New front opens in Syria as rebels say al Qaeda attack means war

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Syrian rebels said on Friday the assassination of one of their top commanders by al Qaeda-linked militants was tantamount to a declaration of war, opening a new front for the Western-backed fighters struggling against President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Rivalries have been growing between the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Islamists, whose smaller but more effective forces control most of the rebel-held parts of northern Syria more than two years after pro-democracy protests became an uprising.

"We will not let them get away with it because they want to target us," a senior FSA commander said on condition of anonymity after members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant killed Kamal Hamami on Thursday.

"We are going to wipe the floor with them," he said.

Hamami, also known by his nom de guerre, Abu Bassir al-Ladkani, is one of the top 30 figures on the FSA's Supreme Military Command. His killing highlights how the West's vision of a future, democratic Syria is unravelling.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/12/uk-syria-crisis-idUKBRE96B08C20130712

[juajen]

1. I can't believe that I agree with Sarah Palin on anything; however

I like her remark about escalation of the conflict in Syria, i.e., "Let Allah sort it out". I don't believe that we are the guardians of the world militarily. I do believe that our riches that can buy food, medicine and innovation should be shared with the world.

[John2]

4. The Syrian people

were not poor or starving and they didn't need any help from the U.S. Especially not the help that the U.S. and the CIA bought their country. Sarah Palin is nothing but a racist, so I discount anything coming from her mouth. If we ever met, I'll say it to her face.

Other countries have intelligence services than the United States Neo Con led CIA. That is exactly what our intelligence forces are made up of now. Just like Obama don't trust any Democrat or Liberal in those organizations. You can't find any better liars. And no I didn't need to steal any of their secrets to figure it out. If they will lie to their own people, they will manufature and lie about other things, such as chemical weapons and WMD.

So they are lying about the Free Syrian Army and who they are. There is no animal as an organized Free Syrian Army. This General Idriss is just a figure head bought and paid for by his masters. His masters are the Governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. That is where their bases are. He doesn't command anything on the battlefield in Syria. They are all loosely controlled.

Just like with the chemical weapons confusion, they are pre-empting information coming out who they really are and now exact numbers. There is information floating around, there maybe 40 to 120,000 foreign fighters recruited by the CIA, Saudia Arabia, Qatar, Libya,and Turkey with the involvement of Israel too. Israel provides intelligence and medical services for them.

These fighters are allegedly recruited from Egypt, Turkey,Chechnya,Russia, Germany,Libya,Qatar, Saudia Arabia, Belgium,Iraq,Jordan, United States,Britain and other countries, which have been identified among dead rebels so far in the Syrian Civil War and they are still being trained by the CIA through countries like Jordan and Turkey where they enter the arena in Syria.

The reason the United States and Israel wants to overthrow Assad's secular government and divide up Syria into little chiefdoms is because of Assad's support for Hezbullah and the Palestinians in their resistance to Israel. Iran is in the trifecta too. The security of Israel trumps terrorism by the U.S. Administrations,Congress and the neocon led intelligence services. That was why Saddam had to go and the diversion to Iraq about chemical weapons and mushroom clouds.

They are finding a harder time to get support for they lie now, so they play the sympathy card about Assad murdering his own people. They have been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists extremists for decades. Idriss is just a facilitator and mouth piece for their cover. He is paid well.

[wordpix]

7. you are forgetting one major thing in your synopsis---oil and gas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Syria

Where is Big Oil in this conflict? I'm sure it's playing a role on all sides

[bhikkhu]

11. Syria is barely an exporter

and even substantial new investment wouldn't put it anywhere close to a large exporter, it would only head off the decline for a few years.

With that said, inasmuch as there's still plenty of money to be made in oil sold domestically or on small scale exports, the oil industry almost always benefits from "BAU", or business as usual. It almost always takes it in the shorts in unrest and revolutions. Perhaps that's part of the reason Russia and China are supporting Assad, but I don't think there's much more to it than that.

[wordpix]

14. well I for one find it curious that we hear nothing about oil and gas in Syria

since these are a major part of the Syrian economy

[byeya]

9. You said it John2 - excellent analysis

[strikeforce]

15. How much are you paid

to give us the assad propaganda ?

[karynnj]

10. That was only half of what she said - the other half was essentially until

we had a Republican President. It was not a pacifistic comment - just anti Obama.

[delrem]

27. I despise Palin's remark about escalation of the conflict in Syria.

It is racist to its core, and it's equally irresponsible, pretending that the US hasn't run this operation from the first place.

Palin's remark is vile and that vileness is consistent with her entire political persona.

[pampango]

2. The FSA must not have gotten the Assad memo that you're either with him or with Al Queda.

There is no third option in his black-and-white, KISS world. Complexity and nuance do not fit his survival strategy.

[David__77]

3. There are always family feuds.

Of course al Qaeda and FSA are on the same side of the barricades. With any luck - for them - they will prevent any more squabbles and keep to their main enemy.

There has rarely been a guerrilla force that did not turn on itself due to the nature of insurgency. The draw of loot is strong.

[Sand Wind]

5. You are right on this,

What we see is surface reaction of a more profound underground shift in the balance of power and the distribution of weapon : the brigades entrained and armed by the CIA are coming soon.

[L0oniX]

13. They'll wait for the US to supply arms then rejoin efforts with the rebels.

[wordpix]

6. US should stay OUT, no good will come of intervention, as our history shows

[delrem]

20. "stay out"??? You haven't heard of H. Clinton's "Friends of Syria",

the CIA training camps in Jordan, etc.?

How is it possible that you aren't informed when the information is everywhere?
I don't get the denial going on.

[wordpix]

23. I suppose I should be fully informed about every single issue internationally, nationally and

locally, including every detail about every ME country and what they are doing about Syria, what H. Clinton did as SOS, and what the CIA is doing in every ME country.

Pardon my extreme ignorance.

[jzodda]

8. This is the end for the rebels

I predict that Assad will retake all the remaining rebel territory within the next few months. The rebels were already up against it but to have to fight the terrorists as well as Assad's thugs and Hezbollah? Its just too dang much for them and I feel very bad for them. They realized too late the price for letting the Islamists help them.

[delrem]

21. Reread the article. The "terrorists" hold all the "rebel held territory".

The so-called "good rebels" are mercenaries paid and outfitted by the same paymasters.
The lie being propagated by your post as well as the MSM is that this was ever a internally led rebellion. What happened were civil protests, met with too much force like civil protests are met with everywhere, including in the USA, were used as a pretext/lie/launching pad for US/GCC military interference, a fake "civil war", the *same* kind of interference that turned a Libya into a bloodbath.

[jzodda]

24. I am sorry but you don't know what you are talking about

The majority of the FSA are former members of the Syrian military who defected. There is in total between 40,000-45,000 of them. They are NOT mercs and most don't get any pay at all. They are lucky when they can get enough to eat. A good 1/3 of them are trapped in areas surrounded by gov forces with little hope of relief. They are dying every day to airstrikes and heavy weapons while they have very little.

The "mercs" as you say are the Islamic militants being funded from abroad. The FSA hates these people more and more.

This is no fake civil war.

You don't know what you are talking about. I am guessing you are a stooge for Iran or Assad. Maybe you need to re-read the article. I personally know people involved in this fight and can say with ease that what you posted is a total fabrication. I wish you were not so closed minded to the truth.

[delrem]

26. Is that you, John Podesta? nt

[L0oniX]

12. O gee ...the perfect excuse for the US to hand over weapons to the rebels. Makes me suspect CIA

or other covert actions so as to make it ok to arm the rebels.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. Then of course there's gonna be nonsense claims that Iran is supplying the "Qaeda-linked militants".

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. The posibility of a proxy war looms. Wonder if we will thank the Syrians for the use of the hall.

[delrem]

22. Wake up! The Syria war *is* a proxy war! sheeee.

[wordpix]

18. "The American people deserve a fuller conversation about this issue before we jump into another war"

---Letter from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)

In April, I traveled to a Syrian refugee camp along its border with Turkey, and saw firsthand the devastation wrought by Bashar Al-Assad's murderous regime against his own people.

Having spent time with just a handful of the victims of this conflict, and meeting with leaders from the various and splintered opposition groups, I know we cannot simply turn our backs on such a massive humanitarian crisis.

But if we really want to get involved in Syria's sectarian civil war, there are better ways to do it than providing small-arms that will do nothing to shift the balance of the conflict.

Intervention should start by increasing humanitarian aid both inside and outside of the country. We should improve the conditions in refugee camps and help other nations bear the burden of displaced persons. And we should even take in some of those refugees here at home.

But I do not believe America should militarily intervene in Syria, given the severely fractured state of the opposition, the risk of arms falling into the hands of Al Qaeda, and the potential cost to the U.S. in terms of dollars and reputation.

But at the very least, our nation's role in Syria deserves a full debate in Congress before shipping arms to rebels fighting alongside terrorist organizations we've fought against in Iraq and continue to do battle with around the globe.

Sign my petition urging President Obama to obtain Congressional authorization before sending arms to Syria.

Recent history shows that America has a pretty miserable track record when it comes to pulling the strings of Middle Eastern politics.

The American people deserve a fuller conversation about this issue before we jump into another war.

All the best,
Chris Murphy
U.S. Senator, Connecticut

[William deB. Mills]

19. Violence Radicalizes

Those favoring peaceful stable democracies must strive always for peaceful, inclusive, negotiated solutions because the alternative is a cycle of violence that will radicalize the political context, both by radicalizing individuals and by empowering radicals while marginalizing moderates. Using radicals is thus a very dangerous tactic for those whose goal is democracy, as is the employment of violence in the first place by a democracy. Teaming with salafis in Afghanistan in the 1980s or now in Syria is a recipe for blowback, as is invading countries to make them "democracies" or "free" or "stable," and as is the use of force against peaceful citizen protests or whistleblowers.

Democracy is hard because the quick and easy option of killing adversaries almost always needs to be given up in favor of the search for mutually acceptable solutions.

I know, sounds like preaching, but how many of our leaders have fallen into the trap of thinking a quick little use of violence would solve a problem only to make it far more serious...just because they are too arrogant to admit they might have made some mistakes and that their adversaries might have a point?

____________
The Egyptian Case: http://shadowedforest1000.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/fighting-to-invent-democracy-a-defeat-in-egypt/;
The Iranian Case: http://shadowedforest1000.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/offer-iran-a-moderate-deal/;
The Algerian Case: http://wmills.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/the-fallacy-of-defending-democracy-with-repression-algeria/

[roamer65]

25. The countries are starting to choose sides...means regional war is close.

Israel is siding with syrian rebels and the Egyptian military...same sides as the Saudis.
Iran is siding with Assad and other Shia groups throughout the region.
Turkey is on the edge of chaos.

Never thought I'd see the Israelis and the Saudis together...wow.