Please keep on-Topic and not aim dsparaging
remarks at other members. Thread edited.

soufie
Site Moderator

...Only that your post sounded like something a Kahanist would say. I didn't accuse you of being one.

Duly noted. (by me anyway). In future I will not respond to ad hominem allusions or attacks.

Yeah,right!

Getting back to the topic, we might all be interested in this:

US Defense Contractors Training Syrian Rebels to Handle Chemical Weapons

The US-funded training supposedly aimed at teaching rebels to secure chemical weapons stockpiles

by John Glaser, December 10, 2012

The US and some of its European allies “are using defense contractors to train Syrian rebels on how to secure chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria,” according to “a senior US official and several senior diplomats,” CNN reports.

The US-funded training is going on inside Syria, as well as in neighboring Turkey and Jordan and “involves how to monitor and secure stockpiles and handle weapons sites and materials,” according to CNN.

Last week, Washington began warning about the possibility that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad might use his chemical weapons stockpiles against the armed rebellion trying to overthrow his regime.
But top Syrian officials vehemently denied this would ever happen, and it appeared obvious that US officials were less concerned with Assad’s unleashing the chemical weapons, and more concerned with the possibility that Islamic jihadists fighting on behalf of the Syrian opposition might get their hands on them.

Islamic extremists make up the great bulk of Syria’s rebel fighters, and this is widely acknowledged by official Washington. Indeed, the State Department recently designated Jabhat al-Nusra, one of the most prominent Syrian rebel factions, as a Global Terrorist organization.

The US decision to hire unaccountable defense contractors to train Syrian rebels to handle stockpiles of chemical weapons seems dangerously irresponsible in the extreme, especially considering how inept Washington has so far been at making sure only trustworthy, secular rebels – to the extent they exist – receive their aid and the weapons that allies in the Gulf Arab states have been providing.
It also feeds accusations that the Syrian Foreign Ministry recently made that the US is working to frame the Syrian regime as having used or prepared for chemical warfare.

“The U.S. administration has consistently worked over the past year to launch a campaign of allegations on the possibility that Syria could use chemical weapons during the current crisis,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry wrote in letters to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“What raises concerns about this news circulated by the media is our serious fear that some of the countries backing terrorism and terrorists might provide the armed terrorist groups with chemical weapons and claim that it was the Syrian government that used the weapons,” the letters said.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/12/10/us-defense-contractors-training-syrian-rebels-to-handle-chemical-weapons/

So basically they are creating another Al-Qaeda. That is exactly what they did in Afghanistan... trained and funded Osama Bin Laden and named his "defense contractors" (AE: Mercs ) Al-Qaeda.

So now that these "defense contractors" (AE: future terrorists) have chemical weapons, that will be a good excuse for an all out war.

Please people, wake the hell up. Don't let these Bankster Elite war criminals drag you into another war of confusion and conquest.

125 victims in Syria Alawite bombing

AAP
December 12, 20125:49AM


Bomb attacks in the village of Aqrab in the central province of Hama killed or wounded at least 125 civilians, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which could not immediately give a breakdown of the casualties.

"We cannot know whether the rebels were behind this attack, but if they were, this would be the largest-scale revenge attack against Alawites," members of a Shi'ite sect in Sunni-majority Syria, said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Aqrab is located near Houla, a majority Sunni Muslim village where 108 people, including 49 children and 34 women, were massacred on May 25 in what was widely blamed on pro-regime militias despite denials from Damascus.

Reports of the latest massacre broke hours after the United States blacklisted Al-Nusra Front as a "terrorist organisation," balancing its move with the announcement of fresh sanctions against pro-Assad militias.

The US State Department said that despite its efforts to portray itself as part of the legitimate Syrian opposition, Al-Nusra was a front for the al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) organisation.

"It is, in fact, an attempt by AQI to hijack the struggles of the Syrian people for its own malign purposes," it said.

The Al-Nusra Front's fighters, many of them jihadist volunteers from around the Islamic world, were instrumental in the fall of the army's massive Sheikh Suleiman base in northern Syria on Monday after a months-long siege.

Its role in the seizure of the garrison, the government's last between second city Aleppo and the Turkish border, undercut the military influence of the mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA).

An AFP journalist who witnessed the clashes around Sheikh Suleiman said many fighters were from other Arab countries and Central Asia.

The US Treasury Department designated two of the Al-Nusra Front's senior leaders, Maysar Ali Musa Abdallah al-Juburi and Anas Hasan Khattab, for sanctions.

It also imposed sanctions on two armed militias supporting the Assad regime as well as two shabiha (pro-regime militia) commanders.

At the same time, however, Washington said it had reason to ease the urgent concerns it had expressed in recent weeks about the dangers of Damascus resorting to use of its chemical weapons stockpiles against the rebels.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said Syria had not taken any new steps in recent days that signal a readiness to use its arsenal.

"At this point the intelligence has really kind of levelled off. We haven't seen anything new indicating any aggressive steps to move forward in that way," Panetta told reporters aboard his plane before landing in Kuwait.

International military chiefs have met in London to discuss the Syria conflict, a diplomatic source said after a media report that they discussed plans to train rebels and give air and naval support.

A British diplomatic source confirmed that the military leaders had held talks, but played down the idea that they discussed military intervention against the Assad regime.

"As far as I know they didn't explore options in any detail, certainly they didn't explore options for military intervention," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Inside Syria, at least 68 people were killed in violence across the country on Tuesday, the Observatory said, noting that its preliminary toll excluded the victims in Aqraba pending further reports.

With the total death toll now topping 42,000, according to the Observatory's figures, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries and the wider Arab world had now passed half a million.

"And these numbers are currently climbing by more than 3000 a day," UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/victims-in-syria-alawite-bombing/story-fn3dxix6-1226534960442

I'd play it down too. Who wants to take credit for supporting a put-together (mostly foreign) force of (mercenary) "rebels" engaged in an allegedly "civil" war in a sovereign country?



Those figures are kinda meaningless without a breakdown into civilian, government and rebel casualties. (We already know the damn place is a war zone.)



How many refugees were there before the shooting started?…Assad was no choirboy, but he couldn't have been the totally evil monster we're trying to make him out to be, or there would have been a large contingent of refugees before the major shooting started.

My heart does go out to the refugees…They didn't ask for this and NOBODY should be driven away from their home.

Russia refuses to budge on Syria; experts see Putin staying the course on Assad


By Associated Press,
Dec 11, 2012 05:38 PM EST

AP Published: December 11 | Updated: Wednesday, December 12, 3:38 AM

MOSCOW — Recent hopes that the Kremlin would end its support of Syrian strongman Bashar Assad melted quickly, and analysts say Moscow ultimately may change its stance only if Assad ends up cornered.

Russia’s refusal to join the West in calling for Assad’s ouster is rooted both in a sober geopolitical calculus and deep suspicions about Western intentions — as well, perhaps, as a desire to save face after supporting the Syrian leader for so long. Moscow sees little profit in dumping its last ally in the Middle East, and President Vladimir Putin has described calls for a regime change in Syria as a dangerous example of Western meddling in a sovereign country’s affairs.

Putin last week raised new expectations of a Kremlin change of heart when he vaguely talked about “new ideas” in tackling the crisis during a visit to Turkey. But Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov cooled such hopes Sunday when he said Moscow continues to strongly oppose demands for Assad’s resignation.

Georgy Mirsky, a Middle East expert with the Institute for World Economy and International Relations, the top foreign policy think-tank supported by the Russian government, said the Kremlin realizes that Assad’s day are numbered, but it doesn’t want to look weak by betraying an old ally whom it has supported for so long.

“Putin has no doubts that the regime will fall,” he said. “But he doesn’t want it to look like he dumped Assad. He would lose face if he moves closer to the West and gives up his support for Assad.”

Defying the West on Syria had been part of Putin’s anti-U.S. posturing aimed at mobilizing support ahead of last March’s presidential election, in which he won a new term despite a wave of protests against him.

Last week’s Congressional approval of legislation containing sanctions on Russian officials accused of rights abuses fueled tensions in U.S.-Russian relations and would likely make the Kremlin even less prone to a compromise on Syria.

“It’s an irritant that could lead to the toughening of Russia’s position on Syria, making it less rational,” said Alexander Shumilin, the head of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Mideast Conflicts.

He said that while the Kremlin no longer feels the need to challenge the West on Syria for internal reasons because anti-Putin protests have abated, a sharp change of course would be awkward.

“Something really radical would have to happen ... like rebels thrusting into the center of Damascus” for Moscow to change its stance, Shumilin said.

Alexei Malashenko of the Carnegie Moscow Center agreed that even though Assad long has been a liability for Russia, an abrupt about-face on Syria would amount to acknowledging failure of its policy.

“Russia’s main priority now is saving face,” Malashenko said. “It may agree to some sort of compromise, although psychologically it would be very difficult. Assad represents the last remaining bulwark of Moscow’s influence in the Middle East, and dumping him would show the fiasco of Russia’s policy.”

Mirsky, the veteran Mideast expert, noted that state-controlled television channels had begun to change the tone of their coverage of the Syrian crisis, as if preparing the audience for Assad’s collapse. He said that the Kremlin prefers to support Assad until the end and then cast his downfall as the result of an uneven battle against the combined efforts of the West, Arab states and Turkey.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/russia-refuses-to-budge-on-syria-experts-see-putin-staying-the-course-on-assad/2012/12/11/4a62c0a0-438e-11e2-8c8f-fbebf7ccab4e_story.html

Russia has already gotten into bed and sold out with British Petroleum. where oil drilling is concerned.

Russia also has a lot of military equipment business going on with Syria.

Business is business.

Obama recognises Syria's main rebel group

From: AAP
December 12, 201210:46AM


BARACK Obama says the US now recognises Syria's main opposition group as the "legitimate representative" of the country's people.

The US president says the Syrian Opposition Council is now "inclusive enough" to be granted greater legitimacy in the international community.

"Obviously, with that recognition comes responsibilities," Obama said in an interview on Tuesday with ABC News.

"To make sure that they organise themselves effectively, that they are representative of all the parties, that they commit themselves to a political transition that respects women's rights and minority rights."

The move paves the way for greater US support as the group seeks the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Recognition of the council as the sole representative of Syria's diverse population brings the US in line with Britain, France and several of America's Arab allies, which took the same step shortly after the body was created at a meeting of opposition representatives in Qatar last month.

Obama's announcement follows his administration's blacklisting of a militant Syrian rebel group with links to al-Qaeda.

That step is aimed at blunting the influence of extremists amid fears that the regime may use or lose control of its stockpile of chemical weapons.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-blacklists-key-syria-rebel-group/story-fn3dxix6-1226534946477

That is what they call a military coup.

…which it is.

The "Responsibility to protect" (RPT) doctrine looks good on paper, but anyone with a lick of sense would know that it opens a major "Hole" in the notion of national sovereignty that can easily be exploited for evil geopolitical ends. (as we saw in Libya last year when "we" bombed & killed 50,000 innocent Libyans & destroyed much of the infrastructure in their own country to "protect" them from Gaddafi.)

You guys are funny!

We have seen many Military coups in small countries conducted by the CIA and "paid security forces" (Merc and terrorists) and we have seen them outlined and demonstrated in many Hollywood movies for crap sake. We all know it happens and how it happens.

Syria is a military coup. They don't have anyone qualified to take charge of that government, so what they will have to do is install some puppet.

Jihadists seize key north Syria army base

JIHADISTS have seized a strategic army base in northern Syria, a watchdog says, as the EU piles more pressure on President Bashar al-Assad by edging closer to a newly formed opposition bloc.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported clashes in a northern Damascus district, the fiercest in the area since a revolt against Assad's regime erupted in March 2011.

The European Union gave a vital boost to members of the National Coalition, describing them as the "legitimate representatives of the Syrian people" following talks in Brussels with the bloc's leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib.

The EU, winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, said at the award ceremony in Oslo that the 21-month conflict in Syria, which has cost more than 42,000 lives, must be addressed.

"Let me say it from here today. The current situation in Syria is a stain on the world's conscience and the international community has a moral duty to address it," said European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso on Monday.

The Independent newspaper said on Tuesday Britain and other key international players were actively drawing up plans to train rebel fighters and back them with air and naval support.

General David Richards, the head of Britain's armed forces, held talks recently in London with military leaders from France, Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and a US general, according to a report on the newspaper's website.

During the meeting organised at the request of Prime Minister David Cameron, the military chiefs are believed to have held detailed strategic discussions about how to help rebels.

Britain, France and the United States have pledged not to put "boots on the ground" to help the rebels, meaning Turkey would most likely host the training camps.

Britain's ministry of defence (MoD) would not confirm the report.

"We want to see a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria that leads to an end to the violence and a process of genuine political transition," said an MoD spokesperson.

"In the absence of a political and diplomatic solution, we will not rule out any option in accordance with international law that might save innocent lives in Syria."

The capture by the Al-Nusra Front and allied jihadist groups of the base at Sheikh Suleiman dealt a significant blow to Assad's regime as it had been the last major military base west of Aleppo city still under army control.

But it also undercut the military influence of the mainstream rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA).

An AFP journalist who covered the clashes around Sheikh Suleiman said many fighters were from other Arab countries and Central Asia.

"We control the whole base, all the zone is under our control. The whole region west of Aleppo up to the Turkish border has now been liberated. But no chemical weapons were found, or anti-aircraft missiles," said a rebel chief, Abu Jalal.

He headed the only unit of the mainstream rebel FSA which took part in the operation.

Also on Monday, the army used warplanes and tanks to bombard rebel positions in Damascus province and violent clashes broke out in the north of the capital, the Observatory said.

Violence in Damascus has previously been focused on southern districts.

At least 94 people, among them 42 civilians, 26 soldiers and 26 rebels, were killed in nationwide violence on Monday, said the Observatory, which relies on activists and medics for its information.

The highest toll was in Damascus province, where 36 people died.

Arab and Western states will consider two key issues at a Friends of Syria meeting in Marrakech on Wednesday - the political transition in the event of Assad's fall, and mobilising vital humanitarian aid as winter sets in.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been due to attend, but has cancelled her planned trip to Morocco because of a stomach virus, her office said.

And as concerns mount in the West that hardline Islamists are hijacking the uprising, Washington is set to declare the Al-Nusra Front a "foreign terrorist organisation", according to documents posted in the US Federal Register.

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/jihadists-seize-key-north-syria-army-base/story-e6frfkui-1226534203556

I personally don't find anything funny in mass murder for profit.

Well...maybe a little, but only in the ironic sense that people seem to value profit more than other people. Maybe humans descended from the Farengi?...Nah, not all of us... Just the bankers.

Have I just invented a new conspiracy theory or what?...Somebody tell David Icke...It isn't reptilians; it's the Farengi.

Neither do I. Note the subject of the sentence.




I'm sure some idiot will run with your new theory. Hey, why not write a book about?

Meanwhile, back in the real world...

Meet the Assadosphere, the Online Defenders of Syria’s Butcher
By Spencer Ackerman

12.11.125:42 PM

You might think it’s hard to defend Bashar Assad, the Syrian dictator responsible for the murder of 40,000 human beings. You must be new to the internet.

Assad doesn’t have many allies IRL — Iran and Russia are about the only ones remaining. But as the Syrian rebellion stretches into its 20th month, he’s found (and paid for) a whole heap of friends online, who warn of an impending NATO invasion to dominate Syria; secret CIA shipments of weapons to terrorist groups; and, of course, that Assad’s enemies are all really Jews. Welcome to the Assadosphere — on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and the web.

Assad has maintained a robust propaganda presence for years: Remember the infamous Vogue profile of his wife Asma, which praised the “wildly democratic” Assad family right as it began its wave of bloodshed. Assad’s online buddies are the next wave of that propaganda: They’ve taken a defense of his regime viral, to the point where they don’t need to take their marching orders from Damascus. They’re contesting the web and social-media space that would otherwise be filled with recitations of Assad’s war crimes — and flooding the zone.

We’ve seen these characters show up occasionally in our comment threads and Facebook pages. But the most efficient portal into online Assad apologias comes from the Twitter hashtag #RealSyria. There, you’ll learn that the Free Syrian Army, “aka al Qaeda” is “preparing suits etc. for chemical weapons false flag.” You’ll see links to YouTube clips from the “Eretz Zen Channel” to learn how the rebels torture citizens with “flesh burning materials.” (Not that said rebels are in said video.) And you’ll find people skeptical of the “HUUURR DURRRR” that that nice Mr. Assad would ever use his “supposed” chemical weapons. It’s not like an Assad spokesman warned the world last July that “these types of weapons are [under] the direct supervision of the Syrian armed forces and will never be used unless Syria is exposed to external aggression.”

Then there’s the News About Syria-English blog, Facebook page and Google+ account. It invariably describes the Syrian rebels as “terrorists”; takes at face value Assad’s declarations that he’ll “not use chemical weapons, if it possesses any, whatever the circumstances“; and warns that last year’s war in Libya has yet to satisfy NATO’s “thirst for blood.”

And on like that. SyriaTribune maintains a YouTube channel stocked with clips from — surprise — Vladimir Putin’s Russia Today portraying Assad as the victim of a bloody-minded western conspiracy. A self-described French intellectual named Thierry Meyssan — author of 9/11 The Big Lie — reveals that TV images purporting to show Assad’s massacres of civilians were prepared by the CIA, along with White House deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, and “aims at demoralizing the Syrians in order to pave the way for a coup d’etat.” The #FakeRevolution hashtag on Instagram provides pictorial, meme-filled boosterism for Bashar, like a screengrab from Time’ app kindly telling user mybubb1e to stop voting for Assad for Person of the Year or Hillary Clinton with flames shooting out of her eyes and ear, courtesy of Bashar4Ever.

Now, the Syrian rebellion is eclectic, and it includes some rather extreme elements –including al-Qaida-aligned terrorists. Human Rights Watch has borne witness to its willingness to execute and torture detainees. But human rights abuses can’t be the real issue for these web and social-media accounts: if so, they’d be turning on Assad, who drops cluster bombs on Syrian cities and has killed more civilians over the last 20 months than perhaps any other despot in power. And anyone defending Assad because they hate the idea of another U.S. invasion might consider that the Obama administration evidently wants to stay out of Syria at all costs. Yes, the Syrian rebels might actually acquire chemical weapons in the wake of Assad’s downfall, and that’s legitimately worrisome, but perhaps some ire might be spared for the regime that, you know, created that chemical stockpile.

Of course, the Syrian rebels use Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for everything from propaganda to weapons training, so perhaps it’s unsurprising that Assad’s defenders seek to contest that online space. It’s the internet; people say terrible things on it. But the Assadosphere is the sort of thing that Block and Unfollow functions were created for.


http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/assadosphere/


According to Bashar Assad’s defenders on Instagram, the U.S. media hides from you how the Jews control the Syrian rebellion, or something. Image: Instagram/Laith Belal

This sounds all too familiar.

And a word from that favourite of Press2 and RT, Webster Tarpley:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L49L6iZSSg

Good on you, Webster, you're hysterical!

Lap it up, kids!