Middle East Thread

[setreal]

Yer usalem.

[stringvest]

Let's fight for the right to be moderate!

[Red Phoenix]

Brutal!

 

The Dangerous Fantasies of Jeffrey Goldberg

 

Gideon Levy - Aug 03, 2016 7:04 PM

So, the American liberal says he's 'taking a break' from Haaretz. The Palestinians are far more tired of the occupation. They’d also like a break.

 

Jeffrey Goldberg has a fantasy. Like every fantasy, it’s only loosely connected to reality. But don’t dare try to spoil it – he’s enjoying it too much.

Goldberg is an enlightened liberal, representing progressive American Jewry. He’s liberal, intellectual, Zionist (of course), a friend of Israel (of course), close to U.S. President Barack Obama and a highly regarded journalist. He is critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who isn’t?) and has liberal, enlightened Israeli friends just like him.

 

In Goldberg’s fantasy, Israel is as enlightened as he is: liberal, democratic and just. Don’t you dare try casting doubt on that – Goldberg’s liberalism won’t tolerate it. He will praise freedom of expression in Israel, as he did at a Haaretz conference in Palo Alto last November, and will say that Israelis' freedom of the press and lively public debate is what makes Israel so popular in America. But from now on, it will have to be without Haaretz and the lively public debate it fosters about Zionism among Jewish Americans.

According to Goldberg, Haaretz is doing something unforgiveable: it’s shattering his fantasy. Because of an op-ed piece in which two American-Jewish historians explain why they’ve abandoned Zionism, as well as a piece of my own (“Yes, Israel is an evil state,” July 31), the liberal Goldberg has decided he’s had enough of Haaretz. He tweeted to his 107,000 Twitter followers that these sort of pieces make him sick. Neo-Nazis, he said, have been distributing my op-ed, so he was going to have to “take a break” from Haaretz.

I would love to know who those neo-Nazis are. After all, neo-Nazis and the radical right are now some of Israel’s best friends. Did Goldberg mean to say that BDS advocates are neo-Nazis? And besides, I’m not sure I understand. What, the pieces are true, but it’s only the way they’re used that angers Goldberg? Should they not be published because neo-Nazis disseminate them? Or are the articles not actually true?

Behind this lies the greatest boorishness of all: the rather primitive idea that Israel’s critics are the ones giving it a bad name, not its actions and policies. That criticism of Israel was born of articles in Haaretz, not the crimes of the occupation. The video footage released Tuesday showing a Border Policeman throwing the bike of a terrified Palestinian girl into the bushes in Hebron did more damage to Israel than all of my pieces in Haaretz combined. Goldberg probably thought it should never have been posted, because of the neo-Nazis.

You’re tired of Haaretz, Jeffrey? The Palestinians are far more tired of the occupation. They’d also like a break.

And now to the essence. Goldberg thinks a country that’s oppressing four million human beings is an enlightened state implementing the liberal values of the West. That a country that in its own backyard is maintaining one of the most brutal and tyrannical regimes that exist today – certainly in the Western world – and has been running an apartheid regime for nearly 50 years, is a democracy. Would Goldberg call his country a democracy if there was racist discrimination in the south?

No one is denying Goldberg his right to deceive himself and his readers. But the Goldbergs bear a heavy burden of guilt, because the occupation also continues because of them – those who spread the lie of Israeli democracy and its liberal nonsense. The smokescreen that Goldberg spreads in America allows it. He wants to continue enjoying Israel as long as it doesn’t harm the Reform movement or the Women of the Wall, while ignoring everything it does to the Palestinians.

Haaretz will manage without Goldberg, but Israel would be a different country without this newspaper. It would be a country that even propagandist Goldberg would be ashamed of, without journalism of substance and without real oversight. Who will cover the occupation? Channel 2? Or the asylum seekers – Yedioth Ahronoth? Who will write about the undermining of democracy? Israel Hayom?

That’s the country Goldberg would like to continue to fantasize about in Washington. Thanks, but we’re not interested.

 

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.735126

[s(k)aturation]

Let's fight for the right to be moderate!

 

 

Not a hope in Hades of that.

[dennis tooth]

http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/08/04/syria-cnn-normalizes-suicide-bombers-and-embeds-reporters-with-isis-and-al-qaeda/   SYRIA: CNN Normalizes Suicide Bombers and Embeds Reporters with ISIS and Al Qaeda

 

As the battle for Aleppo gathers momentum and the encircled terrorist factions respond violently to the strangulation of their supply lines and diminishment of their territory in eastern Aleppo, CNN  goes to extraordinary lengths to obfuscate US connections to these terror gangs, romanticise the role of terror in Syria and even more astonishingly “normalise” suicide bombers and promote the re-branded Al Nusra as the new “moderates”. 

Al Nusra Front (aka Al Qaeda in Syria) under new nomenclature suddenly become ‘freedom fighters’ (sounds familiar) and the new ‘reasonable option’ in the US mainstream media and the US voting public barely seem to notice?

On August 2nd 2016, as the Syrian Arab Army made serious advances on the ground against the NATO and GCC-backed terrorist factions occupying the eastern sectors of Aleppo, the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, Jabhat Al Nusra made the announcement that it was changing the name of the group.  Naturally, CNN ran with this story almost immediately.

This re-branding also coincides with the agreement between Russia and the US to finally combine forces in combating Al Qaeda/Al Nusra fighting inside Syria. Here we can see the true function of CNN in the conflict theatre – to help sculpt the US government narrative – and to carefully nudge the public perception along those lines.

CNN’s crack journalist, Clarissa Ward, who has visited terrorist held areas inside Syria 14 times since the NATO dirty war on Syria began 5 years ago, even donning the full veil and chador, or niqab, presumably to “respect” the ‘moderate rebel’ jihadi extremist demands, has played the staring role in the CNN team producing these sensational reports.

Clarissa Ward who professes Syria is a place “close to her heart” wrote that Al Nusra had taken the decision to split from Al Qaeda and re-brand as Jabhat Fatah al Sham.

“Mostafa Mahamed, one of the group’s leaders, says that prior to the split al-Nusra “was an official branch of al Qaeda. We reported to their central command and we worked within their framework, we adhered to their policies.With the formation of JFS, or Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, we are completely independent. That means we don’t report to anyone, we don’t receive our directives from any external entity.” ~ CNN Report

CNN then go on to draw on comments from Charles Lister, known propagandist and executive producer of the “moderate rebel” promotional literature. Scholar at the the Washington based and Qatari funded Middle East Institute, Charles Lister of course celebrates this name change, claiming it is a natural progression for the group to protect it from Russian and Syrian Airforce strikes.

Qatar itself is also heavily invested in “regime change” in Syria.  Besides funding the terrorist factions directly, Qatar is also involved in the more subtle building of a shadow state inside Syria via the myriad of NATO and EU funded NGOs who serve as a fifth column for the governments hostile to Syria and enable these governments to work on infiltrating local services and councils. This operation has been discussed in a previous 21st Century Wire article, #AleppoIsBurning Campaign Created by NATO to Facilitate a “No Bomb Zone.”

So, this group that receives weapons, equipment and “directives” from NATO member states, in particular the US, has rebranded to prevent Russia targeting them as an internationally designated terrorist group? According to Charles Lister, there are perfectly logical explanations for this re-brand that defy such spurious speculation:

“Al Qaeda as an international organization has been changing,” says Lister. “It is becoming more of an idea than an organization. It is looking to decentralize jihad, to give more autonomy to individual affiliates with the aim of making jihadi rule more likely. “Jabhat al-Nusra has demonstrated the value of that,” he says, distancing itself from some of the more bloodthirsty Islamist groups. “It has an explicit ban on tough punishments: It doesn’t chop hand off for thievery, it doesn’t execute for murder.” ~ CNN Report

Has nobody watching or reading CNN realised how twisted this statement is?

Al Nusra does not “chop hands off for thievery, it doesnt execute for murder“. There is some logic to this however… when the murderers absolve themselves of their own crimes it makes sense that they will abolish the execution policy when they are the primary perpetrators of the crime inside Syria. They don’t chop hands off, what is the point when a head can be chopped off instead?

Why punish murder when they are massacring the Syrian people on a daily basis?

 

The Al Nusra Invasion of Maaloula Whitewashed by CNN

Yesterday Vanessa Beeley [the author] met with Father Talal Taalab, a Christian priest from the historic Christian village of Maaloula perched 15oo metres high on the mountainside of the Rif Dimashq governorate, 56 km north-east of Damascus and close to the border with Lebanon.

This beautiful Syrian Christian village has been in existence for more than 7000 years and has proudly preserved its culture and heritage including the Aramaic language. The following video was filmed on the 29th July 2016 inside the Mar Takla monastery, Maaloula.  The Lords prayer is being recited in Aramaic.

 

In the 1920s, according to Father Taalab,  Turkey introduced Muslim Brotherhood factions into Maaloula “planting strangers in our land.”

The Christian communities welcomed these “strangers” and provided them with housing and land, even building a mosque for them inside Maaloula.

From 2011 onwards, Father Taalab sensed a growing threat from members of this Muslim community, he noticed that many of them were joining the flourishing groups of insurgents and extremists.  Even those living inside Maaloula were being enticed into joining the ranks of those terrorists who wished only to cleanse the area of those who did not adhere to their extreme view of Islam and intolerance towards “apostates” and infidels.

On the 4th September 2013, these terrorists that CNN are trying to present as reformed criminals, suicide bombed the southern SAA checkpoint that was the only defence for the crypto-occupied Christian residents.  A Jordanian suicide bomber drove a truck up to the checkpoint that was blocking the southern entrance to the village and detonated it, giving the signal for the attack to begin.

During this attack, 8 Syrian Army soldiers were murdered by the insurgents and two tanks were disabled.  The terrorists then went on to capture the Safir Hotel which gave them a vantage point from which they could snipe the village residents. Father Taalab describes how many of the Muslim Brotherhood residents who had been their neighbours for years, turned on their Christian hosts and began chanting in support of the Al Nusra insurgents while they were attacking Christian homes and looting or torching their churches.

On the 7th September 2013, Black Saturday in the Maalouli calendar, Al Nusra extremists entered a house in Maaloula.  They rounded up three young men, Sarkis, Mikhael and Anton [see below, from left to right]. Their photos are pinned to the wall of Father Taalab’s office.

 

Al Nusra demanded that each man convert to Islam, each man in turn refused to renounce their faith and were shot in the head one by one. The second and third were forced to watch their lifelong friends and brothers murdered before being shot themselves for their refusal to abandon their beliefs.

The Al Nusra operatives then went on to shoot an 80 year old man, Lawandeus, who was Anton’s father.  Lawandeus was blind and deaf but this did not prevent Al Nusra’s attempted murder of this defenceless elder citizen whose son’s blood was already staining the floor.

On entering the house, these Al Nusra NATO-GCC agents had also shot Anton’s sister, Antoinette, in the back.  Presuming she was dead they then proceeded to shoot her brother and his two comrades in the head while Antoinette, half conscious, a bullet in her spine, was forced to witness the cold-blooded murders.  Her brother Anton was a shoemaker, the only son of their parents and someone who served his church and the community faithfully and compassionately.

Mikhael was the town baker and Sarkis was an engineering student with a promising future, cut short by the Al Nusra blood-letters whose purpose was to ethnically cleanse the Christian community from its ancestral home.

On the same day, Al Nusra kidnapped six young men from the village including Father Taalab’s brother and two other family members. Father Taalab maintains that Al Nusra deliberately targeted the families of the village clergy which further supports the claim that Al Nusra were intent upon the ethnic cleansing of this ancient community.

These six young men are still missing.  For the first six months, Father Taalab was in contact with them via phone. After that initial six months nothing has been heard from them.  The pain of this “not knowing” was visible in Father Taalab eyes and expression as he talked of efforts ongoing to try and locate the boys and to return them to their families in Maaloula.

Al Nusra demanded that each man convert to Islam, each man in turn refused to renounce their faith and were shot in the head one by one. The second and third were forced to watch their lifelong friends and brothers murdered before being shot themselves for their refusal to abandon their beliefs.

The Al Nusra operatives then went on to shoot an 80 year old man, Lawandeus, who was Anton’s father.  Lawandeus was blind and deaf but this did not prevent Al Nusra’s attempted murder of this defenceless elder citizen whose son’s blood was already staining the floor.

On entering the house, these Al Nusra NATO-GCC agents had also shot Anton’s sister, Antoinette, in the back.  Presuming she was dead they then proceeded to shoot her brother and his two comrades in the head while Antoinette, half conscious, a bullet in her spine, was forced to witness the cold-blooded murders.  Her brother Anton was a shoemaker, the only son of their parents and someone who served his church and the community faithfully and compassionately.

Mikhael was the town baker and Sarkis was an engineering student with a promising future, cut short by the Al Nusra blood-letters whose purpose was to ethnically cleanse the Christian community from its ancestral home.

On the same day, Al Nusra kidnapped six young men from the village including Father Taalab’s brother and two other family members. Father Taalab maintains that Al Nusra deliberately targeted the families of the village clergy which further supports the claim that Al Nusra were intent upon the ethnic cleansing of this ancient community.

These six young men are still missing.  For the first six months, Father Taalab was in contact with them via phone. After that initial six months nothing has been heard from them.  The pain of this “not knowing” was visible in Father Taalab eyes and expression as he talked of efforts ongoing to try and locate the boys and to return them to their families in Maaloula.

 

“We are hopeful that all our belongings will be returned to us including the icons and artefacts but most importantly the human souls that were torn from our midst and from their mothers’ side.”  ~ Father Taalab

We would expect a media outlet as prominent as CNN to report on these atrocities in detail but when we look at their accounts of Al Nusra’s invasion and occupation of Maaloula we find that they have, to a large extent, whitewashed the extremism and murderous intent.

In fact, according to CNN, “Maaloua was spared the atrocities endured elsewhere across Syria.”  In a May 2016 report, CNN barely mentions the Al Nusra savagery, with only a fleeting reference to the 2013 crimes: “The convent was badly damaged in 2013 and 12 nuns were taken hostage and held by Islamist fighters for months before being released unharmed.”

This glib reformulation of the truth acts as a criminal gatekeeper as to the true evil of Al Nusra and the barbarity of their acts against the Maalouli people.  CNN is fundamentally entering into the arena of terror apologism and perhaps even endorsement of their heinous crimes against an unprotected and unprepared Christian minority community that had peacefully co-existed with its eventual attackers for almost a full century.

CNN also marginalise the desecration of ancient cultural heritage sites, the burning of medieval Icons, the torching of sacred places of worship, the shooting of the crosses, the theft of the ancient statues and artefacts. These NATO-GCC terrorists cut a violent and bloody swathe through this steadfast civilisation that had evolved over seven thousand years into a humble and hospitable community that opened its doors to all faiths and sects.

Below is a slideshow of some of the photos taken during the visit to Maaloula on the 29th of July 2016, clearly showing the extent of the destruction carried out by the NATO-GCC terrorists as they marauded through the town and its sacred heritage sites.

Remember, according to Charles Lister, these murderers are “moderates”:  “it [Al Nusra] doesn’t chop hand off for thievery, it doesn’t execute for murder.”

This short video was taken on the 29th July 2016, almost three years after these horrific crimes were committed by the CNN poster boys for “moderate” terrorism inside Syria.  It shows the US Peace Council delegation entering Maaloula. As you can hear from the comments, the scars of the Al Nusra butchery still remain in the bullet holes that pepper the walls and buildings and deep in the hearts of this simple community that has suffered inestimable loss and endured a savagery they never imagined could exist among them.

 

Now we have established evidence of just one of the many areas of Syria where Al Nusra have committed atrocities against the Syrian people we should return and examine more closely, the role of CNN as US State media purveyor of the “moderate rebel” myth and normaliser of terrorist acts “moderately” conducted daily and justified by any means possible.

Clarissa Ward stated that she has visited Syria 14 times since the NATO-GCC dirty operation to secure “regime change” began to tear Syria apart over five years ago. In these CNN reports, Ward appears to have extensively embedded herself in the Al Nusra/Al Qaeda held areas of Aleppo and along the corridor that leads from the Turkish border to the terrorist occupied city.  As explained previously, Al Nusra and other NATO-GCC backed gangs such as Nour al Din Jenki occupy the eastern sectors of Aleppo city with ISIS intermingling in the northern regions.

‘Nour al Din Jenki’, another US supported terrorist faction were responsible for the recent horrific beheading of a young 11 year old Palestinian child, the footage of which has shocked audiences across the world but which the US State Department still balks at condemning.  The life of a child, beaten, tortured and finally publicly decapitated seems less important than the protection of their assets inside Syria.

In March 2016 Ward and CNN with the assistance of Bilal Abdul Kareem of ‘On the Ground News’ (OGN) executed a plan to film deep inside the “rebel” territories of [eastern] Aleppo, Idlib city and Maarat al Numan.  It must be clarified that the areas infiltrated by this media team are in fact stongholds of terrorism, ISIS, Al Nusra/Al Qaeda and Ahrar al Sham the other half of the erstwhile Jaish al Fatah [Army of Conquest] alliance that Al Nusra has now publicly disassociated from with its convenient name change.

Bilal Abdul Kareem is no stranger to these terrorist areas, he has been the long-time pet interviewer of Sheikh Abdullah Muhaysini, head of Jaish al Fatah and Riyadh-educated and funded child suicide-bomber trainer, executioner, judge of apostates and all round mass murderer who has very recently been calling upon terrorist suicide bombers in and around Aleppo to massacre Syrian Arab Army soldiers and allies to gain their virgin prizes in Jannah [Paradise]:

The intrepid Ward wears the niqab on this mission, appearing to be succumbing to the most extreme demands of fundamental Wahhabi Islam being imposed by ISIS, Ahrar al Sham and Al Nusra in Idlib, eastern Aleppo and Maarat al Numan.

As with most US mainstream media (and US political figures like John McCain) championing ‘moderate’ terrorists, Ward crossed into Syria illegally via the Turkish border without permission from the Syrian government and fraternized with the same terrorists that are massacring and sadistically brutalizing the Syrian people in these regions.

Had Ward entered legally, she would have had the protection of the Syrian Government and Armed forces.  She would not have had to wear the Niqab as the majority of Government held areas that house the majority of the Syrian people from all religious sects and walks of life do not enforce any sort of dress code.

Of course, this would have made for a far less dramatic news piece for CNN producers who are keen to develop the US State Department’s and the CIA’s own ‘moderate rebel’ and ‘freedom fighter’ narrative.

Had Ward officially and respectfully asked if she could interview the “armed opposition” she would have been told by Dr Bashar Al Jaafari [syrian Representative to the UN] that:

“If you wish to talk to the armed opposition, I suggest you go to Saudi Arabia.”

What is Ward’s role in this war? It is certainly not to bring the truth to the outside world. 

Ward collectively re-brands these NATO member state and GCC-funded mass murderers, armed ‘activists’ and moderate rebels.

In her news packages, Ward sits with these terrorist criminals and sympathises with their supposed plight as they are bombed by the Syrian and Russian airforce trying to drive this foreign-backed cancer from a still sovereign nation that has been invaded by a NATO-GCC proxy army comprising of rapists, child abusers, smugglers, drug addicts and escaped convicts.

Ward romanticizes these felons and killers, she allies herself and CNN with their “cause” although an explanation of that cause is not forthcoming other than, naturally, the deposing of President Assad, his “brutal regime” and the destruction of the Syrian National Army.

Almost every family in Syria has a relative in the Syrian Army, Ward is advocating their murder and denying the universal grief and sorrow felt by every single Syrian man, woman and child that has lost their father, son, brother or uncle at the hands of the criminals that Ward portrays as heroic “rebels”.

“They were the ones under the relentless bombardment from the Assad regime. The vast majority of people living there are good people who are suffering enormously.” ~ Clarissa Ward: What its like being a Journalist in one of the Worlds most Dangerous Countries

What Ward fails to mention is that, yes, the good people, the Syrian people are suffering enormously but from terrorist occupation.  In Syrian reality, the Syrian Arab Army is their liberator not their prison warden as so often described by Ward and the CNN team.

Ward does not mention Kafarya and Foua, the Ahrar al Sham besieged Shia Muslim villages in Idlib.  Kafarya and Foua are being starved to death.  Kafarya and Foua are being gradually and viciously ethnically cleansed by those Ward describes as “activists”.

This protracted war crime in Kafarya and Foua, endorsed and facilitated by the UN and NATO does not even warrant a mention from Ward and her CNN/OGN entourage.

The following video made again by Bilal Abdul Kareem of OGN demonstrates quite clearly that these terrorist factions and their supporters are not starving, they are not besieged, they are only hungry for bigger and better weapons with which they can continue their bloodletting inside Syria  on behalf of the Gulf States, Turkey, Israel and NATO.

 

In one interview, Clarissa Ward calculatingly says:

“Syria grabbed my heart and never let go.”

Does Clarissa Ward ever mention the heart eating exploits of the CNN poster boys and their allies? No, of course not.  That would muddy the filthy vermin infested water that CNN are trying to sell us as beneficial for the Syrian people who are in reality poisoned by CNN’s toxic propaganda and support of the terrorist entities that are destroying entire communities, uprooting many others and torturing or violating those that remain behind.

CNN Normalizes Al Nusra Suicide Bombers – “Inside the Mind of a Suicide Bomber”

Two nights ago, CNN aired a chilling and shocking programme where they actively normalised the use of suicide bombers as a natural act of war.

In a ten minute interview with CNN, who yet again give a platform to these pro-terrorist talking heads, Norwegian filmmaker Paul Refsdal explains how he had to provide a CV and two references in order to be able to film and interview Al Nusra suicide bombers inside Syria.

In this hallucinatory interview, CNN allow Refsdal to reduce the massacres carried out by these suicide bombers down to the “absurd” and to justify the use of suicide bombers as a legitimate act of war against the Syrian Arab Army.

It is interesting to note that during the US Peace Council delegation meeting with President Bashar al Assad on the 28th July 2016, Assad mentioned that according to his government data, the majority of ISIS leaders fighting in Syria, originate from Norway. Perhaps Paul Refsdal is a potential candidate.  Surely we should at least be asking who provided his references.

There is barely a whisper of condemnation for these mass murderers and ideologically deluded criminals.  Once more CNN serves as the platform to lionize terrorism and to elevate it to normalcy in the minds of viewers and readers.

This is a very dangerous path to walk down and one from which return is not easy. Where are CNN leading us and why?

Should we expect CNN to now suddenly approve of past Palestinian resistance tactics and their use of suicide bombers in response to the disproportionate force deployed against them by a very real and illegal (according to international law) Israeli Military Occupation Forces in Palestine? That is the logical conclusion surely?

Al Nusra/Al Qaeda name-change given a platform by CNN

CNN went one step beyond most other media channels who reported on the timely re-branding by Al Nusra/Al Qaeda.

CNN televised the announcement by Mohammed Joulani, flanked by two unsavoury members of the terrorist group.  Once again CNN gave the platform to an internationally designated terrorist group and endorsed their attempt to distance themselves from the damaging Al Qaeda brand.

This cynical ploy to alter public perception and open the door to future protection of and collaboration with this NATO-GCC terrorist asset must be highlighted.  The consequences of this operation being successful are too dreadful to conceive or entertain particularly for the already bloodied and ravaged Syrian nation and its wounded people.

 

Mockingbird Media: CNN Working in Lock-step with the US State Department

CNN is not the only State operative to be working hard at distancing Al Nusra from Al Qaeda and creating smoke screens to disassociate the US government from its terrorist connections in Syria.

John Kirby of the US State Department manages to twist his response to a question regarding the Al Nusra re-branding into an unintelligible concoction of double-speak, ultimately avoiding the question altogether as only the US State Department can.

Where is the categorical response that should have been forthcoming – “under any name they are a gang of mass murderers illegally on Syrian soil and as such are legitimate targets for the Syrian National Army and their allies”.

Hell might freeze over long before we hear that from the US State Department or any of their related agencies in the media or predatory humanitarian complex.

 

The Deadly Implications of the Al Qaeda name change game

Wikipedia has already edited its entry for Mohammed Joulani, Emir of Jabhat al Nusra to incorporate the product re-branding:

“Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a^[3] (Arabic: أحمد حسين الشرع‎‎), known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani^[4] (Arabic: أبو محمد الجولاني‎‎), is the emir of the Syrian militant group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, he also led its predecessor organisation Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.^[5] Al-Julani was listed by the US State Department as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” on 16 May 2013″

The name change has significance and this should not be overlooked.

“It is interesting that CNN translates “Sham” to Levant which includes Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey and Cyprus.  The British would also add Libya and Egypt to the Levant.

The world “Sham” should actually only include Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan.

The Islamic definition of “Fateh” is conquest which means quite simply the introduction of the rule of Allah according to the armies of “Fateh”that are predominantly driven by the extremist ideologies of Wahhabism and Al Qaeda so ISIS, Al Nusra, Ahrar al Sham etc. Conquest in this context means the displacement and destruction of all those who do not adhere to this extremist ideology.” ~ Abdo Hadad, Maaloula

The CNN expansion of the territory to include the whole of the Levant as opposed to the Sham is perhaps an indication of where this latest turn of events may lead.

Are we about to see the normalization of Al Qaeda and their deployment into Idlib to present the “moderate” face of extremism to the outside world.  An extremism that intends to impose its Islamic state upon a specific area of Syria that is already heavily occupied by its forces, controlled by Turkey acting as middle man for Saudi Arabia and the NATO Alliance.

Presently, Aleppo is slipping from NATO-GCC grasp, and it will be a huge loss for their terrorist brigades.  Is Idlib the new target and is Jabhat Fateh al Sham the new “moderate” Al Qaeda primed to occupy this belt of territory bordering Turkey which will give Erdogan an even greater role inside Syria without having to deploy his own armed forces.

Once again, CNN provide the clues by publishing Charles Lister’s view on the Al Qaeda re-brand:

“Their long term aim is to establish an Islamic emirate in Syria”

***

Author Vanessa Beeley is a contributor to 21WIRE, and since 2011, she has spent most of her time in the Middle East reporting on events there – as a independent researcher, writer, photographer and peace activist. She is a volunteer with the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine. See more of her work at her blog The Wall Will Fall.

[dennis tooth]

This is for SD, a man happy they let women serve on the front line.

 

 

http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/07/20/syria-us-attempts-disassociation-from-its-proxy-psychopaths-after-beheading-of-palestinian-child/

 

SYRIA: Beheading of Palestinian Child Prompts US to Disassociate from its Proxy Psychopaths

 

 

QUESTION: I’m wondering if you have seen or you’re aware of this beheading of a child by a group that is supported by the United States.

MR TONER: Yeah. No, thanks. We’ve obviously seen the reports, and we just can’t confirm. We’re seeking more information. We understand from unconfirmed reports that the group, the Free Syrian Army, has appointed a commission to investigate the incident and that they’ve made arrests of those allegedly involved. I’d refer you to – it’s Al Zinki, I guess, is the group —

QUESTION: Yeah.

MR TONER: — for additional information. But I can only say that it’s an appalling report, and obviously, we’re very concerned certainly if it’s accurate. We’re trying to get more information and more details.

QUESTION: Okay. Is that the kind of thing that could – that if you’re – if you are able to confirm it and if you do get – if you’re able to back up the reports —

MR TONER: Sure.

QUESTION: Is this the kind of thing that would affect assistance, U.S. assistance to this specific group but also just in general to the FSA?

MR TONER: Well, I think we’d take a – if, as you said, if we can prove that this was indeed what happened and this group was involved in it, I think it would certainly give us pause.

QUESTION: It would give you pause?

MR TONER: Well, give us pause about any assistance or, frankly, any further involvement with this group.

QUESTION: So, in other words, so it will draw – there will be some kind of consequence if you’re satisfied that this actually happened?

MR TONER: I can’t – again, I can’t say what that consequence will be, but it will certainly give us, as I said, serious pause and we’ll look at, frankly, any affiliation or cooperation with this group we may have going forward, if these allegations are proven true.

 

 

It should be noted that Zinki is one of the CIA vetted factions in Syria that the US has supplied with TOW anti-tank missiles. The Daily Beast wrote:

“The front includes not only hardline Salafist factions from the groups known as the Islamic Front but more moderate brigades like the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Mujahideen Army and Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki, a militia that has also received TOW missiles from Washington in the past.”

In a statement released today (see English translation below), the Zinki group admitted that it’s own members committed the beheading.

[dennis tooth]

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=16871

Destroying ISIS is a strategic mistake

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter recently gathered defense ministers from allied nations to plan what officials hope will be the decisive stage in the campaign to eradicate the Islamic State group. This is a strategic mistake.

Islamic State is a radical Islamist terrorist group that has killed thousands of people since it declared an Islamic caliphate in June 2014, with the Syrian city of Raqqa as its de facto capital. It captured tremendous international attention by swiftly conquering large swaths of land and by releasing gruesome pictures of beheadings and other gruesome executions.

But Islamic State is primarily successful where there is a political void. Although the offensives in Syria and Iraq showed Islamic State's tactical capabilities, they were directed against failed states with weakened militaries. On occasions when the poorly trained Islamic State troops have met well-organized opposition, even that of non-state entities, like the Kurdish militias, the group's performance has been less convincing. When greater military pressure was applied and Turkish support dwindled, Islamic State went into retreat.

It is true that Islamic State has ignited immense passion among many young and frustrated Muslims all over the world, and the caliphate idea holds great appeal among believers. But the relevant question is what can Islamic State do, particularly in its current situation? The terrorist activities for which it recently took responsibility were perpetrated mostly by lone wolves who declared their allegiance to the group; they were not directed from Raqqa. On its own, Islamic State is capable only of limited damage.

A weak Islamic State is, counter-intuitively, preferable to a destroyed one. Islamic State is a magnet for radicalized Muslims in countries throughout the world. These volunteers are easier targets to identify, saving intelligence work. They acquire destructive skills in the fields of Syria and Iraq that are of undoubted concern if they return home, but some of them acquire martyr status while still away -- a blessing for their home countries. If Islamic State is fully defeated, more of these people are likely to come home and cause trouble.

If the organization loses control over its territory, the energies that went into protecting and governing a state will be directed toward organizing more terrorist attacks beyond its borders. The collapse of Islamic State will produce a terrorist diaspora that might further radicalize Muslim immigrants in the West. Most counterterrorism agencies understand this danger. Prolonging Islamic State's life probably assures the deaths of more Muslim extremists at the hands of other bad guys in the Middle East, and is likely to spare the West several terrorist attacks.

Moreover, a weak and lingering Islamic State could undermine the attraction of the caliphate idea. A dysfunctional and embattled political entity is more conducive to the disillusionment of Muslim adherents of a caliphate in our times than an Islamic State destroyed by a mighty American-led coalition. The latter scenario perfectly fits the narrative of continuous and perfidious efforts on the part of the West to destroy Islam, which feeds radical Muslim hatred for everything the West stands for.

The continuing existence of Islamic State serves a strategic purpose. Why help the brutal Assad regime win the Syrian civil war? Many radical Islamists in the opposition forces, such as the Nusra Front and its offshoots, might find other arenas in which to operate closer to Paris and Berlin. Is it in the West's interests to strengthen the Russian grip on Syria and bolster its influence in the Middle East? Is enhancing Iranian control of Iraq congruent with American objectives in that country? Only the strategic folly that currently prevails in Washington can consider it positive to enhance the power of the Moscow-Tehran-Damascus axis by cooperating with Russia against Islamic State.

Furthermore, Hezbollah -- a radical Shiite anti-Western terrorist organization subservient to Iran -- is being seriously taxed by the fight against Islamic State, which suits Western interests. A Hezbollah that is no longer involved in the Syrian civil war might engage once again in taking Western hostages and other terrorist acts in Europe.

Western distaste for Islamic State brutality and immorality should not obfuscate strategic clarity. The group is truly made up of the bad guys, but few of their opponents are much better. Allowing bad guys to kill bad guys sounds very cynical, but it is useful and even moral to do so if it keeps the bad guys busy and less able to harm the good guys. The Hobbesian reality of the Middle East does not always present a neat moral choice.

The West yearns for stability, and holds out a naive hope that the military defeat of Islamic State will be instrumental in reaching that goal. But stability is not a value in and of itself. It is desirable only if it serves our interests. The defeat of Islamic State would encourage Iranian hegemony in the region, buttress Russia's role, and prolong Assad's tyranny. Tehran, Moscow, and Damascus do not share our democratic values and have little inclination to help America and the West.

 

Moreover, instability and crises sometimes contain portents of positive change. Unfortunately, the Obama administration fails to see that its main enemy is Iran. It has inflated the threat from Islamic State in order to legitimize Iran as a "responsible" actor that will, supposedly, fight Islamic State in the Middle East. This was part of the Obama administration's rationale for its nuclear deal with Iran and is central to its "legacy," which is likely to be ill-remembered.

The American administration does not appear capable of recognizing the fact that Islamic State can be a useful tool in undermining Tehran's ambitious plan for domination of the Middle East.

Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, is professor emeritus of political studies at Bar-Ilan University and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

[dennis tooth]

Behold, a Pale Horse and its Rider’s Name Was Death — Paul Craig Roberts

August 5, 2016 | Categories: Articles & Columns | Tags: | Print This Article Print This Article

Behold, a Pale Horse and its Rider’s Name Was Death

and Hell Followed Him

 

Paul Craig Roberts

 

I just listened to Obama give Washington’s account of the situation with ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

 

In Obama’s account, Washington is defeating ISIL in Iraq, but Russia and Assad are defeating the Syrian people in Syria. Obama denounced Russia and the Syrian government—but not ISIL—as barbaric. The message was clear: Washington still intends to overthrow Assad and turn Syria into another Libya and another Iraq, formerly stable and prosperous countries where war now rages continually.

 

It sickens me to hear the President of the United States lie and construct a false reality, so I turned off the broadcast. I believe it was a press conference, and I am confident that no meaningful questions were asked.

 

If Helen Thomas were still there, she would ask the Liar-in-Chief what went wrong with Washington’s policy in Iraq. We were promised that a low-cost “cakewalk” war of three or six weeks duration would bring “freedom and democracy” to Iraq. Why is it that 13 years later Iraq is a hellhole of war and destruction?

 

What happened to the “freedom and democracy?” And the “Cakewalk”?

 

You can bet your life that no presstitute asked Obama this question.

 

No one asked the Liar-in-Chief why the Russians and Syrians could clear ISIL out of most of Syria in a couple of months, but Washington has been struggling for several years to clear ISIL out of Iraq. Is it possible that Washington did not want to clear ISIL out of Iraq because Washington intended to use ISIL to clear Assad out of Syria?

 

No one asked the Liar-in-Chief why Washington sent ISIL to Syria and Iraq in the first place, or why the Syrians and Russians keep finding US weapons In ISIL’s military depots, or why Washington’s allies were funding ISIL by purchasing the oil ISIL is stealing from Iraq.

 

It seems to be the case that ISIL originated in the mercenaries that Washington organized to overthrow Gaddafi in Libya and were sent to Syria to overthrow Assad when the UK Parliament refused to participate in Washington’s invasion of Syria and the Russians put a stop to it.

 

All of the violence in the Middle East, violence that has consumed countless lives and produced millions of war refugees now overrunning Washington’s NATO vassals in Europe, is 100 percent the fault of Washington, not the fault of ISIL, or Assad, or Russia. Washington and only Washington is to blame.

 

Washington produced this violence. Where is the question: “Why, Mr. President, did Washington introduce 15 years of massive and ongoing violence into the Middle East and then expect us to believe that it was the fault of someone else?”

 

If Helen Thomas were there, she would ask the relevent questions. But the pussies that comprise the American press corps are merely an audience that validates the false reality spun by Washington by accepting it without question.

 

Meanwhile, Moscow and Beijing have understood the message. Washington intends war. The purpose of Washington’s lies is to prepare the insouciant Western peoples for war against the two countries that Washington cannot subjugate except by victory in war.

 

By faithful vassalage to Washington, Europe is bringing death and destruction to the world.

 

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West, How America Was Lost, and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order.

[Red Phoenix]

An extract of something found via Murtaza Hussain, about Syrian people sorting out democracy for themselves :

 

 

 

In regime-controlled areas, councils operate in secret. But in liberated territory people can organise publicly. These are tenacious but fragile experiments. Some are hampered by factionalism. Some are bullied out of existence by jihadists.

 

Manbij, a northern city, once boasted its own 600-member legislature and 20-member executive, a police force, and Syria’s first independent trade union. Then ISIL seized the grain silos and the democrats were driven out. Today Manbij is called "Little London" for its preponderance of English-accented jihadists.

 

In some areas the councils appear to signal Syria’s atomisation rather than a new beginning. Christophe Reuter calls it a "revolution of localists" when he describes "village republics""such as Korin, in Idlib province, with its own court and a 10-person council.

 

But Aziz envisaged councils connecting the people regionally and nationally, and democratic provincial councils now operate in the liberated parts of Aleppo, Idlib and Deraa. In the Ghouta region near Damascus, militia commanders were not permitted to stand as candidates. Fighters were, but only civilians won seats.

 

In Syria’s three Kurdish-majority areas, collectively known as Rojava, a similar system prevails, though the councils there are known as communes. In one respect they are more progressive than their counterparts elsewhere – 40 per cent of seats are reserved for women. In another, they are more constrained – they work within the larger framework of the PYD, which monopolises control of finances, arms and media.

 

The elected council members are the only representative Syrians we have. They should be key components in any serious settlement.

 

The rest is here : http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/against-all-odds-village-republics-take-hold-in-syria

[dennis tooth]

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950519000658

[dennis tooth]

Erdogan’s meeting with Putin will tell us what the future holds for Syria

Not long ago, it was Hillary Clinton who wanted to press the ‘reset’ button with Putin. Now it’s Erdogan – with, one suspects, a far greater effect

• Robert Fisk
• @indyvoices
• Tuesday 9 August 2016

So the Sultan travels to see the Tsar at the royal seat of St Petersburg. And the Caliph of Damascus will watch from Syria with the conviction that Ba’ath Party policy has once again proved its worth. The policy? Wait. And wait. And wait.

For just as Turkey’s power over Syria – its Pakistan-like role of conduit for Arab Gulf money and arms to the civil war, its smuggling routes to Isis, al-Qaeda (or Jabhat al-Nusra or Fatah el-Sham or whatever) – seemed an overwhelming threat to Damascus, along comes Turkey’s mysterious coup, its army neutered, and Sultan Erdogan scurrying off to St Petersburg to move his country from Nato to Mother Russia.

And all this when the rebel armies in Syria have resurrounded government troops in Aleppo with the aim of reopening their supply routes to Turkey. 

For with Russian forces scarcely 30 miles south of the Turkish border, and its pilots daily bombing the very same rebels who are besieging Aleppo, Tsar Putin is not going to tolerate any more missiles smuggled across the Turkish border to shoot down his helicopters.

And if Nato and the EU believe they can rely on their faithful ally Sultan Erdogan to pursue the destruction of the Assad regime or curb refugee flows to Europe – or tolerate US jets flying out of Incirlik airbase and other former Armenian properties in Anatolia – they can think again.

You only have to read the Russian versions of the Sultan’s grovelling statements prior to his Ottoman visit to grasp how the sick man of Europe is breathing in the fresh air of the Steppes.

“This visit seems to me a new milestone in bilateral relations, beginning with a clean slate,” quoth the Sultan, “and I personally, with all my heart and on behalf of the Turkish nation, salute President Putin and all Russians.” 

That was Russian television for you. Then take the Russian news agency Tass, through which the Sultan refers to his “friend Vladimir” and promises that “there is yet much for our countries to do together”.

Now let’s abandon the Tsar-Sultan stuff. This was more like the fraternal greetings a Brezhnev or a Podgorny might have expected from an erring member of the Warsaw Pact, full of “bilateral relations” and “salutes” and “friendship” (though not “eternal friendship”, as brotherly nations might once have pledged to the Kremlin). 

The first post-coup visit of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to Russia – and there’s a coup of a different kind.

Here’s another line from the Tass version of Erdogan’s pre-St Petersburg declarations: “A solution to the Syrian crisis cannot be found without Russia. We can resolve the Syrian crisis only in cooperation with Russia.”

And in cooperation with Bashar al-Assad? It’s a thought that must warm the heart of Bashar who was once – let us remember this – close family friends with Erdogan and his wife. If you can shoot down a Russian plane and then embrace your “friend” Putin, why could Erdogan not do the same to Bashar all over again?

That’s also, of course, a question for Hillary Clinton and The Donald to ponder – although Donald Trump, who seems to hold the same views about the Tsar as the Sultan now boasts, could possibly live with that.

There is a long list of the potential losers in the theatre of St Petersburg. First, Isis and al-Qaeda/Nusra/Fatah el-Sham, and all the other Islamist outfits now fighting the regime in Syria, who suddenly find that their most reliable arms conduit has teamed up with their most ferocious enemy, the owner of the Russian air force. Then there’s the Saudi and Qatari billionaires who have been supplying the cash and guns for the Sunni warriors who are trying to overthrow both Damascus and Baghdad, and humble the Shia of Iran, Syria (the Alawites) and Lebanon.

And then, above all others perhaps, those who will fear for their lives in the aftermath of this fraternal jaunt to the Tsar’s palace: the Turkish army. For what is becoming ever clearer is that – and this is called the kicker to the story – Russia and, indeed, Iran played an intelligence role in warning Erdogan of the military coup plotted against him.

The Arabs have already been told by their Russian collocutors that Putin, being the old KGB boss that he was, personally sent a message to Erdogan after learning of the coup from Turkish army communications, which were picked up and listened to by Russian technicians at their air base just outside Latakia in Syria.

The Iranians – who would be happy to see Turkey turned against their Sunni Islamist enemies in Syria – also tipped off Erdogan about the coup, so the Arabs have been told.

Not long ago, it seems, it was Hillary who wanted to press the “reset” button with Putin. Now it’s Erdogan – with, one suspects, a much greater effect. 

The word “terror" is now used with such promiscuity that it seems to have been invented in the United States. Actually, its first common usage after the French Revolution appears to have been in Moscow where it described the bomb-throwing “terrorists” who were trying to overthrow the Tsar.

So watch out for that word “terrorists” in the communiqués that follow the Sultan-Tsar Summit. The Grand St Petersburg Alliance Against Terror. Terror, terror, terror. If you hear that from Mother Russia in the coming hours, you’ll know that things are going to change in Syria.

[dennis tooth]

Its a silly idea the USA is not arming isis, heres how you fight isis, run away and leave all your weapons if they attack.

 

http://www.aninews.in/newsdetail-NE5UV1RS/Mjc1NTE1TlRXVFI/us-troops-abandoned-weapons-during-clash-with-isis-in-afghanistan.html

[dennis tooth]

https://www.rt.com/usa/355291-morrell-kill-russians-clinton/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome

[Red Phoenix]

Manbij in Syria is finally free of ISIS. Awesome work, YPG/SDF.

 

[Strontium]

Yup, they've all been shaving their beards off in celebration. The men too.

[Section_31]

Manbij in Syria is finally free of ISIS. Awesome work, YPG/SDF.

 

 

Is that a G Shock classic? Kudos. 

[Red Phoenix]

A reminder of how insane and completely fucking criminal the western role in this has been :

 

Reality Check: Proof U.S. Government Wanted ISIS To Emerge In Syria

 

[Red Phoenix]

From Middle East Eye :

 

Bob Crow brigade '30 miles' from IS-stronghold of Raqqa in Syria

 

British and Irish left-wing volunteers in northern Syria have compared their fight to that of the International Brigades in 1930s Spain

 

 

The Bob Crow Brigade (BCB), a group of British and Irish volunteers fighting in northern Syria named after a famous British trade union leader, are edging closer to the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa.

 

A spokesperson from the BCB told Middle East Eye that the group was based on the “Raqqa front” around 30 miles from the IS group’s de facto capital.

 

The BCB is named after the late leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), who was known for his down-to-earth combative style and a staunch supporter of left-wing causes. He died in 2014.

 

The spokesperson described the BCB as the “British and Irish section of the International Freedom Battalion (IFB)”, a group of left-wing foreign volunteers working as part of the pro-Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the area of northern Syria known as Rojava by Kurds.

 

“The IFB, like the International Brigades that went to fight in defence of the Spanish Republic from the fascist military forces in the 1930s, was formed by volunteers who, as a result of their political convictions, have joined the struggle to defend the Rojava revolution against the fascist threat of Islamic State,” said the BCB spokesperson.

 

More here : http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/bob-crow-brigade-30-miles-stronghold-raqqa-syria-2141320914

[Red Phoenix]

Reuters is currently reporting about a rally in Yemen with the headline "Tens of thousands of Yemenis rally to support Houthi-led council."

I think this looks slightly more like hundreds of thousands : https://twitter.com/GissiSim/status/767046264345288704

 

(There's a chance they'll realise how silly they look and change the headline, just saying incase they do and this post doesn't make sense later on.)

[Red Phoenix]

British Spies Used a URL Shortener to Honeypot Arab Spring Dissidents

 

Written by Mustafa Al-Bassam
July 29, 2016 // 06:00 AM EST

 

A shadowy unit of the British intelligence agency GCHQ tried to influence online activists during the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests and the 2011 democratic uprisings largely known as the Arab Spring, as new evidence gathered from documents leaked by Edward Snowden shows.

 

The GCHQ’s special unit, known as the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group or JTRIG, was first revealed in 2014, when leaked top secret documents showed it tried to infiltrate and manipulate—using “dirty trick” tactics such as honeypots—online communities including those of Anonymous hacktivists, among others.

 

The group’s tactics against hacktivists have been previously reported, but its influence campaign in the Middle East has never been reported before. I was able to uncover it because I was myself targeted in the past, and was aware of a key detail, a URL shortening service, that was actually redacted in Snowden documents published in 2014.

 

The rest is here : https://motherboard.vice.com/read/gchq-url-shortener-twitter-honeypot-arab-spring

[Red Phoenix]

Turkey have just entered Syria with tanks. Apparently they're attacking ISIS in Jarablus near the northern border.

[Jairzinho]

Turkey have just entered Syria with tanks. Apparently they're attacking ISIS in Jarablus near the northern border.

 

They've switched sides, it would appear.

[Red Phoenix]

They've switched sides, it would appear.

 

I don't think they really give a fuck about ISIS, they're probably trying to unsettle the Kurds, and wind Assad up a bit too maybe. Unless he's agreed to it because of his own issues with the Kurds. Am just hoping they don't move further south, that could get ugly. Also that they fuck off back into Turkey when they're done, which is questionable given the madness of Erdogan.

[Jairzinho]

I don't think they really give a fuck about ISIS, they're probably trying to unsettle the Kurds, and wind Assad up a bit too maybe. Unless he's agreed to it because of his own issues with the Kurds. Am just hoping they don't move further south, that could get ugly.

 

 

This surely has something to do with the coup, and America's role in it, as well.

[Red Phoenix]

This surely has something to do with the coup, and America's role in it, as well.

 

There's probably all types of crazy shit going on behind the scenes, but agreed that the coup attempt is probably affecting what's going on. Also that Erdogan seems to be patching things up with Putin, so maybe the US are allowing Erdogan to cause some shit in the north of Syria to show that they're still kind of OK with him?

 

It's hard to work out really, a massive mess. The US might have helped the Kurds by stopping them moving further north into Jarablus recently though, knowing that this was going to happen. Erdogan clearly loathes them as they're PKK to him, but the US (and probably others) might be on their side because they can help carve Syria up, which they seem to be enjoying by the looks of it.

 

I did (if I remember rightly) see a map in the past where Turkey take part of the north of Syria near their current border, as the Kurds go all the way west and link up with Afrin. Maybe this could be a start of that happening, but highly speculative obviously. It just reminds me of seeing that now that the Kurds are so close to linking up with Afrin and Turkey have just moved in.