General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsleveymg
(36,418 posts)Let's hear it for the Saudi-Israeli Joint Co-Prosperity Sphere!
tabatha
(18,795 posts)However, that does not mean that the whole world should not be appalled at Assad's massacre of his citizens.
The Arab League tried to resolve this without war.
The video said nothing about war - it asked for support for those who are bing killed.
Oh, the inhumaity.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Q. Why do my feet feel wet?
A. It is impossible for The HMS Titanic to sink! Period!
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Col Riad al-Assad, head of the Free Syria Army, has been working since May 2011 with the US & NATO from inside the USAF base at Incirlik, smuggling US weapons into Syria, participating in US psychological and information warfare inside Syria as the middle-man whom Syrian protesters tend to trust, and helping to funnel intelligence and military operators across the border and organise night-time drop-offs by air. The joint US/NATO secret training camp in the USAF base at Incirlik began operations in Apr-May 2011 to organize and expand the dissident base in Syria. Since then, in addition to Col Riad al-Assad, several other high-ranking Syrian military and intelligence officials have been added to operations HQ in the USAF base. Weekly weapons-smuggling operations have been carried out with full US/NATO participation since last May. The HQ also includes an information warfare division where US-NATO crafted communications are directed to dissidents in Syria via the core group of Syrian military and Intelligence defectors.
There are significant differences betwen Sibels information and Phil Giraldis. I listened to Giraldis Dec 9 interview with AntiWar.coms Scott Horton, and I read the associated Dec 7 Giraldi AntiWar.com article, Washingtons Secret Wars. I noticed that Scott pushed Syria into the last two and a half minutes of the twenty minute interview, though Giraldi had three times previously in the interview mentioned Syria with some emphasis. Giraldi when he finally gets to say what he thinks says We dont know what is going on in Syria. Its not clear whether he means that we the investigative public dont know, or that the US policy-makers dont know, or both. But Giraldis AmConMag piece NATO vs. Syria appeared on Dec 19, ten days after the Horton interview and twelve days after Washingtons Secret Wars. Giraldi says in Washingtons Secret Wars that the Free Syria Army are based at Iskenderun. Sibel says they are inside the USAF Incirlik base. Another important difference is that the NATO planes Giraldi talks about are bringing arms and volunteers from Libya to Turkey; Sibels planes are going over the Turkish border into Syria doing night-time drop-offs. So Giraldi is not as hard-line as Sibel, but there is a perceptible hardening in Giraldis line between Dec 9 and Dec 19.
tabatha
(18,795 posts)Initial dissidents fled to Turkey, from where they are now based. There are operators on the border with Syria in both Turkey and Jordan. Libyans are helping Syrians, as they said they would before they finished their own rebellion. A prominent Libyan rebel military leader is now working with the Syrians.
Iran is shipping arms to the Syrian government. A Russian ship laden with arms (stopped off at Cyprus) docked in Syria and offloaded, before sailing to Turkey. I wonder why your sources do not report on what Iran and Russia are doing as well - or are they just anti-West?
leveymg
(36,418 posts)has also bought military aircraft and anti-tank missiles from France and Germany. Syria was also receiving covert U.S. intelligence training, surveillance equipment and other assistance during the Bush GWOT years in exchange for dark prison rendition and torture services.
I do not think those sources are "anti-West", as you put it. Sibel Edmonds worked for FBI Counterterrorism and Phil Giraldi is retired CIA.
tabatha
(18,795 posts)However, my greatest concern is for the people who are being slaughtered by Assad. I do not begrudge them any help, because they will not get it from Russia, Iran and China.
Iran, btw, has denied any help. And Russia refuses to talk about what was on the ship, which was only discovered when it docked unexpectedly in Cyprus and was boarded - otherwise it would have been a secret.
Just as I did not begrudge any help the ANC received (including from Gaddafi) to get rid of an oppressive regime, so neither do I begrudge the help for the Libyans or the Syrians.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)-- the Ba'athist apparatus is too entrenched and multilayered -- and this will end up as terrorist blowback, with a lot of dead Americans somewhere in the world in the not too distant future.
It's like the Agency's role in the Hungarian uprising in '56. It just ended up getting the opposition killed or driven out of the country.