Syria - Russian and Iranian Troops - Jablah, Ghorin, Latakia

SOURCE http://www.debka.com/article/24883/First-Iranian-marines-land-in-Syria-link-up-with-newly-arrived-Russian-troops First Iranian marines land in Syria, link up with newly-arrived Russian troops DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 11, 2015, 8:45 AM (IDT) Iran this week sent its first ground troops to Syria, around 1,000 marines and elite troops of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). They moved straight into Ghorin, a small military air facility just south of the port town of Latakia, and hooked up with the just-landed Russian marines at Jablah. Three weeks ago, DEBKA file began reporting on Russian-Iranian military intervention afoot for saving the Syrian ruler Bashar Assad, followed on September 1 by the first disclosure of the Russian buildup in Syria. Our military sources report now that Moscow is about to send a shipment of advanced S-300 air defense missile systems for deployment at Jablah, the base the Russians have built outside Latakia for the intake of the Russian troops. The S-300 systems will also shield the Iranian facility at Ghorin. Jablah has been converted into a busy depot for the Russian troops still arriving in Syria, combatants from units of Marine Brigades 810 and 336. Russian MiG-31 interceptor craft standing by at the Mezza airbase at Damascus airport offer the combined Russian-Iranian force air cover. To the west, the giant Dmitri Donskoy TK-20 nuclear submarine is on its way to Syrian waters. Latakia is therefore fast growing into a powerful Russian-Iranian military enclave, able to accommodate Assad and top regime officials if they are forced to leave Damascus. According to our military sources, it is too soon to determine the exact function of this enclave, whether defensive or, after settling in, the Russian and/or the Iranian forces are planning to go after Syrian rebel and Islamic State forces making gains in northern Syria. There is no evidence to bear out the curious briefing high-ranking defense sources gave Israeli military correspondents Thursday that the incoming Iranian troops have come to beef up the large-scale Syrian army-Hizballah units, who have been unsuccessfully battering away at the rebel fighters holding the key town of Zabadani for nearly two months. Our sources find the Iranian and Russian units fully occupied for now in expanding and outfitting their new quarters at Ghorin and Jablah. SOURCE http://www.debka.com/article/24883/First-Iranian-marines-land-in-Syria-link-up-with-newly-arrived-Russian-troops ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Jablah, Syria Russian built Russian military base combatants from units of Marine Brigades 810 and 336 Ghorin, Syria * near port town:  Latakia Iranian military facility 1,000 marines and elite troops /  Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Mezza airbase at Damascus airport Russian MiG-31 interceptor = combined Russian-Iranian force air cover Dmitri Donskoy TK-20 nuclear submarine heading to Syrian waters Latakia powerful Russian-Iranian military enclave = may accommodate Assad & officials if forced to leave Damascus Russian and/or the Iranian forces =  to target Syrian rebel & ISIS making gains in northern Syria Israeli reports that Russia & Iran troops are to beef up large-scale Syrian army-Hizballah are false   --  Hezbollah Lebanon-based leader:  Hassan Nasrallah since 1992 purportedly Iran's non-state proxy paramilitary wing of Lebanon political party:  Party of Allah (ie 'Hezbollah') formed following Israeli invasion of Lebanon 1982 formed by clerics, said to be funded by Iran *as a resistance to Israeli occupation *strong support among Lebanon Shia population a large number of alleged attacks attributed to Hezbollah / but these could be false flag more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT This is sooooooo exciting.   It's kind of like being a stay at home armchair general appraising the gathering of the troops on ancient battlegrounds. It looks like Assad isn't going down without an almighty fight. Israelis are typically doing a Hezbollah scare ... probably to justify bombing somewhere, to make sure that Golan Heights energy deal goes ahead.  In this battle, I'm backing Russia, Syria, Iran ... and, I guess, Hezbollah.  Stay tuned. I should probably add here, that my armchair 'support' in terms of the Middle East is somewhat confused and unreliable ... I swing from thinking I support this side or that, to supporting the Israelis ... who have a certain sort of charm that's hard to resist ... lol UPDATE Expect the above article is pro-US-agenda propaganda, to give the impression of an 'aggressive' Russia and Iran.   Explains what is really going on ... Assange Transnational Security Elite, Carving Up the World Using Your Tax Money London  OCT8 Antiwar Mass Assembly (2011) Link  |  here ꕤ

WikiLeaks: Information Suppression, Compliant Corporate Media - Evidence - Afghanistan

ꕤ Media Bullsh*t Corporate-Serving Corporate Media In Service of Aggressive Neoliberal Foreign Policy |  Manufacturing Consent Bias.  Censorship.  Disinformation.  Compliance. censorship & disinformation is denial of informed consent COMPLIANT CORPORATE & 'ALTERNATE' CORPORATE MEDIA Why We Need WikiLeaks EVIDENCE USA's spy agency, NSA, conducted mass surveillance on entire country (actually, more than one country ... but let's focus on Afghanistan) James Clapper says: 'untold damage'  Well, he would say that to justify US mass surveillance of entire countries in the free world & mass surveillance of free Americans.  Duh! Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper: #Snowden killed ‘important’ program in #Afghanistan / unnamed 'Intercept' country = Afghanistan http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=272816 UPDATE It was the WikiLeaks follow-up identification of Afghanistan as country being surveilled that led to surveillance program closure/rejection by Afghanistan: In March 2014, The Washington Post, citing documents provided by Snowden, reported on a program called MYSTIC, under which the NSA was collecting “every single” phone conversation in a foreign country. The Post, following requests by U.S. officials, withheld the country’s name. Two months later, the Intercept news site published a similar story about the NSA’s “secretly intercepting, recording, and archiving the audio of virtually every cell phone conversation” in two nations. The site named the Bahamas as one country. It refrained from naming the other, citing concerns that doing so “could lead to increased violence.” Several days later, the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks reported that the country was Afghanistan. Soon after, “the program was shut down by the government of Afghanistan,” said Clapper, speaking at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington. SOURCE https://archive.is/94N16 ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- NO words for the suppression of truth by the corporate and 'alternate' corporate press: Washington Post The Intercept  It's anger provoking to see information denial and abuse of state power, in black and white. WikiLeaks was the only publisher that gave the world:  the truth. PS It's just occurred to me that the US spies on Japanese leaders, and European politicians and corporations, as well as entire countries. So if the public is told that a surveillance program has been rejected by a vanquished state, does anyone really believe there's genuinely been follow-through from the US-appointed Afghan government or from USA? On consideration, I really don't buy that they're done spying on Afghanistan. ꕤ

Video - Seven Nation Army

'Seven Nation Army' THE WHITE STRIPES ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Like this a lot.  Think it's the bass & drums I like. ꕤ

Craig Murray: The Guardian - Disgraceful Neocon Rag

Operation Flavius and the Killer Cameron Exactly twenty years ago the European Court of Human Rights found that the British Government had acted illegally in shooting dead three IRA members in Gibraltar, even though the court accepted that the government had a genuine belief that they were planning a bombing attack. Indeed the court accepted the victims were terrorists, and refused compensation to their families on those grounds. But the court refused to accept there was no possibility of foiling the plot through methods other than summary execution. In the light of the decision that Operation Flavius contravened Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, it is difficult to understand how the government can claim its killing of British men in Syria, with no trial, is anything other than murder. I personally find it difficult to imagine technically how men journeying in a car in Syria were imminently able to instantly wreak havoc in the UK so that it was impossible to prevent by any method other than their execution without trial. The level of certainty required for that decision would involve sufficient knowledge of what was to happen in the UK to stop it here. If there was vagueness about what was actually to happen in the UK, there cannot have been the certainty about the threat claimed. It is a logical impasse. Frankly in twenty years of experience working with British security services their level of accuracy (remember Iraqi WMD) was never that good. And everybody is fortunately now deeply sceptical about the continual claims by the security services that there are thousands of dedicated Islamic terrorists in the UK conducting hundreds of plots every year, and yet miraculously never actually managing to kill anybody. Just in case anybody had not worked out yet that the Guardian is a disgraceful neo-con rag, it has an article by its “legal correspondent” Joshua Rozenberg, married to the even more rabid Zionist militarist Melanie Phillips (who still believes the Iraqi WMD exist, hidden in the bed of the Euphrates). Rozenberg assures us it is absolutely legal for the British government to kill us without trial if it wants. He even suggests the murdered Mr Khan would not object: “If he was waging war on British troops and civilians, he can hardly complain the UK’s armed forces were one step ahead of him.” Astonishingly for a lawyer, the disgraceful Rozenberg does not seem to notice that the opening “if” is rather important. “If Mr Jones was engaged in insurance fraud, he can hardly complain at being banged up for twenty years”, so according to Mr Rozenberg we can dispense with all that nonsense about trials and evidence and just take the government’s word for it. Not to mention that the government has now instituted summary execution without trial in a country that does not even have the death penalty.  [ ... ] As I have argued, it is not unusual for British people to go to fight abroad. There were British citizens in the Israeli Defence Forces participating in the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza last year. Our neo-con governments of both blue and red Tories have positively encouraged the mercenary companies Executive Outcomes/Sandline/Aegis of Tony Buckingham and Tim Spicer. There are Britons fighting now in the Ukraine. We started by positively encouraging factions in the Syrian civil war, with the Saudis and CIA arming and training them and some of those factions helped constitute ISIL. There is no evidence at all that Islamic State had any interest in attacks in the UK until we started to attack it. (That is not to say it is not a very bad organisation and did not commit actions against UK citizens in its “Caliphate area”. But it did not threaten the UK). For the government to claim the right to kill British people through sci-fi execution, based on highly unreliable secret intelligence and a secret declaration of legality, is so shocking I find it difficult to believe it is happening even as I type the words. Are we so cowed as to accept this? SOURCE https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/09/operation-flavius-and-the-killer-cameron/ ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT LOL ... I love the remark about The Guardian being a "disgraceful neocon rag". I knew I'd like Craig Murray. ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Wasn't intending to post anything other the comment re The Guardian, but this is also very interesting. This extra-judicial killing of targets overseas sort of 'complements' the criminal law turned to 'global law' strategy used by the British, as an excuse for the secret drone attacks in Syria (that was mentioned elsewhere). Who is permitted to go overseas to kill depends on who is being killed, perhaps? LOL  ... Saudis and CIA arming al-Qaeda, who then joined ISIS.  Oh, wait a minute ... They're supposed to be funding ISIS, too.  Think they all might answer to CIA and friends. 'Authorities' that fund terrorists can hardly point the finger at other organisations, declaring them 'terrorists.'   I think it really is the law of jungle and it's only a matter of:  might is right and 'do whatever' ... as Mr Crowley, kind of said. Assange Transnational Security Elite, Carving Up the World Using Your Tax Money London  OCT8 Antiwar Mass Assembly (2011) Link  |  here ꕤ

InfoSource: Craig Murray

ꕤ Craig Murray website   https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/ BOOK Murder in Samarkand A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror (2006)   former British ambassador to Uzbekistan former Rector - University of Dundee (2007-10) 2002 - Uzbekistan boiling to death of 2 members Hizb ut-Tahrir "not an isolated incident" Murray said re Uzbekistan speech 2003 - Re:  George W Bush speech Wrote to FCO re: Karimov regime systematic torture & rape treated as peccadilloes / ie overlooked by interl players for Uzbek relationship / sought FCO address concerns w/ US senior level 2004 complained that intel linking Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to al-Qaeda =  obtained under torture, immoral, illegal & unreliable 2004 Removed shortly after LEAKED report in Financial Times quoted him as claiming: MI6 used intelligence  obtained by Uzbek authorities through torture 2006 Alex Jones interview - Murray claimed: false intelligence on al-Qaeda plots obtained by torture done by CIA proxies intelligence gained = used as a propaganda tool Other Awarded for: campaigning work on torture and human rights SOURCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Murray ARTICLES Legal Advice Extra-judiciary Assassinations How the British Establishment Works Link  |  here Craig Murray: The Guardian - Disgraceful Neocon Rag Operation Flavious & the Killer Cameron Extra-judicial Syria British Govt Assassinations BETHLEHEM DOCTRINE Link  |  here Feminism A Neo-Con Tool LINK | Post Corporate Media Whores Strike Again: Panama Leak | Mossack Fonseca Papers LINK | here ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT I like the sound of this guy.  He sounds interesting. Uzbekistan is mind-blowing. CIA sound like gangsters to me. So are we really ruled by gangsters (like the mafia or something)? If so, just beneath the everyday veneer of order and civilisation that we take for granted as being our reality, it's really a jungle and the only order and certainty is all manner of state criminality? ꕤ

SYRIA - On Gen. Wesley Clarke - Pentagon List of Countries to Overthrow - Circa 2001

US plans to topple Syria’s Assad go back to 9/11: Analyst Thu Sep 10, 2015 6:23PM Washington’s plans to overthrow the Syrian government go back to the 9/11 attacks and recent revelations by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should come as no surprise to anybody, says an American journalist. Wayne Madsen, an author and investigative journalist, made the comments when asked about Assange’s remarks who said on Wednesday that the US had planned to topple the Syrian government long before 2011, the year that the brutal conflict broke out in the country. What Assange has said is nothing new because “we know according to retired Gen. Wesley Clarke that, shortly after 9/11, he was shown in the Pentagon a list of countries that the US wanted to overthrow” their governments, Madsen told Press TV on Thursday. The analyst noted that on the list, Syria came after Iraq and was followed by countries like Libya and Sudan. In his new book, Assange points to a cable pertaining to US Ambassador William Roebuck, who served as the Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus between 2004-2007, about plans for overthrowing the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the time. This is “also no surprise because the successive US ambassadors to Syria have sought to undermine the Syrian government,” Madsen maintained. He added that “It clearly is a demonstration that just because the United States maintains diplomatic relations with a country,” there is no guarantee that the US is not going to shy away from taking harsh measures against “the government it recognizes.” This is an extreme version of democracy, Madsen argued, which was sought after not only by President Obama’s administrations, but also Republican government such as that of George Bush also attempted to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government. The Syrian government has been in an all out war against various Takfiri groups, mainly the ISIL, since March 2011. According to reports, the United States and its regional allies - especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey – have been supporting the militants operating inside the country. The conflict, according to the UN, has so far taken the lives of about 230,000 people. Millions of Syrians have also been displaced as a result of the conflict. SOURCE http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/09/10/428634/Syria-Assange-US-Assad-Wayne-Madsen-911 ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT So the US getting 'cosy' with Iran by way of the nukes deal and the Brits reopening an embassy in Iran can only mean one thing:  stand by for an action replay of the 1953 CIA-MI6 coup in Iran? That's almost a quarter of a million dead in Syria, according to the UN. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are bankrolling. While the American government keeps a list of countries to destroy, Hollywood celebrity hypocrites front aid agencies and act as American war propaganda agents. So, there you go Europe.  The Americans planned this Middle Eastern and African mayhem well in advance; but, guess what?   It's European taxpayers and European societies that will be paying the price:  the enormous material and social costs of refugee and other immigration - which is incalculable in future social terms. While public welfare funding is being cut, welcome to increased military spending for the 'privilege' of NATO gangster Club Membership. Being under US corporate empire's rule is like voluntarily becoming a taxpayer-funded mercenary (proxy) force for the US corporate empire (thus private interests of the enormously wealthy). Subordinate state proxy forces are then usually also supplied to some extent by US manufacturers, enriching American military manufacturers and providing the means of destroying target nations, to pillage resources and entrap the target nations' populations in future debt servitude of the 'nation rebuilding' kind. The 'nation rebuilding' profits to be received post destructive phase must make destroying nations so rewarding.  Win-win. All these subordinate states' resources are directed in aid of US and Western private corporate and banking masters' profits, while impoverishing generations of 'free' men among NATO member domestic populations. Intergenerational debt slavery for the sheeple, but a what a deal for corporate American and allied corporate interests, so what's not to like ... a European colony that buys US arms & military equipment, enriching US military manufacturers; a colony that self-funds military actions on behalf of the US plutocratic empire (and its own player corporations); and a colony that takes on-board all consequences of the massive human costs of the American empire's aggression and insatiable capitalist expansion. Ummmm, how stupid is Europe? Assange Transnational Security Elite, Carving Up the World Using Your Tax Money London  OCT8 Antiwar Mass Assembly (2011) Link  |  here ꕤ

'Why Murdoch Pushes for War' - Craig Murray

⟴ ꕤ COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Why Murdoch Pushes for War ⟴ by Craig Murray  on September 7, 2015 1:33 pm Given the disgraceful Sun front page and middle spread urging war on Syria, and the all-out propaganda on Sky News, it is important to understand why Murdoch is pushing so hard for war. I therefore reproduce my article from February 2013. It is important to note that the links are to industry publications: this is very genuine, hard information. Israel Grants Oil Rights in Syria to Murdoch and Rothschild Israel has granted oil exploration rights inside Syria, in the occupied Golan Heights, to Genie Energy. Major shareholders of Genie Energy – which also has interests in shale gas in the United States and shale oil in Israel – include Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild. This from a 2010 Genie Energy press release Claude Pupkin, CEO of Genie Oil and Gas, commented, “Genie’s success will ultimately depend, in part, on access to the expertise of the oil and gas industry and to the financial markets. Jacob Rothschild and Rupert Murdoch are extremely well regarded by and connected to leaders in these sectors. Their guidance and participation will prove invaluable.” “I am grateful to Howard Jonas and IDT for the opportunity to invest in this important initiative,” Lord Rothschild said. “Rupert Murdoch’s extraordinary achievements speak for themselves and we are very pleased he has agreed to be our partner. Genie Energy is making good technological progress to tap the world’s substantial oil shale deposits which could transform the future prospects of Israel, the Middle East and our allies around the world.” For Israel to seek to exploit mineral reserves in the occupied Golan Heights is plainly illegal in international law. Japan was succesfully sued by Singapore before the International Court of Justice for exploitation of Singapore’s oil resources during the second world war. The argument has been made in international law that an occupying power is entitled to opeate oil wells which were previously functioning and operated by the sovereign power, in whose position the occupying power now stands. But there is absolutely no disagreement in the authorities and case law that the drilling of new wells – let alone fracking – by an occupying power is illegal. Israel tried to make the same move twenty years ago but was forced to back down after a strong reaction from the Syrian government, which gained diplomatic support from the United States. Israel is now seeking to take advantage of the weakened Syrian state; this move perhaps casts a new light on recent Israeli bombings in Syria. In a rational world, the involvement of Rothschild and Murdoch in this international criminal activity would show them not to be fit and proper persons to hold major commercial interests elsewhere, and action would be taken. Naturally, nothing of the kind will happen. SOURCE https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/09/why-murdoch-pushes-for-war/ ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT Think I might have encountered something about this before, but it didn't really sink in. I think I might be better at remembering things when they have some kind of emotion impact, like they do at the moment. Seeing  things sort of come together makes other details come to life. For me, it began with the flinging open of European borders by Mutti Merkel, at a cost of $6-billion, to Germany, despite a history of violent opposition to immigration, despite European austerity, despite the rise of right-wing dissenting political parties, despite security risks and opposition of EU states etc. Seeing the chaos of Middle Eastern and African refugees and other immigrants flooding Europe; seeing Britain secretly droning Syria, despite parliamentary veto; seeing Australia's Tony Abbott back-flip on his party's immigration stance, while joining the bomb Syria coalition; learning of Israeli bombings in Syria; seeing emotive propaganda and media hype targeting the public and exploiting refugees (that the West created by backing regional terrorists) has been instructive. Seeing the exploitation of the death of a child, and even exploitation of rape as a means of justifying pre-existing plans for war, by using rape in conflict zones as a basis for predictable calls for 'action' -- most recently, and perhaps aptly, by an actress, in British Parliament -- is seeing nothing but a charade performed for uninformed members of the public, which partly explains why this is an 'acting gig'. Emotive subjects and issues are the best propaganda tools and pretexts for behaviour that would otherwise be unacceptable to the public. The tools used by a criminal state to wage war are the same tools that are at the disposal of a criminal state to use against those it  designates as 'enemies' -- ie  those that pose threats to its illegitimate agenda (eg, by exposure of the corrupt state's wrongdoings, and so on). Allegations of 'rape' may also be employed (and have been employed) to 'justify' the state crime of conducting political persecution of those that expose state crimes.  Australian journalist-publisher, Julian Assange, exposed US and allied war crimes, and has effectively been imprisoned without charge for almost 5 years, and is presently under siege, in London, and denied rightful political asylum, on the basis of nothing but trumped up Sweden police 'rape allegations,' that have been used not only to deprive him of liberty, but also as a pretext for what is, in fact, state political persecution that is taking place before the public's eyes, while the corporate media, the state, its talking heads and its politicians, use  allegations of 'rape' to smear and vilify their target, when not otherwise misdirecting and generating stupor in an uninformed public. As for Syria, we have a military complex serving warmonger (John McCain) with links to US-backed 'moderate rebels' (ie al-Qaeda groups, in Syria, who are responsible for the assault on the Assad government by an assortment of multinational Islamist, as US and Gulf States proxies, which are destroying Syria & displacing millions), and he's perversely exploiting the image of a dead Syrian child in American Congress to, likewise, appeal for 'action' -- which is more of the same public and political performance staged in British parliament, as well as more of like performance staged in the past (Iraq and Libya, for example) -- to justify US and allied corporate-serving aggression abroad. Seeing the 'bomb Syria' Murdoch press, playing on public emotions and ignorance to quietly shape public perception and opinion; seeing a little of the beneath the surface commercial interests; seeing the inanity and PR influence of Hollywood, married to humanitarianism, married to politics, and then married to military intervention, which is married to silent Wahhabi Gulf Arab oil, commercial and political interests and partners of the West; married to Israel; married to energy and, no doubt, banking; which is severally and jointly bent on regime change in the Syria, and bent on destruction and murder, while immersed in deceit, propaganda, hypocrisy and arrogant sacrifice of both domestic and foreign populations; is to bear witness to a marriage made in hell, that somehow animates the otherwise cold, corporate details. It's hard to maintain a positive regard towards Israel or any of the US allied governments that support the destruction of yet another foreign state, in favour of causing mayhem in the region, with a view to, most likely, installing yet another religious fanatic puppet regime in the Middle East, that serves corporate Western interests. No wonder the Middle East never progresses from religious fanaticism; it's probably actively encouraged and reinforced by the West, who use it as a means to an ends. So, if you look at it like that, it is the West that can also take a bow for the entrenchment and spread of (what I see as) unenlightened philosophies under religious grip (that are inherently opposed to progress towards secularism), that Western imperialism has historically exploited, by installing and maintaining Western-serving dictators, and by backing proxy challenger armies (when they're not inadvertently encouraging even more ardent religious fanaticism of an opposition to Western interference), done in pursuit of the gains of the few, to the detriment of the many, in the Middle East and beyond. Guessing that corporate imperialism would nurture anything, as a means to an end, however damaging the 'blowback' to domestic populations, because there's no regard or loyalty to the domestic populations that are subjected to across-borders corporate tyranny. [Note:  I'm no Middle Eastern expert.  This is just my personal appraisal, given my limited knowledge and my limited inclinations, at this point in time.] Assange Transnational Security Elite, Carving Up the World Using Your Tax Money London  OCT8 Antiwar Mass Assembly (2011) Link  |  here ꕤ