Syria watch...

[raspberry-blower]

Cheers.

Deafening silence from the regulars here. I wonder why that is?

Damning evidence of a 'conspiracy theory' maybe which in addition affirms my own suspicion all along that the rebels arranged the sarin attack which was falsely blamed on Assad.

Those who watched the Farage Clegg debate tonight will have noted that Farage is sticking his neck out on Ukraine and Syria. Very refreshing to here some common sense for a change on foreign policy.

It looked like a false flag from the start. I notice how billhook has slipped off into the night after all the bollocks he wrote here and elsewhere on this topic back when it initially all kicked off and the USA was trying to build the case for all-out military adventurism.

Not to worry, however, I'm sure he'll be back with fresh bollocks for the next one

It is sad when BillHook, who is usually very erudite in his posts, on this issue has morphed into some kind of Dr Strangelove type character.

Meanwhile, RT programme "The Truthseeker" ran a segment entitled: Media "Staged" Syria Chemical Attack

The really bizarre thing is that this fraudulent piece is actually up for an award!

(No it's not biggest load of cobblers masquerading as news award either)

[PS_RalphW]

Talking of under reported news, I have been thinking about the Malaysian plane disappearance.

The very efficient way it is disconnected from navigation and monitoring systems, flown on a path to avoid civilian radar tracking, then sent to its fate into the deepest remotest southern ocean, immediately after passing out of Malaysian radar coverage, strongly indicates that the operation was performed by a pilot experienced with this aircraft type, with good local knowledge and awareness of the exact progress of the flight. In other words almost certainly by one (or possibly both) of the pilots themselves.

Which brings up the question of why. Both pilots were ethnic Malay Muslims. The vast majority of the passengers were Chinese or ethnic Chinese Malaysian Christians. The style of the operation does not quite match the big high profile AQ style attack on prestige targets. I think we need to look at the local set up.

There has been a long history of ethnic tensions in Malaysia, between the Malays, and the Chinese and Indian minorities. This last erupted into rioting and looting in the 1993 (?) tiger economy implosion, where the financial markets stitched up developing far east countries and sent them into deep recession.

Now we have an ever growing wealth among the Chinese Malaysian community, and I am almost certain growing discontent from marginalised Malays. We all know how expansionist China is.

The style of the attack suggests this is a more personal grievance, pilot against passengers. The choice of the deep southern ocean suggests an intent to make discovery and recovery all but impossible, causing distress in the Chinese families in particular, for whom burial is a very significant milestone.

None of this discussed in the media. Now that hope is fading of finding the wreckage, the whole story is being dropped.

[raspberry-blower]

Further to my previous post, here's another timely piece: Countering the Western Big Lies on Syria on Western Terms

The BIG LIE narrative that leads to this ‘single possible solution’, and which sneers at alternatives which may not result in the overthrow and installation of a Western-friendly leader, urgently needs to be countered and broken, though the ‘free press’ – as ‘free’ as the market is to be controlled by the biggest players, that is – has no space for alternatives.

It is the consistency, uniformity and repetition of the narrative telling us that “rebels need our help in a popular revolution for democracy against an evil regime” - despite cracks to the foundation that are visible if you even scratch the surface – which has managed to keep it so successful: not only as the dominant but as the ONLY mainstream view. It’s simply ‘how it is’. Knocks from (barely reported) evidence of opposition extremism and violence have been largely deflected, thanks to the constant moulding of information reported on the conflict to ensure that news reports fit the same pattern and press the same buttons in news consumers’ soft matter.

And never, but never, is it contemplated in the mainstream media that the US – directly and through its allies – could actually want and be closely involved in the attempts to force the toppling of Assad for its own geopolitical goals, and in reality had no intention whatsoever of ‘spreading freedom and democracy’. The US’s moral integrity is always unquestioningly taken as sacrosanct by the mass media – in spite of the similarity of the need-for-war lies peddled re Iraq and Libya, and the huge death and destruction and hugely worsened life experiences in those countries, regardless of the fact that senior US figures had set Iraq, Libya, Syria and other countries on a ‘to do list’ years earlier, and despite the huge profits engineered by US elites from those conflicts.

[biffvernon]

Talking of under reported news, I have been thinking about the Malaysian plane disappearance.

If you want unreported news, think about the spectacular success that Boeing have engineered. They've got the whole world inventing a myriad of conspiracy theories and avoided the major economic crisis of having their flagship fleet of airliners grounded while a catastrophic failure of a $300 million aircraft is investigated.


And then the really big piece of under reported news is this:

The annual death toll linked to road transportation is higher than many policy makers realize, reaching at least 1.5 million people worldwide and rising, according to a new analysis.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/featur ... -pollution

[emordnilap]

NSA was responsible for Syria's disconnect from the web in late 2012, and not the Assad regime.

[biffvernon]

This is probably important to somebody:

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/06/0 ... th-poison/

Saudi Arabia's spymaster Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz has been injected with an incurable poison, a Lebanese media report says.

Some Lebanese media outlets quoted Saudi sources as saying that the prince was injected with an unknown kind of poison.

Bandar slipped into a coma and was rushed to Morocco and the United States for treatment, the report added.

Medical doctors say various methods of treatment have failed to restore him to health over the past few months, it noted.

The Saudi prince is known to have had close ties with former US President George W. Bush, and was an advocate of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Bandar is also widely believed to be the key figure trying to increase Saudi weapons flow to the foreign-backed militants in Syria.

However, according to http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/08/03 ... less-dead/

Saudi Intel Chief Believed Dead Now Believed “Less Dead”

[Lord Beria3]

Well well, it looks like realism and common sense is (slowly) returning in Whitehall and Washington.

Now that the spectre of ISIS has emerged we appear to be reconsidering our bizarre hostility to the Assad regime a- least bad option in a region filled with bad options.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... rnalSearch

Islamist forces are fighting their way into western Syria from bases further east, bringing forward the prospect of US military intervention to stop their advance. If Isis, which styles itself Islamic State, threatens to take all or part of Aleppo, establishing complete dominance over the anti-government rebels, the US may be compelled to act publicly or secretly in concert with President Bashar al-Assad, whom it has been trying to displace.

The US has already covertly assisted the Assad government by passing on intelligence about the exact location of jihadi leaders through the BND, the German intelligence service, a source has told The Independent. This may explain why Syrian aircraft and artillery have been able on occasion to target accurately rebel commanders and headquarters.

Syrian army troops are engaged in a fierce battle to hold Tabqa airbase in Raqqa province, the fall of which would open the way to Hama, Syria’s fourth-largest city.

Further north, Isis has captured crucial territory that brings it close to cutting rebel supply lines between Aleppo and the Turkish border. The caliphate declared by Isis on 29 June already covers the eastern third of Syria in addition to a quarter of Iraq. It stretches from Jalawla, a town 20 miles from Iran, which the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga are trying to recapture, to towns 30 miles north of Aleppo.

[Little John]

I hope you're right LB

[3rdRock]

Great! Assad is suddenly flavour of the month again.

[emordnilap]

What to Do About ISIS

It includes an additional, pretty neat shopping list:

1. Apologize for brutalizing the leader of ISIS in Abu Ghraib and to every other prisoner victimized under U.S. occupation.

2. Apologize for destroying the nation of Iraq and to every family there.

3. Begin making restitution by delivering aid (not “military aid” but actual aid, food, medicine) to the entire nation of Iraq.

4. Apologize for role in war in Syria.

5. Begin making restitution by delivering actual aid to Syria.

6. Announce a commitment not to provide weapons to Iraq or Syria or Israel or Jordan or Egypt or Bahrain or any other nation anywhere on earth and to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from foreign territories and seas, including Afghanistan. (The U.S. Coast Guard in the Persian Gulf has clearly forgotten where the coast of the U.S. is!)

7. Announce a commitment to invest heavily in solar, wind, and other green energy and to provide the same to democratic representative governments.

8. Begin providing Iran with free wind and solar technologies — at much lower cost of course than what it is costing the U.S. and Israel to threaten Iran over a nonexistent nuclear weapons program.

9. End economic sanctions.

10. Send diplomats to Baghdad and Damascus to negotiate aid and to encourage serious reforms.

11. Send journalists, aid workers, peaceworkers, human shields, and negotiators into crisis zones, understanding that this means risking lives, but fewer lives than further militarization risks.

12. Empower people with agricultural assistance, education, cameras, and internet access.

13. Launch a communications campaign in the United States to replace military recruitment campaigns, focused on building sympathy and desire to serve as critical aid workers, persuading doctors and engineers to volunteer their time to travel to and visit these areas of crisis.

14. Work through the United Nations on all of this.

15. Sign the United States on to the International Criminal Court and voluntarily propose the prosecution of top U.S. officials of this and the preceding regimes for their crimes.

[biffvernon]

Sounds a good idea. What's not to like?

[Little John]

Just read those f***ing nutters have beheaded the other American journalist and published the video. Poor bastard and his family.

[another_exlurker]

Just read those ******* nutters have beheaded the other American journalist and published the video. Poor bastard and his family.

Agreed.

Apparently, in the video someone can be heard saying: "The next one will be British." I have no idea as to the validity of that, nor if it was spoken in English or Arabic.

Expect the RAF in the skies above northern Iraq shortly.

ISIS: funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, trained in Jordan by Israel, USA/UK.

And all to facilitate a gas pipeline because Assad had the audacity to sign the wrong contract.

[Mr. Fox]

Apparently, in the video someone can be heard saying: "The next one will be British."

Named as David Cawthorne Haines.

[UndercoverElephant]

My guess, with a general election looming, that if ISIS beheads this British hostage that we are heading towards direct British military action against ISIS. I think Cameron will calculate that the engagement of British forces, at least in the air, will be an election-winner in those circumstances.