1 Oct, 2016

Closed-door comments by US Secretary of State John Kerry reveal much about US involvement in Syrian crisis, Dr. Jamal Wakeem, professor of history and international relations at Lebanese University in Beirut, told RT.

The New York Times acquired the taped conversation between the US Secretary of State and two dozen Syrian civilians from education, rescue, and medical groups working in rebel-held areas, during a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

The leaked recording reveals how angry John Kerry really is about being unable to topple President Bashar Assad by military means.

“I've argued for use of force. I stood up. I’m the guy who stood up and announced we’re going to attack Assad because of the weapons, and then you know things evolved into a different process,” the Secretary of State said in the tape.

He told the civilians that “you have nobody more frustrated than we are (the US)” that the Syrian issue is now being solved diplomatically.

Kerry also warned the Syrians, who sounded clearly unhappy with Washington’s contribution, that attempts to intervene militarily or provide more support to the rebels by the US may have a reverse effect.

“The problem is that, you know, you get, quote, ‘enforcers’ in there and then everybody ups the ante, right? Russia puts in more, Iran puts in more; Hezbollah is there more and Nusra is more; and Saudi Arabia and Turkey put all their surrogate money in, and you all are destroyed,” the diplomat explained.

RT: What do you think this conversation shows?

Jamal Wakeem: I believe that this proves that the US was involved in the Syrian crisis since its onset and that it was collaborating with the so-called insurgents in order to topple the Syrian regime. In addition, it proves also that the Syrian crisis had its regional and international dimension since the beginning and it wasn’t a revolution against an illegitimate regime, as the West claimed at one point.

In addition, I believe that it also proves that the Obama administration didn’t give priority to peaceful and political solution for the Syrian crisis. But it used this as an alternative to its inability to use force when it was confronted by a steadfast position by Russia who refused to be dragged into another trick by the US similar to what happened in Libya and topple the Syrian regime. I believe that the Russians are aware of the fact that the war in Syria is a war by proxy directed against them and against their ally China. It is part of a bigger plan by the US to block Eurasia from having access to the maritime trade roots. In addition, I believe there was a mentioning of the presence of the representatives of the NGOs operating in insurgent territories. And this proves also that the US was using these NGOs as a tool of soft power in order to topple the Syrian regime.

RT: The conversation happened a few days after the US-Russia-brokered ceasefire in Syria ended. How possible is it to pursue diplomacy when one side doesn't seem to believe in it?

JW: I believe that the faction that was trying to strike a political deal with Russians over Syria was a minority in the Obama administration. It was hindered by the hawks in the US, mainly the Pentagon and the military. I didn’t believe that there would be a political breakthrough during the Obama administration, because this administration is already expired. We need to wait for the next president of the US to take over power. And the hawks in the US and also in Saudi Arabia and Turkey believe that the next president will be more hawkish than Obama and will take more confrontational steps with Russians and that is why they hindered any attempt by John Kerry to strike a deal or impose a truce in Aleppo. Maybe they wanted for the truce to be like a breathing space for the opposition or for the insurgents, but they didn’t want it to be a first step towards a political solution. And I believe that in order to talk about the political solution we need to wait for at least another year. 

Published on Sep 30, 2016

A little bit about why the madmen in the state department are pushing it to the brink of war with Russia and Syria.

Emma wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2016 at 10:04pm:



Emma Peel,

Re the carnage that we see in Syria today;

In reality, there is not a lot that we ['outsiders'] can do about any of it      [....without becoming directly involved!].





Emma Peel,

To outside observers, this clash in Syria, appears to be all about moslems killing moslems.

But to the combatants themselves [i.e. the combatants on each side], they are fighting against Allah's enemies [i.e. those who are the 'oppressors'].

n.b.
Each side holds this view,      .....of themselves,      .....and of their enemy.   !!!



For the Assad regime, it is Shia moslems who are slaughtering 'infidel' usurpers.

And for the assorted rebel groups, it is them, Sunni moslems fighting against, and slaughtering 'infidels'.



Emma Peel,

The Assad regime [Shia moslem] has the upper hand now [2016], because the Russians have come to their aid.

So it is Shia moslems slaughtering 'infidels'.


But if the power dynamic was for any reason reversed, it would be ISIS [Sunni moslem], and Al-Qaeda [Sunni moslem] aka Al Nursa, along with assorted rebel groups, the FSA, etc [Sunni moslem] who would be committing the exact same atrocities against the Shia moslems, who support the Assad regime.







As to WWIII.

On the whole, our history teaches us that [when unrestrained] men [and women] are stupid, greedy, corrupt, ruthless, selfish creatures.



The natural order of things is that pacifists would in quick order, be killed or enslaved, by those who are not pacifists.





- Thucydides (460-400 B.C.) Greek Historian





Emma Peel,

THESE [below] ARE THE RIGHTEOUS, AND AUTHORIZED [i.e. ISLAMIC] PUNISHMENTS FOR THOSE WHO ARE GUILTY OF SEDITION AND TREASON AGAINST ANY 'STANDING' ISLAMIC REGIME!!
[do you remember how a few years ago, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, simply sniped against public protests on Tehrans streets !     i.e. the public protests against the tyranny of the mullahs]

---------- >

"The punishment of those who......strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world..."
Koran 5.33


"Truly, if the Hypocrites, and those in whose hearts is a disease, and those who stir up sedition in the City....whenever they are found, they shall be seized and slain (without mercy)."
Koran 33.60,61




n.b.

When ISIS or Al Nursa mercilessly slaughter their enemy, they are being obedient to ISLAMIC law.

When the Shia Assad regime mercilessly slaughter their enemy, they too are being obedient to ISLAMIC law.

Emma wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2016 at 10:04pm:


You seem to read it and you just did or why else are you posting in this thread????

Just because Samantha Power says so does not mean it's true.

Here's another just for you

Syria: The pig-headed arrogance of the FUKUS Axis
btw FUKUS stands for France, Uk, US

http://www.pravdareport.com/opinion/columnists/27-09-2016/135706-pig_headed_arro... enjoy

2 Oct, 2016

The Pentagon paid a UK PR firm half a billion dollars to create fake terrorist videos in Iraq in a secret propaganda campaign exposed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

PR firm Bell Pottinger, known for its array of controversial clients including the Saudi government and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s foundation, worked with the US military to create the propaganda in a secretive operation.

The firm reported to the CIA, the National Security Council and the Pentagon on the project with a mandate to portray Al-Qaeda in a negative light and track suspected sympathizers.

Both the White House and General David Petraeus, the former general who shared classified information with his mistress, signed off on the content produced by the agency.

The Bell Pottinger operation started soon after the US invasion of Iraq and was tasked with promoting the “democratic elections” for the administration before moving on to more lucrative psychological and information operations.

Former employee Martin Wells told the Bureau how he found himself working in Iraq after being hired as a video editor by Bell Pottinger. Within 48 hours, he was landing in Baghdad to edit content for secret “psychological operations” at Camp Victory.

The firm created television ads showing Al-Qaeda in a negative light as well as creating content to look as though it had come from “Arabic TV”. Crews were sent out to film bombings with low quality video. The firm would then edit it to make it look like news footage.

They would craft scripts for Arabic soap operas where characters would reject terrorism with happy consequences. The firm also created fake Al-Qaeda propaganda videos, which were then planted by the military in homes they raided.

Employees were given specific instructions to create the videos. “We need to make this style of video and we’ve got to use Al-Qaeda's footage,” Wells was told. “We need it to be 10 minutes long, and it needs to be in this file format, and we need to encode it in this manner.”

The videos were created to play on Real Player which needs an internet connection to run. The CDs were embedded with a code linking to Google Analytics which allowed the military to track IP addresses that the videos were played on.

According to Wells, the videos were picked up in Iran, Syria and the US.

"If one, 48 hours or a week later shows up in another part of the world, then that’s the more interesting one,” Wells explained. “And that’s what they’re looking for more, because that gives you a trail.”

The Pentagon confirmed the PR firm did work for them under the Information Operations Task Force (IOTF) creating content they say was “truthful”. The firm also worked under the Joint Psychological Operations Task Force (JPOTF). The Pentagon said it could not comment on JPOTF operations.

US law prohibits the government from using propaganda on its population, hence the use of an outside firm to create the content.

Documents show the Pentagon paid $540 million to Bell Pottinger in contracts between 2007 and 2011, with another contract for $120 million in 2006. The firm ended its work with the Pentagon in 2011.

In 2009, it was reported that the Pentagon had hired controversial PR firm, The Rendon Group, to monitor the reporting of journalists embedded with the U.S. military, to assess whether they were giving "positive" coverage to its missions.

It was also revealed in 2005 that Washington based PR company the Lincoln Group had been placing articles in newspapers in Iraq which were secretly written by the US military. A Pentagon investigation cleared the group of any wrongdoing.

https://www.rt.com/usa/361385-pentagon-pr-firm-terrorist-videos/

Rendon Group
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Rendon_Group

3 Oct, 2016

Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, has hit out at Washington’s decision to freeze all cooperation with Russia over Syria, in the wake of a series of diplomatic setbacks.

“I don’t think there is any alternative [to the bilateral ties between Moscow and Washington],” the diplomat told Russian reporters in New York. “That they have announced this is highly regrettable.”

“There is also no alternative to trying to implement a ceasefire, and to stopping the Al-Nusra Front and ISIS while making sure that the so-called moderate opposition understands that time has come to lay down their weapons.”

Following months of negotiations and stillborn peace deals, on Monday the US said that Russia was “unwilling or unable” to ensure that the Syrian government stuck to them, and claimed that Moscow and its allies in Damascus “have chosen to pursue a military course.”

Moscow does not accept responsibility for the breakdown in cooperation, and says it has done everything to sustain the peace process, including implementing a 72-hour ceasefire late last month that should have ensured the delivery of humanitarian aid to Aleppo, the site of the most intense fighting between government forces and opposition factions.

Russia also says that the White House kept covering up for extreme Islamists, making it impossible to produce a joint plan of operations, a key part of the bilateral proposal agreed a fortnight ago.

“Why could Washington not deliver what it promised – to delineate between the terrorists [the Al-Nusra Front] and the so-called moderate opposition,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said that his organization “deeply regrets” the communication breakdown between Moscow and Washington, and promised to continue working on a diplomatic resolution to a war that has resulted in over 400,000 deaths, according to the UN’s own estimate.

"The UN will never abandon the Syrian people to a destiny of endless violent conflict," de Mistura said in a statement.

For political analyst Ammar Waqqaf, the US decision to break ties with Russia is an admission of impotence, not a strategic gambit.

“Faced with a total inability to influence what is happening on the ground. the only option left to Kerry and other US officials is to resign, and to shift the responsibility for the conflict to the next elected administration. There is nothing more they can do now,” Waqqaf told RT.

https://www.rt.com/news/361493-us-russia-alternative-syria/

jmjcare wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2016 at 8:39pm:


Jmjcare thank you for this information. Yo are a genius.

Moscow delivers S-300 missile system to Syria for defense of Russian naval base

Published on Oct 4, 2016
A battery of Russian S-300 air defense missile launchers has been transported to Syria, Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. Its sole purpose is to defend a Russian naval base and warships, the ministry added.