Syrian troops, Hezbollah fighters press attacks near Lebanese border

shortformblog:

Syrian troops backed by fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah movement pressed an offensive Monday to retake the strategic border town of Qusair amid reports of heavy casualties on both sides.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 90 people have been killed since forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad launched their attack on the rebel stronghold overnight Saturday. Among them were 23 members of Hezbollah, an armed Shiite militant group whose fighters have been playing an increasingly visible role in the battles underway in the area in recent weeks.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, which has portrayed its involvement in the fighting around Qusair as an effort to defend Shiites living in a string of villages along the border. But there were reports that a number of funerals were being held in northern Lebanese villages for fighters killed in the offensive.

The town of Qusair, which has been under rebel control for more than a year, is apparently home to two competing weapon supply lines, and carries a great deal of strategic significant in the ongoing Syrian civil war. Recapturing the town would also be a major morale boost for those loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and cut rebel forces off from one of their most important supply lines.

Poor Richard's News: Great. Now the Obama administration is leaking Israel's national security secrets too

poorrichardsnews:

The Obama administration reportedly apologized this weekend for leaking crucial Israeli defense secrets to the press earlier this month. 

from the Blaze:

Now, the Obama administration has reportedly apologized to Israel for another leak of classified information to the media, one that occurred earlier this month and which Israeli officials are concerned could place Israeli lives at risk.

Israel Radio’s diplomatic correspondent Chico Menashe reported Sunday morning (via the Jerusalem Post):

American officials apologized to their Israeli counterparts for confirming that Israel was behind the airstrikes on the Damascus airport earlier this month, Israel Radio reported on Sunday.

The confirmation reportedly came from the lower ranks at the Pentagon, and the reasons for the leak are being investigated.

Menashe tweeted: “The U.S. has apologized to Israel for leaking details of the attack in Syria. Senior administration officials said to their [Israeli] counterparts that they are examining the issue and that low-level [officials] were responsible for the leak.”

Menashe also wrote, “US officials told that they [will] review the matter. The leak forced Assad to react harshly.”

read the rest

I wonder which press outfit the Justice Department will punish for reporting this leak… 

infowarsdotcom:

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, 2013

Time 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.”

priceofliberty: The CIA, Qatar, and the Creation of Syria’s Jabhat al Nusra In this Reuters article, the security official and several ‘anonymous’ rebel Commanders confirm that Qatar has “tightened coordination of arms flows [plural] to Syria,” under alleged concern of weapons ending up in the hands of Al Qaeda linked Islamic extremist militants; the very militants as noted previously, that have continually formed the spearhead of the insurgency against the Syrian Government:  “Rebel fighters in Syria say that in recent months the system for distributing arms has become more centralized, with arms being delivered through opposition National Coalition’s General Command, led by Selim Idriss, a general who defected to the opposition and is a favorite of Washington.”(my emphasis) What has been long confirmed by ‘official sources’ in the mainstream press, is that these arms shipments commenced in at least “early 2012″. We can be sure, as with the majority of the official timeline, that leeway has been given in these statements: its highly likely smaller arms shipments/smuggling into Syria started much earlier. Statements from eyewitnesses in Libya confirm that arms shipments from the port of Libyan Islamic Fighting Group stronghold Misrata, commenced rapidly after the fall of Gaddafi. Sibel Edmonds also reported in November 2011, long before any corporate media revealed, that the CIA, along with its Turkish and NATO counterparts had been working from the “nerve centre” at the joint US-Turkish air-base in Incerlik, Turkey, since April/May of 2011, coordinating ‘rebel’ elements and ‘activist’s’. Edmonds posits the likely theory that this was one of the initial staging grounds used by the CIA and its regional partners, to smuggle weapons, fighters and materiel into Syria as the insurgency took hold. Enough of this background information, ‘official sources’ and timeline discrepancies gives the impression that the ‘news’ media is not releasing information when it receives it, and is holding back crucial pieces of the timeline, to fit into the desired narrative of “Assad forces killing peaceful protesters”. What we learn from the Reuters report is that until Qatar (acting directly under CIA auspices) chose to “tighten” the coordination of their arms supplies into Syria, there was no coherent or structured way of the arms being distributed once they reached the Syrian border: “The Qataris are now [May 2013] going through the Coalition for aid and humanitarian issues and for military issues they are going through the military command,” a commander in northern Syria interviewed from Beirut said. This raises the immediate question: who were Qatar (under CIA auspices) distributing the arms thousands of tonnes of arms to before April 2013?  The report goes on to state: “Before the Coalition was formed they were going through liaison offices and other military and civil formations. That was at the beginning. Now it is different – it is all going through the Coalition and the military command.” “There’s a lot of consultation with the CIA, and they help Qatar with buying and moving the weapons into Syria, but just as consultants,” he said. The CIA declined to comment. (my emphasis) At least a pinch of salt needs to be taken with this piece of misinformation. What exactly are “liaison offices, military and civil formations?” The ‘opposition’ has never had anything resembling a military formation. Regardless, this raises several important questions and draws several distinctions into the timeline of the Syrian conflict.
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priceofliberty:

The CIA, Qatar, and the Creation of Syria’s Jabhat al Nusra

In this Reuters article, the security official and several ‘anonymous’ rebel Commanders confirm that Qatar has “tightened coordination of arms flows [plural] to Syria,” under alleged concern of weapons ending up in the hands of Al Qaeda linked Islamic extremist militants; the very militants as noted previously, that have continually formed the spearhead of the insurgency against the Syrian Government: 

“Rebel fighters in Syria say that in recent months the system for distributing arms has become more centralized, with arms being delivered through opposition National Coalition’s General Command, led by Selim Idriss, a general who defected to the opposition and is a favorite of Washington.”(my emphasis)

What has been long confirmed by ‘official sources’ in the mainstream press, is that these arms shipments commenced in at least “early 2012″. We can be sure, as with the majority of the official timeline, that leeway has been given in these statements: its highly likely smaller arms shipments/smuggling into Syria started much earlier. Statements from eyewitnesses in Libya confirm that arms shipments from the port of Libyan Islamic Fighting Group stronghold Misrata, commenced rapidly after the fall of Gaddafi. Sibel Edmonds also reported in November 2011, long before any corporate media revealed, that the CIA, along with its Turkish and NATO counterparts had been working from the “nerve centre” at the joint US-Turkish air-base in Incerlik, Turkey, since April/May of 2011, coordinating ‘rebel’ elements and ‘activist’s’. Edmonds posits the likely theory that this was one of the initial staging grounds used by the CIA and its regional partners, to smuggle weapons, fighters and materiel into Syria as the insurgency took hold.

Enough of this background information, ‘official sources’ and timeline discrepancies gives the impression that the ‘news’ media is not releasing information when it receives it, and is holding back crucial pieces of the timeline, to fit into the desired narrative of “Assad forces killing peaceful protesters”.

What we learn from the Reuters report is that until Qatar (acting directly under CIA auspices) chose to “tighten” the coordination of their arms supplies into Syria, there was no coherent or structured way of the arms being distributed once they reached the Syrian border:

“The Qataris are now [May 2013] going through the Coalition for aid and humanitarian issues and for military issues they are going through the military command,” a commander in northern Syria interviewed from Beirut said.

This raises the immediate question: who were Qatar (under CIA auspices) distributing the arms thousands of tonnes of arms to before April 2013?  The report goes on to state:

“Before the Coalition was formed they were going through liaison offices and other military and civil formations. That was at the beginning. Now it is different – it is all going through the Coalition and the military command.”

“There’s a lot of consultation with the CIA, and they help Qatar with buying and moving the weapons into Syria, but just as consultants,” he said. The CIA declined to comment. (my emphasis)

At least a pinch of salt needs to be taken with this piece of misinformation. What exactly are “liaison offices, military and civil formations?” The ‘opposition’ has never had anything resembling a military formation. Regardless, this raises several important questions and draws several distinctions into the timeline of the Syrian conflict.

priceofliberty:

The Pentagon’s “Salvador Option”: The Deployment of Death Squads in Iraq and Syria

The Western media has played a central role in obfuscating the nature of foreign interference in Syria including outside support to armed insurgents. In chorus they have described recent events in Syria as a “peaceful protest movement” directed against the government of Bashar Al Assad, when the evidence amply confirms that Islamic paramilitary groups have infiltrated the rallies.

Israel’s Debka Intelligence news, while avoiding the issue of an armed insurgency, tacitly acknowledges that Syrian forces are being confronted by an organized paramilitary:

“[Syrian forces] are now running into heavy resistance: Awaiting them are anti-tank traps and fortified barriers manned by protesters armed with heavy machine guns.” DEBKAfile,

Since when are peaceful civilian protesters armed with “heavy machine guns” and “anti-tank traps”? 

Recent developments in Syria point to a full-fledged armed insurgency, integrated by Islamist “freedom fighters” covertly supported, trained and equipped by foreign powers. According to Israeli intelligence sources:

NATO headquarters in Brussels and the Turkish high command are meanwhile drawing up plans for their first military step in Syria, which is to arm the rebels with weapons for combating the tanks and helicopters spearheading the Assad regime’s crackdown on dissent. Instead of repeating the Libyan model of air strikes,NATO strategists are thinking more in terms of pouring large quantities of anti-tank and anti-air rockets, mortars and heavy machine guns into the protest centers for beating back the government armored forces. (DEBKAfile, NATO to give rebels anti-tank weapons, August 14, 2011, emphasis added)

The delivery of weapons to the rebels is to be implemented “overland, namely through Turkey and under Turkish army protection….Alternatively, the arms would be trucked into Syria under Turkish military guard and transferred to rebel leaders at pre-arranged rendez-vous.” (Ibid, emphasis added)

According to Israeli sources, which remain to be verified, NATO and the Turkish High command, also contemplate the development of a “jihad” involving the recruitment of thousands of Islamist “freedom fighters”, reminiscent of  the enlistment of  Mujahideen to wage the CIA’s jihad (holy war) in the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war:

Also discussed in Brussels and Ankara, our sources report, is a campaign to enlist thousands of Muslim volunteers in Middle East countries and the Muslim world to fight alongside the Syrian rebels. The Turkish army would house these volunteers, train them and secure their passage into Syria. (Ibid, emphasis added)

These various developments point towards the possible involvement of Turkish troops inside Syria, which could potentially lead to a broader military confrontation between Syria and Turkey as well as a full-fledged “humanitarian” military intervention by NATO.  

In recent developments, Islamist death squads have penetrated the port city of Latakia’s Ramleh district, which includes a Palestinian refugee camp of some 10,000 residents. These armed gunmen which include rooftop snipers are terrorizing the local population.

In a cynical twist, the Western media has presented the Islamist paramilitary groups in Latakia as “Palestinian dissidents” and “activists” defending themselves against the Syrian armed forces. In this regard, the actions of armed gangs directed against the Palestinian community in Ramleh  visibly seeks to foment political conflict between Palestine and Syria. Several Palestinian personalities have sided with the Syrian “protest movement”, while casually ignoring the fact that the “pro-democracy” death squads are covertly supported by Israel and Turkey. 

Qatar, allies tighten coordination of arms flows to Syria

(Reuters) - Qatar, which has taken a lead in arming the Syrian opposition, is coordinating with the CIA and has tightened control of the arms flow to keep weapons out of the hands of al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters, according to rebels and officials familiar with the operation.

With Britain and France discussing lifting an EU ban on arming the rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad, Western countries are concerned about making sure no arms end up in the hands of groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, which has pledged support for al Qaeda and which Washington considers a terrorist group.

Rebel fighters in Syria say that in recent months the system for distributing arms has become more centralized, with arms being delivered through opposition National Coalition’s General Command, led by Selim Idriss, a general who defected to the opposition and is a favorite of Washington.

Qatar mostly sends arms to rebels operating in the north of Syria, while Saudi Arabia, another rich Gulf Arab kingdom, sends weapons to fighters operating in the south, several rebel commanders said.

“The Qataris are now going through the Coalition for aid and humanitarian issues and for military issues they are going through the military command,” a commander in northern Syria interviewed from Beirut said.

“Before the Coalition was formed they were going through liaison offices and other military and civil formations. That was at the beginning. Now it is different - it is all going through the Coalition and the military command.”

Shipments of weapons to Syrian rebels were curbed last year when Washington raised concerns that arms were falling into the hands of groups like Jabhat al-Nusra.

Today, Qatari shipments have resumed with tighter controls exerted from the palace of Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in consultation with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, said a senior Qatari security official.

“There’s an operations room in the Emir’s diwan (office complex), with representatives from every ministry sitting in that room, deciding how much money to allocate for Syria’s aid,” the Qatari official said.

“There’s a lot of consultation with the CIA, and they help Qatar with buying and moving the weapons into Syria, but just as consultants,” he said. The CIA declined to comment.

Rebel commanders contacted by Reuters said they submit their lists of needs to the General Command led by Idriss, which forwards the requests to Qatar or Saudi Arabia.

One Western source involved in the process said the new system of control is not foolproof: sometimes weapons sent in by Qatar do in fact reach hardline groups.

Several rebel commanders said they believed wealthy Kuwaiti and Saudi individuals were also sending weapons and money to rebel fighters outside the National Coalition’s distribution channel.

“They usually ask for a video proving that an attack took place with the name of the brigade that did it. Sometimes they ask for a statement expressing gratitude,” said a rebel commander in Damascus.

He said the Saudis and Qataris also occasionally send weapons into each other’s territory, bypassing normal controls.

“Sometimes the Qataris manage to send stuff to the southern part and the Saudis to the northern side. When they do so, they send it to brigades that are not part of the military command.”

FORTHRIGHT

According to the Qatari official, weapons supplied included small arms including AK-47 rifles, rocket propelled grenades, hand grenades and ammunition. Qatar also provides instructions on battlefield techniques such as how to rig weapons on vehicles.

The weapons are purchased mainly from eastern Europe by arms brokers based in Britain and France, and are flown from Qatar to Ankara and then trucked to Syria, the Qatari source added.

Hugh Griffiths, a researcher on arms transfers at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said 90 Qatari military air cargo flights were made to Turkey between 3 January 2012 and the end of April 2013.

He suggested the Qataris had made no particular effort to disguise the nature of the cargo.

“The Qataris never announced the cargo as ‘humanitarian aid’ as pretence, they’ve always been more forthright in terms of their support in the form of military aid,” he said.

The planes were Qatari air force aircraft flying from Al Udeid, a big air force base shared with the U.S. military.

“This is quite unusual for arms deliveries intended for non-state actors in conflict zones, in the last 20 years or so the pattern has been to use private, commercial companies,” he said.

Their War, Not Ours by Pat Buchanan

“The worst mistake of my presidency,” said Ronald Reagan of his decision to put Marines into the middle of Lebanon’s civil war, where 241 died in a suicide bombing of their barracks.

And if Barack Obama plunges into Syria’s civil war, it could consume his presidency, even as Iraq consumed the presidency of George W. Bush.

Why would Obama even consider this?

Because he blundered badly. Foolishly, he put his credibility on the line by warning that any Syrian use of chemical weapons would cross a “red line” and be a “game changer” with “enormous consequences.”

Not only was this ultimatum unwise, Obama had no authority to issue it. If Syria does not threaten or attack us, Obama would need congressional authorization before he could constitutionally engage in acts of war against Syria. When did he ever receive such authorization?

Moreover, there is no proof Syrian President Bashar Assad ever ordered the use of chemical weapons.

U.S. intelligence agencies maintain that small amounts of the deadly toxin sarin gas were likely used. But if it did happen, we do not know who ordered it.

Syrians officials deny that they ever used chemicals. And before we dismiss Damascus’ denials, recall that an innocent man in Tupelo, Miss., was lately charged with mailing deadly ricin to Sen. Roger Wicker and President Obama. This weekend, we learned he may have been framed.

It is well within the capacity of Assad’s enemies to use or fake the use of poison gas to suck us into fighting their war.

Even if elements of Assad’s army did use sarin, we ought not plunge in. And, fortunately, that seems to be Obama’s thinking.

Why stay out? Because it is not our war. There is no vital U.S. interest in who rules Syria. Hafez Assad and Bashar have ruled Syria for 40 years. How has that ever threatened us?

Moreover, U.S. intervention would signal to Assad that the end is near, making his use of every weapon in his arsenal, including chemical weapons, more — not less — likely.

Infowars: Israeli Bombing of Syria and Moral Relativism

infowarsdotcom:

No universally applied principle justifies the Israeli attack on Damascus. Only self-flattering tribalism does that

Glenn Greenwald
guardian.co.uk
May 7, 2013

On Sunday, Israel dropped massive bombs near Damascus, ones which the New York Times, quoting residents, originally reported (then evidently deleted) resulted in explosions “more massive than anything the residents of the city… have witnessed during more than two years of war.” The Jerusalem Post this morning quoted “a senior Syrian military source” as claiming that “Israel used depleted uranium shells”, though that is not confirmed. The NYT cited a “high-ranking Syrian military official” who said the bombs “struck several critical military facilities in some of the country’s most tightly secured and strategic areas” and killed “dozens of elite troops stationed near the presidential palace”, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that “at least 42 soldiers were killed in the strikes, and another 100 who would usually be at the targeted sites remain unaccounted for.”

Israeli defenders claim that its air attack targeted weapons provided by Iran that would have ended up in the hands of Hezbollah. Obama officials quickly told media outlets that “the administration is fully supportive of Israel’s airstrikes”. Indeed, Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy noted: “Keep in mind the Israelis are using weapons supplied by us.” There is, needless to say, virtually no condemnation of the Israeli assault in US media or political circles. At this point, the only question is how many minutes will elapse before Congress reflexively adopts a near-unanimous or unanimous resolution effusively praising Israel for the attack and unqualifiedly endorsing all past and future attacks as well.

Because people who cheer for military action by their side like to pretend that they’re something more than primitive “might-makes-right” tribalists, the claim is being hauled out that Israel’s actions are justified by the “principle” that it has the right to defend itself from foreign weapons in the hands of hostile forces. But is that really a “principle” that anyone would apply consistently, as opposed to a typically concocted ad hoc claim to justify whatever the US and Israel do? Let’s apply this “principle” to other cases, as several commentators on Twitter have done over the last 24 hours, beginning with this:

Read more

Menendez offers bill to arm Syrian rebels

infowarsdotcom:

Jeremy Herb
thehill.com
May 7, 2013

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on Monday introduced a bill that would provide arms to vetted rebel groups.

Menendez’s legislation would give arms and military training to opposition groups that had been vetted, as well as provide $250 million for basic services and security in a post-Assad Syria.

The bill also includes new sanctions against those providing arms or oil to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Read more

Infowars: Did Israel Invade Lebanon?

infowarsdotcom:

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 5, 2013

Photo: Israel Defense Forces

According to the Israeli intelligence asset DEBKAfile, the IDF crossed into Lebanon following a second Israeli attack on a military research facility located on the outskirts of Damascus early Sunday morning.

“One Lebanese source claimed Israeli ground troops had descended from the Mt. Dov-Hermon range, crossed the Lebanese border and entered the Shebaa Farms region,’ DEBKAfile reports.

The Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms were captured by Israel during the 1967 War. Although the Israelis claim the area is a strategic military asset, many argue that Israel occupied the region for its water resources.

None of these reports are confirmed by Israel, Lebanon or Syria. But DEBKAfile notes that if Israeli troops have indeed penetrated Lebanon to a depth of 5-7 kilometers and reached the Shebaa Farms, they have taken up positions opposite the 30 Syrian Shiite villages guarded by incoming Iranian elite Basij militiamen.

DEBKAfile reported exclusively Friday that thousands of Basij militiamen had just been airlifted from Iran to Syria, establishing an Iranian military presence opposite Israel from Syria as well as Lebanon. They joined a comparable number of Hizballah militiamen fighting for the Bashar regime.

The Basji (Persian for mobilization) receive orders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and have pledged their loyalty to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. According to the commander of the Basij,Hasan Taeb, the paramilitary organization numbers 12.6 million members, or approximately 20 percent of Iran’s population.

“Syria is the 35th province [of Iran] and a strategic province for us. If the enemy attacks us and wants to take either Syria or Khuzestan [in western Iran], the priority for us is to keep Syria,” a senior Iranian cleric, Mehdi Taeb, said in February.

Taeb told the English-language Lebanese news website Ya Libnan that Iran helped Syria establish a paramilitary group based on the Basji to fight against the CIA’s FSA and al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. “The Syrian Basij was formed with 60,000 [members] of Hezbollah, who took over the war in the streets from the army,” Taeb said.

In February, the neocon organization the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) cited multiple sources stating Israel is preparing for another war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. A senior Israeli official told the FDD “the world needs to be prepared for the next war with Lebanon.”

FDD is closely linked to the National Endowment for Democracy, the quasi-governmental organization funded by the U.S. that conducts covert operations under NGO cover designed to overthrow governments unacceptable to the global elite, a job once entrusted to the CIA.

DEBKAfile’s report is suspect due to the fact that it operates as an Israeli military intelligence asset. If, however, the IDF and Basij militiamen are squaring off in Syria it represents a significant escalation in the conflict and may soon result in a regional war.

US to give $123 million military aid package to Syrian rebels — RT News

As Syria’s opposition forces and their main international allies meet in Istanbul, the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, has announced that the US will double its non-lethal military aid to Syria’s rebels.

Al-Nusra pledges allegiance to al-Qaeda

infowarsdotcom:

bbc.co.uk
April 11, 2013

The leader of the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group fighting in Syria, has pledged allegiance to the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said the group’s behaviour in Syria would not change as a result.

Al-Nusra claims to be have carried out many suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks against state targets.

On Tuesday, al-Qaeda in Iraq announced a merger with al-Nusra, but Mr Jawlani said he had not been consulted on this.

Read more

Is the US Opening Up Another Front in the Drone War on the Iraq-Syria Border?

In response to increasing cross-border collaboration between al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and Jabhat al-Nursa, AQI’s offshoot in the Syrian rebel opposition, the Iraqi government informally requested the US conduct drone strikes against the militants, The Associated Press reports.

Now, the White House has already directed the CIA to increase its cooperation and backing of Iraqi state militias to fight al-Qaeda affiliates there and cut off the flow of fighters pouring into Syria. There are already plenty of problems with boosting support for Iraq’s security forces, which have essentially been used as a secret police force for Maliki to attack, detain, and torture his political opponents.

But “conducting kinetic operations for [Iraq] could quickly draw the United States into creating additional enemies out of what are domestic and regionally-focused terrorist groups,” writes Micah Zenko at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“The CIA already serves as the counterterrorism air force of Yemen, and, occasionally, Pakistan. It should not further expand this chore to Iraq,” Zenko adds.

According to the AP report, the Obama administration refused to respond to Iraq’s appeal “until the Iraqi leadership’s top level makes a formal request, which hasn’t happened.”

Aside from the problem of getting even more irreparably mired in regional conflicts that don’t directly concern us, there are several factors that should preclude Obama from taking Baghdad up on its request.

Over 6,000 people were killed in Syria in March, according to activists, making last month the bloodiest of the two-year-old conflict.

crookedthinking95:

mohandasgandhi:

With at least 70,000 dead in total, this is an incredible, heart-wrenching statistic.

I actually blogged about this a couple of days ago, I think on Monday or Sunday. It was apparently on record as being the deadliest month in the Syrian conflict since it’s start in March 2011, two years ago.

(via thepoliticalfreakshow)

unicef: One million Syrian refugees. Two obstacles to addressing the problemIntensifying violence and a huge gap in aid funding stand in the way of improving the terrible situation faced by Syrian children By David Bull, UNICEF UK Executive DirectorPublished in the Guardian - 6 March, 2013 Last 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
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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 children

By David Bull, UNICEF UK Executive Director
Published in the Guardian - 6 March, 2013

Last 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