What’s Happening in Syria?

[HiPointDem]

The Holy Triumvirate — the United States, NATO, and the European Union — or an approved segment thereof, can usually get what they want....Next on their agenda: the removal of Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

As with Gaddafi, the ground is being laid with continual news reports — from CNN to al Jazeera — of Assad's alleged barbarity, presented as both uncompromising and unprovoked. After months of this media onslaught who can doubt that what's happening in Syria is yet another of those cherished Arab Spring "popular uprisings" against a "brutal dictator" who must be overthrown? And that the Assad government is overwhelmingly the cause of the violence.

As to the current violence in Syria, we must consider the numerous reports of forces providing military support to the Syrian rebels — the UK, France, the US, Turkey, Israel, Qatar, the Gulf states, and everyone's favorite champion of freedom and democracy, Saudi Arabia; with Syria claiming to have captured some 14 French soldiers; plus individual jihadists and mercenaries from Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, et al, joining the anti-government forces, their number including al-Qaeda veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who are likely behind the car bombs in an attempt to create chaos and destabilize the country. This may mark the third time the United States has been on the same side as al-Qaeda, adding to Afghanistan and Libya.

Stratfor, the private and conservative American intelligence firm with high-level connections, reported that "most of the opposition's more serious claims have turned out to be grossly exaggerated or simply untrue." Opposition groups including the Syrian National Council, the Free Syrian Army and the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights began disseminating "claims that regime forces besieged Homs and imposed a 72-hour deadline for Syrian defectors to surrender themselves and their weapons or face a potential massacre." That news made international headlines. Stratfor's investigation, however, found "no signs of a massacre," and declared that "opposition forces have an interest in portraying an impending massacre, hoping to mimic the conditions that propelled a foreign military intervention in Libya." Stratfor added that any suggestions of massacres are unlikely because the Syrian "regime has calibrated its crackdowns to avoid just such a scenario. Regime forces have been careful to avoid the high casualty numbers that could lead to an intervention based on humanitarian grounds."

http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer104.html

[tabatha]

1. BS - Stratfor is not credible

"As to the current violence in Syria, we must consider the numerous reports of forces providing military support to the Syrian rebels — the UK, France, the US, Turkey, Israel, Qatar, the Gulf states, and everyone's favorite champion of freedom and democracy, Saudi Arabia; with Syria claiming to have captured some 14 French soldiers; plus individual jihadists and mercenaries from Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, et al, joining the anti-government forces, their number including al-Qaeda veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who are likely behind the car bombs in an attempt to create chaos and destabilize the country. This may mark the third time the United States has been on the same side as al-Qaeda, adding to Afghanistan and Libya. "

THe US is NOT repeat NOT providing military support to the rebels, and have told the GCC not to supply them as well - because they do not want to militarize the situation. That is why Assad is winning and slaughtering so many. The opposition have bought their weapons on the black market, and have been under-armed for the most part. They are asking and asking for weapons. Why do you think McCain et al have been making such a big fuss about supplying the rebels with weapons?

"with Syria claiming to have captured some 14 French soldiers; plus individual jihadists and mercenaries from Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, et al, joining the anti-government forces, their number including al-Qaeda veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who are likely behind the car bombs in an attempt to create chaos and destabilize the country. "

If they had captured these people they would have been paraded on TV, and would have been shown to the UN monitors. They have not been.

On the other hand, Russia is supporting - OPENLY - Syria with weapons, and so is Iran.

Utter nonsense.

[HiPointDem]

2. and other than your say-so, support for your contention that stratfor isn't credible = ?

[tabatha]

3. Yes, they have made claims previously that are false.

[tabatha]

4. 5. The fifth revelation is that often Stratfor analysts did not know what they were talking about

5. The fifth revelation is that often Stratfor analysts did not know what they were talking about and had an extreme rightwing bias. For instance, this memo on the revolution in Egypt attempts to argue that the officer corps was behind the revolution against Hosni Mubarak and that the masses were insufficiently mobilized to account for it. It is alleged that only 750,000 people came out in Tahrir Square, a small number for a country of 82 million. But in fact that was only in Tahrir. People demonstrated elsewhere in Cairo. And they were in the streets in Alexandria, Suez, Asyut and other cities. Even small towns saw burnings of police stations and HQs of the National Democratic Party. This memo makes a grassroots revolution that shook Egypt from Alexandria to Aswan into an officers’ putsch. While the officers tacked with the wind and did end up siding with the demonstrators against Mubarak, they were clearly playing political catch-up. It was revolutionary groups like April 6 that made the revolution in the cities, and the Muslim Brotherhood in the rural areas. The memo is frankly obtuse and if this is what Booz Allen was paying $20,000 a year for, they should demand their money back.

This fifth point, about the one percent interpreting the world for the one percent as being about the one percent, is a dire problem in our information system, since the one percent has the resources and can try to overwhelm reasoned analysis that recognizes the agency of the people. Ultimately, the political struggle here is an epistemological one (epistemology being the study of how we know what we know).

http://www.juancole.com/2012/02/top-5-stratfor-revelations.html

And Goldmann Sachs funds Stratfor, and Bibi was a contributor 2007-2010.

EDIT - to add one of the comments:

Luther Bliss 03/01/2012 at 6:48 am
Let’s hope, if nothing else, these leaks finally put to rest the idea that Stratfor gives anything like a neutral, non-ideological analysis.

It has been obvious for a decade that Stratfor’s claims of neutrality were like South Park and FoxsNews’s similar claims – all three were marketing attempts to disguise their right-wing, warmongering corporatist BS as some sort of ‘real men doing real thinking’ alternative to the ‘liberal’ (i.e warmongering corporatist) media.

Stratfor was successful because (as they frankly admit in these emails) the corporate flunkies who brought their subscriptions were gullible wannabe Tom Clancys who’d pay $10,000 for a powerpoint snake-oil show.

The fact the US Marines have anything to do with these guys speaks poorly of them – but in the post-911 private intelligence pork-barrel feeding frenzy anything seems to go…

[HiPointDem]

5. The shadow war in Syria (12/11)

US Secretary of State Hillary ''we came, we saw, he died'' Clinton set the scene on Indonesian TV a few weeks ago, when she prophesied there would be ''a civil war'' in Syria, with a well financed and ''well-armed opposition'' crammed with army deserters.

The Libyans formerly known as rebels, with explicit consent from Transitional National Council (TNC) chairman Mustafa Abdul NATO, aka Jalil, have already shipped to Syria - via Turkey - 600 highly motivated troops fresh from toppling the Gaddafi regime, to fight alongside the Free Syria Army (FSA)...The trigger-happy Libyans have access to a wealth of weapons plundered from the Gaddafi's regimes military depots or gently ''donated'' by NATO and Qatar. A delicious parallel may already be traced with the House of Saud in the 1980s - which gave the green light for hardcore Islamists to go fight in Afghanistan, instead of raising hell at home.

Diplomats in Brussels confirmed to Asia Times Online that NATOGCC operatives have set up a command center in Iskenderun, in Hatay province in Turkey. Crucial Aleppo, in northwest Syria, is very close to the Turkish-Syrian border. The cover story for this command center is to engineer ''humanitarian corridors'' to Syria.

Although these ''humanitarians'' come from NATO members US, Canada and France, and GCC members Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, their cover is that they're only innocent ''monitors'', and not part of NATO. Needless to say these humanitarians consist of ground, naval, air force and engineering specialists. Their mission: infiltrate northern Syria, especially Idlib, Rastan, Homs but most of all the big prize, Aleppo...


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ML02Ak01.html

[tabatha]

8. Asia Times is also full of crap. Why does it only have that info, and no other sources do.

Did you know that it was reported that the US tipped off the Syrian regime about the arms from Libya. It was revealed in one of the Assad emails that were hacked. However, I do not dispute that there are possibly Libyans in Syria but they are few and far between and have not been able to have any significant impact.



WASHINGTON
As the United Nations prepares to deploy more monitors to Syria, the options being considered in Washington to support the country's opposition are narrow. The ceasefire brokered by Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, is barely holding and most observers in Washington believe the six-point plan will fail.

If it does, there is growing awareness that US policy to end the Syrian president Bashar Al Assad's rule - "the day that we know will come", as the US president Barack Obama said Monday - will necessitate a more robust approach. Mr Obama announced on Monday what the White House touted as new types of sanctions, targeting companies both within and outside Syria dealing in information technology that could be used by the Damascus regime to suppress protests.

In an election year in which the Obama administration is likely to tout its withdrawal of troops from Iraq and its commitment to doing the same in Afghanistan as significant achievements to a public weary of overseas interventions, US policy is likely to be further constrained.

Nevertheless, Mr Heydemann said, there remain a number of options open to the US, including working with the Group of Friends of Syria, in which Saudi Arabia and Qatar have promised to help finance the armed Syrian opposition.

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/grumbling-from-washington-but-policy-on-syria-has-few-alternatives?

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have PROMISED to help - but the Syrians themselves have reported that they have not received anything.

There are a wealth of articles you should read to get both sides of the story, so that the truth can be determined not just from the biased info that comes from Stratfor and Asia Times.

Meanwhile, Assad continues to slaughter his people, and thousands have been arrested. No big deal, huh?

[HiPointDem]

6. Is the US waging a covert war in syria? (3/12)

WikiLeaks recently published hacked emails from the global intelligence firm Stratfor, and in one of them, Reva Bhalla, the Director of Analysis, allegedly said he attended a meeting at the Pentagon in December of last year and was told U.S. and NATO soldiers are in Syria giving training to the rebels there. The email went on to say the newly trained troops were to “. . . commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, [and] elicit collapse from within. . .”

Other cables released by WikiLeaks have shown the U.S. State Department has secretly funded Syrian opposition groups for at least half a decade through a group of Syrian exiles in London called the Movement for Justice and Development.

Read more: http://technorati.com/politics/article/is-the-us-waging-a-covert/#ixzz1t1c7AFJO

[tabatha]

12. Hacked emails from Stratfor - who cannot get their facts straight?

[HiPointDem]

7. Syrian Rebels are Foreign-backed Terrorists (3/12)

Latest terrorist attack in Damascus illustrates illegitimacy of both Syria's rebels & the UN/NATO backing them.

It is now confirmed that Saudi Arabia is shipping arms to foreign fighters and Syrian rebels operating out of Jordan. The Australian reports in their article, "Bombs in Syria as Saudis 'send arms to rebels'," that "Saudi military equipment is on its way to Jordan to arm the Free Syrian Army," quoting an Arab diplomat. Of course, as reported below, the "Free Syrian Army" is led not by Syrians, but by NATO-backed Libyan militants from the US State Department-listed terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

It must be noted that Saudi Arabia in turn, receives its weapons and a significant amount of military funding from the United States.

http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2012/03/syrian-rebels-are-foreign-backed.html

[tabatha]

10. OH, jeeze, "The Australian", a Murdoch publication?

While Fox News, another Murdoch publication, claims that Obama's response to Syria has been pathethic.

"Should we carve out safe zones to protect civilians? Nah, it would require boots on the ground (even though these need not be US troops). Establish no-fly zones? Nah, Syrian air defenses are too formidable (although Israel easily disabled them in 2007). Arm the opposition? Sorry, we don’t want to militarize the conflict further.

By default, we’re stuck with a failing plan that we’ll likely support and finance anyway. Administration foreign-policy hands who might advocate a more muscular approach are no match for Obama’s political advisers, who want no election-year complications."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/pathetic_excuse_for_action_on_syria_EyeSLieceHywl5D884L6ZL?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Oped+Columnists

The New York Post - a right-wing rag, why have they not got the memo about arming the rebels?

I guess the next thing article will be from "Prison Planet".

[HiPointDem]

14. US signals support for arming Syria rebels

The US and its allies have warned president Bashar al-Assad that unless he halts his attacks on the Syrian population and implements a UN-backed peace plan, the rebels fighting him will be given more weapons...

all three signalled on Sunday that they could welcome Saudi and Qatari efforts to give weapons to the rebel Free Syrian Army.

“We are going to be supporting the SNC with direct assistance, in areas such as communications,” Mrs Clinton said at the end of the conference. “Others are going to be supporting fighters associated with the SNC.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3a8057e8-7bf1-11e1-9100-00144feab49a.html#axzz1t1gax236


...Because we all know that actions of the US-funded comprador & noted civil rights violator Saudi Arabia have *nothing* to do with US aid & pressure on same...

Yeah, Hill, keep selling that story...

[HiPointDem]

15. Syria rebels get arms from abroad -opposition source (2/12)

Western and other countries are turning a blind eye to weapons purchases by Syrian exiles who are already smuggling light arms, communications equipment and night vision goggles to rebels inside Syria, a Syrian opposition source said on Friday.

"We are bringing in defensive and offensive weapons... It is coming from everywhere, including Western countries and it is not difficult to get anything through the borders," the source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"There is not a decision by any country to arm the rebels but countries are allowing Syrians to buy weapons and send them into the country."

http://af.reuters.com/article/tunisiaNews/idAFL5E8DO37N20120224


The source was speaking at a meeting of Western and Arab nations which will demand that, in the absence of international resolve to intervene to end Assad's crackdown, Syria allow aid to be delivered to civilians caught in fighting.

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=259255

[tabatha]

18. "by Syrian exiles"

That is NOT the US and NOT NATO.

Duh!

[HiPointDem]

20. If you don't come to democracy...

You can continue to tout your little fairy tale about how the US is just providing "non-lethal" support to remove that nasty dictator Assad who's "killing his own people," but we both know it's just a fairy story for the rubes.

This is proxy war and the US is continuously engaged in killing people and giving support to others who kill people. The leadership doesn't give a damn if its compradors kill people, as witness by its enduring support for the Saudis, who just recently put down a "rebellion" in their own territory -- with violence, and with assistance from the other US compradors.

But we didn't hear much in the US press about that one, did we?

Just as we don't hear much anymore about all the freedom going on in Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, and Libya -- because there is no more bloody freedom today that before the US intervened and it has never been about freedom.

There are no good guys on either side of these wars, only a lot of bloody liars and murderers.

[tabatha]

26. "but we both know it's just a fairy story for the rubes"

If you provide credible evidence, I will change my mind. So far you have not.

[HiPointDem]

34. If jesus, moses and muhammed came down from the sky it wouldn't change your mind.

[HiPointDem]

9. U.S. pledges $12M to Syria's rebels (4/12)

Clinton announced $12 million in additional aid for Syria's people — doubling the total U.S. assistance so far.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57407804/u.s-pledges-$12m-to-syrias-rebels/

[tabatha]

11. Yes, it is NON-LETHAL aid.

EDIT:

The U.S. $8 million donation is part of a larger UN aid package valued at $180 million which has the potential to positively impact the lives of about 1 million people. The aid will consist of food, medicine, healthcare services and cash for shelter.

The “non-lethal” pot will include such things as communications equipment and logistical support for the Free Syrian army. Some critics accuse the U.S. of playing semantics given that the funds were raised in conjunction with Saudi Arabia and Qatar who clearly plan on using the proceeds to arm the rebels, if they haven’t already.


Continue reading on Examiner.com Syria Update: U.S. pledges relief for refugees, 'non-lethal' aid for rebels - National Geopolitics | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/article/syria-update-u-s-pledges-relief-for-refugees-non-lethal-aid-for-rebels#ixzz1t1ftbsBH

[HiPointDem]

13. (Noted human rights protectors) Gulf countries to pay Syrian rebels’ salaries

Saudi Arabia and others looking to create multimillion-dollar fund to fund anti-Assad forces

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are creating a multimillion-dollar fund to pay salaries to members of the rebel Free Syrian Army and soldiers who defect from the regime and join opposition ranks.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/gulf-countries-to-financially-aid-syrian-rebels/

[tabatha]

16. Yes, that was officially reported all across the press.

Apr 19, 2012

WASHINGTON D.C., United States – Two weeks after their bold promise, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have yet to start distributing money from a multimillion-dollar fund designed to prop up Syria’s rebels and entice defections from President Bashar Al Assad’s army, Syrian opposition members and international officials say.

Syrian opposition are waiting for aid from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to help rebel fighters such as the Free Syrian Army.

The cash programme was outlined this month at a conference in Istanbul, where representatives of the United States and more than 60 other nations met to strengthen Syria’s opposition and increase pressure on the Al Assad regime.

Hoping to crack Mr Al Assad’s support, Washington and its Arab partners seized on the plan as a path forward even as they disagreed on the idea of giving weapons to Syrian rebels.

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/getting-money-to-the-right-people-the-problems-of-funding-syrias-rebels?

That is hardly covert when they announce it to the world and it is reported all over the world. That is MONEY not arms.

[tabatha]

17. "Noted human rights protectors"

Yep, noted human rights protectors Russia and Iran are funding noted human rights protectors, the Syrian Regime.

(Are you working for the Syrian regime?)

[UnrepentantLiberal]

22. Great work in this thread, Tabatha.

The answer to your last line does seem to be yes.

[inna]

29. what an ugly, nasty thing to say (re working for syrian regime)

whatever

[HiPointDem]

32. In answer to your question: "Are you working for the Syrian regime?" No, I'm a self-employed

cynic.

But since you brought it up, who do *you* work for? I ask because the only thing I ever see you post about is these little color revolutions in the ME.

And I was referring to those notable supporters of freedom and human rights, the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the emirates, and all the other ugly little western compradors in the political cesspool that is the ME.

[Selatius]

19. Providing weapons and ammunition to the opposition in Syria is HIGHLY illegal.

Doing such a thing would require a direct vote by the Security Council. Since Russia and China are not going to make the same mistake they did with Libya, they would invariably vote no on the use of force, and they've already voiced their position that things be done peacefully.

Any country that violates that would risk having war crimes charges levied at them on the Security Council by either Russia or China or both, and doing such a thing would be considered a formal act of war and of aggression against Syria. It's hypocritical of China or Russia to make such charges given both their human rights records, but it's no more hypocritical than the US criticizing those two states for human rights violations when it engages in extraordinary rendition, extra-judicial killings, and torture of prisoners.

[HiPointDem]

21. well, then most of the major papers are lying, so take it up with them. You might also mention

it to multiple US senators and hilary clinton.

[tabatha]

23. The US is NOT providing weapons to Syria.

Which respectable newspaper has stated this?

[UnrepentantLiberal]

24. You don't really expect an answer to that, do you?

[Selatius]

25. Even if weapons are being provided to the opposition, Assad likely won't fall.

The Russians have a naval base located on the coast at Tartus and actively police those waters for weapons smugglers, and Syria has historically been a client state of both Russia and China as far as buying military hardware. All those heavy tanks and artillery guns and rocket launchers the Syrian Army is using in places like Homs, Idlib, Deraa, etc. come from those two. Providing weapons at this point isn't helping anything. Unless Assad's army starts fragmenting apart, it's likely not going to play out like Libya no matter how much guns and bullets outside states pump in to the opposition.

[tabatha]

28. Excellent summation.

The only solution to this problem seems to be that the army disintegrate. Otherwise, Assad with the help of Russia and Iranian advisers, will prevail. The opposition just cannot win against Assad, unless sanctions cripple him - or he has no army to fight for him - or someone gets fed up and shoots him.

[inna]

27. auto-rec for William Blum; ignore the static

[tabatha]

30. Holy cow, I thought you had disappeared

because all of the carnage in Syria was just too much.

Yep, the population is being genocided and it does not matter.

I wonder when it is OK to torture children and women? and destroy their homes and make them flee to other countries.

Soon the refugee numbers will be the same as those for Iraqis and I am sure you did not support that - but you are supporting it in Syria?

I did not support what was happening in Iraq by the US just as I do not support what is happening to the Syrian by Assad.

Even Eli Wiesel has wondered why Assad is still in power after all the massacre. But I guess he would not know about that.

[inna]

31. uh, ignore

[HiPointDem]

33. genocide my ass.

Wiesel is simply “a terrible fraud.”

– Noam Chomsky

[oberliner]

35. What did he mean by that?

What was the context of that quote?

[pampango]

36. The "Assad" strategy for dealing with massive protests is something all dictators should learn.

1: When massive peaceful protests occur, repress them as them as violently as you can get away with - snipers, tanks, artillery, arrests, torture, etc.

2. Sometimes repression works to quell the protests. (It's why dictators frequently stay in power so long or inherit their positions from their fathers like in Syria and North Korea.) If repression works, reward your military and security services and go back to being a dictator.

3. If #1 doesn't work right away and massive peaceful protests continue, keep up the repression. (You have to come up with a strategy to keep the international community at bay. If you already have a powerful international patron, you may be OK. If not you had better find one.) Start talking about the presence of "criminal gangs" or "terrorists" among the protestors. There may not be any yet, but it's good to get the talking point out there for future use.

4. If, after many months, your military and security forces continue to prove to be ineffective in suppressing dissent, don't worry. Do not stop the armed repression. (As a dictator, the military and security forces are all you have going for you. Peaceful negotiations are a trap. Your assets - the army and internal security forces - cannot help you there.) Eventually frustration will build up among factions of the protesters and some will become willing to resort to violence given the apparent futility of peaceful protest. (You will also lose some of your common soldiers to defection. Many of them will not understand that they signed up to protect you not the country.) Or outside groups will begin to take advantage of these frustrations.

5. At this point you can unleash your military and security forces to the full extent and hope you don't lose the civil war you have created. Keep in mind that civil wars are very messy affairs. Be sure to keep you international patron happy.

I think this is a strategy that is workable in many repressive countries when populations get fed up with living with no rights.