Archive for the ‘Syria’ Category
Posted by seumasach on December 10, 2013
In preparation for the Geneva II talks on Syria it has been necessary to lay aside extravagant claims that Assad was responsible for the Ghouta chemical weapons attack. Seymour Hersch questions the case against Assad.
Seymour Hersch
London Review of Books
8th December, 2013
Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order – a planning document that precedes a ground invasion – citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad.
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Posted by seumasach on December 5, 2013
Voltairenet
25th November, 2013
We are publishing below an editorial from the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman. The columnist points to the defeat of the Syrian Contras which, in her view, spells out a defeat for Turkey who has given them all out support. While adopting the Atlanticist misrepresentation of the facts, she warns her country against a foreseeable exodus of extremist fighters who will not fail to seep into neighboring countries.
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Posted by seumasach on December 4, 2013
PressTV
4th December, 2013
Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations says many Saudis who have been either sentenced to death or life in prison are released to fight against the Syrian government.
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Posted by seumasach on November 30, 2013
PressTV
30th November, 2013
European ambassadors and intelligence officials are making discreet trips to the Syrian capital, Damascus in a bid to resume diplomatic contacts with the government of President Bashar al-Assad, diplomats say.
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Posted by seumasach on November 29, 2013
La Turquie et l’Iran appellent à un cessez-le-feu en Syrie
Voltairenet
28th November, 2013
En visite à Téhéran pour une réunion ministérielle de l’Organisation de la coopération économique (ECO), le ministre turc des Affaires étrangères, Ahmet Davutoğlu, et son homologue iranien, Mohamad Javad Zarif, ont tous deux énoncé une position commune en faveur d’un cessez-le-feu en Syrie. Selon eux, il ne faut pas attendre la conférence de Genève 2, le 22 janvier 2014, pour cesser les hostilités.
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Posted by seumasach on November 27, 2013
This will be a disappointment to the British “anti-war” left who have seen fit to shun all contacts with Assad and anyone suspected of supporting him i.e. most of the Syrian population. However, Obama’s retreat from empire is gaining unstoppable momentum. After reaching a deal on Syria he will move onto the thorny question of an Israel-Palestine settlement. The left’s hopes in a new front against China are also likely to be disappointed as Obama is merely involved in a sort of rough-wooing: invest in America or we’ll bomb the hell out of you! The Chinese, however, are already only to eager to invest in America. Obama is also keen to trumpet the charge as he retreats on all fronts.
Jason Ditz
Antiwar.com
25th November, 2013
Geneva II, the peace talks scheduled for June and repeatedly delayed, finally have a date, and both the Assad government and opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) have agreed to take part on January 22.
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Posted by seumasach on November 25, 2013
Cailean Bochanan
25th November, 2013
It’s not clear why Britain’s Stop the War group invited Mother Agnes of the Mussalaha initiative (Reconciliation) to their annual conference. They must have known that any viewpoint other than that of Aljazeera, the BBC and Human Rights Watch would stir controversy in its ranks. Two luminaries of the left duly decided to boycott the conference if she was present on the grounds that she was an agent of the Assad “regime” and that she had questioned, some might say debunked, the official account of the the chemical weapons attack at Ghouta implicating the Syrian government.
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Posted in Global peace process, Syria | Tagged: Mother Agnes, Mussalaha initiative, Stop the War | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on November 11, 2013
Thierry Meyssan
Voltairenet
11th November, 2013
Although the Geneva Conference, in June of 2012, had set the foundations for peace in Syria, the war resumed for a year and a half. 100,000 deaths later, the foreign powers who planned and fueled the conflict have finally admitted defeat. Moscow and Washington are therefore planning to convene a new conference in Geneva to enact the victory of the Syrian Arab Republic.
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Posted by seumasach on November 4, 2013
Thierry Meyssan
Voltairenet
4th November, 2013
The media coverage of the war in Syria examines only military, diplomatic and humanitarian action. It ignores profound transformation. However, one does not survive a sea of violence without changing profoundly. From Damascus, where he has lived for two years, Thierry Meyssan describes this evolution.
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Posted by seumasach on November 4, 2013
Victor Kotsev
Asia Times
4th November, 2013
The Israeli operations in Syria and the Gaza strip that took place almost simultaneously last week demonstrated just how fraught with tensions the relationship between the United States and Israel has become and how unpredictable and dangerous the period ahead is.
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Posted in Palestine, Syria | Tagged: Obama agenda, Obama's realist turn, Palestine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on November 4, 2013
Catholic Culture
4th November, 2013
Rebel forces massacred 45 Christians in the west-central Syrian town of Sadad, according to Syrian Orthodox Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh.
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