It's good having the USA embedded with Kurdish troops, it stops Turkey from bombing the Kurds.

British special forces are on the front line in Syria defending a rebel unit under daily attack by Isis, military commanders have told The Times.

The operation marks the first evidence of the troops’ direct involvement in the war-torn country rather than just training rebels in Jordan.

British special forces based in Jordan frequently cross into Syria to assist the New Syrian Army (NSA), which has been holding out in the southeastern village of al-Tanf. The rebel unit, made up of former Syrian special forces who defected from President Assad’s army, was retrained by the British and Americans.

The Times  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brit-special-forces-in-syria-gvtn97nbg

RUSSIA IS BACK! SYRIAN ARMY TO RECEIVE LARGEST AIR SUPPORT FROM RUSSIA

Published on Jun 8, 2016
Sub for more: http://nnn.is/the_new_media | Russia Today Reports Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Russia will provide "the most active" air support for Syrian ground troops in and around the city of Aleppo to prevent terrorists from seizing it.

See the report here:

https://www.rt.com/news/345552-lavrov-syria-aleppo-support/

15 Jun, 2016

While civilians who still live on the Turkish-Syrian border suffer from Islamic State attacks and blame Turkish army inaction, so-called moderate rebels of the Free Syrian Army, fighting side-by-side with Islamist extremists, openly admit Ankara’s support.

RT’s Lizzie Phelan visited the Turkish town of Karkamis, located on the border with Syria just opposite the area controlled by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). She spoke with locals residents, refugees and militants, who described the role Turkey has allegedly played in fostering and supporting both Syrian rebels and Islamist extremists.

Many Karkamis residents were forced to flee the town and find a home elsewhere because of the danger they faced from ISIS attacks across the border.

Turkey’s efforts to increase security, which were largely limited to building a wall that cut off the local cross-border trade, have led to majority of shops being boarded up and abandoned, Lizzie Phelan reported from the town.

Those who stayed include Syrian refugees who managed to escape ISIS jihadists in Syria. However, they do not believe the danger is over, as ISIS shells and bullets reach them even in Turkey’s Karkamis.

Aysel Yilmaz, a refugee from the Syrian town of Jarablus, spoke to RT and described her lucky escape from across the border, adding that she still feels very unsafe. Yilmaz said she was seriously wounded while visiting her father’s grave in Karkamis. The bullet came from ISIS fighters shooting from Syria.

“We were by my father’s grave right over there, they fired shots from the other part and I got hit. There were some people trying to escape from the other side, they were the target but I was also hit,” Yilmaz said. “I was treated in hospital, at first for 15 days, and then again for another 10 days. I had surgery twice, my lung was wounded. I still suffer so much.”

A very contrasting account was given to Phelan by a fighter from the Syrian opposition, who openly admitted receiving help from Turkey and seamlessly crossing into Syria every two weeks. The conversation also gives an insight into how casual the relations of the so-called moderates are with Islamist groups siding with internationally recognized terrorists, but not recognized as terrorists by Turkey or the West.

“Turkey is the only one supporting us. We are very grateful for their help,” the fighter told Phelan.

When asked what groups he is fighting along, the man mentioned “Jabhat Al Shamiye, the Sultan Murad Division, the Sham Legion and Ahrar al-Sham.”

Ahrar al-Sham has been accused of slaughtering civilians around Aleppo earlier in June, while Russia has repeatedly pointed to the groups’ brotherly ties with Al-Nusra Front terrorists.

Turkish journalist and columnist for Al-Monitor Fehim Tastekin told RT that Al-Nusra uses other groups, such as Ahrar al-Sham, as proxies to distribute weapons “coming from Turkey.” Tastekin added that “they also share money in the same way.”

Reports of the Turkish government’s ties with Islamic State have surged in recent months, with some alleging that Erdogan is supporting the terror group so that it would help remove his geopolitical rival, Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Others point out that Turkey chooses to be involved in the Syrian conflict to beat Kurdish fighters, who are one of the few successful forces when it comes to battling against Islamic State.

“[Kurdish fighters] didn’t attack Turkey, instead, they secured our borders against ISIS, and we need to thank the Kurdish fighters. Turkey’s fear is baseless and because of that policy, Turkey is indirectly helping ISIS. Turkish policy is also delaying the elimination of ISIS. This is not an option which is beneficial for us, for Turkey, for the region, for the people of Syria,” Tastekin said.

In Phelan’s previous report from the Turkish-Syrian border, she spoke to witnesses in Karkamis, who revealed that the Turkish military has been ordered to ignore Islamic State’s activities on the border, allowing the jihadists to dig trenches and plant mines.

In March, an RT Documentary crew visited Shaddadi along with other towns in northern Syria. The trip was scheduled shortly after the towns’ liberation from ISIS fighters. Upon arriving, the journalists discovered invoices detailing the large-scale illegal oil trade carried out by jihadists with Turkey, as well as Islamist propaganda brochures printed in Turkey.

The RT crew also managed to get footage of passports of deceased and escaped jihadists, who had stamps issued at Turkish border checkpoints, proving that they crossed into Syria through Turkey.

Another report from May showed that Islamic State militants injured on the Syrian battlefield regularly traveled to Turkey to receive costly and complicated medical treatment. The information was leaked via tapped phone calls and was handed to the media by opposition MP Erem Erdem.

https://www.rt.com/news/346710-turkey-support-islamic-state/

CONFIRMED: GERMAN SPECIAL FORCES DEPLOYED TO SYRIA

Published on Jun 19, 2016
Sub for more: http://nnn.is/the_new_media | Rt reports Damascus has reacted angrily to claims that German special forces are present in the Ain al-Arab and Manbij areas of northern Syria, along with French troops on the ground, describing the alleged move as an “overt unjustified aggression on Syria's sovereignty.”

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/346763-german-forces-present-syria/

May 22, 2016


Clinton: Destroy Syria for Israel
May 22, 2016 by TNO Staff—      in Middle East      · 46 Comments

A newly-released Hilary Clinton email confirmed that the Obama administration has deliberately provoked the civil war in Syria as the “best way to help Israel.”

In an indication of her murderous and psychopathic nature, Clinton also wrote that it was the “right thing” to personally threaten Bashar Assad’s family with death.

In the email, released by Wikileaks, then Secretary of State Clinton says that the “best way to help Israel” is to “use force” in Syria to overthrow the government.

following the uproar over Clinton’s private email server kept at her house while she served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.

Although the Wikileaks transcript dates the email as December 31, 2000, this is an error on their part, as the contents of the email (in particular the reference to May 2012 talks between Iran and the west over its nuclear program in Istanbul) show that the email was in fact sent on December 31, 2012.

The email makes it clear that it has been US policy from the very beginning to violently overthrow the Syrian government—and specifically to do this because it is in Israel’s interests.

The leaked email can be found @ https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/18328

“The best way to help Israel deal with Iran’s growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad,” Clinton forthrightly starts off by saying.

Even though all (a conclusion supported Clinton continues to use these lies to “justify” destroying Syria in the name of Israel.

She specifically links Iran’s mythical atom bomb program to Syria because, she says, Iran’s “atom bomb” program threatens Israel’s “monopoly” on nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

If Iran were to acquire a nuclear weapon, Clinton asserts, this would allow Syria (and other “adversaries of Israel” such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt) to “go nuclear as well,” all of which would threaten Israel’s interests.

Therefore, Clinton, says, Syria has to be destroyed.

Iran’s nuclear program and Syria’s civil war may seem unconnected, but they are. What Israeli military leaders really worry about — but cannot talk about — is losing their nuclear monopoly.

An Iranian nuclear weapons capability would not only end that nuclear monopoly but could also prompt other adversaries, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to go nuclear as well. The result would be a precarious nuclear balance in which Israel could not respond to provocations with conventional military strikes on Syria and Lebanon, as it can today.

If Iran were to reach the threshold of a nuclear weapons state, Tehran would find it much easier to call on its allies in Syria and Hezbollah to strike Israel, knowing that its nuclear weapons would serve as a deterrent to Israel responding against Iran itself.

It is, Clinton continues, the “strategic relationship between Iran and the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria” that makes it possible for Iran to undermine Israel’s security.

This would not come about through a “direct attack,” Clinton admits, because “in the thirty years of hostility between Iran and Israel” this has never occurred, but through its alleged “proxies.”

    The end of the Assad regime would end this dangerous alliance. Israel’s leadership understands well why defeating Assad is now in its interests.

    Bringing down Assad would not only be a massive boon to Israel’s security, it would also ease Israel’s understandable fear of losing its nuclear monopoly.

    Then, Israel and the United States might be able to develop a common view of when the Iranian program is so dangerous that military action could be warranted.


Clinton goes on to asset that directly threatening Bashar Assad “and his family” with violence is the “right thing” to do:

    In short, the White House can ease the tension that has developed with Israel over Iran by doing the right thing in Syria.

    With his life and his family at risk, only the threat or use of force will change the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s mind.


The email proves—as if any more proof was needed—that the US government has been the main sponsor of the growth of terrorism in the Middle East, and all in order to “protect” Israel.

It is also a sobering thought to consider that the “refugee” crisis which currently threatens to destroy Europe, was directly sparked off by this US government action as well, insofar as there are any genuine refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria.

In addition, over 250,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, which has spread to Iraq—all thanks to Clinton and the Obama administration backing the “rebels” and stoking the fires of war in Syria.

June 17, 2016

Nobody is challenging Hillary Clinton enough on what her plan for a no-fly zone and military escalation in Syria will mean. And the slope is very, very slippery.
by
Jon Queally

An internal cable signed by more than 50 State Department officials objecting to the Obama administration's policy on Syria is particularly worrisome, according to experts, given Hillary Clinton's hawkish foreign policy positions and her stated plan to escalate President Barack Obama's war in Syria if elected.

The cable itself was leaked to major news outlets, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, both of which carried frontpage stories on its implications Friday morning.

The memo, sent through an official "dissent channel" within the State Department, includes repeated calls for "targeted military strikes" against the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and expressions of frustration that Obama has resisted deeper military engagement amid peace talk efforts that have produced little progress over recent months.

It puts forth "moral rationale" for such calls, saying "[t]he status quo in Syria will continue to present increasingly dire, if not disastrous, humanitarian, diplomatic and terrorism-related challenges."

The WSJ reports that such official dissent is not unusual, but that "the number of diplomats actively opposing a major White House" policy position was.

"It's embarrassing for the administration to have so many rank-and-file members break on Syria," a former State Department official who worked on Middle East policy told the WSJ.

According to the Times, "The names on the memo are almost all midlevel officials — many of them career diplomats — who have been involved in the administration’s Syria policy over the last five years, at home or abroad. They range from a Syria desk officer in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs to a former deputy to the American ambassador in Damascus."

Strikingly, those knowledgeable about the cable suggested it may not be directed at President Obama as much as it is directed at a future President Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee and current general election frontrunner.

As the WSJ reported, "The internal cable may be an attempt to shape the foreign policy outlook of the next administration, the official familiar with the document said. President Barack Obama has balked at taking military action against Mr. Assad, while Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has promised a more hawkish stance toward the Syrian leader."

As numerous respondents on social media noted in their reactions to the story, the implications of the memo are more pronounced—and potentially more dangerous—when considered in the context of a hypothetical Hillary Clinton administration:

    Unfortunately, Clinton wouldn't have to be persuaded to bomb Syria. She's already there. https://t.co/VJ3aVL6X5T

    — (((Dan Kennedy))) (@dankennedy_nu) June 17, 2016

    Biding their time until Clinton takes over? https://t.co/2C8KFCglA6

    — Jonathan Cohn (@JonathanCohn) June 17, 2016

    Dozens of US State Dept officials are again calling for regime change, which will officially turn Syria into Iraq #2https://t.co/XImzEgdu9w

    — Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 17, 2016

According to Phyllis Bennis, who directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and spoke with Common Dreams by phone Friday morning, the diplomatic officials should be commended for highlighting the abject failures of the U.S. policies in Syria. However, she warned there is much to be alarmed about, given the prescriptions attached to their dissent and the political context under which they were made public.

"I have no doubt that people working on the Syria desk in the State Department over these years must be incredibly frustrated, there's no doubt about that," Bennis said. She applauded the moral considerations offered by the officials, but said just because they recognize that the "U.S. policy has failed and is failing" it doesn't follow "that the only alternative is military escalation."

"Though the cable also calls for an increased diplomatic effort," Bennis said, "they do so in the context of saying that greater military attacks will somehow bring Assad to the table. And there simply is no evidence of that—quite the contrary. The notion that the military engagement itself is what is preventing potential success for a greater diplomatic engagement is simply not taken seriously."