02.08.2016

The fate of President Bashar al-Assad has long been at the heart of Washington's strategy in Syria, but it will no longer be a "priority" in the near future, the London-based newspaper Raialyoum asserted, adding that the US is no longer listening to Saudi Arabia's wishes in this matter. The oil kingdom still wants al-Assad gone.

Instead the US will focus on its anti-Daesh campaign since the terrorist group has created "an atmosphere of fear" and fueled instability not only in the Middle East and northern Africa, but also in Western countries that take part in counterterrorism efforts in Iraq and Syria, the media outlet noted, referring to recent terrorist attacks that rocked France and Germany.

"Europe and its security agencies do not have enough experience to thwart the wave of suicide attacks. Moreover, experts agree that 'militant jihadist' groups are increasingly active and their members have already successfully penetrated Europe's social space," the newspaper added.

The truck attack in the French city of Nice as well as multiple assaults in Bavaria appear to confirm this assessment.

The recent U-turn in Turkey's foreign policy will also be a factor that will contribute to a general shift when it comes to the Syrian conflict. Ankara has long supported radical groups trying to overthrow al-Assad, but it appears to have decided to cut aid and close borders with Syria following a botched coup attempt last month. Turkish authorities have already stated that they want to improve relations with its war-torn neighbor.

Saudi Foreign Minister "Adel al-Jubeir was the only one who repeated that al-Assad must go at the Arab League summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania, as if it were a mantra," Raialyoum noted. But "his words fell on deaf ears."

Moreover, the Syrian opposition that the oil kingdom has actively supported was not invited to take part in the event that took place on July 25 even as an observer, the newspaper added. Unlike Syria's state media, opposition media outlets were also not present.

Last week, Russia's envoy to the United Nations in Geneva Alexey Borodavkin also mentioned the fate of Bashar al-Assad, saying that "as far as we understand the United States is no longer talking about Assad's immediate departure."

Washington's updated stance on the issue, he added, focuses on saying that al-Assad "supposedly does not have a political future in Syria, but [the Americans] are not demanding that he resigns right away."

http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160802/1043861464/us-assad-syria.html

10.08.2016

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, who has recently endorsed Hillary Clinton, has caused a firestorm when he said that the United States should covertly kill Russians and Iranians in Syria, with Russian lawmakers denouncing the remarks as "monstrous" and experts saying that he merely confirmed what Washington has secretly been doing.

Vladimir Vasilyev, a senior research fellow at the Moscow-based Institute of US and Canada Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, maintained that Morell's comments should be taken at face value.



This is "what the United States has secretly and surreptitiously been doing and most importantly what Washington will do if Hillary wins presidential election," he told RIA Novosti. "Russia should understand who it is dealing with. In fact, Moscow could thank Morell for leaking important information on Washington's true goals in Syria."

"Monstrous remarks"

Russian MP Irina Yarovaya, the head of the State Duma Committee for Security, echoed these sentiments, saying that Morell made "monstrous remarks." He essentially confirmed that Washington is capable of carrying out "covert killings … to pursue its own devastating plans."

Yarovaya also noted that Morell's comments point to a hidden agenda in Washington's counterterrorism activities. "The US State Department must issue a clear statement on the issue. Otherwise, there are grounds to assume that the former CIA deputy director inadvertently revealed an existing top secret CIA plan."

Morell's remarks are meant to "fuel tensions between Russia and the US," Dmitry Gorovtsov, the deputy chairman of the State Duma's Committee for Security, told RIA Novosti, adding that such rhetoric is unacceptable. He also called Morell's plan "extremist" and "akin to fascist ideology."

[b]Morell "does not understand what he is talking about"/b]

First deputy chairman of the defense and security committee in the Federation Council of Russia Franz Klintsevich referred to Morell's remarks as "absurd."

"I think that Michael Morell does not understand what he is talking about. Modern surveillance equipment that covers all Syria renders any 'covert' killings impossible," he said. Russia's cutting edge technologies allow Moscow to determine the name, the date, the place and the goal of any such activity if it took place.

Moreover, Morell's advice "would automatically lead to an open confrontation between Russia and the US, which the Americans, as far as I understand, do not need," Klintsevich added.

On Monday, Michael Morell, who served as CIA's acting director twice, told talk show host Charlie Rose that the US "must make" Russia and Iran "pay a price" in Syria by "covertly" killing their nationals. "You don't tell the world about it, right? You don't stand up at the Pentagon and say, 'we did this.' Right? But you make sure they know it in Moscow and Tehran," he added.

Morell also suggested "scaring" Bashar al-Assad by bombing government offices and presidential guard positions, but added that he did not urge to assassinate the Syrian president.

Journalist and political commentator Murtaza Hussain pointed out that the former CIA deputy director championed "efforts that later helped incubate al-Qaeda," referring to a strategy that the United States employed in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

He also warned that if Morell's plan is given the green light, it "would entail a massive escalation of American covert military involvement in Syria that would bring the United States much closer to direct confrontation with Russia and Iran."

http://en.ria.ru/politics/20160810/1044124847/us-russia-morell-syria.html

Aug 12, 2016

On Thursday, August 12, 50 intelligence analysts sparked an investigation by filing a whistleblower complaint about superiors changing information on their products. In its findings, the Congressional Joint Task Force complains that the War Party altered US Central Command (CENTCOM) reports to hide poor progress in the war against the terrorist group of ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

In a nutshell, the story is this: There is  enormous evidence about how this information from talented career professionals inside the analytic arm at CENTCOM did their job and accurately depicted what was going on on the ground, but when it got to very senior levels, that information was changed.

It is not that hard to fully understand the reasons and motivations behind this practice and how often the excluded analyses were proven ultimately to be correct:

-The investigation is wrong to blame the problem mainly on "structural and management changes" in 2014 that resulted in the production and dissemination of intelligence products that were inconsistent with the judgments of many senior, career analysts at CENTCOM. The practice has been, and still is, systematic and deliberate.

-Team Obama and company have no intention to win the war against ISIL even with complete intelligence. The co-founders of ISIL are doing everything they can to help ISIL and other photoshopped terror groups topple the Syrian government. To this end, Salafists,, Takfiris, Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda and ISIL are all brothers-in-arms, proxy forces driving the regime-change insurgency in Syria - being supported by the West, the Persian Gulf Arab countries, Turkey, Jordan and Israel.

-During its early days, the “American Caliphate”  managed to capture large swathes of land in Syria and Iraq because its co-founders wanted so. The regime changers systematically turned a blind eye to ISIL’s atrocities because it didn't fit with their false “sectarian” narrative they were feeding the world public. What's more, the “intelligence failure” was a wilful decision to disintegrate Iraq and Syria.

-ISIL got rich so fast in early days because it was able to steal and smuggle oil into Turkey and because US administration was giving its militants a 45-minute warning prior to bombing their oil tankers. US military pilots also confirmed they were ordered not to drop 75% of their ordnance on ISIL targets because they couldn’t get clearance from their superiors. In the words of House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, even now “we can’t get clearance even when we have a clear target in front of us.”

It is said, things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.  America’s bogus war with ISIL which hit the two-year mark on August 8 is held with lies, damn lies, and statistics. If there is currently no end in sight that’s because there is none. The open-ended war is perfectly designed to protect Israel by fuelling sectarian warfare and arms race, as well as help the War Party implement its regional designs.

For all its appearance, America’s war with ISIL also has nothing to do with “intelligence failure”, much as about “degrading” and “ultimately defeating” ISIL. Any doubters should ask the Congressional Joint Task Force, which reviewed military assessments of the US air war in Iraq and Syria beginning in 2014, and made clear that the overall war effort is going nowhere and that it is all but a set of lies agreed upon at senior levels.

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950522000742

17 Aug, 2016

Beijing and Damascus have agreed that the Chinese military will provide humanitarian aid to Syria, a high-ranking People's Liberation Army officer said, adding that the training of Syrian personnel by Chinese instructors has also been discussed.

Director of the Office for International Military Cooperation of China's Central Military Commission, Guan Youfei, arrived in Damascus on Tuesday for talks with Syrian Defense Minister Fahad Jassim al-Freij, Chinese Xinhua news agency reported.

During the negotiation, Guan noted China’s consistent diplomatic efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis, adding that Beijing is now seeking closer military ties with Damascus.

"The Chinese and Syrian militaries traditionally have a friendly relationship, and the Chinese military is willing to keep strengthening exchanges and cooperation with the Syrian military," he said.

Guan and al-Freij discussed the enhancement of training and "reached a consensus" on the Chinese military providing humanitarian aid to Syria, Xinhua reported, without providing further details.

According to the agency, Guam also met with a Russian general during his visit to the Syrian capital.

China has been operating in Syria alongside Russia and Iran in a “discreet manner” but now the time has come to “openly” step up anti-terrorist efforts, believes political analyst Roula Talj.

“We will see more involvement of China, of Iran and Russia. They will go [in] stronger after ISIS, especially after Russia-US talks. I do not think the US will have any chance to oppose the interference of these allies. The US president or any candidate will have to answer their own public[’s] opinion, so it is good for them that someone else is doing the dirty job,” Roula Talj told RT. “In the face of their own public[’s] opinion they have to be grateful that somebody else is cleaning the mess they had created, especially as ISIS is getting stronger every day inside of Europe. Of course, they are not extremely happy to see the BRICS countries taking over.”

Meanwhile political expert Qin Duo Xu does not foresee any “deep involvement” of the Chinese military in Syria, but says it could be a “significant” first step for China to “get involved in the Syrian situation.”

“There are chances that this cooperation will increase a lot,” he told RT. “At least China can provide more support or diplomatic cover in terms of cracking down [on] terrorists or some rebel groups that are really extremist in nature.”

“If you look at the Chinese media, Chinese public opinion, [you will see] that [the] absolute majority is siding with the Syrian government and support[s] Russian military involvement. China has its own problems with terrorists: At least 100 Chinese citizens are fighting alongside with rebels and Islamic State against the Syrian government,” he added. “That is why China does support Russian involvement, does support Syrian government’s efforts in [the] fight against terrorists.”

It is in China’s strategic interests to get involved in the Syrian crisis and “play a larger role” in resolving it, independent China strategist, Andrew Leung said.

“This is really a breakthrough in China’s strategies in the Middle East. There appears to be more coordination with countries, like Russia,” Leung told RT.

“China sees itself as one of the great powers and as befitting a state of great power there is the responsibility to maintain peace and stability in a very important region in the world…as far as the Middle East is concerned it means even more to China because it is a matter of energy security.”

Despite being a permanent UN Security Council member and relying on the Middle East for oil, China was previously reluctant to become involved in the Syrian conflict.

Beijing preferred to concentrate on domestic affairs and the territorial dispute with its neighbors in the South China Sea.

It praised Moscow’s anti-terrorism efforts in Syria as Russia staged a bombing campaign there in September 2015 to March 2016. Russia still has some of its forces in the country to provide humanitarian and military assistance to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.

Last year, there were reports that China was sending dozens of military advisers to Syria to help the country fight terrorists.

Syria has been engulfed in civil war since 2011, with the government fighting a number of rebel groups, in addition to terrorist groups such as Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front.

https://www.rt.com/news/356161-china-syria-military-training/

26 Aug, 2016

Turkish military have targeted US-backed Kurdish YPG militia with artillery fire south of the Syrian border town of Jarablus on Thursday, Anadolu state agency reported, citing a security source. The units allegedly refused to withdraw from the area despite warnings.

The group of YPG fighters were attacked with howitzers at about 6pm local time after they were spotted by Turkish intelligence advancing to Jarablus from the north of Manbij, the report said. Earlier, Washington assured Ankara that the US-backed Kurdish formations have been pulling out forces from the area to the east of the Euphrates River as demanded by Turkey.

“Kerry [US State Secretary John Kerry] emphasized that the PYD/YPG forces have been withdrawing to the east of the Euphrates,” a Turkish security source was quoted by Hürriyet Daily News as saying following a telephone conversation between the US top diplomat and Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday morning.

While on a visit to Ankara on August 24, US Vice President Joe Biden pledged to withdraw the support of American forces to Kurdish fighters battling terrorists in Syria if they did not comply with Turkey’s request to remain east of the river.

"They cannot, will not and under no circumstances get American support if they do not keep that commitment. Period," Biden said at a joint news conference with Turkish PM Binali Yildirim.

Turkey has been conducting Operation Euphrates Shield since Wednesday after its troops entered the borderline territory in the north of Syria with the focus on retaking Jarablus from the Islamic State (IS, ISIS/ISIL) terrorists, which has been occupying it since July 2013. Justifying the incursion, which had not been authorized by the Syrian government, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it is aimed at stopping frequent cross-border attacks and repelling “terror groups which constantly threaten our country like Daesh [Arabic derogatory name for IS] and the PYD [the Democratic Union Party of Syria]”.

Meanwhile, Damascus slammed the offensive as “a blatant violation of sovereignty.”

The shelling follows a statement by YPG command saying that Kurdish militia under its control had left Manbij and returned to its bases, turning over the control over the city to the Manbij Military Council, according to Al-Masdar News.

On Wednesday, the YPG denounced the Turkish military offensive in Syria as “a hostile intervention,” refusing to cave in to pressure coming from Turkey.

“We won’t listen to the demands of Turkey or powers outside of Turkey. Turkey cannot impose its own agenda, its own interests on us. Our forces are there. We will not withdraw from west of the Euphrates,” YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said, as cited by Rudaw.

“Its main goal, more than ISIS, is the Kurds,” he pointed out. 

At the moment, at least 20 Turkish tanks are taking part in operation inside Syria with more armored vehicles are expected to join the effort in the coming days as the Syrian rebels supported by Turkish forces are “cleansing” the city from jihadists.

The former IS stronghold of Manbij was freed by Kurdish-led SDF from jihadists just two weeks ago after months of intense fighting.

The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) are the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), close to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.

Turkey has been leading a military campaign against PKK insurgency in the country’s south-eastern Kurdish-populated regions, which has been criticized by rights groups for its brutality. Numerous reports have also suggested that Ankara bombed Kurdish targets inside Syria while allegedly sparing Islamist militants that the YPG have been in bitter battle with.

With US forces providing air support for Turkey’s offensive, there are growing concerns that the US is abandoning its biggest ally on the ground in Syria – the Kurdish-led SDF forces – which could hamper the war against the jihadists.

“We have been very clear on our support, they [Kurds] have been tremendous fighters against our common enemy, which is Daesh, and it’s a complex issue; it’s a fast-moving issue,” US State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau told RT’s Gayane Chichakyan, responding to a question about whether Washington was turning away from the Kurds by siding with Turkey in Syria.

Americans “do not have any other option at the moment” than to back Turkey’s incursion, even if it means severing ties with Kurds, Kamal Alam from the RUSI Defense strategy think tank told RT.

“They need Turkey more than the Kurds, because if Turkey goes rogue, on the other side, they are scared they’ll lose all the support as far as the counter-ISIL operation goes,” Alam added referring to the Incirlik Air Base, from which American aircrafts have been carrying out airstrikes against IS in Syria.



“It seems that they might have to ditch the Syrian Kurds in favor of Turkey and they want to continue the cooperation with Turkey,” the analyst said, noting that the “Kurds are redline for Turkey.”

29 August 2016

Turkey began bombing Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria Saturday as the US-backed incursion continued to spread. At least 35 civilians were killed in the air strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

US air power and military “advisers” have been backing the Turkish invasion since it was launched last Wednesday, ostensibly to clear Islamic State fighters from Jarablus, one of the last towns ISIS controls near the Turkish border. But Turkey’s overriding aim is to dislodge Kurdish militia forces previously backed by Washington from areas near the Syrian-Turkish border over which they have gained control, in order to prevent the establishment of a Kurdish enclave in the region.

As for the United States, its motive for supporting the Turkish offensive is its desire to escalate the war in Syria and create the conditions for the overthrow of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

Ankara’s invasion is inflaming the five-year-old civil war, which has already claimed the lives of close to half a million Syrians and reduced the country’s population by over 5 million. It is being carried out in conjunction with US- and Turkish-backed Syrian “rebels” who are hostile to Kurdish forces.

Turkey claimed initially that the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) would have one week to retreat east of the Euphrates River. But within a matter of hours, clashes broke out between the Syrian “rebels” mobilized by Turkey and the YPG. A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army said over the weekend that its forces had seized 10 villages from YPG troops and four from ISIS.

Turkey claimed to have killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” in a series of bombing raids near Jarablus, and the first Turkish casualty was reported in connection with a grenade attack by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces.

The anti-Kurdish character of Turkey’s Euphrates Shield operation was underscored Saturday when video footage was released of members of the Sultan Murat brigade, a pro-Turkish Syrian “rebel” group, beating Kurdish prisoners in the village of Yusuf Beg and declaring them to be “PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] dogs.”

Washington’s readiness to throw its weight behind such sectarian forces reflects its contempt for the region’s peoples and stands as an indictment of all those who argue, in the name of “human rights,” that the US should intervene more aggressively in the conflict. The US double-cross of its Kurdish allies underscores the fact that Washington’s chief consideration is the consolidation of its geo-strategic dominance of the Middle East through the installation of a puppet regime in Damascus.

Following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry stressed that the Kurds had to remain part of Syria.

“We are for a united Syria. We do not support an independent Kurd initiative,” he declared, before claiming that US support for Kurdish forces had been limited. He pointedly added, less than 48 hours after the initiation of the Turkish invasion, “We understand the sensitivities of our friends in Turkey with respect to this.”

The intervention of what is in effect a NATO force into Syria heightens the potential for a direct clash between Russia and the US, which could quickly spiral out of control and draw in the other major imperialist powers.

Following the talks between Kerry and Lavrov, which failed to reach any resolution, the Russian foreign minister took a swipe at the US and the Turkish incursion by noting that only Russia and Iran were operating inside Syria with the consent of the government. All other forces in the conflict, Lavrov said, were in violation of Syrian sovereignty.

At a briefing Friday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest sought to blame Russia and the Syrian government for the ongoing violence in the country, even though US forces were behind the latest Turkish escalation. “As long as Russia is willing to support the Assad regime’s murderous military tactics that often claim the lives of innocent women and children, the more difficult it is for a political solution to be reached,” Earnest stated. He added later that Russia’s actions “only fuel extremism” in Syria.

In response to a question on the creation of so-called safe zones within Syria, Earnest denied that this was being considered as a policy option by the Obama administration because it would require additional military forces. This was thoroughly disingenuous, given that Washington is backing a Turkish operation whose explicit goal is the creation of a zone in northern Syria controlled by Turkish troops.

Violence continued to spread within Turkey following a bomb attack Friday by PKK-aligned militants, which killed 11 Turkish police officers and wounded 78 people. PKK rebels launched a grenade attack on the airport in Diyarbakir Sunday, and a Turkish soldier and 10 PKK militants were killed in clashes in Hakkari province.

Syria is certainly heading into new situations with Turkey's escalation and China expressing an interest.

Uncle Obama has lost control of the region which is now on an internal feedback loop.

Perhaps Obama has finally rebelled at the right wing establishment pushing the conflicts in Middle East and elsewhere.

The American public is tired of the cost and the emotional turmoil of perpetual war without victories.

1 Sep, 2016

The killing of a top figure in the terrorist group Islamic State, Abu Muhammed al-Adnani, was the result of an airstrike conducted by a Russian Su-34 bomber, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

The death of al-Adnani, Islamic State’s spokesman and its leader in Syria, in a bombing in the Syrian province of Aleppo was earlier confirmed by the terrorist organization itself.

In an airstrike conducted in the area of Maaratat Umm Hawsh on Tuesday, the Su-34 targeted a group of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters numbering about 40 people, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. Al-Adnani’s death was confirmed by several intelligence channels.

The militant was described as the second most senior IS leader after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The group’s news outlet, Amaq, reported Al-Adnani’s death on Tuesday, without specifying who was responsible. According to Amaq, al-Adnani was killed “while surveying the operations to repel the military campaigns against Aleppo.”

An American defense official told Reuters that the US also targeted al-Adnani in a strike on Tuesday, but would not immediately confirm his death. Al-Adnani had a $5 million US Department of State bounty on his head.

Known for his aggressive, florid speaking style, al-Adnani sought to inspire recruits and lone wolf attackers in the West, and his calls to arms were often cited by ISIS adepts. Western media also reported that he was the head of a special intelligence unit, responsible for planning complex terrorist attacks in Europe.

Nations fighting IS should be prepared for possible attempts by terrorists to seek retribution, Middle East expert Ali Rizk told RT.

“There are a lot of ISIS members who would be mourning his death and who would be very determined to extract some kind of revenge. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some plots in Western capitals,” he said.

While al-Adnani’s death is a setback for IS, considering his senior position and involvement in the propaganda efforts of the jihadist group, people should remain realistic about the impact it will ultimately have, Ammar Waqqaf, founder and director of Gnosos think tank, told RT.

“It will take time for them [IS] to replace him, but we shouldn’t be singing chants of joy yet, because they probably thought that some of them would have been killed and the replacement would be in the pipeline,” he said.

https://www.rt.com/news/357749-russia-kill-adnani-aleppo/