Levant crisis - III

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 14 Oct 2016 20:50

there are increasing rumblings of Sunni rage (yeah... go figure!)

it seems that the sunni's have lost all their old power bastions to the shia and other heretics and are raging for a return to the good old dins

am still trying to get my head around this...

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 14 Oct 2016 20:57

al masdar:

BAGHDAD, IRAQ (9:45 P.M.) - The Iraqi Armed Forces have made their final preparations for their long-anticipated Mosul offensive and now they await final approval from the Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider Al-'Abadi.

The Iraqi Army's Chief of Staff, General 'Uthman Al-Ghanami, confirmed on Thursday that the final preparations for this upcoming offensive are complete, adding that the Kurdish Peshmerga will also be participating in the battle.

This offensive will be led by the Iraqi Army's 9th, 15th, and 16th divisions; they will also be joined by the Federal Police, Popular Mobilization Units (Hashd Al-Sha'abi), Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), and several Sunni tribes.

The U.S. Coalition has already begun bombing Mosul, hitting several targets that belong to the Islamic State terrorists, while the Iraqi Armed Forces prepare to launch their ground assault.

----
it seems the PKK might also take part from the north , something the turks sitting in their illegal base north of mosul will look to interdict

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 14 Oct 2016 21:01

peshmerga from east and north ,
iraqi army from south and west,
nineveh units from west perhaps
police to help displaced people and screen for IS trying to escape
Hashd PMU perhaps in west to interdict any ISIS columns

I think another force has forked off to take Hawija, another nest of IS.

while BRF was down, a epic event happened near fallujah soon after the city was retaken...two huge convoys of ISIS one of them 11km long were detected and reported by arab tribes in the desert...trying to escape to syria....iraqi AF units savagely attacked them , in concert with tribes setting up ambushes to delay them , later on coalition planes taking part in the aborted capture of albu kamal by the NSA in the west were called back to bombard the remnants...one video showed a L shaped turn on the road with vehicles and somehow the SFW type weapons homed in precisely and hit the vehicles onlee ... pretty amazing

soon we could see such things in the vast deserts west of Mosul leading toward Shahdadi and deir azzor ...

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 14 Oct 2016 21:07

footage from that night near fallujah and day after

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 14 Oct 2016 21:09

detailed analysis of the events that night June29 or June30

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/20 ... massacres/

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 14 Oct 2016 21:13

here is the video of the northern convoy supposedly attacked by a lone typhoon and 2 reaper drones . some kind of SFW or cluster takes out a lot of vehicles after the first GBU weapon

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 14 Oct 2016 21:16

its time for the hunt to begin.

night has fallen.

H-Hour approaches.

to Minas Tirith!

the yezidi and assyrian militias will be particularly merciless on any captured ISIS

GShankar · Post by **GShankar** » 14 Oct 2016 21:19

I am NO MAN!!! only for all those wimmen troops.

GShankar · Post by **GShankar** » 14 Oct 2016 21:28

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/10/13/kurd ... ks-report/

Kurdish Peshmerga preparing to battle ISIS in homemade tanks

Warfare is terrible, but it does breed ingenuity. One side develops a weapon, and another develops a counter. It's how we humans developed the bow and arrow, armor, firearms, battleships, fighter jets, surface-to-air missiles, and nuclear weapons. And in Iraq, it's this progressive escalation that's led to, well, Mad Max.

As the battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul rages, the Kurdish Peshmerga have started converting trucks and other large vehicles into armored doom machines. According to The Drive, the Peshmerga outfitted its homemade tanks with armor (duh), heavy machine guns, and even missile launchers. Oh, and the black paint adds a degree of psychological firepower to the equation.

The Mad Max treatment should help reinforce the Peshmerga's efforts against ISIS. The Islamists have had a stranglehold on northern Iraq for years, in part because the Peshmerga haven't had the same kind of firepower. Here's hoping the homemade armor helps level the playing field and allows the Kurds to crush ISIS in one of its most powerful strongholds.

Y. Kanan · Post by **Y. Kanan** » 14 Oct 2016 22:14

Singha wrote:and thats why he keeps coming back

I broke the cardinal rule: don't feed the troll.

I do the same with monkeys which is why they keep coming back to wreck my balcony. I never learn.

Bhurishravas · Post by **Bhurishravas** » 15 Oct 2016 02:07

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKBN12E0O2

Turkey determined to play role in planned Mosul offensive: Erdogan

Turkey is determined to take part in a planned operation by coalition forces to oust Islamic State from the Iraqi city of Mosul and will implement a "plan B" if it is not involved, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

"We will convey our request to coalition forces that we are determined to take our place in a coalition in Iraq. If they don’t want us, our Plan B will come into effect. If Turkey isn’t safe, nobody in the region is safe," Erdogan said.

"You called us to Bashiqa, and now you are telling us to leave. Excuse me, but I have kin there, I have Turkmen brothers there, Turkish brothers who ask us to come and help," Erdogan said. "Excuse me, but I won’t leave."

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Oct 2016 07:13

He wants in for two reasons...

To have a security zone in north iraq as base against pkk

To have a escape route for high value daesh elites with usa blessings aka kunduz 2.0....these will be released back into wild in syria or directed to other places like russia

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Oct 2016 07:13

He has also co opted barzani into this project probably

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Oct 2016 07:14

The fall guys in these cozy turkoman pasand arrangements are ypg pkk and yezedis and assyrians....

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Oct 2016 09:08

DPRK News Service ‏@DPRK_News
Latest anti-DPRK statements of English secretary of war Boris Johnson dismissed as droppings from the rear of a poorly trained puppy.

habal · Post by **habal** » 15 Oct 2016 09:10

North Korea twitter is managed by a pro.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Oct 2016 10:18

Yes usually very witty

habal · Post by **habal** » 15 Oct 2016 11:20

US considers airstrikes against the Syrian Army
By Leith Fadel - 15/10/20161

U.S. President Barack Obama discussed the possibility of striking Syrian Arab Army installations on Friday during a meeting with his National Security Council (NSC) in Washington D.C.

According to a report from Reuters, the Obama regime is considering the increase in U.S. involvement in Syria, using different methods to attack the Syrian government, including airstrikes on military, radar, anti-aircraft bases, as well as arms deports.

The U.S. is also mulling over a covert military operation that would evade approval from the United Nations Security

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/us ... rian-army/

habal · Post by **habal** » 15 Oct 2016 11:23

VIDEO: Syrian War Report – October 14, 2016: Northern Aleppo Falls Into Hands of Syrian Army - link to South Front

Excerpt: "The Syrian army and the National Defense Forces (NDF) re-launched attempts to seize the Al-Sha’er Gas Fields from ISIS in Homs province. The government forces stormed ISIS positions southwest of the gas fields and reached its gates. Clashes are ongoing in the area."

https://southfront.org/syrian-war-repor ... rian-army/

habal · Post by **habal** » 15 Oct 2016 11:23

The Syrian Air Force is dropping packages in Eastern Aleppo with the Syrian flag & shaving kits for militants to surrender.

https://twitter.com/MmaGreen/status/786975232972115968

The SAAF have been dropping leaflets on East Aleppo (on Syrian Arab Army facebook page).
*****
Airdropped on the Eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo with a message to armed groups:
"It is not manhood to barricade behind civilians and use them for protection, let the civilians out from these neighborhoods and we will take care of them, we will shelter them, after all they are our families and siblings."
Also a shaving razor and soap was dropped with the note.

habal · Post by **habal** » 15 Oct 2016 11:26

Obama to decide on military action in Syria TOMORROW... Will NOT consult with congress!

some psy-ops going on here

" Russia 'FURIOUS' after RAF pilots cleared to shoot down Moscow warplanes "

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/611401 ... a-Al-Assad

habal · Post by **habal** » 15 Oct 2016 11:41

the USA is so deep in it's support of ISIS that it has its back up against the wall.

ISIS wants to do a deal with Turkey-USA that in case it cedes mosul it can atleast relocate 9K rats into DeZ. It won't give up mosul that easy. Reports indicate deal between Obama & al-Saud to relocate ISIS to DeZ from mosul. The only problem here is Iraqi militias blocking ISIS retreat into Syria by positioning themselves in SW mosul. Battle of mosul has started with Qayyarah airbase, the Shirqat area mop up and now on to the large Hawija area. With that cleaned, Mosul 'proper' would be next.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 15 Oct 2016 12:32

Strike on the IS militants near Deir-ez-Zor, october 2016, from the POV of IS .

Note the use of Anti-personel cluster munition in the open

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 15 Oct 2016 17:36

if this is correct, what is Iraqi army fighting against? Kurds?

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 15 Oct 2016 17:48

What is Turkey trying to achieve in Iraq? http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/a ... 56045.html
"You are not my interlocutor. You are not at my level. You are not my equivalent. You are not of the same quality as me," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday, in response to a demand from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi that Turkey withdraw its troops from Iraq

Erdogan also said that Turkey is determined to participate in the operation to retake Mosul from ISIL, with or without Baghdad's approval. Turkish media later reported that Turkey is planning to participate in the Mosul operation with an invitation from the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani.

Turkey's parliament voted two weeks ago to extend the deployment of an estimated 2,000 troops across northern Iraq by a year to combat "terrorist organisations". Around 500 of these troops are stationed in the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq, training local fighters who will join the battle to recapture Mosul.

Iraq condemned what it called a "Turkish incursion", and Abadi warned that Turkey risked "triggering a regional war".

Abadi's government requested an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the issue, and both countries summoned each other's ambassadors in a mounting diplomatic standoff. "It is hard to take Baghdad's threats seriously," Ali Faik Demir, an expert on Turkish foreign policy from Istanbul's Galatasaray University, told Al Jazeera.

"A country that cannot protect its territorial integrity and eliminate terrorist elements within itself cannot threaten a neighbour for protecting its own interests. Especially when that neighbour was invited in to the country by Mosul's former governor to train Sunni militias who are preparing to fight ISIL."

According to analysts the legitimacy of the government in Baghdad is slowly eroding amid sectarian tensions, foreign interventions and the ISIL occupation. Abadi, say analysts, is trying to use Turkey's presence in Northern Iraq to fuel a new brand of Iraqi nationalism to keep at least certain parts of the country intact in the post-ISIL era.

"Baghdad knows that it cannot stand up to Iran or the US," Metin Gurcan, a security analyst and former adviser to the Turkish military, told Al Jazeera. "But it feels that it can use Turkey as a new 'other', against which it can build a new, primarily Shia national identity and band at least 60 percent of the country's population together."

Turkey is concerned that once ISIL fighters are pushed out of Mosul, the government in Baghdad will make it difficult for Sunni residents of the city to live there. Erdogan previously said that Mosul, which was seized by ISIL two years ago, belongs to "its Sunni residents".

After Mosul is recaptured, Erdogan added, "only Sunni Arabs, Turkmen and Sunni Kurds should remain there". His comments prompted the government-backed Shia militias, known as the Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces), to issue a statement condemning Erdogan's "racist proposal to change Mosul's demographics".

But analysts believe that Turkey's concerns about the future of Mosul should not be interpreted as an attempt to reshape a sovereign country's demographic make-up. "We have to remember Iraq's current borders were drawn in the Sykes-Picot agreement," Demir said.

"Those borders are nothing more than arbitrary lines drawn in the sand by the British. So the situation can only be analysed realistically from a city-centric perspective. Mosul is a historically Sunni city and any attempt to change its demographic composition would be a direct threat to Turkey's security," he said.

According to Iraqi analysts, Turkish military presence in Bashiqa represents "a clear violation of national sovereignty. Baghdad views the Turkish forces as an occupation force because the troops were sent to Bashiqa with no prior coordination - or agreement - with the Iraqi government," said Wathiq al-Hashimi, head of the Baghdad-based Iraqi group for strategic studies, an Iraqi think-tank. Al-Hashimi added that Turkey wanted to "control Mosul in order to create a buffer zone that will allow it to target PKK fighters".

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 15 Oct 2016 18:51

Who are the soldiers seen getting hit - does ISIL have camo uniforms? Or are these Eyeraki/SAA?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 15 Oct 2016 19:19

Most definitely daesh

habal · Post by **habal** » 15 Oct 2016 21:33

They are using the Yugoslavia CIA playbook against Syria now.

Militarily:

"In the heat of massed missile strikes on Belgrade and Yugoslavian air defense radar positions in the spring of 1999."

Propaganda for intervention:

"Keeping civilians trapped (hostage) is a tactic well developed during American war against Serbs in former Yugoslavia. Almost everyone knows something about the siege of Sarajevo in Bosnia. However, few are aware that Sarajevo is made of Serbian and Muslim neighborhoods. When Americans ignited war in Bosnia and Sarajevo respectively, Serbian forces let Serbian population leave the city for safety. Muslim fundamentalists acting upon American instruction did just opposite. They forced Muslim population to stay in the city relentlessly provoking Serb forces by sniper fire or terrorizing their own people (On one of such rather numerous occasions, at "Markale open air market", they planted a bomb under the counter blasting more that 80 souls. CNN and BBC crews were already there ready to record the massacre that was a pretext for the air campaign against Bosnian Serbs)."

Strategy:

Balkanization of Syria, divide Syria's territory and let the resources and industries fall in the hands of the Rothschild-Zionists. Exactly what they did in Yugoslavia.

Only issue here is Russia is in forward deployed position in Syria, so they need make another excuse to conduct this bombing raid against SAA in aleppo and even there they can't guarantee safety to their aggressors.

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 16 Oct 2016 02:27

An Urgently Necessary Briefing on Syria by Gary Leupp - Oct14, 2016 (from Counterpunch.org)

1. Syria is country about the size of Washington state, with an extraordinarily long, well-documented and glorious history, and central role in the emergence of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Before the current war, it had a population of around 22 millions. It has never threatened and poses no threat to the United States.

It is a secular, constitutional republic recognized diplomatically by the United Nations and has diplomatic and usually cordial relations with Russia, Iran, China, India, Japan, Brazil, South Africa, the Philippines, Argentina, Tanzania, Cuba, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Oman, etc. It has historically been a battleground of Arab, Iranian and Turkish peoples, at different times a part of the Persian Empire, the Arab-led Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, or the Ottoman Empire. It fell under French colonial administration after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire (centered on what is now Turkey) in the course of World War I. It was briefly declared a kingdom under the Arab Emir Feisal until the French drove him out of Damascus in 1920.
Thereafter the League of Nations awarded France a “mandate” to govern Syria (including Lebanon, which the French made a separate state). This colonial administration continued to 1946. After independence from France, political parties representing merchants and intellectuals from Damascus or Aleppo vied for power while the Communist Party was (to Washington’s alarm) tolerated. The secularist Ba’ath Party founded by Christians, Sunnis and Alawites in 1947 began to organize.

2. The U.S. has a long history of pressing for “regime change” in Syria. After Syria became independent, the U.S. routinely intervened in the country in pursuing its Cold War political agendas. It is widely suspected that the military coup in Syria in 1949 was abetted by the U.S., which saw the previous regime as soft on communism. And the CIA openly acknowledges responsibility for the failed coup attempts designed to install a suitable anti-communist regime called “Operation Straggle” in 1956 and “Operation Wappen” directed by Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. in 1957. The latter included failed bribery efforts which, when exposed, embarrassed the U.S. (After the Syrian government foiled the plot, Washington began accusing Syria of being a “Soviet client.”)

Syria and Egypt briefly united as the United Arab Republic, perceived by the U.S. as pro-Soviet, in 1958; after it collapsed following another coup in 1961, the Baathists rose to power. Following the Baathist coup in neighboring Iraq in February 1963, their comrades in Syria took power. But the Syrian partisans split into factions, and relations between the two countries’ parties soured. Still, they constituted the ruling status quo in both Syria and Iraq from this time to 2003 when the U.S. Occupation dissolved the Baath Party of Iraq. (It then numbered some 400,000 members).

3. Up to the 1967 War, Washington saw the Baathists as the preferred option in the Middle East—a middle force between Islamism and Communism. Promoting secularism, pan-Arabism, and economic nationalism they seemed relatively non-hostile to the U.S. Although during the early years of the Cold War in particular, the U.S. vilified “neutral” parties in general, the Baathists could be partnered with for common purposes. (Saddam Hussein—as you surely know?—after the 1963 coup in Iraq worked with the CIA to round up, torture and execute Iraqi communists in the Qasr al-Nehayat, the Palace of the End. A former senior State Department official who was there told UPI: “We were frankly glad to be rid of them. You ask that they get a fair trial? You have to get kidding. This was serious business.”)

But after Israel’s 1967 victories Washington decided to rethink its Middle East relationships and to defer more and more deeply to the Israel Lobby—-which saw the Baathists as anti-Zionist (hence “anti-Semitic”) pan-Arab nationalists who were dangerously sophisticated (precisely because they were secular, anti-Islamist, and appeal to religious minorities), who provided political and material support to Palestinian and Lebanese groups resisting Israeli occupation, and who demanded the return of the occupied Golan Heights that the entire world agrees is Syrian land—by listing Syria and Iraq as “terror-sponsoring” nations. Meanwhile Syria intervened in Lebanon repeatedly from 1976, ostensibly in response to appeals from different parties in a widening civil conflict involving Palestinians and Israeli invaders after 1982.

4. Still, while looking at Syria through an Israeli lens, and considering it “terrorist,” U.S. policy makers have generally maintained diplomatic relations with Syria (last broken off in 2011) and even sought its cooperation on occasion. Syria, then ruled by the current president’s father Hafez al-Assad, participated in the international coalition organized by George W. Bush against Iraq in 1991 (yes, despite the fact that wings of the Baath Party ruled both Syria and Iraq at the time). A decade later, after 9/11, the U.S. sought Syrian cooperation in another war; it—how do you say it?—rendered covert service to the extraordinary renditions program following cordial talks with Colin Powell and other officials.

5. So far in this century, U.S. officials have been divided between those more or less eager to use U.S. power to bring down the regime, and cooler heads fearing the consequences. The neoconservatives dominating the first George W. Bush administrations had clearly articulated in 1996 (to the Israeli government, which they advised as Israeli-U.S. dual-nationals) their vision of U.S.-triggered regime-change from Iran to Iraq to Syria to make the region more hospitable to Israel.

9/11 allowed the neoconservative regime-changers and their allies to move quickly. Exploiting fear and ignorance, they immediately set about preparing for war on Iraq, even though Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. We know from Gen. Wesley Clark’s often-quoted words, after talking with a Pentagon general shortly after 9/11, that there was a plan already in place to “take out seven countries in 5 years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” There were loud voices in the Bush administration (most notably undersecretary of state John Bolton, who Trump has said is one of the foreign policy experts he most respects) calling for strikes on Syria (as “low-hanging fruit”) and echoing baseless Israeli allegations that the WMDs not found in Iraq must have been sent across the border to Syria. And of course everyone applauded in Sept. 2007 when the Israel Air Force bombed an alleged nuclear reactor in Syria.
In 2005 the Lebanese politician Rafik Hariri was assassinated in Beirut. The U.S. blamed Syria and forced Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon. Yet it maintained relations with Damascus. When Bashar succeeded his father as president in 2000, he had been welcomed as a reformer; Hillary Clinton had still referred to him as such as of 2010. But leaked diplomatic messages indicate that the Damascus U.S. embassy was actively pursuing the overthrow of the president even before 2011.

6. The “Arab Spring” of 2011 ended the discussion about regime change. The neocon faction at the State Department kicked into gear. Hillary Clinton and soon Barack Obama commanded Bashar al-Assad to step down, after some fatal encounters between demonstrators and police afforded them the opportunity to deploy a pre-determined accusation: “He has attacked his own people!” The U.S. closed its Damascus embassy, planning to return after the moderate opposition was in power as planned. The then-Secretary of State is known to have advocated overt military aid to the rebels, although Obama was reluctant. In fact, the U.S. covertly trained 53 Syrian militants in Turkey who as soon as they entered Syria in September 2015 were captured or defected, handing over their weapons. Efforts to turn Syria’s “Arab Spring” into a quick pro-U.S. regime change exercise have failed dismally while resulting in mass slaughter.

7. At the same time, the al-Qaeda forces gathered, quickly becoming the backbone of the anti-Assad armed movement. ISIL (Islamic State in the Levant) appeared in 2013, latest incarnation of the al-Qaeda franchise established in Iraq by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (after the U.S. occupation on 2003 had for the first time made the country an al-Qaeda breeding ground). It carved out a niche of territory in northeast Syria headquartered in Raqqa (pop. 220,000), captured in March 2013. Meanwhile al-Nusra, emerging from a group of jihadis more connected to Al-Qaeda Central in Pakistan, assumed leadership of the armed opposition around the major cities of Damascus and Aleppo. The two groups held unity talks but Al-Qaeda’s al-Zawahiri rejected a merger and the two have been antagonistic ever since.

Al-Nusra has been the indispensable partner of the so-called “Free Syrian Army” since its inception, and has received massive amounts of aid from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

8. In September 2013, as the Syrian state forces made advances against the armed opposition and many analysts concluded that the tide had turned in the conflict, someone released sarin gas in a Damascus suburb. Some blamed it on the Assad regime. John Kerry, Hillary Clinton’s successor as secretary of state, was eager to attack Syria. A year earlier, Obama had indicated that the U.S. would attack if it saw “a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.” Obama was on the verge of ordering an attack when careful Russian diplomacy stayed his hand. Moscow challenged the U.S. attribution of the attack to the regime, pointing instead to the opposition, and in any case facilitated the Assad regime’s resignation of its chemical weapons stockpiles to the UN. This was an important triumph for Russian diplomacy and setback for neocon regime change plans in Syria.

9. The lightning victories of ISIL in early 2014, as it returned to Iraq conquering Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul, were a PR nightmare for the U.S. They were clear testimony that the U.S. destruction of the secular, modern Iraqi state had paved the way for child-beheading, woman-enslaving, monument-destroying crazies. The U.S. had to bomb ISIL, both in Iraq (with permission from the government) and in Syria (where U.S. warplanes, unlike Russian warplanes, operate illegally). From Sept. 2014, the U.S. and its “coalition” have bombed ISIL (although not al-Nusra, which is so entwined with groups the U.S. considers “moderate” that it’s been generally spared attack) while simultaneously maintaining that the main problem—somehow giving rise to this problem of these people who burn people in cages, and bury people alive, and force conversions—is the Baathist regime.
It has been difficult to argue this because it does not make any sense. There is no rational perception of historical causality here. Even if the Syrian example of Baathism constitutes an authoritarian, even in some respects fascistic system (although in its corruption, inefficiency and religious tolerance it seems quite un-fascistic), it did not give rise to al-Qaeda or any of its spin-offs. The U.S did that, by supporting the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan during the 1980s (in league with Osama bin Laden), by destroying the secular state of Iraq, and by targeting the secular state of Syria for regime change. ISIL arose because the U.S. drove Abu Musad al-Zarqawi out of Afghanistan in 2001; alienated the Sunnis of Iraq by the destruction of Iraq’s institutions, producing a base for Zarqawi’s al-Qaeda recruitment; and destabilized Syria, producing more opportunities for caliphate expansion.
To suggest that Assad is responsible for the presence of ISIL in his country (due to his refusal to heed the U.S. diktat, and step down paving the way for the U.S.’s alternative) is just stupid. That it should be so widely repeated by pundits in the mainstream press should be the cause for mass alarm if not despair. Such State Department talking points are the drumbeats of war. As it is, from 2014 there have been many press reports of frustration in both the State Department and Defense Department about the unclarity of the Syrian mission: is it to get ride of Assad (the “main problem”), or to “destroy” (as Obama put it) the child-torturers conjured up by the criminal Iraq invasion? The preponderance of opinion in the State Department seems to have drifted to near-term regime change.

In August 2015 it was widely reported that Gen. David Petraeus, then CIA director, was advocating “using so-called moderate members of al Qaeda’s Nusra Front to fight ISIS in Syria.” Yes that’s right—ally with al-Qaeda, against an even worse al-Qaeda spin-off, the better to topple Assad who stubbornly clings to power defying Washington’s orders.

10. Russia’s intervention in the Syrian conflict, beginning in September 2015 (precisely one year after the U.S. began bombing ISIL targets in the country), intended to shore up the Syrian state against an opposition interwoven with what the U.S. deems the “moderate opposition,” has been a game-changer. Occurring at the request of the Syrian government (which, to repeat, is the government of a secular, constitutional republic recognized diplomatically by the United Nations and has cordial relations with Russia, Iran, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, the Philippines, Argentina, Tanzania, Cuba, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, Oman and many other countries despite Washington’s efforts to isolate and overthrow it), this intervention is legal, while the U.S.’s is not.

The U.S. press has virtually ignored Russian successes in aiding the Syrian army in recapturing Palmyra from the horrific ISIL, which had destroyed the Temple of Bel, and destroying oil convoys heading from terrorist-controlled territory to Turkey for illegal sale. Instead it has, echoing the State Department, merely accused Moscow of supporting the internationally recognized government against rebels whom the U.S. wants to win.

11. Russian actions, by further strengthening the regime’s position and weakening those officially regarded by both Washington and Moscow as terrorists, forced the U.S. to respond positively to Russian appeals for joint action against the latter groups. On Sept. 9 Kerry and Lavrov agreed on a plan for a one-week ceasefire (to which the Syrian government agreed) between state forces and the “legitimate” (U.S.-backed) opposition. During this period, the latter would separate themselves from al-Nusra to avoid being bombed themselves.
These measures were to be followed by coordinated U.S.-Russian action against the terrorists while peace talks resumed in Geneva. Unfortunately the U.S. was unable or unwilling to persuade its many proxies in the conflict to split with al-Nusra. (That’s what really doomed the deal; the U.S.’s failure to hold up its end.) Some clients angrily refused and turned on their U.S. advisors. On Sept. 16 (supposedly by mistake) the U.S. and several of its allies bombed a Syrian army base killing 62 soldiers engaged in combat with ISIL. Enraged, Syria resumed the bombing of East Aleppo, which is controlled by al-Nusra (Fateh al-Sham). The U.S. blamed the still-unexplained bombing of a UN aid convoy, killing 20 three days later, on Syria or Russia and suspended negotiations with Russia, period, over Syria.

In other words, having temporarily conceded the need to cooperate with Syria’s ally Russia to resolve a conflict that the U.S. had deliberately exacerbated, with horrific results, the U.S. sabotaged the talks. And after doing so, suddenly slipped into a mode of unprecedented vitriol; witness UN ambassador Samantha Power’s performance at the UN Sept. 18 where she angrily dismissed the death of the Syrian soldiers as a minor detail in a war, and berated the Russian ambassador for calling a Security Council meeting to discuss Syria a “stunt.” (She obviously wearies of Russia’s stubborn refusal to concede to the “exceptional nation” the future of its ally.)

12. Meanwhile Hillary Clinton as recently as Oct. 9 reiterated in the “debate” with Trump that she (still) supports a no-fly zone. Even though the brass has told her that that would mean the deployment of tens of thousands of U.S. troops in a war with Syria and Russia. She is buoyed by that highly unusual dissent memo signed by 51 current State Department officials last June opposing the current focus on ISIL and demanding immediate regime change in Syria. She knows that the State Department is more hawkish than the Pentagon, but that the Pentagon is also leery about any cooperation with Russia, anywhere, such as Lavrov has repeatedly proposed. She knows the news media in this country has entire bought the line that Russia through its support for a brutal dictator is responsible for genocide in East Aleppo—while the U.S. sits back and does nothing!
She is eager to appoint Michele Flournoy (formerly the third-ranking civilian in the Pentagon under Obama) as her Secretary of Defense. Flournoy has also called for a “no-fly zone” over Syria and “limited military coercion” to drive Assad from power. She has actually proposed the deployment of U.S. ground troops against the Syrian Arab Army.

On Oct. 8 France proposed a UNSC resolution prohibiting Syrian or Russian bombing of al-Nusra controlled East Aleppo, while saying nothing about the illegal bombing of Syria conducted by the U.S and its allies. It was a preposterous joke, opposed by China and Russia, immediately vetoed. It was intended to further vilify the Syrian government and Russia.

Is it not obvious? Public opinion is being prepared for another regime-change war. The most high-stakes one to date, because this one could lead to World War III.

And it’s hardly even a topic of conversation in this rigged election, which seems designed to not only to inaugurate a war-monger, but to exploit crude Russophobia to the max in the process. The point is for Hillary not only to ascend to power—whatever that might require—but to prepare the people for more Afghanistans, Iraqs and Libyas in the process. The point is to lull the people into historical amnesia, blind them to Hillary’s record of Goldwater-type reckless militarism, exploit the Cold War mentality lingering among the most backward and ignorant, and insure that the electorate that, while generally deploring the result of the rigged election in November, will soon afterwards rally behind corrupt Hillary as soon as she seizes on some pretext for war.

Very, very dangerous.

Bhurishravas · Post by **Bhurishravas** » 16 Oct 2016 10:38

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/s ... 42947.html

Syria: Turkish-backed rebels advance on ISIL-held Dabiq

"We entered Jarablus, and then al-Rai, and now we are moving where? To Dabiq. We will declare a terror-free safe zone of 5,000 [square] kilometres," Erdogan, speaking in the city of Rize on the Black Sea coast, said on Saturday.

ISIL had been sending reinforcements into Dabiq over the past weeks, including one of their most elite units, known as Jaish al-Isra, which arrived in recent days. It also said that ISIL fighters had been planting mines and explosives.ISIL had been sending reinforcements into Dabiq over the past weeks, including one of their most elite units, known as Jaish al-Isra, which arrived in recent days. It also said that ISIL fighters had been planting mines and explosives.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 16 Oct 2016 11:13

Syrian MiG-29 fighter jets performing combat missions with Russian made R-77 missiles

habal · Post by **habal** » 16 Oct 2016 12:05

AoA

George Ades in Cyprus, sends --
Just a few hours before the US National Security Council was to begin its meeting in Washington, Moscow, in an unprecedented move, released information that it had delivered a shipment of air-to-air missiles (Vympel NPO R-77, NATO code AA-12 Adder) for Syria’s 30 modified MiG-29SMT.
The missile has an effective range of over 110km. A kind of fire-and-forget weapon that could take an enemy aircraft down while the pilot who launched it is well on his way home for lunch.
This is the first time this missile is given to any air force other than the Russian and the fact that Moscow decided to publicize the delivery is thought to have played a role in Washington’s decision not to target Syrian military installations.

“The art of fighting without fighting” as practiced by Putin.

habal · Post by **habal** » 16 Oct 2016 12:10

Look how much importance he gives to last Lausanne talks, Lavrov arrives totally drunk... like a Russian

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 16 Oct 2016 12:23

WoW he certainly looks drunk .....or could be just lack of proper sleep ?

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 16 Oct 2016 12:25

habal wrote:AoA

George Ades in Cyprus, sends --
Just a few hours before the US National Security Council was to begin its meeting in Washington, Moscow, in an unprecedented move, released information that it had delivered a shipment of air-to-air missiles (Vympel NPO R-77, NATO code AA-12 Adder) for Syria’s 30 modified MiG-29SMT.
The missile has an effective range of over 110km. A kind of fire-and-forget weapon that could take an enemy aircraft down while the pilot who launched it is well on his way home for lunch.
This is the first time this missile is given to any air force other than the Russian and the fact that Moscow decided to publicize the delivery is thought to have played a role in Washington’s decision not to target Syrian military installations.

“The art of fighting without fighting” as practiced by Putin.

The image of R-77 on Mig-29 came up as part of interview with pilot and the camera panned and a portion of R-77 missile was seen and bloggers just caught on it.

Now looking back to me this seems a deliberate leak like passing subtle information

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 16 Oct 2016 12:27

How convenient it is for Saudi lead cooilation to bomb a place full of top military official attending a funeral along with civilian and then blame it on Wrong Intelligence ..................Oh no cry of War Crimes by BBC , CNN ..........just wrong intelligence to hit the right target ...... opps

Saudi-led coalition blames 'wrong information' for funeral bombing in Yemen

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 16 Oct 2016 12:35

last 15 days area captured by saa in aleppo

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 16 Oct 2016 12:37

Sharmine Narwani
‏@snarwani Sharmine Narwani Retweeted Already Happened
US about to launch direct war in #Yemen. Did anyone notify Congress?

Already Happened
‏@M3t4_tr0n

#US F-16CMs from the 31st Fighter Wing, based at Aviano Air Base in #Italy, have arrived at Camp Lemonnier in #Djibouti.

habal · Post by **habal** » 16 Oct 2016 12:50

" Russia & US will engage in ‘global war’, unless ‘proxy’ Syria conflict resolved – Turkey’s deputy PM "

https://www.rt.com/news/362572-us-russi ... proxy-war/

habal · Post by **habal** » 16 Oct 2016 12:57

meanwhile poodledom attempt something really daring

" UK warships deployed to intercept Russian warship in British waters "

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/10/1 ... annel-NATO

"We won't be caught sitting on our hands when the Russian aircraft carrier approaches our shores in what could be best described as a surprise attack!" - British Rare Admiral Nimsh

" US nuclear attack warning 'upgraded to level 3' as Russian threat goes 'beyond Cold War' "

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest- ... uke-threat