Syria

[American Patriot]

Other reports state this was false, he is alive and well "and in high spirits" after this supposed assassination attempt (that apparently never happened).

[BRVoice]

I don't believe that the rebels are ANY better than Assad. I highly doubt that the next government in Syria will be western friendly. The rebels are al-Qaeda.

To me it's all about the economic crisis. Nobody wanna pay anybody and a world war is - for these persons - the 'best solution'. International bankers care NOTHING about blood being spill.

They want want war and I believe they got one. They always get their wishes.

[American Patriot]

Well... I think the US has two choices... Shut up and stay out of it, or get involved and shut it down.

Neither are very good choices.

In the first case, the White House has said that the use of chemical weapons were a "red line" that shouldn't be crossed and if it were "there would be consequences" - and NOW they are SAYING it was the Assad Regime that used the weapons. It appears the "Consequences" will be more blathering, back peddling, lies and nonsense out of the White House.

In the second case they are helping Al Qaeda - which it appears would be to Obama's benefit but he doesn't want to make it appear like he's helping. So we've been providing small arms. (Right giving them small arms, while trying to take the same weapons from his own citizens.... hmmmm)

There is ONE other choice... just don't do anything, which is what appears to be happening.

Of course, over the weekend Israel blasted Syria.... which makes it looks really like the US pushed them into do something (or perhaps they did it on their own and were taking out known chemical weapons????)

At this point things are looking like a powder keg with a line of burning powder heading for it....

When the "Boom" happens, it will cause a whole lot of crap to start flying (from the Russians, Iranians, US, Israel, Syria.... hell, almost everyone in the Middle East).

[BRVoice]

Rick I agree 10000% with you.

[vector7]

Syria Traffic Goes "Dark" As Country Disappears From Internet

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/07/2013 17:05 -0400

• Twitter

While there have been no new military attacks on Syria since Sunday morning, something more peculiar happened in the past few hours, when according to Akamai and various other Internet traffic trackers, Syria has literally gone "dark", or, as Umbrella Security Labs describes it, as if "Syria has largely disappeared from the Internet."




Some more from Umbrella's blog:

At around 18:45 UTC OpenDNS resolvers saw a significant drop in traffic from Syria. On closer inspection it seems Syria has largely disappeared from the Internet.

The graph below shows DNS traffic from and to Syria. Although Twitter remains relatively silent, the drop in both inbound and outbound traffic from Syria is clearly visible. The small amount of outbound traffic depicted by the chart indicates our DNS servers trying to reach DNS servers in Syria.

Currently both TLD servers for Syria, ns1.tld.sy and ns2.tld.sy are unreachable. The remaining two nameservers sy.cctld.authdns.ripe.net. and pch.anycast.tld.sy. are reachable since they are not within Syria.

The Umbrella Security Labs also reported on an Internet blackout in Syria November of 2012, where we shared details of the top 10 most failed domains during the outage.

Update: 1:28 p.m. PDT

There have been numerous incidents where access to and from the Internet in Syria was shut down. Shutting down Internet access to and from Syria is achieved by withdrawing the BGP routes from Syrian prefixes. The graph below shows the sudden drop in visibility for Syrian network prefixes.

How it happened:

Routing on the Internet relies on the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). BGP distributes routing information and makes sure all routers on the Internet know how to get to a certain IP address. When an IP range becomes unreachable it will be withdrawn from BGP, this informs routers that the IP range is no longer reachable.

For example, one of the name servers for the DNS zone .SY is ns1.tld.sy with IP address 82.137.200.85.

Normally our routers would expect a BGP route for 82.137.192.0/18

Currently that route has disappeared and we no longer have a way to reach the Nameservers for .SY that reside in Syria

And in parallel news, we are hearing unconfirmed reports that mobile connections have been cut off as well.
Did Assad simply forget to pay his country's DNS (and cell) bill, or is this a preamble to putting Syria in the "dark" in advance of possible future military escalations? We will provide updates as we see them.

Gregor Peter‏@L0gg0l1 m
EXPLOSION REPORTED IN CENTRAL DAMASCUS -- @NMSyria @SyriaBreaking


Gregor Peter‏@L0gg0l3 m
SYRIA CELL PHONE SERVICES ALSO SHUT DOWN

[vector7]

COLD WAR: PUTIN KEEPS KERRY WAITING HOURS



10:43am EDT: Kirit Radia (@KiritRadia_ABC) in Moscow, Russia

Putin is known for keeping people waiting. He kept President Obama waiting for hours at Los Cabos last year. To give you an idea what Putin’s been up to today aside from his meeting with Secretary Kerry: it’s the one year anniversary of his inauguration and he marked the occasion by publicly berating the Cabinet for not doing enough.

And as we noted earlier, Secretary Kerry had to cool his heels at the airport for about 30 minutes because a rehearsal for an upcoming military parade was blocking his route downtown.

The U.S. Secretary of State’s motorcade often halts traffic when he travels abroad, but today it proved no match for columns of Russian tanks, ICBMs and armored personnel carriers.

Secretary Kerry stretches his legs before meeting with Putin
10:33am EDT: Dana Hughes (@Dana_Hughes) in Moscow, Russia

US News
|
Syria News
|
More ABC News Videos

[BRVoice]

US to arm Syrian rebels: Putin’s rebuke, Chinese “peace plan” mar Netanyahu’s Chinese trip
DEBKAfile Special Report May 7, 2013, 2:19 PM (IDT)
Tags: Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel Air Force, Syria, Vladimir Putin, China, US-Syria,




Russian S-300 anti-air missiles system


Negative diplomatic ricochets are pursuing Israel in the aftermath of its air force attacks on Syria. In the first place, they are seen to have had no effect on Hizballah’s successful military intervention on the side of the Assad regime or the Syrian war at large. In the second, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, while in Shanghai, was given a sharp dressing-down by President Vladimir Putin Monday, May 6, a warning that Russia would not tolerate further Israeli attacks on Damascus and would respond.

Putin did not say how, but he did announce he had ordered the acceleration of highly advanced Russian weapons supplies to Syria.

debkafile’s military sources disclose that the Russian leader was referring to S-300 anti-air systems and the nuclear-capable 9K720 Iskander (NATO named SS-26 Stone) surface missiles, which are precise enough to hit a target within a 5-7 meter radius at a distance of 280 kilometers.

In his phone call to Netanyahu, the Russian leader made no bones about his determination not to permit the US, Israel or any other regional force (e.g. Turkey and Qatar) overthrow President Bashar Assad. He advised the prime minister to make sure to keep this in mind.

Our sources add: Since Syrian air defense teams have already trained in Russia on the handling of the S-300 interceptor batteries, they can go into service as soon as they are landed by one of Russia’s daily airlifts to Syria. Russian air defense officials will supervise their deployment and prepare them for operation.

Moscow is retaliating not just for Israel’s air operations against Syria but in anticipation of the Obama administration’s impending decision to send the first US arms shipments to the Syrian rebels.

Intelligence agencies in Moscow and the Middle East take it for granted that by the time Washington goes public on this decision, some of the Syrian rebel factions will already be armed with American weapons.

That the measure was in the works was signified by the introduction Monday by Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of legislation allowing the US to provide arms and military training to the Syrian rebels, US military instructors have been working with Syrian rebels at training camps in Jordan and Turkey for some months. So putting the arms in their hands only awaited a decision in Washington.

Putin’s message to Netanyahu was intended to reach a wider audience than Jerusalem, such as Barack Obama in Washington and President Xi Jinping in Beijing ahead of Netanyahu’s talks there Tuesday.

Therefore, when US Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Moscow that day, in an attempt “bridge the divide” between their governments on the Syria conflict, he was preceded by a barrage of Russian condemnation of the Israeli air strikes in Damascus “as a threat to regional stability,” a stiff warning from the Russian foreign ministry to the “West” to stop “politicizing the issue of chemical weapons in Syria,” and Moscow’s “concern that world public opinion was being prepared for possible foreign military intervention.”

In other words, the Russian leader rejected in advance and with both hands any attempt by the US to use the Israeli air strikes as leverage for a deal with Moscow for ending the Syrian war. US weapons supplies to the rebels would furthermore be matched by stepped-up arms supplies to the Assad regime, which Putin is totally committed to preserving.

Kerry planned back-to-back meetings Tuesday with Russian officials focusing mainly on Syria but also covering the Russian angle on the Boston bombings, and hoped-for cooperation on the Iranian and North Korean nuclear issues.

The Chinese government’s cold shoulder to Israel was exhibited less directly that Moscow’s but no less firmly. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was invited to visit Beijing and meet President Xi two days before the prime arrived in the Chinese capital Tuesday to begin the official part of his visit. The Chinese president unveiled his peace plan before meeting the Israeli prime minister.

This plan emphasizes, as the key to a settlement, the Palestinian right to a state on the basis of 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital. It also adopts Abbas’s preconditions for talks, including a stop to settlement activities, an end of the Gaza blockade and “proper handling” of the Palestinian prisoners issue.

Clearly, Prime Minister Netanyahu would have been wiser to postpone his Chinese visit instead of taking off while Israeli air force blasts will still reverberating in Damascus. By staying at home, he would have displayed a firmer and steadier hand at the helm.

And after taking off, he would have done well not to linger for two days in Shanghai first. This gave the Russian leader the chance to catch him wrong-footed and administer a strong, publicized rebuke, so bearing down on the agenda of Netanyahu’s forthcoming talks with Chinese leaders.

[vector7]

Obama's reckless Leftist foreign policy in the middle east has ruined America's credibility and destablized the entire region while making the CSTO/SCO more relevant than even NATO.

The Administrations actions perpetually weaken America as the Axis grows stronger, subjugating our few remaining allies into their hands.

[BRVoice]

Netanyahu to visit Putin in a bid to stop his S-300 missile sale to Syria

DEBKAfile Special Report May 11, 2013, 5:24 PM (IDT)
Tags: Binyamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, Russian S-300, Syria,

An earlier meeting between Putin and Netanyahu


Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sets off for the Black Sea town of Sochi early next week for a personal call on President Vladimir Putin. This was confirmed Saturday, May 11 by the Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who declined to explain the urgency of the unplanned meeting. debkafile’s Moscow sources report that Netanyahu asked to meet Putin without delay for a last-ditch attempt to persuade him to call off the sale to Syria of advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.

Moscow’s decision to sell those weapons to Syria was first revealed by debkafile on May 7.

Our sources now add that the prime minister’s chances of averting the sale are extremely slim. A series of prominent figures have already tried talking the Russian president out of the sale and failed, starting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on May 7, followed Friday May 10 by British premier David Cameron who saw Putin in Sochi and German Foreign Minister Guido Westernwelle who met his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov in Warsaw.

They all warned the Russian leader that the delivery of S-300 missiles to Syria would touch off an arms race in Syria and the Middle East with disastrous consequences.

Lavrov told reporters: “Russia is not planning to sell S-300 to Syria. Russia has already sold them a long time ago. It has signed the contracts and is completing deliveries in line with them of equipment which is anti-aircraft technology.”

Rejecting all their arguments, Putin said his government would stand by all its commitments to the Syrian ruler Bashar Assad and defend his regime. After Israel’s air strike against Damascus on May 5, nothing would now stop the S-300 deliveries.

The Russian president, in a phone call he put in to the Israeli premier on May 7 when the latter was visiting Shanghai, warned Israel against any further attacks on Syria.

He later spurned the approaches by Western leaders by stating that Moscow would never permit another US-led NATO air campaign against Assad like the one that overthrew Muammar Qaddafi in Libya in 2011. He added that Russian arms sales to Syria and Iran were Moscow’s response to the large arms packages US Defense Minister Chuck Hagel brought to Israel and US Gulf allies in the last week of April.

The S-300 is designed to shoot down planes and missiles at 200-km ranges.

Israel is concerned that Moscow may decided to send the six S-300 batteries carrying 144 missiles due for Syria along with Russian missile and air defense specialists. They will officially be described as instructors for training Syrian crews in the use of the sophisticated anti-air weapons. But they will also be available for operating the missiles effectively for downing Israeli Air Force planes striking targets in Syria and Lebanon. Israel will be forced to think twice before attacking the S-300 batteries for fear of hitting the Russian officers. Putin is therefore placing a severe constraint on Israel’s operational freedom by spreading an anti-air missile cover over the Syrian, Hizballah and the Iranian Basij forces fighting for Bashar Assad.

Since the chances of dissuading Putin to abandon this strategy are just about nil, the best Netanyahu can hope for by his face-to-face with the Russian president is a limited accord on ground rules for averting an Israeli-Russian military clash in Syria.

[BRVoice]

Car bombs kill 43 in Turkey near Syrian border

By Mehmet Emin Caliskan

REYHANLI, Turkey | Sat May 11, 2013 5:32pm EDT

(Reuters) - Twin car bombs killed 43 people and wounded many more in a Turkish town near the Syrian border on Saturday and the government said it suspected Syrian involvement.
The bombing increased fears that Syria's civil war was dragging in neighboring states despite renewed diplomatic moves towards ending two years of fighting in which more than 70,000 people have been killed.
The bombs ripped into crowded streets near Reyhanli's shopping district in the early afternoon, scattering concrete blocks and smashing cars in the town in Turkey's southern Hatay province, home to thousands of Syrian refugees.
Restaurants and cafes were destroyed and body parts were strewn across the streets. The damage went at least three blocks deep from the site of the blasts.
President Bashar al-Assad's government was the "usual suspect", Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.
"We know that the people taking refuge in Hatay have become targets for the Syrian regime," Arinc said in comments broadcast on Turkish television. "We think of them as the usual suspects when it comes to planning such a horrific attack."
Another deputy prime minister, Besir Atalay, was quoted by NTV as saying initial findings suggested the attackers came from inside Turkey, but had links to Syria's intelligence agency.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Nor was there any comment from Damascus.
NATO-member Turkey has fired back at Syrian government forces when mortars have landed on its soil, but despite its strong words has appeared reluctant to bring its considerable military might to bear in the conflict.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey reserves the right to take "every kind of measure", but he said he saw no need for an emergency meeting of NATO which would be the first step towards involving the alliance in any possible response.
The United States strongly condemned the attacks and vowed support in identifying those responsible, while NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius voiced "full solidarity" with Turkey.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office said he hoped the perpetrators would be swiftly brought to justice.
NATO member Turkey supports the uprising against Assad and violence has crossed the border before, but not on the same scale. The bombings were the bloodiest incident on Turkish soil since Syria's conflict began more than two years ago.
BORDER FEARS
Turkey is far from alone in fearing the impact of Syria's war, which is already helping inflame the Middle East's tangle of sectarian, religious and nationalist struggles.
The violence has inflamed a confrontation between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in the Middle East, with Shi'ite Iran supporting Assad, and Sunni powers like Saudi Arabia backing the rebels.
Israel launched air strikes a week ago, aimed at stopping Iranian missiles near Damascus from reaching Tehran's Lebanese allies Hezbollah for possible use against the Jewish state.
Days later, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his forces would support any Syrian effort to recapture the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, raising the prospect of renewed conflict after decades of calm on that border.
Davutoglu said it was no coincidence the Reyhanli bombings came as diplomatic moves to end the Syrian conflict intensify.
"There may be those who want to sabotage Turkey's peace, but we will not allow that," Davutoglu told reporters during a trip to Berlin. "No one should attempt to test Turkey's power."
Prospects appeared to improve this week for diplomacy to try to end the civil war, now in its third year, after Moscow and Washington announced a joint effort to bring government and rebels to an international conference.
But a Russian official said on Saturday that there was already disagreement over who would take part and he doubted whether a meeting could happen this month.
As well as disputes over who would represent the rebels and government at any talks, there have also been questions over possible participation by Assad's Shi'ite ally Iran. The rebels are backed by the largely Sunni Gulf states.
Diplomats in New York said the Syria meeting would likely slip into June and it was unclear who would participate.
DEATH TOLL MAY RISE
In Reyhanli, smoke poured from charred ruins after the blasts outside administrative buildings.
"My children were so scared because it reminded them of the bombings when we were in Aleppo. God help us," said one refugee from the northern Syrian city, a mother of three who gave her name as Kolsum.
Atalay said 43 people had been killed, while Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned the toll could rise. Officials said more than 100 people were injured, many of them critically.
Turkey is sheltering more than 300,000 Syrians, most of them in camps along the 900-km (560-mile) frontier, and is struggling to keep up with the influx.
The main opposition Syrian National Coalition said the attacks were a failed attempt to "destroy the brotherhood" between Syrians and Turks and were intended as a punishment for Turkey's support of the uprising.
Erdogan said this week Turkey would support a U.S.-enforced no-fly zone in Syria and warned that Damascus crossed President Barack Obama's "red line" on chemical weapons use long ago.
A no-fly zone to prohibit Syrian military aircraft from hitting rebel targets has been mentioned by American lawmakers as one option the United States could use to pressure Assad.
Erdogan is due to meet Obama in Washington on May 16.
(Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul, Gulsen Solaker in Berlin, Parisa Hafezi in Ankara, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Louis Charbonneau in New York, Claire Davenport in Brussels, Erika Solomon in Beirut; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Matthew Tostevin and Jon Hemming)

[BRVoice]

Kerry condemns 'awful' Turkey bombings near Syria

(AFP) – 1 hour ago


WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the "awful" car bombings blamed on pro-Damascus groups that killed at least 43 people in a Turkish town near the Syrian border on Saturday.
"The United States condemns today's car bombings and we stand with our ally, Turkey," Kerry said in a statement.
"This awful news strikes an especially personal note for all of us given how closely we work in partnership with Turkey, and how many times Turkey's been a vital interlocutor at the center of my work as secretary of state these last three months."
US Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone also strongly condemned also the "vicious attack," as Kerry offered his "deepest condolences" to the families of the victims and his thoughts with the wounded.
The bombings were the deadliest in Turkey, a key supporter of the Syrian opposition, since the conflict began more than two years ago.
Several of the 100 wounded were in critical condition.
"On behalf of the United States, I offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the dozens of victims of today's murderous attack in Reyhanli," Ricciardone said.
"The United States strongly condemns today's vicious attack, and stands with the people and government of Turkey to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice."
Two explosive-laden cars blew up in the town of Reyhanli, just a few miles (kilometers) from the main border crossing into Syria.
Turkey's Interior Minister Muammer Guler blamed "groups supporting the Syrian regime and its intelligence services" for carrying out the attack.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, on a visit to Berlin, said it was "not a coincidence" that these bombings occurred as international diplomatic efforts to solve the Syrian crisis were intensifying.
The United States and Russia -- a rare remaining supporter of the Assad regime -- pledged this week to relaunch efforts to solve the conflict, that Kerry said has claimed 70,000 and 100,000 lives since March 2011.
Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved

[BRVoice]

Turkey has right to respond after car bombs: foreign minister

BERLIN | Sat May 11, 2013 5:19pm EDT

(Reuters) - Turkey reserves the right to take "every kind of measure" after car bomb attacks which killed more than 40 people in the southern town of Reyhanli near the border with Syria on Saturday, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Davutoglu said he would discuss the matter with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan but said he saw no need for an emergency meeting of the NATO military alliance following the attacks.
Turkey has in the past invoked NATO's article four, which provides for states to "consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened".

(Reporting by Guslen Solaker; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Alison Williams)

[BRVoice]

Could Syria conflict become regional war?

By Jonathan Marcus BBC Diplomatic Correspondent
11 May 2013 Last updated at 00:49 GMT


The Syrian conflict has been steadily growing since March 2011

Continue reading the main story Syria conflict

• No easy answers
• Israel's 'red line'
• Obama's options
• Bloodiest days

This week the leader of Hezbollah - the Shia movement in southern Lebanon - made it clear that he saw weapons transfers from Syria as a "strategic response" to the Israeli air strikes that hit the outskirts of Damascus last Sunday.
Hassan Nasrallah said that Hezbollah would receive "unique weapons that it never had before" - a strong assertion that the weapons transfers will continue.
So too may Israeli air strikes, with the risk that Israel and Hezbollah may become embroiled in a new round of fighting. So a crisis that began as a popular upheaval in Syria could degenerate into a bitter regional war.
In fact, the Syrian crisis is many battles rolled into one.
In part it is indeed a struggle for power between a Sunni majority and the minority Alawite leadership that has dominated the country for a generation.


Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah was ready to receive weapons that would "break the balance of forces"


This struggle - quite apart from provoking a humanitarian catastrophe - is taking on aspects of a more general sectarian and ethnic struggle with disturbing reports of massacres and ethnic cleansing, often perpetrated by pro-government militias.
Lebanon connection But more than this, it also represents a broader strategic struggle for influence in the region as a whole, with Iran - Syria's closest ally - eager to prop up the government of President Bashar al-Assad for as long as possible.
Tehran also seems to be laying the groundwork for its future influence in a post-Assad Syria.
For Tehran, opposed by most pro-Western Sunni Arab governments in the region, Syria is not just a diplomatic partner but a steadfast ally in the struggle against Israel.
It offers the practical means by which Iran can reach out to like-minded groups in the region - notably Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Lebanon connection is crucial to Iran's plans. Hezbollah with its large missile force carries a significant threat to Israel.

Israeli troops have recently staged a drill near the Syrian border


In military terms, Hezbollah acquitted itself well in its last major conflict with Israel. And while the Israel Defence Forces believes that it has learnt the lessons from that struggle, Hezbollah will - no doubt - also have learnt lessons of its own.
Its forces are disciplined, motivated and well-trained.
Iran has not just sought to assist President Assad with weapons and technical advice. Hezbollah fighters have also crossed into Syria to fight on the government's side against rebel forces.
And in return intelligence reports suggest that Syria is seeking to transfer ever more advanced weaponry to Hezbollah.
Iran strategy This is Israel's chief concern as the violence in Syria shows no sign of abating.
It has spoken out against the potential delivery of what it calls "game-changing" weapons to Hezbollah. These are believed to include accurate long-range missiles; sophisticated anti-shipping missiles; or modern surface-to-air missiles that would hamper Israel's relative freedom of movement in Lebanon's skies.
Fears of a strengthened Hezbollah have prompted a number of Israeli air strikes against missile stores and possibly other targets - most recently earlier this month - which my hamper such efforts but are hardly likely to halt them.

Iran is a long-standing supporter of Syrian President Assad


For now it is the Israel-Hezbollah-Syria triangle that represents the most dangerous front where the Syrian crisis could spill over into regional war.
It is the mutually supporting relationship between Syria, Hezbollah, and Iran, along with Israel's response to it that is fuelling this potential escalation.
A recent report from the Institute for the Study of War - jointly published with the American Enterprise Institute - paints a detailed picture of just how deep Iran's involvement in Syria really is.
It notes that security co-operation between the two countries is long-standing. A number of Iranian technicians are thought to have been killed in an explosion at the al-Safir chemical weapons and missile facility in 2007.
But it is the detail of the alleged Iranian support for the Syrian regime since the start of the current crisis that is interesting.
This is thought to involve training in internal security and counter-insurgency operations provided by elements drawn from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps - both the Quds Force and its ground forces.
US government documents indicate considerable intelligence support for Damascus coming from Tehran, with Iranian security experts providing valuable expertise in suppressing popular disturbances, and so on.
The report says that "aerial re-supply is the most critical component of Iranian material support to Syria". It cites US data on a variety of flights involving Iranian civil aircraft as well as Iranian and Syrian military transports.
A March 2011 seizure by the Turkish authorities of a cargo from an Iranian Iluyshin-76 cargo plane en route to Syria revealed crates of ammunition, rifles, machine guns and mortar shells.
Iran has also provided support to paramilitary groups inside Syria - here perhaps forging useful links that could be important should the Assad government fall.
The report also highlights the growing role of Lebanese Hezbollah in Syria. The organisation is taking an ever-more active role, which some experts fear could intensify the sectarian dimension in the conflict.
The document argues that Iran has a forward-looking strategy.
For its purposes the Syrian government does not need to retain all of Syrian territory for it to maintain an important influence in the region.
Its outreach to pro-government militias, it says, "can work to drive the convergence between the remnants of the Syrian Army and pro-government militias".
"This combined force", the report concludes, "allied with Lebanese Hezbollah and Shia militant groups can continue to compete for limited territory within Syria and ensure that Iran remains able to project the force necessary to provide strategic depth and deterrence".

[American Patriot]

So Turkey is gonna beat Syria to a pulp now?

Wonder how that got arranged? Or rather who arranged it?

[BRVoice]

Russia staffs Mediterranean fleet. Turkey weighs payback for Syrian bombings

DEBKAfile Special Report May 12, 2013, 7:19 PM (IDT)

Russian Navy Admiral Viktor Chirkov said Sunday, May 12, that the process is underway for creating a permanent staff to run Russian fleet operations in the Mediterranean Sea. Speaking at Sevastopol, the Black Sea fleet’s home port, Adm. Chirkov said a staff of 20 officers was already in place. And the Mediterranean deployment would comprise five to six warships and their service vessels as well possibly as nuclear submarines which, say our military sources, are armed with nuclear ballistic missiles.

debkafile’s military sources: The new permanent deployment is the next Russian step for safeguarding Bashar Assad’s regime in Damascus and deterring military attacks on his Hizballah allies and Iranian interests in their three-way bloc.

Moscow is also announcing loud and clear that Russia is finally restoring its military presence to the Middle East in 2013 after the last Soviet squadron exited the Mediterranean in 1992.

The Russian naval step came 24 hours after two car bombs reduced to rubble the center of the Turkish town of Reyhanli near the Syrian border, killing 46 people and injuring scores. Turkish ministers at the scene Sunday openly blamed Syrian military intelligence for the attack’s planning and execution.

This raised concerns in Moscow that Ankara was preparing to deliver a serious reprisal, possibly in the form of an aerial or missile assault, on Syrian military targets.

Russian tacticians reckoned that, after Israel’s two air strikes against Assad regime targets, the Tayyip Erdogan’s government could hardly avoid direct action without appearing to be failing in courage in the eyes of the Turkish public.

Some action is doubly pressing as Prime Minister Erdogan prepares to travel to Washington to meet President Barack Obama on May 16 and present him with evidence that Assad has used chemical weapons in his war on Syrian rebels.

The Reyhanli bombings and Turkey’s potential retaliation sent a fresh wave of alarm across the Syrian neighborhood. Once again, Israeli Air Force warplanes thundered Sunday across South Lebanon and over Hizballah strongholds in the eastern Beqaa Valley near the Syrian border.

Given all these circumstances, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s chances are virtually nil of getting anywhere in his trip to the Black Sea resort of Sochi to persuade President Vladimir Putin to hold back advanced S-300 anti-air missiles from Syria. He can expect to find the Russian president driving full speed for arms deals - not just with Syria, but also with Iraq, Yemen and Sudan.

Putin clearly regards Obama’s decision to keep the US clear of military involvement in the Syrian conflict as an open gateway for a Russian military comeback to the Middle East after a 21-year absence, armed with a cornucopia of weapons for winning clients. For now, there is no stopping him, not even if Turkey or Israel were to embark themselves on military intervention.

[American Patriot]

Turkish military says it has lost contact with fighter plane close to border with Syria

Published May 13, 2013

Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey's military says it has lost contact with a fighter plane in southern Turkey.

A military statement said Monday it lost contact with the F-16 jet over a mountainous area in Osmaniye province, which is close to the border with Syria. The plane had taken off from a base in northern Amasya province, some 450 kilometers (280 miles) away.

The statement said the pilot radioed in to say he was ejecting before contact was lost.

Turkey's NTV television said the pilot ejected safely from the plane. There was no confirmation of that report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05...#ixzz2TBBa40AQ

[BRVoice]

Saudis explore Iranian options for Syria & Lebanon in talks with Iran’s Salehi

DEBKAfile Special Report May 13, 2013, 7:49 PM (IDT)

Saudi Arabia has decided to explore dialogue with its great regional rival Iran for ending the Syrian conflict and assuring Lebanon’s political future, debkafile’s Gulf sources report. They have given up on US policy for Syria in view of Russian and Iranian unbending support for Bashar Assad; his battlefield gains aided by Hizballah and Iranian Bassij forces; and Turkey’s inaction after Saturday’s terrorist bombings in the town of Reyhanli near the Syrian border which caused 46 deaths.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal took advantage of the Organization of Islamic Conference-OIC, in Jeddah this week on the Mali conflict for getting together Monday, May 13, with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi who was in attendance.

Our sources report that Riyadh’s first priority is to stabilize Lebanon through a Saudi-Iranian entente on political equilibrium in Beirut. The Saudis would next seek an accord with Tehran on the outcome of the Syrian civil conflict.

The Saudi rulers have come to the conclusion, which the West and Israel have been slow to acknowledge, that since the Iranian-Hizballah-Syrian military alliance is pulling ahead in the Syrian conflict and chalking up victories, they had better look to their interests in Lebanon, which hinge heavily on the Sunni clan headed by Saad Hariri. If they wait till a victorious Hizballah comes marching home and grabs power in Beirut, protecting Lebanon’s Sunni community will be that much harder.

HIzballah has increased its strategic clout in Lebanon and Syria and its leader Hassan Nasrallah will have a greater say in any deal for Lebanon on the strength of his successful support for Assad.

These issues were covered in several hours of discussion between the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers.

Riyadh has little faith in the initiative undertaken by US Secretary of State John Kerry to convene an international conference with Russia for ending the Syrian conflict.

Obama himself left a big question mark over the conference at his joint White House news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Monday, when he spoke of “lingering suspicions between Russia and the US” left over from the Cold War.

The US president said he didn’t know if Russia would cooperate in moves to remove Assad from power, so enabling Washington and Moscow to work together for a solution.

The truth is that Putin has staunchly backed the Syrian ruler in the more than two years of the Syrian conflict.

Any Saudi-Iranian deal, if they do come to terms, would run contrary to Obama’s perception of the Syrian issue. Riyadh would need to meet Tehran at least halfway on Iranian Hizballah aspirations, which center on a role for Assad in any future political accommodation fro ending the Syrian war.

The Saudis also deeply disapprove of the Turkish role on Syria.

The track they have opened up to Tehran has the additional purpose of outmaneuvering Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan before he reaches the White House Thursday, May 16, to confer with President Obama on the Syrian imbroglio.

[BRVoice]

Putin again warns Netanyahu hands off Syria

DEBKAfile Special Report May 14, 2013, 6:42 PM (IDT)


Putin and Netanyahu talk three hours at Sochi

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spent three hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin at his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Tuesday, May, 14. He came for a last-ditch attempt to head off the supply of advanced Russian anti-air S-300 missile systems to Syria. Instead, the Russian leader turned the conversation around to focus implicitly on Israel’s air strikes against Damascus on May 3 and May 5. After their conversation he issued a warning: "In this crucial period it is especially important to avoid any moves that can shake the situation."

This was clearly a hands-off caution to Israel not to repeat its attacks on Damascus. And, furthermore, after “shaking the situation” in Syria by its air attacks, Israel was in no position to demand that Russia avoid selling Syria advanced weapons.

The prime minister, for his part, warned that the entire Middle East was in a dangerous state of volatility.

He was accompanied by Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi. Opposite him sat Mikhail Fradkov, SVR Director.

Kochavi laid before the Russian leader the information Israel had gathered on the state of Syria’s chemical weapons with relevance to their transfer to the Lebanese Hizballah.

Before Netanyahu’s arrival for the meeting, Moscow took two preparatory steps:

1. Russian diplomats leaked to the London-based Arab press a report that the S-300 missiles had already arrived in Syria. According to Al-Quds Al-Arabi, Moscow had delivered 200 launchers (probably missiles) and the Syrian missile teams already knew how to use them.

By this leak, the Israeli prime minister was being informed that his journey to Sochi was a waste of time and that the use of S-300 missiles for shooting down Israeli Air Force planes was no longer controlled by Moscow but by Damascus.


2. The prominent strategic analyst, Viktor Kremenyuk of The USA and Canada Institute in Moscow, reported Tuesday that Netanyahu arrived in Sochi to indirectly let Putin know that “Israel would destroy the S-300s when they are delivered and start being assembled.”

The deputy director of an important Russian think tank which advises the Kremlin on North American policy does not tend to make idle comments.


debkafile’s Moscow sources interpreted Kremenyuk’s remark as a means of informing the Israeli leader that Moscow was not impressed by such threats. Instead of pushing Putin to stop the S-300 missiles, Israel would be more advantageously employed urging the Obama administration to adopt a more realistic stand on Syria and Bashar Assad.

In Moscow's view, Washington must be brought to give up its threat of Western military intervention in Syria, of which the Israeli air strikes appeared to Putin as the harbinger, and come to terms with Assad’s presence in any political solution of the Syrian conflict.

These positions the Russian President had conveyed previously to US Secretary of State John Kerry and UK Prime Minister David Cameron. He made it clear to Netanyahu that he stood by them as firmly as ever. Therefore, say debkafile’s sources, so long as both powers remain entrenched in their positions, there is not much hope of their coming together on an international conference to resolve the Syrian conflict.

debkafile’s military sources add: It is also unlikely that the Russian and Israeli leaders had a chance to work out reciprocal ground rules for the Russian officers supervising the S-300 missile operations in Syria to avoiding hitting Israeli Air Force jets or for Israeli bombers to refrain from destroying them.

The S-300 is designed to shoot down planes and missiles at 200-km ranges.

Israel is concerned that Moscow may decided to send the six S-300 batteries carrying 144 missiles due for Syria along with Russian missile and air defense specialists. They will also be available for operating the missiles effectively for downing Israeli Air Force planes striking targets in Syria and Lebanon. Israel will be forced to think twice before attacking the S-300 batteries for fear of hitting the Russian officers. Putin is therefore placing a severe constraint on Israel’s operational freedom by spreading an anti-air missile cover over the Syrian, Hizballah and the Iranian Basij forces fighting for Bashar Assad.

[vector7]

The Administration's backed rebels getting arms through Benghazi.

Syrian jihadist cuts heart out of dead soldier, bites it

Yes, the video is graphic




Jihadist forum: "If we are forced to eat Americans, let's make them into a gunpowder-flavored kabsa with some hors d'oeuvres made of apostates...But the slaughtering needs to be according to the shari'a."

"Video Shows A Member Of The Syrian Opposition Cutting Flesh Of A Corpse, And Apparently Eating It," from Brown Moses, May 12 (thanks to AINA):

Frequently during the Syrian conflict there's been videos that claim to show either side committing some sort of war crimes or atrocity. As a general rule I avoid writing about these videos because there's always claims about fakery, a lack of detail beyond what's shown in the video, and so on. However, a video has been posted today on pro-Assad channels which presents a rare occasion where it's possible gather much more information about the person involved.

The following video shows a man cutting a chuck of flesh, possible an organ, from a corpse, then biting down onto the chunk of flesh at the end of the video (GRAPHIC)

I've had the audio translated (thanks to @Syrian_scenes), rather than relying on the subtitles attached to the video

I swear by God, we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog! Takbeer! Heroes of Baba 'Amr, [inaudible] cut out their hearts to eat them!

As I said before, generally I can't do much with these videos, but in this example I instantly recognised the man wearing that distinctive jacket as appearing in other videos produced by the Independent Omar Farouk Brigades, based around Homs

In the first video he gives a short speech, which I've translated, and also allows us to match the voices in both videos to the same person

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate: The Umar al-Faruq Battalion is striking the strongholds of the Shabbiha and the Assadist Army in the village of Abel. Takbeer!

Peter N. Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch has been able to confirm the name of the man in the videos as Abu Sakkar of Baba Amro, Homs, also known as Khaled Al Hamad, a former senior figure in Al Farouq Brigade....

Pamela Geller reminds us:



Posted by Robert on May 13, 2013 3:28 PM | 65 Comments

[BRVoice]

Israel Hints at New Strikes, Warning Syria Not to Retaliate

By MARK LANDLER


Published: May 15, 2013

WASHINGTON – A senior Israeli official signaled on Wednesday that Israel was considering further military strikes on Syria to stop the transfer of advanced weapons to Islamic militants, and he warned the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, that his government would face crippling consequences if it retaliated against Israel.

The Israeli official said: “Israel is determined to continue to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah. The transfer of such weapons to Hezbollah will destabilize and endanger the entire region.”

“If Syrian President Assad reacts by attacking Israel, or tries to strike Israel through his terrorist proxies,” the official said, “he will risk forfeiting his regime, for Israel will retaliate.”

The Israeli official, who has been briefed by high-level officials on the Syria situation in the past two days, declined to be identified, citing the need to protect internal Israeli deliberations. He contacted The New York Times on Wednesday.

The precise motives for Israel’s warning were uncertain: Israel could be trying to restrain Syria’s behavior without undertaking further military action, or alerting other countries to another strike. That would ratchet up the tension in an already fraught situation in Syria, where a civil war has been raging for more than two years.

Nearly two weeks ago, Israeli warplanes carried out two strikes, the first hitting bases of the elite Republican Guard and storehouses of long-range missiles, in addition to a military research center that American officials have called the country’s main chemical weapons site.

A more limited strike on May 3 at Damascus International Airport was also meant to destroy weapons being sent from Iran to the Islamic militant group Hezbollah. The Israeli government did not confirm either of the attacks, which followed one earlier this year.

The Syrian government publicly condemned Israel for the assaults, saying it “opened the door to all possibilities.” The Syrian deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, declared in an interview with Agence France-Presse, “We will respond immediately and harshly to any additional attack by Israel.” He described the Israeli strikes as a “declaration of war.”

Mr. Assad and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, have both said in recent days that the Israeli-Syrian border, which has been relatively quiet despite the more than two years of civil war inside Syria, could become a “resistance front,” in response to Israeli aggression.

On Wednesday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that several mortar shells, fired from across the Syrian border, had landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The newspaper attributed the information to an official with the Israel Defense Forces.

The shells landed on Mount Hermon, in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, around 6 a.m. Wednesday. The rockets were the latest in a series of what Israel has generally considered errant fire from internal Syrian fighting across the armistice line that landed in its territory, and did not cause any injuries or damage. Israel did not fire back on Wednesday, as it has on several previous occasions, but the incident did cause the closing of Mount Hermon, a popular tourist site, to the public for several hours, during a Jewish holiday in which hiking in the Golan is popular.

In his comments, the Israeli official noted that “Israel has so far refrained from intervening in Syria’s civil war and will maintain this policy as long as Assad refrains from attacking Israel directly or indirectly.”

“Israel,” he said, “will continue its policy of interdicting attempts to strengthen Hezbollah, but will not intercede in the Syrian civil war as long as Assad desists from direct or indirect attacks against Israel.”

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declined to discuss the meaning of the Israeli official’s statement. “We’re not going to comment on the story,” he said.

American and Israeli political analysts agree that Israel has little motive to intervene in Syria’s civil war, but is deeply concerned about the transfer of advanced weapons, as well as the danger that Mr. Assad’s stockpiles of chemical weapons could be used against Israel.