting even despite being injured in the leg, the Interior Ministry said. “When [the police] attempted to detain him, they found out he was wounded. The medics who arrived at the scene proclaimed Muzychko dead,” First Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Yevdokimov said. The three bodyguards, who were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and Makarov pistols, were detained by police. http://rt.com/news/muzychko-avakov-revenge-ukraine-109/ The Right Sector representatives say that the Interior Ministry’s version of Muzychko’s death is an “outright lie.” They claim the notorious militant had his hands tied so he could not possibly shoot back at the police. The nationalist party has not specified how exactly they are going to avenge their leader’s death. 'Take him off stage' The special operation in which Muzychko was killed was carried out on orders and under direct control of the head of the Ukrainian intelligence, Valentin Nalivaichenko, a former senior Ukrainian intelligence official told RIA Novosti. “The goal of the operation was not to capture, but to neutralize Muzychko, to take him off stage,” the source said, adding that Muzychko started to discredit the new Ukrainian authorities and to interpret the orders of the Right Sector leadership in his own way. Following the coup in Ukraine, which Muzychko supported, he refused to give up the weapons which he occasionally used to intimidate local officials in Rovno. Several videos of Muzychko have recently gone viral on YouTube, including ones where the radical nationalist leader lashed out at a local prosecutor, threatened local authorities with an AK-47 and made openly anti-Semitic statements. According to the Interior Ministry, charges of hooliganism and obstructing law enforcement agencies had been filed against Muzychko March 8, and on March 12 Muzychko was put on the Ukrainian police’s wanted list. In Russia, Muzychko was also put on international wanted list for allegedly torturing and murdering at least 20 captured Russian soldiers during the first Chechen War in 1994-1995. .............................................. Putin has drawn a RED LINE, and he intends to back it up. .............................................. Did Victor Pinchuk receive favorable decisions from the US State Department when Hillary Clinton was in Charge. Was is a quid pro quo for the millions he donated to the Clinton Foundation? After appointing Ukraine's richest Oligharchs to be (unelected) govenors) in various regions of Ukraine, one must realize that democracy in Ukraine is a pipe dream. All they need now is a $35 billion bailout from Europe!

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.
xxx
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.

xxx