Syria

[American Patriot]

And the crap storm is getting deeper, not directly related to Syria, but to Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood this just hit the wires:

Muslim Brotherhood official, former Clinton Foundation employee arrested in Cairo

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

• Enlarge Photo
  Gehad el-Haddad.

Before emerging as a top Brotherhood official and adviser to Morsi, el-Haddad served for five years as a top official at the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit group founded by former President Bill Clinton.




El-Haddad gained a reputation for pushing the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamist agenda in the foreign press, where he was often quoted defending the Brotherhood’s crackdown on civil liberties in Egypt.


He was raised in a family of prominent Brotherhood supporters and became the public face of the Islamist organization soon after leaving his post at the Clinton Foundation.
However, much of his official work with the Brotherhood took place while he was still claiming to be employed by the Clinton Foundation.


“It was only a matter of time before Gehad el-Haddad was arrested,” Egypt expert Eric Trager told the Washington Free Beacon. “Many of the other Muslim Brotherhood spokesmen have been apprehended, and in addition to decapitating the organization, the military-backed government has been specifically targeting the Brotherhood’s media wing, including by shutting down its T.V. stations at the time of Morsi’s ouster on July 3.”


“It has also gone after those connected to Morsi’s presidential office, and Gehad’s father is Morsi adviser and Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Office member Essam el-Haddad,” noted Trager, a next generation fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP).


El-Haddad’s father was a top foreign policy adviser for Morsi until both were apprehended by Egyptian security personnel.

El-Haddad’s arrest sparked outrage among Brotherhood supporters, scores of whom have taken to the street in protest in the weeks since Morsi was removed from office and seized by the Egyptian military.


“We are thinking about you and you are in our prayers,” one supporter wrote on Twitter Wednesday.


“Freedom for #gehad el haddad,” tweeted another.
El-Haddad served as the Clinton Foundation’s city director from August 2007 to August 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile.


Just a month after El-Haddad left the Clinton Foundation to work full-time for the Brotherhood, former President Morsi was invited to deliver his first major speech at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), the high profile political family’s other nonprofit.


El-Haddad’s employment at the Clinton Foundation overlapped with his official work for the Muslim Brotherhood, which began in Cairo in February 2011 when he assumed control of the Renaissance Project, a Brotherhood-backed economic recovery program.


El-Haddad officially became a senior adviser for foreign affairs in Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party in May 2011, when he was still claiming to be employed by the Clinton Foundation.


El-Haddad was quoted in the Guardian newspaper in March 2012 as “one of the Brotherhood’s senior advisers.” USA Today referred to him as “a senior adviser to the Muslim Brotherhood” in May 2012.


El-Haddad was “charged with developing a long-term economic recovery program,” known as the Renaissance Project, during his time as senior adviser.


Egyptian media reported in July 2012 that the program was actually meant to bring the country more in line with the Muslim Brotherhoods extremist religious ideals.


“Renaissance is far more than the electoral program of President Mohamed Morsi or the Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party,” the Egypt Independent reported at the time. “It is a 25-year project to reform state, business and civil society, rooted in the Brotherhood’s Islamic values but conditioned by the experiences of the project’s founders in the modern economy.”


Haddad told the Independent that he applied the knowledge he learned at the Clinton Foundation to his work at the Renaissance Project.


“The Clinton Climate Initiative taught Haddad about managing an NGO and the role that civil society takes between the state and private sector, lessons he is applying to the Renaissance Project,” the report states.


El-Haddad represented the Clinton Foundation’s Clinton Climate Initiative in Egypt during his overlapping tenure, according to his LinkedIn profile.


He additionally “setup the foundation’s office in Egypt and managed official registration,” “supervised policy-making workshops & presented foundations views,” and “presented projects to high-level government officials,” among many other duties.


El-Haddad left the Clinton Foundation in August 2012, two months after Morsi assumed the Egyptian presidency.


He was appointed a “senior adviser and media spokesman” to the Muslim Brotherhood in January 2013 and served in that role until his arrest.


El-Haddad regularly defended the Brotherhood’s authoritarian crackdown on civil society, even running damage control in December 2012 when Morsi supporters attacked women and children.


When widespread Democratic protests broke out on June 30, El-Haddad referred to the demonstrators as violent thugs in an interview with the Free Beacon.


“The anti-Morsi camp are providing a political endorsement to the violence,” he said at the time. “Some have resorted to violence because they didn’t do well at the ballot box.”


El-Haddad did not respond to an email request for comment sent shortly after reports emerged of his arrest.


The Clinton Foundation did not respond to multiple requests for comment on El-Haddad’s employment and arrest.



Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz2fGyQNdtj
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

[American Patriot]

Rami al-Lolah‏@RamiAlLolah4h
#PT #BreakingNews #Turkey FM #Davutoglu: + who don't have a share in the bloodshed, "legitimate" and "moderate" opposition leaders. #Syria

Rami al-Lolah‏@RamiAlLolah4h
#BreakingNews #Turkey FM #Davutoglu: Negotiations for a "new #Syria" could be successfully held only between those members of the regime +



Rami al-Lolah‏@RamiAlLolah5h
#BreakingNews Novosti: 3 #Russian naval warships started mobilizing to Gulf of Aden!

Doug Pologe‏@DougPologe20m
Iranian Navy’s 27th fleet has docked in Port Sudan "to provide security for Iranian oil tankers and commercial ships" http://www.tehrantimes.com/politics/...-in-port-sudan …

Russian Missile Cruiser Variag Heads to Pacific Al-Manar TV-4 hours ago

Local Editor

Russian warships started on Wednesday moving to the Indian Ocean, spokesman of the leadership of the Russian Pacific Fleet Colonel Roman Martov said. The fleet consists of Variag-type missile cruiser, SB-522 Navy Tanker and Boris Botoma carrier. According to Martov, the fleet will enter the South China Sea in the near future, while missile cruiser Variag will enter the Gulf of Aden area in early October. On their way, Russian ships will visit the ports of Sri Lanka, he indicated. Martov also noted that a group of 5 vessels, belonging to the Russian Pacific Fleet and led by anti-submarine vessel Admiral Pantilyev, has been implementing tasks in the Mediterranean region for five months. The fleet left its base of Vladivostok in March last year to form the nucleus of Russian Navy ships in the Mediterranean, he added. The spokesman said that two Russian landing ships Berisvi and Admiral Nevelsqui which accomplished their missions in Mediterranean are moving now to the Russian port of Novorossiysk in the Black Sea. "Ten Russian warships of the Pacific Fleet are currently functioning in various regions of the global ocean," Martov went on to say.

[American Patriot]

Iranian Naval Vessels Dock in Port Sudan

September 18, 2013 by American Patriot
Iranian Navy’s 27th fleet has docked in Port Sudan “to provide security for Iranian oil tankers and commercial ships”
Wed Sep 18, 2013 2:54





TEHRAN (FNA)- An Iranian fleet of warships sailing in free waters to provide a safe passage for the country’s cargo ships and oil tankers berthed in Sudan’s port.
The Iranian Navy reported on Wednesday that its 27th fleet of warships comprising Khark helicopter carrier and Sabalan destroyer berthed in Sudan’s city of Port after a one-month sailing of 2,600 miles in order to send Tehran’s message of peace and friendship to the regional states and strengthen ties with Khartoum.
On its path to Sudan, the flotilla of warships intercepted over 43 military units and escorted more than 14 cargo ships and oil tankers.
The Iranian Navy in August dispatched its 27th flotilla of warships to the high seas to protect the country’s cargo ships and oil tankers against pirates.
Iran’s Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said the 27th fleet was dispatched after the return of the 26th fleet of the Iranian Navy, comprised of the Bandar Abbas warship and the Alvand destroyer returned home.
Sayyari also said that the mission of the warships is to provide security for Iranian oil tankers and commercial ships sailing on the open seas.
He added that the 26th Fleet had operated in the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and the Northern Indian Ocean during its mission on the open seas and visited a number of ports in Oman and Djibouti.
The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.
According to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even with prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates.
The Gulf of Aden – which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea – is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West via the Suez Canal.

[vector7]

Jordan's king calls for China to exercise influence in resolving Syrian crisis

Published September 18, 2013 /
Associated Press



BEIJING – Jordan's King Abdullah is calling on China to exercise its influence to help resolve the conflict in Syria.

Abdullah made his appeal in his opening remarks at a meeting Wednesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a state visit to China. Abdullah praised relations between the two countries and said they shared a commitment to promoting progress on global issues of concern.

Abdullah then referred to the Syria conflict specifically, saying China was in a position to use its influence as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and a "friend of Jordan and the Middle East."

Beijing has called for a political settlement to the more than two-year-old conflict in Syria and joined Russia in blocking moves at the United Nations that could lead to the regime's removal.

Yesterday, 23:14
Russian, Chinese diplomats discuss Syria in Moscow

© Collage: Voice of Russia

A Russian deputy foreign minister met with the Chinese ambassador to Moscow on Wednesday to discuss recent developments in Syria and the chemical-weapons-disarmament deal.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Russian president’s Middle East envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, and China’s ambassador to Moscow, Li Hui, “confirmed the importance of close [and] efficient coordination between Russia and China on the Syrian issue, within the framework of the UN Security Council and other international institutions.”

According to the ministry, the diplomats discussed the Russian-US agreement under which all chemical weapons in Syria would be made available to international inspectors by November and destroyed by mid-2014.

Voice of Russia, RIA Novosti

[BRVoice]

Jenan Moussaþ@jenanmoussa2m
#BREAKING. AlQaeda linked group ISIS attacking Bab AlSalamah border post on #Turkey #Syria border now acc to activists.

Jenan Moussa‏@jenanmoussa1m
I just spoke 2 FSA leader, asked if he plans 2 go 2 Azaz. Says "We're stuck. If we send men 2 fight ISIS, frontline w\ Assad might collapse"

Wladimir ‏@vvanwilgenburg16m
Islamists Sending Reinforcements to Tel Ebyad http://dlvr.it/401t4P

Doug Pologe‏@DougPologe8m
@vvanwilgenburg Trying to keep track of who's fighting with whom in northern Syria is getting *really* complicated.


Abdullah Al Ansari@AlNusrawi
Reports that Firqa 11 al Amila in Raqqa has given Bayah and joined Jabhat al Nusra

Liz Sly‏@LizSly8m
ISIS making enemies not only in Syria. In Iraq, jihadi Ansar al-Islam declares war, saying: "they were aggressors to us." (@siteintelgroup )
Retweeted by Jenan Moussa

Jenan Moussa‏@jenanmoussa19s
I just spoke 2 eyewitness close 2 Azaz. He tells me AlQaeda linked group ISIS bringing reinforcements to town incl. 3 anti aircraft guns.


Jenan Moussa‏@jenanmoussa18m
Im waiting for a list that has names of FSA brigades who now arrived in Azaz to fight ISIS. Will tweet names the moment I get them. @akhbar

Jenan Moussa‏@jenanmoussa21m
#Breaking: Reinforcements from FSA brigades started arriving in #Azaz to support Northern Storm rebels against AlQaeda linked ISIS. @akhbar

michaeldweiss‏@michaeldweiss4m
Meetings at all levels of FSA. Rebels caught completely by surprise by ISIS attack. Reinforcements sent as show of force. No one knows if...

michaeldweiss‏@michaeldweiss3m
A deal can be struck or what. But rebels preparing "plan of action." This from trusted source.

[American Patriot]

Turkey shuts border gate after clashes on Syrian side




ANKARA | Thu Sep 19, 2013 6:56am EDT




(Reuters) - Turkey has closed one of its border gates to Syria after an al Qaeda-affiliated rebel group clashed with units of the Arab- and Western-backed Free Syrian Army in the Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish frontier, a Turkish official said on Thursday.


"The Oncupinar border gate has been closed for security reasons as there is still confusion about what is happening on the Syrian side. All humanitarian assistance that normally goes through the gate has ceased," the official told Reuters.


While Turkey says it normally operates an open door policy, allowing Syrian refugees to cross freely into its territory, from time to time it temporarily closes its border crossings following clashes near its frontier.


The Oncupinar crossing in Turkey's Kilis province sits opposite the Syrian Bab al-Salameh gate, and around 5 km (3 miles) from Azaz. The official said he was not aware of any clashes at the crossing itself, which fell into rebel hands last year.


The clashes in Azaz had now stopped and mediation efforts appeared to be under way, he said.


The emergence of al Qaeda-linked fighters along its 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria, within striking distance of Turkish territory, is a nightmare scenario for Ankara.


Turkey has been one of the strongest backers of the Syrian rebels, giving them shelter on its soil. It denies arming them, but fighters including militant Islamists have been able to cross its porous border into Syria.


Turkey says it does not favor any particular group in the opposition and has strongly denied accusations it has directly assisted more radical elements, especially in their fight against Kurdish rebels on Syria's northeastern border.


Violence has repeatedly spilled over the border.


Fifty-two people were killed when twin car bombs ripped through the Turkish border town of Reyhanli in the southern province of Hatay on May 11, three months after a similar blast killed more than a dozen at the border gate.


Turkey accused Syria of involvement in the May bombings, a charge Damascus denies, but others said the attacks could have been the work of one of the rebel factions, which include the al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra.

[American Patriot]

• September 14, 2013, 1:30 p.m. ET

U.S. Says Warships Will Remain

• By
• JULIAN E. BARNES
• CONNECT

WASHINGTON—The Pentagon said Saturday that it is keeping its warships in place around the Middle East despite diplomatic progress on Syria, arguing the "credible threat" of U.S. military action was vital to the diplomatic process.


U.S. and Russian negotiators announced Saturday they had reached a framework agreement to strip the Syrian government of its chemical weapons by early in 2014.


Following word of the agreement, Pentagon officials announced the U.S. had not made any changes to its "force posture."


"The credible threat of military force has been key to driving diplomatic progress, and it's important that the Assad regime lives up to its obligations under the framework agreement," Press Secretary George Little said.


On Thursday, the Pentagon announced the USS Barry, a destroyer deployed in the Mediterranean Sea, and the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier deployed to the Red Sea, would remain in place beyond their scheduled deployments. Officials said the Nimitz would stay in place for at least two weeks.


Although Pentagon officials had not planned to use the Nimitz in any initial strike on Syria, officials privately said that removing an aircraft carrier at this point in the crisis would send a strategic message, possibly signaling to the Syrian government that the threat of a strike was diminished.


U.S. officials concede with a draft diplomatic agreement in place, the possibility of military action has been dramatically reduced—especially given that Washington backed off its demand that a U.N. resolution carry the threat of force if Syria reneges on a deal to give up its chemical weapons.


Some defense officials said they expect the Nimitz to depart the Red Sea in a matter of weeks. But the U.S. typically keeps two or three destroyers in the region to protect Israel and other allies from the threat of a missile attack from Iran.


Military officials said that means the U.S. can easily keep pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad without redeploying many assets.

[American Patriot]

Russian Mediterranean fleet to be expanded to 11 warships

Published time: September 16, 2013 18:23
Edited time: September 17, 2013 11:23 Get short URL

The Yamal large landing craft (RIA Novosti/Alexey Kudenko)

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The Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea will be boosted by another military vessel till the end of September, according to the country’s Black Sea Fleet command.
The large landing ship, Yamal, is set to depart from the port of Sevastopol, Ukraine by the end of the month to join the 10 vessels Russia already has in Mediterranean waters.

“The Yamal’s crew has completed preparations for relocation to the Mediterranean Sea,” Captain Vyacheslav Trukhachev, the Black Sea Fleet information chief told ITAR-TASS news agency. “As part of the preparatory period, the ship has performed several drive outs, which included target practice on sea and land.”

The Yamal will represent the country at the annual ‘Russian Weeks’ forum in Greece, which this year will be hosted by the Ionian Islands.

The large landing ship – commanded by Captain Sergey Gritsay – is also expected to be called to the Greek port of Pylos and to visit Montenegro, Trukhachev added.

The Yamal vessel, which has been in service since 1988, is designed for landing operations and the transportation of military personnel and cargo. It’s able to carry up to 250 troops and 10 tanks.

Russia began military build-up in the Mediterranean in 2012, establishing a constant presence in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea since December last year.

On May 1, all of the country’s battleships operating in the area were assigned to a single task force under special offshore maritime zone operation command.

Currently there are ten Russian warships deployed in the Mediterranean: large landing ships 'Aleksandr Shabalin’, ‘Admiral Nevelskoy’, ‘Peresvet’, ‘Novocherkassk’, ‘Minsk’ and ‘Nikolay Fylchenkov’; large anti-submarine ship ‘Admiral Panteleyev’; escort vessel ‘Neustrashimy’; guard patrol ship ‘Smetlivy’ and guided-missile cruiser ‘Moskva’. MAKE SURE

The mounting pressure around Syria has seen naval forces both friendly and hostile to Damascus building up off the country’s coastline.

Besides the Russian warships, there are US aircraft carriers ‘Nimitz’ and ‘Harry S. Truman’; guided-missile cruiser ‘Gettysburg’ and ‘San Jacinto’ and a number of other American military vessels deployed in the area.

The French navy frigate ‘Chevalier Paul’, which specializes in anti-missile capabilities, is also in the Mediterranean Sea.

[American Patriot]

Can't get to the whole page from here.

Three Russian warships head to Indian Ocean

Xinhua

- ‎13 hours ago‎

MOSCOW, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- A group of warships from Russia's Pacific Fleet are heading to the Indian Ocean, the Russian Navy said Wednesday. "Missile cruiser Varyag heads to the Indian Ocean to conduct scheduled operations," a source with the ...

[American Patriot]

Kerry on TV.

UN "report" "verifies" what the US said all along.

Now "UN Security Council" has until next week to do "something". (Or else? We go to work?)

Pat Sajak sends:

Putin: "I'd like to buy a vowel." Sajak: "Only an O left." Putin: "Never mind. I already own that one."
—
Pat Sajak (@patsajak) September 19, 2013

[American Patriot]

Yup, FNC asking "Or Else What?"

Kerry didn't address that answer.

[American Patriot]

Syria crisis: West backs down on demand for threat of war in UN resolution

The move means intervention in the conflict is unlikely in the near future

David Usborne

Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Britain, France and the United States are ready to back down from a demand that a Security Council resolution on removing chemical weapons from Syria include the threat of military force if the Syrian government does not comply, senior sources have indicated.


The decision could smooth the path to the adoption of the resolution possibly as early as this weekend, and may remove the threat of Western intervention in the civil war there in the immediate future.


Russia, which has veto power, has remained staunchly opposed to any suggestion that it might authorise the potential use of force under Chapter 7 of the UN charter in the event of non-compliance by the regime.


A top diplomat at the UN said he was “optimistic” that Russia, with China following behind, would thus be bought on board for the resolution just in time for the start next week of the UN’s annual General Assembly attended by leaders of most of the world’s nations. It does not mean, however, that authorisation for the use of force might not be sought in a subsequent resolution. Nor would it bar the US from launching its own unilateral strikes without UN authorisation if it chose to.


Discussions are also under way in New York to enable the Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to announce during next week’s sessions a start-date in October for broader political peace talks, dubbed Geneva 2, even though hurdles remain in persuading all parties, including wary opposition groups, to attend.


Hitherto, the signals from Western capitals about what enforcement mechanisms would be in the resolution have been ambiguous. On Tuesday on Capitol Hill, the Secretary of State John Kerry said the Geneva pact “will happen only with the United Nations passing a strong resolution”, adding: “It is important that that threat of force stay on the table in order to guarantee the compliance of the Assad regime.”


But the diplomat, who is intimately familiar with the Security Council machinations on the issue, was clear. “We are not asking for a resolution that includes military force,” he said, insisting that the Russians had no grounds, therefore, for their continuing public hand-wringing about what the UN resolution might say about the punishment of Syria should it fail to comply.


“The idea that we are on an escalator that leads to military force, or even sanctions, is completely false,” he emphasised. And making what seemed like an obvious reference to the harsh rhetoric emanating today from Moscow, he said: “We all need to try to calm down.”


Yet the passing of the resolution – without which the Geneva framework agreement would have no standing in law – is still not guaranteed. The atmosphere in New York has been soured not just by Russian resistance to any language on military force but more importantly by the presentation on Monday of the UN inspectors’ report on the 21 August chemical weapons attacks.


While Western capitals have said the report leaves no doubt that the regime was responsible for the attacks, Russia has continued to insist it contains no such evidence and that the munitions containing sarin gas were probably fired instead by rebels to draw the US into the war.


“Without receiving a full picture of what is happening here, it is impossible to call the nature of the conclusions reached by the UN experts anything but politicised, preconceived and one-sided,” the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in Moscow tonight.


The Russian position has left many exasperated. Drawn up by the lead inspector Ake Sellstrom of Sweden, the report “made it abundantly clear that it was the regime that did this and to suggest otherwise is completely fanciful and shows a wilful blindness to all the evidence,” one senior UN diplomat said here. “It shows the desperation of Syria and indeed the Russians.”


It is possible that the Russians will attempt to block a resolution that has any reference to Chapter 7. But the three Western permanent members of the Council will make it clear that use of Chapter 7 does not itself imply authorising force. Rather, the text is likely only to make reference to article 41 of Chapter 7 that rules it out. It states that “the Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the members of the United Nations to apply such measures”.


A subsequent article that would authorise force would be excluded and not cited in the text precisely to allay Russian fears. Indeed, one source said tonight that, should Russia want to go further and demand the insertion of language explicitly excluding the use of force in the resolution, “we would consider that”.


While final obstacles to adopting the resolution were being tackled in closed-door talks between the permanent five members of the Security Council, the timetable to final adoption by all 15 members was being held up by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, OPCW, in The Hague, which first must agree the terms of the US-Russia framework agreement reached in Geneva.


Next steps: Testing the pledge



* The 41-member Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, OPCW, is set to agree a text on Friday formalising the pact reached by John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov in Geneva with fine print on implementation, including schedules for inspectors and deadlines.


* Syria has until Saturday to submit a full declaration of its chemical arsenal to the OPCW, which is the overseer of the Chemical Weapons Convention.


* The UN Security Council will try to adopt a resolution that gives legal force to the obligations on Syria as early as this weekend.


* The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, may announce a date next week for the start in October of Syrian peace talks.


* Ake Sellstrom, the chief UN inspector, will return to Syria to continue investigating chemical weapons violations.

France and Russia among countries not giving 'fair share' to Syria crisis appeals - but UK does its bit


Oxfam research reveals that many donor countries are failing to provide their share of the urgently needed funding for the humanitarian response to the Syria crisis.


While the need for a political solution to the crisis is as urgent as ever, Oxfam says donors must also prioritise funding the UN's £3bn ($5bn) appeals. Qatar and Russia have both committed just 3 per cent of their 'fair share' for the humanitarian effort, while France is struggling to reach half of its fair share (47 per cent).


In contrast, the UK has given 154 per cent of its fair share and Kuwait tops the league table with 461 per cent.


The research, released in advance of next Wednesday's high-level donor meeting in New York calculates the amount of aid that should be given according to a country's Gross National Income and its overall wealth.


The US is currently the largest donor to the UN appeals, giving 63 per cent of its fair share, but 'must do more' to help those affected by the Syrian conflict, the study adds.

[vector7]

Obama’s Syrian Rebels Dismembered a Little Girl With a Saw, WHILE She Was Alive

September 12, 2013 | Filed Under al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Christianity, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Foreign Policy, Government, Corruption, Islam, Islamofascism, Jihad, Koran, Liberals, President, Progressives, Religion, Syria, Terrorism, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston



The Syrian rebels that Obama wants to help have been accused of dismembering a precious little girl with a hand saw, WHILE she was still alive. These are the people that Barack Obama thinks are the good guys in Syria.

This is being recorded more every day as Obama’s al Qaeda-backed rebels are sweeping through ares not controlled by the brutal Assad regime and murdering everyone that won’t pledge allegiance to radical Islam.

The horrendous story comes from Mother Agnes Mariam el-Salib, a Catholic nun and mother superior of St. James Monastery in Qara, Syria.

Mother Agnes reported on the massacres of the Alawite minority and Christians perpetrated by Obama’s radical Muslim “rebels” in Syria.

In the village of Estreba they massacred all the residents and burnt down their houses. In the village of al-Khratta almost all the 37 locals were killed. Only ten people were able to escape.

A total of twelve Alawite villages were subjected to this horrendous attack. That was a true slaughterhouse.

People were mutilated and beheaded. There is even a video that shows a girl being dismembered alive – alive! – by a frame saw. The final death toll exceeded 400, with 150 to 200 people taken hostage. Later some of the hostages were killed, their deaths filmed.

Sadly, there are no “good guys” in Syria.

We either support a brutal dictator (by at the very least not opposing him) or we back the rebels trying to eliminate Assad but turn a blind eye to the atrocities and murders they are committing on Christians and other minorities.


Syrian “Moderate” Rebels Cut Off Her Christian Limbs With a Frame Saw, Murdered 22 Women and Children In Christian Village, and Obama Rewards Those “Moderates” With Weapons….

Posted on September 12, 2013 by sundance


(VIA RT) Mother Agnes, a catholic nun, who has been living in Syria for 20 years and has been reporting actively on what has been going on in the war-ravaged country, says she carefully studied the video featuring allegedly victims of the chemical weapons attack in the Syrian village of Guta in August and now questions its authenticity. [...] Mother Agnes: In the village of Estreba they massacred all the residents and burnt down their houses. In the village of al-Khratta almost all the 37 locals were killed. Only ten people were able to escape.



A total of twelve Alawite villages were subjected to this horrendous attack. That was a true slaughterhouse. People were mutilated and beheaded. There is even a video that shows a girl being dismembered alive – alive! – by a frame saw. The final death toll exceeded 400, with 150 to 200 people taken hostage. Later some of the hostages were killed, their deaths filmed.

At the moment we are looking for the hostages and negotiating their release with the militants, but so far we haven’t managed to achieve that.
RT: We often hear reports of Christians being persecuted by the militants. Just the day before yesterday there was an attack in the village of Maaloula, where the majority of population is Christian. Are Christians in Syria facing grave danger?

Mother Agnes: Everyone in Syria is facing grave danger. There was a case of Muslim religious leaders being kidnapped and beheaded. They were humiliated and tortured. Ismailis, the druze, Christians – people from all parts of Syrian society – are being mass murdered. I would like to say that if these butchers didn’t have international support, no one would have dared to cross the line. But today, unfortunately, the violation of human rights and genocide in Syria is covered up on the international level.

I demand the international community stops assessing the situation in Syria in accordance with the interests of a certain group of great powers. The Syrian people are being killed. They fall victim to contractors, who are provided with weapons and sent to Syria to kill as many people as possible. The truth is, everywhere in Syria people are being kidnapped, tortured, raped and robbed. These crimes remain unpunished, because the key powers chose international terrorism as a way to destroy sovereign states. They’ve done it to other countries. And they will just keep doing it if the international community doesn’t say “Enough!” (read more)



BEIRUT, Sept 12 (Reuters) – The death toll from an alleged massacre in an Alawite village in central Syria has risen to 22, including women, children and elderly men, a rights monitoring group said on Thursday.

The minority Alawite sect to which President Bashar al-Assad and most of Syria’s elite belong is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam whose members have increasingly been targeted by radical fighters among the Sunni Muslim-dominated opposition in the 2-1/2-year revolt against Assad.



Fighters from the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front shot dead 16 Alawites and six Arab Bedouins on Tuesday after storming the village of Maksar al-Hesan, east of the city of Homs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is opposed to Assad. The British-based Observatory said the victims included seven women, three men over the age of 65, and four children under the age of 16, citing residents and medics.

Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory, said the victims had been shot in their homes, and that they were not members of any pro-Assad militias. Activists in Homs had said on Wednesday that the dead were all from pro-government militias.

Al Qaeda-linked groups have launched an “Eye for an Eye” campaign, which they say is to take revenge for an apparent chemical weapons attack in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus in which of civilians died. The opposition and Western powers blame Assad’s forces for the strike. (continue reading)

[American Patriot]

Vol. 77/No. 37 October 21, 2013

US warships stand ready off Syria
as media plays up ‘peace’ talk plans
(front page)

BY JOHN STUDER
While most of the big-business media coverage on Syria is focused on the Washington-Moscow negotiations and plans for a possible U.N.-sponsored “peace” conference in November, USA Today reported Sept. 23 that the Assad regime “still has the attention of a key America audience: The U.S. Navy.” Defense Secretary John Kerry praised Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for progress in the deal brokered by Moscow toward decommissioning the Syrian military’s chemical weapons — at least those not moved out of the country or otherwise hidden — as “a credit to the Assad regime.” Meanwhile, armed forces backing the Assad government are stepping up a series of sieges aimed at crushing resistance in the suburban neighborhoods of Moadhamiya and Zamalka, both of which were hit by sarin gas attacks Aug. 21.
The U.S. has deployed a sizable naval armada around Syria. Five destroyers, an unspecified number of submarines and the USS San Antonio, an amphibious troop-landing vessel carrying 600 Marines, are off Syria’s Mediterranean coast. A Strike Group led by the nuclear-powered USS Nimitz aircraft carrier was diverted to the Red Sea in September.
Washington also deployed to the Red Sea the USS Kearsarge, a large-deck amphibious warship armed with 16 Harrier and Osprey aircraft, helicopters and 3,000 Marines and naval troops. Washington used the Kearsarge to launch airstrikes against Libya in 2011.
Syrian government troops from the 4th Army Division and the paramilitary National Defense Force are “tightening the noose around one of the suburbs gassed by chemical weapons in August,” the Oct. 2 Wall Street Journal reported.
There are some 12,000 people in Moadhamiya, near Damascus. “We won’t allow them to be nourished,” one paramilitary commando told the Journal.
The neighborhood has been without electricity or telephone service for months and water supplies are running short. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent has made numerous efforts to bring food to the area, but has been rebuffed by government forces each time.
It’s the same story in Zamalka, a suburb in Ghouta where pro-government shelling and sniper fire comes in daily.
Workers there have organized a network of committees to take on medical care, communications, humanitarian relief, education, sanitation and “something that approximates the rule of law,” Reuters reported Oct. 4. With all the schools bombed out by the regime, residents have organized “revolutionary education” centers.
Roughly one-third of Syrians have been forced out of their homes since the Assad regime launched its scorched-earth assaults to crush anti-government protests by workers, peasants and youth beginning in 2011. More than 2 million have been driven out of the country.
In September 2012 there were 300,000 refugees. There were 1 million in March and 2 million in September this year.
More than 1 million have fled to Lebanon where today roughly one out of every four people is Syrian.
Some 600,000 are in Jordan, making up 10 percent of the population, 120,000 in the U.N.’s Zaatari camp on the Syrian border. Rents in the capital Amman have doubled. The population of the town of Mafraq has doubled to 250,000. The Jordanian monarchy has asked Washington to quietly build up its military presence in the country.
Half a million Syrian refugees are in Turkey and 100,000 in Egypt. Some 200,000 Syrian Kurds have gone to Iraq, many fleeing stepped-up attacks by Islamist Jihadists seeking to carve out territory.
In Syria, entire industries have come to a standstill. Three-quarters of the factories in Aleppo, the country’s most industrial city, are no longer operating. Textile, one of Syria’s largest industries, has lost $88 million in destroyed plant and production.
The bulk of Syrian capitalists continue to back Assad. “They look at the countryside and think: What if these people win?” Joshua Landis, a U.S. professor, told the New York Times. “Are they going to respect capitalism? Are they going to preserve our wealth?”


Related articles:
US Special Forces carry out raids in Somalia, Libya

[American Patriot]

Breaking news.

Israel has attacked a missile storage site in Syria. The storage contained missiles from Russia.

This information came directly out of Washington, not any foreign news or government source.

I have no further information at this time.

[Malsua]

Breaking news.

Israel has attacked a missile storage site in Syria. The storage contained missiles from Russia.

This information came directly out of Washington, not any foreign news or government source.

I have no further information at this time.

Gotta love proxy wars.

[Avvakum]

The Moslem Brotherhood is in it for the long haul to overthrow the Baathist Government in Syria;

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A Brotherhood Vision for Syria

In conversation with the former leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood

Ali Sadreddine Al-Bayanouni speaks with The Majalla about the Syrian crisis, the role Islamist groups are playing on the ground, and his hopes for his country after the revolution.
Ali Al-Bayanouni. (Tam Hussein)

In Syria, Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups have gradually emerged as one of the main threats to the survival of the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad. Ironically, however, the presence of thousands of jihadists—always talked up by the pro-Assad media—has also provided the struggling Syrian government with a card to play. The willingness of Western governments to become more actively involved in the Syrian conflict in support of the rebels, particularly through the supply of lethal weapons, suffered a setback due to the mere possibility of those weapons falling into the hands of jihadist groups.
The spectrum of violent Islamism has long offered the Ba’ath Party a narrative through which Syria’s governing party has justified its legitimacy. Among other Islamist groups based in Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood has historically been the focus of the regime’s oppression. “We’ve been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s, and we are still fighting with them,” said the current president of Syria after the initial protests in Deraa. Most notably, a six-year-long uprising against the government of Hafez Al-Assad, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, was brutally crushed in 1982 in the western city of Hama.
Despite the brutality of the Syrian civil war, the Muslim Brotherhood has again become one of the main players on the ground, after years operating underground. The Majalla spoke with Ali Sadreddine Al-Bayanouni, the leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood from 1996 to 2010. Born into a pedigreed family of religious scholars in Aleppo, he became interested in the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood at the age of sixteen. He was encouraged to take part in the group by his father, Sheikh Ahmed Izzedin Al-Bayanouni. While his father preferred Sufism and the duties of running a mosque, the young Bayanouni soon began his political activities in earnest.
In 1979—during the Islamist insurgency in Syria—Bayanouni’s family were targeted by the government and then sent into exile. Nevertheless, he is a tenacious man who has secretly entered Syria several times. From 1980 onwards he lived in exile in Jordan, pursuing his political activities. But the Hashemite Kingdom’s relationship with Syria gradually improved, and in 2000 Bayanouni was informed during a visit to the UK that he could not return to Jordan. Consequently, he sought refuge in the UK and now resides in London.
The Majalla: What is your analysis of the current situation in Syria?
I am optimistic. It is natural that after fifty years of this oppressive regime, it’s not going to be easy. The regime’s violence and the Hama massacre have left a scar on the minds of many. No one could have imagined that there would be a revolution in Syria, but it happened. Syria, in many ways, has more of a right to revolt than Tunisia, Libya and Yemen. That it is taking so long is also natural. What is unnatural is that the international community has been so patient with the Assad regime, when it was not with Gaddafi or Ben Ali. Why?
Q: Don’t you think that the reason the West doesn’t want to get involved is because it is scared that Syria will turn into another Iraq?
The situation in Syria is different from Iraq. Rather, the international community does not want the revolution to succeed. They want to exhaust the people of Syria and the regime until the two are forced to come to a political solution; this political solution will be based on the regime being in place, but it has different faces.
Q: What do you think of the position of the US and Britain?
They are not with the Syrian people. It has become a case of self-interest, and when the [Assad] regime handed over their chemicals they abandoned the Syrian people because this regime serves the security of Israel. No one cares about the Syrian people.
Q: What is your position on the Islamist brigades and the Free Syrian Army brigades?
Our position is to help the people of Syria and all the brigades against the regime, irrespective of creed or ideology. But we do not accept Takfirists [those who deem other Muslims apostates], nor do we accept foreigners coming and enforcing their vision on the Syrian people.
Q: So do you agree with Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who called on Sunnis with military experience to go and fight?
We don’t object to that, but it is not for them to interfere in Syria’s destiny. The Syrian people know best what is needed for their future. Syrians do not need foreign fighters, but if they come to help they are welcome as long as they don’t come to decide Syria’s future.
Q: Should we be scared of brigades like Ahrar Al-Sham or the Al-Nusra Front and others?
The truth is that this is not about religious hardliners, but about the Islamic character of the revolution. That scares a lot of people. Many do not want Islam’s ascendancy in Syria, and this is why they want to exhaust all sides: so there can be a political solution. I believe there is no fear of extremism, because Syrians are moderate by nature and if there is extremism they are a small minority.
Q: If the regime falls, will the Syrian Brotherhood not find itself in a similar situation to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood?
Certainly, there are attempts at counter-revolution in Egypt and Tunisia and other places. But I believe that Syrians are capable of realizing their aspirations democratically.
Q: You don’t envisage Syria turning into a scenario similar to Libya, with a multitude of brigades claiming to be the protectors of the revolution?
It is possible. There will be many threats because the regime killed any form of political life in Syria over the last fifty years. The presence of extremists has also created this situation; however, the Syrian people are able to overcome these challenges and realize their democratic ambitions.
Q: Many Islamist brigades do not recognize a democratic Syria. How is the Syrian Brotherhood, who claim to believe in democracy, going to convince them?
We have the political experience to deal with this vacuum. Most moderate Syrians will accept democracy because it is a tool to choose, remove or appoint a leader. This does not contradict Islamic governance and exists within Islamic tradition [since] the time of the Prophet.
Q: You have established a new party, the Syrian Waad Party. What is the thinking behind it?
We did not establish it, we cooperated with other groups—Islamic and non-Islamic ones—the only condition being that all accept that Islam is the source.
Q: Why is your new party different? Some argue that these are just cosmetic changes to the same policy.
This is not like Freedom and Justice Party [which is considered the Egyptian political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood], rather, we are a part of a new party. We are cooperating with others. We have a third [of the membership], other Islamists have a third and the rest will have a third. The latter could be secularists, Alawites, Christians and so on. This is what the party consists of. We believe that our politics can be best expressed through this party, and if it doesn’t work for our members we can always leave. You cannot judge this new experiment with the past, because there is no precedent for it.
Q: With regards to the Syrian Brotherhood’s vision, many Christians fear that it will not be inclusive of Christian sensibilities. How do you counter that?
We have good relations with Christians and others. We have lived side by side in coexistence and understanding with our Christian brethren. Sheikh Mustafa Sibai [one of the Syrian Brotherhood’s founders] used to have excellent relations with Faris Al-Khoury [former Syrian-Christian Prime Minister] and supported his candidacy. In the past, we have worked with Christian candidates under one banner. The minorities have never been threatened [by us], it is the regime that has created sectarianism for its political ends. Christians and Muslims are citizens, and this is an Islamic principle. All citizens are equal in terms of their rights and duties.
Q: Is it possible for a Christian to be leader of this new party?
Yes, this is possible if they are elected. Currently we have a Christian vice-president.
Q: The fighters on the ground in Syria have dismissed many of the opposition groups outside the country as not really representing their interests. What are your thoughts on this?
It is absolutely right for those on the ground to say that the opposition outside do not represent them. We [the Syrian Brotherhood] don’t claim that. We support the revolution and cooperate with the opposition, but it is not possible to dismiss the opposition outside as it is not possible to belittle the revolutionaries who are sacrificing their blood and lives. Our role is to support the revolution with whatever they need.
Q: Do you have your own brigades?
There are no Muslim Brotherhood brigades. However, there are people who are fighting in brigades who share our ideas. We do support and prefer brigades that are moderate and share our views.
Q: Should the government eventually be overthrown, there is fear that there will be another civil war in Syria. What are your thoughts on this?
This is a real fear, and the longer the conflict continues the greater the risk becomes. But the majority of the revolutionaries are ready to surrender their weapons once the revolution is over. There will be a small minority who will resist this, but I believe their reluctance will not be hard to overcome.
Q: What is your opinion of Turkey’s role in Syria?
Turkey has been the most supportive, both materially and morally, in the revolution. They continue to support the revolution without an agenda. They have suffered difficulties inside their own borders as a result, but they continue to help Syria. They recognize the danger of this regime remaining, and have tried in the past to encourage Assad to join the democratization process, but to no avail.
Q: Could you comment on the Kurdish situation in Syria?
Kurds have a right to express their identity through their language and culture, and they should have complete rights, like other Syrians. However, we will not accept the demand of extremist Kurdish nationalists who wish to split Syria up. As for any other issues pertaining to Kurdish rights, we will address them, but always within the framework of Syria’s territorial integrity.
Q: Has Hassan Rouhani’s ascendancy to the presidency of Iran affected things in Syria?
There is no change in the policy of Iran, [Iranian fighters] continue to fight with the Syrian regime [who support] them with weapons and wealth and brigades. [Iran] prefers its strategic needs over the Syrian people.
Q: Some analysts believe Hezbollah is compelled to fight because they are dependent on Iran. Can there ever be re-engagement between the Syrian Brotherhood and Hezbollah as fellow Islamists?
In the past there were no issues between us and them, when they directed their resistance against [Israel]. Syrians supported them in 2006 and opened up their doors and homes to Hezbollah, whether they were Shi’a or non-Shi’a. But when resistance turns within Lebanon and Syria into a sectarian weapon, [Hezbollah] becomes like an enemy.
Q: Some religious scholars say that you shouldn’t use Islam in politics, What do you say to that?
No-one has a monopoly on religious expression in Islam. There is no such thing as political Islam. Islam is Islam. In Islam there is politics, society, economics, inheritance and other things. Islam is a complete system. If you want politics without Islam, you will have something without ethics. We believe that Islam concerns itself with life—and that includes politics. This is why a separation of religion from state is impossible.
Q: What have you learned from failure of the Arab spring in Egypt?
The attempt to scupper the revolution [in Syria] has many reasons [behind it]. The rulers are scared of the people. They show the destruction of Syria to their people and say, ‘Woe to you if you revolt.’ The secularist rulers scare the people with fear of terrorism. They don’t want Islam to establish itself, and that is why they are fear-mongering and trying to make this revolution fail. But Islam is coming to Syria.
Q: Do you understand why the West is not keen on the Islamic movement?
The West has begun to realize that moderate Islam can actually prevent extremism. It is impossible to ignore the power of Islam in the Syrian revolution. It is a reality. I believe that in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the strength of the revolutionaries was Islam. The West will work with reality.

[Ryan Ruck]

Seymour Hersh Alleges Obama Administration Lied on Syria Gas Attack

December 8, 2013

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has dropped yet another bombshell allegation: President Obama wasn't honest with the American people when he blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a sarin-gas attack in that killed hundreds of civilians.

In early September, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States had proof that the nerve-gas attack was made on Assad's orders. "We know the Assad regime was responsible," President Obama told the nation in an address days after this revelation, which he said pushed him over the "red line" in considering military intervention.

But in a long story published Sunday for the London Review of Books, Hersh — best known for his exposés on the cover-ups of the My Lai Massacre and of Abu Ghraib – said the administration "cherry-picked intelligence," citing conversations with intelligence and military officials.

A former senior intelligence official told me that the Obama administration had altered the available information – in terms of its timing and sequence – to enable the president and his advisers to make intelligence retrieved days after the attack look as if it had been picked up and analysed in real time, as the attack was happening. The distortion, he said, reminded him of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, when the Johnson administration reversed the sequence of National Security Agency intercepts to justify one of the early bombings of North Vietnam. The same official said there was immense frustration inside the military and intelligence bureaucracy: ‘The guys are throwing their hands in the air and saying, “How can we help this guy” – Obama – “when he and his cronies in the White House make up the intelligence as they go along?”’

Here's what Hersh alleges:

The administration buried intelligence on the fundamentalist group/rebel group al-Nusra. It was seen, Hersh says, as an alarming threat by May, with the U.S. being aware of al-Nusra member able to make and use sarin, and yet the group – associated with the rebel opposition in Syria – was never considered a suspect in the sarin attacks. Hersh refers to a top-secret June cable sent to the deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency that said al-Nusra could acquire and use sarin. But the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of the Defense Intelligence Agency could not find the document in question, even when given its specific codes.

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, told a press conference: ‘It’s very important to note that only the [Assad] regime possesses sarin, and we have no evidence that the opposition possesses sarin.’

It is not known whether the highly classified reporting on al-Nusra was made available to Power’s office, but her comment was a reflection of the attitude that swept through the administration.

The administration was learning about the attack at roughly the same speed civilians were. Hersh says the thorough daily intelligence briefings in the days surrounding the gas attack did not make a single mention of Syria, even as videos and photos of the attack went viral across the Internet. He added that there was revealed a sensor system in Syria that had, in December 2012, shown sarin production at a chemical weapons depot arranged by the Syrian army. Though it was unclear whether this was a simulation or not – all militaries, Hersh says, practice simulations of such things – Obama promptly warned Syria that use of sarin gas would be "unacceptable."

‘If what the sensors saw last December was so important that the president had to call and say, “Knock it off,” why didn’t the president issue the same warning three days before the gas attack in August?’

The media succumbed to confirmation bias in response to a UN report on the attack. That report, which is less than certain in its terms, said that the spent weapon "indicatively matches" the specifics of a 330mm calibre artillery rocket. MIT professor Theodore Postol and other munitions experts later reviewed the photos and said that it was improvised, likely made locally, didn't match anything in the Syrian arsenal and would not have been able to travel the nine kilometres from the Syrian army base that the media presumed it was fired from.

Postol and a colleague, Richard M. Lloyd, published an analysis two weeks after 21 August in which they correctly assessed that the rockets involved carried a far greater payload of sarin than previously estimated. The Times reported on that analysis at length, describing Postol and Lloyd as ‘leading weapons experts’. The pair’s later study about the rockets’ flight paths and range, which contradicted previous Times reporting, was emailed to the newspaper last week; it has so far gone unreported.

Though a UN resolution nullified the chances of American military intervention, the impact would be significant if the allegations hold up; recall that President George W. Bush's legacy was deeply tainted by charges that the U.S. had no proof of nuclear weapons in Iraq when they said they did. Hersh hints at the seriousness of the charges himself: "The cherry-picking was similar to the process used to justify the Iraq war."

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/national/2013...attack/355899/

[Malsua]

Seymour Hersch is a dirtbag. I won't believe anything he writes, and if he said the sun is coming up tomorrow, I'd be concerned that it may have burned out.

[vector7]

Obama: Bibi is a Pain in the Ass



Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama are not known to have had a good relationship, but the American president seems to have taken it a bit too far.

In a new book that was released Tuesday, Obama is quoted as expressing what he really thinks about Netanyahu during his 2012 presidential campaign.

According to the book, “Double Down,” Obama said that “We all know Bibi Netanyahu is a pain in the ass” when discussing the conflict between the Israelis and the Arabs.

“Double Down” was written by MSNBC correspondents Mark Halperin and John Heilemann and it reveals behind-the-scenes political stories from the American presidential race in 2012.

The quote about Netanyahu by Obama, which was reportedly made during a meeting between the President and his aides a year before the elections, is the only time Israel is mentioned in the book.

Relations between Obama and Netanyahu were strained during Obama’s first term, with supporters of Obama accusing Netanyahu of interfering in the U.S. election in favor of Obama’s rival, Mitt Romney. Supporters of Netanyahu, meanwhile, accused Obama of trying to keep Netanyahu from being reelected last January.

Days before the last Israeli elections, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who is close to Obama, wrote that the President had said repeatedly that Israel does not know what its own best interests are.

Obama, according to Goldberg, had said that Netanyahu “is moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation” every time he announces new construction in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

Moscow announces Netanyahu to meet Putin in two weeks – as Kerry lands in Jerusalem




Shortly before US Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Jerusalem Tuesday night, Nov. 5, the Russian president’s office announced that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would pay a short working visit to Moscow on Nov. 20 for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

DEBKAfile’s sources: The Israeli leader has determined to explore the route trodden by Saudi Arabia, Gulf Emirates and Egypt, who – feeling let down by the Obama administration’s decision to pull out of the Middle East, and concerend by its outreach to Iran – turned to Moscow in search of closer diplomatic and military ties.

Although this was in Netanyahu’s mind for some time, Putin chose to announce his visit just as Kerry was to land in Jerusalem, attesting to Moscow’s eagerness to maintain the political and military momentum it has established in the Middle East.

Earlier Tuesday, Moscow announced that Geneva II, the conference for a political solution of the Syrian war, would not take place at the end of the month as scheduled.

Monday, DEBKAfile’s military sources revealed exclusively that Russia, with Saudi encouragement, was negotiating for a permanent berth for its warship in one of Egypt’s Mediterranean ports.

With the wheels of the region spinning at such speed, Netanyahu felt obliged to find out for himself what Israel had to gain from closer ties with Moscow. Russia is becoming more and more influential in determining Middle East affairs against the growing passivity of the Obama administration - a situation Israel cannot afford to ignore. Neither is Netanyahu indifferent to Putin's expanding role in developing the back-channel between Washington and Tehran.

Netanyahu last met Putin in May when he made the trip to the Black Sea resort of Sochi to urge the Russian leader not to supply Syria with S-300 anti-aircraft batteries.

The coming visit will have a wider agenda, including Syria and the ongoing negotiations with the Palestinians sponsored by the United States. But the most central issue will no doubt be Iran and its nuclear program. That visit will no doubt overshadow Secretary Kerry’s talks in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority and his reproof on the sluggish pace of their peace talks.

Netanyahu in Moscow: I Guarantee Iran Won’t Have Nuclear Weapons

By: Shalom Bear

Published: November 22nd, 2013


Netanyahu speaking to Jewish community leaders in Moscow. Photo Credit: Kobi Gideon/GPO/Flash90

Speaking to an audience of Jewish community leaders in Moscow on Thursday, Netanyahu stated that he guarantees that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, according to a report in Makor Rishon.

Israel has been has been threatening, almost explicitly, that any agreement signed with Iran will not restrict Israel from acting unilaterally to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear breakout capability.

Netanyahu’s remarks came in the footsteps of Washington’s overwhelming silence in response to the latest Antisemitic remarks emanating from Iran.

Netanyahu expects that an agreement will be signed in Geneva, if not this week, then the next. During Netanyahu’s meeting with Russian President Putin, he could not get Putin to back off from supporting the Geneva deal. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Netanyahu that Russia will not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.


Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet in the Kremlin in Moscow.

A senior Israeli official told Makor Rishon that Barack Obama is interested in Iran not having nuclear weapons while he sits in the White House, but it doesn’t bother him if they are at the edge of the breakout point.

The official reiterated that Israel’s position is that Iran must remove all capabilities for making nuclear weapons, while the US government only wants Iran to not assemble the weapon itself. In the meantime, Iran is demanding the right to continue to enrich uranium for “civilian purposes”, and wait until the world is distracted with some other problem, to put the bombs together. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has been warning, during an official visit to Canada, that Iran would use ‘dirty bombs’ in its terror war against Western targets.

Israel's Defense Minister Moshe (Boogie) Yaalon visits the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario. Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe (Boogie) Yaalon visits the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario.

White House officials are saying that Israeli demands that Iran stop all enrichment would lead to war, according to a JTA report. The report says that given the choice of no enrichment, the White House believes Iranians would choose to build a bomb. Which is exactly what Iran is going to try to do either way.

Opposing the White House is Senator Mark Kirk (R), who said that that Netanyahu’s assessment is correct, and that increasing, not reducing, sanctions at this point is what will force Iran to physically halt their nuclear weapons program.

Al Qaeda in Syria has sarin: Russia ready to deal with Syrian Al Qaeda plot against Sochi Olympics

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report December 8, 2013, 10:20 PM (IDT)
Tags: Al Qaeda Syria, Chechens, chemical weapons, Binyamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin, Sochi,


Chechens fighting under al Qaeda flag against Assad.

It was commonly assumed that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Vladimir Putin discussed the forthcoming Geneva nuclear accord with Iran when they met in Moscow on Nov. 20. But according to debkafile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources, they focused on two quite different topics.

One was possible Russian-Israeli military and intelligence cooperation against al Qaeda elements in Syria in which both are keenly interested. Israel is shoring up its defenses against potential cross-border terrorist attacks mounted from al Qaeda bases in Syria, while Putin has gone to great lengths to secure the high-prestige Winter Olympics taking place at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi Feb. 7-23.

The other topic of conversation was Moscow’s interest in a stake for Russian oil and gas companies in laying the pipelines for the export of Israeli offshore Mediterranean gas to European markets.

By mutual consent, the Iranian issue on which they are deeply divided was scarcely touched on.

Two weeks after their conversation, the ruler of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced Monday, Dec. 4, the formation of a special unit to deal with “Syrian radicals”- both within the North Caucasus republic and abroad.

He added: “Members of the special unit will be ready to interfere in the Syrian conflict if such operation is authorized by the Russian president.”

debkafile’s counter-terrorism sources explain that President Putin is loath to drop a Russian intervention force into Syria and risk upsetting his sensitive understandings with the Obama administration on Syria. He is therefore planning to send out a Chechen force to deal with the Chechens and other North Caucasian jihadists who are fighting under the al Qaeda flag in Syria and now gearing up, according to Russian and Syrian intelligence, for a spectacular attack on the Sochi Olympic Games.

According to some reports, Al Qaeda in Syria has got hold of sarin nerve gas and is ready to use it.

This was confirmed by the investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in an article he published in London on Dec. 8.

He quoted “a large number of American intelligence officials” who said that “the chemical attack on the eastern Damascus suburb of Ghouta on Aug. 21, in which more than 150 people died, may not have been carried out by Bashar Assad’s army but by Jabhat al Nusra [Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch].”

A senior intelligence consultant told the reporter: “Already by late May… the CIA had briefed the Obama administration on al-Nusra and its work with sarin, and had sent alarming reports that another Sunni fundamentalist group active in Syria, al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), also understood the science of producing sarin. At the time, al-Nusra was operating in areas close to Damascus, including Eastern Ghouta.”

debkafile reports that both these organizations have enlisted many Chechen and North Caucasian members to fight in Syria.

The sources quoted by Hersh charged President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry with “deliberate manipulation of intelligence.” One high-level intelligence officer called the administration’s assurances of Assad’s responsibility a ruse. “When the attack occurred, al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad,” according to Seymour Hersh.