Syria

[BRVoice]

Thanks Rick and all of you of this site. May God help us all in the years to come.

[vector7]

How did these WMD get into Syria?

Russia tied to Iraq's missing arms

By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
October 28, 2004

Russian special forces troops moved many of Saddam Hussein's weapons and related goods out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the March 2003 U.S. military operation, The Washington Times has learned.

John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said in an interview that he believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, "almost certainly" removed the high-explosive material that went missing from the Al-Qaqaa facility, south of Baghdad.

"The Russians brought in, just before the war got started, a whole series of military units," Mr. Shaw said. "Their main job was to shred all evidence of any of the contractual arrangements they had with the Iraqis. The others were transportation units."

Mr. Shaw, who was in charge of cataloging the tons of conventional arms provided to Iraq by foreign suppliers, said he recently obtained reliable information on the arms-dispersal program from two European intelligence services that have detailed knowledge of the Russian-Iraqi weapons collaboration.

Most of Saddam's most powerful arms were systematically separated from other arms like mortars, bombs and rockets, and sent to Syria and Lebanon, and possibly to Iran, he said.

The Russian involvement in helping disperse Saddam's weapons, including some 380 tons of RDX and HMX, is still being investigated, Mr. Shaw said.

The RDX and HMX, which are used to manufacture high-explosive and nuclear weapons, are probably of Russian origin, he said.

Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita could not be reached for comment.

The disappearance of the material was reported in a letter October 10 from the Iraqi government to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Disclosure of the missing explosives Monday in a New York Times story was used by the Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, who accused the Bush administration of failing to secure the material.

Al-Qaqaa, a known Iraqi weapons site, was monitored closely, Mr. Shaw said.

"That was such a pivotal location, Number 1, that the mere fact of [special explosives] disappearing was impossible," Mr. Shaw said. "And Number 2, if the stuff disappeared, it had to have gone before we got there."

The Pentagon disclosed yesterday that the Al-Qaqaa facility was defended by Fedayeen Saddam, Special Republican Guard and other Iraqi military units during the conflict. U.S. forces defeated the defenders around April 3 and found the gates to the facility open, the Pentagon said in a statement yesterday.

A military unit in charge of searching for weapons, the Army's 75th Exploitation Task Force, then inspected Al-Qaqaa on May 8, May 11 and May 27, 2003, and found no high explosives that had been monitored in the past by the IAEA.

The Pentagon said there was no evidence of large-scale movement of explosives from the facility after April 6.

"The movement of 377 tons of heavy ordnance would have required dozens of heavy trucks and equipment moving along the same roadways as U.S. combat divisions occupied continually for weeks prior to and subsequent to the 3rd Infantry Division's arrival at the facility," the statement said.

The statement also said that the material may have been removed from the site by Saddam's regime.

According to the Pentagon, U.N. arms inspectors sealed the explosives at Al-Qaqaa in January 2003 and revisited the site in March and noted that the seals were not broken.

It is not known whether the inspectors saw the explosives in March. The U.N. team left the country before the U.S.-led invasion began March 20, 2003.

A second defense official said documents on the Russian support to Iraq reveal that Saddam's government paid the Kremlin for the special forces to provide security for Iraq's Russian arms and to conduct counterintelligence activities designed to prevent U.S. and Western intelligence services from learning about the arms pipeline through Syria.

The Russian arms-removal program was initiated after Yevgeny Primakov, the former Russian intelligence chief, could not persuade Saddam to give in to U.S. and Western demands, this official said.

A small portion of Iraq's 650,000 tons to 1 million tons of conventional arms that were found after the war were looted after the U.S.-led invasion, Mr. Shaw said. Russia was Iraq's largest foreign supplier of weaponry, he said.

However, the most important and useful arms and explosives appear to have been separated and moved out as part of carefully designed program. "The organized effort was done in advance of the conflict," Mr. Shaw said.

The Russian forces were tasked with moving special arms out of the country.

Mr. Shaw said foreign intelligence officials believe the Russians worked with Saddam's Mukhabarat intelligence service to separate out special weapons, including high explosives and other arms and related technology, from standard conventional arms spread out in some 200 arms depots.

The Russian weapons were then sent out of the country to Syria, and possibly Lebanon in Russian trucks, Mr. Shaw said.

Mr. Shaw said he believes that the withdrawal of Russian-made weapons and explosives from Iraq was part of plan by Saddam to set up a "redoubt" in Syria that could be used as a base for launching pro-Saddam insurgency operations in Iraq.

The Russian units were dispatched beginning in January 2003 and by March had destroyed hundreds of pages of documents on Russian arms supplies to Iraq while dispersing arms to Syria, the second official said.

Besides their own weapons, the Russians were supplying Saddam with arms made in Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria and other Eastern European nations, he said.

"Whatever was not buried was put on lorries and sent to the Syrian border," the defense official said.

Documents reviewed by the official included itineraries of military units involved in the truck shipments to Syria. The materials outlined in the documents included missile components, MiG jet parts, tank parts and chemicals used to make chemical weapons, the official said.

The director of the Iraqi government front company known as the Al Bashair Trading Co. fled to Syria, where he is in charge of monitoring arms holdings and funding Iraqi insurgent activities, the official said.

Also, an Arabic-language report obtained by U.S. intelligence disclosed the extent of Russian armaments. The 26-page report was written by Abdul Tawab Mullah al Huwaysh, Saddam's minister of military industrialization, who was captured by U.S. forces May 2, 2003.

The Russian "spetsnaz" or special-operations forces were under the GRU military intelligence service and organized large commercial truck convoys for the weapons removal, the official said.

Regarding the explosives, the new Iraqi government reported that 194.7 metric tons of HMX, or high-melting-point explosive, and 141.2 metric tons of RDX, or rapid-detonation explosive, and 5.8 metric tons of PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, were missing.

The material is used in nuclear weapons and also in making military "plastic" high explosive.

Defense officials said the Russians can provide information on what happened to the Iraqi weapons and explosives that were transported out of the country. Officials believe the Russians also can explain what happened to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs.

[BRVoice]

Missiles fired at Russian plane with 200 passengers onboard flying over Syria – reports

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Published time: April 29, 2013 16:14
Edited time: April 29, 2013 17:38


Reuters/Andrew Winning


Two missiles were fired at a Russian passenger plane flying over Syrian territory with 200 people onboard, an informed source in Moscow told Interfax news agency. The source of the attack remains unknown.

“Syrian [officials] informed us that on Monday morning, unidentified forces launched two ground-to-air missiles which exploded in the air very close to a civilian aircraft belonging to a Russian airline,” the source told the Russian agency.

The pilots managed to maneuver the plane in time however, “saving the lives of passengers.”

It is believed the aircraft was intentionally targeted in the attempted strike, “but it remains unclear whether the attackers knew whether it was Russian or not,” the source added.

The targeted plane belongs to Nordwind Airlines – a Russian charter air carrier, says Russian federal Agency for Tourism, citing the Ministry of Transport. It was en route to the city of Kazan, in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, from Egypt's resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, reports RIA Novosti.

“No one was injured, and the plane was not damaged. The aircraft landed in Kazan as it had been planned,” the tourism agency’s press service told RIA Novosti.

Russia's embassy in Damascus is looking into the report of the attack on the Russian passenger plane, RT has been told.

The civil war in Syria between the government of President Bashar Assad and opposition forces has been raging for over two years, claiming the lives of more than 70,000 people according to UN estimates. Assad says he is fighting an insurgency which has been sponsored from abroad.

[vector7]

So, if this activity is connected back to the Rebels is Administration indirectly responsible.

U.S. Increases Aid to Syrian Rebel Forces, Again
24 April 2013

Obama Deepens U.S. Support for Syrian Rebels with Secret Order
02 August 2012

Sec. Hillary Clinton Pledges Additional $45 Million in Aid to Syrian Rebels
01 October 2012


The bad things they are doing:

Evidence Shows Syrian Rebels Behind Chemical Attack
27 March 2013

Obama-backed Syrian Rebels "Ethnic Cleansing" Christians
02 April 2012


The Rebels are using chemical weapons and working with al-Qaeda.




Current data seem to suggest that it was not Syrian government forces behind the recent chemical attack in Aleppo, but rebel forces linked with al-Qaeda.


Evidence Shows Syrian Rebels Behind Chemical Attack


The New American
27 March 2013


Related Articles:

U.S. Increases Aid to Syrian Rebel Forces, Again

Reports: U.S. Personnel Arming and Training Syrian Rebels

Obama Deepens U.S. Support for Syrian Rebels with Secret Order

Sec. Hillary Clinton Pledges Additional $45 Million in Aid to Syrian Rebels

Obama-backed Syrian Rebels "Ethnic Cleansing" Christians

Syrian Christians Fear Genocide if al-Assad Falls to Muslim Extremists


===

Hagel says Syria has used chemical weapons (False!)
http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-says-syr...-politics.html

[American Patriot]

Oh boy.... Don't shoot down a russian plane. They aren't like the US who would just say "Oh, damn.... oh well...." and move on.

[BRVoice]

Update about the attempted attack on the russian airplane


'Missiles fired at' Russian plane with 159 passengers onboard flying over Syria

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Published time: April 29, 2013 16:14
Edited time: April 29, 2013 21:46
AFP Photo / Pascal Pavani

Two missiles were reportedly fired at a Russian plane with at least 159 passengers on board that was flying over Syrian territory. Russian officials admit the jet faced danger, but are not talking of a targeted attack.

The news broke in on Monday as Interfax, citing “an informed source in Moscow,” reported that a Russian passenger plane was attacked.

“Syrian [officials] informed us that on Monday morning, unidentified forces launched two ground-to-air missiles which exploded in the air very close to a civilian aircraft belonging to a Russian airline,” the source told the Russian agency.

The pilots reportedly managed to maneuver the plane in time however, “saving the lives of passengers.”

It is believed the aircraft was intentionally targeted, “but it remains unclear whether the attackers knew it was Russian or not,” the source added.

However, Russian officials, though admitting the plane might have been endangered, are not yet talking of a targeted attack.

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s said on its website the plane’s crew at 4.55 PM Moscow time (12.55 GMT) “detected battle action on the ground that, according to the crew, could constitute a threat to the 159 passengers on board the plane.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry is now “taking emergency measures to clarify all the circumstances of this situation, including making contact with the Syrian authorities,” the ministry’s spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevich said.

The plane that was allegedly targeted belonged to Nordwind Airlines – a Russian charter air carrier – and was identified as an Airbus A320. On April 29 it was en route to the city of Kazan, in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, from Egypt's resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Airbus A320 specifications

Cockpit crew: 2
Seating capacity: up to 180
Length: 37.57 m
Wingspan: 34.10 m
Operating empty weight: 42,600 kg
Cruising speed: 828 km/h
Maximum speed: 871 km/h
Maximum range: 5,900 km
Service ceiling: 12,000 m

So far, there are no grounds to claim that the aircraft became a target of a missile attack, experts say.

It was flying over a mountainous area in Syria when one of the pilots noticed “flashes on the ground.” After that, to keep safe, it was decided to increase the height of the flight, Irina Tyurina, a spokeswoman for Russian Union of Tourist Industry told RIA Novosti.

“No one was injured, and the plane was not damaged. The aircraft landed in Kazan as had been planned,” the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism told news agencies. There were 159 passengers and eight crew members on-board the aircraft.

Meanwhile, Syrian aviation authorities received no indication of the alleged attack on the Russian plane, says the director of Syrian Airlines, Ghaida Abdullatif:

“We contacted the service that monitors traffic within Syrian airspace. None of the air traffic control services or other ground services at the airports in Damascus and Latakia have confirmed the information of a Russian plane being fired at".



Russian experts have already voiced their doubts that a passenger plane can actually perform the kind of maneuvers that would allow it to avoid a missile attack.

“Planes are usually attacked either from the side or from above. A pilot could not have seen the missiles ,” Vladimir Gerasimov, a Russian pilot and an expert on flight security told RT. “

A passenger plane crew simply couldn’t see what’s behind. And if something is approaching the plane from the opposite direction – the speed doubles, so there is no time to do anything, ” he added.

Danny Makki of the Syrian Youth Movement in the UK believes that the incident is no doubt a rebel attack, which could have been carried out with weapons supplied by neighboring governments or taken off the Syrian army. He thinks that the attack is an intentional one and should receive widespread condemnation, just as the attacks carried out by government forces do.

“The most likely thing that could have happened was rebel fire from missiles that could have been given by regional countries or government forces… no rebel forces would fire a missile at civilian aircraft without it being done intentionally. So it is essentially another reprehensible act that would have been committed by rebel forces, and should gain condemnation from all the states after it is clearer who actually committed it”, Makki said,

“But it does show that these are not the liberal forces which the West wanted to arm in the first place”, he added.

The civil war in Syria between the government of President Bashar Assad and opposition forces has been raging for over two years, claiming the lives of more than 70,000 people according to UN estimates. Assad says he is fighting an insurgency that has been sponsored from abroad.

[American Patriot]

“but it does show that these are not the liberal forces which the west wanted to arm in the first place”, he added.

lol!

[American Patriot]

Sorry, that was just FUNNY. They are TOO Liberals.

[BRVoice]

Report: US believes Israel carries out airstrike into Syria

By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF
05/04/2013 03:46



CNN reports, citing two unnamed US officials, that Israel conducted airstrike into Syria on Thursday or Friday but Israeli planes did not enter Syrian airspace. IAF warplanes reportedly fly over Lebanon Friday.


IAF A-4, F-16 jets at Hatzerim [file] Photo: Reuters/Amir Cohen

The United States believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria, CNN reported on Friday, citing two unnamed US officials.

CNN quoted the officials as saying Israel most likely conducted the strike "in the Thursday-Friday time frame" and that Israel's warplanes did not enter Syrian airspace.

It said the officials did not believe Israel had targeted a chemical weapons facility.

There was no immediate confirmation. A White House spokeswoman referred questions on the CNN report to the Israeli government.

The NBC news network cited US officials who said Israel launched airstrikes against Syria on Friday and that Israel's primary target was a shipment of weapons headed for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

According to the NBC report, a senior US official said the airstrikes were thought to be related to "delivery systems for chemical weapons."

In Jerusalem, an Israeli defense official declined comment, and a military spokeswoman said, "We do not comment on reports of this kind."Syria's envoy to the UN said on Friday he was not aware of any attack by Israel against his country.

"I'm not aware of any attack right now," Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari said.

The CNN report said that during the time frame of the attack, the United States had collected information showing Israeli warplanes overflying Lebanon.

IAF warplanes flew over southern Lebanon at low altitudes on Friday morning, Lebanon's official National News Agency reported.

The planes flew over the town of Bint Jbeil in the Nabatiye Governorate of southern Lebanon, according to the report.

Israel has made clear in the past that it might intervene to prevent Syrian advanced weapons falling into the hands of militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.

In January this year, Israel bombed a convoy in Syria, apparently hitting weapons destined for Hezbollah, according to diplomats, Syrian rebels and security sources in the region.

[BRVoice]

Explosions shake Damascus, Syria blames Israel

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Israeli rockets blamed for Syria blasts

9:47pm EDT

• Syria alleges Israeli rocket attacks

By Dominic Evans
BEIRUT | Sat May 4, 2013 10:23pm EDT

(Reuters) - Powerful explosions struck the outskirts of Damascus early on Sunday, sending columns of fire into the night sky, and Syrian state television said Israeli rockets had struck a military facility just north of the capital.
Israel declined to comment on the attack, but the blasts occurred a day after an Israeli official said his country had carried out an air strike targeting a consignment of missiles in Syria intended for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
One of the sites hit on Sunday, the Jamraya military research center, was also targeted by Israel in January.
"The new Israeli attack is an attempt to raise the morale of the terrorist groups which have been reeling from strikes by our noble army," Syrian television said, referring to recent offensives by President Bashar al-Assad's forces against rebels.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted eyewitnesses in the area as saying they saw jets in the sky at the time of the explosions.
It said the blasts hit Jamraya as well as a nearby ammunition depot. Other activists said a missile brigade and two Republican Guard battalions may also have been targeted in the heavily militarized area just north of Damascus.
Video footage uploaded onto the Internet by activists showed a series of explosions. One lit up the skyline over the city, while another sent up a tower of flames and secondary blasts.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli officials on Sunday's explosions. "We don't respond to this kind of report," an Israeli military spokeswoman told Reuters.
The Jewish state has repeatedly made clear it is prepared to use force to prevent advanced weapons from Syria reaching Lebanon's Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah guerrillas, who fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006. Assad and Hezbollah are allied to Iran, Israel's arch-enemy.
With Assad battling a more than 2-year-old insurgency, the Israelis also worry that the Sunni Islamist rebels could loot his arsenals and eventually hit the Jewish state, ending four decades of relative cross-border calm.
The U.S. State Department and Pentagon had no immediate comment and the Israeli Embassy in Washington declined comment.
The uprising against Assad began with mainly peaceful protests that were met with force and grew into a bloody civil war in which the United Nations says at least 70,000 people have been killed.
Assad has lost control of large areas of north and eastern Syria, and is battling rebels on the fringes of Damascus.
But his forces have launched counter-offensives in recent weeks against the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels around the capital and near the city of Homs, which links Damascus with the Mediterranean heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect.
(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Marwan Makdesi in Damascus, Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Arshad Mohammed and Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)

[BRVoice]

'PM convenes security cabinet before Syria strike'

By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF
05/04/2013 11:15







Selecione o idioma​▼



Source tells Reuters that Netanyahu conducted meeting ahead of reports surfacing that Israel conducted air strike into Syria.

Netanyahu at cabinet meeting Photo: Pool/Eli Selman
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had on Thursday night convened his security cabinet in Jerusalem for secret talks - often a sign of imminent action, a source in the region told Reuters, on condition of anonymity Saturday in light of reports that Israel conducted an air strike in Syria.
The United States believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria, CNN reported on Friday, citing two unnamed US officials.
Related:

• Report: US believes Israel conducts Syria air strike
  
• 'Lebanese president blasts Israeli flyovers'

CNN quoted the officials as saying Israel most likely conducted the strike "in the Thursday-Friday time frame" and that Israel's warplanes did not enter Syrian airspace.
It said the officials did not believe Israel had targeted a chemical weapons facility. US and Western intelligence bodies were reviewing classified information surrounding the incident, according to the CNN report.

An IDF spokeswoman said, "We don't respond to reports of this kind.
"There was no immediate confirmation. A White House spokeswoman referred questions on the CNN report to the Israeli government.
The NBC news network cited US officials who said Israel launched airstrikes against Syria on Friday and that Israel's primary target was a shipment of weapons headed for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
According to the NBC report, a senior US official said the airstrikes were thought to be related to "delivery systems for chemical weapons."
A third American news network, CBS News, cited US sources as saying Israel targeted a warehouse.
In Jerusalem, an Israeli defense official declined comment, and a military spokeswoman said, "We do not comment on reports of this kind."
A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington said, "We cannot comment on these reports, but what we can say is that Israel is determined to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons or other game-changing weaponry by the Syrian regime to terrorists, especially to Hezbollah in Lebanon."
Syria's envoy to the UN said on Friday he was not aware of any attack by Israel against his country.
"I'm not aware of any attack right now," Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari said.
The CNN report said that during the time frame of the attack, the United States had collected information showing Israeli warplanes overflying Lebanon.
IAF warplanes flew over southern Lebanon at low altitudes on Friday morning, Lebanon's official National News Agency reported.
The planes flew over the town of Bint Jbeil in the Nabatiye Governorate of southern Lebanon, according to the report.
Israel has made clear in the past that it might intervene to prevent Syrian advanced weapons falling into the hands of militant groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.
In January this year, Israel bombed a convoy in Syria, apparently hitting weapons destined for Hezbollah, according to diplomats, Syrian rebels and security sources in the region.
An IDF spokeswoman said, "We don't respond to reports of this kind."

[BRVoice]

Report: Arms convoy was target of alleged strike in Syria

By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF
LAST UPDATED: 05/04/2013 19:14







Selecione o idioma​▼



Reuters quotes Israeli official who confirmed air strike targeted Syrian missiles shipment headed to guerrillas in Lebanon; Defense Ministry official Gilad denies confirmation; Syrian chemical weapons facility not targeted.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Syrian President Bashar Assad. Photo: REUTERS/Sana
Israel has carried out an air strike into Syria, targeting a shipment of missiles bound for Hezbollah guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon, an Israeli official told Reuters on Saturday.
Senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad, however, denied that any Israeli official confirmed such an attack occurred in a cultural event in Beersheba, Army Radio reported.
Related:

• Report: US believes Israel conducts Syria air strike
  
• 'Lebanese president blasts Israeli flyovers'

Israel has made clear it is prepared to resort to force to prevent advanced Syrian weapons, including President Bashar Assad's reputed chemical arsenal, reaching his Hezbollah allies or Islamist rebels taking part in a more than two-year-old uprising against his government.
There were contradicting reports regarding the target of the alleged strike. Reuters quotes a regional security source as saying the target was not a Syrian chemical weapons facility, while a US official said on Friday the target was apparently a building.
The Guardian, on the other hand, quotes an Israeli source as saying the target of the strike was a convoy carrying a shipment of advanced long-range ground-to-ground missiles from Syria to Hezbollah militias in Lebanon.
The attack took place after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved it in a secret meeting on Thursday night, the security source said.
CNN quoted unnamed US officials as saying Israel most likely conducted the strike "in the Thursday-Friday time frame" and its jets did not enter Syrian air space.
The Israeli Air Force has so-called "standoff" bombs that coast dozens of kilometers (miles) across ground to their targets once fired. That could, in theory, allow Israel to attack Syria from its own turf or from adjacent Lebanon.
Lebanese authorities reported unusual intensive Israeli air force activity over their territory on Thursday and Friday.
A Lebanese security source said his initial impression was that Israeli overflights were monitoring potential arms shipments between Syria and Lebanon, potentially to Hezbollah, a militant Shi'ite Muslim ally of Iran and Assad.
Syrian government sources denied having information of a strike. Bashar Ja'afari, the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, told Reuters: "I'm not aware of any attack right now."
But Qassim Saadedine, a commander and spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, said: "Our information indicates there was an Israeli strike on a convoy that was transferring missiles to Hezbollah. We have still not confirmed the location."
In January this year, Israel bombed a convoy in Syria, apparently hitting weapons destined for Hezbollah, according to diplomats, Syrian rebels and security sources in the region. Israel has not formally confirmed carrying out that strike.

[BRVoice]

Syria: Israeli attack equals declaration of war. Iron Domes at Haifa and Safed

DEBKAfile Special Report May 5, 2013, 2:44 PM (IDT)

Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said Sunday, May 5, that the strike at Syria overnight represented a "declaration of war" by Israel. Russian and Iranian media earlier predicted full-scale Middle East hostilities involving Israel erupting in the coming hours, in the wake of Israel’s renewed strikes against Iranian missiles bound for Hizballah and other targets around Damascus. Russian sources reported rumors that President Bashar Assad was on the point of declaring war on Israel.
Russia Today claimed that an Israeli rocket strike Sunday caused heavy Syrian casualties – according to rumors, at least 300 members of the Syrian Army’s 501st Unit dead and hundreds filling four Damascus hospitals. debkafile: If this is confirmed, then the unit which operates the chemical weapon facility at the Barzeh district north of Damascus at the foot of Mt. Qassioun was hit.
The same Russian source reported that Syrian security forces cordoned off the sites of the explosions against entry. Residents reported after the blasts that the ground moved with the force of a 4 magnitude earthquake.
Shortly after the Israel attacks in the Damascus area Sunday, the IDF posted additional Iron Dome anti-missile batteries in Haifa and Safed to defend those northern towns against incoming Syrian and Hizballah rockets.
Low-ranking Syrian and Iranian officials responded to the Israeli attacks on Syria: Deputy Information minister His Al-Yiftah commented by saying that “a new foreign element had entered the Syrian conflict overnight and this would cause war.”
In Tehran, an Iranian foreign ministry official condemned “Israeli aggression on Syria and accused Israel of fomenting instability and ethnic discord in the region. The commander of the ground forces asked if the war was not about to burst out of Syria’s borders, without answering the question.
An Israeli official confirmed to AFP that Israeli had Sunday conducted a second round of strikes in three days on advanced weapons including Iranian F-110 weapons bound for Hizballah in transit at Damascus international airport. Syrian TV reported only an attack on the Jamraya military research center just north of Damascus. This was the same facility which Israeli planes attacked in January.

[American Patriot]

So while I was away from the keyboard the last couple of days, the shit hit the fan?

[vector7]

I guess the visit was needing help against the rebels....

Obama’s Mysterious Visit to Israel

Mar. 20, 2013 1:30pm




Caroline Glick is an American-Israeli journalist, author, deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post, Senior Fellow of the Center for Security Policy, head […]

Why is US President Barack Obama coming to Israel today? In 2008, then president George W. Bush came to celebrate Israel’s 60th Independence Day, and to reject Israeli requests for assistance in destroying Iran’s nuclear installations.

In 1996, then-president Bill Clinton came to Israel to help then-prime minister Shimon Peres’s electoral campaign against Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu.

It is possible that Obama is coming here in order to build up pro-Israel bonafides. But why would he bother? Obama won his reelection bid with the support of the overwhelming majority of American Jews. Their support vindicated his hostility toward Israel in his first term. He has nothing to prove.

It is worth comparing Obama’s visit to Israel at the start of his second term of office, with his visit to Cairo at the outset of his first term in office.

Ahead of that trip, the new administration promised that the visit, and particularly Obama’s “Address to the Muslim World,” would serve as a starting point for a new US policy in the Middle East. And Obama lived up to expectations.

In speaking to the “Muslim World,” Obama signaled that the US now supported pan-Islamists at the expense of US allies and Arab nationalist leaders, first and foremost then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Moreover, in castigating Israel for its so-called “settlements”; channeling Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by intimating that Israel exists because of the Holocaust; and failing to travel from Cairo to Jerusalem, preferring instead to visit a Nazi death camp in Germany, Obama signaled that he was downgrading US ties with the Jewish state.

In sharp contrast to the high expectations the Obama White House cultivated in pre-Cairo visit statements and leaks, Obama and his advisers have downplayed the importance of his visit to Israel, signaling there will be no significant changes in Obama’s policies toward Israel or the wider Middle East.

For instance, in his interview with Israel television’s Channel 2 last week, on issue after issue, Obama made clear that there will be no departure from his first term’s policies. He will continue to speak firmly and do nothing to prevent Iran from developing the means to produce nuclear weapons.

He will not release convicted Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard from federal prison despite the fact that Pollard’s life sentence, and the 28 years he has already served in prison are grossly disproportionate to all sentences passed on and served by offenders who committed similar crimes.

As for the Palestinians, Obama repeated his fierce opposition to Jewish communities beyond the 1949 armistice lines, and his insistence that Israel must get over its justified fears regarding Palestinian intentions and withdraw from Judea and Samaria, for its own good.

Given that all of these are positions he has held throughout his presidency, the mystery surrounding his decision to come to Israel only grows. He didn’t need to come to Israel to rehash policies we already know.

Much of the coverage of Obama’s trip has focused on symbolism. For instance, the administration decided to boycott Ariel University by not inviting its students to attend Obama’s speech to students from all other universities that is set to take place on Thursday in Jerusalem. In boycotting Ariel, Obama’s behavior is substantively the same as that of Britain’s Association of University Teachers. In 2005 that body voted to boycott University of Haifa and Ben-Gurion University in the Negev. But while the AUT’s action was universally condemned, Obama’s decision to bar Israelis whose university is located in a city with 20,000 residents just because their school is located beyond the 1949 armistice lines has generated litte attention.

Then again, seeing as Obama’s snub of Ariel University is in keeping with the White House’s general war with anyone who disputes its view that Judea and Samaria are Arab lands, the lack of outrage at his outrageous behavior makes sense. It doesn’t represent a departure from his positions in his first term.

The only revealing aspect of Obama’s itinerary is his decision to on the one hand bypass Israel’s elected representatives by spurning the invitation to speak before the Knesset; and on the other hand to address a handpicked audience of university students – an audience grossly overpopulated by unelectable, radical leftists.

In the past, US presidents have spoken before audiences of Israeli leftists in order to elevate and empower the political Left against the Right. But this is the first time that a US president has spurned not only the elected Right, but elected leftist politicians as well, by failing to speak to the Knesset, while actively courting the unelectable radical Left through his talk to a university audience.

Clinton constantly embraced the Israeli Left while spurning the Right – famously refusing to meet with then prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu in 1997 while both leaders’ jets were parked on the same tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport.

Clinton’s assiduous courtship of Israel’s Left enabled him to portray himself as a true friend of Israel, even as he openly sought to undermine and overthrow the elected government of the country.

But Clinton always favored leftist politicians – Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak – over rightist politicians. He did not spurn leftist politicians in favor of even more radical unelectable leftists.

So what does Obama seek to achieve with this novel practice? Clearly he is not attempting to use the opportunity of addressing this audience to express contrition for his first term’s policies. In his interview with Channel 2, Obama spoke of the instability on Israel’s borders – but never mentioned the key role he played in overthrowing Mubarak and empowering the Muslim Brotherhood, thus emptying of meaning Israel’s peace treaty with the most populous Arab state.



FILE – In this March 5, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Though Obama said he wouldn’t be carrying a “grand peace plan” when he goes to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan later this month, three goals will dominate his visit: convincing Israeli leadership that he means what he says about stopping Iran from building a nuclear weapon, mending a troubled relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and enticing Israel back to negotiations with the Palestinians. (Credit: AP)

He never mentioned that his feckless handling of Syria’s civil war ensured that the moderate opposition forces would be eclipsed by radical Islamists affiliated with al-Qaida, as has happened, or expressed concern that al-Qaida forces are now deployed along Syria’s border with Israel, and that there is a real and rising danger that Syria’s arsenals of chemical and biological weapons, as well as its ballistic missiles, will fall into their hands. Indeed, Tuesday it was reported that the al-Qaida infiltrated opposition attacked regime forces with chemical weapons.

Obama will not use his speech before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s most outspoken critics to express remorse over the hostility with which he treated Israel’s leader for the past four years. He will not admit that his decision to coerce Israel into suspending Jewish property rights in Judea and Samaria in his first term gave the PLO justification for refusing to meet with or negotiate with the Israeli government.

So since he doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong, and he intends to continue the same policies in his second term, why did he decide to come to Israel? And why is he addressing, and so seeking to empower the radical, unelectable Left? Obama’s speech in Cairo to the Muslim world was held at the Islamist Al-Azhar Univerity. By speaking at Al-Azhar, Obama weakened Mubarak in three different ways. First, Al-Azhar’s faculty members regularly issue religious rulings calling for the murder of non-Muslims, prohibiting the practice of Judaism, and facilitating the victimization of women. In stating these views, Al-Azhar’s leadership has demonstrated that their world view and values are far less amenable to American strategic interests and moral values than Mubarak’s world view was. By speaking at Al-Azhar, Obama signaled that he would reward the anti-American Islamists at the expense of the pro-American Arab nationalists.

Second, in contempt of Mubarak’s explicit wishes, Obama insisted on inviting members of the Muslim Brotherhood to attend his speech. In acting as he did, Obama signaled that under his leadership, the US was abandoning its support for Mubarak and transferring its sympathies to the Muslim Brotherhood.


Finally, by addressing his remarks to the Muslim nation, Obama was perceived as openly rejecting Egyptian nationalism, and indeed the concept of unique national identities among the various Arab states. In so doing, Obama undercut the legitimacy of the Egyptian regime while legitimizing the pan- Islamic Muslim Brotherhood which rejects nationalism in favor of a call for the establishment of a global caliphate.

As subsequent events showed, the conditions for the Egyptian revolution that brought the Muslim Brotherhood to power were prepared during Obama’s speech at al-Azhar.

It is possible that in addressing the unelected radical Left in Jerusalem, Obama seeks to undermine the legitimacy of the Israeli government. But if that is the plan, then it would bespeak an extraordinary contempt and underestimation of Israeli democracy. Such a plan would not play out the same way his Egyptian speech did.

There are two possible policies Obama would want to empower Israel’s radical, unelectable Left in order to advance. First, he could be strengthening these forces to help them pressure the government to make concessions to the Palestinians in order to convince the Palestinian Authority to renew negotiations and accept an Israeli peace offer.

While Obama indicated in his interview with Channel 2 that this is his goal, it is absurd to believe it. Obama knows there is no chance that the Palestinians will accept a deal from Israel. PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and his predecessor Yasser Arafat both rejected Israeli peace offers made by far more radical Israeli governments than the new Netanyahu government. Moreover, the Palestinians refused to meet with Israeli negotiators while Mubarak was still in power. With the Muslim Brotherhood now in charge in Cairo, there is absolutely no way they will agree to negotiate – let alone accept a deal.

This leaves another glaring possibility. Through the radical Left, Obama may intend to foment a pressure campaign to force the government to withdraw unilaterally from all or parts of Judea and Samaria, as Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. If this is Obama’s actual policy goal, it would represent a complete Europeanization of US policy toward Israel. It was the EU that funded radical leftist groups that pushed for Israel’s unilateral withdrawals from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005.

And in the past week, a number of commentators have spoken and written in favor of such a plan.

The is truth we don’t know why Obama is coming to Israel. The Obama administration has not indicated where its Israel policy is going. And Obama’s Republican opposition is in complete disarray on foreign policy and not in any position to push him to reveal his plans.

What we can say with certainty is that the administration that supports the “democratically elected” Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and did so much to clear all obstacles to its election, is snubbing the democratically elected Israeli government, and indeed, Israel’s elected officials in general. Obama’s transmission of this message in the lead-up to this visit, through symbols and action alike does not bode well for Israel’s relations with the US in the coming four years.

Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.

[BRVoice]

Oh... shit

[BRVoice]

U.N. has testimony that Syrian rebels used sarin gas: investigator




GENEVA | Mon May 6, 2013 12:35am EDT


(Reuters) - U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

"Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

"This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities," she added, speaking in Italian.

Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney-general who also served as prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, gave no details as to when or where sarin may have been used.

The Geneva-based inquiry into war crimes and other human rights violations is separate from an investigation of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria instigated by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which has since stalled.

President Bashar al-Assad's government and the rebels accuse each another of carrying out three chemical weapon attacks, one near Aleppo and another near Damascus, both in March, and another in Homs in December.

The civil war began with anti-government protests in March 2011. The conflict has now claimed an estimated 70,000 lives and forced 1.2 million Syrian refugees to flee.

The United States has said it has "varying degrees of confidence" that sarin has been used by Syria's government on its people.

President Barack Obama last year declared that the use or deployment of chemical weapons by Assad would cross a "red line".

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

[American Patriot]

WH is saying it was Assads regime.

Also, I think we said something about Assad being dead earlier on?

Apparently that isn't true either.

[American Patriot]

According to FNC the WH is saying they are pretty SURE it was the Assad regime that used weapons.... however, they "aren't SURE" weapons were USED.

WTF?

How can one be sure someone used something if no one is sure what was used?

This WH lies through it's teeth.

Also, in checking... I can NOT find any verification this guy was actually killed, even though the Russians were "confirming" it.

[American Patriot]

From April 3rd:

Assad may be critically injured or dead

Sources have claimed that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad may be critically injured or indeed dead already

by Media Hawk on 3 April 2013 00:12
Tweet 29
This is not a news story. It is purely rumour and speculation, please do not think I am reporting this as fact.
The reason I am writing this, is because I have no reason to believe that my sources have ulterior motives in telling me what they have told me. The story sounds very similar to a rumour that is being floated by the Free Syrian Army, so for all I know, this is just standard psy-ops and propaganda. Nevertheless, I thought you'd be interested.
Earlier today, I was informed by a connection that sources in Damascus, close to Bashar al-Assad's regime, are talking about the dictator's situation as if he was mortally wounded or even dead. Here's what I was told:
"This comes from people in Damascus who are connected to the Baath Party, and many are former Saadam Hussein's Baath people.
Assad was wounded, shot by some of his guards. He is critically injured and Russian doctors are treating him. He is close to death or have died.
He is being treated at Tashreen [military] Hospital. The Hospital is surrouded by presidential guards and cars are not allowed to drive close to the building.
Syrian news agencies and state TV are not even responding to challenges made by rebels that Assad appears on TV.
Word running in the preidential palace that Assad is in fact dead. The Guard(s) who shot him are reported to have fled, and the operations seemed like a well-thought assassiantion [sic] and maybe not just someone who made the choice.
While Assad's guards are loyal, they are still for sale for whoever pays more."
Make of it what you will. It might be true. It might be fantasy. It might be a combination of both.
Either way, interesting.