Tag Archives: NATO

May 16 2013

Austria says UK push to arm Syrian rebels would violate international law & Putin warns against actions fueling crisis in Syria

Forceful Austrian position signals deep EU divisions on Syria ahead of this month’s embargo decision

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Fighters from Islamist Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Nusra take their positions on the front line during a clash with Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo. Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters/REUTERS

By Julian Borger, The Guardian

“Die Briten sind not amused,” is how Die Presse reported it today. “The Brits are not amused.” The Austrian foreign ministry circulated a discussion paper (known in Brussels jargon as a non-paper) among the EU member states yesterday forcefully rebutting British and French arguments for amending the European embargo on Syria to allow weapons shipments to the rebels.

Update: here is a link to an English version of the Austrian paper [click here]

The Austrian paper argues that lifting the embargo would “constitute a breach of international and EU law” and be contrary to the “principle of non-intervention and non-use of force” laid down in the UN Charter. If the weapons ended up in the hands of the al-Nusra Front, it would also violate UN Security Council resolutions on al-Qaida, given al-Nusra’s stated affiliation.

According to the Austrian press reports the UK asked the Austrians not to circulate the paper, but Vienna did it anyway – a sign of the declining clout of the UK in Brussels as the country sinks into an internecine quagmire on EU membership.

Austria has a particular reason for opposing the lifting of the arms embargo, as it has UN peacekeeping troops deployed in the line of fire on the Golan Heights, but sources in Brussels suggest the Austrians may also be expressing the views of a EU majority that has deep reservations over lifting the embargo, particularly at a time when there is at least the glimmer of diplomatic hope in the wake of the Kerry-Lavrov agreement to hold a new international conference on Syria.

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May 10 2013

US sinking down into Syria quicksand

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Israeli president Shimon Perez, US president Barack Obama, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu

PressTV

America sank down another foot this week into the Syrian quicksand. Israel is putting the next stage of the conflict’s tactics on display, not only to the world but to the Syrian military with its last two strikes.

As the rebel assault has ground to a halt, and the superior manpower of the Syrian army having shown it can conduct search and clear operations, the Free Syrian army is in a war of attrition it cannot win. It is much easier to recruit when you are winning and casualties not too bad than when the tide turns to stalemate and losing ground.

The al-Nusra Front has been bleeding fighters away from the FSA. They are paying better and the AN brigades now have access to weapons the FSA does not. The al-Nusras had strategically focused on key infrastructure acquisition including some of the oil revenue prizes. Win or lose, Assad or no Assad, or even with a negotiated settlement, they aren’t leaving.

The West has been birthing another training ground in Syria for seasoned extremist Jihadis who will soon be looking for the next fight when Syria calms down. And it is just a matter of time before someone begins slipping them more powerful weaponry. But who will they using it on, next month, a year, or two years from now?

I fear that the West may now feel that the FSA could collapse if a stalemate continues and leave the al-Nusras the primary opposition force controlled by whom? Sure, the Saudis and Qatar warlords are supplying the payrolls and the weapons now, but new suppliers could always emerge, like Assad’s stockpiles if there were a collapse.

Libyan weapons and fighters are already in Syria with more said to be on the way. Is the CIA helping them hoping to kill two birds with one stone with two groups they want to get rid of fighting each other? And if Assad did fall and the FSA and al-Nusras began a civil war right away with the horrible civilian casualties that would be expected, who would carry that historical blood on their hands?

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Apr 21 2013

DÉCONFITURE DE L’OPPOSITION SYRIENNE: KHATIB DÉMISSIONNE

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AFP, romandie.com

BEYROUTH – Le chef de l’opposition syrienne Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib a démissionné de la Coalition qui mène désormais des tractations pour nommer un remplaçant jusqu’à des élections prévues le 10 mai, ont affirmé des sources proches de la Coalition.

Je peux confirmer que la démission d’Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib est définitive, a indiqué Marwan Hajjo, membre de la Coalition, indiquant que M. Khatib a informé l’opposition de sa décision à Istanbul.

M. Khatib a de son côté écrit sur sa page Facebook: “Quand un oiseau est dans sa cage, il reste emprisonné et paralysé. Hier j’ai quitté la cage de la déception dans laquelle j’étais enfermé.”

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Mar 27 2013

Tunisian Terrorists Are Now Confirmed Members of Syrian Death Squads

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By Brandon Turbeville, ACTIVIST POST

In yet another blow to the fragile and the entirely fabricated narrative pushed by the United States, NATO, and the Anglo-American powers, a recent broadcast of a Tunisian television program features firsthand accounts demonstrating that the Syrian “rebels” are actually nothing more than religious fanatics, mercenaries, and foreign fighters.

As reported by Salma Bouzid of Tusnisia Live, the Tunisian television show, Attasiaa Massaa, recently featured a clip of a young Tunisian man named Abou Zayd Attounssi who claims that he recently returned to Tunisia after fighting for eight months alongside the inappropriately named “Syrian rebels.”

Further supporting the fundamentalist nature of the majority of the members of the NATO death squads (aka rebels) operating in Syria, Attounssi stated that his initial reason for traveling to Syria to engage in murder, plunder, and torture against innocent people was because “he felt his religion required him to engage in jihad against ‘the enemy.’”

Although it was apparently not the killing that turned Attounssi off from the death squad movement, he nevertheless became disillusioned with it because, “most of the fighters within the Free Syrian army are fighting for the spoils of war and the foreign aid they supposedly get.”

Also featured on the show was the father of Hamza Rjeb, another former death squad member who is now disabled. Rjeb’s father claimed that “the Tunisian government should take full responsibility for his son’s situation and for allowing groups in the country to ‘brainwash’ his son.”

In an interview with Tunisia Live, Ahmed Youssef, a journalist described by Bouzid as “pro-Assad,” stated, “For every Tunisian fighter brought to Syria, Qatar pays 3,000 dollars to the Syrian rebels.” He also claimed that, “most of the Tunisians come from disadvantaged regions in Tunisia with low unemployment,” and stated that the Tunisians fighting in Syria are “considered mercenaries.” Youssef estimated that the number of Tunisian fighters wreaking havoc in Syria is more than 3,500.

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Mar 19 2013

US’ New “Syrian PM” Yet Another Muslim Brotherhood Extremist

US resident Ghassan Hitto

March 19, 2013 (LD) – The Western media eagerly announced that long time US resident Ghassan Hitto was chosen as the new “interim prime minister” of NATO’s proxy forces fighting in Syria. While most headlines attempted to focus solely on Hitto’s long stay in the US and his role in a tech firm based in Texas, The Globe and Mail reported in their article, “Canadian loses bid to lead Syria’s rebels; Ottawa’s stance assailed,” that:

Ghassan Hitto, a Kurd with links to the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected in the early hours of Tuesday at a meeting of leading opposition figures of the Syrian National Coalition.

Some reports indicate that Hitto was in fact pushed forward specifically by the Muslim Brotherhood. The AFP reported in their article, “Ghassan Hitto voted premier of Syria’s rebel territory,” that:

Some Coalition members described Hitto as a consensus candidate pleasing both the opposition’s Islamist and liberal factions.

But some of the 70-odd Coalition members withdrew from the consultations before the vote could take place, accusing opposition heavyweight Muslim Brotherhood of imposing Hitto as a candidate.

The article would also say:

“We don’t want what happened in Egypt to happen in Syria. They hijacked the revolution,” Coalition member Kamal Labwani, who walked out of the vote, told AFP.

Associated Press would report in their article, “Syrian opposition elects Ghassan Hitto as interim PM,” that:

Mr Hitto, 50, who is believed to have Islamist leanings, received 35 of 49 votes in a meeting Continue reading →

Feb 15 2013

Hypocrisy: US Arms Al Qaeda in Syria, Mass-Slaughters Civilians in Afghanistan

February 13, 2013 (LD) – AFP has reported that a recent NATO airstrike in Afghanistan has killed over 10 civilians in an all-too-familiar headline glossed over by the Western media in an exercise of both depravity and hypocrisy. RT’s article, “NATO airstrike kills 10 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children - officials,” notes in particular that up to 11,864 civilians were killed in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2011, and that civilian deaths before 2007 were not even tracked by the UN.

By Tony Cartalucci, LAND DESTROYER

Such facts reveal alarming hypocrisy as the UN keeps almost daily, inflated tallies of civilian deaths elsewhere, in particular, in nations like Libya and Syria where Western interests have been heavily involved in regime change and in dire need of manipulating public perception worldwide. The United Nations had in fact pieced together a dubious report crafted from “witness accounts” compiled not in Syria, or even beyond its borders in a refugee camp, but instead, in Geneva by “witnesses” supplied by the so-called Syrian “opposition.”

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Image: Just some of the corporate members of the US-Qatar Business Council, whose president just so happens to sit on the same board of directors of the Middle East Policy Center as Karen AbuZayd, co-author of one of many conveniently timed UN Human Rights Council reports on Syria.

Worse yet, that UN report was co-authored by Karen Koning AbuZayd, a director of the US Washington-based corporate think-tank, Middle East Policy Council. Its board of directors includes Exxon men, CIA agents, representatives of the Saudi Binladin Group (Osama Bin Laden’s family business), former ambassadors to Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar, US military and government representatives, and even the president of the US-Qatar Business Council, which includes amongst its membership, Al Jazeera, Chevron, Exxon, munitions manufacturer Raytheon (who supplied the opening salvos during NATO’s operations against Libya), and Boeing.

In other words, the very underwriters of the armed militancy that is consuming Syria are sitting along side the head of the UN commission producing reports portraying the Syrian government as guilty of “war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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Feb 12 2013

La crise économique désunit l’Alliance atlantique

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Le vice-président américain Joe Biden a publiquement accusé les pays de l’Union européenne de réduire les dépenses militaires de manière inacceptable, y compris celles du maintien de l’OTAN. Les dirigeants de pays européens expliquent qu’ils mènent leur propre cours politique en matière de défense.

Par Voix de La Russie via E&R

Le rapport politique de l’ONU pour l’année 2012, publié il y a une semaine, précise que les États-Unis participent au financement du bloc atlantique à 72 %. Le document explique que le Royaume-Uni, l’Allemagne, l’Italie et la France, l’épine dorsale européenne de l’OTAN, seraient en train de réduire méthodiquement leurs dépenses militaires, ce qui a une influence négative sur son potentiel. Cela porte atteinte à la solidarité au sein de l’Alliance et « remet en question la capacité des alliés européens d’agir sans les États-Unis ».

Le secrétaire général de l’OTAN Anders Fogh Rasmussen a déjà exprimé sa préoccupation par rapport à cette question. Lors de la conférence annuelle sur la sécurité, organisée à Munich, il a cité un exemple récent des effets dévastateurs de la cupidité européenne – la préparation et la phase initiale de l’opération française au Mali. Rasmussen a laissé entendre que les avions pour le transport des troupes françaises étaient recherchés un à un dans toute l’Europe. La France n’a pas pu se passer des avions de transport américains, ainsi que les avions de ravitaillement et de reconnaissance. Selon certains médias, les forces françaises auraient même signé un contrat avec une compagnie aérienne privée russe pour transporter les troupes au Mali. Le vice-président des États-Unis Joe Biden a indiqué qu’il comprend que sur le fond de la récession économique, il est difficile pour les Européens de résister à la « tentation de réduire les dépenses de défense ». Mais cela n’enlève rien à la nécessité historique de « promouvoir un programme mondial commun “.

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