Russia outraged over attempts to frame Syrian government for chemicals use | Electronic Resistance

Moscow, SANA-Russian Foreign Ministry said Russia is outraged over Western attempts to frame the Syrian government for using chemical weapons in Syria.

“Statements by Western officials and commentaries in foreign newspapers had emerged blaming, uncorroborated, the Syrian government for incidents involving the use of chlorine gas in Syria,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement.

“They claim that the UN latest resolution 2209 amounts to be a warning to the Syrian government that punitive measures are likely in the future under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which is an irksome matter,” the statement added.

The UN resolution, the statement said, stopped short of finger-pointing in the chemical weapons’ issue; hence any other interpretation of the resolution is “a biased reading.”

“Had nailing down culprits in the issue been that easy, there would be no point in the OPCW mission probing the use of chlorine continuing its work,” said the statement.

The statement said that the OPCW, the UN chemical weapons watchdog, will go ahead with investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Syria, taking into account the information that the Syrian government passed to the organization in December 2014.

The information revealed that non-governmental sides had seized amounts of chlorine, which lends authenticity to the assumption that the Syrian opposition’s fighters might be involved in the use of the chemical agent.

The UN Security Council had passed a resolution on March 6 condemning the use of chlorine gas in Syria. The resolution did not identify who was behind it.

Complete story at - Russia outraged over attempts to frame Syrian government for chemicals use | Electronic Resistance

Russia outraged over attempts to frame Syrian government for chemicals use | Electronic Resistance

Moscow, SANA-Russian Foreign Ministry said Russia is outraged over Western attempts to frame the Syrian government for using chemical weapons in Syria.

“Statements by Western officials and commentaries in foreign newspapers had emerged blaming, uncorroborated, the Syrian government for incidents involving the use of chlorine gas in Syria,” said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement.

“They claim that the UN latest resolution 2209 amounts to be a warning to the Syrian government that punitive measures are likely in the future under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which is an irksome matter,” the statement added.

The UN resolution, the statement said, stopped short of finger-pointing in the chemical weapons’ issue; hence any other interpretation of the resolution is “a biased reading.”

“Had nailing down culprits in the issue been that easy, there would be no point in the OPCW mission probing the use of chlorine continuing its work,” said the statement.

The statement said that the OPCW, the UN chemical weapons watchdog, will go ahead with investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Syria, taking into account the information that the Syrian government passed to the organization in December 2014.

The information revealed that non-governmental sides had seized amounts of chlorine, which lends authenticity to the assumption that the Syrian opposition’s fighters might be involved in the use of the chemical agent.

The UN Security Council had passed a resolution on March 6 condemning the use of chlorine gas in Syria. The resolution did not identify who was behind it.

Complete story at - Russia outraged over attempts to frame Syrian government for chemicals use | Electronic Resistance

The REAL Reasons We're At War With Russia Washington's Blog

The Empire Doesn’t Like to Be Questioned

We’re at war with Russia.

Specifically, we’ve launched:

A sanctions war
A currency war
A hot war in Ukraine
Indeed, it appears that U.S. leaders have targeted Putin for regime change.

Why?

Syria

Initially, the U.S. targeted Syria for regime change – for the second time – many decades ago.

Putin derailed the imminent American war against Syria by brokering a deal wherein Syria destroyed all of its chemical weapons. The U.S. was very unhappy with the deal … and tried to backtrack.

George Friedman – CEO and founder and CEO of Stratfor, the “private CIA” – said in December that the United States is behind the coup in Kiev … which he called the “most blatant coup in history”. Friedman said that the coup came in response to Russia’s peacemaking in Syria:

[Friedman:] Russia had begun to take certain steps that the United States considered unacceptable. Primarily in Syria. It was there that Russians demonstrated to the Americans that they are capable of influencing processes in the Middle East. And the US has enough problems in that part of the world already without the Russians.

Russians intervened in the process in the Middle East among other reasons because they had hoped to get leverage to influence US policy in other areas. But they miscalculated. The United States thought that it was Russia’s intent to harm them.

***

[Question:] So you think Ukraine is a form of revenge for Syria?

[Friedman:] No, not revenge. But Russian intervention in the process in Syria, while the United States was still addressing the problems in Iraq, and was in negotiations with Iran … In Washington, many people have the impression that Russian want to destabilize the already fragile US position in the Middle East – a region that is of key importance for America.

Complete story at - The REAL Reasons We're At War With Russia Washington's Blog

Another Conspiracy Theory Becomes Fact: The Entire Oil Collapse Is All About Crushing Russian Control Over Syria | Zero Hedge

While the markets are still debating whether the price of oil is more impacted by the excess pumping of crude here, or the lack of demand there, or if it is all just a mechanical squeeze by momentum-chasing HFT algos who also know to buy in the milliseconds before 2:30pm, we bring readers' attention back to what several months ago was debunked as a deep conspiracy theory.

Back then we wrote about a certain visit by John Kerry to Saudi Arabia, on September 11 of all days, to negotiate a secret deal with the now late King Abdullah so as to get a "green light" in order "to launch its airstrikes against ISIS, or rather, parts of Iraq and Syria. And, not surprising, it is once again Assad whose fate was the bargaining chip to get the Saudis on the US' side, because in order to launch the incursion into Syrian sovereign territory, it "took months of behind-the-scenes work by the U.S. and Arab leaders, who agreed on the need to cooperate against Islamic State, but not how or when. The process gave the Saudis leverage to extract a fresh U.S. commitment to beef up training for rebels fighting Mr. Assad, whose demise the Saudis still see as a top priority."

We concluded:

Said otherwise, the pound of flesh demanded by Saudi Arabia to "bless" US airstrikes and make them appear as an act of some coalition, is the removal of the Assad regime. Why? So that, as we also explained last year, the holdings of the great Qatar natural gas fields can finally make their way onward to Europe, which incidentally is also America's desire - what better way to punish Putin for his recent actions than by crushing the main leverage the Kremlin has over Europe?

Because at the end of the day it is all about energy. We made as much very clear one month later when in mid-October we said "If The Oil Plunge Continues, "Now May Be A Time To Panic" For US Shale Companies." The panic time has long since come, but only after we laid out the problem clearly enough for all to grasp:

... while we understand if Saudi Arabia is employing a dumping strategy to punish the Kremlin as per the "deal" with Obama's White House, very soon there will be a very vocal, very insolvent and very domestic shale community demanding answers from the Obama administration, as once again the "costs" meant to punish Russia end up crippling the only truly viable industry under the current presidency.

As a reminder, the last time Obama threatened Russia with "costs", he sent Europe into a triple-dip recession.

It would truly be the crowning achievement of Obama's career if, amazingly, he manages to bankrupt the US shale "miracle" next.

Complete story at - Another Conspiracy Theory Becomes Fact: The Entire Oil Collapse Is All About Crushing Russian Control Over Syria | Zero Hedge

Another Conspiracy Theory Becomes Fact: The Entire Oil Collapse Is All About Crushing Russian Control Over Syria | Zero Hedge

While the markets are still debating whether the price of oil is more impacted by the excess pumping of crude here, or the lack of demand there, or if it is all just a mechanical squeeze by momentum-chasing HFT algos who also know to buy in the milliseconds before 2:30pm, we bring readers' attention back to what several months ago was debunked as a deep conspiracy theory.

Back then we wrote about a certain visit by John Kerry to Saudi Arabia, on September 11 of all days, to negotiate a secret deal with the now late King Abdullah so as to get a "green light" in order "to launch its airstrikes against ISIS, or rather, parts of Iraq and Syria. And, not surprising, it is once again Assad whose fate was the bargaining chip to get the Saudis on the US' side, because in order to launch the incursion into Syrian sovereign territory, it "took months of behind-the-scenes work by the U.S. and Arab leaders, who agreed on the need to cooperate against Islamic State, but not how or when. The process gave the Saudis leverage to extract a fresh U.S. commitment to beef up training for rebels fighting Mr. Assad, whose demise the Saudis still see as a top priority."

We concluded:

Said otherwise, the pound of flesh demanded by Saudi Arabia to "bless" US airstrikes and make them appear as an act of some coalition, is the removal of the Assad regime. Why? So that, as we also explained last year, the holdings of the great Qatar natural gas fields can finally make their way onward to Europe, which incidentally is also America's desire - what better way to punish Putin for his recent actions than by crushing the main leverage the Kremlin has over Europe?

Because at the end of the day it is all about energy. We made as much very clear one month later when in mid-October we said "If The Oil Plunge Continues, "Now May Be A Time To Panic" For US Shale Companies." The panic time has long since come, but only after we laid out the problem clearly enough for all to grasp:

... while we understand if Saudi Arabia is employing a dumping strategy to punish the Kremlin as per the "deal" with Obama's White House, very soon there will be a very vocal, very insolvent and very domestic shale community demanding answers from the Obama administration, as once again the "costs" meant to punish Russia end up crippling the only truly viable industry under the current presidency.

As a reminder, the last time Obama threatened Russia with "costs", he sent Europe into a triple-dip recession.

It would truly be the crowning achievement of Obama's career if, amazingly, he manages to bankrupt the US shale "miracle" next.

Complete story at - Another Conspiracy Theory Becomes Fact: The Entire Oil Collapse Is All About Crushing Russian Control Over Syria | Zero Hedge

Delusional US ‘Group Think’ on Syria, Ukraine | Consortiumnews

Exclusive: Official Washington’s “group think” on Syria and Ukraine is so delusional that it is putting the whole world in danger, but – as with the Iraq War – the mainstream U.S. news media is part of the problem, not part of any solution, writes Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

Neocon ideology appears to have seized near total control over the editorial pages of America’s premier news organizations, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, contributing to an information crisis inside “the world’s superpower,” a development that should unnerve both Americans and the world community.

A Washington Post editorial, for instance, took President Barack Obama to task on Wednesday for one of the few moments when he was making sense, when he answered “no” to whether he was “actively discussing ways to remove” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Obama added, “we are looking for a political solution eventually within Syria. … But we’re not even close to being at that stage yet.”

The question itself — from Kristen Welker of NBC News — would have been remarkable enough if you weren’t steeped in the arrogance of Official Washington where it’s common to engage in casual speculation about overthrowing another country’s government. In Neocon Land, it goes without saying that once the United States judges some world leader guilty for having violated international law or human rights or whatever, it is fine for the U.S. government to “take out” that leader, even if the supposed “facts” are a jumble of reality and propaganda that no one has bothered to seriously sort out.

In Assad’s case, there is the conventional wisdom that his government carried out the Aug. 21, 2013 sarin gas attack outside Damascus, although much evidence now points to a provocation by anti-Assad rebels. There is also the fact that Assad’s military has been battling the ruthless Islamic State and Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front, two terroristic organizations.

While that doesn’t excuse excessive civilian casualties, it is a mitigating circumstance, much as the U.S. military rationalized the massive loss of civilian life after the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq as regrettable collateral damage but justified in prosecuting the post-9/11 “war on terror.”

Complete story at - Delusional US ‘Group Think’ on Syria, Ukraine | Consortiumnews

Black Sea Strategy –Threshold of World War? > Strategic-Culture.org - Strategic Culture Foundation

The article Ukraine, Iraq and a Black Sea Strategy by George Friedman(1) came into focus of international experts’ attention. The author is known to make no bones about it when he expresses his opinion. While others wrote about European values, democracy and open society to take hold in Ukraine, he devoted his writings to Russia’s strategic position, military planning, oil and gas policy. He openly admits that the United States saw the events in Ukraine as either an opportunity for moral posturing or as a strategic blow to Russian national security. He also points out that “U.S.geography and power permit a degree of uncertainty“ . Actually the author is talking about geo-strategy aimed at plunging the world into chaos. But it’s not the main thing.

There is a serious substantiation for guessing that the theses used in the article serve as an indicator of the fact that the US elite switches to the perception of current and would-be events in terms of ongoing world war. A “world war” sounds awesome but there is nothing new in thinking in such terms: the previous global economic crisis comparable in scale was overcome thanks to world war. A world war allows to reshape the world map, get access to new markets, write off old debts and establish new rules of the game in international affairs. This is the most important factor for the United States. Playing by the rules established by America itself in the past, no longer can it maintain the global leadership ceding the position to rising China.

According to George Friedman, the most critical issue for the United States is to create a single integrated plan that takes into account the most pressing challenges. Operationally, it might not be possible to engage all adversaries simultaneously, but conceptually, it is essential to think in terms of a coherent center of gravity of operations. For the author of the article it is increasingly clear that that center is the Black Sea. There are currently two active theaters of military action with broad potential significance. One is Ukraine. The other is in the Syria-Iraq region, where the forces of the Islamic State have launched an offensive designed at a minimum to control regions in both countries — and at most dominate the area between the Levant and Iran. In most senses there is no connection between these two theaters. The author notes that Russia has an ongoing problem in the high Caucasus and there are reports of Chechen advisers working with the Islamic State. He points out that, “In this sense, the Russians are far from comfortable with what is happening in Syria and Iraq. At the same time, anything that diverts U.S. attention from Ukraine is beneficial to the Russians. For its part, the Islamic State must oppose Russia in the long run. Its immediate problem, however, is U.S. power, so anything that distracts the United States is beneficial to the Islamic State”.

America is not going to use its military power on large scale. It plans to achieve its goals at the expense of regional allies. Turkey and Romania are two key relationships.

The article is cognitive for those who try to understand the US policy towards Russia. One thesis is delusive. The Islamic State is painted as a US enemy that America wages a fierce fight against. In reality the Islamic State is a valuable ally of the United States, the country which is pursuing the goal of converting the Middle East into a large hotbed hit by chaos to spread on Europe, Russia, China and other regions of the United States’ choice.

Complete story at - Black Sea Strategy –Threshold of World War? > Strategic-Culture.org - Strategic Culture Foundation

Syria: Washington has Crossed the Red Line | New Eastern Outlook

At the recent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) led by President Obama its members have unanimously adopted a resolution to stem the flow of foreigners into the ranks of extremist organizations such as the Islamic State. On Wednesday, September 24, all the fifteen Security Council members voted unanimously to bind the UN Member States to adopt laws under which their citizens won’t be able to fight under the banners of Islamist groups or recruit other citizens to do so, unless they are willing to go to jail.

Perhaps some people could marvel at Obama’s selfless effort to lead the fight against the new monster. But those better informed in today’s international politics, especially those introduced to Wahington’s cunning plans will ask a simple question: Where did all these organizations, Al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and now Khorasan Group come from, how could they possibly reach such strength that now the international community must face them? The track record of Al Qaeda is carefully documented and well known, its leadership, that was headed by now dead Osama bin Laden, is handsomely paid by the CIA at the expense of US taxpayers. The rest of the above mentioned terrorist groups are funded with the money provided by the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf. They have been created on Syrian soil by the West in order to overthrow the legitimately elected government of Bashar al-Assad. None other than the US president issued the order to train and arm them. There is no need to prove anything since the actions of the United States have been carefully documented. Barack Obama himself admitted that in recent years some 15 thousand foreign fighters have been brought to Syria from more than 80 countries!

Along with these actions, Barack Obama in the spirit of the Nobel Peace Laureate created another so-called coalition to launch air strikes in Syria and Iraq. This fact should be empathized, the coalition was not created to bring peace to this highly trouble-prone region, but for carrying out military actions, to further inflate the fire. Hence the Middle East will witness even more deaths and suffering. A peculiar fact of this “pro-peace” coalition are its members: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, and Bahrain. There’s a saying in all languages ​​- “Tell me who are your friends are and I will tell you who you are”. This saying exemplifies the case. The so-called American Democrats are friends with the kings of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan, with the emir of Qatar and the UAE sheiks, it seems that the US president wouldn’t mind being named a king as well.

And now the aircraft of this “peaceful” coalition carries out strikes in Syria, without even obtaining consent of Damascus. Americans have already launched more than 40 Tomahawk missiles. What is the result? At least 14 militants (is there a proof?) and five civilians were killed in air strikes the United States and its allies carried out against the positions of the Islamic State in northeastern Syria on the night of September 25. As you may notice, nobody cares for civilian lives, since nobody will submit a complaint to the International Court of Justice, so there’s no need to offer apologies, no need to pay compensation to the families of the deceased. This logic is rather simple – Syrians were killed and they were second-class human beings, why should US Democrats care?
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2014/10/03/rus-siriya-vashington-pereshel-krasnuyu-chertu/

Complete story at - Syria: Washington has Crossed the Red Line | New Eastern Outlook

The Siege Of Kobani: Obama’s Syrian Fiasco In Motion | David Stockman's Contra Corner

Another humanitarian catastrophe may be just hours away at Kobani. The latter is the Syrian Kurdish town on the border with Turkey that is now surrounded by ISIS tanks and is being pounded day after day by ISIS heavy artillery. Already this lethal phalanx, which fuses 21st century American technology and equipment with 12th century religious fanaticism, has rolled through dozens of Kurdish villages and towns in the region around Kobani, sending 180,000 refugees fleeing for their lives across the border.

Self-evidently the lightly armed Kurdish militias desperately holding out in Kobani are fighting the right enemy—-that is, the Islamic State. So why has Obama’s grand coalition not been able to relieve the siege? Why haven’t American bombers and cruise missiles, for instance, been able to destroy the American tanks and artillery which a terrifying band of butchers has brought to bear on several hundred thousand innocent Syrian Kurds who have made this enclave their home for more than a century? Why has not NATO ally Turkey, with a 600,000 man military, 3,500 tanks and 1,000 modern aircraft and helicopters, done anything meaningful to help the imperiled Kurds?



Let’s see. The US is making perfunctory air strikes. Yet with no boots on the ground in the context of close urban combat in a city of 50,000—–a major air onslaught would result in massive civilian casualties. Although Obama already has much blood on his hands, he is apparently not ready for a Gaza-on-the-Euphrates.

So then why doesn’t Turkey put some infantry and spotters on the ground—-highly trained “boots” that are literally positioned a few kilometers away on its side of the border?

Well, Turkish President Erdogan just explained his government’s reluctance quite succinctly, as reported by Bloomberg on Saturday:

For us, ISIL and the (Kurdish) PKK are the same,” Erdogan said in televised remarks today in Istanbul.

And that’s literally true because from Turkey’s vantage point the Kobani showdown is a case of terrorist-on-terrorist. The Kurdish fighters in Kobani are linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK. The latter has waged a separatist campaign of armed insurrection and terror inside and around Turkey for 30-years and has long been considered Turkey’s top security threat. In fact, Turkey has received untold amounts of US aid, equipment and intelligence over the years to help suppress this uprising. That’s the reason that PKK is officially classified as a “terrorist” group by the U.S. and the government in Ankara.

Complete story at - The Siege Of Kobani: Obama’s Syrian Fiasco In Motion | David Stockman's Contra Corner

Land Destroyer: From Ukraine to Syria: UN's Selective Defense of Human Rights

October 5, 2014 (Ulson Gunnar - NEO) - For the past several years, the United Nations has served as a platform for Syria's enemies to air allegations of human rights abuses and even attempts to use such allegations to justify military aggression against Syria itself. Tales of "barrel bombs" being used against civilians, the bombardment of enemy positions at the cost of civilian lives and the destruction of vital infrastructure have all been constructs in the West's narrative against the Syrian government.

Now that the US is itself bombing Syria, killing Syrians including innocent men, women and children, as well as vital infrastructure local populations depend on for their survival, the UN has grown suddenly quiet. The Western press too seems to have reverted to its observance of the notion of "collateral damage." Suddenly, the very terrorists the Syrian government has tried to warn the world about for years as it fought them in its city streets and countrysides, are now bad enough for the end of defeating them to justify the means of occasionally killing civilians, so long as they are killed with US rather than Syrian weapons.

The startling hypocrisy combines with the fact that Syria's military is operating within its territory, conducting security operations to secure its own borders and all territory within it, while the US is operating thousands of miles from its own shores, in a foreign country, with both a doubtful pretext and an even more doubtful agenda in mind as it does so.

Where is the United Nations? The airstrikes in Syria carried out by the US, Persian Gulf states, and several European nations are done so without the Syrian government's approval, no recognized opposition party has approved of them, and certainly no UN resolution has provided the West with a mandate to exercise military force inside of Syria. On this point alone, the UN should be standing up in vocal protest, leveling sanctions against those participating in this act of unilateral, illegal military aggression. Additionally, the UN should be speaking out against the loss of civilian lives, just as it did during the past several years of chaos in Syria's ongoing conflict, as well as preparing monitoring teams and investigations into the impact of these attacks.

Complete story at - Land Destroyer: From Ukraine to Syria: UN's Selective Defense of Human Rights

CrossTalk - Islamic State Threat

NoBC4U Note:  Another favorite source that I've been neglecting is CrossTalk on RT.  So I'm doing some catching up today.

The Vineyard of the Saker: Obama's Smart Syria Play

NoBC4U Note:  I've been neglecting to post from one of my favorite blogs here, the Vineyard of the Saker.  Yes, I know many of my readers come from that site, but quite a few don't.  So, here's some Saker for you. 

by Fulan Nasrullah

If you ask me I will tell you that America watched the Cancer of Al-Baghdadi and his Islamic State spread from Syria back into Iraq to create an excuse to bomb Bashar Al-Assad in Syria.

How?

Remember earlier Obama wanted to carry out airstrikes against Syria's government in retaliation for a highly questionable chemical attack, despite the fact that earlier in 2013 Iraq arrested over 150 Islamic State of Iraq affiliated takfiri terrorists who were preparing chemical weapons in Baghdad with chemicals imported from Kuwait, Germany and Saudi Arabia. Obama's airstrikes plan was put on hold because the American an Western public saw through the flimsy sham. Instead of going to bomb Assad a little as punishment for using 'chemical weapons' on civilians, the American public understood he was going to use the cover of that to use the US Airforce to serve as the Free Syrian Army's air force a la Libya where Obama used the lie of protecting 'civilians' to use the US Airforce to help the rebels defeat Gaddafi.

Anyways to save face after the American public opposed his adventurism in Syria, he claimed he needed Congressional approval to bomb Syria, thinking that McCain an Lindsey Graham (the two vultures that thrive on consuming corpses) would get it for him. Surprise! He would have lost in Congress, so Putin graciously offered him a way out of his rope I.e the agreement to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.

After that what happened? Along came ISIS or IS as it is now known or Da'ash to the Arabs. Suddenly Obama authorized the transfer of scores of millions of dollars of heavy weaponry to the moderate 'Syrian Opposition' (what a joke!) knowing fully well the so-called moderate rebels were bed partners or unwilling underdogs of Da'ash and Surprise! Surprise! All of Obama's weapons largesse ended up flowing first to Jabhatun-Nusrah and Islamic Front units which then took these weapons and defected to ISIS. In other cases ISIS simply showed up and raided the moderate and Islamist rebels and carted off their newly arrived American Candy Bars including sophisticated anti-tank missiles.

It was only a while but Al-Baghdadi's 'goon army' showed up across the border to liberate their home base of Iraq with....wait for it... America's contributions to the liberation of Syria in tow, including those million-dollar anti-tank guided missiles Mr Obama proudly sent forth to do battle on his behalf in Damascus.

With American weaponry and skills honed in Syria fighting against the ultra-skilled Hizbullah and the mediocre Syrian Army, Al-Baghdadi's Army of the Goons bested the million man Iraqi security forces and captured more American weapons as they marched across Iraq seizing whatever caught their fancy. Meanwhile Mr Obama or Mr Yes-We-Scan (depending on what you are on this week) sat in his Oval Office and preened and smiled widely like a Cheshire cat as Al-Baghdadi's Goon Army won one victory or the other, all the while making sure to scream and point hysterically like a pissed-off prostitute "See ISIS is becoming a threat to world peace"..

Complete story at - The Vineyard of the Saker: Obama's Smart Syria Play

Bombs Away Over Syria! Washington Has Gone Stark Raving Mad | David Stockman's Contra Corner

by David Stockman • August 27, 2014

America’s spanker-in-chief is at it again—threatening to bomb Syria owing to the uncivilized actions of its inhabitants. And when it comes to Syria, Washington avers that there are punishable malefactors virtually everywhere within its borders.

Exactly one year ago Obama proposed to take Bashar Al Assad to the woodshed because he had allegedly unleashed a vicious chemical attack on his own citizens. That was all pretext, of course, because even the CIA refused to sign-off on the flimsy case for Assad’s culpability at the time—-a reluctance corroborated since then by the considerable evidence that hundreds of Syrian civilians were murdered during a false flag operation staged by the rebels with help from Turkey. The aim of the rebels, of course, was to activate American tomahawk missiles and bombers in behalf of “regime change”, which was also the stated goal of the Obama Administration.

Now the White House is threatening to bomb Syria again, but this time its “regime change” objective has been expanded to include both sides! In 12 short months what had been the allegedly heroic Sunni opposition to the “brutal rule” of the Assad/Alawite minority has transmuted into the “greatest terrorist threat ever”, according to the Secretary of Defense.

So Obama has already unleashed the drones and surveillance apparatus to identify targets of attack that will help bring down a regime in northern and eastern Syria—the so-called Islamic State—which did not even exist a year ago. And a regime that is now armed to the teeth with America’s own latest and greatest weaponry as previously supplied to the disintegrated Iraqi army and the Syrian rebels trained by the CIA in Jordan.

Adding to this blinding farce is the warning of Syria’s Foreign Affairs minister that Obama should please to request permission before he rains destruction from the sky on the Opposition—-that is, the opposition to the very same Damascus regime which the White House has vowed to eradicate. Needless to say,  the Washington apparatus is having nothing to do with aiding the enemy of its new enemy:

Complete story at - Bombs Away Over Syria! Washington Has Gone Stark Raving Mad | David Stockman's Contra Corner

Energy ballet-2: Syria, Ukraine & 'Pipelineistan' — RT Op-Edge

As much as Iran, Russia, the US and the EU are involved in a sophisticated nuclear/energy ballet, Syria and Ukraine are also two key power play vectors bound to determine much of what happens next in the New Great Game in Eurasia.

And both Syria and Ukraine also happen to be energy wars.

The Obama administration’s Syria master plan was ‘Assad must go’; regime change would yield a US-supported Muslim Brotherhood entity, and a key plank of Pipelineistan - the $10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline - would be forever ditched.

The Emir of Qatar himself had taken the road to Damascus in 2009 to negotiate a Qatar-Syria-Turkey gas pipeline. Bashar al-Assad though, said no; his excuse was his unwillingness to jeopardize Syria’s energy deals with Russia.

And yet, in 2001, an agreement went ahead for a rival Iran-Iraq-Syria project. So the writing was on the wall – or on the (steel) pipes arriving one day in the Eastern Mediterranean. The gas for prospective European customers would in fact come from Iran’s South Pars field, contiguous to Qatar’s North Dome; together, they form the largest gas field on the planet.

Not only for Qatar and Turkey, but especially for His Masters Voice, this was unacceptable; the official US ‘isolate Iran’ policy would be in tatters. Worse: the possibility was open for the EU to soon become the privileged customer of both Russia and Iran for no less than 45 percent of its gas supply. Full energy/trade integration of Eurasia – in this key case involving most of the EU, Russia and Iran - is absolute anathema for the Empire of Chaos.

Complete story at - Energy ballet-2: Syria, Ukraine & 'Pipelineistan' — RT Op-Edge

John McCain, Conductor of the "Arab Spring" and the Caliph , by Thierry Meyssan

Everyone has noticed the contradiction of those who recently characterized the Islamic Emirate as "freedom fighters" in Syria and who are indignant today faced with its abuses in Iraq. But if that speech is incoherent in itself, it makes perfect sense in the strategic plan: the same individuals were to be presented as allies yesterday and must be as enemies today, even if they are still on orders from Washington. Thierry Meyssan reveals below US policy through the particular case of Senator John McCain, conductor of the "Arab Spring" and longtime partner of Caliph Ibrahim.

by Thierry Meyssan

John McCain is known as the leader of the Republicans and unhappy 2008 US presidential candidate. This is, we will see, only the real part of his biography, which serves as a cover to conduct covert actions on behalf of his government.

When I was in Libya during the "Western"attack, I was able to view a report of the foreign intelligence services. It stated that, on February 4, 2011 in Cairo, NATO organized a meeting to launch the "Arab Spring" in Libya and Syria. According to this document, the meeting was chaired by John McCain. The report detailed the list of Libyan participants, whose delegation was led by the No. 2 man of the government of the day, Mahmoud Jibril, who abruptly switched sides at the entrance of the meeting to become the opposition leader in exile. I remember that, among the French delegates present, the report quoted Bernard-Henry Lévy, although officially he had never exercised functions within the French government. Many other personalities attended the symposium, including a large delegation of Syrians living abroad.

Emerging from the meeting, the mysterious Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook account called for demonstrations outside the People’s Council (National Assembly) in Damascus on February 11. Although this Facebook account at the time claimed to have more than 40,000 followers, only a dozen people responded to its call before the flashes of photographers and hundreds of police. The demonstration dispersed peacefully and clashes only began more than a month later in Deraa. [1]

On February 16, 2011, a demonstration underway in Benghazi, in memory of members of the Islamic Fighting Group in Libya [2] massacred in 1996 in the Abu Selim prison, degenerated into shooting. The next day, a second event, this time in memory of those who died by attacking the Danish consulate during the Muhammad cartoons affair, also degenerated into shooting. At the same time, members of the Islamic Fighting Group in Libya ,coming from Egypt and coordinated by unidentified, hooded individuals, simultaneously attacked four military bases in four different cities. After three days of fighting and atrocities, the rebels launched the uprising of Cyrenaica against Tripolitania [3]; a terrorist attack that the western press falsely presented as a "democratic revolution" against "the regime" of Muammar el-Qaddafi.

On February 22nd, John McCain was in Lebanon. He met members of the Future Movement (the party of Saad Hariri) whom he charged to oversee the transfer of arms to Syria around the MP Okab Sakr [4]. Then, leaving Beirut, he inspected the Syrian border and the selected villages including Ersal, which were used as a basis to back mercenaries in the war to come.

The meetings chaired by John McCain were clearly the trigger point for a long-prepared Washington plan; the plan that would have the UK and France attack Libya and Syria simultaneously, following the doctrine of "leadership from behind" and the annex of the Treaty of Lancaster House of November 2010. [5]

Complete story at - John McCain, Conductor of the "Arab Spring" and the Caliph , by Thierry Meyssan

At Least 22 Defense Industry Stakeholders Used as ‘Pundits’ by US Media to Sell Syria War

Remember this next time the corporate media are trying to sell the next war…



Before the White House’s Syrian War flop, networks like CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and Bloomberg TV wheeled out at least 22 different men who they claimed were “pundits” and “commentators”, but in actuality were merely bomb and missile salesmen – who held director, board and shareholding positions with military giants like Raytheon, DC Capital Partners and BAE Systems.

Yes, you heard that right.

Watchdog organisation, the Public Accountability Initiative, a non-profit research group, details this and many more disclosures in its recent and damning report on US media coverage to hype a war in Syria.

Should CNN, MSNBC, FOX lose their broadcasting licenses in the US for this gross breach of ethics, particularly when it’s used to sell something as violent and abhorrent as war? We say YES. Will that happen in the US? Well, no, because the media in the US is far from bias and is tightly linked in ownership and sponsorship to the war industry. Start with General Electric and work your way around the table from there.

Add to this, another long line of “experts” deployed by Rupert Murdoch’s perennially pro-war media shop FOX, and now the Wall Street Journal. Most notably here is John Kerry and John McCain’s belle de jour – pro-war spokesmodel, Elizabeth O’Bagy, who aside from being a key operative in helping to pad Washington and Israel’s militarised policy regarding Syria by constructing the “moderate rebel” myth, was dumped by Kimberly Kagan and William Kristol’s neoconservative and pro-Israeli think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) after it was discovered O’Bagy had claimed a nonexistent PhD from Georgetown University. In addition to this media darling and ‘Syria expert’ O’Bagy is policy director for a suspected CIA operation front and money-raising machine called the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF).

Below is a rather educational map, showing the relationships and the pay lines of the ISW crowd, which, in addition to the disgraced O’Bagy, it features war ‘expert’ and director at Raytheon, Stephen Hadley:

Complete story at - At Least 22 Defense Industry Stakeholders Used as ‘Pundits’ by US Media to Sell Syria War

Russian Tanks in Ukraine? Consider the Source | New Eastern Outlook

Denying civilians admittedly needed aid constitutes, in the West’s own terms, a crime against humanity. While in Syria attempts by the West to openly arm and equip known terrorist organizations within Syrian territory included a mandate from the UN that allowed supplies to flow without the approval of the Syrian government. Those “aided,” are now clearly the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS) running rampant on both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi border.

In Ukraine, precisely the opposite is happening. The regime in Kiev is openly raising armies of Nazi militants to go east and mass murder Ukrainians. Referring to Russian-speaking Ukrainians as “subhumans,” the NATO-backed regime is clearly attempting region-wide genocide. Humanitarian aid from Russia, opened for inspection and coordinated with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has been blatantly denied entry into eastern Ukraine after baseless accusations have been made by both Kiev and their NATO backers that it constituted a “Trojan horse.”

To further poison attempts to relieve desperate civilian populations surrounded by literal Nazis in eastern Ukraine, British propaganda outlets from the BBC, to the Guardian and Telegraph are claiming columns of Russian armor have been seen moving into Ukraine. Of course, their articles only provide photographic evidence of the armor inside of Russia, but none proving it crossed the border.

When considering the constant deluge of anti-Russian propaganda in support of literal, flag-waving Nazis and fascists occupying Kiev and mass murdering populations in eastern Ukraine, one must consider the source.

Complete story at - Russian Tanks in Ukraine? Consider the Source | New Eastern Outlook

I'm confused, can anyone help me? Part 2 — RT Op-Edge

I'm confused. Jen Psaki, US State Department spokesperson, says that the Ukrainian government has 'every right' to use air strikes against its opponents in Ukraine on the grounds that it 'is defending the country'.

Yet in 2011, alleged air strikes by Libyan government forces against its opponents were used as a reason for the imposition of a 'no-fly zone' which was followed by a NATO-led military intervention against Libya. We were told that the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was 'killing his own people' and had to be stopped. The deaths of over 200 people in Libya was, according to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 'unacceptable'. But the Ukrainian government is killing its own people today, and despite more than 200 people being killed (as of 10th July the number of civilian deaths was 478, including seven children), western leaders do not say that the Ukrainian leader, Petro Poroshenko, has to be stopped, or that the bloodshed is 'unacceptable' and nor are there any calls for a 'no-fly zone' to be imposed. Why is it acceptable for the Ukrainian government to launch a military offensive, including air strikes against its own people, but unacceptable for the Libyan government in 2011 to do likewise? I'm confused. Can anyone help me?

In the lead up to the US-led military intervention against Libya in 2011, western politicians and commentators couldn't stop talking about the country. These caring 'humanitarians', it seemed, had so much concern for the plight of the Libyan people. Three years on, and Libya is in chaos, with regular fighting between rebel militia. Only on Sunday it was reported at least seven people had been killed and over 30 injured in clashes between rival militias near Tripoli's international airport. But despite Libya's troubles, western politicians and leading commentators are no longer mentioning the country, in fact it seems they've forgotten about it all together. Why were they so interested in Libya and the plight of its people in 2011, but not interested today? I'm confused. Can anyone help me?

In Britain, neocon pundits and politicians warn us repeatedly about the threat of radical Islam at home. We are told of alleged sinister plots by Islamic extremists to take control of our classrooms. Yet the same neocons who want us to be worried about the 'threat' of radical Islam, have supported the violent overthrow of the secular Syrian government by rebels dominated by Islamic jihadists who have beheaded and blown up many people. These same neocons also backed radical Islamic fighters in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Why are the neocons so opposed to what they regard as Islamic extremism at home, but so supportive of it in certain countries abroad? If ' Islamic extremism' really is such a bad thing, then surely it is a bad thing everywhere? I'm confused. Can anyone help me?

Britons who have fought with anti-government rebels in Syria have been arrested under anti-terrorist legislation when they have returned home.

Complete story at - I'm confused, can anyone help me? Part 2 — RT Op-Edge

M of A - Unveiling "Western" Hypocrisy Russia Connects Syria And Ukraine

A few days ago we read this:

Australia, Luxembourg, and Jordan are planning to circulate a new U.N. Security Council resolution that diplomats say would authorize the delivery of humanitarian aid into Syria through four border crossings without approval from President Bashar Assad's government.
...
Diplomats familiar with the draft said it is under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which means it could be enforced militarily. It would authorize humanitarian access at three crossings from Turkey and one from Iraq.
...
Some diplomats doubt Russia would approve a new humanitarian resolution under Chapter 7, but they say it could be a bargaining chip in negotiations.
That "bargaining chip" is worth nothing. Russia will veto any Chapter 7 resolution on Syria. There is nothing to bargain about that. But using that "bargaining chip" is now firing back.

For June Russia will be take up the presidency of the UN Security Council which allows it, to a certain extend, to set the agenda. The first point on that agenda is now the question of "human corridors" from Russia into east-Ukraine:

Russia will submit a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council on Monday calling for an immediate end to worsening violence in Ukraine and the creation of humanitarian corridors in the east of the country, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
...
[The draft resolution] will also include "a demand for the creation, without delay, of humanitarian corridors though which peaceful civilians could leave combat zones if they wish," he said. The text would also call for guarantees of unhindered access for humanitarian aid.

"Now how about a Chapter 7 clause for that?" Lavrov will ask his colleagues.

Russia is actively linking the cases of Syria and Ukraine. That may not bring any progress on either issue. But by connecting the cases Russia can publicly demonstrated the utter hypocrisy of "western" policies. The target of this is the "western" public which is already against further "western" meddling in Syria as well as in Ukraine. I expect more such political "mirroring" of the two situations in the coming weeks and month.

This morning the Kiev regime sent jets and bombed the regional administration building in Luhansk which had been taken over by federalists. At least five people were killed. This is another escalation by Kiev and the puppet players behind the regime with the larger intend to openly draw Russia into a fight with NATO. Moscow will not fall for the bait.

Complete story at - M of A - Unveiling "Western" Hypocrisy Russia Connects Syria And Ukraine

A Matter of Principle: The True Aims of the Terror War

WRITTEN BY CHRIS FLOYD

TUESDAY, 10 JUNE 2014 16:29

The moral insanity of the Terror War continues to spawn more violence, more extremism, more repression, more injustice, and the total subversion of the "Western values," all of which it is ostensibly designed to defend.

A new piece by Patrick Cockburn in the Independent provides a grimly illuminating look at this insanity in action on a specific front: Syria. It's worth reading in full, but here is an excerpt:

The Syrian war has turned into a Syrian version of the Thirty Years War in Germany four centuries ago. Too many conflicts and too many players have become involved for any peace terms to be acceptable to all.. … It has become increasingly obvious over the past year that al-Qa’ida type movements, notably Isis, Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, have come to dominate or can operate freely in a great swathe of territory across northern Iraq and northern Syria. This gives Isis a vast hinterland in which it can manoeuvre and fight on both sides of what is a largely nominal Syrian-Iraqi border. …

Europeans have not yet woken up to the significance of these anarchic zones opening up on the shores of the Mediterranean in Syria and Libya. This is because the threat has been largely abstract but it is getting less so with the attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels by a French jihadi who had been in Syria. US and European politicians do not want to explain why, 13 years after 9/11, when the “war on terror” was supposedly launched, thousands of al-Qa’ida militants have been able to carve out enclaves so close to Europe.

US and European politicians won't explain it because any honest explanation would expose the emptiness at the core of all their proffered reasons for the Terror War. They can't explain it because the Terror War system -- including the increasing militarization and repression in their own countries -- has now become organizing principle of Western society. Or rather, it is the latest incarnation of what has been the guiding principle of Western society since World War II: organizing society and the economy around war, either active war or the ever-present "threat" of war (assiduously exaggerated -- or even manufactured -- at every turn). For government and big business, the immense power and profit and control they inevitably accrued from conducting total war on a global basis was far too enticing to give up once the war was over. The full mobilization of society's resources for war simply carried on; indeed, was expanded and amplified.

However, the war also had a life-transforming impact on many of its survivors. The savagery and loss -- and the class-effacing comradeship -- they had experienced during the war imbued millions of people with a burning desire to change society for the better, to do away with the poverty and injustices of the past, and build a better, more decent, more peaceful world. This spirit is evoked with remarkable power in a new book, Harry's Last Stand, by Harry Leslie Smith, a 91-year-old WII veteran enraged to see the neoliberal extremists that have held sway in the US and Britain for more than 30 years sweeping away the progress toward a more just society that his generation tried to build on the ruins of the war. (Some of Smith's writing can be found here and here.)

Complete story at - A Matter of Principle: The True Aims of the Terror War