Assange: USA Planning to Oust Syrian President Since At Least 2006

ꕤ Article SOURCE http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151221/1032069516/assange-us-oust-assad.html Sputnik Politics 07:15 21.12.2015(updated 07:33 21.12.2015) WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange reiterated that the United States had been planning to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad since at least 2006. MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to Assange, WikiLeaks had published information alleging that the United States was planning to oust Assad since 2006. This strategy was implemented partially by provoking the Assad government, the whistleblower said in a documentary that was broadcast Sunday, on Rossiya 1 television channel. Assange stated that Washington was trying to make the Syrian government paranoid and get it to "overreact," as well as to create tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims. Assange stated that Washington was trying to make the Syrian government paranoid and get it to "overreact," as well as to create tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims. Assange claimed that members of the US, UK and French air forces met with representatives of Stratfor, a global intelligence company, prior to December 2011. The officials said that there had already been special agents acting in Syria, but they needed more public outrage and bloodshed for a significant pretext to attack the country’s air defense systems. Syria has been in a civil war since 2011, with the government fighting multiple opposition factions and militant groups. The West and several Middle Eastern countries do not consider Assad to be the legitimate authority of Syria. In 2011, Washington imposed sanctions against him in the hope that he would step down. However, in the 2014 Syrian presidential election Bashar Assad won a landslide victory, receiving 88.7 percent of the votes. http://sputniknews.com/politics/20151221/1032069516/assange-us-oust-assad.html ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT Is it still a 'civil war' if you have American, Western, Israeli and Gulf Arabs trying to bring down a democratically elected government, by arming and backing terrorists (many of whom are multi-national Islamists from elsewhere)? US has a record of bringing down democratically elected governments and installing US-friendly dictator puppets, to further the interests of American oligarchs. Covert USA regime change list below, and an idea of just how extensive the American aggression record is: USA REGIME CHANGES Syria 1949 Iran 1953 Guatemala 1954 Indonesia 1958 Cuba 1959 Iraq 1960–63 Democratic Republic of the Congo 1960–65 Dominican Republic 1961 South Vietnam 1963 Brazil 1964 Chile 1970–73 Afghanistan 1979–89 Turkey 1980 Poland 1980–89 Nicaragua 1981–90 Destabilisation through CIA assets Arming the Contras Iraq 1992–96 Venezuela 2002 [Afghanistan] [Iraq 2003] [ Libya 2011 ] [ Ukraine 2014 ] [Syria - *current & ongoing] Source | Link I've added Libya 2011 and Ukraine 2014 to the list above (although they're not listed at the source), as both were definitely US regime changes.  Not sure how 'covert' Libya may be.  I've also listed Afghanistan and Iraq.  But, again, I'm not sure they would qualify as 'covert'.  Or do they?  I've not really focused on what's what in that sense.   Was going to do proper reference list, but I got side-tracked and didn't finish that ambitious project. USA frames regime change in terms of 'human rights' interventions these days. The Voice of Detroit independent newspaper article (2014) - link here -  looks an interesting article about the more recent US driven regime change in:  Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and CIA involvement etc.   I'm about to check that out more closely. Might also see if I can find the Assange TV documentary appearance mentioned. [Oops ... Think I went to the wrong channel:  got soft porn & gaming.] ꕤ