Proposed Military Strike on Syria

[John Dolva]

http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/laureates/laureates-2013/announce-2013/

Announcement

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2013

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2013 is to be awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons.

During World War One, chemical weapons were used to a considerable degree. The Geneva Convention of 1925 prohibited the use, but not the production or storage, of chemical weapons. During World War Two, chemical means were employed in Hitler’s mass exterminations. Chemical weapons have subsequently been put to use on numerous occasions by both states and terrorists. In 1992-93 a convention was drawn up prohibiting also the production and storage of such weapons. It came into force in 1997. Since then the OPCW has, through inspections, destruction and by other means, sought the implementation of the convention. 189 states have acceded to the convention to date.

The conventions and the work of the OPCW have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law. Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons. Some states are still not members of the OPCW. Certain states have not observed the deadline, which was April 2012, for destroying their chemical weapons. This applies especially to the USA and Russia.

Disarmament figures prominently in Alfred Nobel’s will. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has through numerous prizes underlined the need to do away with nuclear weapons. By means of the present award to the OPCW, the Committee is seeking to contribute to the elimination of chemical weapons.

Oslo, 11 October 2013.

Edited October 11, 2013 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

A couple of things appear to be changing the situation in Syria.

The F,UK,US alliance and its partners sponsored terrorists trying to destroy Syria seem to be losing ground.

The Kurdish people are forming a co-ordinated defensive posture.

The Syrian Army, with the help of Haezbollah, appears to be making significant progress in a number of areas.

It will probably presage a shift in F,UK,US et al actions to be played out in the coming period. Fortunately the moderating influence of Russia remains.

A growing problem talked about is what mercenary terrorists from outside the nation will do when they return home.

________________

The FBI are recognising that US cyber attacks on communication freedom around the world is replacing its definition of terrorism (which in reality are US spponsored destabilisation efforts) as a main threat. Part of this can be seen in the sabotage being engineered in countries like Venezuela where fortunately Maduro is taking the power of the people back from economic terrorists. No wonder the US power elite is so loathed globally.

[Steven Gaal]

Suppressing the Truth on Syria: Mother Agnes Mariam and Britain’s Proclaimed “Antiwar Movement”

Here’s what it looks like when a respected reporter tweets about his blackmail note to an established anti-war organization regarding the organization’s upcoming conference in a tweet on November 15:

jeremy scahill ✔ @jeremyscahill Suivre

I've informed organizers of @STWuk that I will not participate in their conference if Mother Agnes is on the platform.

10:39 AM - 15 Nov 2013

The reporter is Jeremy Scahill, who was booked as the keynote speaker and to show his film “Dirty Wars” (based on his book “Dirty Wars”) at the November 30 International Anti-War Conference in London, put on by Stop the War Coalition (STWuk), which was first organized in 2001 in opposition to an American attack on Iraq. More than 12 years later, the coalition notes dryly on its webpage for the conference, “We need more effective anti war resistance internationally. This conference is a chance to analyse, build links and lay plans.”

Scahill’s threat to boycott the conference soon became moot the following day, when the dreaded Mother Agnes withdrew from participation. Her letter read, in part:

“It has come to my attention that my participation in your conference has become a matter of serious contention, even prompting some other speakers to consider withdrawing. This is apparently due to a campaign of cruel and unsubstantiated accusations which seek to work against my efforts and those of the Musalaha (Reconciliation) Initiative in Syria.

“The basis of our work toward peace is reconciliation and forgiveness. This means extending an olive branch to some who may initially refuse it, and accepting an olive branch from others who are despised, even by our friends….

“Some may feel that an injustice will be done if I speak at your conference. Others may think that injustice will be done if I do not. Because my participation in your conference may be used by some to distract from your valuable efforts towards peace, non-violence and reconciliation, I believe it best to withdraw from participation.”

Why did Stop the War invitation to nun working to stop war raise objections?

Push comes to shove, and Mother Agnes is an apparent pushover. She’s also not flogging a movie. And the abuse she’s suffered online was as real as the pressure on Scahilll and others to have nothing to do with her. It’s hard to find any evidence that Mother Agnes has committed anything worse than what others consider thought-crimes and politically incorrect observations, some of which are actually correct.

Mother Agnes Mariam of the Cross is a Carmelite nun and mother superior of the Monastery of James the Mutilated in Qara, Syria, which has a community of three monks and twelve nuns. Born in Lebanon in a refugee camp 61 years ago, she is Palestinian on her father’s side and has worked in Syria for about 20 years. She is the spokesperson for the Catholic Information Center in Beirut, where the Musalaha Initiative also has its office. Mother Agnes became a nun at 19, after several years in the late 1960s as a self-styled “hippie,” traveling to Europe, India and Tibet. Unlike others with an equally public profile, Mother Agnes has no Wikipedia page.

In June 2012, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire praised Mother Agnes as a peacemaker:

“In her community her voice has been clear, pure and loud. And it should be so in the West. Like many people in Syria she has been placed in life threatening situations, but for the sake of peace she has chosen to risk her own existence for the safety and security of others. She has spoken out against the lack of truth in our media regarding Syria and about the terror and chaos which a ‘third force’ seems to be spreading across the country. Her words confront and challenge us because they do not mirror the picture of events in Syria we have built up in our minds over many months of reading our newspapers and watching the news on our televisions. Much of the terror has been imported, we learn from her. She can tell us about the thousands of Christian refugees, forced to flee their homes by an imported Islamist extreme.”

What makes her controversial to people around Stop the War Coalition is their perception of her as a supporter of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. Clear reasoning behind this perception is hard to come by. The reality for Christians in Syria is that their choice of friends is limited: the government represses them along with everyone else, but some rebel groups have taken to massacring Christians. With rebel groups numbering 1,000 or more, none is likely to be a reliable protector.

Mother Agnes’s heretical view of the Damascus chemical attack

In August 2013, when the world learned of the still murky chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb, Mother Agnes questioned the prevailing western view that the Assad government carried out the attack. She prepared a 50-page report questioning the authenticity of videos of the aftermath and submitted her findings to the United Nations Human Rights Council. As the New York Times of September 21 reported:

“When Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, wanted to bolster

his argument that rebels had carried out the poison gas attacks

near Damascus on Aug. 21, he pointed to the work of a 61-year-old Lebanese-born nun who had concluded that the horrifying videos showing hundreds of dead and choking victims, including many children, had been fabricated ahead of time to provide a pretext for foreign intervention.

“’Mr. Lavrov is an intelligent person,’ said the nun, Mother Agnes Mariam of the Cross, with a wide smile in a recent interview in this Lebanese mountain town. ‘He will never stick his name to someone who is saying stupidities.’”

Taking a position on the chemical attacks that is supportive of the Assad government has led to intensified criticism of Mother Agnes as an Assad pawn. French reporters have written a book accusing her of conspiring with the government to kill another French reporter in 2012. She has sued the authors for libel.

The Syrian uprising started with peaceful protests in March 2011, but soon turned violent. Mother Agnes accuses the West of fomenting the violence to create a pretext for military intervention and re-ordering Syria. In November 2011, she wrote an open letter to President Assad, challenging the government over its treatment of hospital patients and prisoners, as reported in Vatican Insider in November 2011:

“Dear Mr. President, I have lived and worked in Syria since 1994, and I have learned to esteem the unique position Syria holds in the world of culture and of religions. But I am shocked to learn from Amnesty International that in the hospitals run by the government the wounded suffer discrimination and maltreatment because of their ideology. And I am saddened to find that, in the prisons, there are people there who have never been tried in court, or even accused of anything…. I ask for a serious inquiry into the hospitals and prisons, under the supervision of the International Red Cross, together with the creation of a committee to accelerate the exercise of justice.”

In late October, Mother Agnes, through the Musalaha Initiative, was involved in establishing a cease-fire and evacuating some 5,400 civilians from Moadamiya, a rebel-held city near Damascus.

Mother Agnes is currently on a six-week speaking tour in North America, largely ignored by most media. In Cleveland on November 14, she received a special peace award from the mayor, a congressman, and a senator. The tour ends December 4.

Jeremy Scahill has yet to explain his own behavior, but columnist Neil Clark, writing for Russia Today, blames “liberal hawks and neo-cons” for silencing the nun because:

“Mother Agnes’ testimony reveals that the so-called ‘War on Terror’ is a sham – that in Syria, the western countries and their regional allies, Saudi Arabia and Israel, are on the same side as the extremist Islamic terror groups that we are told are our greatest enemies.”

[John Dolva]

• Syrian army retakes road needed to ship out chemical weapons
  4:48am EST

[John Dolva]

Report indicate that western backed terrorists continue to assure a secure transfer of chemical weapons out of Syria for disposal is not going to be that easy. Meanwhile the US continues to supply lethal "aid" into Syria.

[Steven Gaal]

US and UK reportedly carving out rebel-controlled security zone in southern Syria

Dec 12, 2013

http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/us-and-uk-reportedly-carving-out-rebel-controlled-security-zone-in-southern-syria/

[John Dolva]

RT :

"

Tags

Al-Qaeda, Arms, Clashes, Conflict, Crime, Human rights, Israel, Middle East, Military, NATO, Politics, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Security, Syria, Terrorism, USA, Violence, War

We cannot under any circumstances dismiss the role of the NATO military alliance, Turkey, the US and Israel in supporting the so-called freedom fighters in Syria, Michel Chossudovsky, Director of the Center for Research on Globalization, told RT.

RT: We are hearing that atrocities and cruelty have happened in Adra, where 80 people have been killed. In your experience is it taking the atrocities to a new level?

Michel Chossudovsky: We have to ask who is behind these atrocities. This is a new wave of killings; it is part of the humanitarian crisis. But we must understand that from the very outset of this conflict the Western military alliance has covertly supported the terrorists with a view of destabilizing Syria’s nation state. There's ample evidence to these facts that the United States, NATO and Israel are behind the rebels, and that these rebels are trained in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and then they come in and commit atrocities. The issue is who the underlying masters behind this humanitarian disaster are, what the geopolitical implications are, what the agenda is.

RT: In terms what’s been reported in Adra, there is very little mainstream media coverage of this, although we hear a lot about the alleged government attack on Aleppo recently. Why, do you think, that is?

MC: I can’t address this issue. The issue I’d like to address is the fact that in the recent weeks there has been an important shift in the relationship between the US government on the one hand and what is now being presented as the New Islamic Front. We see now that the United States is, in fact, negotiating and establishing a dialogue with the leaders of these terrorist organizations. There is also a possibility that the aid to Al-Nusra, to the jihadist groups involved in these atrocities will be channeled not through the Syrian Free Army, which is in disarray following the ransack of its headquarters, and the fact that General [salim] Idris has, in fact, resigned and he is no longer in command.

RT: But negotiating is a way forward, isn't it?

MC: Well, you don’t negotiate with terrorists, but in this particular case the people who are dialoguing with the terrorists, they have blood on their hands because they have facilities to train these mercenaries in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They have provided funding; they have not provided a significant level of funding to the so-called moderate opposition forces, opposition brigades. And these moderate opposition brigades, in fact, are a myth. Most of the military, logistical and financial aid has been channeled to these Al-Qaeda affiliated organizations. That’s what we have to address. There can be no peace as long as the West military alliance supports terrorists. ... "

[Steven Gaal]

(Alanis Morissette ..... 'Isn't it ironic?, GAAL)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Prince Charles States “Christians Are Persecuted By Islamists” on the Same Day That A UK Jihadist Brigade is Uncovered in Syria

Chris Carrington
The Daily Sheeple

The Prince of Wales met the leaders Middle East-based Christian churches

Unusually, the British Monarchy has spoken up regarding Christians being persecuted by Islam, and it’s followers.

Prince Charles commented after visiting an Egyptian Coptic church and the Syriac Orthodox cathedral , both based in the UK.

Speaking at a reception after the visits he said:

“For 20 years I have tried to build bridges between Islam and Christianity to dispel ignorance and misunderstanding.

The point though, surely, is that we have now reached a crisis where bridges are rapidly being deliberately destroyed by those with a vested interest in doing so.

This is achieved through intimidation, false accusation and organised persecution including to the Christian communities in the Middle East at the present time.”

Violence against Christians is increasing across the globe, and atrocities in the Middle East have markedly increased of late.

His visits came on the same day that Sky News lead with a story regarding a previously unknown brigade of British fighters in Syria.

The report claims that British security experts have vastly underestimated the number of British Jihadsists in the region.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the brigade, identified as Mustafa said:

“I’m not part of al Qaeda, and I’ve never been a part of al Qaeda – ever, I’m not a terrorist in any way. If people could see how much goodness we have in our hearts, how much mercy we have for people and how much you know we are driven by compassion to help other people they wouldn’t think that we were terrorists.

But this is a line that they have been fed, and there are people that benefit from pushing that narrative about us, so I protect my identity.”

The Britons say they were angered by the lack of international intervention

Read more…and more

December 18th, 2013

Edited December 18, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[John Dolva]

Good news today. The removal of chemical weapons is proceeding in Syria. The F, Uk, US and allies backed terrorists seeking to destabilise the Syria have not been able to disrupt this so far. Much Kudos to Russia.

Now, if only the same zeal can be applied to remove weapons of mass destruction, chemical, nuclear and bio from the world, primarily stocked by the US...

what a wonderful world it would be.

[John Dolva]

A new MIT report is challenging the US claim that Assad forces used chemical weapons in an attack last August, highlighting that the range of the improvised rocket was way too short to have been launched from govt controlled areas.

In the report titled “Possible Implications of Faulty US Technical Intelligence,” Richard Lloyd, a former UN weapons inspector, and Theodore Postol, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), examined the delivery rocket’s design and calculated possible trajectories based on the payload of the cargo.

The authors concluded that sarin gas “could not possibly have been fired at East Ghouta from the ‘heart’, or from the Eastern edge, of the Syrian government controlled area shown in the intelligence map published by the White House on August 30, 2013.”

Based on mathematical calculations, Lloyd and Postol estimate the rocket with such aerodynamics could not travel more than 2 kilometers. To illustrate their conclusion, the authors included the original White House map that depicted areas under Assad control and those held by the opposition. Based on the firing range and troop locations on August 21, the authors conclude that all possible launching points within the 2 km radius were in rebel-held areas.

“This mistaken intelligence could have led to an unjustified US military action based on false intelligence. A proper vetting of the fact that the munition was of such short range would have led to a completely different assessment of the situation from the gathered data,” the report states.

The authors emphasize that the UN independent assessment of the range of the chemical munition is in “exact agreement” with their findings.

The report goes on to challenge the US Secretary of State’s key assessments of the chemical attack that he presented to the American people on August 30th and to the Foreign Relations Committee on September 3rd in an effort to muster a military attack on Syria.

“My view when I started this process was that it couldn’t be anything but the Syrian government behind the attack. But now I’m not sure of anything. The administration narrative was not even close to reality. Our intelligence cannot possibly be correct,” Postol told McClatchy publication.

http://rt.com/news/study-challenges-syria-chemical-attack-681/

iow one can conclude that the F, UK, US agencies are

1. Idiots

or

2. Opportunists

or

3. Idiotic Opportunists (iow Psychotic, Sociopaths, or any other number of deviant types)

one may then extrapolate this into all other areas where these agencies operate and assume the same.

[Steven Gaal]

JOHN,you keep bringing up facts.(re post #25 above). TO THE ELITES THERE ARE NO FACTS JUST POSTURINGS FOR GOALS.See this below.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/01/while-talking-with-al-qaeda-kerry-accuses-assad-of-supporting-extremists.html

========================================

January 18, 2014

While Talking With al-Qaeda Kerry Accuses Assad of Supporting Extremists

The president of the Russian Federation Putin famously called Secretary of State Kerry a xxxx. Yesterday Kerry again proved Putin to be right in his assessment:

What extremists is Kerry talking about? It is not Hizbullah, which has support from the Syrian government, that is killing civilians and cutting off heads but the "western" supported Takfiris. Those were certainly not created by Assad. They created themselves, through money from outside Syria, and did so even before the first protest in Syria started in March 2011:[Kerry] said Assad has “purposefully” facilitated the rise of extremism to present himself as a Western ally against radicals.

“He’s been doing this for months — trying to make himself the protector of Syria against extremists, when he himself has even been funding some of those extremists,” Kerry said. He accused Assad of “purposefully ceding some territory to them in order to make them more of a problem so he can make the argument that he is somehow the protector.”

The leader of Ahrar al Shams has now claimed himself to be part of Al-Qaeda:In another town in northern Idlib, another jihadist — belonging to a different group — shared Ibrahim’s goal of an Islamic state. “Abu Zayd” is a 25-year-old Shari’a graduate who heads one of the founding brigades of Ahrar al-Sham, a group that adheres to the conservative Salafi interpretation of Sunni Islam.
...
The Ahrar started working on forming brigades “after the Egyptian revolution,” Abu Zayd said, well before March 15, 2011, when the Syrian revolution kicked off with protests in the southern agricultural city of Dara’a.

A top official of a major Syrian rebel group acknowledged Friday that he considers himself a member of al Qaida, an admission that undercuts Western hopes that the new Islamic Front would prove to be an acceptable counter to the rising influence of other al Qaida affiliates in Syria.

Abu Khaled al Suri, who is a top figure in the rebel group Ahrar al Sham, made the statement in an Internet posting [...]

...

Ahrar al Sham is one of the most militarily effective groups fighting to topple the regime of President Bashar Assad and is one of the largest groups aligned with the Islamic Front, a coalition of rebel groups that announced its formation in September as a counter to the U.S.-backed Supreme Military Council. Ahrar al Sham’s leader, Hassan Aboud, is the political chief of the Islamic Front.

These al-Qaeda affiliated groups, ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al Sham, all existed before the "revolution" in Syria started and they were all preparing to fight the Syrian government. Does Kerry believe that the Syrian president Assad created these even before the U.S. instigated campaign against him began? When the U.S. military withdrew from Vietnam and now from Afghanistan is it also "purposefully ceding some territory" so it can make the argument that it is "somehow the protector"? What utter nonsense.

After talks with the U.S. the Islamic Front, led by self acknowledged al-Qaeda affiliate Ahrar al Sham, has together with other groups now reportedly agreed to talks with the Syrian government in Geneva. There Kerry is the one representing the anti-Assad side. Who then is really cooperating with al-Qaeda?
(Kerry's dialog is hallucinatory vis a vie reality,Gaal)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Comments

Speaking to his human rights council Wednesday,

Putin said

, "This was very unpleasant and surprising for me. We talk to them (the Americans), and we assume they are decent people, but he is lying and he knows that he is lying. This is sad."

Putin has criticized Obama administration claims that Bashar Assad's government attacked the rebels with chemical weapons.

Posted by: erichwwk | Jan 18, 2014 10:59:56 AM | 1

========================================

could someone ask kerry about the false data on the chemical weapon attack that was going to be used for the basis for an open war on syria? it sums up his 'regime change' priorities very clearly. thanks for the article b.

Posted by: james | Jan 18, 2014 11:42:28 AM | 2

Edited January 20, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

^{Media Spin Machine in High Gear: Top Three Media Lies About the Syrian Peace Talks}

^{By Shamus Cooke}

^{Global Research, January 24, 2014}

^{++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++}

^{The media spin machine is again kicking into high gear, perfectly timed to accompany the “Geneva II” Syria peace talks. The lies are necessary to give the Obama administration an upper hand in the peace negotiations, which are not being used to pursue peace, but instead, to accomplish the Obama administration’s longstanding goal of Syrian regime change. Here are the top three Western media lies about the Syrian peace talks.}

^{1) The removal of Syrian Bashar al-Assad was an agreed upon “precondition” for the Geneva II peace talks.}

^{This lie has been repeated over and over by government and media alike. It has zero basis. The Obama administration claims that this precondition was expressed in the “Geneva communiqué,” which was a road map agreement meant to guide the Geneva II peace talks, agreed upon by some of the major parties of the negotiations, including Russia.}

^{The communiqué does indeed call for a negotiated political transition, but nowhere does it state that such a transition cannot include President Assad. Such a condition would have been outright rejected by Russia.}

^{In fact, the Geneva communiqué includes this crucial statement:}

^{“[a transition government] could include members of the present [syrian] government and the opposition and other groups and shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent.” Nowhere does it specifically mention or imply President Assad.}

^{The Los Angeles Times recently stepped out of line and exposed this lie:}

“[John] Kerry regularly cites the “Geneva communiqué,” a kind of peace road map hammered out in June 2012 during a

United Nations

-organized summit. But the document does not explicitly call for Assad’s ouster.”

^{The Obama administration’s constant repeating of this lie only causes divisions in the peace process, undermining the chances that the peace process will succeed.}

^{The Obama administration is especially adamant about this “Assad must go” pre-condition because it knows that, if free and fair elections were held tomorrow in Syria — as part of a UN-backed “transitional process”— President Assad would likely win. This is the result of the ethnic and religious minorities in Syria that have rallied behind President Assad, since they’ve witnessed the consistent religious sectarian atrocities committed by the U.S.-backed rebels (which the U.S. media loves to ignore or minimize).}

^{Assad would probably win an election since there is also simply no one else on the government side or the opposition side with his name recognition or popularity. The U.S.-backed rebel war in Syria has vastly strengthened Assad’s political hand, but you wouldn’t know it from the Western, anti-Syrian media.}

^{Demanding Assad’s ouster also does not reflect the situation on the ground. The U.S.-backed rebels have never controlled more than one Syrian city, namely Raqaa, which is dominated by al-Qaeda and is governed under a Taliban-style interpretation of Islamic law, which includes a strict ban on music. Thus, the rebels don’t have the ground power that would even enable them to make the demand that “Assad must go”.}

^{2) The U.S.-backed rebel militias are “moderate” Islamic groups.}

^{The fact that this lie can even be uttered publicly without encountering ridicule is a major success of Western media propaganda. The media narrative paints the U.S.-backed “good” rebels fighting both the Syrian government and the “bad” al-Qaeda linked rebels.}

^{But the “good” rebels in the U.S.-backed Islamic Front share the same vision for Syria’s future as the al-Qaeda rebels: a fundamentalist version of Sharia law, where women live in virtual house arrest and where religious minorities are second class citizens (non-Sunni Muslims would simply be butchered, as they are on a regular basis in Syria, which is again minimized or ignored in the Western media.)}

^{The “moderate rebel” lie was further exposed recently when a top leader in the most powerful militia, Ahrar al Sham, within the Islamic Front declared Ahrar al Sham to be the “real” representative of al-Qaeda in Syria, as opposed to the rival al-Qaeda faction that the Islamic Front had recently begun fighting.}

^{Ahrar al Sham has long been known to be an al-Qaeda type Islamist extremist group; the Western media simply chose to ignore it. But when it was recently made official, the U.S. media chose to continue its ignoring stance, since actually reporting on it would destroy their “moderate rebel” lie. The Western media also continues to ignore the fact that the “moderate” U.S.-backed Islamic Front issued a joint statement that aligned itself to the extremist views of Ahrar al Sham, the “real” al-Qaeda.}

^{3) New Evidence of Syrian government “industrial scale” torture.}

^{The Western media recently blasted the “breaking news” of brand new evidence showing massive “NAZI-like” torture and murder by the Syrian government, released at the beginning of the Syrian peace talks. This may or may not be true, but the lie here is that the Western media promoted the “evidence” as being unquestionably true, when the story doesn’t reach first base when it comes to evidence-based journalism.}

^{All we really know is that there are hundreds of pictures of dead people that a “trusted source” says were killed by the Syrian government. The trusted source was designated as such by pro-Western intellectuals, who have earned professional “credibility” by helping convict war criminals in the International Criminal Court [iCC]. But as author Diane Johnstone pointed out in her excellent book “Fools Crusade,” about the war against Yugoslavia — as well as in other articles — the ICC has long been used by western powers as a tool to create a pretext for war, or a tool to justify a war after the fact.}

^{The evidence of the “NAZI-like” atrocities was written in a study paid for by the government of Qatar, which has long funneled cash, guns, and Jihadis to Syria in aid of the anti-government rebels.}

^{Again, we don’t know if the story is true or not. But such an important investigation should be conducted by the UN or another more objective institution. The same biased dynamic occurred in relation to the infamous chemical weapons attack, where no real evidence was provided, though an unending string of “experts” were quoted in the Western media, testifying to the guilt of the Syrian Government. But when Pulitzer prizewinning journalist Seymour Hersh reported that the Obama administration lied about the rebels not having the capacity to perform such an attack, the Western media simply ignored the legend of journalism. The wrench in the propaganda machine was simply dislodged.}

^{How do these lies become such permanent fixtures in the Western media? An excellent article in the Guardian newspaper recently discussed in depth the principal sources the Western media has used to understand the Syrian conflict.}

^{The article exposed the incredible bias of some of the most important Western media sources on Syria, which is why they were handpicked in the first place to be “expert” sources: they had political agendas that were aligned with the U.S. government’s foreign policy decisions. The other side of the conflict was completely ignored, except when it was targeted for ridicule. Thus, Americans and Europeans have a completely one-sided, if not fantasy-based perspective of what is happening in Syria. This has been systematic since the beginning of the conflict, as happened with the Yugoslav, Afghan, Iraq, and Libya wars.}

^{The result of this media-led ignorance could result in yet more unnecessary deaths in a country that now has millions of refugees and over a 100,000 dead. Obama seems like he intends to exploit these peace talks with the intention of blaming the Syrian government for their failure. Having failed to defeat Assad on the battlefield in a proxy war, the Obama administration is trying to win the propaganda war. And once peace talks have failed, talk of war will resume, since “all other options have failed.”}

^{Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (www.workerscompass.org). He can be reached at shamuscooke@gmail.com}

^Notes

^{http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Syria/FinalCommuniqueActionGroupforSyria.pdf}

^{http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-syria-talks-20140123,0,992030.story}

^{http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2014/01/isis-raqq-ban-music-smoking-impose-veil.html}

^{http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/01/17/4620554/key-anti-assad-rebel-leader-acknowledges.html#.Uts02BAo7RY}

^{https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByBt2sGl4U4hU2lrZGFoeUtkV1k/edit}

^{http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/20/world/syria-torture-photos-amanpour/}

^{http://www.amazon.com/Fools-Crusade-Yugoslavia-Western-Delusions/dp/158367084X}

^{http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/05/06/do-we-really-need-an-international-criminal-court-2/}

^{http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n24/seymour-m-hersh/whose-sarin}

^{http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/12/syrian-opposition-doing-the-talking}

Edited January 25, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[John Dolva]

It appears today that the US continuing to ship weapons (guns, rocket launchers) to the terrosists trying to destroy Syria may end the current round of talks in Geneva.

[Steven Gaal]

It appears today that the US continuing to ship weapons (guns, rocket launchers) to the terrosists trying to destroy Syria may end the current round of talks in Geneva.

Imperial Conquest: America’s “Long War” against Humanity

http://www.globalresearch.ca/imperial-conquest-americas-long-war-against-humanity/5364215

and so it goes ...........

Slaughterhouse-Five

The story continually employs the refrain "So it goes" when death, dying, and mortality occur, as a narrative transition to another subject, as a memento mori, as comic relief, and to explain the unexplained. It appears 106 times.

Edited January 30, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[John Dolva]

AL MALKIYA, Syria-Iraq border, 18 August 2014 – Several thousand children are among an estimated 12,000 Iraqi refugees now sheltering at a camp in neighbouring Syria after crossing the remote border between the two countries.

UNICEF officials say that for the first time in nearly two weeks since Yazidi families started arriving at Nawrouz camp on the outskirts of Al Malikiya, the flow of desperate people coming across seems to be easing, with no new arrivals registered at the camp in the last two days.

Even so, aid agencies are bracing for more arrivals, expanding the camp facilities by building additional toilets and improving the water supply.

UNICEF officials say there has been a steady improvement in the conditions, since UN agencies joined forces with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), local charities, the local Kurdish Relief Committee and civil society began providing food, water, shelter, clothing and medicines. Even so, concerns remain.

"Things are better but there’s still a real risk that we will see an outbreak of waterborne diseases,” said Eltayeb Adam, who heads UNICEF’s office in the provincial capital, Qamishli. “Our biggest concerns are the poor sanitary conditions in the camp and the urgent need for clean water, especially in the current extreme heat.”

Over 3,000 water purification tablets are among the lifesaving supplies UNICEF teams have delivered to Nawrouz camp, along with high energy biscuits and clothes for children, medical soap, diarrhea and midwifery kits, sanitary napkins, and garbage collection bags. Additional emergency supplies are expected soon in nearby Qamishly.

Aid officials say the Yazidi refugees – and children in particular – arrived in Syria in a state of extreme exhaustion after walking long distances in the summer heat. Each has a story to tell of their horrific ordeal.

One mother, clutching a tiny baby, described how she had given birth while fleeing through the mountains.

“It was a difficult labour, lasting from 8 in the evening until 5 the next morning,” she told UNICEF. “I had to continue walking less than three days later.”

Another Yazidi refugee, a father of six children said: “We walked for days, without food or water. We want to leave this region and go somewhere where there is peace.

The arrival of the Yazidi refugees in Syria comes as the country continues to grapple with the huge humanitarian consequences of the country’s ongoing civil war which has affected an estimated 10.8 million people.

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About UNICEF

UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

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For more information:

Kumar Tiku, UNICEF Syria, ktiku@unicef.org +963 934 202 330
Simon Ingram, on mission to UNICEF Iraq, singram@unicef.org, +962 79 590 4740
Karim El-Korany, UNICEF Iraq, kelkorany@unicef.org, +964-780-925-8542