....And people should have tried satyagrah against the SS & the Japanese.People forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki so fast......
There is a response for this post in astrology threadhabal wrote:An attack on southern Europe was predicted by some astrologer long time ago. Was it Nostradamus ? Muslims or someone from middle-east invading Vatican etc was predicted.
My read of that article is different. It is a indication from US to Tlass's backers that it does not back Tlass and so its asking the backers to prefarably look somewhere else.Johann wrote:This is worth reading for those who are convinced that the FSA and the civilian protesters as foreign creations are happy to accept orders from the the West, Turkey and the GCC.
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/31/37 ... ctors.html
That's like asking Pakistan to openly declare war and not rely on the LeT.Theo_Fidel wrote: The thing that annoys me is the half war / half peace attempts. If the west backs the rebels, it should come out and declare it so. It is this shyness that allows Al-Qaeda types to sneak in.
I cant count the number of times that its been claimed that the Arab Spring is fake, and largely orchestrated by external forces.Virupaksha wrote: Johann, you are again trying to knock down strawmans, which no one has said or implied. Where has anyone even implied that the civilian protestors are outside creations?
Actually the Americans and the French love Tlass. His sister has been a fixture in French elite circles for years.My read of that article is different. It is a indication from US to Tlass's backers that it does not back Tlass and so its asking the backers to prefarably look somewhere else.
Then, 28 minutes ago, another tweet -In the last 5 minutes, I heard at least 6 explosions falling in/ close to town where we are. Crazy. #Syria @akhbar
Breaking: #libya long time reporter @jenanmoussa was killed in #Syria along side 4 #FSA terrorists. More details to come!
Press TV Aleppo correspondent tweets that the Turkish general may be released in exchange for 48 Iranian pilgrims kidnapped recently.Gunjur wrote:Syria Arrests Turkish Army General in Aleppo: Fars news
Would be interesting to see what would be the fallout if this is true.
Pranav wrote:3 hours ago, a tweet from reporter Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa), of Al Aan TV, Dubai, embedded with Al Qaeda / FSA around Aleppo.
Then, 28 minutes ago, another tweet -In the last 5 minutes, I heard at least 6 explosions falling in/ close to town where we are. Crazy. #Syria @akhbar
Breaking: #libya long time reporter @jenanmoussa was killed in #Syria along side 4 #FSA terrorists. More details to come!
Kate J Chase @Kate_ChaseRT @jenanmoussa: "reports of my death greatly exaggerated" RT Breaking: #libya long time reporter @jenanmoussa killed in #Syria.
For the people of Aleppo, their only hope is Syria's security forces restoring order. In the pockets of Syria's largest city the so-called "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) has dug into, a campaign of systematic detention, torture, and mass murder has been carried out against "enemies of the revolution." Demonized as either "Shabiha" or "government supporters," men have been rounded up, lined up against walls, and gunned down en mass. Others await barbaric "drumhead trials" where FSA warlords deal out arbitrary justice under the guise of "Sharia law."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e32094.htm
The Bush administration's decision to disband Iraqi security forces, made shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, was a catalyst for the bloody civil war that followed.
The U.S. is indicating to the Syrian army that it does not want it to dissolve and those not directly involved in atrocities could be part of a successor regime.
It's a ploy to get army commanders to switch sides. Typically such promises will never be honored.Gunjur wrote: The U.S. is indicating to the Syrian army that it does not want it to dissolve and those not directly involved in atrocities could be part of a successor regime.
Time for Kurds and Shias to deploy SAMs in Turkey and Saudi.shyamd wrote:Big escalation next week. SAMs will now be deployed as of next week. More later.
Druze students return from Syria; say 'media exaggerating'
Dozens of Golan residents return home from studies in Damascus; some say security situation 'not as bad as depicted by press,' while others say 'we were in constant danger'
Hundreds of Druze from the village of Bukata in the Golan Heights welcomed back 80 students who returned from Syria Tuesday through the Quneitra Crossing.
Gadir Zuha, a med student, said she was very glad to return to Israel in good health. "It is true that while in Syria we were frightened and sometimes had to remain indoors, but we looked out for one another. From what I could tell, the Syrian people are not against (President Bashar) Assad."
Gadir said she plans to return to Damascus to continue her studies, "despite all that is going on there."
Some of the students told Ynet that the media's depiction of the situation in Syria is exaggerated, but another student said, "They are afraid to tell the truth."
Another student, Zahuha Tagdir, said the group was protected by the Syrian army. "I'm not deterred by all that I here about the situation in Syria, and I plan to return to Damascus to continue my studies," she said.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340 ... 29,00.html
By C. J. CHIVERS
A complete SA-7 system shown in a screen grab from the Facebook profile of Obaida Elwani.
For the first time since the conflict in Syria began last year, an activist opposed to President Bashar al-Assad has publicly presented possible evidence that the antigovernment forces have obtained a heat-seeking, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile.
The photograph at the top of this post, which was published on the Facebook page of Obaida Elwani on Tuesday, shows a complete SA-7 system, an early member of the Stinger class of weapons.
The image clearly shows the missile tube, its battery unit and the grip stock, which ties the system together and makes it possible to fire. Previously, at least one SA-7 missile tube and battery had been documented in the hands of anti-Assad forces. But this is the first time an entire system has been shown.
Caveats are in order, because it is impossible to tell from the Facebook page when and where the image was made. The image has been composed too tightly to confirm that it was shot in Aleppo, and the date is not clear. But if it is legitimate, it lends weight to a report last week by Richard Engel of NBC News about the alleged transfer over the Turkish border of nearly two dozen shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to the rebels.
Whether the SA-7 in the photograph is functional, or how effective an SA-7 would be against Syrian military aircraft, is also unknown. The SA-7 is an old system; its heat-seeking head can be thwarted by countermeasures on many modern military aircraft. And fighters planning to use the system effectively would need training, including on how to select the best angles for attacking aircraft; it is not possible to tell from this image whether the system is in even reasonably competent hands. That said, Syria’s military helicopters, judging from the abundant footage of their activities in recent weeks, could be vulnerable to such weapons – even to old variants like the SA-7, which would also reasonably be expected to change Syrian pilots’ perceptions of the risks of sorties into areas where rebels with SA-7s are present.
In other words, this is potentially a development worth following as the battle for Aleppo grinds on.
Syria rebels abandon frontline Aleppo district
(Reuters) - Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the city of Aleppo have abandoned their positions in a district that has been a frontline of fighting in recent days.
"We have retreated, get out of here," a lone rebel fighter yelled at Reuters journalists as they arrived on Wednesday in the Salaheddine district. A checkpoint that had been manned by rebel fighters for the last week had disappeared, its location marked only by an opposition flag.
Explosions could be heard as incoming gunfire hit buildings in the area. A Syrian government security source told Lebanon's Al-Manar television that Syrian forces were now in control of the Salaheddine district.
Helicopters flew over a police station that was still in rebel hands about 1 km (half a mile) away from Salaheddine. Fighters ran around in chaos shouting into walkie talkies: "The army has entered, the army has entered".
A rebel commander who identified himself as Abu Ali said he had received information that army tanks had entered Salaheddine, adding that he had little additional information because communications were bad.
(Reporting by Hadeel Al Shalchi; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Jon Boyle)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/ ... 9O20120808
"Retired" members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and army are among 48 Iranians taken hostage in Syria by rebels, Tehran has admitted.
Free Syrian Army soldiers guard a group of Iranians abducted a day earlier and promising more attacks on Iranian targets in Damascus, Syria Photo: AP
9:56AM BST 08 Aug 2012
In an embarrassing u-turn for Iran, which has always insisted that the hostages are pilgrims, Ali Akbar Salehi, the Iranian Foreign Minister, was forced to admit that military personnel are among them.
"A number of the (hostages) are retired members of the Guards and the army. Some others were from other ministries," he said on Weds.
But Mr Salehi stressed that the former military personnel were exclusively on a religious pilgrimage to Damascus when they were seized on Saturday.
Iranian officials had previously claimed the 48 Iranians were only pilgrims travelling to a holy Muslim site in Damascus. This was the first time that Tehran has admitted that any of them had a connection to its military.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the trip was arranged by the Samen al-Aemmeh agency, which caters only for members and families of Revolutionary Guards or the Basij, the Iranian loyalist militia.
On Sunday, Syrian rebels posted a video of the hostages and claimed they were members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards on a "reconnaissance mission." Tehran denied the charge.
On its Facebook page, the rebel group on Monday said three of the Iranians had been killed in shelling by Syrian regime forces on their position.
It threatened to execute other hostages if the bombardment did not stop.
It was not possible to independently verify the deaths of the three Iranians. The fate of the other hostages was not known.
"Fortunately, in the video clip that was broadcast of these people, we see that these people are pilgrims and have no equipment other than clothes, personal items and identification cards," Mr Salehi said.
He said the 48 abducted were in one of three buses taking Iranians to the airport in Damascus on Saturday. "There were three buses, two of which reached the airport," he said.
Iran-Hezbollah: Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah received Iranian Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Saed Jalili in Beirut late on Monday. The press release said the men discussed the situations in Lebanon and Syria.
Comment: Beirut is Jalili's second stop, after Damascus, on what appears to be a fact-finding trip for the Iranian leadership. The ability of a senior Iranian security official to move in and out of Damascus with ease again raises the question of contrasts between media reporting and the real situation on the ground. Apparently diplomatic movements and air traffic in and out of Damascus are normal.
{Explains why SAMs suddenly make an appearance in Syria!!!}
For those analysts who this week suggested the Iranian crescent of friendly governments from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea has been broken, their conclusion seems premature.
For new analysts: The movements of diplomats and commercial air traffic are surer indicators of security conditions than fighting reports in the media. Commercial air traffic is one of the first activities to stop at the least sign of hostilities.
Thus, a good general indicator of the security situation in Aleppo that is not regularly available in open sources would be the status of commercial flight activity in and out of Aleppo. As of Sunday, it appeared to be normal, which would be unusual for a city that was "engulfed in fighting," as some news outlets reported.
Maybe the 100,000 is like the mythical 1000 year war that Paksi claim to fight!Syria: Comment. Feedback directed NightWatch to a recent interview by retired US Major General Vallely with a senior leader of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The interview produced a number of interesting comments by the Syrian opposition leader.
The FSA controls only 60% of the fighters. Al Qaida fighters represent less than 1% of the fighters. The others are Salafists and various extremists and some moderates. A US TV news reporter from the Pentagon this week said the Defense Department has identified nine different Sunni opposition groups.
The FSA leader said his force numbers 100,000 fighters but lacks arms. He said most weapons enter Syria from Turkey and lots are lost. The opposition requires arms. He said the FSA knows how to control al Qaida and expected the Muslim Brotherhood would become the political leader of a post-Asad government because of it is so well organized.
The FSA leader said the Syrian government forces, essentially the Alawite defense forces, number 100,000 fighters.
Comment: The numbers are important because force ratios, firepower and logistics determine the winner. The side with the most and best guns always wins in a violent internal security problem.
The force ratios the FSA leader stated signify that the FSA cannot win, as those ratios now stand, even without taking into account Syrian government firepower. On the other hand, with only 100,000 soldiers, assuming the figure is roughly accurate, the Syrian government cannot cleanse every major town of Sunni fighters.
Thus the security situation is chronic, but not terminal for either side. For the government, the edge in Syrian government capabilities hinges on Russia. For the opposition, the supply line depends on Turkey. (The FSA leader probably should not have been so candid, assuming he was telling the truth.)
The FSA leader estimated that 50,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) soldiers are assisting the Syrian forces, without providing evidence.
Comment: It is credible that a significant number of IRGC are in Syria, just as it is certain that American special forces are assisting the Syrian opposition, but in smaller numbers. The number of IRGC soldiers is significant because the Syrian opposition cannot win if Iran has committed 50,000 IRGC troops to Syria. That would represent a large well-trained force.
{Explains the Iranian hostage taking. To force Iran to withdraw its contingent. Next they will be killed to increase the pressure. For the opposition to win the Iranians have to be removed.}
Breaking apart the statements of the FSA leader, the FSA emerges as the most vocal of the opposition groups. It might be the largest, as it claims, but it is not the best armed. The numbers it claims to have mean that it stands no chance of overthrowing the Syrian government, as long as the Russians provide the supplies and Iran reinforces the Alawites. A one-to-one force ratio always favors the government, for obvious reasons.
The FSA leader was upbeat, but he failed to appreciate that his numbers undermined his optimism. No numbers are confirmed independently, of course. The only reason to credit some of his numbers is that the professional core of the Syrian Army was 140,000 two years ago, which included Sunni officers and soldiers. Considering defections by the Sunnis, a figure of 100,000 mainly Alawite and Baathist soldiers is credible. It also reinforces that the Alawite core remains loyal and responsive to central command and control.
There is no independent evidence that 50,000 IRGC are in Syria, but that number is well within Iranian capabilities, if the Tehran government has decided to defend Syria.
At the same time, the level of fighting in Syria in no way indicates there are 100,000 armed opposition fighters or that so many are under any chain of command or disciipline.
To put in perspective the significance of 100,000 fighters, in Iraq at the height of the insurgency, the Sunni fighters in Anbar Province had 100,000 fighters -- according to US reports about the number of monthly bribes paid to get them to stop fighting. They mounted and sustained 300 firefights and attacks a day against the 150,000 or so US armed forces almost indefinitely, until the money was paid.
The Syrian fighting is not close to that NightWatch benchmark, indicating there are far fewer opposition fighters than the FSA leader claimed.
Iranians obviously need moral cover - as does any nation. Asad is using Mahdi army and Hezbollah and some IRGC as well as advisors ( a lot of advisors). Iranian intel is helping counter the psyops and media stuff too.Theo_Fidel wrote:Shyam,
Those beefy looking 30-40 year olds do not look ‘retired’ to me. There is a trained menace about them. Note how the sit in an apparent regimental chain of command type of manner. It would not surprise me if substantial chunk of Assad army is now Iranian. This is probably the most loyal crowd. During the Iranian revolution put down, Shabiha of Arab appearance showed up in large numbers to brutally shoot and put down the protestors. This prevented the Iranian military from having to question its loyalty.
This guy was on Daily Show Jason Jones investigationWe speak with Thomas Drake, who was targeted after challenging waste, mismanagement and possible constitutional violations at the National Security Agency, but the case against him later collapsed. Drake was one of several sources for a Baltimore Sun article about a $1.2 billion NSA experimental program called "Trailblazer" to sift through electronic communications for national security threats. "My first day on the job was 9/11. And it was shortly after 9/11 that I was exposed to the Pandora’s box of illegality and government wrongdoing on a very significant scale," Drake says. He alleged that the program was inefficient compared to a rival program called "ThinThread" and also violated Americans’ privacy rights. As a result, he faced 35 years in prison for charges under the Espionage Act, but was not ever actually accused of spying. Instead, he was accused of holding on to classified documents in his basement that he says he did not even know were classified.
