SYRIAN ARMY STAGES AIRSTRIKES ON ISIS HELD RAQQA

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvKoF8vBImhW8K_KiRti40TyTuGx9Lg_6z1VenCkNmgk6dcheNP__aHYDyUCptImkPC5aFjGLgs6lcIdu4MQ_BbfNqc4Cq0WCHqBtsQ7vLxNT6vuNu5M3mAzwCEKil4Q2W8l7tam1SJw/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvKoF8vBImhW8K_KiRti40TyTuGx9Lg_6z1VenCkNmgk6dcheNP__aHYDyUCptImkPC5aFjGLgs6lcIdu4MQ_BbfNqc4Cq0WCHqBtsQ7vLxNT6vuNu5M3mAzwCEKil4Q2W8l7tam1SJw/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Syrian army warplanes carried out a wave of airstrikes in the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa, activists said, in rare attacks that coincided with the visit by a U.N. envoy to Damascus on Thursday.<br /> Two Syria-based groups as well as the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say warplanes carried out at least 12 airstrikes across the city. They reported casualties but had no specific figures.<br /> <br /> It was not immediately clear what was hit.<br /> <br /> The city in northern Syria is the self-declared capital of the Islamic State group's so-called Islamic caliphate it has established across parts of Syria and Iraq. The region is often targeted by a U.S.-led coalition fighting IS from the air. The Syrians have occasionally targeted the city as well, but Syrian government airstrikes typically concentrate on other opposition-held areas of the country.<br /> <br /> Syrian President Bashar Assad reiterated in an interview with Russian media aired Wednesday that that the U.S. refuses to coordinate with his government in the fight against IS.<br /> <br /> For the U.S. officials, "if they cooperate with the Syrian army, this is like recognition of our effectiveness in fighting ISIS," Assad said, using another acronym for the group. He also said that his priority is "defeating terrorism" in Syria.<br /> <br /> Russia is trying to convince the West of the need to work with Syria in the fight against IS.<br /> Thursday's airstrikes on Raqqa coincided with a visit by the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to Damascus. De Mistura met with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, who repeated to him that fighting terrorism was the Syrian government's priority, according to the state-run news agency SANA.

SYRIAN ARMY STAGES AIRSTRIKES ON ISIS HELD RAQQA

Syrian army warplanes carried out a wave of airstrikes in the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa, activists said, in rare attacks that coin...

Read Article »

US MILITARY “BOOTS ON THE GROUND” IN SYRIA; CONFIRMED

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2_Vo1CH2l3N5q503KjLHeLylX-90ojxBb7qGI7afETssGg5wSwM8V-ws_vSt_hdPd8irhRBVzAB6101xaioZzb3YHMBvxwoIGF6sl7mjYAXkd7w0Fl-dJEArzUmuYUaEUjyBi9FJ8WM/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN2_Vo1CH2l3N5q503KjLHeLylX-90ojxBb7qGI7afETssGg5wSwM8V-ws_vSt_hdPd8irhRBVzAB6101xaioZzb3YHMBvxwoIGF6sl7mjYAXkd7w0Fl-dJEArzUmuYUaEUjyBi9FJ8WM/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> With the Russians on the ground at Latakia shoring up the Assad regime and with tensions between Washington and Moscow at a fever pitch over the Kremlin’s involvement, the Pentagon now says US boots are officially on the ground in Syria – you know, to help fight ISIS…<br /> <br /> <u><b>CNBC Tweeted:</b></u><i> "BREAKING: Defense officials tell NBC News that US special ops. forces are on ground in Syria assisting Kurdish forces in fight against ISIS"</i><br /> <br /> Of course, if true, the whole “assisting Kurdish forces” won’t go over well with Turkey’s Erdogan, the US’s brand new coalition partner against ISIS who has made no secret of his distrust for the YPG.<br /> <br /> Then again, there had to be some pretext for an imminent escalation with Russia and since it’s all a convoluted, bloody mess at this point, “helping Kurdish forces” is just as good as any other excuse we suppose.<br /> <br /> by Kurt Nimmo of InfoWars.com<br /> <div> <br /></div>

US MILITARY “BOOTS ON THE GROUND” IN SYRIA; CONFIRMED

With the Russians on the ground at Latakia shoring up the Assad regime and with tensions between Washington and Moscow at a fever pitch o...

Read Article »

RUSSIA'S GAMBLE: STEPPING UP INVOLVEMENT IN SYRIA

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EnTR50EBXnwUF6EhbYUwO6ZryrTxzWWumD8CGynwRiSjQEgHq9Qf-zhHDG5AsDTCUs7mRswfCn49wdOqlFLH0TU2QWPJUYueiorO-YERmj5Lp1UJ8ICysCgHDwvzSc8CWN1hgOE_5DE/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EnTR50EBXnwUF6EhbYUwO6ZryrTxzWWumD8CGynwRiSjQEgHq9Qf-zhHDG5AsDTCUs7mRswfCn49wdOqlFLH0TU2QWPJUYueiorO-YERmj5Lp1UJ8ICysCgHDwvzSc8CWN1hgOE_5DE/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> In ramping up its military involvement in Syria's civil war, Russia appears to be betting that the West, horrified by the Islamic State group's spread and an escalating migrants crisis, may be willing to quietly tolerate President Bashar Assad for a while, perhaps as part of a transition.<br /> <br /> The logic is that prioritizing the fight with the jihadis means accepting Assad as the less bad option despite his own brutal acts, and might produce a more effective and coordinated fight in the air and on the ground.<br /> <br /> It also would reorganize an awkward situation in Syria, whereby the Assad regime and the U.S.-led coalition are actively fighting the same group but do not act like allies - as opposed to coordination the coalition maintains with the central Baghdad authorities in the parallel fight against Islamic State group in neighboring Iraq.<br /> <br /> Russia has no such complications.<br /> <br /> A longtime backer of Syria's government, Moscow has recently increased its military activity in Syria, sending military advisers, technicians and security guards with the main goal of setting up an air base near the coastal town of Latakia, a stronghold of the Syrian president. There are reports that the Russians had flown in troops and modular housing units. And Israel's defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, says he expects Russians to be fighting alongside Assad's troops.<br /> <br /> Even more than the concurrent assistance by Iran and proxy Shiite militias on behalf of Assad, Russian military intervention could potentially be a game changer in the Syrian conflict, tipping the scales in a spectacularly ruinous civil war that has killed a quarter of a million people and created a massive global humanitarian crisis.<br /> <br /> The degree and speed of the impact depends on scale. And there is also a chance that the Russian efforts could prolong the bloodshed, counteracting the various U.S. efforts to train and arm palatable rebel groups.<br /> <br /> Russia claims it is mainly motivated by fighting IS. But U.S. President Barack Obama cast the buildup as an effort to prop up Assad.<br /> <br /> Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, warned that "doubling down" on the Assad regime "is not a winning strategy." In an interview with CNN, she said that "Assad cannot be part of a solution ... because he gasses his people, uses barrel bombs against them and is responsible for one of the worst torture campaigns in modern memory." Even if "all you cared about is (Islamic State) this is not going to bring peace or succeed in defeating terrorism," she said.<br /> <br /> Despite such statements, evidence suggests Russian President Vladimir Putin believes the West can be swayed, if only informally. Moscow may also hope that a creatively constructive role in Syria might help improve ties with the West, ravaged in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis,<br /> <br /> "Putin has proven an excellent tactician on the Syrian crisis, and he currently likely senses a chance to increase Russia's prestige and influence with relatively little pushback from the international community," said Ayham Kamel, Middle East and North Africa director of the London-based Eurasia group.<br /> <br /> "Putin probably realizes that the U.S. and Europe are no longer enthusiastic about regime change in Syria and are more focused on the threat of the Islamic State," he added.<br /> <br /> Indeed, European leaders have recently begun voicing what many say the Obama administration will not say publicly.<br /> <br /> British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee that his government was willing to accept "compromises" with Russia and Iran that could see Assad play a role "for some months" in a transition process.<br /> <br /> A day earlier, Austria's foreign minister was even more direct, saying the West should involve Assad in the fight against IS. Sebastian Kurz's comments came during a state visit to Tehran, and reflected what some officials have been saying privately for months.<br /> <br /> "One should not forget the crimes that Assad has committed, but also not forget the pragmatic view of the fact that in this fight we are on the same side," Kurz said.<br /> <br /> A true Russian buildup could complicate future American military action in Syria, including a safe zone along the Turkish border which has been discussed with Ankara.<br /> <br /> While neither the U.S. nor its Saudi allies currently preoccupied with the war in Yemen are likely to openly confront the Russian deployment, both are likely to respond by stepping up their aid to anti-Assad rebels.<br /> <br /> It also carries risks for Russia, where memories of its 1980s struggles against Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan still sting: an increased Russian presence may itself become a target for Syrian opposition and jihadi elements.<br /> <br /> Syrian opposition member Badr Jamous warned that rebels will regard any foreign fighters deployed on the side of the government as a legitimate target.<br /> <br /> Moscow may also be trying to ensure it has a say in a future political settlement, as ideas percolate around the region. There are reports that Egypt, an erstwhile ally of Russia and China, is considering a rapprochement with Assad.<br /> <br /> The Russian moves follow the successful conclusion of the Iran nuclear deal, in which Moscow also played a key role. Both countries have a huge investment in the Syrian regime, which along with being a client state provides Russia with its only remaining Mediterranean and Middle Eastern base in the port of Tartus.<br /> <br /> A series of major defeats for the Syrian military may have hastened Russia's decision to intensify its activity in Syria. Extremists are estimated to be in control of half the ravaged country, while rebels backed by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Turkey have made striking gains in the country's north and south, putting pressure on Assad's coastal heartland.<br /> <br /> There is speculation about whether the Russians may convince Assad to accept a face-saving transition process that incorporates the Western-backed rebels into a power sharing deal.<br /> <br /> But several Lebanese politicians with close links to the Syrian government who frequent Damascus say the Syrian leadership is confident of the support of its Russian and Iranian friends and does not feel threatened enough to negotiate.<br /> <br /> The extent of Moscow's involvement in Syria will likely remain sketchy until Putin speaks at the U.N. general assembly later this month.<br /> <br /> A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said Monday the U.S. is closely monitoring the buildup.<br /> <br /> "We have seen indications in recent days that Russia has moved people and things into the area around Latakia and the air base there that suggests that it intends to establish some sort of a forward air operating base," Davis said.<br /> <br /> He said the U.S. has concerns about ensuring that any Russian military air operations not come into conflict with U.S. and coalition airstrikes that are being conducted in other parts of Syria against Islamic State targets and that "things that continue to support the Assad regime ... are unhelpful and risk adding greater instability to an already unstable situation."<br /> <br /> A recent analysis by The Soufan Group, a New York-based private risk assessment company, predicted worsening conflict amid the regional maneuvering.<br /> <br /> "Already a lethal cauldron of regional proxy warfare, Syria will further deteriorate if the U.S. and Russia use both sides of the civil war as leverage against the other," it said.<br /> <br /> by Zeina Karam of Associated Press

RUSSIA'S GAMBLE: STEPPING UP INVOLVEMENT IN SYRIA

In ramping up its military involvement in Syria's civil war, Russia appears to be betting that the West, horrified by the Islamic Sta...

Read Article »

U.S. REFUSES TO BOMB KNOWN ISIS POSITIONS IN SYRIA - LAVROV

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzXRu4582VWXM-q3vYI54MyFUvizJRsNQ6pM4C7U60F2pgu24WmxITWmqsQyYFfq7m6LrxYIRWFmT77SBnS3iykTL7FEKEaMmzIcC-pEd9Rt6XeaNzRu1i7WaSOBhN3Wbg8CRbmLm_WY/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzXRu4582VWXM-q3vYI54MyFUvizJRsNQ6pM4C7U60F2pgu24WmxITWmqsQyYFfq7m6LrxYIRWFmT77SBnS3iykTL7FEKEaMmzIcC-pEd9Rt6XeaNzRu1i7WaSOBhN3Wbg8CRbmLm_WY/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday the goal of the United States in Syria is different than what is publicly stated. He also said the coalition led by the U.S. knows the positions of ISIS in the country and is not targeting them.<br /> <br /> Lavrov told Channel one, the largest television network in the Russian Federation, that analysis of aviation operations in Syria “creates a strange impression” and instead of fighting ISIS “there is something else which is a concern of the coalition.”<br /> <br /> He said the coalition purportedly fighting ISIS has “information on where exactly” the positions of the terrorist army are in Syria and Iraq, but “does not give consent to striking them.”<br /> <br /> <h3> <i><span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My Comment: This is more and more proof that our criminal government is using this fabricated 'war on terror' to justify regime change in countries which are a threat to the established 'petro-dollar' system and the western private central bank network. ISIS is being used as a proxy army to destabilize the middle east and justify ridiculous government spending on the military industrial complex and domestic surveillance programs in the name of security.</span></i></h3> In August intelligence analysts said the Pentagon is not targeting an estimated 60 Islamic State training camps considered key in the ISIS effort to capture and hold territory.<br /> <br /> According to Bill Gertz of the Free Beacon, officials have stated these camps are off limits “because of concerns about collateral damage.”<br /> <br /> “If we know the location of these camps, and the president wants to destroy ISIS, why are the camps still functioning?” one official said.<br /> <br /> The absurdity of the U.S. statement on collateral damage is astounding.<br /> <br /> A study by Stanford Law School and New York University’s School of Law found that the number of Islamic terrorists killed as a percentage of total casualties in U.S. drone strikes is 2 percent. The remainder are civilians.<br /> <br /> Moreover, so-called collateral or incidental damage has served as a tactic for the U.S. in its war in Iraq.<br /> <br /> “The death of many civilians in Iraq during the Gulf War due to the the lack of electricity in hospitals, which was the result of the destruction of almost all Iraqi power plants by allied air attacks, has been asserted by Iraq as disproportionate collateral damage,” notes Horst Fischer.<br /> <br /> Bombing ISIS Conflicts with Syria Endgame<br /> <br /> The United States and its allies are not effectively targeting ISIS — and, in fact, continue to resupply the group, as a number of Iraqis claim — because eliminating the terror group would conflict with the ultimate objective in Syria: the overthrow the al-Assad government and the balkanization the country.<br /> <br /> The latter was explained in a document produced by the Ford Foundation funded Brookings Institute.<br /> <br /> “Deconstructing Syria: A new strategy for America’s most hopeless war,” authored by Michael E. O’Hanlon, states that “the only realistic path forward may be a plan that in effect deconstructs Syria” and “create pockets with more viable security and governance within Syria over time,” areas that “would never again have to face the prospect of rule by either Assad or ISIL.”<br /> <br /> Both so-called “centrist” Democrats and their neocon colleagues support undermining Syria and are responsible for the humanitarian crisis now threatening to swamp Europe with refugees.<br /> <br /> The United States has consistently supported the Syrian “rebels,” now virtually all radical Wahhabist jihadists. This includes ISIS and al-Nusra, the former created out of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the latter from native Syrian mujahideen. The State Department, of course, denounces both as terrorist groups while covertly supporting them as part of the effort to undermine al-Assad.<br /> <br /> Lavrov only hinted at the real situation in Syria. The Russians, however, are well aware of the fact the ISIS bombing campaign is a farce and a public relations gimmick and understand the real objective in Syria, which includes removing the Russian presence in the region.

U.S. REFUSES TO BOMB KNOWN ISIS POSITIONS IN SYRIA - LAVROV

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday the goal of the United States in Syria is different than what is publicly stated. H...

Read Article »

RUSSIA HELPS SYRIA USING IRAQ & IRAN AIRSPACE TO SEND AID

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1ClaadICgwXDqCritcIMW8hUJ1hRien0A1S-45d1P4paYt0ypdxblWwIpFM1sS1z9Vp1Q5mWBP2HKuZIdDjh6psXrW_aTTkWEPtW_4HPXtglB6pjrGrWyQxRFVquVGA3t2ezKnHT_BqI/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1ClaadICgwXDqCritcIMW8hUJ1hRien0A1S-45d1P4paYt0ypdxblWwIpFM1sS1z9Vp1Q5mWBP2HKuZIdDjh6psXrW_aTTkWEPtW_4HPXtglB6pjrGrWyQxRFVquVGA3t2ezKnHT_BqI/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Russia is using an air corridor over Iraq and Iran to fly military equipment and personnel to a new air hub in Syria, openly defying American efforts to block the shipments and significantly increasing tensions with Washington.<br /> <br /> American officials disclosed Sunday that at least seven giant Russian Condor transport planes had taken off from a base in southern Russia during the past week to ferry equipment to Syria, all passing through Iranian and Iraqi airspace.<br /> <br /> Their destination was an airfield south of Latakia, Syria, which could become the most significant new Russian military foothold in the Middle East in decades, American officials said.<br /> <br /> The Obama administration initially hoped it had hampered the Russian effort to move military equipment and personnel into Syria when Bulgaria, a NATO member, announced it would close its airspace to the flights. But Russia quickly began channeling its flights over Iraq and Iran, which Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said on Sunday would continue despite American objections.<br /> <br /> “There were military supplies, they are ongoing, and they will continue,” Mr. Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. “They are inevitably accompanied by Russian specialists, who help to adjust the equipment, to train Syrian personnel how to use this weaponry.”<br /> <br /> Moscow’s military buildup in Syria, where the Kremlin has been supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a four-and-a-half-year civil war, adds a new friction point in its relations with the United States. The actions also lay bare another major policy challenge for the United States: how to encourage Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq, who came to power with the blessing of the United States but is still trying to establish his authority, to block the Russian flights.<br /> <br /> American diplomats raised the issue with the Iraqi government on Sept. 5, hoping that the Iraqis would follow Bulgaria’s example and declare their airspace off limits to the Russian transport planes.<br /> <br /> The Iraqis responded that they would look into the matter, said an American official who declined to be identified because he was talking about diplomatic communications. But more than a week later, the Iraqis had yet to take action.<br /> <br /> A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister declined to comment on Sunday, asserting that he had no information about the Russian flights or the United States’ concerns about them.<br /> <br /> Two years ago, American officials confronted Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, Mr. Abadi’s predecessor, when Iraq allowed Iran to fly arms, ammunition and other equipment to Syria through its airspace. In March 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Baghdad that he had a “spirited” discussion with Mr. Maliki on the issue but with no breakthrough.<br /> <br /> Compounding Mr. Abadi’s challenge are his efforts to maintain good relations with the United States, Iran and Russia. While about 3,500 American advisers have been sent to help the Iraqis combat the Islamic State, Iraq also has received military support for that fight from Iran, which like Russia is backing Mr. Assad. Iraq also is buying weapons from Moscow, which Mr. Abadi visited in May.<br /> <br /> With few aircraft, Iraq’s ability to defend its airspace is extremely limited. But it could tell the Russians that they do not have the clearance to fly through Iraqi airspace and ask for American help in detecting and discouraging Russian flights.<br /> <br /> “Since Maliki relinquished the premiership, power and authority in Iraq have become increasingly diffused with various players now exercising unilateral power over the use of force,” Ramzy Mardini, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, a research group in Washington, said in a telephone interview from Erbil, Iraq.<br /> <br /> “Neutrality is the best Washington can hope for in Baghdad,” Mr. Mardini added. “Iraq is not a dictatorial state like many of the U.S. allies in the Middle East. Iraq is still a fragile state whose leaders are exposed to politics. In the discourse of Iraqi politics, forcing Abadi to side with the U.S. against Assad is like realigning him with the Sunni axis against the Shia one.”<br /> <br /> A Russian Embassy official in Tehran told Russian news agencies on Wednesday that Iran had approved Russia’s use of Iranian airspace to fly to Syria, but the official insisted the cargo was merely humanitarian aid.<br /> <br /> The Obama administration’s warnings to the Russians were decidedly stark.<br /> <br /> On the same day that the administration approached Iraq and other nations about the Russian flights, Mr. Kerry called Mr. Lavrov and warned the Kremlin not to vastly expand its military support for the Syrian government. Mr. Kerry said it would fuel the conflict and might even lead to an inadvertent confrontation with the American-led coalition that is carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in Syria, the State Department noted in a statement about the call.<br /> <br /> “It appears now that Assad is worried enough that he’s inviting Russian advisers in and Russian equipment in,” President Obama said in a meeting with troops at Fort Meade, Md., last week. “And that won’t change our core strategy, which is to continue to put pressure on ISIL in Iraq and Syria, but we are going to be engaging Russia to let them know that you can’t continue to double-down on a strategy that’s doomed to failure.”<br /> <br /> But those warnings do not appear to have swayed President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who appears determined to create new facts on the ground in Syria.<br /> <br /> According to American intelligence, about 200 Russian marines and six Russian howitzers now guard the air base south of Latakia. More prefabricated buildings have been delivered, increasing the housing capacity to 1,500 people. Dozens of Russian vehicles have been observed at the base, including about a dozen advanced infantry fighting vehicles.<br /> <br /> American intelligence has not detected Russian fighter jets. But some American officials said Russian SU-25 and MiG-31 attack planes might arrive in the next phase of the buildup. They could be sent in crates and assembled in Syria or be flown to the base, officials said.<br /> <br /> The Russian move could serve multiple purposes, according to analysts. In addition to strengthening Mr. Assad and buttressing the Kremlin’s plan to create a new anti-ISIL coalition that includes Iran and the Syrian government, it positions Russia to have major influence in Syria’s future and draws attention away from Russia’s intervention in Ukraine.<br /> <br /> “The Russians have done a masterful job of changing the subject on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s arrival in New York for the 70th commemoration of the U.N. General Assembly,” said Andrew S. Weiss, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a former Russia expert for the National Security Council, the State Department and the Pentagon.<br /> <br /> “Instead of accepting a brushoff from the White House about Putin’s desire for a meeting with Obama, the Russians are trying to argue that you have to talk to us about Syria,” Mr. Weiss added. “I don’t believe Western governments are prepared to do very much to slow down or block the risky course the Russians are going on.”<br /> <br /> Although the administration’s warnings to the Russians have been made public, American officials have refused to publicly discuss their appeals to the Iraqis and other nations to stop the Russian flights’ path to Syria.<br /> <br /> “Regardless of what air corridor is being used, we’ve been clear about our concerns about continued material support to the Assad regime,” said John Kirby, the State Department spokesman. “We don’t talk about our diplomatic conversations, but we’ve asked our friends and partners in the region to ask tough questions of the Russians.”<br /> <br /> Russia has long had a naval base at the Syrian port city of Tartus. But if the Kremlin continues its military buildup near Latakia and bases Russian warplanes there, it could greatly enhance its ability to project power in Syria and neighboring states.<br /> <br /> “This is the most important Russian power projection in the region in decades,” said Stephen J. Blank, an expert on the Russian military at the American Foreign Policy Council, “and it will enhance Russia’s influence throughout the Levant.”

RUSSIA HELPS SYRIA USING IRAQ & IRAN AIRSPACE TO SEND AID

Russia is using an air corridor over Iraq and Iran to fly military equipment and personnel to a new air hub in Syria, openly defying Amer...

Read Article »

AUSTRALIA ANTI-ISIS MISSION IN SYRIA; ROUND 1 COMPLETE

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8KedcHCcl2zTKWrdqU1HQuHgkMdGsCRftnF63QskbC700qOsPNHKf5QxbALqQDYUr_B9VsXWkF8jy7QgoE2Dn1TXOtYB9WohY-0XKRdDs6G7_v5Cbho9b5VIfp515-e3bnSk4kibZ4VA/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8KedcHCcl2zTKWrdqU1HQuHgkMdGsCRftnF63QskbC700qOsPNHKf5QxbALqQDYUr_B9VsXWkF8jy7QgoE2Dn1TXOtYB9WohY-0XKRdDs6G7_v5Cbho9b5VIfp515-e3bnSk4kibZ4VA/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div style="line-height: 1.28571em; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0.285714em 0.428571em;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div> <div style="line-height: 1.28571em; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0.285714em 0.428571em;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;">The Royal Australian Air Force has completed its first operational flight in Syria, where two F/A-18A Hornets went on a “free hunt” mission in the eastern part of the country controlled by Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL). Australia formally joined the anti-ISIS coalition a year ago.</span></div> <div style="line-height: 1.28571em; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0.285714em 0.428571em;"> <br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-style: initial; height: auto; width: 813.229px;"><img alt="Night Vision image of an F/A-18A Hornet from Australia's Air Task Group refuelling from a Royal Australian Air Force KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transport aircraft during the first mission of Operation OKRA to be flown over Syria. © defence.gov.au" class="media__item" src="http://cdn.rt.com/files/2015.09/original/55f3ded6c3618855498b4574.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; width: 813.229px;" /></span><span style="background-color: #cccccc;">Night Vision image of an F/A-18A Hornet from Australia's Air Task Group refuelling from a Royal Australian Air Force KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transport aircraft during the first mission of Operation OKRA to be flown over Syria. © defence.gov.au</span></span></div> <div style="line-height: 1.28571em; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; padding: 0.285714em 0.428571em;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><br /></span></span></div> <div class="article__text text " style="background-color: white; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"> <div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.6em; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;">The fighter jets have successfully returned to the airbase, the Australian Air Task Group said in a statement Saturday. The mission was supported by the RAAF’s E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft maintaining communication with anti-ISIS coalition’s air operations center and KC-30A multi-role aerial tanker.</span></div> <div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.6em; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“No weapons were released during the mission,”</em> Australia’s Defense Department said in a statement.</span></div> <div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.6em; padding: 0px;"> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The mission provided on-call interdiction and dynamic targeting support as part of the international coalition’s effort to disrupt and degrade Daesh (ISIS).”</span></em></div> <div style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.6em; padding: 0px;"> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Earlier this week Australia’s National Security Committee agreed to extend the RAAF combat operations beyond Iraq, where RAAF has been operating throughout the last year as part of the US-led anti-ISIS international coalition. The Australian Defense Force’s operation in Iraq and Syria has been dubbed Operation OKRA.</span></em></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 0.6em; padding: 0px;"> <span style="line-height: 22.4px;"><i>“[ISIS] controls a large amount of territory in eastern Syria that serves as a source of recruitment and oil revenues, and as a base from which it continues to launch attacks into Iraq,” </i>News.com.au cited Air Task Group Commander, Commodore Stu Bellingham, as saying.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 0.6em; padding: 0px;"> <span style="line-height: 22.4px;">The Australian task force deployed against the Islamic State consists of eight F/A18 Super Hornet jets, one E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft, one KC-30A multi-role aerial tanker and transport aircraft, 400 Air Force personnel to support air deployment and 200 military officers, including a Special Forces team to operate as “military advisers” to Kurdish Peshmerga self-defense fighters and other forces fighting the jihadists.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 0.6em; padding: 0px;"> <span style="line-height: 22.4px;">The RAAF also has C-17 Globemaster and C130 Hercules transport aircraft deployed at al-Minhad Air Base south of Dubai, in the UAE, which provide the anti-ISIS multinational force with airlift assistance, transporting military equipment, arms and munitions to Iraqi forces.</span></div> </div>

AUSTRALIA ANTI-ISIS MISSION IN SYRIA; ROUND 1 COMPLETE

The Royal Australian Air Force has completed its first operational flight in Syria, where two F/A-18A Hornets went on a “free hunt” mis...

Read Article »

IRAN SOLDIERS JOIN RUSSIA IN SYRIA? - ISRAELI REPORT

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggHRm9lQEvp0kJvbM3IsdZk-IlW3F2tcQGAJbxuOpKNkNtF9FWQn7TkEZVAaxQT5Xf43BhN-0QCZveR7IRtXhDD7uFAIF4vR2lqxqczpvCvSNxk9__2C-0B2GSfj4nAKJfylmA1WfGeDM/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggHRm9lQEvp0kJvbM3IsdZk-IlW3F2tcQGAJbxuOpKNkNtF9FWQn7TkEZVAaxQT5Xf43BhN-0QCZveR7IRtXhDD7uFAIF4vR2lqxqczpvCvSNxk9__2C-0B2GSfj4nAKJfylmA1WfGeDM/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <br /></div> <h5 class="entry-subtitle" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Oswald, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 5px;"> Iran's elite Quds Force to fight against U.S. proxies</h5> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Hundreds of Iranian soldiers have been sent to Syria to to help Russia defend the al-Assad government, according to the Israeli media.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Ynetnews, the English-language Israeli news website of Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s most-read newspaper, reports that Qasem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, is cooperating with Russia.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> An Israeli military source told Ynet Iran’s stepped up military involvement in Syria is “due to Assad’s crisis and under Russian-Iranian cooperation as a result of a meeting between Soleimani with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div> <h3 style="clear: both;"> <i><span style="background-color: #e69138; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Please note that the claim has not been independently verified. Given the levels of anti-Iran propaganda coming from Israel and anti-Russian propaganda out of the U.S. I would certainly refrain from drawing solid conclusions based on such 'reports'. </span></i></h3> <div> <i><span style="background-color: #e69138; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> “It’s hard to forecast whether Russia’s presence will decide the fate of Syria, but it will lengthen the fighting and bloodletting for at least another year because ISIS won’t give up,” the source said.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> On Thursday Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told reporters the Russian presence in Syria is limited to military advisers, technicians and security guards primarily located at an air base near the coastal town of Latakia.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> “As far as we understand, at this stage we are talking about a limited force that includes advisers, a security team and preparations for operating planes and combat helicopters,” Yaalon said.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov admitted on Thursday Russia’s “humanitarian” flights to Syria include military equipment in addition to humanitarian aid.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Iran has allowed Russian cargo planes to enter its airspace en route to Syria.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> “The Russian embassy has now received permission for all the requested flights of Russian planes carrying humanitarian aid to Syria,” the press attache of the Russian embassy in Tehran, Maxim Suslov, told Interfax.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Previously, Bulgarian authorities said they would not permit Russian planes flying to Syria to use the country’s air space.</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> by KURT NIMMO | INFOWARS.COM</div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <br /></div>

IRAN SOLDIERS JOIN RUSSIA IN SYRIA? - ISRAELI REPORT

Iran's elite Quds Force to fight against U.S. proxies Hundreds of Iranian soldiers have been sent to Syria to to help Russia defe...

Read Article »

OVERTHROW OF SYRIA PLANNED BEFORE ARAB SPRING

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7APliYwx_oJ2ETSS1eRI2l2i-rWUXoBmFpGSm0C0mEMRE6dTYQ_B-G9bj_Wslg2e_Mdh_fK9OYqy_2NwAsx0kTAOKYxnSvmlHUNa9uEaK5AEHyT-cjZl_8BUv3lD4RQ1mnJnNtbVWi0/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7APliYwx_oJ2ETSS1eRI2l2i-rWUXoBmFpGSm0C0mEMRE6dTYQ_B-G9bj_Wslg2e_Mdh_fK9OYqy_2NwAsx0kTAOKYxnSvmlHUNa9uEaK5AEHyT-cjZl_8BUv3lD4RQ1mnJnNtbVWi0/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">In his new book, “The WikiLeaks Files,” Julian Assange writes that the United States had planned to overthrow Syria long before the 2011 uprising and current proxy war against the government of Bashar al-Assad.</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">A chapter in the book references a 2006 diplomatic cable from the U.S. Ambassador to Syria, William Roebuck, which discusses a plan to force the Syrian government to overreact to perceived threats as the orchestrated Arab Spring unfolded.</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">Assange writes:</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">That plan was to use a number of different factors to create paranoia within the Syrian government; to push it to overreact, to make it fear there’s a coup… so in theory it says “We have a problem with Islamic extremists crossing over the border with Iraq, and we’re taking actions against them to take this information and make the Syrian government look weak, the fact that it is dealing with Islamic extremists at all.”</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">Arab Spring Engineered by “Color Revolution” NGOs</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">According to the establishment media and Western historians the so-called Arab Spring that swept the Middle East and North Africa in 2011 was a spontaneous reaction to corrupt and tyrannical governments in the region.</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">In April, 2001, however, The New York Times reported the demonstrations and riots were nurtured by the United States and a panoply of “color revolution” NGOs, most notably the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House and the National Endowment for Democracy, the latter admitted to now do work formerly conducted by the CIA.</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">“It is hardly a speculative theory then, that the uprisings were part of an immense geopolitical campaign conceived in the West and carried out through its proxies with the assistance of disingenuous organizations,” writes Tony Cartalucci.</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">“Preparations for the ‘Arab Spring’ began not as unrest had already begun, but years before the first ‘fist’ was raised, and within seminar rooms in D.C. and New York, US-funded training facilities in Serbia, and camps held in neighboring countries, not within the Arab World itself.”</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">Direct evidence of these preparations surfaced in April, 2011 when the AFP ran an article detailing how State Department under Hillary Clinton sponsored “efforts to help activists in Arab and other countries gain access to technology that circumvents government firewalls, secures telephone text and voice messages, and prevents attacks on websites.”</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">Michael Posner, the assistant Secretary of State for human rights and labor, told reporters the United States would</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">“basically provide both technology, training, and diplomatic support to allow people to freely express their views.”</span></span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">In 2013 Roland Dumas, a former French minister for Foreign Affairs, told a French television station the British were part of the plan to destabilize Syria.</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">“I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business,” Dumas said. “I met with top British officials, who confessed to me that they were preparing something in Syria.”</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">“This was in Britain not in America. Britain was organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria.”</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">Despite evidence the Arab Spring and the proxy war in Syria were planned well in advance, the corporate media in the United States, including publically funded leftist media such as Democracy Now, have pushed propaganda that the uprisings were indigenous.</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">“As a growing corpus of research suggests, the careful coordination of color revolutions is designed to provide a false impression of US-backed popular political enfranchisement while overlooking the multitude of more complex political and geopolitical factors,” writes James F. Tracy.</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">“Democracy Now’s celebrated reportage has performed the integral function of solidifying the progressive left’s uncritical acceptance of the ‘Arab Spring’ propaganda operation, thus abetting Western imperialism and paving the way for a regional or even global conflagration.”</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">Julian Assange’s book and the work of WikiLeaks provide a counter weight to a propaganda campaign masking the real history and workings of the so-called “Arab Spring” and the “civil war” in Syria.</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">“The WikiLeaks Files” and its revelations will be ignored by the corporate media as it continues to weave falsehoods about Syria.</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16.5px;">There is a preponderance of evidence demonstrating the proxy war in Syria was orchestrated by Washington and Saudi Arabia as an offensive against Shia Iran. The primary objective is to balkanize the Middle East and, in the case of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Emirates, elevate Sunni Wahhabism as the primary variant of Islam in religious and political control of the Middle East and its natural resources.</span></h5> <h5 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"> <span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></h5> <div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wwbd9b86SB0?rel=0" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 425px; overflow: hidden !important; width: 620px;" width="620"></iframe></div>

OVERTHROW OF SYRIA PLANNED BEFORE ARAB SPRING

In his new book, “The WikiLeaks Files,” Julian Assange writes that the United States had planned to overthrow Syria long before the 2011 ...

Read Article »

Bulgaria Blocks Airpace for Russian Syria Flights

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzv548A9TaIzDeFs-TNrFufkNx4mGmMC3IzMkhyhgPtJpjAEd6jERe5dXc6KMkEmNSLlA6knoqpMqXPzjt_jYMMS3Ec8JTaNQ_hBTdaQlWjDWp6kEybhCPtloiHwl6QHvePzaiMhOtcY/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTzv548A9TaIzDeFs-TNrFufkNx4mGmMC3IzMkhyhgPtJpjAEd6jERe5dXc6KMkEmNSLlA6knoqpMqXPzjt_jYMMS3Ec8JTaNQ_hBTdaQlWjDWp6kEybhCPtloiHwl6QHvePzaiMhOtcY/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> On Monday we flagged a notable escalation in the build up to the geopolitical “main event” in Syria where, thanks largely to the West’s ambition to break Gazprom’s leverage over Europe, the US and Russia are one “accidental” run-in away from taking the “proxy” out of the term “proxy war.”<br /> <br /> With the Kremlin now ramping up its military presence around the Assad stronghold of Latakia, the US is scrambling to do anything and everything in its power to slow the Russian build up – including putting pressure on Greece to deny Russia the use of its airspace for supply flights to Syria.<br /> <br /> This isn’t the first time Greece has found itself in the middle of Cold War 2.0, as Athens (and notably Panagiotis Lafazanis) used Greece’s geographical position to field competing gas pipeline bids from Washington and Moscow during the height of the country’s fraught bailout negotiations.<br /> <br /> So while we wait for Greece to pick a side between the US and Russia by either allowing Moscow to use its airspace on the way to supplying Assad or else snubbing the Kremlin and jeopardizing a potentially lucrative gas deal, at least one country has been quick to make a decision: Bulgaria…<br /> <br /> Why, you ask? According to a spokeswoman, the Bulgarian foreign ministry has “enough information that makes [it] have serious doubts about the cargo of the planes, which is the reason for the refusal.”<br /> <br /> What’s particularly amusing here is that all of the above (Greece’s reluctance to immediately acquiesce to Washington’s demands, Bulgaria’s move to deny Russia use of its airspace, and the whole Syrian civil war) is the direct result of energy disputes. As mentioned above, Greece is being pulled between The Southern Gas Corridor and the Turkish Stream, while the South Stream debacle means Bulgaria has no reason not to side with the West. And of course the entire crisis in Syria all comes down the proposed Qatar-Turkey line.<br /> <br /> So once again, it all comes down to natural gas and if the conflict in Syria has taught us anything so far, it’s that when it comes to energy, the world’s most powerful nations are willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives to protect their interests.<br /> <br /> by Zero Hedge

Bulgaria Blocks Airpace for Russian Syria Flights

On Monday we flagged a notable escalation in the build up to the geopolitical “main event” in Syria where, thanks largely to the West’s a...

Read Article »

US DEMANDS GREECE CLOSE AIRSPACE TO RUSSIAN HUMANITARIAN AID FOR SYRIA

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI9unQwSlHYmbFrOz0sQ2xfdZN4tCBPTROCWV9n_BSCcZcQklBRXvLRt3KtDFGV4oX4lTkVlK3U0ZWIH4g0nRIY88Sg0iiW2cugCd2cGFkZcKGB0HGqMIxDoxG3ZpBeH_kL5o0nK5ON9E/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI9unQwSlHYmbFrOz0sQ2xfdZN4tCBPTROCWV9n_BSCcZcQklBRXvLRt3KtDFGV4oX4lTkVlK3U0ZWIH4g0nRIY88Sg0iiW2cugCd2cGFkZcKGB0HGqMIxDoxG3ZpBeH_kL5o0nK5ON9E/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> The government in Athens has refused a demand by the United States to close its airspace to Russian aircraft ferrying what it describes as humanitarian aid to Syria.<br /> <br /> “On Saturday, U.S. Embassy [in Athens] appealed to the Greek government with a request to prohibit the flights of Russian aircraft in the FIR Athens. The Greek government refused to do so, in order not to worsen relations with Russia,” an anonymous Greek diplomat told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.<br /> <br /> Russia will use the air space throughout the month of September.<br /> <br /> On Friday Vladimir Putin admitted during an economic forum in Vladivostok his country is providing the Syrian military with weapons and training.<br /> <br /> The Obama administration indicated last week it is monitoring reports that Russia is conducting military operations in Syria. The White House said any attempt by Russia to support the Syrian government would be “destabilizing and counter-productive.”<br /> <br /> Closer Greek-Russian Ties<br /> <br /> In June Russia and Greece signed a deal to build a $2.27 pipeline through Greece. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made two trips to Moscow to consult with the Russians.<br /> <br /> The gas pipeline will allow Russia to avoid transit to markets in Europe through Ukraine where a US State Department supported coup installed a government hostile to Russia.<br /> <br /> by KURT NIMMO | INFOWARS.COM

US DEMANDS GREECE CLOSE AIRSPACE TO RUSSIAN HUMANITARIAN AID FOR SYRIA

The government in Athens has refused a demand by the United States to close its airspace to Russian aircraft ferrying what it describes a...

Read Article »

PUTIN ADMITS RUSSIAN MILITARY SUPPORT FOR SYRIAN ARMY

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3xr1j_yfOng6xe5B7Jz626HFvXLmnyENpqD1HTE0XZAWmr6y7eUFI54jmMJDlrJ0GkuwwqnnCYvAephHFwZBkZdJPBYrmxmq8oNcjZaw4eLgkoRB02Af_O0Sy5OHBWe3LGpvu7K5BEWQ/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3xr1j_yfOng6xe5B7Jz626HFvXLmnyENpqD1HTE0XZAWmr6y7eUFI54jmMJDlrJ0GkuwwqnnCYvAephHFwZBkZdJPBYrmxmq8oNcjZaw4eLgkoRB02Af_O0Sy5OHBWe3LGpvu7K5BEWQ/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Vladimir Putin admitted on Friday during an economic forum in Vladivostok his country is providing Bashar al-Assad’s military with weapons and training.<br /> <br /> The Russian president said it was “premature” to talk about direct military support for the Syrian army but said Russia is “already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and training soldiers, with our weapons,” RIA Novosti reported.<br /> <br /> Putin added his government has not ruled out direct military support in the future.<br /> <br /> He said supplies sent to Syria fulfill contracts dating back five to seven years.<br /> <br /> <br /> Russia has a naval facility in Tartus, Syria, on the Mediterranean. In November, 2011 a Russian flotilla led by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov visited Tartus to show support for the al-Assad government at the outbreak hostilities between the government and US and Gulf Emirate supported mercenaries.<br /> <br /> On Thursday the Obama administration indicated it is monitoring reports that Russia is conducting military operations in Syria. The White House said any attempt by Russia to support the Syrian government would be “destabilizing and counter-productive.”<br /> <br /> On Wednesday state television in Damascus ran video footage of what appears to be Russian armored vehicles supporting Syrian troops fighting anti-Assad mercenaries in Latakia.<br /> <br /> Mercenary groups also posted images to social media they said showed Russian jets and drones operating over the Idlib province.<br /> <br /> Behind the Anti-ISIS Rhetoric<br /> <br /> During remarks Friday Putin said Russia would like to “create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism” and added to that “end, we hold consultations with our American partners.”<br /> <br /> He said he had “personally spoken on the issue with US President Obama.”<br /> <br /> Last September, however, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said the United States is presenting a “two-faced stance” and a “double standard” in the supposed war against ISIS in Syria.<br /> <br /> Evidence reveals jihadi terrorist groups in Syria are supported by the United States, a coalition of Gulf Emirate states led by Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.<br /> <br /> Over the last two years the distinction between “moderate” mercenary groups fighting to overthrow al-Assad and extremist groups such as al-Nusra and ISIS has all but disappeared.<br /> <br /> “Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of,” The New York Times reported in April 2013.<br /> <br /> In May a declassified US Defense Intelligence Agency document from 2012 revealed the United States and its partners supported the Islamic State and planned to establish a Salafist principality in Syria.<br /> <br /> According to investigative reporter Nafeez Ahmed, the “leaked document reveals that in coordination with the Gulf states and Turkey, the West intentionally sponsored violent Islamist groups to destabilize Assad, despite anticipating that doing so could lead to the emergence of an ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).”<br /> <br /> As Tim Anderson notes, cooperation between so-called “moderate” groups and ISIS is predicated on destroying “a common enemy in Syria: ‘the Nussayri regime,’ a sectarian way of referring to supposedly apostate Muslims,” namely the Shia Alawites that ruled the country prior to the mercenary war.<br /> <br /> Many Syrians view the US coalition ostensibly devised to combat ISIS in Syria as a ruse to take out al-Assad. Russia has also said it believes airstrikes aimed at ISIS are designed to overthrow the government.<br /> <br /> Russia’s involvement in Syria is an effort to help the government of al-Assad defend itself against the increasingly brutal proxy war pursued by the United States and its partners, although Russia has not explicitly stated this is the case.<br /> <br /> While the push for a no-fly zone in Syria enforced by the United States has lost momentum over the last few weeks, on Friday the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the US, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, joined the Syrian American Council and other groups in calling for one “to protect civilians from ongoing aerial attacks.”<br /> <br /> If the US and its partners eventually establish a no-fly zone in Syria, Russian aircraft supporting Syrian military operations would ultimately be targeted and the proxy war in Syria may escalate into a shooting war between the United States and Russia.<br /> <br /> by KURT NIMMO | INFOWARS.COM

PUTIN ADMITS RUSSIAN MILITARY SUPPORT FOR SYRIAN ARMY

Vladimir Putin admitted on Friday during an economic forum in Vladivostok his country is providing Bashar al-Assad’s military with weapon...

Read Article »

Is The Russian army is beginning to engage in Syria?

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOoSPkdt-Go3oUoBfd5mjv2eN1qDLMAU4kbeeGJ3TVwRDaLgEpb-VkEJkPiTsL0TNv7t3MRd745RMZYOm1fgxcgn3aU6gqWF5rkFIoxt7xBJrrvvk-VedGIIKG6G_IP8F0pURtkPefsBE/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOoSPkdt-Go3oUoBfd5mjv2eN1qDLMAU4kbeeGJ3TVwRDaLgEpb-VkEJkPiTsL0TNv7t3MRd745RMZYOm1fgxcgn3aU6gqWF5rkFIoxt7xBJrrvvk-VedGIIKG6G_IP8F0pURtkPefsBE/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> A profound and significant change has just occurred in the Levant – the Russian army has begun to engage against terrorism in Syria. Although Russia has been absent from the international scene since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and although it is moving with care, it has just created a Russo-Syrian Commission, has begun supplying weapons, sharing intelligence, and sending advisors. All of this is more or less coordinated with the White House.<br /> <br /> After having negotiated a regional alliance against the Islamic Emirate which implied Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey, Russia suddenly had to abandon its strategy after the Turkish turn-around. Ankara has in fact decided to break off its ties with Moscow, and has cancelled, without genuine motive, the contract for the gas pipe-line Turkish Stream, created, in partenership with Ukraine, an international Islamic Brigade intended to destabilise Crimea [1]. It has also come to the help of the Islamic Emirate in their fight against the Kurds of the PKK and the YPG.<br /> <br /> In the same way, the White House has been obliged to change its own strategy after the manœuvers by General John Allen, who agreed to help President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to create a « security zone »for the Islamic Emirate in Northern Syria [2].<br /> <br /> Finally, Moscow and Washington have coordinated<br /> - the removal of Patriot missiles stationed in Turkey ;<br /> - the creation of a Russo-Syrian military Commission.<br /> <br /> <b>The end of the no-fly zone</b><br /> The Patriot missiles had been installed by NATO in Turkey as from January 2013, in order to prevent the Syrian Air Force from deploying on the frontier. As a result, the jihadists of the al-Nusra Front (al-Qaïda) were able to seize the North of the country, and as from the summer of 2014, this no-fly zone was occupied by the Islamic Emirate.<br /> <br /> Thus, during the battle of Kobane, the Syrian Air Force were unable to bomb the Islamic Emirate, and Syria was obliged to attempt a land attack to save the city. Since it was unable to advance the last thirty kilometres, the Atlantist Press presented the Kurdish forces of the YPG as being independent of Damascus, although the Syrian Arab Republic had supplied it with weapons and was paying its soldiers.<br /> <br /> The Patriot missiles, initially deployed by Germany and Holland, are today German and Spanish. They will first of all be revised and modernised, then redeployed in Lithuania, at the Russian frontier.<br /> <br /> The entrance of the Russian army into the war against Syria<br /> Although Russia had abstained from participating in military operations since the beginning of the conflict, it has now created a Russo-Syrian Military Commission. And yet, NATO had organised all the events concerned in what was called the « Arab spring », including the war against Syria, and coordinated foreign jihadist groups and their Libyan and Syrian collaborators, called « rebels », from the Turkish base in Izmir [3], now also the location of LancCom (command of the land troops of the 28 member states of the Atlantic Alliance).<br /> <br /> Within a few weeks, many military advisors arrived in Damascus.<br /> <br /> Six Mikoyan-Gourevitch MiG-31’s were delivered. These planes are the best interceptors in the world. They had been bought in 2007, but the contract had been frozen. Their delivery is not affected by the arms embargo, since they can not be used in operations concerning the maintenance of law and order, but only for national defence, in this case, possible incursions by Israël or Turkey. Under various pretexts, these two states acted many time during the war to support the jihadists whenever they were in difficulty.<br /> <br /> So, on the 30th January 2013, Tsahal bombed the Centre for Military Research in Jemraya, under the pretext of destroying weapons that were destined for Hezbollah. In fact, the attack was intended to destroy a communications brief-case captured by the Syrian Arab Army, containing NATO satellite data, before they were able to decipher it [4]. The operation had been commanded by the Israeli Air Force in coordination with the Free Syrian Army, which in turn was directed by officers of the French Foreign Legion under the supervision of NATO’s LandCom.<br /> <br /> Simultaneously, and for the first time, the Russian army has just supplied satellite images to Syria. This decision, awaited for five years, inverses the military situation. Indeed, so far the jihadists have often escaped the Syrian Arab Army thanks to satellite images supplied by NATO in real time. Even though, over a six-month period, it would seem that NATO no longer shares its intelligence with the Islamic Emirate, but only with the al-Nusra Front (al-Qaïda).<br /> <br /> Finally, the Russian military advisors possess a wealth of information which they use in order to study the possibility of an international deployment under banner of the UNO. They have to present a report to the Kremlin which would also study the possibility of a Russian operation as well as a joint operation by the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).<br /> <br /> The CSTO will be meeting in Douchanbe, Tadjikistan, on the 15th September. A deployment by the CSTO had aleady been envisaged, in June 2012, during the preparation for the « Geneva Conference 1 » [5]. Indeed, this military alliance includes three states with a Muslim population – Kazakhstan, Kirghizistan, and Tadjikistan, who are better prepared than Russia to fight terrorists who claim to be Islamist. However, at the time, the CSTO had no agreement with the UNO to carry out peace operations. This situation was resolved on the 28th September 2012 – it could also be applied as well in Afghanistan as in Syria [6].<br /> <br /> <b>The limits of the cooperation between the Kremlin and the White House</b><br /> In any event, the cooperation between the Kremlin and the White House has its limits – Russia wants to eradicate the jihadists before they turn against her, while the United States hope that some of them could be re-activated in other conflicts, as was earlier the case in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chechnya and Kosovo.<br /> <br /> Already, certain elements of Daesh have arrived in Kherson (Ukraine), where a so-called « Crimean Government in Exile » already exists.<br /> <br /> It is apparent that from the US side, the withdrawal of the Patriot missiles is a trap. Washington would be happy for Russia to reduce the number of active jihadists, but at the same time, it would not be dismayed if it were to get bogged down in Syria. That is why the Russian bear is advancing prudently.<br /> <br /> Source: Thierry Meyssan, VoltaireNet, 24 August 2015. Translated by Pete Kimberley.

Is The Russian army is beginning to engage in Syria?

A profound and significant change has just occurred in the Levant – the Russian army has begun to engage against terrorism in Syria. Alth...

Read Article »