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Al-Moallem: Second round of Geneva talks achieved a very important point which starts off by rejecting and combating terrorism.

February 17, 2014, 6:25 am
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Al-Moallem: Second round of Geneva talks did not fail



Posted on February 16, 2014 by 

Al-Moallem: Second round of talks achieved very important point thanks to awareness of Syrian negotiators
Feb 16, 2014
Syrian official delegation’s plane, (SANA delegate)

Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem, said that the second round of talks in the Geneva conference did not fail, contrary to the some media analysis or the reactions of the French and British foreign ministers.
Al-Moallem said that the second round achieved a very important point thanks to the awareness of Syrian negotiators when they announced Syria’s agreement to the agenda proposed by UN Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi which starts off by rejecting violence and combating terrorism.
He reiterated that talks did not fail; rather they resulted in what the Syrian official delegation always demanded which is an agenda for upcoming Geneva meetings.
On the premade orchestra in which the French and British foreign ministers held the Syrian Arab Republic delegation responsible for the failure of talks, al-Moallem said that this isn’t surprising as France and Britain have always been part of the conspiracy against Syria, noting that they made their accusations even before they were informed about what happened in the talks.
Regarding the arming of the opposition, al-Moallem noted that the US has announced its funding and arming of what it calls “moderate opposition” since the beginning of the first round of talks, describing this as “amusing.”
“The United States tried to create very negative atmospheres for dialogue in Geneva, but this didn’t dissuade our delegation from moving forward with constructive dialogue to reach results,” he said, adding thatthose who think that the US stopped or will stop conspiring against Syria are delusional, as the US has always been conspiring against Syria due to the Syrian people’s steadfastness in the face of Israel, and as long as Syria is confronting Israel, then the US will continue to conspire against it.
On whether this conspiring will reach the point of a direct US military aggression, al-Moallem said that such talk is mere media and psychological warfare aiming at pressuring the Syrian negotiator to hand over what the coalition delegation came to receive, adding “this is a delusion that will never happen.”
In response to a question on the French and American losses after the Geneva talks, the Minister said that Syrian Arab Republic delegation went to Geneva only to achieve the aspirations of the Syrian people by finding a solution to the crisis in Syria and relay the Syrians’ desire for the cessation of violence and terrorism.
Al-Moallem said that the US was very much in a rush to hand over power before carrying out any political work, because its pawns on the inside failed on the ground, adding “I believe that this delusional they planted in the minds of members of the coalition has failed, but that doesn’t mean that they stopped conspiring.”
On the Russian position towards the talks in Geneva, al-Moallem said that Russia has been fully informed on daily basis about the results of each session, which is why it wasn’t surprised by what happened.
Regarding his expectations on what Brahimi will submit to the UN in his report, the Minister said that Brahimi prefaced his report in his recent press conference, stressing that Brahimi, as a mediator, must be impartial, noting that Brahimi’s press conference indicates that he will be impartial, and adding that the minutes of the sessions are available.
He stressed the need for Brahimi to be committed to continuing this process, whether in a third or fourth round or something else, saying that those that one session will be enough to resolve an issue as complicated as the Syrian issue – which is becoming more complex with every day due to foreign interference – are delusional.
“An impartial mediator is the one that commits to the continuation of this process until it reaches it purposes, whether the Geneva processes continues or through talks that will be held between this round and the coming round,” the Minister said.
On Wendy Sherman’s statement that the document presented by the coalition is good, al-Moallem said that the coalition didn’t present a document; rather they read an interposition, asserting that the decision about the presidency isn’t up to Sherman or the coalition delegation, as this decision belongs to the Syrian people who alone have the right to decide upon Syria’s future.
“As for the interim government, we have full studies based on laws and the standing constitution with which we can argue their biggest legal advisors,” he added.
In response to the statement by British Foreign Minister William Hague who said that not reaching an agenda for the next stage is a very serious matter and his blaming the Syrian official delegation for this, al-Moallem said “I’d rather not respond to him, because he is ignorant about what happened during the talks. The agenda proposed by Brahimi is clear, and the Syrian delegation agreed to it.”
Back on the topic of talk of a wide-scale US military action against Syria, al-Moallem opined that it’s very unlikely that there will be any wide-scale or small-scale military action, as the Americans have their pawns who fight on their behalf and receive paychecks and weapons, so why would they involve themselves directly?
He added that the American side was surprised by the achievements made by the Syrian Arab Army, by the reconciliations talking place, and the resilience of the Syrian Arab Republic delegation in talks.
On whether the Syrian Arab Republic delegation is ready at any time to discuss the interim government, al-Moallem affirmed that the delegation is prepared to discuss this issue when its time comes in the agenda, reiterating that the interim government will not be discussed before finding out if the other delegation is against terrorism and not with it.
“Some would ask if the coalition delegation can stop violence and terrorism in Syria when it doesn’t have a popular base or a base among the armed groups? Our answer, quite simply, is thatwe know that this delegation cannot stop violence and terrorism. However,we are addressing its employers who are the United States, France, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. When this delegation agrees to stopping terrorism, this means that its employers agreed to stop terrorism, therefore this agreement must oblige them to stop funding, arming and training terrorists,” he said.
On whether the Syrian government is worried over what is happening in the southern front of the Syrian borders, al-Moallem said that those who love their country must always be worried about it, but nothing is currently different what has been happening for over two years; as the smuggling of arms and terrorists from the south and the attempts to attack the Syrian people continue, but the Syrian leadership and the Syrian Arab Army will be ready for them.
Al-Moallem concluded by thanking the accompanying media delegation which relayed to the Syrian people the truth about what was happening in the meetings.
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Kerry Slams Russia for ‘Enabling’ Assad to Stay in Power and Russia Rejects US Accusations

February 17, 2014, 8:34 am
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Kerry Slams Russia for ‘Enabling’ Assad to Stay in Power
US Secretary of State John Kerry slammed Russia on Monday for "enabling" Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to stay in power, after Geneva peace talks broke off without result at the weekend.
   Kerry
A second round of talks aimed at finding a political settlement to the three-year conflict ended in acrimony on Saturday, throwing the future of the negotiations into doubt.
The so-called Geneva II process was initiated by the United States, which backs the Syrian opposition coalition, and Moscow, which supports the government in Damascus.
On Monday, Kerry took aim at Russia, whom the US has previously accused of not doing enough to push its ally to engage in the talks.

The Syrian regime "stonewalled" at the Geneva talks and continued to "destroy their own country", Kerry told reporters during a visit to the Indonesian capital Jakarta. "And I regret to say they're doing so with increased support from Iran, from Hezbollah and from Russia," he said.

"Russia needs to be a part of the solution and not be distributing so much more weapons and so much more aid that they're in fact enabling Assad to double-down. Which is creating an enormous problem."

Kerry noted that Russia "has stood up publicly with me on several occasions and said they're committed to that transition government... yet we have not seen the kind of effort to create the dynamic by which that can be achieved".

No date was set for third round of talks and it was unclear whether any would be held.

The UN's Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi noted at the weekend that the two sides had at least finally agreed on an agenda for possible future talks.
The opposition says the focus must be on creating a transitional government -- without Assad. The regime representatives have insisted Assad's position is non-negotiable, and refused to discuss anything beyond the "terrorism" it blames on its opponents and their foreign backers.

On Monday Kerry lashed out at Syria again, saying the regime "refused to open up one moment of discussion legitimately about a transitional government". "Everybody should agree that the Assad regime's attitude is what has made these talks tougher," he added.
Saudi Blames Syria for Geneva-II Failure
Local Editor
Saudi Arabia Foreign MinisterSaudi Arabia, which supports Takfiri armed groups operating in Syria, on Monday blamed the Damascus government for the failure of peace talks in Geneva last week.

A second round of US and Russian-backed peace talks between regime representatives and the opposition broke down on Saturday in the Swiss city with no date set for a third round.

The Saudi cabinet "regretted the failure of the Geneva II talks to reach tangible results," according to a statement carried by SPA state news agency, in an implicit demand from the Syrian government to turn a blind eye towards the Saudi support for the Takfiris with arms, mercenaries and salaries.

The kingdom "holds the (Syrian) regime responsible for this failure, caused by its obstinacy," it said, accusing the government delegation of working to "derail the conference."

Saudi Arabia is a major backer of the Syrian Takfiri and terrorist armed groups, in a conflict that is estimated to have killed more than 140,000 people since it broke out in March 2011.

Russia Rejects US Accusations on Syria
Local Editor
Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov considered Monday that deliberate attempts to blame the Syrian authorities for the brutal crimes through lies and manipulation of facts.
Lavrov stressed his rejection for the US allegations that RLavrovussia has prevented reaching a settlement for the Syrian crisis.

Lavrov said that Russia has fulfilled all what it promised to carry out, adding all the parties recognize that Geneva I is the base on which any settlement must be based.

"The ground facts prove that the terrorist groups in Syria are behind most of the troubles that storm Syria."

It is worth noting that US Secretary of State John Kerry slammed Russia on Monday for "enabling" Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to stay in power, after Geneva peace talks broke off without result at the weekend



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Terrorist Warfare

February 17, 2014, 8:50 am
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Alexandra Valiente /

On Lebanon

So this is what alienation feels like. I walk down my once favourite area in Beirut, Hamra, and I don’t recognize it any more. I watch some of my compatriots live in their bubble of neo-liberal denial, chanting their “I love life” mantra, and I feel so estranged from them. I read and watch news about the latest advances we have made against al-Qaeda in Syria and Lebanon and I just don’t feel any safer or any less uncertain. And while I have always enjoyed hating my enemy, Israel, I don’t even enjoy hating this new enemy. I feel no sense of triumphalism even when we win battles. Every day feels like a blur; every small pleasure feels like an absurdity. Even grief and sadness feel unreal. People who once meant everything feel like they belong to another lifetime. Aspirations and life goals feel naive and infantile. And with every Dahyeh or Hermil terrorist bombing comes that sense of shame because you are still safe and their residents are not. This is not defeatism, this is the reality of the sporadic and unpredictable nature of terrorist warfare. No matter how many battles we win, we will never get Lebanon back. It will never be the same again.

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Russia Under Attack

February 17, 2014, 9:10 am
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Alexandra Valiente 

In a number of my articles I have explained that the Soviet Union served as a constraint on US power. The Soviet collapse unleashed the neoconservative drive for US world hegemony. Russia under Putin, China, and Iran are the only constraints on the neoconservative agenda.
Russia’s nuclear missiles and military technology make Russia the strongest military obstacle to US hegemony. To neutralize Russia, Washington broke the Reagan-Gorbachev agreements and expanded NATO into former constituent parts of the Soviet Empire and now intends to bring former constituent parts of Russia herself–Georgia and Ukraine–into NATO. Washington withdrew from the treaty that banned anti-ballistic missiles and has established anti-ballistic missile bases on Russia’s frontier. Washington changed its nuclear war doctrine to permit nuclear first strike.
All of this is aimed at degrading Russia’s deterrent, thereby reducing the ability of Russia to resist Washington’s will.
The Russian government (and also the government of Ukraine) foolishly permitted large numbers of US funded NGOs to operate as Washington’s agents under cover of “human rights organizations,” “building democracy,” etc. The “pussy riot” event was an operation designed to put Putin and Russia in a bad light. (The women were useful dupes.) The Western media attacks on the Sochi Olympics are part of the ridiculing and demonizing of Putin and Russia. Washington is determined that Putin and Russia will not be permitted any appearance of success in any area, whether diplomacy, sports, or human rights.
The American media is a Ministry of Propaganda for the government and the corporations and helps Washington paint Russia in bad colors. Stephen F. Cohen accurately describes US media coverage of Russia as a “tsunami of shamefully unprofessional and politically inflammatory articles.”
As a holdover from the Cold War, the US media retains the image of a free press that can be trusted. In truth, there is no free press in America (except for Internet sites). During the later years of the Clinton regime, the US government permitted 5 large conglomerates to concentrate the varied, dispersed and somewhat independent media. The value of these large mega-companies depends on their federal broadcast licenses. Therefore, the media dares not go against the government on any important issue. In addition, the media conglomerates are no longer run by journalists but by corporate advertising executives and former government officials, with an eye not on facts but on advertising revenues and access to government “sources.”
Washington is using the media to prepare the American people for confrontation with Russia and to influence Russians and other peoples in the world against Putin. Washington would love to see a weaker or more pliable Russian leader than Putin.

Many Russians are gullible. Having experienced communist rule and the chaos from collapse, they naively believe that America is the best place, the example for the world, the “white hat” that can be trusted and believed. This idiotic belief, which we see manifested in western Ukraine as the US destabilizes the country in preparation for taking it over, is an important weapon that the US uses to destabilize Russia.

Some Russians make apologies for Washington by explaining the anti-Russian rhetoric as simply a carryover from old stereotypes from the Cold War. “Old stereotypes” is a red herring, a misleading distraction. Washington is gunning for Russia. Russia is under attack, and if Russians do not realize this, they are history.

Many Russians are asleep at the switch, but the Izborsk Club is trying to wake them up. In an article (February 12) in the Russian weekly Zavtra, strategic and military experts warned that the Western use of protests to overturn the decision of the Ukraine government not to join the European Union had produced a situation in which a coup by fascist elements was a possibly. Such a coup would result in a fratricidal war in Ukraine and would constitute a serious “strategic threat to the Russian Federation.”

The experts concluded that should such a coup succeed, the consequences for Russia would be:

— Loss of Sevastopol as the base of the Russian Federation’s Black Sea Fleet;

— Purges of Russians in eastern and southern Ukraine, producing a flood of refugees;

— Loss of manufacturing capacities in Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov where
contract work is done for the Russian military;

— Suppression of the Russian speaking population by forcible Ukrainianization;

— The establishment of US and NATO military bases in Ukraine, including in Crimea
and the establishment of training centers for terrorists who would be set upon the
Caucasus, the Volga Basin, and perhaps Siberia.

— Spread of the orchestrated Kiev protests into non-Russian ethnicities in cities of
the Russian Federation.

The Russian strategists conclude that they “consider the situation taking shape in Ukraine to be catastrophic for the future of Russia.”

What is to be done? Here the strategic experts, who have correctly analyzed the situation, fall down. They call for a national media campaign to expose the nature of the takeover that is underway and for the government of the Russian Federation to invoke the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 in order to convene a conference of representatives of the governments of Russia, Ukraine, the USA, and Great Britain to deal with the threats to the Ukraine. In the event that the Budapest Memorandum governing the sovereignty of Ukraine is set aside by one or more of the parties, the experts propose that the Russian government, using the precedent of the Kennedy-Khrushchev negotiations that settled the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, negotiate directly with Washington a settlement of the developing crisis in Ukraine.
This is a pipe dream. The experts are indulging in self-deception.
Washington is the perpetrator of the crisis in Ukraine and intends to take over Ukraine for the precise reasons that the experts list. It is a perfect plan for destabilizing Russia and for negating Putin’s successful diplomacy in preventing US military attack on Syria and Iran.
Essentially, if Washington succeeds in Ukraine, Russia would be eliminated as a constraint on US world hegemony, Only China would remain.
I suspected that Ukraine would come to a boiling point when Putin and Russia were preoccupied with the Sochi Olympics, leaving Russia unprepared. There is little doubt that Russia is faced with a major strategic threat.
What are Russia’s real options? Certainly the options do not include any good will from Washington.
Possibly, Russia could operate from the American script. If Russia has drones, Russia could use drones like Washington does and use them to assassinate the leaders of the Washington-sponsored protests. Or Russia could send in Special Forces teams to eliminate the agents who are operating against Russia. If the EU continues to support the destabilization of Ukraine, Russia could cut off oil and gas supplies to Washington’s European puppet states.
Alternatively, the Russian Army could occupy western Ukraine while arrangements are made to partition Ukraine, which until recently was part of Russia for 200 years. It is certain that the majority of residents in eastern Ukraine prefer Russia to the EU. It is even possible that the brainwashed elements in the western half might stop foaming at the mouth long enough to comprehend that being in US/EU hands means being looted as per Latvia and Greece.
I am outlining the least dangerous outcomes of the crisis that Washington and its stupid European puppet states have created, not making recommendations to Russia. The worst outcome is a dangerous war. If the Russians sit on their hands, the situation will become unbearable for them. As Ukraine moves toward NATO membership and suppression of the Russian population, the Russian government will have to attack Ukraine and overthrow the foreign regime or surrender to the Americans. The likely outcome of the audacious strategic threat with which Washington is confronting Russia would be nuclear war.
The neoconservative Victoria Nuland sits in her State Department office happily choosing the members of the next Ukrainian government. Is this US official oblivious to the risk that Washington’s meddling in the internal affairs of Ukraine and Russia could be triggering nuclear war? Are President Obama and Congress aware that there is an Assistant Secretary of State who is provoking armageddon?
Insouciant Americans are paying no attention and have no idea that a handful of neoconservative ideologues are pushing the world toward destruction.
NOTE: I have received an email from Moldova, a country bordered by Romania and Ukraine with cities on the Moldova-Ukraine border, that Moldovans are paid 30 euros per day to pose as Ukrainian protesters. I would like to hear from readers who can confirm this report and/or provide a media source in support of this claim.
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How Not to Get Aid Into Homs, Yarmouk, and 9.3 Million Syrians via a UN Resolution

February 17, 2014, 9:55 am
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Hunger As A Weapon

By Franklin Lamb
Al Nebek, Syria
Who authored the seemingly designed-to-fail UN Security Council Draft Resolution on delivering urgent humanitarian aid into the Old City of Homs and other besieged areas of conflict-torn Syria? When we know this, much may become clearer with respect to the cynical politicization of the continuing civilian suffering.
The draft resolution was put forward by Australia, Luxembourg, and Jordan, and according to a UN/US congressional source—one who actually worked on rounding up the three countries to front for the US and its allies—none was pleased with the decidedly raw and undiplomatic pressure they received from the office of US UN Ambassador Samantha Power.
When this observer inquired how such a poorly drafted, one-sided, adversary-bashing draft resolution could actually have seen the light of day and been submitted to the UN Security Council, the reply he received was terse: “Ask Samantha.”
Suspicions are being raised in Geneva, in Syria, and among certain UN aid agencies, in Homs and elsewhere, that efforts on behalf of those they are trying to save from starvation were ‘set-up’ to fail as a result of power politics and influences emanating from Washington and Tel Aviv.
This observer is not a big fan of conspiracy theories. No doubt it’s a personal congenital defect of some sort that makes him want to hear at least a modicum of relevant, prohibitive, material, non-hearsay evidence to support some of the wilder and internet-fueled claims ricocheting around the globe. However, some things are becoming clear as to what happened at the UNSC last week and why certain specific language was included in the resolution.
Ms. Power, it has been claimed by two Hill staffers who monitor AIPAC, owes her position as UN Ambassador to Israeli PM Netanyahu, who views her and her husband, AIPAC fund raiser, Cass Sunstein, as Israel-first stalwarts. Congressional sources claim the White House went along with her appointment so as not to provoke yet another battle—either with AIPAC’s congressional agents or the wider US Zionist lobby. As part of her continuing gratitude for her “dream job,” as she told an American Jewish Committee convention on 2/10/14 in New York, Ms. Power assured the AJC that the United States “strongly supports Israel’s candidacy for a seat on the UN Security Council, and we have pushed relentlessly for the full inclusion of Israel across the UN system.” Ms. Power is said to have assured AIPAC officials in private that evening that “one of Israel’s few survival reeds may be to grasp, in the face of rising anti-Semitism, a seat on the council.” Insisting that “there is growing and rampant hostility towards Israel within the UN, where a large number of member states are not democratic,” Ms. Power, continued” “I will never give up and nor should you.”
Following the standing ovation from her adoring audience, she repeated, according to one eye witness: “We have also pushed relentlessly for the full inclusion of Israel across the UN system.” What the Zionist regime still occupying Palestine knows, as does no doubt Ms. Power, is that the American public and increasingly even the US Congress is finally pulling back from the regime in favor of justice for Palestine. Thus the lobby’s strange reasoning that the UN system, where the American public is essentially absent, is increasingly important.
So what’s the problem with the US-mission-spawned Security Council draft resolution on Syria so dutifully submitted by three chummy and faithful allies?
Well, for starters, the resolution is DOA, as presumably every sophomore poli-sci, civics, or governance student would have recognized from the outset. The aggressive language—demanding the UNSC immediately take action by targeting only one claimed violator with yet more international sanctions—would have caused chaff and cringing among many, probably most. But even beyond that, Moscow, with a UNSC veto ready to use, sees the US-initiated draft as a bid to lay the groundwork for military strikes against the Syrian government, interpreting the language as an ultimatum: that if all this isn’t solved in two weeks then the Security Council will automatically follow with sanctions against the Syrian government.
As Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov told the media on 2/10/14, “Instead of engaging in everyday, meticulous work to resolve problems that block deliveries of humanitarian aid, they see a new resolution as some kind of simplistic solution detached from reality.”
The draft text, obtained by this observer from Reuters, expresses the intent to impose sanctions—on individuals and entities obstructing aid—if certain demands are not met within the next two weeks.
“It is unacceptable to us in the form in which it is now being prepared, and we, of course, will not let it through,” said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov.
One diplomat in Syria, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, had told the Security Council on 2/11/14 that Moscow opposes some 30 percent of the original draft, but did not specify what which parts. He added, “We’re not aiming for a Russian veto, we’re aiming for a resolution that everybody can agree. That is what we want.”
For his part, President Obama, speaking at a joint news conference in Washington with French President Francois Hollande, kept up the pressure for the Security Council to accept the US resolution. He insisted that there is “great unanimity among most of the Security Council” in favor of the resolution and “Russia is a holdout.” Secretary of State John Kerry and others have “delivered a very direct message” pressuring the Russians to drop their opposition.
“It is not just the Syrians that are responsible” for the plight of civilians, but “the Russians as well if they are blocking this kind of resolution,” Kerry claimed. “How you can object to humanitarian corridors? Why would you prevent the vote of a resolution if, in good faith, it is all about saving human lives?”
Among international observers, the draft resolution is widely viewed as one-sided, condemning rights abuses by Syrian authorities, demanding Syrian forces stop all aerial bombardment of cities and towns as well as indiscriminate use of bombs, rockets and related weapons. It also, parenthetically and somewhat obliquely, condemns “increased terrorist attacks,” and calls for the withdrawal of all foreign fighters from Syria, but the latter language is believed to be aimed mainly at Hezbollah. Sources in Syria claim that the draft heaps all the blame on the Syrian government without devoting the necessary attention to the humanitarian problems created by the actions of the rebels.
These gratuitous draft elements are not only aggressive, but frankly appear calculated to end serious discussion and to undermine a solution of the problem.
Being new on the job is one thing for Ms. Power (she has served as UN ambassador only since August of last year), but politicizing relief from starvation for a besieged civilian population is quite another. Likewise for promoting a draft resolution focusing all blame on one side. Such things violate a broad range of applicable and mandatory international norms, and if Ms. Power is hazy on this subject, the State Department’s Office of International Organization Affairs is not—or at least was not when this observer interned there following law school years ago.
Language that would have stood a much better chance of ending the siege of Homs, Yarmouk and other areas under siege was drafted this week by a Syrian law student at the Damascus University Faculty of Law. The widely esteemed university witnessed the death of 17 of its students, along with the serious injuring of more than 20 others, when rebel mortar bombs, on 3/28/13, targeted the canteen of the College of Architecture. Those responsible for the shelling later admitted they were trained and armed by agents of the US government.
The DU law student’s draft resolution on unfettered humanitarian aid into besieged areas of Syria will hopefully be widely discussed over the weekend at a news conference tentatively scheduled on campus. Perhaps the next UN draft resolution will reflect the student’s homework assignment.
The starving victims besieged in Syria, and all people of goodwill, are demanding immediate, non-politicized humanitarian aid without further delay. Virtually every American voter is in a position to pressure his or her congressional representative, and would possibly achieve much good by making the White House aware of their demands to end playing international ‘gotcha’ politics, and to cooperate to end the needless deaths by starvation that continue today.
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Sayyed Nasrallah: Resistance Threat to ’Israeli’, Takfiri Terror Threats Entire Region

February 17, 2014, 10:17 am
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A poster of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hangs on the balcony of a damaged building at the site of the aftermath of an explosion in the Hezbollah stronghold of Haret Hreik in southern Beirut on January 22, 2014. The poster reads ''Destroy whatever you want, explode humans and stone, that will only give us more honor and victory over victory." (Photo: AFP - Joseph Eid)

Sayyed Nasrallah’s Full February 16th Speech

Leader of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah says Saudi Arabia is arming and funding terrorist Takfiri groups in the Middle East region. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, during a ceremony to commemorate the martyrdom of resistance commanders, noted that the Saudi-backed Takfiri groups were bent on sowing the seeds of sectarian discord in the whole region. He described al-Nusrat Front and the militants associated with the group called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant or I-S-I-L as the best examples of the Saudi-backed Takfiri mindset. Elsewhere in his speech, Nasrallah said that Saudi athorities have launched a campaign of recruiting and dispatching youths to Syria to fight against the Syrian government. Warning against the foreign meddling in Syria, Nasrallah said that the fate of the country should be decided by the Syrian people themselves.












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Sayyed Nasrallah: Resistance Threat to ’Israeli’, Takfiri Terror Threats Entire Region


Hizbullah Secretary General, His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called on the Lebanese people to realize the threats posed by the Zionist entity, calling on all sides to carry their responsibilities to defend Lebanon in face of all threats.

On the 16th of February, commemorating the anniversary of Hizbullah martyr leaders, Sayyed Abbas al-Moussawi, Sheikh Ragheb Harb and Haj Imad Mughniyeh, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a televised speech via al-Manar TV, tackling the latest local and regional developments. 

On the occasion, Sayyed Nasrallah saluted the souls of the leader martyrs, as well as the souls of all Resistance martyrs who sacrificed their lives to defend their just cause. 

"I salute the souls of the martyr leaders Sayyed Abbas al-Moussawi, Sheikh Ragheb Harb and Hajj Imad Mughniyeh and the souls of the martyrs of Palestine, Lebanon and the Arab world, who achieved all these victories. I also salute all the martyrs of the Lebanese army and Internal Security Forces," he said. 

Also addressing the martyrs and their families of the latest terrorist takfiri bombings that took place in the Dahiyeh and Hermel areas, Sayyed Nasrallah saluted them and expressed condolences, wishing all the injured quick recovery. 
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

"Israel" Looming Threat to Palestine

The Hizbullah leader noted that "Israel" is a threat to all peoples in the region, stressing "We always should remind of the "Israeli" threat posing against Palestine, its sanctities and future." 

Nowadays, Sayyed Nasrallah highlighted "as the people of each country are preoccupied with the situations in their own country, unfortunately we might reach a period in which no one wants to talk or hear about Palestine, and this is what the enemy wants," accentuating that the US administration aims at liquidizing the Palestinian cause as well." 

The Hizbullah leader noted that "Israel" is a threat to all peoples in the region, stressing "We always should remind of the "Israeli" threat posing against Palestine, its sanctities and future." 

Sayyed Nasrallah went on to say "They [the "Israel" and the US] want us to forget about the Palestinian cause, and one must admit they have succeeded in this to a large extent, but it's not too late to address the matter, because we still have available choices." 

The Hizbullah Secretary General also reminded that "Israel" is an enemy and a threat to Lebanon, its security, sovereignty, oil and water riches.

He added that in the past, Sayyed Mousa Sadr and other scholars spoke up and supported the Resistance against the "Israeli" enemy, recalling that after the 1982 "Israeli" invasion to Lebanon, Sheikh Ragheb Harb raised his voice to call on the people to resist occupation, at the time many justified that the "Israeli" invasion to Lebanon was to expel the PLO from Lebanon. 

According to Sayyed Nasrallah, the "Israelis" stayed in Lebanon and tried to impose their hegemony. They killed, detained and prepared to build settlements in southern Lebanon. He assured that "Lebanon would have been still occupied if it weren't for the Resistance." 

Moreover, Sayyed Nasrallah echoed that the Zionists realize well Hizbullah is the biggest threat to "Israel", and that the Resistance is a real menace to the Zionist entity's existence, which makes "Israel" think a thousand times before it makes any step or takes action, hoping that the Lebanese army would become the only party capable of protecting Lebanon. 

His Eminence further pointed out "We hope to see the day when we will have a Lebanese state that can protect and defend Lebanon, its dignity and sovereignty."
"We support everything that can strengthen the army in terms of equipment, personnel and advanced weapons to be used to protect Lebanon in the face of "Israeli" threats. Days will prove if there is a will in the international community to offer these arms to the army or not. Should this assistance take place, we will thank anyone who offers weapons to the army," Sayyed Nasrallah further stated. 

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

Takfiri Terror Threats All 

Hizbullah Secretary General stressed that takfiri terrorism is a threat to the entire region and is present in all the countries of the region, iterating that all people from different sects and backgrounds are under the threat of takfiris. 
He assured that these terrorist groups have killed people, took women as captives and raped them, and slaughtered children. 

"Al-Nusra Front, the ISIL and other groups are fighting each other, killing each other, taking each other's women as captives and waging merciless suicide bombings against each other," he pointed out to the actions of these takfiri terrorist groups. 

Sayyed Nasrallah assured that the aim behind these groups, which are being used by "Israel" the US and some of their Arab supporters to carry out the suicide bombings in Lebanon, aim at sowing strife among the Muslims. 

Furthermore, he added that most countries financing and supporting fighters to go to Syria have started talking about fears of their victory and their returning to these countries and the threats that will have on those societies. 

"Why don't we have the right to be worried of those terrorist takfiri groups if other countries are worried about their residents fighting with them? Tunisia, KSA... banned their residents from going to fight in Syria," Sayyed Nasrallah wondered. 
Sayyed Nasrallah noted that some in Lebanon said these bombings would not have happened had it not been for Hizbullah's intervention in Syria, stating "they're still endorsing this approach even though we are now in the same cabinet." 

"Before our intervention in Syria, wasn't there a war that was imposed by these groups in a (Palestinian) camp in Lebanon or in some of the Christian areas?! These incidents happened before the Syrian conflict," he explained, assuring that Lebanon is already part of the takfiri scheme. 

"Had the takfiris triumphed in Syria, it would have become more dangerous than Afghanistan," he emphasized. 

"In our opinion, they [the takfiris] intended to come to Lebanon and what invites them to come to Lebanon is their creed," Sayyed Nasrallah believed, asking why isn't it possible for Lebanon to take precautionary measures to defend its borders and people. 

Sayyed Nasrallah also iterated the Lebanese army should play its role in defending Lebanon against the takfiri threat that intimidates all Lebanon. 

"Why do the US, France, Canada, Belgium, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia have the right to have concerns over the presence of their youths in Syria, while we don't have the right as Lebanese, who are on Syria's border, to worry, take measures and launch a preemptive war? What did the government do regarding the threat other than burying its head in the sand through the dissociation policy?" Sayyed Nasrallah wondered, further asking "Why don't we have the right to intervene to fend off the threat of looting, rape and murder against 30,000 Lebanese citizens who were living in the Qusayr region?"

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

Current Government Not All-Encompassing 

Concerning the government formation, Sayyed Nasrallah viewed "We have always called for national partnership, even if the parties are at odds."

He said the current government is only a settlement cabinet, highlighting "We want a government of national unity to be formed and we will enter it with the intent of launching dialogue, not with the intent of setting up barricades inside it. It should relieve tensions in the country and lower the intensity of political rhetoric in the country.

Assuring Hizbullah's desire to be part of a national unity government, he accentuated "The party who disrupted the formation of the cabinet for months was the one who refused a political government and the participation of Hizbullah."

"I do not consider this government an all-encompassing one, because there are significant parties that were not represented in it. We hope that this government will be able to hold the presidential elections and that it would resolve the issue of terrorism," Sayyed Nasrallah expressed.

Sayyed Nasrallah pointed out that the party which disrupted the government formation accuses Hizbullah of being the disrupter, yet he drew attention to the fact that Hizbullah and the Amal Movement opened the door for national reconciliation.

"Had we insisted on the 6-9-9 government formula, no government would have been formed, but we were the major compromisers and made the most sacrifices on this issue," he explained, adding "We did not want vacuum, or a neutral or a fait accompli government. The only solution was a settlement government, or a national interest government."

Ending his speech, Sayyed Nasrallah saluted the Bahraini people, who undergo tyranny and oppression for the third year in a row as they continue their peaceful protests despite all terror practiced by the Bahraini regime.

He finally called on the people of Palestine, all the Palestinian factions, Lebanese, Syrians, and all Arabs to stop the war in Syria.

Source: moqawama.org 


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War Crimes Committed Against the People of Syria

February 17, 2014, 6:25 pm
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Peace Association

Upon the devastating Syrian Civil War, which now left behind 30 months, led to death toll of thousands of people, Peace Association and Lawyers for Justice in Turkey have decided to prepare a comprehensive report to be used as a bill of indictment as well on the grounds of judging the figures and institutions that committed war crimes against Syrian people.

The report, prepared by the aforementioned organizations, is now in circulation in Turkey on the purpose of getting valuable contributions of intellectuals, lawyers, journalists, MPs and various circles taking the part of peace against a military or even a political intervention in Syria.

As the report mentions, although “We know that juridical powers of the countries, which take part in Syrian war and provide those committing crime of aggression with all sorts of support, are not independent” the main goal of the report “is not only to find whomever responsible for dragging a country to unlivable conditions, but also to prevent these criminals from threatening the destiny of humanity anymore as if nothing happened, and to get them pay the penalty of crimes they committed.” Therefore, apart from the political background of the conflicts experienced in Syria, the report also presents a legal structure on the basis of national and international law regulations with the aim of exposing those who committed various crimes against humanity.

In this context, chapters of the report contains ‘Assessment of the Rome Statute in terms of crimes’, ‘Identification of crimes committed in Syria’, ‘Perpetrators and instigators of crimes’, ‘General perpetrators such as the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel’, various chapters regarding the particular role of Turkey in Syria, ‘War crimes and crimes committed against humanity’, ‘Evidences of these crimes’, various types of crimes such as massacres, chemical weapons use, bombed historical heritages, sexual abuse and rape, and finally ‘Cases filed in Turkey and their consequences’ such as ‘Sarin gaz case in Adana’ and ‘the case of Reyhanlı’.

The report, presenting concrete evidences on related and above mentioned crimes, concludes that all of the mentioned opposing armed groups in Syria commit war crime and crimes against humanity, that heads of governments and high officials of the countries, backing the mentioned armed groups in Syria, notably Hussein Barrack Obama, Benyamin Netanyahu and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are both instigators and abettors of the crimes committed against humanity.

Thus, according to the Turkish Penal Code Article 306 “Anyone who without authorization recruits soldiers or engages in other hostile activities against a foreign state in a manner which exposes the Turkish State to the risk of war shall be sentenced to imprisonment of from five to twelve years.” particularly Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Minister of Interior Muammer Güler, and related high officials of the Turkish state are the party of crimes committed against humanity. The report also concludes that imperialist states should withdraw their supports to such armed criminals, and thus carrying out the judgment of Syrian armed groups in Syria, as a sovereign state, would be a much more realistic and possible option in comparison with a judgment in an international criminal court, which appears impossible in terms of legal impartiality.

Finally, the report calls on Turkish people and all peace-lovers to account for these crimes in order to get rid of these crimes and disgrace, of which our country also became a part, to abolish all the reasons that pave the way for commitment to such crimes and judge the whole of crimes committed until now, and to become such a country that presents Syrian people with not bombs from the borders but with fraternity and peace.

Here you can find “War Crimes Committed Against the People of Syria” report.


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The Judicial 'Farce'!

February 17, 2014, 6:53 pm
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Lebanon’s Tribunal: The Argentine Connection
Via FLC


Nine years ago this past Friday, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and twenty-two others were killed in a massive explosion on the Beirut corniche.

Despite Lebanon’s entrenched tradition of unsolved political assassinations—dating back to 1951 and continuing to the present day—this particular killing was deemed by the then-government of Fouad Siniora to merit an international tribunal in The Hague, established by the United Nations Security Council.
Following all manner of complications and delays, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) finally kicked off last month with the trial of four Hezbollah members. A fifth suspect was inserted into the lineup this week, necessitating further delays.
The court’s operation has been, to put it mildly, unique. For starters, as the Guardian points out, the defendants “are being tried in absentia--the first time this has happened at an international trial since the Nuremberg prosecutions."


Defense lawyer Yasser Hassan has drawn attention to other peculiarities, and is quoted in Al Akhbar English as objecting to the prosecution’s reference to the defendants as “Shia Muslims”: “Has there ever been any indictment in any tribunal [in the world] that mentions the suspect’s religion or confession? Do they say ‘this accused Catholic,' or ‘this accused Protestant, or Buddhist, or even atheist?’”
Most importantly, as Lebanese criminal justice expert Omar Nashabe discussed in a 2011 lecture at the London School of Economics, Israel has been conspicuously exempt from suspicion by the STL despite said nation’s acknowledged history of assassinations and other meddlesome behavior in Lebanon. Instead, it is Hezbollah that sits in the tribunal’s cross hairs.

A Transatlantic "Wall of Assumptions" 

 Conveniently, the STL is equipped with a capacity to single-handedly absolve itself of any accusations regarding its legitimacy. In July 2012, the Trial Chamber of the STL confirmed its own jurisdiction to conduct the Hariri assassination trial; the results of the auto-inquiry were explained in an official press release: “The Trial Chamber dismissed all the motions of the Defense Counsel, who argued that the Tribunal was set up illegally, violates Lebanese sovereignty, has selective jurisdiction and does not guarantee the accused a right to fair trial."

 Days into the start of the trial last month, defense lawyer Antoine Korkmaz lambasted the prosecution for selecting two Argentine experts to confirm a desired conclusion: that the explosion that killed Hariri was the work of a suicide bomber with a Mitsubishi van and not, as the defense argues, the result of an underground bomb.

According to Korkmaz, the expertise of these two individuals had also been called upon in the aftermath of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, which killed over eighty people.
Impromptu guilty verdicts issued at the time by the United States and Israel unsurprisingly pinned the blame for the AMIA bombing on Hezbollah and its Iranian benefactor. Award-winning historian and journalist Gareth Porter, who labored to separate fact from propaganda in a thorough investigation for The Nation in 2008, quotes the former chief of the political section at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires on the “wall of assumptions” under which the US was operating: “The primary assumptions, [he] said, were that the explosion was a suicide bombing and that use of a suicide bomb was prima facie evidence of involvement by Hezbollah and therefore Iran."

 As Porter documents, the allegation that the bomb had exploded in front of the AMIA in a white Renault Trafic van found little substantiation in reality. For one thing, the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms produced an on-scene post-explosion report "suggesting that the blast came from inside rather than outside" the AMIA building.

For another, only one out of approximately two hundred eyewitnesses claimed to recall a white Renault Trafic.

In the case of the Hariri assassination, meanwhile, the prosecution’s narrative has presumably been aided by the nighttime removal from the crime scene of vehicular evidence, the revelation of which sparked accusations of tampering and concealment.

Just Not That Special
As the US- and Israeli-backed story goes, the AMIA plot was hatched by terrorists in the tri-border area between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
However, a superior officer in the Paraguayan Special Operations Group—a special forces unit created specifically to investigate such accusations—confirmed to me last year that no positive evidence whatsoever had yet turned up, despite charitable encouragement from visiting members of the CIA.
In both Buenos Aires and Beirut, mobile phone logs have been presented as alleged evidence of suspects’ guilt. In the latter case, this has been done with no regard for Israel’s manipulation of Lebanese cellular networks; in the former, even the previous head of the FBI’s Hezbollah office commented to Porter that "Using that analysis, you could link my telephone to bin Laden's.”

Of course, it’s not difficult to see who ultimately benefits from efforts to incriminate the anti-Israeli resistance in acts of domestic and international terrorism.

Meanwhile, the terroristic behavior regularly exhibited by Israel in Lebanon—sometimes with the help of rush shipments of weapons from the United States—has never been met with a “special tribunal.” Apparently, the slaughtering of civilians by certain parties simply isn't of special interest.

And then there is the cost. The BBC noted in January that “[t]he STL itself, leave aside the nearly four years of international investigation that preceded its establishment, has already cost around $325 million."

In an afflicted country in which much of the population subsists on twelve hours of electricity a day, more useful projects could no doubt be undertaken than an expensive and politically motivated judicial farce with a predetermined end.

Belén Fernández is the author of The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, published by Verso. She is a contributing editor at Jacobin magazine.connection#sthash.KjJTpxhk.kdDK5lFQ.dpuf
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The destruction of the idols: Syria’s patrimony at risk from extremists

February 17, 2014, 7:11 pm
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The country’s wealth of archaeological treasures is under threat both from iconoclastic Islamic fundamentalists and looters operating amid the lawlessness of war

The country’s wealth of archaeological treasures is under threat both from iconoclastic Islamic fundamentalists and looters operating amid the lawlessness of war
Feb 11, 2014, The Independent
Islamic fundamentalists in Syria have started to destroy archaeological treasures such as Byzantine mosaics and Greek and Roman statues because their portrayal of human beings is contrary to their religious beliefs. The systematic destruction of antiquities may be the worst disaster to ancient monuments since the Taliban in Afghanistan dynamited the giant statues of Buddha at Bamiyan in 2001 for similar ideological reasons.
In mid-January the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), an al-Qa’ida-type movement controlling much of north-east Syria, blew up and destroyed a sixth-century Byzantine mosaic near the city of Raqqa on the Euphrates. The official head of antiquities for Raqqa province, who has fled to Damascus and does not want his name published, told The Independent: “It happened between 12 and 15 days ago. A Turkish businessman had come to Raqqa to try to buy the mosaic. This alerted them [Isis] to its existence and they came and blew it up. It is completely lost.”
Other sites destroyed by Islamic fundamentalists include the reliefs carved at the Shash Hamdan, a Roman cemetery in Aleppo province. Also in the Aleppo countryside, statues carved out of the sides of a valley at al-Qatora have been deliberately targeted by gunfire and smashed into fragments.
Professor Maamoun Abdulkarim, general director of antiquities and museums at the Ministry of Culture in Damascus, says that extreme Islamic iconoclasm puts many antiquities at risk. An expert on the Roman and early Christian periods in Syria, he says: “I am sure that if the crisis continues in Syria we shall have the destruction of all the crosses from the early Christian world, mosaics with mythological figures and thousands of Greek and Roman statues.”
Of the mosaic at Raqqa, discovered in 2007, he says: “It is really important because it was undamaged and is from the Byzantine period but employs Roman techniques.”
Syria has far more surviving archaeological sites and ancient monuments than almost any country in the world. These range from the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus with its magnificent eighth-century mosaics to the Bronze Age Ebla in Idlib province in north-west Syria, which flourished in the third and second millennia BC and where 20,000 cuneiform tablets were discovered. In eastern Syria on the upper Euphrates are the remains of the Dura-Europos, a Hellenistic city called “the Pompeii of the Syrian desert” where frescoes were found in an early synagogue. Not far away, close to the border with Iraq, are the remains of Mari, which has a unique example of a third-millennium BC royal palace.
Unfortunately, many of the most famous ancient sites in Syria are now held by the fundamentalist Islamic opposition and are thereby in danger. Professor Abdulkarim says that it is not just Isis but “Jabhat al-Nusra [the official affiliate of al-Qa’ida] and the other fundamentalists who are pretty much the same”.
He emphasises at the same time that he approaches his job of trying to preserve Syria’s heritage during the civil war from a politically neutral point of view. The civil war has inflicted heavy damage, notably in Aleppo, where the minaret of the Great Umayyad Mosque was destroyed along with seven medieval souks, or markets, with over 1,000 traditional shops burnt out.
Aleppo’s Umayyad mosque: the rubble is all that remains of its minaret, which was blown up during fighting last year (Getty)
Aleppo’s Umayyad mosque: the rubble is all that remains of its minaret, which was blown up during fighting last year (Getty)
Homs Old City has suffered serious damage and is still held by the rebels, while the immense Crusader fortress of Krak des Chevaliers has been battered by government air strikes. The great church at St Simeon has been turned into a military training area and artillery range by rebels.
Syria’s museums are generally secure and moveable items have been taken elsewhere for safe-keeping. Museum staff say they saw what happened in Iraq after 2003 and moved quickly. A folk museum at Deir Atieh between Damascus and Homs was taken over, but the rebels were after old pistols and rifles on display that they intended to put to military useThe most devastating and irreversible losses to Syria’s rich heritage of ancient cities and buildings are the result of looting. Much of this is local people looking for treasure, though in many cases they are obliterating the archaeological record by using bulldozers. Two looters were killed when they used a bulldozer to excavate a cave at Ebla, causing its roof to collapse.

What worries Professor Abdulkarim and his staff is that over the last year the looting has become large scale. He says that there is “a mafia from Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon hiring hundreds of people to strip sites”. Among what are known as the Dead Cities in Idlib province in northern Syria, once prosperous and then mysteriously abandoned 1,000 years ago, there are signs that thieves have brought in antiquities experts to advise them about the best places to dig, going by the orderly nature of the excavations.
Theft of antiquities is particularly bad in the far east of Syria at Mari where an armed gang  numbering 500 has taken over the site. An official report says that the looters have been focusing on “the Royal Palace, the southern gate, the public baths, Temple of Ishtar, the Temple of Dagan and the temple of the Goddess of Spring”.
Even worse is the situation at Dura-Europos where 300 people are excavating. A report by the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums says that efforts by local communities to stop the digging here have failed and heavy machinery is being used. The report says that illegal excavations have “led to the destruction of 80 per cent of the site as perpetrators are digging holes that can reach three metres in depth”.

For some Syrians, often well-armed in war-ravaged, impoverished areas, the looting of antiquities has become a full-time job. In great stretches of the country outside state control there is total disorder with banditry and kidnapping common. Rebel commanders, even if they wanted to, are not going to give priority to protecting ancient monuments.
Professor Abdulkarim complains that he has received little international help in preventing the looting of Syria’s rich heritage. The deliberate targeting by Isis and other jihadist groups of mosaics and statues seen as profane will accelerate the speed of destruction. Antiquities that have survived invasions and wars for 5,000 years may soon be rubble.
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Syrian Army Tightens Grip on Yabroud, Regains Control over Several Areas

February 17, 2014, 7:48 pm
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February: Syrian Army Victories, Statements, Daily Updates 


Local Editor


The Syrian army tightened on Monday the grip on the city of Yabroud, which is considered the last foothold of the militant groups at the Lebanese borders, according to AFP.Syrian Army

Fierce clashes erupted Monday between the Syrian army and Nusra militants at Yabroud's borders, AFP quoted the opposing UK-based Syrian observatory.

The clashes are taking place mainly in Ras Maara and the Coast where the takfiris deploy.

AFP also mentioned that Yabroud is a strategic city as it is used by the militants to launch attacks against Maaloula and Saidnaya and to threaten Damascus-Homs axis.

The Syrian army regained full control over Sheikh Najjar village and Talet al-Ghali and destroyed a number of the terrorists' hideouts and gatherings in Aleppo and its countryside.

The army restored security and stability to Sheikh Najjar village and Talet al-Ghali after eliminating the terrorists' last gatherings and hideouts .

A number of terrorists were killed and wounded in the area surrounding Aleppo central prison, and the villages of Kwairis, Rasem al-Abboud, Kafr Saghir and the industrial city.

Army units eliminated all members of armed terrorist groups in al-Marjeh and Qadi Askar neighborhoods and destroyed their weapons and ammunition.

An army unit clashed with an armed terrorist group which tried to attack the citizens surrounding al-Khasrafiyeh Mosque in the old city of Aleppo, killing all its members.

Army fully controlled Ma'an village in Hamah countryside after eliminating the last gatherings for terrorists who infiltrated to the village and committed ugly massacre against civilians, mostly women and children.

Army units destroyed terrorists’ gatherings and hideouts on al-Kabariyyeh-Maan crossroads in the northern-eastern countryside of Hama, killing scores of terrorists and injuring others.


A number of terrorists affiliated to Jund al-Sham (Organization of the Soldiers of as-Sham) were killed including the organization's military wing in al-Zara area and al-Hosn al-Gharbi in Homs countryside, Faisal Dawoud Oqla, and the Lebanese terrorist Jamal al-Shater.

A source at the province told SANA that the army units eliminated armed terrorist groups and destroyed a number of their hideouts and gatherings with all the weapons and ammunition inside them in the villages of al-Khaldiyeh and al-Dar al-Kabira and in al-Masabigh and al-Qarabis neighborhoods.
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Ansar Beit al-Maqdis Claims Bombing of Tourist Bus in Egypt

February 18, 2014, 12:26 am
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TARGETING TOURISTS. A bomb tore through a bus carrying sightseers near an Egyptian resort town bordering Israel, police officials said. AFP
TARGETING TOURISTS. A bomb tore through a bus carrying sightseers near an Egyptian resort town bordering Israel, police officials said. AFP

Explosion: An Egyptian policeman inspects the damaged bus after the deadly bombing in Taba.
Explosion: An Egyptian policeman inspects the damaged bus after the deadly bombing in Taba. Photo: AP


Ansar Beit al-Maqdis Claims Bombing of Tourist Bus in Egypt

Al-manar


Militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis on Tuesday claimed the suicide bombing in Egypt of a tour bus that killed three South Koreans and their local driver.

"One of the heroes of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis carried out the attack on a tourist bus heading towards the Zionist entity (Israel)," said a statement attributed to the group and posted on jihadist forums.

Map of Egypt locating the site of the bomb attack on a bus carrying tourists
  
The bombing on Sunday, near the Taba border crossing with occupied Palestine, was the first targeting tourists since the military overthrow of President Mohammad Mursi in July sparked a militant campaign that has killed scores of police and soldiers.
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Syria and Diplomacy

February 18, 2014, 1:12 am
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 Jan 21, 2014, Craig Murray
The problem with the Geneva Communique from the first Geneva round on Syria is that the government of Syria never subscribed to it.  It was jointly chaired by the League of Arab States for Syria, whatever that may mean.  Another problem is that it is, as so many diplomatic documents are, highly ambiguous.  It plainly advocates a power sharing executive formed by some of the current government plus the opposition to oversee a transition to democracy.  But it does not state which elements of the current government, and it does not mention which elements of the opposition, nor does it make plain if President Assad himself is eligible to be part of, or to head, the power-sharing executive, and whether he is eligible to be a candidate in future democratic elections.
Doubtless the British, for example, would argue that the term transition implies that he will go.  The Russians will argue there is no such implication and the text does not exclude anybody from the process.  Doubtless also diplomats on all sides were fully aware of these differing interpretations and the ambiguity is quite deliberate to enable an agreed text. I would say that the text tends much more to the “western” side, and that this reflects the apparently weak military position of the Assad regime at that time and the then extant threat of western military intervention.  There has been a radical shift in those factors against the western side in the interim. Expect Russian interpretations now to get more hardline.
Given the extreme ambiguity of the text, Iran has, as it frequently does, shot itself in the foot diplomatically by refusing to accept the communique as the basis of talks and thus getting excluded from Geneva.  Iran should have accepted the communique, and then at Geneva issued its own interpretation of it.
But that is a minor point.  The farcical thing about the Geneva conference is that it is attempting to promote into power-sharing in Syria “opposition” members who have no democratic credentials and represent a scarcely significant portion of those actually fighting the Assad regime in Syria.  What the West are trying to achieve is what the CIA and Mossad have achieved in Egypt; replacing the head of the Mubarak regime while keeping all its power structures in place. The West don’t really want democracy in Syria, they just want a less pro-Russian leader of the power structures.
The inability of the British left to understand the Middle East is pathetic.  I recall arguing with commenters on this blog who supported the overthrow of the elected President of Egypt Morsi on the grounds that his overthrow was supporting secularism, judicial independence (missing the entirely obvious fact the Egyptian judiciary are almost all puppets of the military) and would lead to a left wing revolutionary outcome.  Similarly the demonstrations against Erdogan in Istanbul, orchestrated by very similar pro-military forces to those now in charge in Egypt, were also hailed by commenters here.  The word “secularist” seems to obviate all sins when it comes to the Middle East.
Qatar will be present at Geneva, and Qatar has just launched a pre-emptive media offensive by launching a dossier on torture and murder of detainees by the Assad regime, which is being given first headline treatment by the BBC all morning
There would be a good dossier to be issued on torture in detention in Qatar, and the lives of slave workers there, but that is another question.
I do not doubt at all that atrocities have been committed and are being committed by the Assad regime.  It is a very unpleasant regime indeed.  The fact that atrocities are also being committed by various rebel groups does not make Syrian government atrocities any better.
But whether 11,000 people really were murdered in a single detainee camp I am unsure.  What I do know is that the BBC presentation of today’s report has been a disgrace.  The report was commissioned by the government of Qatar who commissioned Carter Ruck to do it.  Both those organisations are infamous suppressors of free speech.  What is reprehensible is that the BBC are presenting the report as though it were produced by neutral experts, whereas the opposite is the case.  It is produced not by anti torture campaigners or by human rights activists, but by lawyers who are doing it purely and simply because they are being paid to do it.
The BBC are showing enormous deference to Sir Desmond De Silva, who is introduced as a former UN war crimes prosecutor.  He is indeed that, but it is not the capacity in which he is now acting.  He is acting as a barrister in private practice.  Before he was a UN prosecutor, he was for decades a criminal defence lawyer and has defended many murderers.  He has since acted to suppress the truth being published about many celebrities, including John Terry.
If the Assad regime and not the government of Qatar had instructed him and paid him, he would now be on our screens arguing the opposite case to that he is putting.  That is his job.  He probably regards that as not reprehensible.  What is reprehensible is that the BBC do not make it plain, but introduce him as a UN war crimes prosecutor as though he were acting in that capacity or out of concern for human rights.  I can find no evidence of his having an especial love for human rights in the abstract, when he is not being paid for it.  He produced an official UK government report into the murder of Pat Finucane, a murder organised by British authorities, which Pat Finucane’s widow described as a “sham”.  He was also put in charge of quietly sweeping the Israeli murders on the Gaza flotilla under the carpet at the UN.
The question any decent journalist should be asking him is “Sir Desmond De Silva, how much did the government of Qatar pay you for your part in preparing this report?  How much did it pay the other experts?  Does your fee from the Government of Qatar include this TV interview, or are you charging separately for your time in giving this interview?  In short how much are you being paid to say this?”
That is what any decent journalist would ask.  Which is why you will never hear those questions on the BBC.
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Palestinian Holocaust

February 18, 2014, 1:19 am
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Posted on February 18, 2014 by michaellee2009 | 


Reporter John Lyons shows clear evidence that Israeli settlers in the West Bank regularly attack Palestinian school children, knowing the authorities will not intervene. He also discovers there are two legal systems operating. One for Israeli children and one for young Palestinians. It’s an impossible situation that may provide temporary security for Israel, but in the long term may well breed a new generation of Palestinians prepared to do anything to gain retribution.
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The detention of children and their torture have turned into a systematic policy practiced by the occupation authorities

February 18, 2014, 9:18 am
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Posted on February 15, 2014 by michaellee2009

Occupation arrested 900 Palestinian children last year

Palestinian detainee
The majority of the children say they are subjected to beatings and torture during their detention and interrogation, and they are all deprived of their legal rights while tried before the same military courts as adults. [File photo]

Official Palestinian data confirms that Israeli forces arrested 900 Palestinian children over the past year, unlike previous years where the occupation averaged 700 child prisoners.

The Ministry of Prisoner's Affairs in Ramallah has published a report stating that "The detention of children and their torture have turned into a systematic policy practiced by the occupation authorities; a policy that constitutes a violation of both international conventions and agreements related to the rights of detained children."

The report pointed out that nearly 180 children under the age of 18 are currently detained in Israeli jails, distributed among the prisons in Ofer, Megiddo and Sharon.

The majority of the children say they are subjected to beatings and torture during their detention and interrogation, and they are all deprived of their legal rights while tried before the same military courts as adults.

According to the report, the detained children are also denied their right to medical care, education and humanitarian treatment, and they often complain about the harassment they face from Al-Nahshon forces, which are responsible for their transfer to the Israeli courts.
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OAKLAND, FEB. 20: BLANKFORT INTERVIEWS ATZMON DON'T MISS IT!

February 18, 2014, 9:40 am
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2014 AT 9:47PM GILAD ATZMON

and you can, too!


http://wanderingwho.com/

Israeli exile Gilad Atzmon is a staunch defender of Palestinian rights and opposes the existence of a Jewish state.  He is also a philosopher and iconoclast who examines the origins of Zionism and other types of exclusivist philosophy.  For this, many call him racist and anti-Semitic.  However, he claims that his search has brought him to a deeper anti-racism and shown him racist elements that extend beyond Zionism.  He offends many, but for those with an open mind, he also makes them think, and he welcomes all questions and criticism.

Investigative journalist and writer Jeffrey Blankfort is a Bay Area treasure with a wealth of knowledge and experience on the Israel Lobby and the formation of US government policy toward Israel.  He won a legal judgement against the ADL for spying and produces a weekly program on KZYX in Mendocino.

When:  8:00 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 20
Where: 6839 Saroni Drive, Oakland, CA
RSVP:   510-236-5338 genesto@aol.com
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Identifying the so called "unidentified terrorism" sponsored by the World Order

February 18, 2014, 9:40 am
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In previous comments of the so-called "poisonous snake" in this Blog I called the writer a liar and challenged him to prove his lies.  He left to his dark room to spread his Zionist poison under Hezbollah flag. Ten days ago he wrote about  the corruption showing its head again in Damascus, shifting the original struggle with with another fight that benefits Israel and the world order. The other fight is the ongoing battle against Wahhabism, "Muslim" Brothers and their branches such as ISIL, Nusra Front, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis....and Hamas. 


It is shameful really how some pro Assad thinkers and intellectuals are trying to implicate the Muslim Brothers of Egypt and HAMAS in everything bad or controversial or even criminal , and they do this openly in the media and everywhere else …….They are exposing HAMAS and the Muslim Brothers of Egypt labeling them as terrorists or pro US and at the same time they are promoting rulers like al Sisi who was chief of Intelligence under Mubarak, justifying his acts and his military coup and his oppressive means, seeing in him a national hero and seeing in the Egyptian army, a par to the Syrian army . 
This is frankly dishonest and serves an agenda . The MB coordinated with US administration alright, but so did the Egyptian officers and the Military Council by cooperating fully with the Pentagon with the difference that – now- the Muslim Brothers of Egypt have been prohibited and their assets frozen and their leaders under lock while the Military Council and the minister of Defense – who is non other than al Sisi- have seized power. In order to go around this matter , the pro Assad intellectuals are saying that US is putting pressure on al Sisi and withholding aid to the army because Egypt has opted to open up to Russia.." 
The real outcome (Of Geneva 2) is being cooked elsewhere and the choices are not many . In order to continue to rule , Assad who agreed to shift the battle – according to Russia’s instructions – would have to present concessions not only to US but to Russia as well and this has already started in approving of the Egyptian military coup in Egypt and in turning the war against NATO and Israel into a war against Terrorism."
 “Do the Muslim Brothers constitute the major threat? And is Erdogan a Muslim Brother before being a NATO stooge ? And are the Muslim Brothers the most prominent danger threatening the area . What about Israel ?”  He asked
In a previous comment I exposed his dishonesty and bias in reporting the  Al-Manar Interview with Mohamad Sadeik Al-Husaini, 

He asked me to withdraw my accusation of dishonesty because his post was about above interview not the one with Al-manar chennel. The interview with radio al Nour.

Insted of proving his honesty and bias, he confirmed it because both interview held on the same day tackled the same issues.  Click the link and listen

On Sunday, he got a shove up his rotten ass, and I was wondering what he would comment on the Resistance Leader addressing him and his Lebanese likes saying: 

"Why are all these countries [ Europe, USA, Saudis, Turkey etc..) allowed  to be worried about the presence of their youth in the ranks of the armed groups in Syria, and we, the neighbors of Syria, whom our life and destiny are related to the developments in Syria, are not allowed to take precautionary measures for that? What have the Lebanese government done besides self disassociation which is similar to burying it's head in the sand? Don't we have the right to interfere to stop the killing, stealing and raping of women which 30,000 Lebanese have been suffering in Al-Qusayr? what if those Takfiris whom we defeated in Qusayr came to Lebanon? What if, God forbidden, they took control over all Syria? How would the picture be like then?"

I was sure that he would never dare to say: SURRENDER OR RESISTANCE ?, and consider the presence of Hezbollah Fighters in Syria as shifting the original struggle with with another fight that benefits Israel and the world order. He is using Hezbollah flag in spreading lies, Such as:  Terrorism is not Wahabism. After saying that can he be honest in commenting on Seyyed's speech, where one third of the speech was about Saudis Terrorism that started in Afghanistan and ended in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.


He can't say he was wrong, or admit that he is a fifth pillar, He wrote the following:
"It quite noticeable that Sayyed Hassan Nasrullah in his speech did not bring up the topic of Geneva 2 and insisted on the PALESTINIAN ISSUE AS STILL BEING THE HEADLINE FOR THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT since Israel is still the real threat to all.. Under this headline that gives the priority to the Palestinian and Arab Cause by excellence and which is being right now subject to liquidation , the leader of the Resistance endorsed the war on terrorism that threatens Lebanon because Lebanon is under real threat from such groups as are most countries whether Arab or foreign who are taking measures in order not allow the transfer of terrorism to their land. Sayyed Hassan said that this war shall be won and it is not that Lebanon is threatened because Hizbullah is fighting in Syria , Lebanon is threatened anyway . On the contrary, Hizbullah is fighting in Syria and interfering in Syria in order to protect Lebanon and the Resistance from the terrorist spread ."
Out of sudden, he admitted that the "so-called terrorist" are TERRORISTS, "Lebanon is under real threat from such groups as are most countries whether Arab or foreign [ EXCEPT EGYPT - In Egypt they are freedom fighters] who are taking measures in order not allow the transfer of terrorism to their land. He noticed that Sayyed Hassan Nasrullah in his speech did not bring up the topic of Geneva 2, but he failed to notice that Sayyed Hassan Nasrullah in his speech did not bring up the topic of the Iran's Geneva.
He ignored Seyyed's highlighting the USA double standards, in insisting on the right of Egyptians to elect their president, and denying the Syrian's right to do the same.  

The "honest" failed to mention Sayyed's confirming that the destiny of Resistance is linked to whats taking place in Syria. 


Moreover, he totally ignored that His eminence stressed that "Hezbollah had constantly sought partnership and it had never said it rejected forming a government which the Future Party, or the Lebanese Forces or any of the elements of March 14 are part of... We never said that we refused dialogue with March 14, we have rather expressed that we wanted a Nantional Unity Government and dialogue, and this does not mean imposing anyone's opinion on the other."


DON’T ALLOW THE BEAST BACK


By
"Now , that the war on Syria has taken another turn of fighting unidentified terrorism sponsored by the World Order , we fear that corruption might be showing its head again.
We have seen the poisonous snake showing its head in the blog called Uprootedpalestinians ." - Daniel Hamayreh  
 “This war on terrorism is nothing more than shifting of the original struggle with Israel ; it serves more than a purpose. It replaces the fight with Israel with another fight that benefits Israel and the world order . It keeps the Arab armies busy fighting a fictitious enemy called Terrorism created by the establishment. It destroys Arab countries and dismantles Arab societies that will be torn by internal conflicts . It exposes and threatens directly the armed Resistance to Israel . Should Syria really settle for this and carry on this task ? Weren’t there any other alternatives?”
“In order to continue to rule , Assad who agreed to shift the battle – according to Russia’s instructions – would have to present concessions not only to US but to Russia as well and this has already started in approving of the Egyptian military coup in Egypt and in turning the war against NATO and Israel into a war against Terrorism.”



Fact check


Syria






Hafez Assad identifying the enemy





Hafez Assad identifying the enemy-within
Hafez al-Assad Speech about Muslim Brotherhood (1982)



Unfortunately Hazez failed to identify 2 MOSAD agents






Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's latest comments on the Syrian crisis, in which he directs a message to Al-Qaeda on their involvement in the fighting in Syria




This is Bashar Al-Assad



2013 - the Year of the Axis of Resistance


----------



Lebanon



Hezbollah's Leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah: 'Myself & All of Hezbollah will Go to Syria to Fight Terrorists if Required'




------


Palestine














Egypt













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HATE ME, PLEASE

February 18, 2014, 9:55 am
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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014 AT 11:26AM GILAD ATZMON
By Gilad Atzmon

Ynet reviewed today the work of Dr. Adam Ferziger, an expert in the study of modern Jewish denominations. The Israeli academic contends that due to assimilation “the absolute majority of American Jewry won't be Jews anymore”.

According to Dr. Ferziger, Americans are just not anti-Semitic enough to maintain traditional Jewish identity. Jews have integrated so well “that most Americans don’t see being a Jew as a negative thing, but actually consider it an advantage”.

Seemingly, without being hated Jews are “getting lost”.

Ferziger continues, “Anti-Semitic phenomena are rare, especially in the upper class of the American population, and at the end of the day its open arms were what determined the assimilation trend and helped speed it up”. The take-home message is pretty clear. Jews cannot sustain their identity unless confronted by indignation in their surrounding environment. In short, it is anti-Semitism that sustains Jewish existence.

The Christmas tree is, apparently, also a significant threat, according to Ferziger. “Surveys conducted in recent years revealed a growth in the number of Jewish families that put up a Christmas tree in their home and mark Christmas as a sort of American holiday…. Yet they do not feel a contradiction between being Jewish and using holiday symbols which they see as more universal than religious”. I guess that universalism in general poses a critical threat to the tribally oriented mind.

But the Jewish genius once again found a solution. Instead of fighting assimilation, the American Jewish establishment actually adopted a “flexible accommodation”:  “In most Reform and Conservative communities there is an acceptance of the reality of mixed marriages, and there is a desire to find solutions... In as early as 1983, the Reform recognized children as Jewish, and they are wanted in the synagogue. But the innovation is that after a great internal conflict in many places, it was decided that the non-Jewish parent would also be invited to be a full-fledged member of the community” .

The conclusion is obvious. The Jewish community in America is actually expanding and rapidly. “The prevalent perception in America is that synagogue membership is a sort of  “Jewish citizenship”. You pay taxes, visit the synagogue several times a year, and use its services when there's a bar mitzvah or a wedding”.

The contemporary American Jewish leadership has managed to extend the notion of Jewish ethnocentrism – “the synagogue affiliation is a Jewish-American statement that you belong to the Jewish collective”. And indeed, “recent studies have proved explicitly that an affiliation with a synagogue holds significant power”.

Rather than disappearing, what we see in practice, actually, is a surge of Jewish collectivism and power.

It may be true that traditional Jewish blood-related tradition is in decline in the USA, but Jewish spiritual collectivism is far from being defeated. It is actually expanding rapidly. Once they find a Jewish partner, every goy can join the Chosen as long as their synagogue tax duties are paid.

This commodification and privatization of Judaism is hardly surprising. However, the thought that all these new Jews will have to be hated in order to maintain their newly acquired exceptionalist “religious” identity may entail some gross violence ahead.

Beware!
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How Turkey arms & facilitates Jihadists from all over the world

February 18, 2014, 10:10 am
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Posted on February 18, 2014 by michaellee2009 



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Pro-Hezbollah song angers Syrian terrorists

February 18, 2014, 10:28 am
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http://en.alalam.ir/news/1566908

Hezbollah members are seen in this file photo.

Hezbollah members are seen in this file photo.
A song saluting Hezbollah’s campaign against foreign-backed militants in the Qalamoun region of Syria has outraged members of the Syrian opposition.
Ali Barakat, a singer of religious anthems, posted the video on YouTube Thursday.
The video has received more than 40,000 views and several other YouTube postings of the song have also appeared, meaning an even higher viewership.


The nearly six-minute-long anthem “Ihsam Nasrak bi Yabroud,” addressed to the party and its supporters, can be loosely translated as “Achieve your decisive victory in Yabroud.”

The song’s lyrics, which salute Hezbollah’s role in earlier campaigns against the towns of Nabk and Qusair, and label the Syrian militants as “Takfiri” extremists, enraged opposition supporters.

The video that accompanies the song features a map of the area, with the yellow Hezbollah flag planted in and fluttering over Yabroud.

It also contains shots of the party’s fighters conducting mock battles, mixed with actual footage of military operations, presumably from the resistance movement’s earlier exploits in Syria.



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Nasrallah fights Takfiri Terror – Key US allies support it

February 18, 2014, 11:22 am
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Hassan Nasrallah

Saudi Arabia behind terrorism in Mideast: Nasrallah

 Top Daily Story   … by  Press TV,  Tehran


Israelis teaching their kids "Love thy neighbor"
Israelis teaching their kids “Love thy neighbor”
[ Editors Note:  Nothing new here folks with this revelation. It will appear on page 32 of any American media that does cover it.
Most Americans who have been bled dry fighting worldwide terrorism when one of the biggest sponsors was right inside the Washington, DC beltway the whole time, still have not figured out where the home base is, and that they wear suits, not robes.
Only in American foreign policy will you find designated terrorist entities really fighting terrorism, while US allies fund and support it all over the Mid East and elsewhere. Of course the US entities have diplomatic immunity.
When the full story comes out as to how deeply America has been involved, and for how long...to the extent of it's becoming an industry when no prosecutions were observed, we might finally get the house cleaning that we need.
The Syrian Army is also fighting terrorism, more than we are actually, but phonies like Senator John McQaeda want to attack Syria to to improve the US negotiating stance. McCain sounds like a Takfiri to me. What do you think? I'm sure you know how to contact his Washington office to let him know how unloved he is out here in the heartland...Jim W. Dean ]
_________________________________

-  First  published  February 17th,  2014  -


Meet America's allies fighting the Syrian Army
Meet America’s allies fighting the Syrian Army
Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah says Saudi Arabia is arming and funding Takfiri terrorist groups in the Middle East.
The leader of the Lebanese resistance movement made the remarks late on Sunday in a televised speech given during a ceremony in southern Beirut to commemorate the martyrdom of resistance commanders.
Nasrallah stated that the Saudi-backed Takfiri groups were bent on sowing the seeds of sectarian discord in the entire region. Takfiri people believe they are the only true Muslims and accuse other Muslims of apostasy.
He described the al-Qaeda-linked groups, the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, as the best examples of the Saudi-backed Takfiri mindset.
Elsewhere in his speech, Nasrallah said that Saudi authorities have launched a campaign of recruiting and dispatching young men to Syria to fight against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Warning against the foreign meddling in Syria, Nasrallah said that the Syrian people themselves should decide the fate of the country.
A British defense study shows that about 100,000 foreign-backed militants, fragmented into 1,000 groups, are fighting in Syria against the government and people. The extracts of the study by defense consultancy IHS Jane’s were published on September 16 in The Daily Telegraph.
IHS Jane’s estimates that some 10,000 militants are fighting for groups affiliated with al-Qaeda such as al-Nusra Front and the rest fight for different militant groups. The analysis also said that a large number of extremists from foreign countries are active in Syria.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside Syria. Some sources say more than 130,000 people have been killed and millions displaced due to the violence in the country.

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BEWARE FIFTTH PILLARS spreading Zionist poison

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