Syria War: New Push Against Assad Being Planned, Reports Suggest
Source: The Guardian (UK)
After months of battlefield stalemate in Syria, a flurry of reports from Washington, Jerusalem, Amman and the Gulf suggests a major new clandestine effort is under way to open up a "southern front" against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Central to the mooted plan is a renewed push to provide Syria's badly divided and often ineffectual moderate, secular rebel groups with additional funding, upgraded weapons and intelligence support. What use they may make of such support, if indeed it fully materialises, remains to be seen.
The initiative, as reported in the region, is set against a backdrop of secret talks in the US last month between Susan Rice, Barack Obama's national security adviser, and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi interior minister in charge of covert action programmes in Syria.
According to the usually well informed Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, spy chiefs from Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and other regional countries also attended the discussions, focused on making a "stronger effort" to help the rebels.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/11/syria-war-international-effort-southern-front-assad
At the same time we condemn the Russians, we're busily planning to bleed Syria even more.
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Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)The new US funding supposedly augments a fresh push by Gulf states to finance rebel operations in the southern region of Syria, which are ultimately aimed at Damascus. More than $1bn has been disbursed since last summer, much of it for weapons purchases in eastern Europe, according to Gulf government sources quoted by regional media.
The weapons, mostly supplied via Jordan, are said to include a variety of small arms, as well as some that are more powerful, such as anti-tank rockets. But as a result of American reservations, they do not include shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, known as Manpads, which could shoot down military or civilian aircraft. Saudi Arabia has stockpiles of Manpads and favours supplying them to the rebels, but the US disagrees.
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Detailed media reports claim the operational plans, supply routes and tactics for the new push are being overseen by a secret international operations command centre in Amman staffed by military officials from 14 countries, including the US, Britain, Israel and Arab states opposed to the Assad regime.
ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)when it comes to collecting your "entitlements" down the road we just won't have the money. So sorry.
scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)Yeah, let's make sure there's even MORE bloodshed and misery for the people of Syria.
Fuck this shit. Especially fuck ANYTHING being pushed by the Saudis, those medieval misogynist parasites.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)
Catherina
(35,568 posts)Weaken Russia's naval forces so you can weaken Syria and have neither of them stand in the way of getting to the grand prize of them all "Iran".
There's so much going on they're not even trying very hard to sense because whatever the propaganda organs, like the NYT, put out, it becomes "fact" the next day. Like that ridiculous story about Merkel saying Putin was unhinged.
Such liars. Such charlatans.
As for the German chancellory, it's not exactly endorsing the Times's account. Die Welt, the German newspaper, reported that "The chancellery was not pleased with the reporting on the conversation. They claim that what the chancellor said was that Putin has a different perception on Crimea, which is why she is pushing for a fact finding mission on the matter."
Government spokesman Jens Alberts told Claudia Himmelreich, a McClatchy special correspondent, exactly what the government said on Monday: no comment on the contents of the chancellor's confidential phone conversations -- with either Putin or Obama. In defining the German view, Alberts said he would "not dwell on reports and rumors of someone claiming she possibly said this or that. However, what is undisputed is that President Putin has a completely different view of the situation and the events on Crimea than the German government and our western allies."
A different view. Obviously. But unhinged?
So if Merkel didn't portray Putin as unhinged, why would the unknown Obama aide tell the New York Times she did? Because in the world of propaganda, successfully portraying your adversary as being crazy, without any rational backing to his actions, makes it unnecessary to try to understand the complexities or sensitivities of the issues. If Putin is crazy, then that's enough. We needn't think any further about what he has to say. And if the New York Times says he's crazy, that's good enough for the dozens of reporters who've come along since, repeating the comment to their millions of viewers and readers as if it was a confirmed statement.
...
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/03/05/3975981/did-angela-merkel-really-say-putin.html
and not just dozens of reporters either, thousands of propagandists followed suite. Why even at DU, the next day the entire anti-Snowden, anti-Russia crowd adopted that meme and the word *unhinged*.
We are being fucking had. McCain is popping up everywhere cheering "rebels" on, going from one place to the next after leaving the first ones in total ruin and chaos. Bush's PNAC crew is very busy at work driving a wedge through Obama and Putin every chance they get, and deliberately sabotaging talks because they find it "tragic" we're not at war yet. They sure were pissed when Obama and Putin snuck in a short, private face to face at the G20 and de-escalated Syria in September. That wasn't meant to happen and they'll make sure it never happens again. Ramp it up everywhere! Venezuela, Syria, Ukraine, oil for everyone!
Why am I ranting to you? So sorry. I know we're on the same side and you see things very clearly.
