WRITTEN BY DAVID WILSON ON 01 MAY 2018. POSTED IN NEWS & COMMENT
Capital Group, of which Philip May is a senior executive, proudly claim they are the largest shareholders in BAE Systems
"Before there was any firm evidence of a chemical attack and in a heartbeat, Theresa May hitched herself to Donald Trump’s recent air stike in Syria. It was another Groundhog Day moment, remember Iraq? Predictably, BAE share prices soared."
“The dogs of war” were words first uttered by Mark Anthony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. “Cry Havoc,” he said, “and let slip the dogs of war.”
Enter stage right our Prime Minister’s husband, Philip John May. May is a banker and pension fund expert. He is a senior executive at Capital Group, a US investment company that controls $1.4 trillion in assets.
Capital Group’s portfolio includes JP Morgan Chase, ($7bn) Philip Morris International ($9bn), McDonald’s ($5bn) and significant investments in Amazon and Starbucks. Selling books, coffee, burgers and fags is not a crime, although some of these companies’ tax avoidance scams might be.
Since 2009, Capital Group has declared a turnover of £467 million, but declared losses of £125 million. Despite what might be considered a colossal business failure, in the same period Mr May and other Capital Group directors have pocketed £43million in salaries, pensions and other benefits.
Even the Daily Mail has said, ‘It’s very odd a business can pay substantial amounts to directors while not turning a profit.’
Capital Group proudly claim they are significant shareholders in weapons’ manufacturer, Lockheed Martin ($6.6bn), and are the largest shareholders in BAE Systems. Both companies are world leaders when it comes to profiting from death and destruction.
Before there was any firm evidence of a chemical attack and in a heartbeat, Theresa May hitched herself to Donald Trump’s recent air stike in Syria. It was another Groundhog Day moment, remember Iraq? Predictably, BAE share prices soared.
Meanwhile, in Yemen, the Saudis continue to bomb Yemeni wedding parties into dust with their BAE hardware.
Capital Group has been linked to the Paradise Papers scandal with Private Eye suggesting that the company uses the offshore law firm, Appleby, to arrange investments in tax havens.
Capital Group’s Cayman Island funds and Bermuda investments are channelled through a South American agriculture company. Both are offshore jurisdictions, known for zero rates of tax.
None of this presents a moral or ethical problem for the Mays. “Neither the Prime Minister nor Mr May have any direct offshore investments,” the Prime Minister’s spokesperson said recently. “Their investments have been declared to the Cabinet Office and are held in a blind trust.”
The salient words here are “direct” and “blind”. Their investments are carried out through third-party companies. “Blind” investments are truly unseen. Politicians often place their personal assets in blind trusts to avoid public scrutiny and accusations of conflict of interest. Perhaps Mrs May should have tutored Michael Cohen about this.
Talk about keeping it all in The Family. Theresa May pursues military policies that directly enrich her husband and herself, probably beyond their wildest dreams.
At least Ivanka Trump’s “lifestyle products” empire hasn’t killed anyone, although her father has blood on his tiny orange hands.
The leaders of Russia, Turkey, France and Germany have called for a lasting ceasefire in Syria following violence in last remaining major rebel stronghold.
A constitutional committee should meet by the end of the year, the leaders of the four countries, who gathered for a summit in Istanbul, said.
Ankara, which supports the rebels seeking to overthrow president Bashar al-Assad, and Moscow, Assad's key foreign ally, recently brokered a deal to create a demilitarised zone in Syria’s Idlib region.
French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that the international community would be watching to make sure that Russia and Turkey respect the agreement they have negotiated.
Speaking after the four-way summit on Saturday, he said: "We will all be extremely vigilant to ensure that these commitments are met and that the ceasefire is stable and sustainable.
"We are counting on Russia to exert a very clear pressure on the (Syrian) regime which very clearly owes it its survival."
Under their deal last month, Turkey and Russia agreed to create a buffer zone around Idlib amid fears of an impending assault on the northwestern province.
On Friday, shelling in Idlib killed at least seven civilians – the largest one-day loss of life there since Russian air strikes stopped in mid-August.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Turkey was fulfilling its obligation regarding the agreement on Idlib. The process was not easy and Russia plans to continue cooperating, he said.
In a joint statement, Macron, Putin, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also called for a committee to be established to draft a new Syrian constitution.
Statement by Sally Lane and John Letts, the parents of Jack Letts, Canadian citizen detained in northern Syria. 01.03.2019
We are the parents of Jack Letts, the young man the media and some irresponsible politicians have turned into a demonic figure they call ‘Jihadi Jack’. Sadly, we feel we must write again to ask all Canadian MPs to help prevent the death in detention of someone who stood against Isis, was never a jihadi fighter, and is not a threat to Canada or the UK.
In October, 2018, we felt we had no choice but to accuse Andrew Scheer MP of deliberately lying when he claimed that our son was a “known jihadi fighter” and a member of Isis. Other MPs have made false accusations. Mr. James Bezan claimed that Jack “promoted Isis” and bragged about “using the heads of his victims as soccer balls and the atrocities he committed.” Jack made no such comments. Mr. David Anderson claimed that “traitors like Jihadi Jack spouted not only hatred for our country, but often proudly bragged about their role in the killings and the conflict.” Again, Jack made no such comments, and in fact risked his life to condemn Isis whilst in hiding in Syria and Iraq.
Jack was naive to think he could use his language skills to help the people of Syria stand against the government of Basher Assad. He felt it was his duty as a human being, as well as a Muslim, to try to help. He did not go to Syria to fight, and like many who went, he quickly realised he had made a huge mistake. He first tried to escape from ISIS in late 2015 – 3½ years ago. Anyone caught escaping was tortured and killed. He was arrested three times by ISIS but each time escaped. He begged us to send him money to pay a people smuggler, which the UK and Canada agreed was the only way out of ISIS territory. Initially, we were told that he would be returned to the UK or Canada once he had escaped, but these promises were hollow.
While trapped in Isis-controlled territories, Jack gave an ‘interview’ to a British newspaper, which some MPs have accepted as evidence of his radicalisation. This superficial interpretation is understandable – if you ignore the knife blade that ISIS was holding against his neck at the time. Statements and interviews made by people under the threat of torture or death should not be believed.
Jack has not been charged with any crime in Britain, Canada or Rojava (northern Syria). Sir Mark Rowley, former UK head of Counter Terrorism Policing, has stated publicly that the coalition forces have accumulated a massive amount of intelligence on ISIS members from the battlefield, social media and the internet. Why are the authorities so terrified of giving Jack the opportunity to prove his innocence in a fair and open trial? Canada has one of the best intelligence and security services in the world. Do Canadians think they would not be able to manage the return of two dozen women and children and a handful of men from Syria? Over 400 of the c. 900 British citizens who went to Syria – including many fighters – have already returned to the UK. Few have been charged, and none has been involved in any violence since their return. Most are traumatised and want nothing to do with war. Yes, most of them chose to go to Syria - but most are guilty of no more than this.
ISIS has been defeated militarily, whereas the brutal Syrian government is still in power. The UK government is now lobbying for the thousands of men, women and children now held by the Kurdish-led SDF forces to be sent to Assad’s prisons – where most of the adults will be tortured and killed. The alternative is being sent to Guantanamo, or to Iraq, where the penalty is death by hanging. As it stands, the detainees will simply be left to die of malnutrition, disease and brutality. Will the new Kurdish ‘democratic’ state in Rojava be founded on a war crime, with the active support of Canada and the international coalition?
The silence from parliamentarians is deafening. The Trudeau government claims to put human rights at the centre of its policies, but because of the upcoming election it is burying its head in the sand. President Trump has said that if the coalition countries do not take back their citizens then the USA will “do something about it”. He has also stated that the detainees should face trial in their home countries. We agree. They cannot be tried in Rojava as the coalition countries do not recognise the Kurdish DFNS administration as legitimate. As GAC officials told us, “the Kurds are non-state actors… they do not have a functioning legal system or a genuine state” – yet they receive millions of dollars from the Canadian and coalition governments.
Global Affairs Canada (GAC) claim they can’t help because they do not have a ‘consular presence’ in Syria – when everyone knows that the detainees are held by a military force (the SDF) that is armed, funded and directed by the coalition countries including Canada. Without the SDF, the ‘autonomous’ proto-state of Rojava (DFNS) would not exist. Its existence gives coalition politicians a convenient legal and logistical excuse for doing nothing. The only danger officials and soldiers would face when repatriating detainees from Rojava would come from allies in the international coalition, as the last battles against ISIS are happening hundreds of kilometres away. Canada could fly its citizens out of Rojava tomorrow if it had the political will to stand up to the Anglo-American alliance that ultimately directs military policy in northern Syria.
The rights and freedoms of Canadians are enshrined in the Constitution and Charter of Rights, but these documents are meaningless if citizens who have made serious mistakes while abroad are simply abandoned. The decision to deprive someone of their citizenship should be based on more than rumour and allegation. Canadians pride themselves on their belief in the rule of law and democratic values. Without ‘due process’ our democracy is no better than the authoritarian regimes we rightly condemn. We don’t burn witches in Canada – but in Syria we are now paying others to do it for us. The victims of terrorism deserve justice. If any Canadian, including Jack, has been involved in terrorism they should be punished – and anyone falsely accused should also have the right to prove their innocence.
You can’t destroy an ideology with bombs and bullets. To defeat extremism we must use every tool we have, including powerful weapons such as the rule of law. By supporting these new Guantanamo-style ‘black sites’ in northern Syria, the coalition countries are flouting international law, and provoking anger and resentment that could quickly become a new recruiting story for the next incarnation of ISIS.
We must bring our citizens home to face justice, or it will be our children and grandchildren who will have to fight these same battles all over again.
https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156485317664092&id=7177740 91 _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, left, and Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abul Gheit attend a news conference in Tunis, Tunisia, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Reuters)
Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, left, and Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abul Gheit attend a news conference in Tunis, Tunisia, March 30, 2019. (Photo by Reuters)
Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres has stressed the importance of guaranteeing Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity in any resolution on the conflict in the Arab country.
“Any resolution of the Syrian conflict must guarantee the unity, [and] the territorial integrity of Syria, including the occupied Golan,” he said in an address to an Arab League summit in the Tunisian capital of Tunis on Sunday.
As “millions of Syrians remain displaced and in need, and tens of thousands are arbitrarily detained…we must keep working to forge a political path to a sustainable peace in which all Syrians are heard, grievances are addressed, and needs are met,” he added.
Guterres' remarks came days after US President Donald Trump broke decades of international consensus and formally recognized Israeli "sovereignty" over the occupied Golan Heights, a border area the Tel Aviv regime seized from Syria in 1967.
PressTV-Trump recognizes Israel’s sovereignty over Golan
PressTV-Trump recognizes Israel’s sovereignty over Golan
US President Donald Trump has formally recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, a border area the Tel Aviv regime seized from Syria in 1967.
“This was a long time in the making. Should have taken place decades ago,” Trump said while signing the proclamation in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump's Jewish son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, in the White House in Washington, DC.
However, a Wednesday meeting of the UN Security Council turned into another stage for the isolation of the US, as other countries on the council opposed Trump’s move on Golan.
Addressing the meeting, Syria's Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari lashed out at President Trump's recognition, describing the move as part of a “criminal project” aimed at prolonging chaos and destruction in the region.
PressTV-Trump’s Golan move part of ‘criminal project’: Syria
PressTV-Trump’s Golan move part of ‘criminal project’: Syria
Syria slams Donald Trump’s recognition of “Israeli sovereignty” over the Golan Heights at a meeting of the UN Security Council.
“This is a criminal project or plan for which the US government and its allies have used all tools at their disposal,” Jaafari said, adding that the plan is aimed at guaranteeing chaos and destruction in the region, and dividing the people of the region on religious and ethnic basis in order to “build a new reality.”
Syria has repeatedly reaffirmed its sovereignty over Golan, saying the territory must be completely restored to its control.
Read more:
Trump's Golan remarks only bolster resistance against Israel, supporters: Iran official
US decision to recognize Syria's Golan as Israeli territory 'illegal’ : Analyst
World countries blast US on Golan, Syria vows to liberate Israeli occupied territory
Elsewhere in his Sunday address, the UN chief said the Middle East faces “turbulent winds” from “the wars in Yemen and Syria,” to “the rise and fall of Daesh” and "the persistent denial of the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people."
"I strongly appeal for the unity of the Arab world as a fundamental condition for peace and prosperity in the region, and to avoid leaving the region vulnerable to interference by foreign parties with destabilizing effects,” Guterres said, calling for a regional vision rooted in cooperation, respect and mutual interest.
He recognized the need to “untangle the Gordian knot of insecurity, allow no space for sectarianism, and deliver the peace, stability and effective, responsive governance that the people of the region deserve.”
Read more:
‘Two-state’ solution only way to resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflict: UN
Palestine urges China to support Abbas Mideast ‘peace’ initiative
Palestinian president calls on Israel to halt settlement activities
Guterres further pointed to the Stockholm agreement aimed at solving the conflict in Yemen and said, “Following last December’s breakthrough in Stockholm, we continue to work closely with the parties to achieve progress towards the redeployment of forces in Hudaydah and the opening of humanitarian corridors on the way to a political solution for Yemen.”
Back in December, representatives from the Houthi Ansarullah movement and the Riyadh-sponsored government of ex-president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, reached the truce deal during UN-mediated peace talks in Sweden.
PressTV- UN: Yemen’s warring parties agree truce in Hudaydah
PressTV- UN: Yemen’s warring parties agree truce in Hudaydah
The UN chief says warring parties of Yemen have reached an agreement to hold a ceasefire in the port city of Hudaydah.
Under the deal, they agreed to the withdrawal of their troops and the deployment of UN monitors to the port city, a lifeline for millions of Yemenis.
Read more:
Not too late to stop nightmare of war on Yemen, Zarif tells Saudis
Iran urges Yemen ceasefire, end to economic blockade
Mogherini: Ignoring UN resolutions on Golan Heights 'not a solution'
Addressing the Arab League summit, European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that ignoring United Nations Security Council resolutions on the Golan Heights was "not a solution."
European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini (R), addresses delegates attending the opening session of the 30th Arab League summit in the Tunisian capital of Tunis on March 31, 2019, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres seated next to her. (Photo by AFP)
She also said a two state solution for Israel and Palestine was "the only viable and realistic solution ... we have a responsibility to prevent the two state solution from being irreversibly dismantled."
"Any future plan will have to recognize the internationally agreed parameters including on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, and the status of Jerusalem [al-Quds] as the future capital of the two states," she pointed out.
Arab League summit must send message on Palestinian state: Tunisia
Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, for his part, said the Arab League summit in Tunis must send a message on the importance of establishing a Palestinian state.
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 6060 Location: East London
Posted: Sun May 26, 2019 1:11 am Post subject:
'The World: What is Really Happening ':
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
'...Yet – and this is why Ian Henderson is more important to your understanding of the world than Theresa May – the OPCW Fact Finding Mission reflected in their final report none of the findings of their own sub-group of university based engineers from two European universities, but instead produced something that is very close to the amateur propaganda “analysis” put out by Bellingcat. The implications of this fraud are mind-blowing.
The genuine experts’ findings were completely suppressed until they were leaked last week. And still then, this leak – which has the most profound ramifications – has in itself been almost completely suppressed by the mainstream media, except for those marginalised outliers who still manage to get a platform, Robert Fisk and Peter Hitchens (a tiny platform in the case of Fisk).
Consider what this tells us. A fake chemical attack incident was used to justify military aggression against Syria by the USA, UK and France. The entire western mainstream media promoted the anti-Syrian and anti-Russian narrative to justify that attack. The supposedly neutral international watchdog, the OPCW, was manipulated by the NATO powers to produce a highly biased report that omits the findings of its own engineers. Which can only call into doubt the neutrality and reliability of the OPCW in its findings on the Skripals too.
There has been virtually no media reporting of the scandalous cover-up. This really does tell you a very great deal more about how the Western world works than the vicissitudes of the ludicrously over-promoted Theresa May and her tears of self pity...' _________________ 'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.
'The World: What is Really Happening ':
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
'...Yet – and this is why Ian Henderson is more important to your understanding of the world than Theresa May – the OPCW Fact Finding Mission reflected in their final report none of the findings of their own sub-group of university based engineers from two European universities, but instead produced something that is very close to the amateur propaganda “analysis” put out by Bellingcat. The implications of this fraud are mind-blowing.
The genuine experts’ findings were completely suppressed until they were leaked last week. And still then, this leak – which has the most profound ramifications – has in itself been almost completely suppressed by the mainstream media, except for those marginalised outliers who still manage to get a platform, Robert Fisk and Peter Hitchens (a tiny platform in the case of Fisk).
Consider what this tells us. A fake chemical attack incident was used to justify military aggression against Syria by the USA, UK and France. The entire western mainstream media promoted the anti-Syrian and anti-Russian narrative to justify that attack. The supposedly neutral international watchdog, the OPCW, was manipulated by the NATO powers to produce a highly biased report that omits the findings of its own engineers. Which can only call into doubt the neutrality and reliability of the OPCW in its findings on the Skripals too.
There has been virtually no media reporting of the scandalous cover-up. This really does tell you a very great deal more about how the Western world works than the vicissitudes of the ludicrously over-promoted Theresa May and her tears of self pity...'
Whenever you see UN Ambassador Nikki Haley on video she’s trying to start World War Three. At today’s UN Security Council Haley gave remarks about why the UN should “take action” against two of the US power establishment’s favorite targets, Russia and the Syrian government, due to allegations that Bashar al-Assad has been using chemical weapons.
That’s right, just three weeks after the Trump administration unveiled its plan to keep thousands of US troops in Syria in order to force regime change, the tired old chemical weapons allegations have been unearthed and recirculated to trusting western mainstream media audiences.
I am not a Syria expert by any stretch of the imagination. If you want detailed information about what’s really going on in that nation I recommend getting in touch with real Syrians online and following the work of independent investigative journalists who regularly go there like Vanessa Beeley. Nevertheless, despite my lack of boots-on-the-ground expertise and intimate knowledge of every detail of what’s going on in that country, I am absolutely certain that the western power establishment is lying very extensively about what is going on in Syria.
One hundred percent certain, zero margin for error. I’d bet my life on it.
How can I be so sure? I’ll show you.
There are many, many, many piles of evidence substantiating the fact that the Syrian government has become the target of what is surely one of the largest and most sophisticated propaganda campaigns in human history, but most people don’t have time to comb through all the tiny details and sort through the complexities of what’s what. For this reason I thought it would be useful to compile a short list for people who, like me, don’t have time to dedicate themselves intimately to the in-depth study of Syria. This list makes it abundantly clear that there is an organized disinformation campaign saturating mainstream narratives about what is happening in Syria, making it therefore impossible to place any faith in the reports that are coming out about that nation’s government today. All you need is a little information and critical thinking.
Without further ado, here are five reasons why you can be as absolutely certain of the mass media’s deception in this area as I am.
1. The Bana Alabed CNN interview
I point to this one a lot. If you haven’t yet figured out that mainstream media outlets are tools of outrageous war propaganda, and you watch this interview with your eyes wide open, your jaw will drop to the floor and you will never see the world the same again.
After the highly suspicious and hotly disputed accusations of sarin gas use by the Syrian government in the Idlib province back in April of last year, a little girl was paraded before the CNN audience to condemn Assad and plead for western intervention. Anyone watching the interview can see that it is very obviously scripted, and the little girl is sounding out pre-written syllables in a way that children simply do not speak, using words and concepts that no seven year-old could possibly understand. This is self-evident to anyone who doesn’t have a vested interest in not seeing it.
Additionally, other video footage from around the same time showed that the girl did not speak English enough to even understand basic questions about what kind of food she likes to eat, instead regurgitating the pre-scripted line “Save the children of Syria” in response.
More disturbingly, because this interview was scripted, it means that CNN’s Alisyn Camerota necessarily had the other half of the script the girl was reading from. A prominent newscaster from a top US mainstream media outlet knowingly participated in a fake, scripted interview designed to manufacture support for western military interventionism, and sold it to CNN’s audience as a real interview.
The footage from that fake interview was then re-used by CNN to bully congressman Thomas Massie for his opposition to Syrian interventionism.
Bana and her popular Twitter account have been propped up by countless establishment backers ranging from Time Magazine to Harry Potter author JK Rowling, as well as a lucrative book deal with Simon & Schuster. Her legitimacy has also been ferociously defended by Bellingcat, a neocon propaganda outlet with ties to the Atlantic Council, the same think tank whose Ukraine-tied influence has fingerprints all over the establishment Russia narrative. Bellingcat and its sleazy staff have been loudly sounding the alarm about the new “chemical weapons” story throughout online media.
2. The BBC documentary Saving Syria’s Children
Similar to item number one, independent researcher Robert Stuart has shown conclusively how the world’s oldest and largest broadcasting organization, the BBC, aired a documentary containing footage meant to implicate the Assad government that anyone looking can recognize as clearly fake.
In a presentation for Media on Trial, Stuart breaks down part of the BBC documentary Saving Syria’s Children showing clear and undeniable evidence that the footage which purports to show victims of an Assad napalm bombing has been staged and faked from top to bottom. The presentation is packed with information and the the 19-minute clip is definitely worth watching in its entirety, but for me the real clincher comes at around the four-minute mark after Stuart explains what burn victims tend to look and behave like, and he simply turns the sound off on the video footage and replays it with the question “just ask yourself, is this real?”
It isn’t. Plainly it isn’t. Watch it and see for yourself; it’s as fake as the Bana Alabed interview.
It can be hard to catch propagandists in the act in a clear and undeniable way, but these are two irrefutable examples of the top outlets in both the US and the UK airing blatantly deceitful disinformation to manufacture support for military interventionism. You can say that this doesn’t mean every single thing western media reports has been deliberately and deceptively manufactured in the same way, and that’s fair… but you also can’t say there’s any good reason to go believing them, either. If the propaganda effort is that pervasive that it’s airing brazen military psyops at the very top echelons of western media, you simply cannot trust anything they say about Syria. The fact that a known compulsive liar could technically be telling the truth about something at any given moment is not a legitimate reason to place your trust in him.
3. The White Helmets
This one is a rabbit hole and a half, and I cannot possibly list all of the countless pieces of evidence here against the so-called “Syrian Civil Defense” aka the White Helmets, but let me try and sum it up.
Whenever you hear about a new Assad atrocity, the original source of the report is this extremely shady organization with extensive ties to both terrorist groups and western warmongers. Here’s a new article from the Washington Post, originally from Associated Press, advancing the narrative in the headline that “Syrian activists” are reporting a chlorine gas attack. Read the article, and guess who those “Syrian activists” turn out to be? White Helmets.
You can spend days and days researching this one (and some people have devoted their lives to exactly that), but just to get at the basics of this high-level manipulation, here is a video showing footage and testimony connecting the White Helmets to violent extremist groups, and here is an article with an assortment of supporting articles detailing the organization’s funding from the US, the UK and the EU as well as its ties to Al Qaeda. In this illuminating interview Vanessa Beeley even goes so far as to say that the White Helmets are literally just Al Qaeda members who put on white plastic headgear when they want to film propaganda to advance their agendas.
Once dismissed as a baseless conspiracy theory, it is now a known and admitted fact that the US has been arming terrorist factions in Syria to advance its regime change agendas. Utilizing extremist groups is one of the many ways the US-centralized war machine has found to get around the resistance of the American people to participating in new wars with US boots on the ground; they enlist the help of violent terrorist factions to attain their bloodthirsty goals. This is a known fact. Is there any reason to resist the notion that they’d enlist those groups in fabricating psyops as well?
4. Critical thinking
Consortiumnews recently ran an essay by Rick Sterling titled “WMD Claims in Syria Raise Concerns over U.S. Escalation” discussing the US war machine’s extensive history of using lies, propaganda and false flags to manufacture support for military interventionism. Sterling discusses the flimsy grounds for the basis of the current anti-Assad narrative being rammed down our throats today, and reminds us simply that we have been here before, beginning his essay with the words, “It’s the WMD story all over again.”
The Iraq invasion was less than fifteen years ago, and now we’re being scaremongered about a brand new evil dictator in the same region, right next door to Iraq, who also happens to have a great love of acquiring and using WMDs. According to a new report by Reuters, citing anonymous officials as sources, there is now a risk of those weapons of mass destruction coming “to US shores”.
“It will spread if we don’t do something,” the official warns in the Reuters report.
Come on, people. Think harder. We’ve done this exact dance before, and not even that long ago. They lied to you then, and they are lying to you now. If the Iraq invasion didn’t permanently shatter your trust in this schtick, it should have. But it’s not too late to fix that. Look at this thing critically and stop swallowing their swill.
The propagandists focus on chemical weapons because there’s nothing else they could accuse the Assad government of doing that the US war machine doesn’t do constantly. They can’t accuse him of merely killing civilians with bombs, for example, because the US does that every day. If Nikki Haley tried telling the UN that there was simply too high a civilian death toll in Syria and Russia’s bombing campaigns, the rest of the world would just say “Oh really? America doesn’t like civilians dying in air strikes anymore? Because we’ve all been meaning to talk to you about that…”
5. Common sense
As noted by Max Abrams, “Assad has strong incentives not to use chemical weapons again whereas regime change supporters have every incentive to say he did.” The leverage he’d be giving people like Nikki Haley to draw the wrath of the world down upon his head by committing internationally reviled war crimes would make it nonsensical for him to use an inefficient weapon like chlorine gas. It would be strategically disastrous, it wouldn’t profit him any, bombs work much better, and his consistent denial of using those weapons (both inside Syria and outside) would invalidate any small advantage he might get from sending a scary message to his enemies.
Add to this the fact that some places these weapons are alleged to have been used are not only packed with his own civilians but his own soldiers as well, and you’re looking at a completely absurd story.
If you really think about it, the only way to believe the establishment Syria narrative is to believe that Bashar al-Assad has an actual, literal sexual fetish for committing war crimes on his own people. Not only that, but you have to believe he only developed this bizarre, previously unknown sexual kink in the last few years. That’s the only way this notion that he’s been gassing his own civilians willy nilly can possibly make any sense at all.
Which is more likely? That, or the same establishment that lied to you about Iraq lying to you about Iraq’s next-door neighbor?
Believing the establishment Syria narrative is indefensible. Spread the word.
___________________________
Thanks for reading! My daily articles are entirely reader-funded, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following me on Twitter, bookmarking my website, checking out my podcast, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, or buying my new book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
Oh the semantic gymnastics that the media, western governments, and supporters of those 'moderate' head-chopping 'rebels' in Idleb are now having to construct! Suddenly, it is the 'Turkish-backed mercenaries', who yesterday executed a female Kurdish civil leader amongst others, and who are supporting the Turks in a bloody battle in NE Syria, and who are now reported to include IS fighters, who are the devils in the deadly mire of the Syria conflict. (Today, it is reported that 750 IS members have escaped from a camp in NE Syria. No doubt, some of those will join their 'Turkish-backed mercenary' colleagues). The trouble is that these 'Turkish-backed mercenaries' are none other than the same 'moderate rebel' groups beloved of the British government and the liberal establishment and which have been supported to the tune of millions of dollars of British tax-payers money. Yes, the 'moderate rebels' of the last 8 years according to western media, are at last being recognised as the extremist terrorist factions that they are. Except that those who have supported them all along, cannot bear to acknowledge the fact, so have to keep hiding their true identity with a new designation. The latest name chosen for this gathering of extremist sectarian groups is the most cynical and insulting lie of all..the 'Syrian National Army.' Oh, the deadly deceitful webs that are woven! Meanwhile, the Kurds have come to their senses and, through negotiations with Syria and Russia, have come to an agreement with the Syrian government. The Syrian Arab Army, made up of the true sons and daughters, brothers and fathers of Syria, are on their way to protect their rightful territory, and the Arab Muslims and Christians and Kurds who live within it. Let us remember all the civilians who continue to be caught up in these tragic events. _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
vanessa beeley / 3 days ago
There is a growing confusion over the situation in the north-east of Syria – Turkey, a NATO member state, is de facto challenging other NATO member states by attacking a U.S proxy force occupying the region. The Kurdish contras and separtist factions that make up the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) are the apparent target.
I have compiled a list of articles and videos that may enable people to untangle the complex and extremely precarious conflict that is developing east of the Euphrates. I will add to them and update this article as and when I am able to.
Kevork Almassian of Syriana Analysis
2. Syrian Girl – Kurds did not protect Christians, they persecuted them.
3. Where White Helmets failed, will SDF succeed in securing a NATO “no fly zone” in the region which is translated into a NATO “free-for-all” and will escalate the conflict while ensuring greater bloodshed among the civilian population:
Report from South Front.
4. Sarah Abed – Turkey’s Safe-zone and Refugee Peace-corridor in Syria Is a Cover for a Violent Demographic Re-engineering
It’s worth noting that the Syrian government has been vocal in their opposition to the creation of a Turkish safe zone or peace corridors on its land as well as joint patrol operations. Damascus knows that Turkey’s true intentions are expansion and changing the demographics and forcing the return of millions of Syrian refugees to areas in northern Syria where they do not originate from.
[…]
.. if Turkey is truly worried about their national security they can establish a safe zone on Turkish land to protect themselves but they do not have a right to encroach on Syrian land.
[…]
Turkey has drawn out a detailed plan for resettling two million Syrian refugees in the safe zone and many are concerned that once these Turkish loyalists have resettled on Turkey’s border, Ankara will claim ownership on Syria’s northern region. Turkey’s plan would cost roughly $27 billion and Turkey is not planning on footing the entire bill and has asked for other nations to assist funds to carry out its plan.
Turkey’s plan includes establishing 140 villages, 10 towns, a Turkish university with three faculties including an Islamic Sciences faculty in Azaz, an Education Faculty in Afrin and an Economics and Administrative Sciences faculty in Al Bab. Each village would have 1,000 homes which would house 5,000 people. Each town would have 6,000 homes and house 30,000 people. The project would have a total of 200,000 homes to house an estimated 1 million people.
Turkey is attempting to repeat across northern Syria what they accomplished in Afrin during the Olive Branch operation. They drove out the Kurdish population and replaced them with Turkish aligned Syrian refugees, changing the demographics.
Published at AH Tribune.
5. Rojava data base – over 40 ISIS terrorists now part of Turkish-backed forces.
6. Laith Marouf – political commentator and analyst on the history of the Syrian Kurds
If you are really interested in the issues of Kurdish future, please begin by reading about history of the region. You have to understand the roots of Kurdish presence in the areas we are talking about in northern Syria and Assyria.
I will take a moment here to explain geographic names for you. Syria geographically, is the land bordered by the Taurus Mountains in the north, the Kurdish Mountains in the east, the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and al-Hijaz and Najd in the south.
Syria can be further divided into four subculture zones: -Costal Syria stretching from Adana to Gaza – Syrian Desert and Nabatea in the Aqaba-Dead sea basin -Assyria the island between the two rivers, locally referred to as al-Jazeera. -Assyria ends at Baghdad, where the two rivers meet and Iraq starts. Syria, Assyria and Iraq, together are the Fertile Crescent and the lands of the Canaanite people, the people who birthed Aramaic, and through marriage with the Qahtaanites of Yemen birthed Arabic.
At the end of the 1800s, the Fertile Crescent was still occupied by the Ottomans. As the empire was collapsing, and fearing an Arab revolt, Turkish nationalists within the empire began a program of ethnic cleansing and population transfers across all of the area. Part of the plan included building a chain of villages populated by transferred Turkic peoples, stretching from the Anatolian Plato to Aleppo, Mosul, Damascus and Jerusalem.
This is where you get all the Turkmen villages and militias you heard about in the last few years in Iraq and Syria. This is how Erdogan can talk about protecting Turks in Iraq and Syria. The plan to transfer Turkic populations was not successful, not many wanted to move from their far away Turkic territories, and Arabs and Assyrians resisted violently.
So the Turkish elite figured out a better solution, use the Kurdish peoples that inhabit the close by, infertile Kurdistan Mountains, and entice them with the fertile lands of Arminians, Arabs and Assyrians. The results are the Arminian genocide, followed by the genocide of Assyrians and Arabs. All the scenes that played out at the hands of ISIS in north Syria and Iraq in the past 7 years; they are nothing in comparison to what Kurdish militias did to the local inhabitants, men, women and children, at the time. This is where all the local resentments to Kurdish people in Iraq and Syria comes from. No one excepts their claim to oppression, it rings hollow to the ears of survivors of their ethnic cleansing campaigns. Resentment is even more exasperated when Kurdish refugees on our land, claim the land, and demand a state.
By the end of WW1, the newly relocated Kurdish populations, emerged as a very important tool in imperial pressures on the defeated Turks. Iran, at the time a British vassal state, started to maneuver for a piece of Turkey. Here I will take a moment to point out that Kurdish people and their language are actually a subcultural isolate of Persian language and culture.
The majority of the indigenous lands of the Kurdish peoples, the Kurdistan Mountains is actually in Iran and not Turkey. The negotiations, through the use of the Kurdish card, resulted in Turkey accepting most of the conditions for the end of the war. In return, France allowed Turkey to complete the ethnic cleansing of northern Syria and Assyria, and in the late 1920s and early 30’s, Turkey expelled all the Arab, Assyrian and Greek inhabitants of all the major cities stretching from Adana in the west to Mardin in the east.
It should be noted that while Syria had Kurdish citizens prior to the partition of Sykes-Picot; they were a very small minority concentrated in the cities as migrants within the former Ottoman Empire. In the 40s when the new Turkish State was done with ethnically cleansing the Armenians, Arabs, Greeks and Assyrians; it turned against its former henchmen, and began ethnically cleansing the Kurds.
Many moved out of the cities they ethnically cleansed in upper Syria/Assyria, now in Turkey, and took refuge in Syria which gave them citizenship. A larger wave of Kurdish refugees arrived in Syria in the 60s when they started an armed struggle against Turkey. That batch was not given citizenship in Syria, but instead the state armed them and hosted the PKK to help in their liberation struggle; receiving the same rights as Palestinians in Syria that include all public services except the right to vote.
Since that day, almost all regional and international powers used the transferred Kurdish populations as tools in the war for territorial control.
Israel using them against Iraq, Iraq using them against Iran, Syria using them against Turkey, the US using them against Iraq, the US using them against Syria, the US using them against Turkey, and probably soon, the US using them against Iran.
Syria was almost invaded by Turkey at the beginning of 2000; Turkey even cut off all water from the Euphrates river to force Syria to give up the Kurdish liberation movement. In 2013, when the Syrian Army had to retreat from the margins and the country sides to defend the cities and major population centres; Syria naturalized all Kurdish inhabitants, opened all weapon storages in the north, and armed them to the teeth to fight against the Wahhabi Contra invasion. Unfortunately the Kurdish Contras repaid all the Syrian people hospitality with treason, by joining the Empire and attempting to steal our land for a fabricated state with a freshly minted name; Rojava.
In any case, if you are still a supporter of Kurdish separatism in Syria, one based on conquest by genocide, I offer one last point: Kurdish transferees and refugees in Syria represent less than 10% of the population of the country. And when looking at North Syria alone, Kurdish people represent only 30% of the population! So are Arabs and Assyrians to live as a majority ruled by a minority! Wouldn’t that be Apartheid? Are Kurds to be given the same uber-rights that Zionists have?
I am all for equality and internationalism, but please understand that I will never accept your versions of equality and internationalism; for they seem always paved with Arab blood and under the feet of colonial armies. Go ahead, read more history, before you pontificate, these are events that are fresh on peoples mind in my homelands.
7. Stephen Gowans – The myth of the Kurdish YPG moral excellence
Conclusion
Representing an ethnic community that comprises less than 10 percent of the Syrian population, the PKK, a Kurdish anarchist guerrilla group which operates in both Turkey and Syria, is using the United States, its Air Force, Marine Corps, Army Rangers and Special Forces troops, as a force multiplier in an effort to impose a partition of Syria in which the numerically insignificant Kurd population controls a significant part of Syria’s territory, including areas inhabited by Arabs in the majority and in which Kurds have never been in the majority.
To accomplish its aims, the PKK has not only struck a deal with a despotic regime in Washington which seeks to recolonize the Arab world, but is relying on ethnic cleansing and denial of repatriation of Arabs from regions from which they’ve fled or have been driven to establish Kurdish control of northern Syria, tactics which parallel those used by Zionist forces in 1948 to create a Jewish state in Arab-majority Palestine. Washington and Israel (the latter having long maintained a semi-clandestine relationship with the Kurds) value a confederal system for Syria as a means of weakening Arab nationalist influence in Arab Asia, undermining a pole of opposition to Zionism, colonialism, and the international dictatorship of the United States. Forces which resist dictatorship, including the most odious one of all, that of the United States over much of the world, are the real champions of democracy, a category to which the PKK, as evidenced by its actions in Syria, does not belong.
8. Sarah Abed – Kurds in north-eastern Syria turn to kidnapping, conscription, ISIS-like tactics
One of the most startling allegations made is that the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been arresting and kidnapping men aged 18 to 40 in the Al Hassakah governorate, which includes Al Qamishli and other towns under their control. They are taking these men against their will to Kurdish militia training camps, where they will stay for some time and receive training before being forced to fight in the so-called “New Syrian Army” or “North Syrian Army.” I was told that some of these men are being taken to the front lines to fight in Afrin as well.
9. Fares Shehabi – Aleppo MP.
“The only solution to the crisis in northeastern Syria is the Adana security agreement by which only the legitimate Syrian state controls its land and ensures the security of the border. This treaty had been very successful before Erdogan broke it in 2011 with his jihadis..”
Like in Afrin, the Turkish army is relying of its jihadi mercenaries in its recent invasion of northern Syria! Erdogan wants to destroy the social fabric of the region and replace it with his islamic radicals & their families.
10. Shabbir Hassnally – analyst
So Turkey has attacked Northern Syria with a view to destroying the Kurds. Well, this is not unexpected – Turkey has been for a long time “threatening” this – and was awaiting the appropriate time.
It is an illegal operation inside Sovereign Syrian territory. Not Sovereign “Kurdish” territory – but Syrian. And like all the others who have invaded and been driven out of Syria – Turkey, in this regard is also an invader into Syria. This is a fact and cannot be disputed.
The biggest fools and hapless idiots in this equation are the #Kurds – who for at the very least the second time have trusted Washington (remember 1991 anyone?), and somehow feel (since they have asked for a “No-Fly Zone” around ‘their area’ (yeah it’s not their Area – it’s Syria – plain and simple).
The #Kurds have one viable option in this regard. To reject their masters in Tel Aviv and Washington (yes there is a huge amount of Zionist influence within the ranks of the various Kurdish factions – such as SDF, YPG and many others – massive Israeli support – even for parts of so-called “Iraqi Kurdistan) are infested with Israelis who are attempting to create more separatist fervour.
The only option that the Kurdish groups in Occupied North-Eastern Syria have is to accept that they are an occupation force in Syria, to beg Syria for forgiveness and ask Syria to support them from being wiped out by Mr Erdogan.
Off course, there is another game that could be being played.
Consider; the US declares publically that it will not back the “Kurdish forces” – Mr Erdogan attacks Syria (under the guise of attacking the Kurds but as I’ve said it’s still an attack on Sovereign Syria); the Kurds scream and shout and beg Washington and Tel Aviv for help.
The West rejects the please of the Kurds, and so the Kurds, make a deal with Syria. Syria then works to cleanse its territory in the North East, and to repel the Turkish invasion.
At this point, Washington and Tel Aviv declare that Turkey – a NATO country – is under attack from Syria, and use that as a premise to perform a new attack on Syria.
I’m not saying this is what will happen, I’m not saying it is not either. All I’m saying is that the Kurdish groups of SDF and YPG and such are untrustworthy and opportunistic, and have made their proverbial bed; the problem in this equation is the more than 800,000 Syrian nationals who are caught in this crossfire in North Easter portion of Syria.
A real valid solution is as follows:
1/ Turkey immediately ceases fire. No discussion, an immediate cease-fire. And an immediate withdrawal from Syrian territory. No question or debate.
2/ The Syrian army (and it’s real allies) secure and make safe the North East of Syria that was previously occupied by the SDF and YPG
3/ The YPG and SDF immediately lay down their arms and agree to work with the LEGITIMATE government of Syria.
4/ Any found to be working with the enemy – Israel, US, Saudi, etc – are imprisoned and brought to justice via the judicial system (if that means being executed, then so be it)
5/ All civilians are kept safe and ensured protection and guaranteed security by the Syrian Arab Army and its allies
6/ Reparations are paid by the countries that invaded and made terror in Syria and especially by those in power who were behind such an invasion – personally and nationally. This includes the regimes of:
6.1/ United Kingdom
6.2/ United States
6.3/ “Israel”
6.4/ “Saudi” Arabia
6.5/ Persian Gulf Sheikhdoms (aka OIl Fields and Shopping Malls with Flags)
6.6/ Turkey
6.7/ All involved in the conspiracy against Syria and anyone who even for a nana-second supported DAESH, FSA, and related terror outfits manufactured out of Washington, Riyadh, London and Tel Aviv.
7/ New United Nations is formed, without any veto-holding members – and in neutral territory; with the US, Saudi, Israel, the UK, and those implicated in points 6.1 to 6.7, being relegated to 5th class members, and completely disarmed as entities.
These are starting points – points 1-6 are non-negotiable; point 7 can be debated but is important due to the impotence and indeed complicity of the United Nations in the campaign against Syria.
Also, due to point 6, the entity that is known as “Israel” will cease to exist in its current manner, and there will be a country known as Palestine which will be a home for Jewish, Muslim and Christians but not in an apartheid manner that will be the product of the removal from power of the Zionist Occupiers of Palestine who are also directly instrumental in most of the instability in Syria – evidenced instrumentality.
This will be a solution that ensures peace in the Middle East and globally, as the warmongering countries will cease to be a threat to anyone due to complete disarmament, and a total loss of reputation and position in the global community.
11. Dr Marcus Papadopoulos – historian and political analyst.
The Kurds of Syria should have learnt the lesson from Afrin that Washington will always side with Ankara if the American-Turkish strategic relationship requires this. Now the Syrian Kurds will pay a horrific price unless they form an alliance with Damascus and Moscow.
12. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister, Faisal Al Miqdad
Syrian Deputy FM Dr Faisal al-Miqdad to separatist Kurdish militias:
” Do not throw yourselves to perdition “
The Deputy Minister of Expatriates and Foreign Affairs Dr. Faisal al-Miqdad has reiterated that Syria will never ever accept the occupation of any inch of its territories, calling on the separatist Kurdish militias not to throw themselves to perdition.
“Once again, we say to those who lost everything: DO NOT LOSE YOURSELVES. The homeland welcomes all its citizens and we want to resolve all the Syrian problems in a positive way and far away from violence with preserving every inch of the country,” al-Miqdad said in a statement to the Damascus-based al-Watan.
He affirmed that the homeland’s fate cannot be manipulated. “The Syrian state won’t accept anything less than the liberation of its total area, 185.000 square kilometer . They have to understand that.”
“Anyone who is not loyal to his country and sells it at the lowest price, he/she will find themselves thrown out of the history. We have warned for many times of these conspiracies against the homeland and the Syrian people, and we said that those who throw themselves into the lap of the foreigner, the foreign will kick them out when the time is right,” al-Miqdad said.
He underscored that the US is being defeated all over the world and Syria will defend its territories.
Syria Times.
13. What does the US military draw down mean for Syria.
14. Why creating Kurdistan would be wrong
15. Aleksandr Kharchenko – ANNA News reporter and on-the-ground observer.
Erdogan’s cunning plan or about a new turn in the Syrian conflict
Syria resembles an expensive and endless serial. There was everything here: tragedies, exploits, and fantastic plot twists. Tell me honestly, did anyone believe in the summer of 2015 that most of the country would again be controlled by the legitimate government? Even those who fought at the forefront, in private conversations, admitted that they did not believe in the final victory. … And now in 2019, few doubt that in the foreseeable future Syria will again become a single state without terrorism and terrorists.
On October 7, Donald Trump turned over the chessboard of the Syrian conflict again, stated that American troops would leave the northern parts of Syria and actually would give the Turks green light on their operation to establish a “Security Zone” in the north of the country. We already heard something like that at the end of last year, but apart from loud statements, then no real actions followed. Has the situation really changed? And now what to expect from the Syrian conflict?
The beginning of the Turkish operation can be expected from day to day. Most likely, it will begin with the destruction of Kurdish fortifications. For it, aviation and artillery should work actively for several days. Then, from the Kobani side and somewhere near Al-Hasakah, the ground part of the operation will begin. The “pro-Turkish squads”, which the Turks have concentrated on their territory since July, will go into attack.
Today even the approximate number of Turkish proxies was announced – 15,000 people. The Turkish armed forces will go behind them, providing fire support and storming the most fortified places of Kurdish defense. Actually, we saw it near al-Bab and in Afrin.
Such tactics will be extremely effective. The Turkish side has repeatedly stated that these territories will become a new home for the millions of Syrian refugees who now live in Turkey. If translated into simple language, then pro-Turkish groups will fight for their new homes. There is no doubt that Turkey will control these territories through militants who participated in the seizure of territories. The more groups capture, the more significant preferences they will receive in these territories in the future.
The Kurds will certainly provide fierce resistance. Few imagine the real size of the assistance that the United States has provided to its allies over the years. (every two weeks there were reports of hundreds of trucks entering the Syrian territory) From personal experience, I can say that Kurdish at the same level of personal small arms, like the regular Turkish army. During the few meetings with Kurdish militias I mentioned an abundance of modern night vision scopes and thermal vision scope. The M-4 and M-16 rifles were marked with stigmas about the belonging of this weapon to the US government …. In addition to small arms, anti-tank weapons were transferred to the Kurdish self-defense, it’s hard to say whether they have “Javelins”, but the abundance of TOW – 2 complexes in warehouses is practically beyond doubt, plus all this time the Kurds were actively purchasing weapons from other sides to the conflict, therefore hundreds of old Soviet ATGMs in addition to hundreds of American missiles – these are very real numbers ….
This operation for the Turks and their proxies will be extremely difficult, because it will take place on the plains, where a large number of armored vehicles will meet with an abundance of anti-tank missiles, and in addition, the Kurds have not leave the idea of building their own state, in Rojava they are now closest to their ideals, so they will fight till the end …. But do not underestimate the Turkish side. Ultimately, absolute dominance in the air will play a role, and the Kurds will be forced to move south, beyond the line that Trump and Erdogan have agreed on among themselves.
The big question for me personally will be the situation of the Syrian garrisons in Al-Hasakah and Al Qamishli. And if the Syrian government had neutral relations with the Kurds, and clashes occurred quite often, it’s hard to even imagine how the fate of the Syrian soldiers will turn out, when instead of neutral Kurds they will be surrounded by openly hostile militants of the “Free Syrian Army” who only recently suffered a crushing defeat near Khan Shaykhun… Perhaps the status of the Syrian garrisons will be about the same as the status of the Turkish observation post near Murek … scenarios could be different, in any case, the Syrians are certainly not going to leave their positions no matter what “security zone.”
The American soldiers have already begun to leave their bases in the north of the country, but the question remains of their presence in the south of Syria. Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants to return all the soldiers to his homeland, but he constantly met with serious opposition to his intentions. And there are two main reasons: the first is in southern Syria in Deir ez-Zor and al-Tanf US soldiers are present mainly to stop Iranian influence in this region, because Iraq is nearby, and the border was taken under the control of Iranian proxies. Recently, an Al-Bukamal border crossing has even been officially opened, opening a direct road from Iran to Lebanon. And this is a direct threat to the security of Israel, and the Jewish state, of course, will turn on its full lobbying opportunities on Capitol Hill, cooling off another rush of the expressive president of the United States.
The second reason is the oil of Deir ez-Zor.
The possession of the largest oil field gives the American intelligence enormous opportunities. Controlling oil flows, they independently finance their programs in this region, without resorting to money from the United States, which largely unties their hands, since they do not have to answer for the extra dollars spent. Well, do not forget that another American goal to create a fuel crisis on the government side. At the beginning of this year, all oil supplies from the Kurdish territories were severely stopped, sometimes even vehicles carrying smuggled oil were even destroyed.
Together with the naval blockade of Syria, this had a serious effect and the cost of gasoline on the black market doubled…. And besides, in the cold months it became extremely difficult to get any kind of fuel, which undoubtedly strangles the already destroyed Syrian economy. Thus, the full exit of the Americans from Syria is not the immediate prospect. In my opinion the US base near the at-Tanf crossing is a litmus test. If in the near future the American troops will be withdrawn from there, then the remaining formations from the eastern coast of the Euphrates will also follow it …
New agreement between Trump and Erdogan is a trap for the Erdogan. Judge for yourselves, the Americans participated in an attempt to overthrow the Turkish president in 2016. Then this attempt failed. Now the Turkish leader has an extremely difficult domestic political situation, in order to maintain his status, he needs decisive action and a quick result. But what if formally, having agreed to Turkey’s operation in northern Syria, the Americans would withdraw their troops, but at the same time turn on the supply channels of Kurdish militia at full capacity? Then Turkey will have to get bogged down in Rojava’s adventure and opponents of Erdogan inside the country can take advantage of this ….
But how will the Turkish campaign affect the Idlib zone? It is no secret that this region has become a cradle for pro-Turkish squads. Turkey send here green buses with one goal – to integrate FSA groups around itself, and force them to fulfill their orders. Just before the operation, the National Army was created. More than two dozen different “moderate” squads were included there, who elected a single command and proclaimed their goal to be a struggle for democracy…. Members of these groups will now be sent to northern Syria to do the dirtiest work, paving the way for Turkish interests in northern Syria, respectively, powerful reserves will be withdrawn from the Idlib zone. Does this mean that the Syrian army will take advantage of the situation and immediately hit its weakened enemy?
In my opinion, government troops will stand during the Turkish operation. This will be necessary so that the militants do not even allow the thought that while they are at war, their villages are captured by Syrian troops. This can be regarded as a stab in the back from their Turkish patrons. Well, after the seizure of the northern territories, the Turkish proxies will have new houses where they can transfer their families and the relevance of Idlib’s defense will decrease somewhat.
Do not forget that in September of last year, the leaders of Russia and Turkey agreed that the M-4 and M-5 highways passing through Idlib province would be open again for civilian vehicles. To date, this arrangement has not been put into practice. The recovery of the Syrian economy is directly dependent on the free movement of goods along these routes, and the main opponents of this deal were the radical groups. They have long fulfilled the main function. With their hands it was planned to demolish the Syrian regime, and then they were to be replaced by moderate oppositionists. As we see, the Syrian government still remains in place, and the presence of terrorists in Idlib actually untie the hands of Russia and Syria in conducting operations in Idlib, since all agreements reached do not apply to the terrorists groups.
In addition, dissatisfaction with terrorist groups is growing in opposition territories. Since September last year, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has been conducting a wide campaign, during which she convinced the residents of Idlib that only they can stop the government troops. The results of these arrogant statements are perfectly visible on the map of Syria. The militants during the summer campaign not only lost a huge piece of territory, but by the beginning of September, a united front simply ceased to exist … the Syrian army could easily march into Maarrat al-Nu’man… but it was stopped thanks to the titanic diplomatic efforts of western governments.
Therefore, people in Idlib already understand that religious radicals are a toxic asset that needs to be disposed of as soon as possible, since they are not able to protect these territories from the Syrian government, and it is precisely the radicals that are an indisputable pretext for launching a new offensive deeper into Idlib. Turkey understand it and now they are making considerable efforts to solve this problem.
The participation of various groups in the Turkish operation in northern Syria is an actual pass to the stage of political settlement of the conflict. Those who helped Turkey will subsequently be admitted to negotiations on the future of the Syrian state. Who denied this offer will be destroyed in the foreseeable future by the Syrian troops. After the end of the Turkish campaign, the Syrian war machine will move and it will finally be able to take control over the M-4 and M-5 highways. It is unlikely that the capital of the Idlib province will be freed. Idlib is not a large town, and besides, it locate far from the M-4 and M-5 highways. Control over the highways is much more important than owning a small town. The control of the “moderate opposition” over Idlib is even more preferable for the future political process than its liberation. It will be much easier for the «opposition leaders» to convince the militants that this is not surrender, it is peace negotiations, because the main stronghold of the “Syrian revolution” was never taken by Syrian forces.
In any case, the separation of groups according to the levels of moderation, which has been talked about for many years, can happen in the near future. And the one who cannot fit into the future political process must undoubtedly disappear from the face of the earth …. Everything happens according to the laws of evolution – you couldn’t adapt to the changing environment (didn’t change color, didn’t get rid of too long claws and old skin) and that’s all, you will certainly be destroyed by more perspicacious individuals. And that means only one thing. The battles in Syria will continue, and we will make new first-class materials for our viewers.
16. Whitney Webb for Mint Press News – New agreement between Kurds and Assad could spell end for US role in Syria. (July 2018)
For the U.S.-allied Kurds in the northeast of Syria, the Dara’a offensive is a strong indication that the U.S. is hardly a dependable ally. Particularly after the Kurds lost the city of Afrin after the U.S. failed to aid the YPG in repelling a Turkish offensive earlier this year, many Kurds felt “betrayed” by the U.S. and began to question the YPG-U.S. alliance outright. Now, with the U.S. failing to protect its allies elsewhere in Syria, the Kurds seem to have all the indications they need that the U.S. is unlikely to offer them military protection against the Turks or the Syrian government.
The new agreement between the Kurds and the Syrian government is a major indication that U.S. influence in Syria is quickly waning and that its control over Northeastern Syria could soon be lost. Though the Trump administration seems to have accepted that it is only a matter of time until it is ousted from Syria, rumored efforts by the U.S. to deepen its involvement in the country — such as by using a false-flag chemical weapons attack as pretext — could throw a wrench into the Syrian government’s efforts to restore Syria’s territorial integrity and prevent the long-standing, U.S.-backed goal of partitioning Syria.
17. The Israeli support for the Kurdish cause – Iraq and Syria.
The Jewish Coalition for Kurdistan
The Brussels-based Jewish Coalition for Kurdistan (JCFK) counts Dershowitz and Cotler among its pro-Israel members. The JCFK website declares its mission to support independence for Iraqi Kurdistan:
The Jewish Coalition for Kurdistan is committed to deepening friendship between the Jewish and Kurdish people worldwide, and supporting the further development and consolidation of relations between Kurdistan and the State of Israel, the only two democratic and pro-Western societies in the Middle East.” (emphasis added)
This project brings Cotler and Dershowitz into alliance with Bernard Henri Levy, a French-Jewish philosopher with a deadly reputation for fomenting and supporting neocolonialist projects around the world, but perhaps most notoriously in Libya. Levy has been a long-time supporter of Kurdish “independence.”
While it would take a separate article to fully explore the neoconservative weaponization of Kurdish independence to weaken, destabilize and partition target states, including Syria, Iraq and Iran, the involvement of these three empire builders in the “cause” and the marketing of Kurdistan as the other “democratic and pro-Western society” in the Middle East must indicate the direction in which this campaign is heading: the balkanization of the Middle East.
Vanessa Beeley for Mint Press News
18. Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad, warns Kurds
What the so-called “SDF” don’t know, is that the U.S attempted to use them as a bargaining card with the Syrian government, and the Syrian government had warned them multiple times that no one will protect them but the Syrian Arab Army.
The refused all efforts of reconciliation with the Syrian Government, then called upon the Syrian Military to go to war to protect them all while they are openly attempting to annex regions of Syria.
The solution is simple and clear, all those who surrender their weapons will be protected by SAA. Let’s remember who stopped the Turks at al-Bab, who stopped the Turks from Khan Sheikhon, and who liberate its lands regardless of Turkish military presence or not.
Ultimately, every inch of Syria will be liberated, but Syria will not go to war to protect those who declared their open hostility toward SAA, and their plans to annex parts of Syria to create their so-called own state.
Syrian Arab Army page on Facebook
19. Sarah Abed – A History of Violence: Towards a US Sponsored Kurdistan in Syria
The Myth of the Moderate Kurdish Rebel
Kurdish complicity in Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacres and subjection of army conscripts to forced labor, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly, and the infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian desert. Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre.
Other indigenous and Christian ethnic groups, such as the Assyrians and the Ottoman Greeks, were similarly targeted for extermination by the Ottoman government in the Assyrian genocide and the Greek genocide, and their treatment is considered by some historians to be part of the same genocidal policy that targeted the Armenians. Most Armenian diaspora communities around the world came into being as a direct result of the genocide.
In the eastern provinces, the Armenians were subject to the whims of their Turkish and Kurdish neighbors, who would regularly overtax them, subject them to brigandage and kidnapping, force them to convert to Islam, and otherwise exploit them without interference from central or local authorities.
Egged on by their Ottoman rulers, Kurdish tribal chieftains raped, murdered and pillaged their way through the southeastern provinces where for centuries they had co-existed, if uneasily, with the Armenians and other non-Muslims. Henry Morgenthau, who served as U.S. Ambassador in Constantinople at the height of the bloodshed, described the Kurds’ complicity in his chilling 1918 memoir Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story:
“The Kurds would sweep down from their mountain homes. Rushing up to the young girls, they would lift their veils and carry the pretty ones off to the hills. They would steal such children as pleased their fancy and mercilessly rob all the rest of the throng…While they were committing these depredations, the Kurds would freely massacre, and the screams of women and old men would add to the general horror.”
http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/archive/ug750-hour1mix.mp3 _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
Carey Lodge Wed 2 Dec 2015 16:56 GMT
Justin Welby
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby
Justin Welby has announced his support for UK air strikes in Syria, telling the House of Lords today that the criteria of a just war have been met.
Speaking in the House as MPs debate the issue today, the Archbishop of Canterbury said: "The just war criteria have to my mind been met, but while they are necessary, they are not by themselves sufficient in action of this kind".
He warned that the UK could "end up doing the right thing in such a wrong way that it becomes wrong thing."
Aerial bombing "plays into the expectation of ISIL and other jihadist groups in the region, springing from their apocalyptic theology," he added.
"The totality of our actions must subvert that false narrative – because by itself will not work. If we act only against ISIL globally, and only in the ways proposed so far, we will strengthen their resolve, increase their recruitment, and encourage their sympathisers.
"Without a far more comprehensive approach, we confirm their dreadful belief that what they are doing is the will of God."
Welby called for a holistic approach to the war in Syria, insisting that "there must be a global theological and ideological component...to what we are doing".
"It must be relentlessly pursued and promoted, and it must include challenging Saudi Arabia and Qatar – whose own promotion of a particular brand of Islamic theology has provided a source from which ISIS have drawn a false legitimisation," he said.
"It must also show clear support for global mainstream Muslim and other religious leaders...Only a holistic, theological and global policy will achieve our aims."
The Archbishop also called for "greater generosity" in the UK's response to the refugee crisis. That hospitality "must be accompanied by a clear strategy that reduces the need for others to seek sanctuary... and enables those who have fled to return," he said.
"The communities that have lived there for 2,000 years should not simply be emptied from that region."
Welby's comments are likely to be supported by other Church leaders. A statement released by the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, head of the Catholic Church in the UK, today said British air strikes could be "defensible".
"Effective action is necessary to stop the grave harm being inflicted by ISIS on civilians. While indiscriminate violence is never justifiable, specific use of force to protect the vulnerable is defensible, if it is combined with sustained diplomatic and humanitarian efforts," Nichols said.
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"As Pope Francis has said: where there is unjust aggression, it is licit to stop the aggressor."
Nichols referred to a trip he took to Iraq in April of this year, during which he concluded that "proportionate military intervention" is necessary to stop ISIS and other terror groups.
A joint statement released today by The Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church in Britain and the United Reformed Church was less supportive of military action in Syria, however.
It said that aerial bombing "is unlikely to have a decisive role in defeating Daesh", would likely cause significant civilian casualties, and that the churches are "convinced that Daesh can only be defeated through a comprehensive economic, diplomatic and security strategy".
Though the statement praised the UK's efforts to suppress acts of terrorism, it said that the assertion that British military intervention in Syria "will reduce the terrorist threat to the UK...requires significant qualification".
"Ultimately a more vigorous campaign across the Middle-East as well as in our own country is vital to counter the ideology of Daesh and the propaganda that endorses religious and sectarian violence," the statement added.
"Western military intervention in the Middle East is unhelpful in that it makes sharing on matters of peace, equality and the common good more challenging."
It also said: "Our churches eschew all forms of intolerance and hatred and urge that measures taken to overcome the intolerance demonstrated by Daesh must also seek to promote values that we hold dear."
The UK government published a motion on Tuesday saying that ISIS poses a "direct threat" to Britain, and there is a legal basis for action. MPs are currently debating the issue in the House of Commons, and will vote at around 10pm this evening.
Prime Minister David Cameron today said the air strikes would help to "keep the British people safe" from terrorists.
"Do we work with our allies to degrade and destroy this threat and do we go after these terrorists in their heartlands from where they are plotting to kill British people, or do we sit back and wait for them to attack us?" he asked MPs.
"The question before the House today is how we keep the British people safe from the threat posed by ISIL. This is not about whether we want to fight terrorism, it's about how best we do that." _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
The outsized role of U.S. Israel lobby operatives in abetting the theft of Syrian and Iraqi oil reveals how this powerful lobby also facilitates more covert aspects of U.S.-Israeli cooperation and the implementation of policies that favor Israel.
by Agha Hussain and Whitney Webb – Dec. 10, 2019
KIRKUK, IRAQ — “We want to bring our soldiers home. But we did leave soldiers because we’re keeping the oil,” President Trump stated on November 3, before adding, “I like oil. We’re keeping the oil.”
Though he had promised a withdrawal of U.S. troops from their illegal occupation of Syria, Trump shocked many with his blunt admission that troops were being left behind to prevent Syrian oil resources from being developed by the Syrian government and, instead, kept in the hands of whomever the U.S. deemed fit to control them, in this case, the U.S.-backed Kurdish-majority militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Though Trump himself received all of the credit — and the scorn — for this controversial new policy, what has been left out of the media coverage is the fact that key players in the U.S.’ pro-Israel lobby played a major role in its creation with the purpose of selling Syrian oil to the state of Israel. While recent developments in the Syrian conflict may have hindered such a plan from becoming reality, it nonetheless offers a telling example of the covert role often played by the U.S.’ pro-Israel lobby in shaping key elements of U.S. foreign policy and closed-door deals with major regional implications.
Indeed, the Israel lobby-led effort to have the U.S. facilitate the sale of Syrian oil to Israel is not an isolated incident given that, just a few years ago, other individuals connected to the same pro-Israel lobby groups and Zionist neoconservatives manipulated both U.S. policy and Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in order to allow Iraqi oil to be sold to Israel without the approval of the Iraqi government. These designs, not unlike those that continue to unfold in Syria, were in service to longstanding neoconservative and Zionist efforts to balkanize Iraq by strengthening the KRG and weakening Baghdad.
After the occupation of Iraq’s Nineveh Governorate by ISIS (June 2014-October 2015), the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) took advantage of the Iraqi military’s retreat and, amidst the chaos, illegally seized Kirkuk on June 12. Their claim to the city was supported by both the U.S. and Israel and, later, the U.S.-led coalition targeting ISIS. This gave the KRG control, not only of Iraq’s export pipeline to Turkey’s Ceyhan port, but also to Iraq’s largest oil fields.
Israel imported massive amounts of oil from the Kurds during this period, all without the consent of Baghdad. Israel was also the largest customer of oil sold by ISIS, who used Kurdish-controlled Kirkuk to sell oil in areas of Iraq and Syria under its control. To do this in ISIS-controlled territories of Iraq, the oil was sent first to the Kurdish city of Zakho near the Turkey border and then into Turkey, deceptively labeled as oil that originated from Iraqi Kurdistan. ISIS did nothing to impede the KRG’s own oil exports even though they easily could have given that the Kirkuk-Ceyhan export pipeline passed through areas that ISIS had occupied for years.
In retrospect, and following revelations from Wikileaks and new information regarding the background of relevant actors, it has been revealed that much of the covert maneuvering behind the scenes that enabled this scenario intimately involved the United States’ powerful pro-Israel lobby. Now, with a similar scenario unfolding in Syria, efforts by the U.S.’ Israel lobby to manipulate U.S. foreign policy in order to shift the flow of hydrocarbons for Israel’s benefit can instead be seen as a pattern of behavior, not an isolated incident.
“Keep the oil” for Israel
After recent shifts in the Trump administration in its Syria policy, U.S. troops have controversially been kept in Syria to “keep the oil,” with U.S. military officials subsequently claiming that doing so was “a subset of the counter-ISIS mission.” However, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper later claimed that another factor behind U.S. insistence on guarding Syrian oil fields was to prevent the extraction and subsequent sale of Syrian oil by either the Syrian government or Russia.
One key, yet often overlooked, player behind the push to prevent a full U.S. troop withdrawal in Syria in order to “keep the oil” was current U.S. ambassador to Turkey, David Satterfield. Satterfield was previously the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, where he yielded great influence over U.S. policy in both Iraq and Syria and worked closely with Brett McGurk, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran and later special presidential envoy for the U.S.-led “anti-ISIS” coalition.
Over the course of his long diplomatic career, Satterfield has been known to the U.S. government as an Israeli intelligence asset embedded in the U.S. State Department. Indeed, Satterfield was named as a major player in what is now known as the AIPAC espionage scandal, also known as the Lawrence Franklin espionage scandal, although he was oddly never charged for his role after the intervention of his superiors at the State Department in the George W. Bush administration.
David Satterfield
In 2005, federal prosecutors cited a U.S. government official as having illegally passed classified information to Steve Rosen, then working for AIPAC, who then passed that information to the Israeli government. That classified information included intelligence on Iran and the nature of U.S.-Israeli intelligence sharing. Subsequent media reports from the New York Times and other outlets revealed that this government official was none other than David Satterfield, who was then serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs.
Charges against Rosen, as well as his co-conspirator and fellow AIPAC employee Keith Weissman, were dropped in 2009 and no charges were levied against Satterfield after State Department officials shockingly claimed that Satterfield had “acted within his authority” in leaking classified information to an individual working to advance the interests of a foreign government. Richard Armitage, a neoconservative ally with a long history of ties to CIA covert operations in the Middle East and elsewhere, has since claimed that he was one of Satterfield’s main defenders in conversations with the FBI during this time when he was serving as Deputy Secretary of State.
The other government official named in the indictment, former Pentagon official Lawrence Franklin, was not so lucky and was charged under the Espionage Act in 2006. Satterfield, instead of being censured for his role in leaking sensitive information to a foreign government, was subsequently promoted in 2006 to serve as the Coordinator for Iraq and Senior Adviser to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
RELATED CONTENT: Trump: “We Have Total Control Over the Oil that Islamic State Wanted in Syria and We Can do Whatever We Want With it”
In addition to his history of leaking classified information to AIPAC, Satterfield also has a longstanding relationship with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a controversial spin-off of AIPAC also known by its acronym WINEP. WINEP’s website has long listed Satterfield as one of its experts and Satterfield has spoken at several WINEP events and policy forums, including several after his involvement with the AIPAC espionage scandal became public knowledge. However, despite his longstanding and controversial ties to the U.S. pro-Israel lobby, Satterfield’s current relationship with some elements of that lobby, such as the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), is complicated at best.
While Satterfield’s role in yet another reversal of a promised withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria has largely escaped media scrutiny, another individual with deep ties to the Israel lobby and Syrian “rebel” groups has also been ignored by the media, despite his outsized role in taking advantage of this new U.S. policy for Israel’s benefit.
US Israel Lobby secures deal with Kurds
Earlier this year, well before Trump’s new Syria policy of “keeping the oil” had officially taken shape, another individual with deep ties to the U.S. Israel lobby secured a lucrative agreement with U.S.-backed Kurdish groups in Syria. An official document issued earlier this year by the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political arm of the Kurdish majority and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a New Jersey-based company, founded and run by U.S.-Israeli dual citizen Mordechai “Motti” Kahana, was given control of the oil in territory held by the SDC.
Per the document, the SDC formally accepted the offer from Kahana’s company — Global Development Corporation (GDC) — to represent SDC in all matters pertaining to the sale of oil extracted in territory it controls and also grants GDC “the right to explore and develop oil that is located in areas we govern.”
Global Development Corporation Kurdish Oil
The document also states that the amount of oil then being produced in SDC-controlled areas was 125,000 barrels per day and that they anticipated that this would increase to 400,000 barrels per day and that this oil is considered a foreign asset under the control of the United States by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
After the document was made public by the Lebanese outlet Al-Akhbar, the SDC claimed that it was a forgery, even though Kahana had separately confirmed its contents and shared the letter itself to the Los Angeles Times as recently as a few weeks ago. Kahana previously attempted to distance himself from the effort and told the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom in July that he had made the offer to the SDC as means to prevent the “Assad regime” of Syria from obtaining revenue from the sale of Syrian oil.
The Kurds currently hold 11 oil wells in an area controlled by the [Syrian] Democratic Forces. The overwhelming majority of Syrian oil is in that area. I don’t want this oil reaching Iran, or the Assad regime.”
At the time, Kahana also stated that “the moment the Trump administration gives its approval, we can begin to export this oil at fair prices.”
Given that Kahana has openly confirmed that he is representing the SDC’s oil business shortly after Trump’s adoption of the controversial “keep the oil policy,” it seems plausible that Kahana has now received the approval needed for his company to export the oil on behalf of the SDC. Several media reports have speculated that, if Kahana’s efforts go forward unimpeded, the Syrian oil will be sold to Israel.
However, considering Turkey’s aversion to engaging in any activities that may benefit the PKK-SDF – there are considerable obstacles to Kahana’s plans. While the SDF — along with assistance from U.S. troops — still controls several oil fields in Syria, experts assert that they can only realistically sell the oil to the Syrian government. Not even the Iraqi Kurds are a candidate, considering Baghdad’s firm control over the Iraq-Syria border and the KRG’s weakened state after its failed independence bid in late 2017.
Regardless, Kahana’s involvement in this affair is significant for a few reasons. First, Kahana has been a key player in the promotion and funding of radical groups in Syria and has even been caught hiring so-called “rebels” to kidnap Syrian Jews and take them to Israel against their will. It was Kahana, for instance, who financed and orchestrated the now infamous trip of the late Senator John McCain to Syria, where he met with Syrian “rebels” including Khalid al-Hamad – a “moderate” rebel who gained notoriety after a video of him eating the heart of a Syrian Army soldier went viral online. McCain had also admitted meeting with ISIS members, though it is unclear if he did so on this trip or another trip to Syria.
In addition, Kahana was also the mastermind behind the “Caesar” controversy, whereby a Syrian using the pseudonym “Caesar” was brought to the U.S. by Kahana and went on to make claims regarding torture and other crimes allegedly committed by the Assad-led government Syria, claims which were later discredited by independent analysts. He was also very involved in Israel’s failed efforts to establish a “safe zone” in Southern Syria as a means of covertly expanding Israel’s territory from the occupied Golan Heights and into Quneitra.
Notably, Kahana has deep ties — not just to efforts to overthrow the Syrian government — but also to U.S. Israel lobby, including the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) where Satterfield is as an expert. For instance, Kahana was a key player in a 2013 symposium organized by WINEP along with Syrian opposition groups intimately involved in the arming of so-called “rebels.” One of the other participants in the symposium alongside Kahana was Mouaz Moustafa, director of the “Syrian Emergency Task Force” who assisted Kahana in bringing McCain to Syria in 2013. Moustafa was listed as a WINEP expert on the organization’s website but was later mysteriously deleted.
Kahana is also intimately involved with the Israeli American Council (IAC), a pro-Israel lobby organization, as a team member of its national conference. IAC was co-founded and is chaired by Adam Milstein, a multimillionaire and convicted felon who is also on the boards of AIPAC, StandWithUs, Birthright and other prominent pro-Israel lobby organizations. One of IAC’s top donors is Sheldon Adelson, who is also the top donor to President Trump as well as the entire Republican Party.
Though the machinations of both Kahana and Satterfield to guide U.S. policy in order to manipulate the flow of Syria’s hydrocarbons for Israel’s benefit may seem shocking to some, this same tactic of pro-Israel lobbyists using the Kurds to illegally sell a country’s oil to Israel was developed a few years prior, not in Syria, but Iraq. Notably, the individuals responsible for that policy in Iraq shared connections to several of the same pro-Israel lobby organizations as both Satterfield and Kahana, suggesting that their recent efforts in Syria are not an isolated event, but a pattern.
War against ISIS is a war for oil
In an email dated June 15, 2014, James Franklin Jeffrey (former Ambassador to Iraq and Turkey and current U.S. Special Representative for Syria) revealed to Stephen Hadley, a former George Bush administration advisor then working at the government-funded United States Institute of Peace, his intent to advise the KRG in order to sustain Kirkuk’s oil production. The plan, as Jeffery described it, was to supply both the Kurdistan province with oil and allow the export of oil via Kirkuk-Ceyhan to Israel, robbing Iraq of its oil and strengthening the country’s Kurdish region along with its regional government’s bid for autonomy.
RELATED CONTENT: Russia Won’t Cooperate With US on Syrian Oil Fields, They Belong to Damascus – Deputy FM
Jeffrey, whose hawkish views on Iran and Syria are well-known, mentioned that Brett McGurk, the U.S.’ main negotiator between Baghdad and the KRG, was acting as his liaison with the KRG. McGurk, who had served in various capacities in Iraq under both Bush and Obama, was then also serving Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran. A year later, he would be made the special presidential envoy for the U.S.-led “anti-ISIS” coalition and, as previously mentioned, worked closely with David Satterfield.
The Israel Lobby’s Hidden Hand in the Theft of Iraqi and Syrian Oil
Jeffrey was then a private citizen not currently employed by the government and was used as a non-governmental channel in the pursuit of the plans described in the leaked emails published by WikiLeaks. Jeffrey’s behind-the-scenes activities with regards to the KRG’s oil exports were done clandestinely, largely because he was then employed by a prominent arm of the U.S.’ pro-Israel lobby.
At the time of the email, Jeffrey was serving as a distinguished fellow (2013-2018) at WINEP. As previously mentioned, WINEP is a pro-Israel foreign policy think-tank that espouses neoconservative views and was created in 1985 by researchers that had hastily left AIPAC to escape investigations against the organization that were related to some of its members conducting espionage on behalf of Israel. AIPAC, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, is the largest registered Israel lobbyist organization in the US (albeit registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act would be more suitable), and, in addition to the 1985 incident that led to WINEP’s creation, has had members indicted for espionage against the U.S. on Israel’s behalf.
WINEP’s launch was funded by former President of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, Barbara Weinberg, who is its founding president and constant Chairman Emerita. Nicknamed ‘Barbi’, she is the wife of the late Lawrence Weinberg who was President of AIPAC from 1976-81 and who JJ Goldberg, author of the 1997 book Jewish Power, referred to as one of a select few individuals who essentially dominated AIPAC regardless of its elected leadership. Co-founder alongside Weinberg was Martin Indyk. Indyk, U.S. Ambassador to Israel (1995-97) and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs (1997-99), led the AIPAC research time that formed WINEP to escape the aforementioned investigations.
WINEP has historically received funding from donors who donate to causes of special interest for Zionism and Israel. Among its trustees are extremely prominent names in political Zionism and funders of other Israel Lobby organizations, such as Charles and Edgar Bronfman and the Chernicks. Its membership remains dominated by individuals who have spent their careers promoting Israeli interests in the U.S.
WINEP has become more well-known, and arguably more controversial, in recent years after its research director famously called for false-flag attacks to trigger a U.S. war with Iran in 2012, statements well-aligned with longstanding attempts by the Israel Lobby to bring about such a war.
A worthy partner in crime
Stephen Hadley, another private citizen who Jeffrey evidently considered as a partner in his covert dealings discussed in the emails, also has his own past of involvement with Israel-specific intrigues and meddling.
During the G.W. Bush administration, Hadley tagged along with neoconservatives in their numerous creations of fake intelligence and efforts to incriminate Iraq for possessing chemical and nuclear weapons. Hadley was one of the promoters from within the U.S. government of the false claim that 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta met with Iraqi officials in Prague.
Hadley also worked with then-Chief of Staff to the Vice President, Lewis Libby — a neoconservative and former lawyer for the Mossad-agent and billionaire Marc Rich — to discredit a CIA investigation into claims of Iraq purchasing yellowcake uranium from Niger. That claim famously appeared in Bush’s State of the Union address in 2002.
What this particular claim had in common with the ‘Iraq meets Atta in Prague’ disinformation, and other famous lies against Iraq fabricated and circulated by the dense neocon network, was its source: Israel and pro-Israel partisans.
The distribution network of these now long-debunked claims was none other than the neoconservatives who act a veritable Israeli fifth column that has long sought to promote Israeli foreign policy objectives as being in the interest of the United States. In this, Hadley played his part by helping to ensure that the United States was railroaded into a war that had long been promoted by both Israeli and American neoconservatives, particularly Richard Perle — an advisor to WINEP — who had been promoting regime change in Iraq for Israel’s explicit benefit for decades.
In short, for covert intrigues to serve Israel that would likely be met with protest if pitched to the government for implementation as policy, Hadley’s resume was impressive.
Israeli interests pursued through covert channels
Given his employment at WINEP during this time, Jeffrey’s intent to advise the KRG to sustain Kirkuk’s oil production despite the seizure of the Baiji oil refinery by ISIS is somewhat suspect, especially since it required that 100,000 barrels per day pass through ISIS-controlled territory unimpeded.
Jeffrey’s email from June 14, therefore, demonstrated that he had foreknowledge that ISIS would not disturb the KRG as long as the Kurds redirected oil that was intended originally for Baiji to the Kirkuk-Ceyhan export pipeline, facilitating its export and later sale to Israel.
Notably, up until its liberation in mid-2015 by the Iraqi government and aligned Shia paramilitaries, ISIS kept the refinery running and, only upon their retreat, destroyed the facility.
In July 2014, the KRG began confidently supplying Kurdish areas with Kirkuk’s oil per the plan laid out by Jeffrey in the aforementioned email. Baghdad soon became aware of the arrangement and lashed out at Israel and Turkey, whose banks were used by the KRG to receive the oil revenue from Israel.
One would normally expect ISIS to be opposed to such collusion given that the KRG, while a beneficiary of the ISIS-Baghdad conflict, was not an ally of ISIS. Thus, a foreign power with strategic ties to ISIS used its close ties to the KRG and assurances that it was on-board for the oil trade, to deliver a credible guarantee that ISIS would ‘cooperate’ and that a boom in production and exports was in the cards.
This foreign power — acting as a guarantor for the ISIS-KRG understanding vis-a-vis the illegal oil economy, represented by Jeffrey and clearly not on good terms with Iraq’s government — was quite clearly Israel.
Israel established considerable financial support as well as the provision of armaments to other extremist terrorist groups active near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Southern Syria when war first broke out in Syria in 2011. At least four of these extremist groups were led by individuals with direct ties to Israeli intelligence. These same groups, sometimes promoted as ‘moderates’ by some media, were actively fighting Syria’s government – an enemy of Israel and ally of Iran – before ISIS existed and eagerly partnered with ISIS when it expanded its campaign into Syria.
Furthermore, Israeli officials have publicly admitted maintaining regular communication with ISIS cells in Southern Syria and have publicly expressed their desire that ISIS not be defeated in the country. In Libya, Israeli Mossad operatives have been found embedded within ISIS, suggesting that Israel has covert but definite ties with the group outside of Syria as well.
Israel has also long promoted the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan, with Israel having provided Iraq’s Kurds with weapons, training and teams of Mossad advisers as far back as the 1960s. More recently, Israel was the only state to support the KRG independence referendum in September 2017 despite its futility, hinting at the regard Israel holds for the KRG. Iraq’s government subsequently militarily defeated the KRG’s push for statehood and reclaimed Kirkuk’s oil fields with assistance from the Shia paramilitaries which were responsible for defeating ISIS in the area.
Iraq ISIS control map
This arrangement orchestrated by Jeffrey, served the long-time neoconservative-Israeli agenda of empowering the Kurds, selling Iraqi oil to Israel and weakening Iraq’s Baghdad-based government.
WINEP’s close association with AIPAC, which has spied on the U.S. on behalf of Israel several times in the past with no consequence, combined with Jeffrey’s long-time acquaintance with key U.S. figures in Iraq, such as McGurk, provided an ideal opening for Israel in Iraq. Following the implementation of Jeffrey’s plan, Israeli imports of KRG oil constituted 77 percent of Israel’s total oil imports during the KRG’s occupation of Kirkuk.
The WINEP connection to the KRG-Israel oil deal demonstrates the key role played by the U.S. pro-Israel Lobby, not only in terms of sustaining U.S. financial aid to Israel and ratcheting up tensions with Israel’s adversaries but also in facilitating the more covert aspects of U.S.-Israeli cooperation and the implementation of policies that favor Israel.
Men and women, of all faiths and of none, are celebrating Christmas in Aleppo, Syriapic.twitter.com/kSpqeZILxu You don’t need to be a supporter of Putin or Assad to know how very different these scenes would be if the Islamist sectarian rebels backed by US UK & SaudiArabia had won.
_________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
Joined: 25 Jul 2005 Posts: 18335 Location: St. Pauls, Bristol, England
Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:55 pm Post subject:
February 19, 2020
Syria - Turkey's Bluff Is Called - Media Opposition Sources Run By British Intelligence
Russia has called Turkey's bluff of a wide ranging attack on Syrian government forces. The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will now have to find a way out of the Idleb trap he set himself in. His excellent Syria adventure is coming to an end.
Meanwhile we learn that the British military intelligence ran another large dis-information campaign that brought 'Syrian voices' into the 'western' press.
Erdogan continues with his wild rhetoric over Syria.
#ERDOGAN: "#Turkey cannot be confined within the 780,000 km2 border. #Misrata, #Aleppo, #Homs & #Hasaka are outside our actual borders, but they are within our emotional & physical limits, we will confront those who limit our history to only 90yrs."
The Turkish talks with Russia have not gone well. Russia had proposed the following points:
1- 16-km border strip in Idlib under Turkey control 2- Russia controls crossing between Idlib strip and Afrin 3- M4 and M5 opened under joint Russian-Turkish supervision 4- Retreat of observation points to border strip
Some ten of Turkey's observation points are currently surrounded by the Syrian army. If Turkey starts to escalate they will be in a dire situation.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Feb. 19 that talks with Russia on the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib were far from meeting Turkey's demands and warned that a military operation there was a "matter of time".
"As with all [previous] operations, we say 'we could suddenly come one night.' In other words, an Idlib operation is a matter of time," Erdoğan said. He was referring to the previous three Turkish operations to northern Syria since 2016.
"We are entering the last days for the [Syrian] regime to stop its hostility in Idlib. We are making our final warnings," he added. “Turkey has made all preparations to carry out its own operation plans in Idlib."
Russia called a Turkish attack the worst case scenario:
The Kremlin spokesman added that "if it is an operation against Syria’s legitimate authorities and armed forces, it will definitely be the worst scenario."
Russia will continue contacts with Turkey in order to prevent the situation in Idlib from escalating further, according to Peskov.
"We are determined to continue to use our working contacts with our Turkish counterparts to prevent the situation in Idlib from escalating further," he said.
Two hours after it published the above the Russian agency TASS also published this:
Two Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3 strategic bombers have performed a scheduled flight over the neutral waters of the Black Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
"During the flight, the crews covered a distance of about 4,500 km and stayed in the air for more than five hours," the statement runs.
Fighter jets of Russia’s Southern Military District escorted the bombers during the flight.
The Russians are also prodding Erdogan with reports about U.S. weapon deliveries to PKK-Kurds in east Syria:
“The US command in the region is intensively saturating the territory east of the Euphrates river with weapons and ammunition. Since the beginning of 2020, 13 military convoys have arrived from Iraq to Syria, which included over 80 armored vehicles and more than 300 trucks loaded with various types of weapons, ammunition and materiel”, Rear Adm. Oleg Zhuravlev said in a daily briefing.
Reports now speak of more than a million refugees in Idleb even as the pre-war population of Idleb governorate never exceeded 1.5 million. Many of those already fled during the early war either to government held areas or to Turkey and beyond. Where are the million reported now supposed to have come from?
The 'western' media is again practicing tear jerking about these refugees in Idleb. But its reports forget to mention that al-Qaeda rules Idleb and that it prevents the people from crossing the line into Syrian government held areas:
In yet another lengthy, expensive, lavishly illustrated story about Idlib, the NYT once again failed to make any mention of the politics of what is happening in that enclave of northwestern Syria– namely, the fact that well-armed jihadist/takfiri fighters from all around the world have controlled it for the past several years, while Syria’s government forces have been battling to regain control.
In that latest article, as in all of the lengthy, one-sided tearjerkers it has published about Idlib over the past year, the NYT has no actual journalists or photographers on the ground reporting the story. It is wholly reliant instead on “stories” and footage it gathers from unverifiable sources inside the enclave– sources who notably never include any mention of the jihadi armed groups that control all aspects of life there.
Today we learn that many of these unverifiable sources have been on the British government payroll since at least 2012:
A number of leaked documents seen by Middle East Eye show how the propaganda initiative began in 2012 and gathered pace the following year, shortly after the UK parliament refused to authorise British military action in Syria.
Drawing upon British, American and Canadian funding, UK government contractors set up offices in Istanbul and Amman, where they hired members of the Syrian diaspora, who in turn recruited citizen journalists inside Syria. ... During 2015, Free Syria, Syrian Identity and Undermine were funded in both British pounds and Canadian dollars, with the equivalent of around £410,000 ($540,000) being spent each month.
These 'sources' which were hired and instructed by the UK government are the ones quoted in 'western' papers. The whole scheme, like the British organized 'White Helmets', was run by military intelligence officers:
Individuals familiar with the project say that around nine companies were invited to bid for the contracts. They included a number of firms established by former British diplomats, intelligence officers and army officers.
Although the contracts were awarded by the UK’s foreign office, they were managed by the country’s Ministry of Defence, and sometimes by military intelligence officers.
These companies set up offices in Amman, Istanbul and, for a period, at Reyhanli in southeast Turkey. From here they would employ Syrians who would in turn recruit citizen journalists inside Syria, who were under the impression that they were working for the media offices of Syrian opposition groups.
Meanwhile, other leaked documents seen by MEE show that the British government had awarded contracts to communications companies, which selected and trained opposition spokespeople, ran press offices that operated 24 hours a day, and developed opposition social media accounts.
British staff running these offices were told that their Syrian employees were permitted to talk to British journalists – as spokespeople for the Syrian opposition – but only after receiving clearance from officials at the British consulate in Istanbul.
One of the responsibilities of the press offices set up covertly by the British government under the terms of these contracts was to “maintain an effective network of correspondents/stringers inside Syria to report on MAO [moderate armed opposition] activity”.
In this way, the British government was able to exert behind-the-scenes influence over conversations that the UK media was having with individuals who presented themselves as Syrian opposition representatives.
It wasn't just UK media who cited those persons. The whole 'civil opposition movement' was, like the 'White Helmets', a well organized and paid British government front. But when Turkey increased its role in Syria the British dis-information operation began to shut down:
British government enthusiasm for much of the work appears to have begun to wane as it became increasingly clear that the Assad government and its Russian and Iranian allies were winning the civil war, and funding for contracts began to dry up.
Early in 2019, the Free Syrian Police, a British-backed organisation, finally ceased operations following a militant takeover of Idlib province, much to the dismay of civilians and civil society activists.
The Turkish government is also said to have become less tolerant of the propaganda initiatives being co-ordinated from its territory.
One British contractor is understood to have been expelled after the Turkish authorities discovered she had entered the country on a tourist visa.
That Turkey's government became less tolerant to the British operation may also explain the death of the British military intelligence officer who ran the 'White Helmets' propaganda group from his apartment in Istanbul.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggPknSY6NCk _________________ --
'Suppression of truth, human spirit and the holy chord of justice never works long-term. Something the suppressors never get.' David Southwell
http://aangirfan.blogspot.com http://aanirfan.blogspot.com
Martin Van Creveld: Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: "Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother."
Martin Van Creveld: I'll quote Henry Kissinger: "In campaigns like this the antiterror forces lose, because they don't win, and the rebels win by not losing."
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