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A suicide bombing in Manbij, Syria has reportedly killed 19 people including four Americans, two of whom were US soldiers and two of whom worked with the US military. ISIS, which has an extensive history of falsely claiming responsibility for attacks it had nothing to do with, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Despite the fact that ISIS would claim responsibility for a housewife stepping on a Lego block, and despite the complete absence of evidence that it had anything to do with the deadly explosion, all the usual cheerleaders of endless war are pointing to the Manbij suicide bombing and shrieking “See?? Trump said ISIS is defeated and it’s not!”
“ISIS is still a very real threat here,” CNN international corespondent Clarissa Ward told Jake Tapper from northern Syria. “And the real concern that we are hearing over and over again on the ground, Jake, is that when US troops withdraw, a power vacuum is created, and that only gives them more strength.”
Virulent Syria war pundit Charles Lister, who is notorious for praising Al Qaeda and is a senior fellowat the Gulf state-funded neoconservative think tank Middle East Institute, told AFP that this attack invalidates Donald Trump’s order last month to withdraw troops from Syria.
“Trump’s order was reckless and driven far more by domestic political concerns than it was by facts on the ground,” Lister said, adding, “To suggest ISIS is ‘defeated’ because it no longer controls territory is to fundamentally misunderstand how ISIS and similar organizations seek to operate.”
Former John McCain ventriloquism dummy Lindsey Graham pounced like a rat on a cheese doodle on the opportunity to call for continued US troop presence within hours of the attack, interrupting the confirmation hearing of Attorney General nominee William Barr with an ejaculation about Trump’s Syria withdrawal.
“I would hope the President would look long and hard at where he’s headed in Syria,” Graham said after repeating the baseless claim that the attack was perpetrated by ISIS. “I know people are frustrated, but we’re never going to be safe here unless we’re willing to help people over there who will stand up against this radical ideology.”
Not to be left out when there are moronic war agendas to be sold, Fox News leapt into the fray with a quote from an anonymous foreign diplomat saying “This attack today is a direct result of the announcement made by President Trump that U.S. forces are pulling out. These troops had a bullseye on them when the president telegraphed that he was ordering a pullout.”
“ISIS has already claimed responsibility for today’s suicide attack, a reminder that the group is not defeated,” added Fox’s Jennifer Griffin.
MSNBC’s deranged intelligence analyst Malcolm Nance topped everyone as usual with a babbling nonsensical post about how US troops were killed in Manbij because there were no US troops in Manbij, proving that Assad and Putin may have allowed the attack to happen, which proves Trump is a Russian asset.
“The moment Russia and Assad took over patrolling Manbij on Trumps go ahead we get hit with suicide bombers for the first time. It’s possible Russia/Assad let the attack happen. Trump’s treachery on this matter now kills our special operators. #RussianAsset,” Nance tweeted between huffs of paint thinner.
The moment Russia and Assad took over patrolling Manbij on Trumps go ahead we get hit with suicide bombers for the first time. It’s possible Russia/Assad let the attack happen. Trump’s treachery on this matter now kills our special operators. #RussianAsset. https://t.co/Sa0tGrM12g
Other voices are treating the reports about the bombing with a little more skepticism.
“If ISIS were smart it would hold its fire especially against Americans,” tweeted professor and author Max Abrahms. “The main justification for leaving Syria is the (contested) assessment ISIS is defeated. ISIS attacks convey the opposite, weakening the strategic rationale of withdrawal while making it politically harder.”
“Ok, so Trump announces that the U.S. will begin a phased withdrawal from Syria, which according to his critics, would only benefit ISIS who they say is still operational and would welcome a U.S. pull out. But not waiting for pull out ISIS then targets U.S. troops! Yeah right,” tweeted former Green Party vice presidential nominee Ajamu Baraka.
These are interesting points. If ISIS is indeed responsible for the bombing, as war pundits are unquestioningly asserting is the case, then they’re either really, really stupid or they really want US troops to remain in Syria. Or perhaps the attack was engineered by someone else who has a vested interest in keeping a US military presence in Syria, either using ISIS as a patsy or completely separate from ISIS. Wouldn’t be the first time a suspicious attack took place in Syria while the Trump administration was working to withdraw troops.
Of course, this whole debate ignores the most obvious point of all: that if there was no US military presence in Syria, there would be no US military personnel being killed in Syria. The fight against the terrorist forces who nearly overtook the nation with the help of the western power alliance’s imperialist support have been beaten to the brink of total defeat not by the US, but by the Syrian government and its allies. If US troops were removed Damascus would quickly restore stability to the region and continue rebuilding the war-ravaged nation. But this is precisely what these war whores do not want.
Syria is a strategically crucial geopolitical nation for reasons having to do with natural resources and the power dynamics of Israel, Iran, and the empire-aligned Gulf states. It is not a coincidence that so much energy gets poured into this small stretch of land and its surrounding nations by the western military alliance and its propaganda machine, and it’s unlikely that the global dominators will lose interest in Syria any time soon. Stay skeptical.
America has been at war to transfer control of Syria over to the Saud
family, who own Saudi Arabia; and America has been trying to do this
ever since the first of the CIA’s coups against Syria failed in 1949. But only during the U.S. Presidency of Barack Obama did the United Nations become a tool in this American enterprise.
Obama entered the White House in 2009
secretly hoping to be able to overthrow Syria’s Government; and when
the CIA-assisted “Arab Spring” uprisings in the Arab world started
flowering in 2011, the U.S. Government had the important U.N. operatives
fully on-board assisting the U.S. Government to assist this overthrow —
to hand Syria to the Sauds (the Sauds being America’s most important international ally, and the world’s richest family) to control.
By the time of June 2011, the Obama State Department, under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was already deep into planning the overthrow
not only of Syria’s Government (planning the international recruitment
of jihadists to do that), but of Ukraine’s Government (planning
international recruitment of nazis to do that).
Although the common view is that America’s main allies are European, that viewpoint is no longer true. Today’s America is allied mainly with the Sauds,
and with Israel, which latter is the Sauds’ chief lobbying arm both in
North America and in Europe, because Christian-majority populations are
far more sympathetic to Jews than to Moslems. For a politician to be
publicly sympathetic to Jews is much better for a politician than for
him/her to be publicly sympathetic to Muslims. So, Israel carries the
Sauds’ lobbying water, not only their own.
Follow Up — The Continued Blackout on West’s Secret Training & Support Camp in Turkey for War on Syria
12 days ago, on November 21, here at Boiling Frogs Post, I reported
on the ongoing joint US-NATO secret training camp in the US air force
base in Incirlik, Turkey, which began operations in April-May 2011 to
organize and expand the dissident base in Syria. I had received the
information for that story from multiple sources including highly
credible insiders in Turkey and government insiders here in the US…
I immediately started checking our infamous US mainstream media sites
— still nothing on this significant information. I then contacted one
of my high-level sources and asked why he had come to me with his
documented report instead of going directly to the big guys. With
several credible insiders as his corroborators and a high-level official
in Turkey, he would have no problem getting their attention. And his
response? Well here it is minus a few expletives:
Who said we didn’t go to MSM [Main Stream Media] first?
We got them the info back in October. First they were interested and
drooling. At least the reporters. Then, they disappeared.”
I was the last resort. … This goes down as one more example of very
many cases of intentional, willful censorship by the US mainstream media
and their so-many-times-proven role as distorters of reality and
gravediggers of the truth.
Keeping the “MSM” on-board was likewise something that went back as far as the CIA’s “Operation Mockingbird”
had started in 1948 with the cooperation of all of the United States’
mainstream ‘news’-media, and of virtually all of the ‘alternative’
news-media.
The case against the latter, the ‘alternative’ media, was documented by Stuart Jeanne Bramhall here and here; and by me here;
with both of us relying heavily upon the encyclopedic researches from
Bob Feldman, who is the major historian of the corruptness of almost all
of America’s ‘progressive’ ‘news’ media — the present medium being
obviously among the few exceptions that actually is progressive, and
this article is simultaneously distributed to all media, so all media
have been invited to publish it.
The corruptness of self-declared conservative ‘news’-media is
virtually automatic, since their chief function is to aggrandize the
aristocracy — doing that is what defines them; they are clearly doing
what they are paid to do, whereas the non-conservative media need to use
subterfuges to do it, in order for them to seem to be supportive of the
poor, which conservative media don’t even pretend to support.
Trump to U.N.: "We Reject the Ideology of Globalism"
Right and left, America’s ‘news’-media are loaded with rot —
especially regarding foreign countries, including Syria. Here are a few CIA documents from 2012 showing how obsequiously American ‘journalists’ respect and adhere to their CIA minders.
Aristocrats everywhere do business internationally and have much more
of a personal interest in foreign relations than does the average
person; so, lying about international relations is especially important
to them, in order to control the masses on these matters, matters which
aristocrats are especially determined to control. The aristocracy are
the people who determine which nations are “allies” and which nations
are “enemies.” The public don’t control that.
This is why the CIA, which is an agency of the U.S. aristocracy, has at least all of the mainstream ‘news’-media trumpeting their lies
on foreign affairs. Aristocrats control their country’s foreign
policies. Their international corporations demand this control, and tell
the politicians what to do in foreign matters. The ‘news’-media provide
the back-up for the politicians’ lies.
They’re all on the same team, the aristocracy’s team.
They all are agents for the aristocracy, against the public — and not
only against whichever foreign aristocracies are labeled “enemy”
nations (i.e., as being suitable targets for the given aristocracy’s
military — places where the U.S. aristocracy’s weapons-manufacturing
corporations such as Lockheed Martin don’t sell their wares but instead
upon which those wares are to be used, as targets, the opposite end of
the international weapons-trade from the “allies,” which are the
markets-side, instead of the targets-side).
International relations is relations between aristocracies. The publics are ignored.
So, if democracy exists anywhere or at all, then it exists only in
regards to domestic issues. However, studies have shown that even on
domestic issues, the U.S. Government ignores the U.S. public — the U.S.
is totally an aristocracy; it’s no democracy at all, not even on domestic issues, such as Medicare-for-all.
That’s the reason why Sibel Edmonds found herself to be a “last
resort.” That was a euphemism referring actually to a dead-end for the
important news — for the type of news that would have contradicted the
Obama Administration’s infamous joyous lie-based “We came, we saw, he died!” (the Libya case), and now the follow-on invasion and destruction of Syria.
Trump continues Obama’s aggressions; he doesn’t end them. It doesn’t
make much difference whom the occupant of the White House is, at least
not regarding foreign relations, because the same aristocracy remains in
control of U.S. foreign relations, even though that might be a
different faction of this aristocracy — Obama representing the liberal
billionaires, and Trump representing some of the conservative ones, but
they are different segments of the same aristocracy; nobody in such a
Government represents the public.
Here’s how psychopathic the U.S.-and allied aristocracies are:
Both were there using their being heads-of-state so as to assist not
only their own wealth but America’s and Europe’s aristocracies to steal
and sell oil and oil-well equipment from the Syrian public — from
Syrians’ Government — for the benefits not only of those aristocrats but
also of Al Qaeda and of ISIS (two jihadist groups trying to overthrow
Syria’s Government).
As Syrian News reported this, on 28 November 2012, “Emir of Qatar & Muslim Brotherhood Prime Minister of Turkey send their Al Qaeda FSA
terrorists to Syria to destroy the country, kill the people and destroy
whatever they can of its infrastructure so their companies would have
jobs in the future to rebuild as they think they will win the war
against Syria.”
Syrians stood by each oppressed nation in the planet, all liberation
movements from the colonial powers had their main offices in Syria,
including South African anti-apartheid party…this is how the colonial
powers revenge.
It is beyond kafkaesque to
realize that virtually the entire world chants its enmity against the
Syrian people, and their country, and that the rest have not even
noticed.
On 2 September, “greatest psy op of the last century,” al Jazeera,
degraded a photo of a drowned Syrian boy, into an emoticon, to use for a
new round of imperial malfeasance against the SAR [that being an
acronym for Syria’s Government]. It seems to be of no importance, that
al Jazeera (renamed “al Khanzeera,” “the pigsty,” by Libyan patriots,
during the destruction of their country), is owned by the absolute
monarchy Qatar — “pronounced ‘gutter’”), the little Gulfie gas station
that has spent over 3 billion dollars in looting and bombing Syria.
Twenty-four hours later, a Google search of “drowned Syrian boy”
yielded over 10 million ‘hits’ (a number which has jumped to over 14
million, 48 hours later), reports which neglect to mention there was no
Syrian refugee crisis before the mass-murderers of the colonial powers,
and their Levant and Gulfie rabid dogs decided to “arab spring” Syria…
On Sunday, 23 August, the city of Damascus came under massive mortar and missile attacks
by the Obama-Cameron moderate death squads. Seven days later, the
Syrian Arab Army [Syrian Government’s Army] Facebook page posted the
following:
“The city of Damascus had 4.5 to 5 million inhabitants in 2011. Today
and due to the war there are over 8.5 million inhabitants in the city;
most of which were forced outside of their homes by the “moderate
rebels” backed by NATO in general specifically the U.S. Turkey and
France; also backedand financed by the terrorist nations of the Gulf…
The cacaphony of murderous silence
among the Vichy [nazi] media and sham activists and NGOs [charities
that are funded by U.S.-and-allied aristocracies] has increased,
exponentially, in perverse rhyme, with the increase in the bombings of
the villages of Kafraya and al Foua,
in Idlib countryside. In mid-August, the Syrians of these villages had
been the beneficiaries of more than 1,500 missile attacks — from moderate rebel mass murderers — that have destroyed 60% of their houses… The punishment of the Syrian people for refusing the Obama plan of
regime change cannot be missed in this organized ongoing assault by NATO
and stooges for the past 4.5 years…
The globalist deep state hyenas have reached a new low in delirious
frenzy against Syria. While screaming international law! they flaunt
[flout] it, and flaunt their insatiable lust for Syrian blood. The mania
of the terrorists in suits is so out of control that they appear to
have abandoned their chemical conspiracy planned for Idlib. Instead, they scream in unison for the preservation of serial killers occupying eastern Ghouta.
Savages they would call by rightful names in western countries are
converted to innocent women and children [in Western media]. These
hyenas ignore more than 1,000 terrorist mortars and missiles fired by
Ghouta terrorists into Damascus. They hold the Goebbels Big Lie proudly
over their heads, knowing their elite club is one of destruction, that
none of its members will speak the truth… The deep state hyenas introduced the foreign-armed, foreign-paid, and
foreign takfiri [jihadists] of al Ghouta onto the world stage in August
2013. The stupid, inbred, savages accidentally slaughtered many of
their own, and thus ratted out having been given chemical weapons by Prince Bandar, because he neglected to give them proper instruction on their use.
The admission was of no matter to the perpetual warriors, including Nobel Peace Laureate cum war criminal, POTUS Obama. Nor was concern voiced by the humanitarian bastards
that several of the dead Syrians were recognized as having been
kidnapped in Latakia countryside (similarly, the hyenas were too sedated
to report on the moment long awaited, when 58 Syrian women and their children abductees were released in exchange for imprisoned terrorists of al Qaeda)…
On 21 February, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights [sic] Zeid Ra’ad
al Husseini frothed at the mouth over the “monstrous annihilation” in
Eastern Ghouta. He tossed words like international humanitarian law,
and war crimes about [against the Government].
That article has a lengthy section which opens:
THE UN: HYENAS LEADERSHIP
Animals running in packs require leadership. Who is better qualified
to lead beasts known to take advantage of other animals’ kills for easy
prey, devouring every part including bones, than the well-manicured and
polished diplomats of the United Nations?
All of that is true, and it even understates the reality. For
example, though the article documents that Jordan, next door to Syria,
is a key part of America’s effort to overthrow Assad, it fails to note
that Zeid Ra’ad al Husseini, that cited high U.N. official on Syria, is a
Jordanian Prince.
He’s doing what the royal family of Jordan do. Otherwise, that article
is an excellent description of the U.N.
Administration’s extreme
prejudices in favor of the U.S. game-plans for conquest, especially for
their conquest of Syria.
In possession of a diplomatic telegram [TD], Pan Arabic al Akhbar gave a detailed report 24 February on the nefarious, colonialist plot:
In a somewhat familiar but precise English, Benjamin Norman – a
diplomat in charge of the Middle East at the British Embassy in
Washington – reports in a confidential diplomatic telegram of the first
meeting of the “Small American Group on Syria” (United States, Great
Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Jordan), held in Washington on January
11, 2018.
In this five-page TD, he reveals the details of the “Western
strategy” in Syria: partition of the country, sabotage of Sochi, framing
of Turkey and instructions to the UN Special Representative Staffan de
Mistura who leads the negotiations of Geneva. A Non Paper (8 pages)
accompanies this TD in anticipation of the second meeting of the “Small
Group”. It was held in Paris on January 23, mainly devoted to the use of
chemical weapons and the “instructions” sent by the “Small American
Group” to Staffan de Mistura.
The U.N. envoy for Syria warned Friday that all the
ingredients exist for a “perfect storm” of a humanitarian catastrophe if
the Syrian government, backed by Russia, carries out a large-scale
military offensive on the northwestern province of Idlib.
“The dangers are profound that any battle for Idlib could be — would
be — a horrific and bloody battle,” Staffan de Mistura told U.N.
Security Council members via videoconference. “Civilians are its
potential victims.”
Idlib has consistently been showing as being, by far, the
most-pro-jihadist of all of Syria’s Governates, in the annual polls that
the British polling organization, Orb International, has taken since
2014, throughout Syria. Idlib has been showing there as being over 90%
in favor of jihadists and of jihadism — and specifically in favor of
organizations such as Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Staffan de Mistura and Prince Husseini refer to this matter as
instead a “humanitarian catastrophe” if Syria, Russia, and Hezbollah, do
what they will need to do in order to end the invasion of Syria by
U.S., Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, Kuwait, and Israel (and the jihadists
they hire).
The U.N. officials are treating this matter not as a thoroughly
illegal invasion and military occupation of the sovereign nation of
Syria, but instead as what will be a “humanitarian catastrophe” if Syria
and its allies attack the area of Syria whose current residents are
over 90% jihadists and supporters of jihadists. Syria and its allies are
to be blamed for invading that jihadist cauldron, while U.S. and its
allies are to be held immune from prosecution for their having used
those jihadists, during the past 7 years — used them to invade and
occupy not only Idlib but other parts of Syria.
Thus, the U.N. is not only holding U.S. Presidents and other
international invaders above international law, but it is now positively
assisting them under the fake rubric of “humanitarian” concerns, so as
to support the U.S. alliance’s invasions and military occupations. The
U.N., which was supposed to have been opposing international aggression
is now assisting it when ‘the right leaders’ do it.
This is no organization supporting democracy — it is the opposite: an
international scheme to back the U.S. alliance’s invasions and military
occupations. War is ugly. Apparently, the U.N. has become even uglier
than that — supporting the invaders and military occupiers of a
sovereign nation.
This is the reason why Syria and its allies have placed on-hold
their planned elimination of the jihadists in Idlib and will create a
DMZ between Idlib and the adjoining areas of Syria. Further details and
context on that can be seen here. Perhaps now, the high U.N. officials who have been claiming that the elimination of those jihadists would produce a “humanitarian catastrophe” will change their tunes and publicly acknowledge that it would instead be a practical necessity.
Spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova conducts her weekly press briefing on current foreign affairs in St. Petersburg.
Missile attack targets several locations in Syrian coastal city of Latakia - state media
Syrian air defenses have engaged missiles targeting the area of
Latakia, a city in the coastal province that is the home of Russia’s
Khmeimim Air Base.
According to the state
SANA news agency, the attack targeted the Technical Industries Agency
headquarters in Latakia, owned by the Syrian military. Reports from the
area refer to “powerful explosions” heard in the city.
Breaking: Syrian air defenses activated in Latakia and Baniyas (Tartous). Reports of Israeli airstrikes
There are no reports of casualties at this time.
Syrian media report that a “number of missiles”
have been shot down. Multiple reports from the area speak of an attack
by missiles launched from drones. It is unclear whether only the Syrian
air defense batteries have been engaged, or if the Russian air defenses
around Khmeimim are taking part as well.
Multiple local reports
are accusing Israel of launching the strikes, but there has been no
independent confirmation of that. Another possibility suggested by local
media is that the drone attack was launched by jihadists in Idlib.
#Syria state TV shows the HQs of the Technical Industries Agency in #Lattakia in flames after being targeted by missiles in “an aggression from unknown source” pic.twitter.com/UsOlspySbn
The attack comes just hours after Russia and Turkey negotiated a
partial demilitarization of the Idlib province, which is the last
remaining stronghold of anti-government militants, including the
Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (also known as the Jabhat
Al-Nusra).
The law of unintended consequences has forced China’s hand in Syria.
As the battle for Idlib draws near, China is set to fight Al Qaeda
trained Uyghur jihadists in Syria in order to help the Syrian government
retake their territory, preventing those very jihadist terrorists from
returning to Xinjiang province and sewing the seeds of partition in
China.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and International Affairs and Security
Analyst, from Moscow, Mark Sleboda discuss how the American plan to
partition Syria has pressured China to take part in an already crowded
and complicated conflict.
The US policy of permanently balkanizing Syria appears to be a foregone conclusion, even as the Syrian Arab Army and Russian forces proceed with their last major counter-terrorism operation in Idlib.
According to Wolfgang Mühlberger, senior fellow for EU-Mideast
relations at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs, “Idlib is
the very Arab Kandahar with potentially more than 100,000 experienced, battle-hardened Sunni jihadi fighters hiding between the civilians.”
This high number is due to the amalgamation of
all the militants from de-confliction zones or reconquered battle zones
(e.g., Aleppo, Ghouta, Deraa, etc.) throughout Syria that have been
shipped to Idlib over the past couple of years, as well as remnants of
the Free Syrian Army.
However, despite Washington acknowledging that the governorate is an Al Qaeda safe haven for militants from over 100 countries, the tripartite powers of the UK, US and France are now asking Germany to
join planned airstrikes against Syria – as soon as President Bashar
al-Assad gives them the green light by using chemical weapons.
It is not entirely clear why the US believes the
Syrian president would deliberately provoke western airstrikes on
Syrian forces when they are on a winning streak in their war with the
terrorists, but it does seem apparent that Washington intends to prevent
Syria from regaining sovereignty over Idlib.
As discussed in a previous Asia Times article,
RAND Corporation drew up a Syria partition plan wherein the US would
occupy the northeast, Turkey the northwest, Russia and Iran the coastal
area and large parts of the Syrian desert, and Israel and Jordan the
southwest.
The US zone would contain oil fields where 90% of Syria’s pre-war oil production took place, while Israel would control the newly discovered oil reserves in
the Golan Heights. Turkey’s control of Idlib as a safe haven for
militants would put continued pressure on the Syrian government, and a
balkanized Syria would be weak and less likely to provide a viable base
for Iran and Hezbollah to attack Israel.
However, the partition of Idlib as a jihadi sanctuary has important
implications for another actor – China. Back in August, there were reports that Beijing would participate in the Battle for Idlib due to the presence of Chinese Uyghur jihadi colonies. If Turkey controls Idlib, China fears Ankara and the West would exploit Uyghur militants as proxies to destabilize Xinjiang.
Idlib proxies to destabilize Xinjiang?
There are historical reasons for this concern, given that the CIA tried to destabilize Xinjiang and supported separatists in Tibet during the Cold War. As Israeli sinologist Yizhak Shichor pointed
out, in the 1950s Washington tried to exploit Muslim grievances against
China and the Soviet Union, by attempting to form a Middle Eastern
Islamic pact to organize fifth columns in these countries.
Brian Fishman, a counter-terrorism expert at the New America Foundation, also noted that in the 1990s Osama Bin Laden accused
the US and CIA of inciting conflict between Chinese and Muslims. After a
series of 1997 bombings in Xinjiang that Beijing ascribes to Uyghur
separatists, bin Laden blamed the CIA in an interview, saying,
“The United States wants to incite conflict between China and the
Muslims. The Muslims of Xinjiang are blamed for the bomb blasts in
Beijing. But I think these explosions were sponsored by the American
CIA.”
Interestingly at the time, Al Qaeda had its eyes on the West and
largely ignored Uyghur separatism as a Chinese domestic issue. But as
Fishman assessed, over time the transnational problem of al Qaeda and
its allies, and the increasing prominence of Uyghurs in jihadi
propaganda, meant that China could no longer avoid them.
Indeed, given that the 2016 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan was a joint operation between Al Nusra and its Uyghur affiliate Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP);
the continual supply of advanced weaponry and tacit Western support for
TIP due to its intermingling with the “rebel” opposition; professional
military training by the private security company Malhama Tactical to improve TIP’s warfighting capabilities; and TIPs ultimate goal to attack China, James Dorsey at
the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore argued
that Beijing mulling military intervention in Idlib underscores the
gravity of this threat to China’s core interests.
Currently, China seems to be steering clear of direct military
involvement and instead relies on Syria and Russia, but it would be
concerned should Western powers block Damascus and Moscow’s campaign to
reclaim Idlib and continue to partition a safe zone for Uyghur militants.
Moreover, as Jacob Zenn from
the Jamestown Foundation pointed out, China is also concerned by “the
prospect of re-shaping the borders in the Middle East that could lead to
new conceptions of sovereignty and statehood – not only in the region but elsewhere throughout the Islamic world, including Central Asia and Xinjiang.’
Xinjiang at heart of Belt and Road Initiative
Now it appears that a Western united front is emerging to confront China on human rights issues, using various tools of media coverage, economic sanctions, political activism by NGOs and think tanks to internationalize the Uyghur issue in Xinjiang.
Similar to Israel’s dilemma over the internationalization of
the Palestinian issue, China is bracing itself for a destabilization
campaign and possible call for secession and partition of the province
from Chinese sovereignty.
This perception is due to US backing of the Munich-based World Uyghur
Congress, which aspires to revert Xinjiang to an independent East
Turkistan. The first president of the Congress was Erkin Alptekin, son
of Isa Alptekin, who headed the short-lived First East Turkestan
Republic in Kashgar (November 12, 1933 to February 6, 1934), and also
served as an advisor to the CIA while working at Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty in Munich.
The Alptekin family and Xinjiang secession enjoy strong support from
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who while being mayor of
Istanbul in 1995, named a section of the Blue Mosque park after Isa
Alptekin and built a memorial to commemorate Eastern Turkistani martyrs
who lost their lives in the “struggle for independence.”
Given resource-rich Xinjiang is at the heart of
the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), destabilizing the province would
not only spoil the plan for Eurasian integration and development, but
also weaken China’s economy by cutting off its overland energy supply
from Central Asia and the Middle East, hamper its market access, and
keep Beijing bogged down in an ethnoreligious conflict.
While this may augment current Washington’s trade war against the
Middle Kingdom and weaken the Pentagon’s “peer competitor,” by
deliberately stoking Chinese fears about Xinjiang destabilization and
increasing radicalization, thereby egging Beijing to clamp down on
Uyghurs, is in effect exploiting the ethnic Uyghur’s plight for narrow
geopolitical agenda.
And as Yizhack Shichor perceived,
“Vocal criticism of China related to its Uyghur persecution comes
primarily, in fact almost entirely from outside the Middle East, from
Western non-Muslim countries…[which] may have little do to with loving
the Uyghurs, and much more to do with opposing China.”
Syrians are electing their local councils during first municipal
elections since the start of the lingering seven-year war. Polls have
opened on Sunday shortly after an overnight airstrike hit Damascus
airport.
As many as 6,551 polling
stations opened on Sunday morning with Syrians invited to vote for their
representatives in local councils, state news agency SANA
reported. It said over 40,000 candidates are contesting 18,478 seats.
Polls will be closed at 7.00pm local time, and authorities have said
they took all necessary precautions to keep the ballot boxes safe and
secure.
Today’s local elections, the first to be held since the
conflict broke out in 2011, comes amid continued violence in various
parts of the war-ravaged country. On Saturday night, an airstrike –
purportedly carried out by Israeli jets – hit Damascus international
airport causing several explosions.
Worrying news also come from
Idlib, where the Syrian army braces for its major offensive on the
militants-held stronghold. Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed
chlorine-filled canisters were delivered by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated
fighters to stage a false flag attack that would be used to accuse the
Syrian government of using chemical weapons against its people.
Nevertheless,
efforts to bring lasting peace to Syria still carry on. Recently,
Russia, Turkey and Iran have called on all armed groups in Idlib and
beyond to lay down arms and seek a peaceful transition in the country.
Leaders of the three nations had previously met in Astana in May, where
they agreed to push for negotiations between its government and
opposition groups, which agree to cease hostilities.
The format
brought together representatives of the Syrian government and armed
opposition groups at the negotiating table – something previous efforts
by the international community had failed to do.
Aside from the
diplomatic efforts, Russia it actively engaged in humanitarian
activities in Syria. Russian military personnel have defused thousands
of explosive devices left by terrorists and brought tons of much-needed
aid to Syrian provinces liberated from terrorists.
In a rare and unprecedented speech delivered on the House floor just
two days after the nation memorialized 9/11, Democratic Hawaiian
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard on Thursday slammed Washington's longtime
support to anti-Assad jihadists in Syria, while also sounding the alarm
over the current build-up of tensions between the US and Russia over the
Syria crisis.
She called on Congress to condemn what she called the Trump
Administration’s protection of al-Qaeda in
Idlib and slammed Washington's policies in Syria as "a betrayal of the American people"— especially the victims and families that perished on 9/11.
Considering that Congresswoman Gabbard herself is an Iraq war veteran and current Army reserve officer who served in the aftermath of 9/11,
it's all the more power and rare that a sitting Congress member would
make such forceful comments exposing the hypocrisy and contradictions of
US policy.
She called out President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence by name on the House floor in her speech:
“Two days ago, President Trump and Vice President Pence delivered solemn speeches about the attacks on 9/11, talking about how much they care about the victims of al-Qaeda’s attack on our country. But, they are now standing up to protect the 20,000 to 40,000 al-Qaeda and other jihadist forces in Syria, and threatening Russia, Syria, and Iran, with military force if they dare attack these terrorists."
And in perhaps a completely unprecedented moment, the Congresswoman
accused America's Commander-in-Chief during her floor speech for acting
as "the protective big brother of al-Qaeda and other jihadists".
Interestingly she has elsewhere previously leveled the same blistering criticism of the Obama administration during media interviews for its "regime change policies" in Syria.
Gabbard continued:
“This is a betrayal of the American people,
especially the victims of al-Qaeda’s attack on 9/11 and their families,
first responders, and my brothers and sisters in uniform who have been
killed or wounded in action and their families. For the
President, who is Commander in Chief, to act as the protective big
brother of al-Qaeda and other jihadists must be condemned by every
Member of Congress.”
Gabbard has for especially the last couple of years been an outspoken
critic of US policies in Syria, and drew controversy in early 2017 when
she traveled to Damascus to meet privately with Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad. The move met with an icy reception among fellow Congressional
Democrats and raised questions over possible violation of the Logan Act.
But interestingly though Thursday's floor speech evoked President
Trump and his latest threats to intervene militarily against Assad and
Russia should chemical weapons be used in Idib, Gabbard is actually echoing the very stance that Trump took on the campaign trail and prior on Syria,
where he also described the Syrian rebel insurgency as being led and
filled by terrorists and jihadists in multiple informal statements.
Trump 2013 vs Trump 2018 on Syria...
Trump and Gabbard had even once met to discuss Syria policy
at a private meeting at Trump Tower in November of 2016 just ahead of
then president-elect Trump being sworn into office. At the time the two appeared to be in complete agreement over Syria policy, after which Gabbard said of the meeting, "I
felt it important to take the opportunity to meet with the
President-elect now before the drumbeats of war that neocons have been
beating drag us into an escalation of the war to overthrow the Syrian
government—a war which has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives
and forced millions of refugees to flee their homes in search of safety
for themselves and their families."
The following summer President Trump allegedly shut down the CIA's clandestine efforts for
overthrowing the Damascus government, a covert program called 'Timber
Sycamore', after reports said he was increasingly disturbed by the
brutal and jihadist nature of the armed opposition.
All the way up until April 2018, he had appeared to be pushing toward
withdrawing the over 2,000 US troops from Syria, against which advisers
and neocon hawkish policy wonks vehemently pushed back. Trump had proposed, “Let
the other people take care of it now. Very soon, very soon, we’re
coming out. We’re going to get back to our country, where we belong,
where we want to be.”
However just days after that statement video emerged from Idlib
purporting to show an Assad sarin attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib
province, to which Trump responded with a brief Tomahawk missile strike
on a largely abandoned Syrian military airport in the center of the
country.
The pro-regime change interventionists in the administration had perhaps won out,
as Trump the following April launched an even bigger attack on Damascus
following more unverified opposition claims of another gas attack.
And now Congresswoman Gabbard appears to be calling Trump out and
back to that original policy path of military withdrawal and
non-intervention in Syria.
Militants in Syria’s Idlib have transported several canisters
containing chlorine to the village of Bsanqul, apparently preparing to
stage a false flag chemical attack, the Russian Defense Ministry has
said.
The chlorine-filled
canisters were delivered by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants of Tahrir
al Sham, formerly known as Al-Nusra Front, a spokesman of the Russian
Center for Reconciliation in Syria, Lieutenant General Vladimir
Savchenko, said in a statement Saturday. He added that the latest
developments showed that the militants are preparing for a false flag
attack that would be used to accuse the Syrian government of using
chemical weapons against its people.
This is the latest warning from the Russian military on what it
says is a chemical “provocation” in the making. On Wednesday, it said
the White Helmets group has shot videos intended to be used in framing
the Syrian government. Earlier, the MoD said toxic chemicals had been
delivered Idlib and accused the White Helmets of carrying out the
delivery.
The US and its allies have so far dismissed the Russian
warnings, but said that the government in Damascus might instead be
preparing chemical attacks against civilians. Moscow has suggested that
the attack might be prepared with the support of Washington, which wants
to justify further air strikes against Syria. Those planned strikes are
said to be much larger in scale than those launched against the Syrian
military by the US, the UK and France in April.
It
comes as Washington has been building up its military presence in the
region. In late August, the missile destroyer USS Ross was deployed to
the Mediterranean, carrying 28 Tomahawk cruise missiles, while the USS
The Sullivans was deployed to the Persian Gulf and a B-1B Lancer
strategic bomber was moved to an air base in Qatar.
Most recently,
the USS Bulkeley (DDG-84), an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, entered
the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar. Last week, the
attack submarine USS Newport News (SSN-750) arrived in the Mediterranean
as well.
With the arrival of the Bulkeley, the US forces in the
region reportedly have up to 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles available to
strike targets in Syria if ordered to do so, Russian media reports.
The
September 11 terror incidents in 2001 are said to be the biggest-ever
deadly attack on US soil. Shamefully, exactly 17 years later, the US
president and Pentagon military chiefs are threatening to go to war in
Syria – to defend the same ilk of terrorists.
“Shamefully” is perhaps not the most fitting word here. “Consistently” would be more appropriate.
Officially,
the spectacular plane-crashing mayhem 17 years ago in New York City was
due to 19 Arab hijackers affiliated with the Al Qaeda terror network.
That
account of the world-changing event has been hotly disputed, with many
respected authors and organizations claiming that evidence shows the US
intelligence agencies are implicated in an inside job. The death of some
3,000 American citizens was hence exploited as a pretext for launching a
series of US overseas wars, whose hidden agenda was for promoting
imperialist objectives.
In
any case, the official story is that Al Qaeda operatives hijacked four
airliners on the morning of September 11, 2001, and flew them into the
twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, as well as into the
Pentagon building near Washington. The fourth plane crashed in a rural
area in Pennsylvania, allegedly after passengers challenged
the terrorist pilots.
The
Al Qaeda terror network, with its ideological links to Saudi-sponsored
Wahhabism, was declared “enemy number one” by then President George W
Bush, who proceeded to launch wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, supposedly
to avenge the 911 atrocity perpetrated against
American civilians.
The
so-called “war on terror” has since become a much-overused blank check
for successive US governments and their NATO allies to launch wars
anywhere in the world to “defeat terrorists”. It has been used to
justify increasing Western state surveillance powers against its own
citizens in the name of counter-terrorism.
To
be sure, the official story on 911 and subsequent US and NATO military
rampaging around the globe has been challenged by skeptics and critics.
One
of the key lines of contesting the official narrative is the documented
evolution of the Al Qaeda terror franchise, which grew out of US
sponsorship of motley radical Islamist groups in Afghanistan during the
1980s. That covert ploy was to give then occupying Soviet troops “their
Vietnam”. American and British military intelligence along with lavish
Saudi funding created the Frankenstein Monster of Islamic terrorism that
mutated and spread across the Middle East and beyond.
So,
the very notion that, post-911, the American creators of the terrorist
monster would serve to protect the civilized world from their own
creation was always a deeply suspect proposition.
The
truth is that the US never stopped colluding with these terror groups
since the days of the putative Afghan Vietnam for the Soviet Union.
The 911 incidents may have been some form of “blowback” or, plausibly,
it was American intelligence handlers contriving a plot which would give
imperialist planners their much-desired “new Pearl Harbor” – a blank
check to declare war on the planet for the benefit of advancing US
strategic interests.
Granted,
the success of that nefarious covert scheme is questionable given the
unforeseen huge financial and social costs to American society, as well
as from general bedlam undermining global security.
For
observers willing to see, it seems indisputable that there is something
of a symbiotic relationship between Islamist terror proxies and the US
imperialist state. The official “enemy” is a boon for justifying
oppressive state powers against citizens; it serves as a pump for
bloated budgets to the military-industrial complex at the heart of the
American capitalist economy; and this enemy can also serve as target
practice for illegal military intervention in foreign countries – US
interventions that would otherwise be seen for what they are, as
“criminal aggression”.
Further,
the terror proxies continue to serve as a cat’s paws for US
imperialism, as in the earlier formation in Afghanistan against the
Soviet Union. Rather than direct large-scale American military
involvement, the Al Qaeda brigades are deployed to do Washington’s dirty
work. Syria is emerging as the new Afghanistan.
Officially,
the Pentagon and US corporate news media scoff at these claims of
collusion with terrorists. “We are bombing Syria to defeat terrorists,”
so goes the mantra. Substitute any number of countries for “Syria”, as
required.
Well,
if that’s the case why have senior US military people like Michael
Flynn admitted that the former Obama administration deliberately
cultivated the terror brigades in Syria? Why have hundreds of millions
of dollars gone into forming a non-existent “moderate rebel army” in
Syria only for the American weaponry to end up in the hands of terror
groups like Nusra Front?
What
about credible reports of US military helicopters airlifting Nusra
commanders out of harm’s way to other, safer parts of Syria? Similar
reports of airlifting, or airdropping weapons, have come out of
Afghanistan, where the Pentagon is still “fighting terrorists” – 17
years after 911.
It
has taken a painfully long time over the eight years of war in Syria to
uncover the full and real extent of criminality by the US and its
British and French allies, along with the Saudis, Turks and Israelis.
But
now we are coming full circle. President Donald Trump and his officials
are warning that they will launch military strikes on Syria if the
Syrian army and its Russian and Iranian allies proceed with the
offensive to retake Idlib province. The northwest province is the
last-remaining stronghold of anti-government militants. These militants
are not the illusory “moderate rebels” the Western media have long
bamboozled the public with. The militants comprise Nusra Front, Ahrar al
Sham, Islamic State, and other self-professed Wahhabi jihadists of the
Al Qaeda franchise. The myriad, mercurial names are merely part of the
US cynical cover.
Trump
– the supposed non-interventionist president – has even discarded the
earlier ruse of invoking “chemical weapons” as a pretext for a US
military attack on Syria. He and his officials are simply saying that
any offensive by the Syrian army to retake all of its territory is an
“unacceptable escalation” that will be met with a US military response.
There
is no other credible rationale for such military deployment by
Washington in Syria. The Western media are as usual riding shotgun with
the mendacity, claiming that the Syrian army offensive will trigger a
“humanitarian crisis”, rather than reporting the salient fact that the
offensive is aimed at eradicating the most vile terror groups from that
country.
In
Syria, today, 17 years after 911, the real relationship between US
authorities and terrorism is on display. The United States of Anarchy.
Last week, I urged the Secretary of State and National Security
Advisor to stop protecting al-Qaeda in Syria by demanding that the
Syrian government leave Idlib under al-Qaeda control. While it may seem
hard to believe that the US government is helping al-Qaeda in Syria,
it’s not as strange as it may seem: our interventionist foreign policy
increasingly requires Washington to partner up with “bad guys” in
pursuit of its dangerous and aggressive foreign policy goals.
Does
the Trump Administration actually support al-Qaeda and ISIS? Of course
not. But the “experts” who run Trump’s foreign policy have determined
that a de facto alliance with these two extremist groups is
for the time being necessary to facilitate the more long-term goals in
the Middle East. And what are those goals? Regime change for Iran.
Let’s have a look at the areas where the US is turning a blind eye to al-Qaeda and ISIS.
First,
Idlib. As I mentioned last week, President Trump’s own Special Envoy to
fight ISIS said just last year that “Idlib Province is the largest Al
Qaeda safe haven since 9/11.” So why do so many US officials – including
President Trump himself – keep warning the Syrian government not to
re-take its own territory from al-Qaeda control? Wouldn’t they be doing
us a favor by ridding the area of al-Qaeda? Well, if Idlib is re-taken
by Assad, it all but ends the neocon (and Saudi and Israeli) dream of
“regime change” for Syria and a black eye to Syria’s ally, Iran.
Second,
one of the last groups of ISIS fighters in Syria are around the Al-Tanf
US military base which has operated illegally in northeastern Syria for
the past two years. Last week, according to press reports, the Russians
warned the US military in the region that it was about to launch an
assault on ISIS fighters around the US base. The US responded by sending
in 100 more US Marines and conducting a live-fire exercise as a
warning. President Trump recently reversed himself (again) and announced
that the US would remain at Al-Tanf “indefinitely.” Why? It is
considered a strategic point from which to attack Iran. The US means to
stay there even if it means turning a blind eye to ISIS in the
neighborhood.
Finally, in Yemen, the US/Saudi
coalition fighting the Houthis has been found by AP and other mainstream
media outlets to be directly benefiting al-Qaeda. Why help al-Qaeda in
Yemen? Because the real US goal is regime change in Iran, and Yemen is
considered one of the fronts in the battle against Iranian influence in
the Middle East. So we are aiding al-Qaeda, which did attack us, because
we want to “regime change” Iran, which hasn’t attacked us. How does
that make sense?
We all remember the old saying,
attributed to Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack, that “if you
lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.” The “experts” would like us
to think they are pursuing a brilliant foreign policy that will provide
a great victory for America at the end of the day. But as usual, the
“experts” have got it wrong. It’s really not that complicated: when
“winning” means you’re allied with al-Qaeda and ISIS, you’re doing
something wrong. Let’s start doing foreign policy right: let’s leave the
rest of the world alone!
Liberteon