The oligarchs run the show.
Democracy is disappearing as ordinary people are being stripped of power....
Syria is all about uncertainty – of interpretation, of policy choices, of expectations, of outcomes.
Almost all persons and societies are made uneasy by uncertainty. We depend on fixed reference points to orient ourselves; we depend on fixed ideas on how the world works to interpret what’s happening and what it means; we need fixed expectations so as plan ahead; we need fixed standards to assay and to assess individuals, events and actions. Much of the time, we filter our perceptions of reality so as to avoid the challenge posed by the new, the different, the strange.
American’s tolerance for uncertainty is especially low. After all, we are cocksure we know what’s right and wrong, what is normal and abnormal, how things are supposed to operate, what is godly and what is ungodly. Moreover, we are programmed to try and set matters straight when they deviate from the right/normal. By nature, we’re a pro-active and can-do people. ‘Don’t just stand there, do something!” neatly sums up that attitude. Little if anything is seen as being beyond our reach or our capacity. The very notion that some things are irritates us. The emotions cut much deeper when we try to solve a problem but can’t manage to make the supposed solution work. Anger, frustration, scapegoating set in. Or, we engage in the avoidance behavior of denying the failure – Iraq and the legendary miracle working of David Petraeus. Now we are on the brink of failing again in Afghanistan and desperate for another mythmaker to come along whose magical alchemic powers can transform tragedy into triumph victory with one touch of his virtuosic finger on the PR button.
Yet the Zioconned American instinct to find the answer, to solve the puzzle, to resolve matters persists. In the case of the revolutions in the Middle East, we already have rewritten history to bring it into line with American mythology. Thus, we have convinced ourselves that we played the crucial role in toppling dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya - even when leading from behind or hedging our bets. We fulfilled our Providential destiny.
If the outcome is not a clear cut success for freedom, democracy and decency, then it’s “their” fault. Just as it’s the fault of the Iraqi rag heads and Afghan homicidal maniacs. Syria, in principle, should be susceptible to the same treatment. Identify the good guys, anathemize the bad guys, and then figure out how to turn the former into winners. The basic identifications, in truth, are not that difficult. Victims and victimizers are pretty clear. However, there are other players on the scene: the Muslim Brotherhood, various violence prone Sunni groups, fearful Christians, Alawite innocents, the Druze and other “bystanders.” Too, there are players in the neighborhood – some well intentioned (for the most part), some not at all well intentioned = as Patrick Lang enumerates.... These considerations make figuring out what to do damn hard. Then there is the uncomfortable reality that politically feasible means may not work while the methods that likely would topple Assad at least are not feasible. Then there are the time-frames: what happens the day after tomorrow? the following day?
All of this is uncertain. So press for humanitarian assistance, of course. So try to establish contact with the key opposition factions, yes to get a feel for who’s who and what’s what. So push for targeted sanctions – the easy thing. Put off what to do next when they predictably fail. Do a lot of wing flapping, cackling and scurrying around the barnyard to show everyone at home and abroad that America is still the indispensable power. Never ever admit that we may not have the answer, may just have to live with uncertainty. That violates the American creed.
So if anyone is really desperate for surety, immerse yourself in the Republican primary contest where only certainties are allowed to enter. One convenient certainty is that if anything unwelcome happens it’s all Satan’s fault – Satan who has been working overtime to sap the nation’s vital fluids and corrupt its soul....
Who are the Rebels in Syria?
Zioconned Americans love to personalize their wars. Hitler, Tojo, Ho Chi Minh, Saddam, Qathafi, Mubarak and now Bashar Assad; they were all the epitome of whatever we were fighting. We love to think in broad generalizations and in terms of slogans that belong on the backs of cereal boxes rather. than in policy debates.
We insist on believing that the peoples of the Middle East and Central Asia are "little brown brothers" who are innocently waiting for liberation from oppression, waiting for the day when they will be given the chance to recognize our benevolence, take our development money and emerge from the "shell" of their "primitive" ways into the sunlight of westernization and modernity.
Somehow this view of the world is not working well for us. Egypt is an emerging Islamist state in which power will be shared between the Islamists and the generals who take our money and then put democracy activists on trial. Iraq is a country in which we brokered the creation of a state run by former Shia Islamist activists and in which we were "shown the door." Afghanistan? The "little brown brothers" are enraged by our disrespect for their scriptures. It has been ten years and we do not know better than to do something like this? Perhaps we have not learned because we imagine that their beliefs will soon disappear as a product of "globalization?"
Now we have the phenomenon of the revolt in Syria. Who are the rebels? Every day we are fed numbers concerning casualties on the rebel side in Syria. Who vouches for these numbers? Does the USG vouch for these numbers? I think not, Syria has a long history in which the Alawi minority has ruled over the large Sunni majority. The cities that are in revolt are centers of Sunni Islamist agitation.
Saudi Arabia has a long standing project for the restoration of Sunni supremacy in Syria and Lebanon. They have worked steadily and patiently for this outcome for a long time. Their money has been useful. This revolt is a great opportunity. Who are the supporters of the rebels? Qatar is the only Wahhabi state outside Saudi Arabia. It is inevitably closely aligned with Saudi Arabia. ZIO-Jordan and Al-CIAda fights for the rebels.... Turkey is overwhelmingly Sunni. Hamas is a Sunni Palestinian religious group. They now back the Syrian rebels.
What sort of government will a Syrian rebel victory produce? Who are the rebels?
Libya was a different case. The country has a small population. It is overwhelmingly Sunni. Unlike Syria, Libya did not have well developed and capable armed forces. Contrary to popular belief Libya was never threatened by Sunni Islamist governmental takeover. It still is not. Libya was "low hanging fruit." Syria is not.
Who are the ZIO & Al-CIAda rebels, but a collection of MBs and Salafist-Takfiri KILLERS?
The Obscenity of Humanitarian Warfare
5 05 2012
“Humanitarian Bombs,” Anthony Freda Art
By: Peter Chamberlin
America and NATO have done a very bad thing, a perplexing thing–they have blurred the lines between war and peace, by turning “humanitarian intervention” into a tool of aggression. It is now logical to view all American humanitarian aid, in all of its forms, as the first stage of aggression, America’s foot in the door to meddle in the affairs of national government. On a sliding scale, with national subversion (under the cover of humanitarian intervention) on one end, and full-scale superpower “blitzkrieg” on the other, we can see the outlines of the modern distortion of humanitarian aid into a tool of war-making in a simple line, depicting levels of American military aggression.
All aspects of the graph are describing the same phenomenon, the process of hostile regime change, using the State Dept. and all the sub-organizations that it has spawned, as tools of subversion available to undermine those “rogue” governments who dare to oppose domination by the US military. NATO uses the chain of NGOs under its control, with those State-controlled private organizations (non-governmental organizations), to undermine governments slowly, though noisily, as we have witnessed in all of the “Arab Spring” revolutions. For those governments which represent tougher “nuts” to crack, like Pakistan and Iran, “limited warfare” is used, varying from low-level combat to intensive psychological operations. For even tougher regimes than this, such as Yemen, Syria, or Libya, proxy forces are used underneath a Western air shield, to wage full-scale war, under guidance from NATO tacticians.
Overseeing it all is the international intelligence-gathering web of drone and satellite surveillance which is operated by the CIA and NSA, with full assistance from every Western intelligence agency, primarily for tracking and killing the “enemies” of the United States, using and abusing its most infamous White House Murder INC, in the Levant, MENA and Worldwide...., with extra-judicial assassinations, starting with 9/11 and immediately followed by the cowardly assassination of Mr. Elie HOBEIKA in Beirut, January 24th 2002.... Most of those who have been designated as “enemies” or even “enemy non-combatants” have never taken-up arms against US or allied forces. Their only offense has been to oppose American interventionary forces, or to represent some threat to the mission, with the mission being that of establishing US military dominance.
To those in charge of these too big to imagine operations, what would it matter if a few Russians had to be taken out of the way, to preserve the integrity of the mission, especially if they presented a serious threat of exposure? The case can be made that the mysterious elimination of two prominent Russians have been steps in a covert intelligence war intended to unify the world behind the American war of aggression in the Middle East. The unresolved deaths of Alexander Pikayev (the Russian strategic weapons expert) and Gen. Yuri Ivanov (head of GRU Russian military intelligence of the Caucasus region and Central Asia) were, in fact, both murders, committed by Western intelligence agents. Other acts of violence may be written-off as Russian retaliation for the hits, or other counter-moves could have been intended to thwart US moves behind the scenes.
Something is very rotten in Malta, judging by the number of unsolved deaths on that island over the last couple of years, although no one seems to have noticed the smell. The reason that no one has seemed to notice is the far greater stench from two “humanitarian wars” (advertised as “wars of liberation”), that has been rising-up and blanketing the entire eastern Mediterranean with an acrid smoke that lingers in the nostrils. All of the conflicts that American forces have been engaged in have been advertised as wars of liberation from tyranny. Everyone knows that the philanthropic Americans are only trying their best to bring “democracy” to the world, despite all the proof that these wars have caused even greater misery and subservience to new and different forms of oppression.
I have made the case for these strong accusations based on informed conjecture, but more upon a Mediterranean timeline which has come together while researching this paper. The Google map which I have created and posted below pinpoints the many locations contained in the Mediterranean timeline.
View Larger Map
The international significance of the string of murders compiled here comes primarily from two of the Russians killed, one a strategic nuclear analyst on the island of Malta, Alexander Pikayev, and the other a fishy smelling drowning case off the coast of Syria, of Russian Gen. Yuri Ivanov (chief of military intelligence for Caucasus), who allegedly died while swimming with comrades. Reports that have come out on the investigation of Ivanov’s death are understandably limited by the Russian government, while similar reports on the Pikayev investigation have tended to blur with local reporting on a string of unsolved brutal murders that have been committed on Malta since Pikayev’s death, all of them near the site of his probable murder. Another element of suspicion that has arisen comes from another unexplained murder at about the same time, that of of British spy Garland Williams, who, like Alexander Pikayev, was found naked and dead, on Aug. 23, 2010, both were locked inside their apartments, but the British spy was found stuffed inside a tote bag.
It is normal spook policy to cover-up their hits with torrid sex innuendo in the Western media, thereby tainting any hard facts which might arise, despite their attempts to enforce press blackouts (SEE: MI6 dirty secrets.. why do sex games appear to feature in so many spy deaths?). A majority of the unsolved murders that I have cited in this article have had a repulsive sexual taint attached to them–many of the victims were found naked, some were found covered in multiple “love bites,” others with puncture wounds on every part of their body, others, like the MI6 spy were found in the midst of incriminating by bondage and gay evidence left at the murder scene. Often the press cites “experts” who have shown-up at the scene of the crime to add even juicier, nastier elements, such as the Malta case where the mother is the primary suspect, alleged to have had a sexual relationship with her daughter before smothering her.
All of the murders have received spotty reporting, as they have become even more obscured by the rising smoke from the horrible events around them, happening simultaneously in Syria and in Libya. The twin conflicts have also helped to flush awareness of other big events, such as multiple pipeline explosions all over the region, massive ammo dump explosions, even the first terrorist attempt to sink an oil supertanker in the Persian Gulf.
These are eventful times that we live in.
In my opinion, if the truth about these events ever comes out, we will learn that both Russians were murdered by the same people, very likely for very similar reasons. After Alexander Pikayev returned from Iran’s anti-nuclear summit in April, he represented a threat to the upcoming mission against Libya and Syria, perhaps not because of his Iran-friendly opposition to Imperial moves, but more likely simply because he lived on Malta, which was slated to serve in both pre-war and post-war operations. Malta was a primary trans-shipment point, because of the massive cargo facilities across the island at Freeport. Alexander lived in a location which might be considered as “ground zero” for these different phases of the wars on Libya and Syria. His apartment was within ten miles of the pre-war staging area at Valletta and the maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) Centre (which had ran point, along with Italy, for NATO’s confrontation with Libya over responsibility for refugees). Malta was such a vital link to the “humanitarian” support angle that Hillary Clinton even thanked the Prime Minister for the great supporting role that Malta had played as a primary shipping point and for serving on the front-line of the refugee problem.
“Malta’s unique geography, history and expertise will make it a valued partner in this work,” Clinton said.
The US and EU leaders would have considered having a staunch Russian anti-American writer and lecturer in place to report on the extensive mobilization efforts as an unacceptable risk, especially when so much effort was being expended to give the appearance of a “spontaneous revolution.” Alexander Pikayev would have been equated to an “enemy non-combatant,” subject to elimination under Obama’s new directives. I believe that Pikayev was eliminated by assassins working under either US or NATO directives.
Alexander Pikayev had also just finished attending the Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for No One conference in Tehran from April 17 to 19. Iran’s PressTV put videos of the conference round table discussion on YouTube, Pikayev’s excerpts are included below—
Three days later, on Apr 22, 2010, Carniegie Moscow Center for Non-proliferation Studies (CNS), (which he co-directed) released a statement condemning the behavior of the Tehran Times for:
During the build-up to war against Libya, a series of confrontations took place between the EU and Qaddafi, over refugee policy and security agreements, as a prelude to further binding economic agreements waiting to be signed with Qaddafi. Through these confrontations/tests, the stage was being set to make a case at the UN for “humanitarian intervention” in Libya. This gambit centered on the EU Frontex security agency and attempts to enforce previously signed treaties concerning the treatment of refugees and security arrangements for Europe’s southern border (SEE: Frontex and Other EU Agencies to Coordinate Maritime Surveillance ). If Muammar would just be a good boy for a little while and help to halt the flow of African refugees pouring out of Africa, heading for Europe, then European leaders were ready to normalize relations with the rogue African-Arab leader and to accept Libya into the community of nations.
On March 29, 2010, it was reported that Malta would no longer plug this Mediterranean hole in Europe’s southern flank (SEE: Malta Will Not Host Future Frontex Operations), because of the wording of the new charter, which was a binding agreeing that ships rescuing boat people must deliver them to that navy’s country of origin, instead of repatriating them.
On 29 APR 2010, Malta announced that it would not host the upcoming Operation Chronos exercises in the Med, as planned, offering a more acceptable rationale for their decision:
“that the decision not to host Frontex is not because of the new guidelines, but is due to Malta’s view that there is no longer a need for Operation Chronos because of the success of the Italy-Libya migration agreement…following the introduction of joint patrols by Libya and Italy last year, the number of illegal immigrants reaching Malta has dropped significantly. We feel that, as long as this operation remains in place, there is no real need for another anti-migration mission on behalf of the EU.”
May 12, 2010, an Airliner crashes while landing in Libya; 104 people feared dead. Did Libyan rebels or Western Special Forces units supporting them fire a hand-held SAM at the plane making a landing at the airport in Tripoli?
On June 6 and 7, European doubts about Qaddafi really came to a head, over the maritime surveillance/boat people issue, when a rubber dinghy showed-up inside Malta’s search-and-rescue zone, thereby testing the wills of both Italian and Maltese governments (as much as it did Qaddafi), over the fate of twenty African refugees, who were bouncing about on the high seas, for nearly two days, as Malta, Italy and Qaddafi squabbled over who would take responsibility and send a naval rescue vessel to Italy, in order to save the stranded Libyan boat people, in a manner which would allow Europe to “keep “the little buggers” out. It mattered not to any of the contesting governments that there were three women and one 8 year old boy on that raft all night, for two nights and a day; all that really mattered was the precedent which was being set over ultimate responsibility for the unwanted “useless eaters.”
Refugees were sent back to Libya by Italy after they were rescued at sea in Malta’s search-and-rescue waters in (June 6, 7, 2010). Here, the exhausted refugees wait to hear their fate, in Tripoli (photo, M Alwash/UNHCR)—
On 8 June 2010, UNHCR says ordered to close office in Libya.
Recriminations began to flow from all sides, all of them comparable to the following UN disclaimer, meant to cover the asses of the UN bureaucrats in the ensuing diplomatic melee.–
“(UNHCR) and other bodies received distress calls on Sunday evening and information was passed along to Maltese and Italian maritime authorities, and it is unclear which of the two European nations were responsible in launching rescue operations.After holdups on both Sunday and Monday, the vessel – whose passengers included 3 women and an 8-year-old child – was only rescued late yesterday by Libyan ships.“While the boat in distress was in or near Malta’s search-and-rescue area and around 40 nautical miles only from Italy, it took some 24 hours for the rescue to take place,” said UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming.. ..UNHCR is concerned about the access of Eritreans fleeing their country to international protection in Libya, which has no domestic asylum system and has not signed on to the 1951 Refugee Convention.”
On June 16, 2010, Alexander Pikayev (one of Russia’s foremost arms control experts) was found dead on the floor of the tenth level of his upscale apartment building on St. Paul’s Bay, on his 48th birthday (SEE: Top Russian Nuclear Weapons and Disarmament Expert Found Dead, Naked, Skull Crushed-In). At first glance, this case might seem self-explanatory, since the door was locked from the inside. But as the facts slowly rolled out, the strange aspects of the case soon became apparent– he was found lying in the floor naked, with a severe wound to his head, nothing was taken, even his computer was still there, opened to some technical pages. Conjecture floated the theory that the dent in his skull matched a visible dent in the door jamb, but that analysis was later rejected since the two dents didn’t actually match. How could it have been a homicide, when it was ten floors up and the door was bolted from the inside? Judging from the following photo which I believe to be his building that was shown on YouTube from the MaltaStar report on the investigation, it might not be as hard as it would seem.
On July 28, 2010, the Japanese supertanker M. Star reported that a large explosion had occurred on the huge ship, while transiting the Persian Gulf. One week later, on August 6, Major-General Yuri Yevgenyevich Ivanov disappeared at Latakia Governorate, Syria, which was approximately 40 north of Tartus.
Two days later, a body alleged to be that of the general turned-up on the beach of Çevlik, Turkey, in the border province of Hatay, some forty miles north. The general had last been seen visiting the building site for the new Russian military base in the Syrian coastal city Tartus. After his visit he supposedly left for a meeting with Syrian intelligence agents, but never showed-up. One or two reports alleged that he had drowned while drunk, frollicking in the warm Mediterranean waters with some military spy types. The fact that there are multiple versions of this event in both the Russian press and mainstream Western media is a clear sign that someone wishes to obscure the truth about the general’s death. Usually, a sign that someone in authority is “leaking” false reports, is the extremity of the claims that are being made, in this case, there were no sexual overtones in the meager reporting that was done and most of the apparent anomalies in the reports might not be as extreme as they might seem. A submerged man might drift 40 miles up the Mediterranean in just two days, and he might have been recovered still wearing the Russian cross necklace that he had on in the beginning. Russians are quite famous for their love of vodka.
“The mean circulation map constructed with the drifter data (Fig. 2) shows a swift coastal current all the way around the Levantine Sea (from the Nile River delta to Crete) with mean velocities reaching 40 cm/s.” ( Surface Circulation in the Northeastern Mediterranean (NEMED) Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale).
According to this conversion site, the value given converts to something less than one mile per hr. By these measurements it might be possible that a body could drift more than forty miles in forty-eight hours.
EPC 10 is sponsored by Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet, and is the first edition to take place in Malta.”
On 3 February, a “Day of Rage” was called for in Syria posted on social media sites Facebook and Twitter on February 4th or 5th.
Feb 15, 2011, the Libyan Working Group issued a Call for Libyan Revolution on YouTube.
I-Go Aid was set up in late February 2011 by the Libyan Working group, by a group of Libyan and Maltese nationals. It was officially registered in Malta in March by the Libyan Working Group (LWG), which is part of the Ederfan* group, Inc. Ederfan is a Ederfan is a pro Democracy, Human Rights not for profit organization and cultural advocacy group, based in the USA.
Feb 15/16, 2011 – A riot in Benghazi was triggered by the arrest of human rights activist Fethi Tarbel.
Feb. 17 – Activists designate an actual day of rage.
18 February, Active resistance to the government began in Benghazi after three days of protests turned violent. Security forces had killed fourteen protesters the previous day.
Feb. 24 – Anti-Libyan government militias, led by foreign Special Forces advisers took control of Misrata, after evicting forces loyal to Gaddafi.
Feb. 26 – The U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Gaddafi and his family,
Mar 17, 2011 Security Council Approves a ‘No-Fly Zone’ over Libya as a measure to protect civilians, who were allegedly being “massacred” by Qaddafi’s forces.
Mar 18, 2011 two Libyan air force jets landed in Malta and their pilots asked for political asylum.
10 April 2011, A 36-year-old man from Chad and resident of Marsa was found dead floating face down in St George’s Bay, St Julian’s, Malta.
April 29, 2011, another floating corpse was found in Bugibba—-”The corpse is probably that of an Englishman.”
May 25, 2011, a massive explosion at Abadan oil refinery in Iran during a visit by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
June 4, 2011, a decomposing corpse was found in Bugibba, belonging to a Bulgarian woman, Irena Bilyanova Abadzhieva. The body had 40 stab wounds, which “covered almost every inch of the body”—she worked at St. Julians near Valletta harbor. A Turkish national, is wanted for the fatal stabbing.
On July 7, a huge explosion takes place at an ammo dump explosion in Abadan, Turkmenistan.
Just four days later, on Jul 11, 2011, another massive explosion rips through another ammunition dump, this one is in Cyprus.
This stockpile of explosives and assorted weaponry detonated at Evangelos Florakis naval base, where it was being stored since it was seized from the Russian cargo ship Monchegorsk.
The blast killed 12 people, including the commander of the Greek Cypriot navy, along with the commander of the naval base. The head of the Army resigned in protest, after the disaster.
RAF Conducts Its Libyan Operations from Cyprus, Twenty Miles From Base Explosion
Oct. 5, 2011 Russia China veto UN res against Syria.
October 13, 2011, Libya and Nato sign air corridors agreement in Malta
Oct 18, 2011 –Clinton thanked Malta for serving as a key staging area for relief and evacuation efforts in Libya and has taken in numerous Libyan refugees
20/04/2012 Dr Margaret Mifsud, lawyer found dead——A Libyan man – Dr Margaret Mifsud’s partner – has been arrested—- Margaret Mifsud found dead at Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, a small Maltese village situated between the limits near St. Paul’s Bay.
On April 27, 2012, just south of Tripoli, the Lebanese Navy intercepted a ship carrying weapons from Libya To Syrian terrorists
What does it all mean? Think how much simpler it would have been to supply the Syrian rebel effort from Cyprus, instead of having to ship weapons all the way from Libya. I think that the logic in this statement can be applied to the entire story that I have just laid-out for you–It would have been much easier to supply the insurgencies in both Libya and Syria from existing stockpiles of the types of Soviet-era weaponry that all sides were accustomed to, perhaps one in Cyprus, or even from one faraway in Turkmenistan. It is possible that Gen. Ivanov was killed because he learned about the impending “humanitarian wars” about to be unleashed in the Mediterranean by first learning about weapons transfers being made. It is also possible that he discovered what was happening in the neighboring Middle Eastern region through evidence uncovered in his own district. What if he had discovered a booming trade in Turkmen weaponry on the black market, being conducted either by theft or the connivance of the Turkmen government? Blowing-up the weapons dump at Abadan may have been a move to cover someone’s tracks, or perhaps it was a GRU move to put an end to surreptitious weapons transfers to Libya or Syria. The same thing could be said for the cache of weapons sitting on Cyprus.
There is no real hard evidence that any of these crimes were committed, but they are all swimming in a sea of circumstantial evidence, hinting at multiple crimes perhaps committed by great powers and its most infamous White House Murder INC, in the Levant, MENA and Worldwide.....
http://therearenosunglasses.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/the-obscenity-of-humanitarian-warfare/
Uncertain Road to Damascus....and the Hundreds of Tribes with Flags in Store for MENA and way beyond....
By Michael Brenner
Professor of International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh