Syria

ISIS message left behind: “First, we will destroy Syria, then Russia, and then we will get to China”

Posted by

0

From Fort Russ

October 18, 2015
Life News
Translated by Kristina Rus

In one of the suburbs of Damascus, once captured by ISIS militants, Syrian government troops have discovered inscriptions on the walls in Russian and Arabic, with threats against Russia.

The Syrian military explained that on this street in Daraya there were once positions of terrorists, who came from the North Caucasus. The soldiers of the government army read and translated Arabic inscriptions.

“First, we will destroy Syria, then Russia, and then we will get to China”, – translated the soldiers to the special war correspondent of LifeNews.

In turn, our production team has translated the inscription for them in Russian because they don’t know the Cyrillic alphabet. The inscription “Death to Russia” aroused the indignation of the government soldiers, and the soldiers immediately crossed out the word “death”.

Note that the Syrian army is not only repelling the attacks of the extremists in the South Eastern suburbs of Damascus, but on some parts of the front is conducting offensive operations.

— Thanks to the concerted actions of the Russian military-space forces and the Syrian army on the ground, and as a result of point strikes inflicted on the front line we moved forward. The radicals are now trying to relocate and organize ammunition depots not on the frontline but in the deep rear, — said the major of governmental forces, Khalil.

http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/10/isis-message-left-behind-first-we-will.html

Report from the Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Andrei Kartapolov on the cruise missiles launch

Posted by

0

From Fort Russ

October 7, 2015
Ministry of Defense of Russian Federation

Cruise missile strikes held from the south-west part of the Caspian Sea against militants in Syria have been agreed on by Russia and its partners beforehand. This was stated today by the Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Colonel General Andrei Kartapolov.

Andrei Kartapolov told that on October 5-6, the Russian reconnaissance had discovered a number of important objects of militants, which were to be destroyed immediately and explained that their engagement had been decided to be carried out with the use of long-range cruise missiles.

He emphasized that the cruise missile strikes had been agreed on with the Russian partners beforehand.

Andrei Kartapolov also reminded that the Russian party had already announced its “plans to build-up the intensiveness of strikes against the ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra objects”.

Andrei Kartapolov mentioned that in order to provide security for civil population, the flight corridor for cruise missiles had been planned over uninhabited areas. The strikes engaged plants producing ammunition and explosives, command centres, storages of munitions, armament and POL as well as a training camp of terrorists on the territory of the Raqqah, Idlib and Aleppo.

According to him, engagement of these facilities reduces the mobility of militants and deprives them of the ability to perform heinous terrorist attacks.

Missile ships Dagestan, Grad Sviyazhsk, Veliky Ustyug and Uglich performed the launches.

All the assigned targets have been engaged.

During his meeting with journalists, Andrei Kartapolov stressed that all the targets had been properly analyzed using the data received from space and radio reconnaissance, communications interception, and photos made by UAVs. Data collected by intelligence of Syria, Iran and Iraq, including human intelligence, was also used.

He also explained that the strikes were carried out only against verified targets. Each strike is preceded by a long and thorough preparation.

The special file on each facility is prepared before the strike.

Andrei Kartopolov said that the final decision on elimination of targets was made only after the analysis of all the data and computer simulation of the strikes. Aviation targeting was made according to the same algorithm.

He stressed that modern high-accuracy munitions were used in Syria. High-accuracy engagement is reached by complex use of such munitions with hi-tech armament systems.

Andrei Kartopolov stated that the maximum deviation did not exceed 5 metres.

He also noted that Russia had repeatedly cancelled strikes against the terrorists “just because they left their bases and camps and sheltered as a rule in inhabited areas and in close proximity to religious institutions”.

Andrei Kartapolov mentioned that nevertheless, the Russian Armed Forces were being accused of hitting civilian facilities and mosques.

He stressed with full responsibility that objects situated in inhabited areas were not considered as targets.

According to Andrei Kartapolov, Russia suggested its partners to share locations of the “Islamic State” objects but there was still no answer.

Andrei Kartapolov stated that it shows that either the partners did not have the coordinates or they did not want us to make strikes against ISIS; the reason remained unclear.

British news media: RAF armed with new weapons and given green light to shoot down Russian jets in Syria

Posted by

0

From International Business Times, October 11, 2015

As relations between the West and Russia steadily deteriorate, Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots have been given the go-ahead to shoot down Russian military jets when flying missions over Syria and Iraq, if they are endangered by them. The development comes with warnings that the UK and Russia are now “one step closer” to being at war.

RAF Tornado pilots have been instructed to avoid contact with Russian aircraft while engaged in missions for Operation Shader – the codename for the RAF’s anti-Isis work in Iraq and Syria. But their aircraft have been armed with air-to-air missiles and the pilots have been given the green light to defend themselves if they are threatened by Russian pilots.

“The first thing a British pilot will do is to try to avoid a situation where an air-to-air attack is likely to occur — you avoid an area if there is Russian activity,” an unidentified source from the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) told the Sunday Times. “But if a pilot is fired on or believes he is about to be fired on, he can defend himself. We now have a situation where a single pilot, irrespective of nationality, can have a strategic impact on future events.”

The RAF Tornados aircraft will be armed with heat-seeking Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missiles (Asraams, also called AIM-132 missiles). These weapons, which cost £200,000 each, can reach triple the speed of sound and have a longer range than other air-to-air missiles, allowing RAF pilots to shoot down enemy aircraft without being targeted themselves.

The Sunday Times’ report quoted a defence source as saying: “Up till now RAF Tornados have been equipped with 500lb satellite-guided bombs — there has been no or little air-to-air threat. But in the last week the situation has changed. We need to respond accordingly.”

“We need to protect our pilots but at the same time we’re taking a step closer to war,” said another source. “It will only take one plane to be shot down in an air-to-air battle and the whole landscape will change.”

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/raf-given-green-light-shoot-down-hostile-russian-jets-syria-1523488

Posted under Fair Use Rules

Putin: U.S. accuses Russia, yet stonewalls requests for information; some Western ‘partners’ have ‘mush for brains’

Posted by

0

From Kremlin.ru
Vladimir Putin took part in the 7th Russia Calling! Investment Forum organised by VTB Capital.
October 13, 2015

Excerpt [the transcript is somewhat different than the on-video translation; also, there were additional questions to and answers from President Putin on Syria and Ukraine, but they are not yet transcribed]:

This excerpt starts at approx. 45:23 on the video.

Question [from Geoff Cutmore, CNBC]: Over the weekend, US President Obama called into question your leadership over Syria. He said that you are propping up an ally rather than going after ISIS. He also said you are running down the economy here. Can I ask you, how do you respond to President Obama’s comments and what would you say to international investors who are dissuaded from putting money into the Russian economy because of such remarks? Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: You know, as we say in Russia, everything has been thrown into one pile. What does the situation with ISIS in Syria have to do with investments in Russia? Although, of course, everything in the world is interconnected. There is no direct connection, but ultimately, of course, everything is interconnected.

First of all, I do not want to debate with anyone right now, but I will note that we are not striving for some sort of leadership in Syria. There can only be one leader in Syria: the Syrian people. We strive to make our input in the fight against terrorism, which is dangerous for the United States, Russia, European nations and the entire world, without any exceptions.

I will point out that all our actions, as I have said before, are in strict compliance with the UN Charter and international law – unlike our colleagues from the so-called international coalition led by the United States, which is acting without UN Security Council resolutions and without invitation by the Syrian authorities. Over this time (operations by international forces headed by the United States – or if we put it simply, the actions by the US – have been underway by over a year), they have engaged 11 nations in bombing, with over 500 strikes on Syrian territory, spending half a billion dollars, and that’s only officially, to train Free Syrian Army fighters to fight against ISIS. We know the result: there is none, there’s no result.

Now, it has been reported that the Free Syrian Army is being supplied with ammunition via aircraft. Where is this Free Syrian Army? If they simply discharge or dump the ammunition and weaponry somewhere from the air, how can we know that it won’t all get into the hands of ISIS, as this happened during training of the Free Syrian Army personnel and arming it – what are the guarantees? After all, this was just done, this just happened, and just now, the United States admitted that the action failed. And now, they are simply throwing ammunition somewhere. To whom? This is not a rhetorical question.

Now, we often hear that our pilots are bombing the wrong targets, not ISIS. First of all, we briefed US leadership in advance, although the United States has never done this. We were the first to do this out of respect and a desire to establish a working relationship. Now they tell us, “No, first, we are not ready to cooperate with you, and second, you are bombing the wrong targets.” We said at the military level, appealed and asked, “Give us the targets that you are 100% certain to be terrorists.” The replied, “No, we are not ready to do that.” So then, we thought about it and asked another question: “Then tell us, where shouldn’t we be bombing?” No response there either. So then, what should we be doing? This is no joke, I did not make this up, this is what happened. Just recently, we said to the Americans, “Tell us the facilities we should strike.” There was no response. How can we work jointly then? Do you have an answer? I don’t have one either, yet.

I think that some of our partners are simply confused [translated elsewhere as “have mush for brains” (1)] and do not have a clear understanding of what is really happening on the ground, nor what goals they want to achieve. But we will insistently work to ensure that the efforts in the fight against international terrorism are joint efforts, and the result is clear, expected, and aimed at fighting international terror, to eliminate this threat for all of us.

As for investments, as I already said, I do not feel the two are related, but when I was just telling you about how these events occurred; I had said from the very beginning that nobody ever warned against such actions. Whereas we did. This speaks to the fact that we want to work together, and whoever wants to work with us in the spheres of security, counter-terrorism and economics is welcome.

The theme of the plenary session was “Building Long-term Cooperation and Developing Opportunities for Economic Growth.” The discussion focused on ways of adapting the Russian economy to the changing macroeconomic conditions that open up new opportunities for strengthening the Eurasian Economic Union and creating strategic integrational projects within the framework of the Silk Route Economic Belt, as well as other issues of importance for the Russian and global economies.

The video url is http://static.kremlin.ru/media/events/video/en/video_low/hekWYcaE4JaSJfMEmRXMBOptiqMOd6K7.mp4

http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50498

(1) http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/putin-syria-mush-brains/2015/10/13/id/695942/

PHOTOS: Pro-Russian rally in Damascus before shelling

Posted by

0

At the risk of their lives, citizens in Syria rally. Where are the American citizens protesting U.S. actions in the region and supporting Russia?  Where are the Russian flags waving on American streets?

From Fort Russ

October 15, 2015 –
RusVesna –
Translated for Fort Russ by J. Arnoldski

“Exclusive report of ‘Russian Spring’ from today’s pro-Russian rally in Damascus which terrorists shelled” 

The Donetsk militiaman and Ukrainian citizen currently in Syria with the call-sign “Timur” passed on  to “Russian Spring” exclusive footage from Tuesday’s Damascus rally in support of Russia’s operations in the Middle East.
People were not afraid to come to the rally, although they knew that they [terrorists] would shoot. Just half a kilometer from the venue of the rally, a thoroughly shelled place, is a quarters occupied by militants. 

 

As reported earlier, on Tuesday morning this rally in support of Russia and President Putin at the Russian embassy in Damascus was shelled by mortars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/10/photos-pro-russian-rally-in-damascus.html

The U.S. Institute of Peace promotes war

Posted by

0

Completely appalling.

When Peace Activists Met With the U.S. Institute of Peace
By David Swanson

I was part of a debate on Tuesday that involved a larger disagreement than any exhibited at the Democratic presidential candidates debate that evening. A group of peace activists met with the president, a board member, some vice presidents, and a senior fellow of the so-called U.S. Institute of Peace, a U.S. government institution that spends tens of millions of public dollars every year on things tangentially related to peace (including promoting wars) but has yet to oppose a single U.S. war in its 30-year history.

usip

(Photo of David Swanson and Nancy Lindborg by Alli McCracken.)

Without CNN’s Anderson Cooper there to steer us away from the issues into name calling and triviality, we dove right into the substance. The gap between the culture of peace activists and that of the U.S. Institute of “Peace” (USIP) is immense.

We had created and took the occasion to deliver a petition which you should sign if you haven’t, urging USIP to remove from its board prominent war mongers and members of the boards of weapons companies. The petition also recommends numerous ideas for useful projects USIP could work on. I blogged about this earlier here and here.

We showed up Tuesday at USIP’s fancy new building next to the Lincoln Memorial. Carved in the marble are the names of USIP’s sponsors, from Lockheed Martin on down through many of the major weapons and oil corporations.

At the meeting from the peace movement were Medea Benjamin, Kevin Zeese, Michaela Anang, Alli McCracken, and me. Representing USIP were President Nancy Lindborg, Acting Vice President Middle East and Africa Center Manal Omar, Director of Peace Funders Collaborative Steve Riskin, Board Member Joseph Eldridge, and Senior Policy Fellow Maria Stephan. They took 90 minutes or so to talk with us but seemed to have no interest in meeting any of our requests.

They claimed the Board was no impediment to anything they wanted to do, so there was no point in changing board members. They claimed to have already done some of the projects we proposed (and we look forward to seeing those details), yet they were uninterested in pursuing any of them.

When we proposed that they advocate against U.S. militarism in any number of possible ways, they replied with a couple of main justifications for not doing so. First, they claimed that if they did anything that displeased Congress, their funding would dry up. That’s likely true. Second, they claimed they could not advocate for or against anything at all. But that isn’t true. They’ve advocated for a no-fly zone in Syria, regime change in Syria, arming and training killers in Iraq and Syria, and (more peacefully) for upholding the nuclear agreement with Iran. They testify before Congress and in the media all the time, advocating for things left and right. I don’t care if they call such activities something other than advocacy, I’d just like to see them do more of what they’ve done on Iran and less of what they’ve done on Syria. And by law they are perfectly free to advocate even on legislation as long as a member of Congress asks them to.

When I had first communicated about our petition with USIP they had expressed interest in possibly working on one or more of the projects we proposed, possibly including reports we suggest in the petition that they write. When I asked about those report ideas on Tuesday, the reply was that they just didn’t have the staff. They have hundreds of staff, they said, but they’re all busy. They’ve made thousands of grants, they said, but couldn’t make one for anything like that.

What may help explain the array of excuses we were offered is another factor I haven’t yet touched on. USIP seems to actually believe in war. The president of USIP Nancy Lindborg had an odd response when I suggested that inviting Senator Tom Cotton to come speak at USIP on the need for a longer war on Afghanistan was a problem. She said USIP had to please Congress. OK, fine. [Ed. No, that is not fine. That is horrendous.] Then she added that she believed there was room to disagree about exactly how we were going to make peace in Afghanistan, that there was more than one possible path to peace. [Doublespeak] Of course I didn’t think “we” were going to make peace in Afghanistan, I wanted “us” to get out of there and allow Afghans to start working on that problem. But I asked Lindborg if one of her possible paths to peace was through war. She asked me to define war. [Ed. This is when you know this organization has no integrity and no moral backbone. Their specialty is manipulating words, so that no one can possibly understand what they are saying. These “hundreds” pull in a good paycheck, and march in place to the beat of the US government drum, skilled at smoke and mirrors, yet “signifying nothing”. At this point, all the activists should have left.]  I said that war was the use of the U.S. military to kill people. She said that “non-combat troops” could be the answer. (I note that for all their non-combatting, people still just burned to death in a hospital.)

Syria brought out a similar perspective. While Lindborg claimed that USIP’s promotion of war on Syria had all been the unofficial work of one staffer, she described the war in Syria in a completely one-sided manner and asked what could be done about a brutal dictator like Assad killing people with “barrel bombs,” lamenting the lack of “action.” She believed the hospital bombing in Afghanistan would make President Obama even more reluctant to use force. (If this is reluctance, I’d hate to see eagerness!)

So what does USIP do if it doesn’t do war opposition? If it won’t oppose military spending? If it won’t encourage transition to peaceful industries? If there’s nothing it will risk its funding for, what is the good work it is protecting? Lindborg said that USIP spent its first decade creating the field of peace studies by developing the curriculum for it. I’m pretty sure that’s a bit anachronistic and exaggerated, but it would help explain the lack of war opposition in peace studies programs. [So, this “work” goes into colleges and universities with the blessing of the US government? If there is an Institute of Peace, then what other institutes are similarly funded with a name that means nothing? Including agencies like Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Forest Service.]

Since then, USIP has worked on the sorts of things taught in peace studies programs by funding groups on the ground in troubled countries. Somehow the troubled countries that get the greatest attention tend to be those like Syria that the U.S. government wants to overthrow, rather than those like Bahrain that the U.S. government wants to prop up…

For the end of the article, http://worldbeyondwar.org/when-peace-activists-met-with-the-u-s-institute-of-peace/

 

The Beast revealed: US celebrates Iranian General’s death at ISIS hands

Posted by

0

This website sends its deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of General Hossein Hamedani.
By Tony Cartalucci
Global Research, October 10, 2015
Land Destroyer 10 October 2015
Hossein-Hamedani

America’s celebration of the death of Iranian General Hossein Hamedani is a call to arms for the entire civilized world. 

The death of a top Iranian military commander in Syria this week has dealt a “psychological blow” to elements backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to a U.S. intelligence official.

Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani was killed outside Aleppo, Syria, where he was advising the Syrian army in its fight against extremists, Iranian state media reported Friday.

CNN also claims:

The United States and Iran both say they are fighting ISIS terrorists, but in practice they have different goals: The United States is supporting rebels trying to oust Assad, while Assad’s close ally Iran became involved to defend his regime.

“I’m not sure it’s the Iranian objective to beat ISIS,” said Gerecht. “I think the primary Iranian objective is to ensure that Assad does not fall.”

The US and Iran indeed both say they are fighting ISIS terrorists. And while the US “accidentally” is supplying ISIS with weapons, fighters, and even fleets of brand new Toyota trucks, Iran has lost a senior commander on the ground who was clearly fighting them face-to-face.
Image: Just another happy coincidence. While the US Treasury dishonestly inquiries into where ISIS has gotten fleets of brand new Toyota trucks, it is a matter of record that the US State Department and the UK have been sending them into Syria since at least as early as 2013,
just ahead of  the “sudden” emergence of ISIS.
.

The loss of General Hamedani also reveals that indeed the Russian-led Syrian-Iranian-Iraqi anti-terror coalition is fighting ISIS in tandem with other terrorist groups – who despite claims by the United States – are ideologically, tactically, strategically, and politically indistinguishable from ISIS itself.

Monster Revealed – A Call to Arms of the Civilized World 

Again, the prophetic words written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his 2007 New Yorker article titled, “The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?” must be recalled (emphasis added):

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

With a senior Iranian general dead, and ISIS and America’s “rebels” who are obviously also ISIS edging in on the Syrian government, the world should now finally see clearly what was planned as early as 2007 and what many have suspected since the beginning of Russia’s recent intervention in the conflict is now unfolding completely in the open. The United States and its regional allies have created this force of mass-murdering terror to intentionally direct against its enemies.

The death of General Hossein Hamedani and America’s celebratory mood in its wake is a call to arms ofthe entire civilized world. Stop the US and it’s now transparent, naked evil in Syria now – shoulder-to-shoulder with the Russian-Syrian-Iranian-Iraqi coalition – or fight them by yourself inevitably in the future.

America Finds its “Power Move” to Counter Russia 

The next step for Russia and Syria’s allies, including Iran and China, is clear. This will not stop in Syria – it is clearly aimed next at Iran, and then beyond. Full-scale intervention by Iran and a sizable commitment by China will be necessary to block Washington’s next move – a counterstroke hastily planned and hoped to deter, disrupt, and completely displace Russia’s goal of ending the conflict and restoring Syria’s stability.
Revealed in the Washington Post’s article, “US abandons Pentagon’s failed rebel-building effort in Syria,” it was reported that (emphasis added):

The Obama administration is overhauling its approach to fighting the Islamic State in Syria, abandoning a failed Pentagon effort to build a new ground force of moderate rebels and instead partnering with established rebel groups, officials said Friday.

Washington Post reveals transparently that American support of “rebels” in Syria is aimed not at ISIS, but admittedly at the Syrian government. It reported (emphasis added):

The change also reflects growing concern in the Obama administration that Russia’s intervention has complicated the Syrian battlefield and given new life to President Bashar Assad. Russian airstrikes have raised questions about whether and how the U.S. would protect rebel groups it is working with if they are hit by Russian bombs. 

Meanwhile, the CIA has since 2013 trained some 10,000 rebels to fight Assad’s forces. Those groups have made significant progress against strongholds of the Alawites, Assad’s sect, but are now under Russian bombardment. The covert CIA program is the only way the U.S. is taking on Assad militarily.

It is obvious that among that number of 10,000 is Al Qaeda’s Al Nusra which operates precisely in the areas described by the Washington Post, toward precisely the same objectives stated in the article.
Despite the Washington Post’s claims that the US goal is to “defeat” ISIS, it is clear that these terrorists backed by Washington are not fighting ISIS – admittedly so – as both CNN and the Washington Post have stated clearly, their aim is to remove the Syrian government from power. That also happens to be ISIS’ goal – one which has manifested itself in the death of Iranian General Hamedani.
The “shift” in logistical terms is meaningless – since any and every available amount of money, weapons, and fighters has already been fed by the US and its allies into Al Qaeda’s ranks since the conflict began – but the shift rhetorically is important. It signals America’s attempt to introduce direct military support for Al Qaeda’s Al Nusra Front and other assorted terrorist groups on the ground to counter and ultimately defeat Russian, Syrian, and Iranian efforts. This will also leave virtually no capable force on the battlefield to counter ISIS – which was the plan all along.The US hopes that this “power move” – the abominable assault with terrorists on a coalition demonstrably attempting to fight Al Qaeda and ISIS in the region – will force Russia to the negotiating table. However, Russia can do nothing of the sort. With the death of General Hamedani so clearly benefiting the United States – the conflict is of a clear existential nature. Failure to stop these terrorists in Syria and they are headed next to Iran, then through the Caucasus Mountains into Russia – and as far as China is concerned – across Central Asia and into its vast Xinjiang region.In hindsight, looking at a map in the 1930′s at Nazi Germany’s extraterritorial transgressions would have made it clear what was being done and what was soon to follow. With the United States and its allies devastating the nations of Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and with Iran and Lebanon next on the list – with the US already supporting terrorist groups in China’s Xinjiang region and threatening Russia itself with isolation, destabilization, and regime change, the lines have been clearly drawn and the stage set by Wall Street, Washington, London, and Brussels for a catastrophic confrontation it has left the world with no choice but to face.
Copyright © Tony Cartalucci, Land Destroyer, 2015
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-beast-revealed-us-celebrates-iranian-generals-death-at-isis-hands/5481199?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles
NOTE:  The Twitter post by John McCain is from 2011.

Erdogan complicit in massive industrial theft from Syria

Posted by

0

From Veterans Today 

Justice Ministry expands tasks of committee following up on theft of industrial facilities

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor
October 10, 2015

The Syrian Minister of Justice, Najm al Ahmad, has begun an unprecedented process. He is using legal authority and international courts to address what has been the invisible dark side of Turkish intervention in Syria, the systematic looting of Syria’s industrial base.

Between 2012 and 2014, dozens of industrial facilities including automobile assembly plants from Aleppo and Idleb province were systematically dismantled and transported into Turkey including all machinery, parts inventories, even the light fixtures.

This wasn’t destruction, these factories were moved into Turkey, piece by piece, transported by heavy trucks where over an estimated $3 billion of Syria’s industrial base was given out, according to sources, to Turkish President Erdogan’s political supporters, members of the Turkish military and US backed “moderate rebels” whose leadership is believed to be fully complicit in what can only be termed “piracy” on an unprecedented scale.

Northern Syria’s considerable industrial base is now in Turkey or sold off across Europe, conceal in the endless line of trucks that haul Turkish goods, the “sweatshop of Europe,” into the markets of Frankfurt, London and Paris.  From SANA:

Justice Minister Najm al-Ahmad issued a decision on Friday on expanding the tasks of the legal committee formed in August to prepare legal action against the terrorist gangs that dismantled industrial facilities in Aleppo and Idleb provinces and smuggled them to Turkey.

The new resolutions stipulates that, in addition to its original tasks of prosecuting any legal or natural persons that contributed to the aforementioned stealing of facilities, the committee is now tasked with preparing legal action on the cases related to the dismantling of industrial facilities in the provinces of Deir Ezzor, Raqqa, Hasaka, and Qamishli, and/or the stealing of any materials and equipment imported for facilities within Syria within the same provinces, and transporting them to Turkey.

Turkish “looting brigades” aided by Turkish military operating deep inside Syria and in full coordination with the Free Syrian Army, ISIS, Jabat al Nusra along with many leaders of Turkey’s business community.

Sources inside Turkey claim that President Erdogan was personally involved and received regular updates and a full accounting of goods stolen and how they were distributed because of his concern for “corruption.”

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/10/10/erdogan-complicit-in-massive-industrial-theft-from-Syria/

Posted under Fair Use Rules.

The secret ISIS safe havens nobody wants you to know about

Posted by

0

From New Eastern Outlook
by Gordon Duff
9-23-15

With recent talk of mysterious Russian forces inside Syria, forces no one has been able to locate, including Syrian President Assad, wondrous possibilities open to redress the both regional and global threat that ISIS represents.

It isn’t just the ISIS safe havens, certainly the many ISIS bases, prison camps and slave markets set up inside Turkey. It goes much further and a stronger military involvement by Russia could make lightning strikes against these terror centers a reality.

The legal precedents were set during Vietnam and, particularly, during the War on Terror, rendition, secret prisons, assassinations and drone attacks on facilities, now a useful tool when deployed against terror supporters across the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Only when we decide to get tough on real terrorists and use the legal tools the United States government has granted the world, can we finally be safe, just as Dick Cheney had wanted for us all.

Last week Syrian artillery began decimating hundreds of ISIS fighters fleeing their last hiding places in Zabadani, scene of a month long battle with Syrian and Hezbollah forces, one of a string of successes in reducing the dwindling ISIS footprint in that beleaguered nation.

Within minutes, forward air controllers among the fleeing fear-struck terrorists called for air support. There American built F16 fighters took off from ISIS held bases inside Israel and silenced the Syrian Army artillery position north of Damascus.

This has happened many times and been reported many times, never with any attempt at denial.

Back in 1970, a famous American military strategist and political advisor named Henry Kissinger was faced with a similar situation. American forces inside South Vietnam were being attacked from strongholds inside the neighboring nation of Cambodia.

First, Kissinger sent in B52’s to carpet-bomb the region. Then Kissinger announced a US invasion of Cambodia, May 1970, with tens of thousands of American troops entering that country legally, by American standards, going after the militant forces that now constitute the legal government of a reunited Vietnam.

Daraa Province in Southern Syria has been plagued with forces trained inside Jordan at CIA camps entering Syria and butchering thousands of civilians. These forces leaving Jordan fly the black flag of ISIS. Managing their operations is a command center outside of Amman, Jordan, staffed with US, Jordanian, Israeli and Saudi officers.

The large logistical facility that handles both trucked and air dropped supplies for ISIS in both Syria and Iraq is staffed by members of MEK, a pseudo-Islamic cult established during the 1960s in Iran by the Mossad, the same group responsible for fighting alongside Saddam against Iran and gassing 30,000 Kurds to death between 1991 and 1993.

From October 2014 onward, an endless stream of top of the line TOW missiles has been shipped by Raytheon Corporation to US Army supply depots. There is no record of end user certificates transferring these to any other nation.

These missiles ended up at a US Air Force Base in Constanta, Romania. From there, they were flown to Tbilisi, Georgia and from there trucked by British Petroleum and Bechtel Corporation through Turkey and into Syria where they were turned over to al Nusra/al Qaeda forces.

More high tech weaponry paid for by the American taxpayer was flown into a US Air Force Base in Adana, Turkey. From there it was trucked to an ISIS/al Nusra logistics facility run by the Turkish Army in the town of Rehanli, Hatay, Turkey, only miles from ISIS bases inside the Syrian city of Aleppo.

When tracking down the TOW missiles, it was found they had been consigned to the CIA as secret supplies to the Kiev junta. Evidence is accumulating that Kiev is actively supplying ISIS with weapons and, more interestingly, actively advising and assisting with chemical warfare against the Kurds, in exchange for promises from Turkey which may include a Ukrainian gas hookup to the new Turkish/Russian southern route through Romania. Online maps showing this spur have been purged from search engines and wrapped in malware.

Going further afield in order to find terror supporters who can, according to US law, be subject to drone strikes, we can begin to finally, years later, start degrading the material supporters of ISIS, not just Senator John McCain but others as well.

We know ISIS gets considerable funding from selling stolen oil. We also know who is running this for them; British Petroleum and Exxon Corporation.

These terror supporters are vulnerable, they have tanker fleets that can be seized and assets around the world. Were Exxon headquarters in Irving, Texas or several of their terrorist operational centers north of Houston at the Woodlands to be hit by the Delta Force aided by Russian Spetznaz, it would be the first real step in a very real war on global terror. Is America ready for that?

Remember, it is American law that makes everyone involved subject to non-judicial killing.

Let’s not forget the theft of Syrian and Iraqi antiquities. Interpol has carefully traced thousands of items worth hundreds of millions of dollars into auction houses in London, New York, Vienna, Paris and Berlin.

Nearly every major house has some terrorist items with some well-known houses taking major positions in terrorist finance.

Basically, here is the plan using American strategic and legal precedents:

  • At the outset, a No Fly Zone has to be established over Israel until ISIS run air facilities can be put out of action. It can be safely assumed that any air traffic over Israel may be terrorist, perhaps including airliners which can be stuffed with bio weapons or nuclear waste from Dimona.
  • A string of lighting attacks, over a period of two to three years, will be needed to degrade the terror infrastructure inside Turkey. Chemical weapons facilities, training camps, air bases, all need to be taken out before ISIS can be beaten.
  • Terror camps and command centers in Jordan will require the heaviest munitions as some are deeply hidden underground including those inside the new Saudi Arabian “embassy” complex outside Amman.
  • Rendition teams will be hitting auction houses, banks, boardrooms and newspaper offices around the world, ferreting out terror supporters, just as the US had done after 9/11.
  • There are dozens of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) like the Syrian Human Rights Observatory in London which operates public relations for ISIS and dozens of others, some operating as refugee aid fronts that traffic in jihadists, human slavery and narcotics. All must be brought to justice.

America has to be given credit for using some of the greatest legal minds the world has seen, bringing them together, all members of the noted Federalist Society, and putting together the laws that will bring ISIS to its knees.

That America, though poor judgement, kidnapped and assassinated almost entirely innocent people under these provisions is unfortunate. Perhaps others will do better.

Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War that has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security issues. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/09/23/the-secret-isis-safe-havens-nobody-wants-you-to-know-about/

NATO’s terror hordes in Iraq a pretext for Syria invasion

Posted by

0

From New Eastern Outlook
Originally published 6-13-14

All roads lead to Baghdad and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is following them all, north from Syria and Turkey to south. Reading Western headlines, two fact-deficient narratives have begun gaining traction. The first is that this constitutes a “failure” of US policy in the Middle East, an alibi as to how the US and its NATO partners should in no way be seen as complicit in the current coordinated, massive, immensely funded and heavily armed terror blitzkrieg toward Baghdad. The second is how ISIS appears to have “sprung” from the sand dunes and date trees as a nearly professional military traveling in convoys of matching Toyota trucks without explanation.

In actuality, ISIS is the product of a joint NATO-GCC conspiracy stretching back as far as 2007 where US-Saudi policymakers sought to ignite a region-wide sectarian war to purge the Middle East of Iran’s arch of influence stretching from its borders, across Syria and Iraq, and as far west as Lebanon and the coast of the Mediterranean. ISIS has been harbored, trained, armed, and extensively funded by a coalition of NATO and Persian Gulf states within Turkey’s (NATO territory) borders and has launched invasions into northern Syria with, at times, both Turkish artillery and air cover.  The most recent example of this was the cross-border invasion by Al Qaeda into Kasab village, Latikia province in northwest Syria.

In March, ISIS withdrew its terror battalions from Latikia and Idlib provinces and repositioned them in the east of Syria, now clearly in preparations for invading northern Iraq. The Daily Star reported in a March 2014 article titled, “Al-Qaeda splinter group in Syria leaves two provinces: activists,” that:

On Friday, ISIS – which alienated many rebels by seizing territory and killing rival commanders – finished withdrawing from the Idlib and Latakia provinces and moved its forces toward the eastern Raqqa province and the eastern outskirts of the northern city of Aleppo, activists said.  

The alleged territorial holdings of ISIS cross over both Syrian and Iraqi borders meaning that any campaign to eradicate them from Iraqi territory can easily spill over into Syria’s borders. And that is exactly the point. With ISIS having ravaged Mosul, Iraq near the Turkish border and moving south in a terror blitzkrieg now threatening the Iraqi capital of Baghdad itself, the Iraqi government is allegedly considering calling for US and/or NATO assistance to break the terror wave. Adding to the pretext, ISIS, defying any sound tactical or strategic thinking, has seized a Turkish consulate in Mosul, taking over 80 Turkish hostages – serendipitous giving Turkey not only a new pretext to invade northern Iraq as it has done many times in pursuit of alleged Kurdish militants, but to invade Syrian territory where ISIS is also based.

Turkey Has Already Attempted to Use Al Qaeda False Flag Attacks to Justify Invading Syria 

Click on the picture to enlarge it

It had been revealed that NATO has been planning a false flag attack against Turkey to justify the Turkish invasion of northern Syria, the International Business Times reported in its article, “Turkey YouTube Ban: Full Transcript of Leaked Syria ‘War’ Conversation Between Erdogan Officials.” It released the full transcript of a leaked conversation between the head of Turkish intelligence Hakan Fidan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. The Times reported:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ban of YouTube occurred after a leaked conversation between Head of Turkish Intelligence Hakan Fidan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that he wanted removed from the video-sharing website.

The leaked call details Erdogan’s thoughts that an attack on Syria “must be seen as an opportunity for us [Turkey]”.

In the conversation, intelligence chief Fidan says that he will send four men from Syria to attack Turkey to “make up a cause of war”.

The report would also state:

In the leaked video, Fidan is discussing with Davutoğlu, Güler and other officials a possible operation within Syria to secure the tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman empire.

Instead of four men carrying out a false flag to secure a tomb, it appears now that an entire mercenary army will be used as a pretext to secure all of northern Iraq and eastern Syria.

Banks Robbed After Invasion Funded the Invasion? Western Media Puts Cart Before the Horse 

Tales of ISIS looting armories, vehicle depots, and banks are being carefully planted throughout the Western media in an attempt to portray the invasion as a terrorist uprising, sustaining itself on plundered supplies, weapons, and cash. In reality, ISIS already possessed all that it needed before beginning its campaign from Syrian and Turkish territory.

The International Business Times in its article, “Mosul Seized: Jihadis Loot $429m from City’s Central Bank to Make Isis World’s Richest Terror Force,” claims:

The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (Isis) has become the richest terror group ever after looting 500 billion Iraqi dinars – the equivalent of $429m (£256m) – from Mosul’s central bank, according to the regional governor.

Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi confirmed Kurdish televison reports that Isis militants had stolen millions from numerous banks across Mosul. A large quantity of gold bullion is also believed to have been stolen.

Following the siege of the country’s second city, the bounty collected by the group has left it richer than al-Qaeda itself and as wealthy as small nations such as Tonga, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Falkland Islands.

This cover story is the latest in a long propaganda campaign designed to cover up the extensively documented state sponsorship of ISIS and other Al Qaeda franchises by the United States, NATO, and the Persian Gulf monarchies. Previous attempts to explain why alleged “moderates” being funded billions by the West were being displaced by Al Qaeda in Syria have included claims that “Twitter donations” were eclipsing the combined aid provided by the US, EU, NATO, and Persian Gulf states.

The US, NATO, and Persian Gulf States are Behind ISIS 

Published in 2007 – a full 4 years before the 2011 “Arab Spring” would begin – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker article titled, “”The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?” stated specifically (emphasis added):

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

Throughout the Syrian conflict, which began in 2011, the West and its regional partners have sent billions in cash, weapons, and equipment. In the March 2013 Telegraph article titled, “US and Europe in ‘major airlift of arms to Syrian rebels through Zagreb’,” it is reported:

It claimed 3,000 tons of weapons dating back to the former Yugoslavia have been sent in 75 planeloads from Zagreb airport to the rebels, largely via Jordan since November
The story confirmed the origins of ex-Yugoslav weapons seen in growing numbers in rebel hands in online videos, as described last month by The Daily Telegraph and other newspapers, but suggests far bigger quantities than previously suspected.
The shipments were allegedly paid for by Saudi Arabia at the bidding of the United States, with assistance on supplying the weapons organised through Turkey and Jordan, Syria’s neighbours. But the report added that as well as from Croatia, weapons came “from several other European countries including Britain”, without specifying if they were British-supplied or British-procured arms.
British military advisers however are known to be operating in countries bordering Syria alongside French and Americans, offering training to rebel leaders and former Syrian army officers. The Americans are also believed to be providing training on securing chemical weapons sites inside Syria.

Additionally, The New York Times in its article, “Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With C.I.A. Aid,” admits that:

With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders.

The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.

With the pledge of fresh aid, the total amount of nonlethal assistance from the United States to the coalition and civic groups inside the country is $250 million. During the meeting here, Mr. Kerry urged other nations to step up their assistance, with the objective of providing $1 billion in international aid. 

The US has also admitted that it is now officially arming and equipping terrorists inside of Syria. The Washington Post’s article, “U.S. weapons reaching Syrian rebels,” reported:

The CIA has begun delivering weapons to rebels in Syria, ending months of delay in lethal aid that had been promised by the Obama administration, according to U.S. officials and Syrian figures. The shipments began streaming into the country over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear — a flow of material that marks a major escalation of the U.S. role in Syria’s civil war.

Click on the picture to enlarge it

The Western media and the governments providing them their talking points now expect the general public to believe that somehow “Twitter donations” and “bank robberies” have managed to outpace this unprecedented multinational logistical feat and give Al Qaeda the edge over the West’s nonexistent “moderate” forces in Syria and give rise to phantom terrorist legions capable of seizing entire provinces across multiple national borders. The evidence simply doesn’t add up. 

Combined with reports from the US Army’s West Point Countering Terrorism Center, “Bombers, Bank Accounts and Bleedout: al-Qa’ida’s Road In and Out of Iraq,” and “Al-Qa’ida’s Foreign Fighters in Iraq,” it is clear that Iraq’s Al Qaeda/ISIS legions were created, funded, and armed by Persian Gulf states and are augmented with foreign fighters drawn from Libya’s terror epicenter of Benghazi, and Saudi Arabia in particular. These legions have been in operation in one form or another since they were first created by the US CIA, Saudi Arabia and Pakistani intelligence during the 1980’s to combat Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

A Pretext for NATO Invasion 

The alleged territory of ISIS overlaps the Iraqi-Syrian border constituting a region nearly the size of Syria itself. With Baghdad asking for foreign intervention, and ISIS giving NATO the perfect pretext to do so by seizing a Turkish consulate in Mosul, making the case for (re)invading Iraq may be feasible. With the Western media capitalizing on ISIS’ notorious brutality, including mass beheadings and hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing before them, a demonstrable campaign to sway public opinion toward intervention is clearly under way.

Invading northern Iraq will allow NATO to then justify cross-border operations into eastern Syria. In reality what NATO will be doing is establishing their long desired “buffer zone” where terrorists can launch attacks deeper and more effectively into Syrian territory. With western Syria returning to peace and order after a series of victories for the Syrian government, the last front NATO’s proxy forces have is Al Qaeda’s arch of terror running along Turkey’s border and now, across eastern Syria and northern Iraq. NATO’s presence in northern Iraq would also provide an obstacle for Iranian-Syrian trade and logistics.

The idea of such a buffer zone has been in the works since at least March 2012, where the idea was proposed by the US corporate-financier funded Brookings Institution in their “Middle East Memo #21″ “Assessing Options for Regime Change” where it stated specifically (emphasis added):

“An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annan’s leadership. This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power. This would, of course, fall short of U.S. goals for Syria and could preserve Asad in power. From that starting point, however, it is possible that a broad coalition with the appropriate international mandate could add further coercive action to its efforts.” 

Through Iraq, NATO has used its terrorist proxies to create a pretext to put this “buffer zone” strategy back into motion. The prospect of the US, NATO, or the Persian Gulf states delivering Iraq from ISIS is an ironic tragedy – as definitive evidence reveals ISIS’ brutal incursion was of this collective coalition’s own doing to begin with, and for its own insidious ends. Instead, a joint Iranian-Iraqi-Syrian anti-terror campaign should be conducted to corner and crush NATO’s terrorist mercenary expeditionary force once and for all.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2014/06/13/nato-s-terror-hordes-in-iraq-a-pretext-for-syria-invasion/