The Ukraine ploy, Syria pivot

 

by Will Hart

While the mainstream media has been busy keeping American's focused on the "mysterious missing jet", showing images of the empty Pacific Ocean, the world may be careening toward WWIII.

Business as usual for the U.S. propaganda machinery -- who after all have the job of keeping the public distracted -- meanwhile the warmongers who run the military-industrial complex make their next moves. The Ukraine is not the real deal, in fact, it looks more like a ploy to recycle the "Cold War" and then get back to the Middle East.

Another in a long string of misdirection plays, to get the public in a pseudo-Evil Empire mood, so that they could pivot back to Syria with bad intentions this time. With just a wave of their familiar black, magic-wand US policymakers painted President Putin into a corner. 

By now all but the completely brain-dead know that the U.S./Euro-fascists ponied up billions to fund the well-timed coup in Kiev. It was by no means a spontaneous eruption of native, democratic aspirations. Of course US policy wonks clearly knew how Putin would respond.

He had no choice, in reality, as the Crimea sits right on Russia's doorstep and millions of Russians voted to be reinstated into their native homeland. It was a bold and perfectly executed chess move, one that shoved the Russian president into check with a single, bold, deceptive stroke.

He could not be seen, by the largely Russian population in the eastern Ukraine (Crimea), as leaving them to fend for themselves. But moving out of check, and avoiding checkmate, the Russian president surely knew that the western press corps would be able to label him as the aggressor instead of the reactor

Now for the next moves on the board.

This past week delivered a speech at a rapid-fire, 90-minute summit in Brussels where he said that Russia stood "alone" on the Ukraine crisis and that " the world is safer and more just when Europe and America stand as one."

The president's message was clear, American and German (NATO) policymakers intend to isolate Russia and steer the world toward a new Cold War era. It was not by accident that the German press, this past week, ratcheted up its anti-Russian rhetoric timed to coincide with Obama's arrival and speech.

In Spiegel On-line David Bocking wrote, "The government should impose tough sanctions against Russia-even if it harms the domestic economy." In the final analysis, he argued, "you don't get freedom for nothing."

The New World Order effectively, has made Russia the demon once again and for a very good reason. Now the pinball is ready to bounce back off the Syrian bumper. With the western public mesmerized by a plane crash and confused by the speed with which events seemingly transformed the Ukraine -- into the new battlefield overnight -- the next shoe is ready to drop.

With all eyes trained on the empty expanses of the Pacific Ocean and the events along the Black Sea, a distracting side-bar, the warmongers bought time to redraw  and reset the stage and strategy in Syria. At a summit held in Kuwait on Wednesday, Syria's opposition called for "sophisticated" arms while Saudi Arabia said the military balance needed to change to "end the impasse" in Syria's civil war.

Now, US hawks have Putin in their cross-hairs and they can further portray the "Evil Emperor" as standing alone once again, on the world stage, regarding his support for Assad. That failed the last time around because the chemical weapons ploy backfired- when it was learned that the "rebels" were the perpetrators and not the Assad regime.

This time, with the props changed, the US will argue, along with the Saudis, that the civil war impasse has to end but with a twist; primarily to bring a halt to the growing humanitarian crisis. That gambit will put Putin in a bad light again, while vaulting the American hawks up on their 'white horse' riding in to execute their usual 'selfless' rescue mission.

It is an amazingly cynical strategy but also an equally shrewd one to be sure. Right now there is really no way for Putin to win -the international public relations game, and no way the American/ Euro-hawks can lose. Or so it would seem. The world is poised at the  edge of the abyss and events are going to unfold with blinding, mind-wrenching rapidity in the coming months.

 A March 14 letter from US senators asked the White House to "reexamine" American policy in Syria. Nine members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, including Democratic chairman Robert Menendez and Republican ranking member Bob Corker, wrote:

"The situation and our options may have grown more complicated, but we believe there is still strong, bipartisan support... [for a strategy] that will break the stalemate on the ground. We must be prepared with options to increase pressure when Assad fails to meet his commitments... The moderate opposition forces are currently the only entity actively fighting extremist groups pouring into Syria. Enhanced support to those forces engaged in the fight is needed to sustain their momentum and prevent the establishment of terrorist safe havens throughout north Syria..."

This sends a clear signal to the rebels, who have been losing ground against government forces, that the US policy is about to shift in their favor. In the coming month we will likely see the US taking a more overt, active role in Syria (along with NATO) in what could become a repeat of Libya, Arab Spring, etc.  

But what will President Putin, the leaders of China and Iran do in the event that the situation drifts in that direction? Perhaps, it really may be time for an American wake-up call.

Clearly, Russia and China can deliver economic sanctions that could damage the US  financially and economically. US policymakers seem to be convinced that America is untouchable and stands alone as the world's sole Superpower, the only nation that can deliver economic and military threats. They seem to forget that these "weak" countries have been financing the massive US national debt for a decade now...

As a US citizen, I wonder, just how would these "hawks" finance a war with Russia and/or China

Assad is there to stay

By Nicola Nasser* 

Long gone the days when the U.S.-led so-called "Friends of Syria" could plausibly claim that two thirds of Syria was controlled by rebel forces, that Syrian capital Damascus was under siege and its fall was just a matter of time and that the days of President Bashar al-Assad were numbered and accordingly he "should step down."

The war on Syria has taken a U-turn during the past year. Assad now firmly holds the military initiative. The long awaited foreign military intervention could not take off; it was prevented by the emerging multi-polar world order. Syrian and non-Syrian insurgents are now on the run. Assad stands there to stay.

The thinly veiled UN legitimacy, which was used to justify the invasions of Iraq and Libya under the pretexts of the responsibility to protect on humanitarian grounds, failed to impose no-fly zones, humanitarian corridors and other instruments of foreign intervention; they foundered on the borders of Syrian national sovereignty.

The official Syrian Arab Army (SAA), which was strategically organized and stationed to fight a regular war in defence against the Israeli occupying power in the western south of the country, was taken by surprise by an internationally and regionally coordinated unconventional attack on its soft civilian backyard where it had zero presence

Within a relatively short period of time the SAA succeeded in containing the initial attack, in adapting trained units to unconventional guerrilla war in cities and in winning over the support of the civilian population, without acceding any ground of its defence vis-à-vis Israel.

Ever since, the SAA was gaining more ground, liberating more civilian centers from insurgent terrorists, closing more border crossing points used for infiltration of foreign fighters into the country, cutting of their supply lines and besieging pockets of their presence in inner old cities and in their isolated concentrations in the countryside. The capital Damascus, more than 95% of the common borders with Lebanon and the central heart of Syria around Homs are now secured. Except the northern city of Raqqa, no where in Syria the insurgents can claim exclusive control. The SAA is winning all its battles.

 

The declared goal now of the U.S., Saudi, Qatari and Turkish financial, military and logistical support for the insurgents is no more the "regime change," but creating a balance of power aimed at improving their standing in future negotiations with the regime. To do so, they claim they are extending their support to what they describe as the "moderate" insurgents.

However, "moderate" rebels are a rare species in Syrian insurgency. Entering its fourth year now, the war on Syria has created a highly polarized war zone that has left no room for any moderates. Combatants are fighting now to death in a battle of life or death.

The fighting lines are strictly drawn between homeland defence and foreign intervention, between national forces and international terrorists and between an existing secular and civil state and a future state perceived to be governed by an extremist or, at the best, a moderate version of Islamist ideology supported by the most backward, tribal and undemocratic regional states with similar sectarian ideologies.

During his testimony at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on last September 3, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry denied that the "moderate" Syrian rebels are infiltrated by the al-Qaeda terrorists as "basically not true."

The Syrian "opposition has increasingly become more defined by its moderation, more defined by the breadth of its membership, and more defined by its adherence to some, you know, democratic process and to an all-inclusive, minority protecting constitution, which will be broad-based and secular with respect to the future of Syria," Kerry testified.
 However, hard facts on the ground in Syria as well as statements by other U.S. high ranking officials challenge Kerry's testimony as a politically motivated, far from truth and misleading statement.

Last March, General David Rodriguez, head of the U.S. Africa Command, testified before the House Armed Services Committee that "Syria has become a significant location for al-Qaeda-aligned groups to recruit, train, and equip extremists."

The previous month, James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, called Syria a "huge magnet" for Islamic extremists in testimony prepared for the Senate intelligence committee.

Last January, Clapper also told a Senate intelligence hearing that "training complexes" for foreign fighters were spotted in Syria and chair of the Senate intelligence committee Dianne Feinstein described Syria as "the most notable new security threat in the year" since the committee's last meeting.

Matthew Olsen, director of the U.S. government's National Counterterrorism Center, was on record to say that "Syria has become really the predominant jihadist battlefield in the world."

Also on record was Jeh C. Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security, who stated that the Syria war "has become a matter of homeland security," former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell who identified Syria as "the greatest threat to U.S. national security," FBI Director until last September Robert Mueller who "warned that an increasing flow of U.S. citizens heading to Syria and elsewhere to wage jihad against regional powers could end up in a new generation of home-grown terrorists."

All these and other high level U.S. conclusions do not testify to the existence of "moderate" insurgents in Syria and vindicate the official Syrian narration as much as they refute Kerry's statement about the "democratic," "secular" and "moderate" Syrian "opposition."

"Moderate" rebels are either marginal or a rare species in Syrian insurgency and if they do exist they are already increasingly concluding "reconciliation" agreements with the Syrian government, according to which they disarm, join the government anti terror and anti "strangers" military and security campaign or simply recurring to attending to their personal lives.

The Americans and their Saudi and Turkish bullies are left with the only option of artificially creating artificial "moderates," whom they unrealistically and wishfully dream of turning into a credible leading force on the ground.

As part of his efforts to mend fences with Saudi Arabia, a persistent advocate of war and militarization in Syria, U.S. President Barak Obama seems to have pursued recently a two-pronged diplomatic and military policy.

Diplomatically, he closed the Syrian embassy and consulates in the United States and restricted the movement of the Syrian envoy to the United Nations as a "down payment" ahead of his visit to the kingdom on last March 28.

Militarily, he promised more arms to Syrian "moderate" rebels during his visit. After the visit he was reportedly considering arming those "moderate" rebels with more advanced weaponry, including anti-aircraft missiles or MANPADs.

While providing those "moderates" with MANPADs is yet to be confirmed, Israel's Debkafile website on this April 7 reported that two moderate Syrian rebel militias - the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian Revolutionary Front - have been supplied with advanced US weapons, including armour-piercing, optically-guided BGM-71 TOW missiles, which enter the Middle East for the first time. Images of rebels equipped with these arms have begun to circulate in recent days. Both militias are coordinating and cooperating with the al-Qaeda offshoot the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, both listed as terrorist groups by the U.S., Saudi Arabia Syria and Iraq.  

 About Time for U.S. to Reconsider

Within this context, the existing CIA-led program in Jordan for training pre-approved "moderates" will reportedly be expanded to raise the number of trainees from one hundred to six hundred a month.

At this rate, according to Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Center in Qatar, writing on this April 3, "it would take close to two years to produce a force" that could numerically rival the extremist "Ahrar al-Sham" group and "it would take seven years" to create a force that could rival the extremist "Islamic Front," let alone the mainstream groups of terrorist insurgents like the ISIS and the al-Nusra.

Going ahead with such a U.S.-Saudi training program in Jordan is tantamount to planning an extended war on Syria until such time that the regime changes or the country becomes a failed state, as the planners wishfully hope.

Moderate Syrian rebels are a U.S. mirage. With logistical vital help from Turkey, the Saudi and Qatari U.S. allies were determined to successfully militarize and hijack legitimate popular protests for change lest they sweep along their own people and spill over into their own territories.

It's about time that the U.S. policy makers reconsider, deal with the facts on the ground in Syria and stop yielding to the bullying of their regional allies who continue to beat the drums of war only to survive the regional tidal wave of change.

To contain this tidal wave of change, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have sponsored an Islamist alternative as a counterrevolution. The Muslim Brotherhood International (MBI) was a version of this alternative. Unfortunately the U.S. got along with it. The MBI plan in Egypt has proved counterproductive. Its failure in Egypt pre-empted for good any hope for its success in Syria. The ensuing rift among the anti-Syria allies doomed the plan regionally.

 President Assad's statement on this April 7 that the "project of political Islam" has failed was not overoptimistic or premature. Neither was the statement of his ally, the leader of Lebanon's Hezbullah, Hassan Nasrallah, on the same day that "the phase of bringing down the regime or bringing down the (Syrian) state is over... They cannot overthrow the regime, but they can wage a war of attrition."         

 The U.S. campaign for more than three years now for a "regime change" in Syria has created only a "huge magnet" for international terrorism, thanks to Saudi, Qatari and Turkish military, financial and logistical support.

Peaceful protesters were sidelined to oblivion. More than three years of bloodshed left no room for moderates. "Regime change" by force from outside the country, along the Iraqi and Libyan lines, has proved a failure. U.S. and western calls for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down is now a faint cry that can hardly be heard.

All world and regional indications as well as military developments on the ground refer to one fact: Assad is there to stay. Change will come only under his leadership or his guidance. Understanding with him is the only way to internal and regional stability. More or less he has succeeded in turning the "huge magnet" for international terrorists into their killing field. His final victory is only a matter of time. Arming rebels, "moderates" or terrorists regardless, will only perpetuate the Syrian people's plight and fuel regional anti-Americanism.

 The sooner the United States act on this fact is the better for all involved parties.

 * Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Bir Zeit, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. nassernicola@ymail.com

Ukrainian special unit refuses to storm captured buildings

The ultimatum of the head of Ukraine's Interior Ministry to pro-Russian protesters in eastern Ukraine expired at noon, Moscow time. On Wednesday, Minister Avakov promised to resolve the situation in Luhansk, Kharkiv and Donetsk regions within 48 hours: either through negotiations or by force.

Army troops and military equipment have been sent to the region. The protesters do not refuse from their demands, though. Like before, they want to hold a referendum on federalization. In Luhansk, the number of defenders of the previously captured regional security service has increased. There are about 1,500 people in front of the building. The protesters also blocked the base of Interior Ministry troops, Russia 24 TV channel reports.

In Donetsk, the protesters are expecting a possible storm as well. The pro-Russian activists control the regional administration. There are barricades around the building; the surrounding streets have been blocked with barbed wire. The Donetsk protesters announced the creation of their own army. Several groups of miners from different parts of the region - about 200 people - came to support the protesters. According to protesters, soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine and Right Sector radicals have been staying in Donetsk for several days.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk is expected to arrive in Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk. He will hold meetings to discuss the situation in the region, the decentralization of power and the new Constitution of Ukraine, the website of the Ukrainian government says.

It is quite possible that pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine can be ousted from the buildings they captured by force. The ultimatum has already expired, but no force has been used yet.

Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, who arrived in Donetsk, currently holds a meeting with representatives of the eastern regions of Ukraine. Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Arsen Avakov, Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Yarema, other members of the government are joining him for the talks.

Yatsenyuk stressed out once again that the government of the country and central authorities were willing to listen to the opinions of both the regions and every citizen of the country. According to him, one should amend the Constitution of the country to eliminate regional state administrations as a rudiment and hand over the powers to govern territories at the local level. The prime minister said that Ukraine was facing serious challenges, and one could handle them only if all were united.

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused the Ukrainian authorities of repression.

"Parliamentarians have not invented anything else but to launch the deterrent mechanism for the population - the threat of repression against all those who disagree with the current usurpers of power in Kiev," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

On April 8, the Rada toughened penalties for infringement of the territorial integrity and treason. Attempts to violate the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine entail a prison sentence of three to ten years.

The leaders of Ukrainian special unit "Alpha" have refused to obey orders to storm metropolitan government office buildings in Donetsk and Luhansk, local media report.

"We will work exclusively within the law. Our units have been created to release hostages and fight against terrorism," one of the leaders of the unit said.

According to media reports, officers announced their decision not to storm the buildings in Donetsk and Luhansk at a meeting of law-enforcement officials. The decision thus comes contrary to requirements from First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Yarema and Acting Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Andrei Parubiya.

white house decides to finally admit that CIA director visited Ukraine over weekend when will they finally admit that they instigated the crisis in ukraine

CIA Director John Brennan (Reuters / Gary Cameron)

On Monday afternoon White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed that CIA Director John Brennan visited Ukrainian capital Kiev over the weekend and met with high-ranked Ukrainian officials.
Previously, deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich accused Brennan of ordering a crackdown on pro-Russian activists in the east of the country.
The CIA had already dismissed these accusations as "completely false", but did not disclose whether its chief had actually been to Kiev - until now.
"We don't normally comment on the CIA director's travel but given the extraordinary circumstances in this case and the false claims being leveled by the Russians at the CIA we can confirm that the director was in Kiev as part of a trip to Europe," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had also demanded an explanation about the nature of the visit.
"Senior level visits of intelligence officials are a standard means of fostering mutually beneficial security cooperation including U.S.-Russian intelligence collaboration going back to the beginnings of the post-Cold War era," Carney explained.
"U.S. and Russian intelligence officials have met over the years. To imply that U.S. officials meeting with their counterparts is anything other than in the same spirit is absurd."
In an interview aired on Russian state television on Sunday, Yanukovich, who has been in southern Russia since fleeing Ukraine in February, said that Brennan had “sanctioned the use of weapons and provoked bloodshed."
“The US bears its share of responsibility for starting a civil war in Ukraine, not only through diplomatic influence, but its security forces, which do not only meddle, but issue orders,” said the Ukrainian politician.
On Monday, Aleksandr Yakimenko, the head of Ukraine's security service, the SBU, during Yanukovich's term went one step further, and said that his successor, Valentin Nalivaychenko, is a double agent working for the CIA.
"Nalivaychenko was recruited by the US when he was Ukraine's Consul General in Washington [2001-2003]," said Yakimenko, for whom an arrest warrant has been issued in Kiev since he left the country last month, while speaking to Russia's Channel One.
"The US is currently creating a sort of controlled chaos that is helping to blow up the bridges between Russia and Ukraine."
Acting President Aleksandr Turchinov has announced that “an anti-terrorist operation” will be carried out against armed protesters, who have occupied government buildings in the Russian-speaking east of the country.
Gunfire has already been exchanged in the provincial city of Slavyansk, resulting in the death of at least one Ukrainian soldier.
Turchinov insists that the protesters are led and funded by Russian security services, and says that Moscow is executing "the Crimean scenario" that will lead to the secession of eastern territories from Ukraine. He has requested a UN intervention in the region

According to the Pentagon: A Russian fighter jet repeatedly flew over US destroyer in Black Sea

A view of the destroyer USS Donald Cook is seen after it arrived at the Black Sea port of Constanta April 14, 2014. (Reuters / Bogdan Cristel)

The Pentagon said a Russian fighter jet made multiple close-range passes near an American navy destroyer. The warship was deployed in the Black Sea as Russian military monitored NATO’s systematic build-up of naval forces in the region.
The fighter appeared to be unarmed, US military said, calling the move “provocative and unprofessional”.
"This provocative and unprofessional Russian action is inconsistent with their national protocols and previous agreements on the professional interaction between our militaries," said Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.
Pentagon defined the jet as a Russian Su-24 aircraft, or Fencer, which made 12 passes at low altitude near the USS Donald Cook that, at the time, was conducting a patrol in international waters in the western Black Sea, Reuters reported.
Earlier, military officials told AP that on April, 12, a Russian aircraft flew repeatedly within 1,000 yards of the USS Donald Cook at about 500 feet above sea level for over 90 minutes.
According to officials, the destroyer’s crew made several attempts to radio the Russian warplane requesting the reason for the manoeuvre. They then reportedly issued warnings to remain at a safe distance, however, there was no response from the Russian pilot.
Pentagon confirmed the fighter jet was not armed with any aerial bombs.
USS Donald Cook, a destroyer equipped with the powerful Aegis missile defense system, entered Black Sea on April, 10.
The US Defense Department claimed the ship’s mission was “to reassure NATO allies and Black Sea partners” following the events in Ukraine.
On Monday, the USS Donald Cook entered waters of Romania.