Establishment Media Spins al-Qaeda’s Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria
Evidence pointing at al-Qaeda will not derail globalist effort to take down Syria
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 7, 2013Time is calling the prospect of al-Qaeda in Syria getting chemical weapons “a nightmare scenario” and warns that the terrorist group may end up using them in the United States.
“The prospect of Assad’s weapons falling into anti-American hands is real enough for the U.S. to be watching very, very closely,” writes Michael Crowley for the magazine. “But it’s probably not threatening enough – at least not yet – to justify the kind of full-scale ground invasion that might be required to secure Syria’s chemical arsenal.”
If we are to believe the United Nations, however, the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, the al-Nusra Front, has already used chemical weapons.
On Sunday, Carla Del Ponte, a leading UN human rights investigator, told Al Jazeera that a UN commission of inquiry has evidence that the “rebels” in Syria used sarin nerve gas.
“Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated,” Del Ponte told Swiss-Italian television.
“This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities,” she said.
Saleem Edris, FSA chief of staff, rejected the accusation. The CIA’s FSA, however, is more or less irrelevant – even the establishment fount The New York Times reports that al-Qaeda controls the manufactured opposition to the al-Assad regime.
“Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of,” the newspaper reported on April 27.
Back in November, the Pentagon floated the idea of using Syrian chemical weapons as a pretext to send 75,000 troops into Syria.
“The Pentagon has told the Obama administration that any military effort to seize Syria’s stockpiles of chemical weapons would require upward of 75,000 troops, amid increasing concern that the militant group Hezbollah has set up small training camps close to some of the chemical weapons depots, according to senior American officials,” the New York Times reported.
The Washsington Post tried its best to spin the latest evidence that al-Nusra is responsible for using chemical weapons, not the al-Assad regime.
“If the chemical taboo is broken in Syria, does that make the regime more likely to use those weapons itself?” Max Fisher wrote on May 6. “At what point does the United States or Jordan activate its nearby troops, which are on standby to secure loose chemical weapons in a worst-case scenario?”
In other words, despite the evidence al-Nusra (and by extension Saudi Arabia and Qatar) are responsible for using chemical weapons, the response – more likely with each passing day – will be to attack the government of Syria, not al-Qaeda.
The end game in Syria is the same as the one imposed on Libya – “creative destruction” designed to reduce the country to a failed state and ensure that rivals to the power of the United States, Israel and the international bankers do not establish a foothold. Radical Muslim groups controlled by the CIA and British intelligence asset the Muslim Brotherhood will be installed. The result will be, as it is currently in Iraq, endless religious (Sunni vs. Shia) strife and sectarian conflict that will effectively prevent the vassals from coming together.
“Neocons and their affinity for violent Arab and Muslim-hating Israeli settlers is only a sideshow for the central dynamic – the clash of civilizations as defined by the elite and the plan to take out anybody who challenges their drive for global domination,” we noted in 2011 after the successful destruction of Libya and the engineered mass murder of more than 30,000 people.
“The overthrow of the regime in Syria will not result in democracy. It will produce the sort of chaos previously witnessed in Iraq and now unfolding in Libya.”
U.N. Disarmament Conference Chaired by Iran
According to U.N. Watch, the U.N. Disarmament Conference which began on May 13 is being chaired by Iran. U.N. Watch executive director Hillel Neuer declared, “This is like putting Jack the Ripper in charge of a women’s shelter.”Are you kidding me? The U.N. Needs to be shut down and removed from New York, because they are a joke. We have countries who are human rights violators on Human Rights councils and now this is being chaired by Iran…
I have a new article up on The Fix, check it out y’all:
Afghan Opium Production Up for Third Year Running | The Fix
Opium cultivation in Afghanistan is up for the third year in a row and heading towards a record high, according to a new UN report. The Afghanistan Opium Risk Assessment 2013, issued by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, attributes the increase to opium’s rising price, making it an even more attractive crop for farmers. The figure for 2013 is expected to surpass the 154,000 hectares planted in 2012, according to the report. Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium, accounting for about 75% of the global supply last year. “The assumption is it will reach again to 90% this year,” says Jean-Luc Lemahieu, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan. “We are looking at a record high cultivation.”
Lemahieu was recently interviewed for The Fix’s exclusive report on the heroin addiction crisis within Afghanistan, which has an estimated 1 million addicts. Earlier this month, the UN also estimated that 1 million deaths worldwide have been caused by Afghan heroin since the US-led “War on Terror” began in 2001, while opium production has increased 40 times. Over 70% of Afthan opium is produced by just three provinces. US troops have attempted to subdue the Taliban influence and find alternative crops for these regions’ farmers. But after the end of the three-year “surge” in 2012, poppy cultivation has soared. It may be that people are turning to illicit markets in greater numbers in anticipation of the predicted withdrawal of foreign forces—and cash—in 2014. “This country is on its way to becoming the world’s first true narco-state,” says an anonymous international law enforcement official. “The opium trade is a much bigger part of the economy already than narcotics ever were in Bolivia or Colombia.”
US misspent billions on fruitless Iraq 'reconstruction'
In spending $60 billion to rebuild Iraq, the US has wasted more than $9 billion in taxpayer funds, only to find that Iraq is just as wrecked and unstable as before.
One decade after the US invaded Iraq, the reconstruction effort has been largely deemed a failure. In his final report to Congress, a 171-page assessment titled “Learning from Iraq”, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen concluded that the costs of the war far surpassed the results.
“You think if you throw money at a problem, you can fix it. It was just not strategic thinking,” Kurdish government official Qubad Talabani, son of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, told auditors of the report.
“You can fly in a helicopter around Baghdad or other cities, but you cannot point a finger at a single project that was built and completed by the United States,” Iraq’s acting interior minister told Bowen, who said that dumping so much money into a warzone simply created a “triangle of political patronage” that instigated further corruption.
Bowen interviewed numerous American and Iraqi officials, many of whom criticized the US for taking on too many large projects without consulting Iraqis. When American troops withdrew, many of these projects were largely abandoned and Iraq continues to look as broken as before.
Additionally, Americans “wore out [their] welcome” by planning to “do it all and do it our way” – all while wasting taxpayer dollars, Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns told the inspector general.
The US has spent more than $60 billion in reconstruction grants, which comes out to about $15 million for each day of the conflict. A $2.4 billion fund set up by Congress to rebuild Iraq’s water and electricity systems and to provide food, healthcare and governance was largely wasted. President George W. Bush asked for $20 billion more just a few months after the March 2003 invasion to accomplish these goals.
Abandoned projects include a 3,6000-bed prison that cost $40 million but was never finished or used and a $108 million wastewater treatment center that still remains unfinished. The US also spent millions repairing infrastructure they blew up, including a $75 million pipeline and a $29 million bridge in north-central Iraq. Contractors were also found to have overcharged the US government for supplies, with one contractor charging the Pentagon $900 for a $7 control switch.
“Waste and fraud at the levels we saw are a symptom of a failure to have a structure in place to effectively plan for stabilization and reconstruction operations, execute such operations and be held accountable for them,” Bowen said in an interview with Business Week.
The failures in Iraq have raised concern over the future of Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal of US troops. The US government has spent $90 billion on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan over the course of 12 years, which US officials are afraid could go to waste if oversight isn’t coordinated better.
Ten years after the American invasion of Iraq, the country remains impoverished and plagued by near-daily deadly bombings. Few people have access to electricity and clean water, and some projects that the US spent millions on have been reduced to nothing but rubble.
“If we had better controls and better planning, better oversight, better quality assurance, better quality control all in place, we would have wasted less – for sure. There is no doubt about that,” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told Bowen.
One million Syrian refugees. Two obstacles to addressing the problem
Intensifying violence and a huge gap in aid funding stand in the way of improving the terrible situation faced by Syrian childrenBy David Bull, UNICEF UK Executive Director
Published in the Guardian - 6 March, 2013Last December the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, announced that the number of refugees fleeing violence in Syria might reach 1 million by June. Today, a full three months ahead of that prediction, comes news that this grim milestone has now been reached.
Two years after the start of the conflict the arrival of the millionth refugee across the Syrian border is a stark illustration of a crisis that is bringing fear, pain and suffering on a massive scale. Within Syria itself violence is intensifying and more than 4 million people, at least half of whom are children, are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. In neighbouring countries – Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt – governments and humanitarian organisations, including Unicef, are struggling to meet even the most essential needs of the refugees.
As this crisis approaches its third year, the initial trickle has grown steadily until now more than 7,000 refugees cross Syria’s borders each night. Last night a BBC news crew on the Jordanian border said they counted 1,000 refugees crossing from Syria in the space of just half an hour. Travelling under cover of darkness, the refugee children and their families arrive frightened and exhausted, frequently with little more than the clothes on their backs.
Visiting the overcrowded Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan recently it was clear to me just how much Syria’s children have had to endure. Many have experienced tragic loss and witnessed horrific violence. Others are suffering with coughs, pneumonia and respiratory infections. I was shocked to hear small children tell me their stories of how they hid in basements, found their homes destroyed and fled to the border on foot at night with gunfire. Those deeply personal and intensely moving conversations will stay with me.
The scale of the crisis facing Syria’s children requires a massive response from international humanitarian organisations. Unicef staff and partners are working around the clock to provide essential water, vaccines, emotional and psychological support, education, protection and nutrition to children and families in desperate and urgent need. We are currently providing the supplies and services that can secure safe water for more than 10 million people in Syria – close to half the population. But despite the courageous efforts of our teams, we are facing two serious obstacles which, if they cannot be addressed with urgency, will mean more suffering and a continuing flow of desperate refugee children.
The first is the intensification of violence in Syria. In separate incidents last month 70 children died when missiles struck residential areas of Aleppo, and 20 children died from a bomb blast in their Damascus classroom. At least 2 million people have been displaced within Syria, many sheltering in bombed-out buildings or makeshift camps. With no political resolution to the crisis in sight it is hard to see how the suffering of the children in Syria will be eased and how the flow of refugees will be stemmed.
The second factor is a chronic lack of funding, which is threatening to leave many Syrian children without essential assistance. Indeed, unless an 80% funding gap is bridged very soon, Unicef will be forced to scale back on even life-saving interventions. For example, supplies of chlorine for clean drinking water in Syria will only last until the end of this month unless the funds are available to buy more. An immunisation programme planned for April, to reach 2 million, may not reach those who need it. Without these vital supplies, millions of children could be exposed to the risk of life-threatening diseases.
Following a sudden disaster such as an earthquake or tsunami, the response of the international community is rapid and effective. Public generosity is mobilised, funds pour in, high-level political decisions are made to ensure that relief reaches those in need as quickly as possible. While the situation in Syria is not a natural disaster, it is a crisis and the suffering of Syria’s children is no less extreme.
Media moments like today’s “millionth refugee milestone” or next week’s marking of “two years of conflict” are desperately important for focusing minds on the suffering of the children of Syria. Hopefully they will produce a surge in attention and public concern that will spur the international community, with a renewed sense of urgency and determination, to ensure that pledges are delivered and sufficient funds are made available to provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance.
For one child, in Syria or outside its borders, to be living in fear or without the basic help needed to survive is a terrible thing. If we can see each of the million refugees as a multiple of that individual suffering, it is not just a number, it is a desperate human tragedy that staggers the imagination and demands immediate action.
Photo caption: Boys play on a destroyed army tank, in the town of Azaz in the north-western Aleppo Governorate, Syria.
Photo credit: © UNICEF/NYHQ2012-1300/Alessio Romenzi
REUTERS: Israel hits Syria arm convoy to Lebanon -- sources
Israeli jets bombed a convoy on Syria’s border with Lebanon on Wednesday, sources told Reuters, apparently targeting weapons destined for Hezbollah in what some called a warning to Damascus not to arm Israel’s Lebanese enemy.
“The target was a truck loaded with weapons, heading from Syria to Lebanon,” said one Western diplomat, adding that the consignment may well have included anti-aircraft missiles.
The overnight attack, which several sources placed on the Syrian side of the border, followed warnings from Israel that it was ready to act to prevent the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad leading to Syria’s chemical weapons and modern rockets reaching either his Hezbollah allies or his Islamist enemies.
A source among the Syrian rebels said an air strike around dawn (0430 GMT) blasted a convoy on a mountain track about 5 kilometers (3 miles) south of where the main Damascus-Beirut highway crosses the border. Its load probably included high-tech anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, but not chemical weapons.
US and Afghan presidents to meet at White House to discuss US role in Afghanistan after war formally ends in 2014
United States President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai are set to meet at the White House to discuss the future of the US role in Afghanistan.
Obama and Karzai have announced plans for a joint news conference on Friday afternoon.
White House officials say Obama will not announce any decisions on the next phase of troop withdrawals or whether any US forces will stay behind in Afghanistan after the war formally ends in 2014.
US commanders in Afghanistan have proposed keeping 6,000 to 15,000 US troops after 2014 to continue pursuing armed groups and training Afghan security forces.
The White House tends to favor lower troop levels than military generals.
Officials say Obama would be open to pulling all US forces out of Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
US and Afghan presidents to meet at White House to discuss US role in Afghanistan after war formally ends in 2014
United States President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai are set to meet at the White House to discuss the future of the US role in Afghanistan.
Obama and Karzai have announced plans for a joint news conference on Friday afternoon.
White House officials say Obama will not announce any decisions on the next phase of troop withdrawals or whether any US forces will stay behind in Afghanistan after the war formally ends in 2014.
US commanders in Afghanistan have proposed keeping 6,000 to 15,000 US troops after 2014 to continue pursuing armed groups and training Afghan security forces.
The White House tends to favor lower troop levels than military generals.
Officials say Obama would be open to pulling all US forces out of Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
More Unexploded Cluster Submunitions in Syria.
PTAB 2.5M’s and their associated RBK-250 dispenser. In Marea, which was hit again after the December 12 strike. Fortunately for the town’s residents the pilot’s release timing for second strike was not quite right, and most of the submunitions landed in a wheat field beside the town.
Each and every item in the photographs above was made in Russia during the late Soviet period. President Bashar al-Assad’s government has steadfastly denied using cluster munitions, and the Kremlin has denied providing cluster munitions to Syria.
For more about these weapons, and the politics and language of denials, go here.
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHS
By the author. Sunday. Syria.
This Is What It Looks Like When Syria Bombs a University
Two explosions rocked Syria’s Aleppo University on Tuesday, the very first day of the school’s exams, and it looks like it was carried out by way of a jet loyal to Bashar al-Assad.
The Facts Haven’t Changed: Arming the Syrian Rebels is Still a Terrible Idea
In Foreign Affairs, Michael Bröning makes an impressively weak case for directly arming the Syrian rebels. He acknowledges the unfortunate fact that aid and weapons from Arab Gulf states have “primarily reached the more extreme groups,” but claims that the new National Coalition Opposition, which President Obama and more than 90 countries have officially recognized, “changes the conflict’s parameters.” He argues that “Arming and financing the National Coalition could strengthen the more moderate opposition forces in Syria.”
…the facts on the ground have increasingly overrun the standard arguments against supporting anti-Assad forces, and the case for arming the rebels grows stronger by the month.
Critics of a more active support for the opposition have long bemoaned the lack of a coherent opposition body that could bring together the various political and military opponents of the regime. But now, the newly established Syrian National Coalition for Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, which was founded with U.S. assistance in Qatar in November, has done just that.
Actually, it hasn’t. The Coalition is supposed to be made up of Syrian dissidents and opposition groups from across the spectrum. But it is largely another exile group without strong roots inside the country. There little evidence the Syrian people accept it. But there is strong evidence it has been vehemently rejected by the armed rebel groups fighting the Assad regime. And the fact that it was formed as a US initiative grants it even less legitimacy. After all, as Bröning readily admits, arming the rebels would be meant to ”accelerate the end of the Assad regime” for the sake of “Syrian and Western interests” (a redundancy to imperialists).
Bröning acknowledges the aid and weapons already being sent to Syria’s rebels by Arab Gulf states have largely gone to extremist jihadists, some of whom have ties to al-Qaeda. What he doesn’t say is that this occurred despite the CIA’s efforts to facilitate the delivery of these arms towards moderate groups. Going back at least six months, intelligence officials have been telling the press (Washington Post, Los Angeles Times) that the truth is that the US had little control over who received the assistance.
Nor does Bröning explain what is to happen if and when the Assad regime does fall. He argues that fully committed Western support would make moderate elements of the Syrian opposition stronger than the extremists. That is unconvincing. But even if it were true, we’d still have a situation where rebel group was pitted against rebel group and an ongoing proxy war would be likely to result. Furthermore, all the rebels have proven capable of is fighting, not state building, social services, and post-conflict reconstruction. The opposition, despite the hopes and dreams of people like Bröning, is still very fractured and many of these groups would imitate the Libyan rebels and refuse to cede local control and, importantly, their weapons.
The overwhelming fact is that the interventionist policies in Syria are worsening the conflict. UN rights chief Navi Pillay has repeatedly condemned the continued flow of weapons from foreign powers to both sides in the Syrian conflict. “The ongoing provision of arms to the Syrian government and to its opponents feeds additional violence,” she said. “Any further militarization of the conflict must be avoided at all costs.”
And supporting rebel groups in civil wars has a terrible record throughout history. As usual, the rosy picture of the future painted by self-assured interventionists never materializes. A recent study out of Brandeis University concluded “the distillation of historical experience with civil war and insurgency, along with a sober reckoning of conditions on the ground in Syria, make clear” that arming the rebels is “likely to amplify the harm that it seeks to eliminate by prolonging a hurting stalemate.”
Update: To further illustrate sectarian and messy choosing one side over the other can get, today brings news of Syrian rebels battling with pro-Assad Palestinian groups.
Clashes between Syrian rebels and an armed Palestinian group loyal to President Bashar Assad raged inside a Damascus refugee camp Tuesday, as the Syrian military deployed tanks outside, activists said.
…as the civil war deepened, most Palestinians backed the rebels, while some groups — such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command — have been fighting on the government side.
Update II: Beyond the predictable risks and contradictions with getting even more involved in this fight, there is then the practical issue (with heavy moral weight) of what I’ve previously called the fatal conceit of policymakers in Washington thinking they have the knowledge and ability to engineer a particular outcome from this chaotic mess.
Coast To Coast AM: Memorial Day Open Lines / On The Horizon 5-28-2012
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Russian arms shipment en route to Syria: report | Reuters
(Reuters) - A Russian cargo ship loaded with weapons is en route to Syria and due to arrive at a Syrian port this weekend, Al Arabiya television said in a report that Western diplomats in New York described on Friday as credible.
