Aung San Suu Kyi Silent Over Rohingya Violence, but Decries Crackdown on Anti-Chinese Protest

Nobel laureate's double standards toe line of pro-Western "pivot" toward Asia and the recolonization of Myanmar. 

December 1, 2012 (AltThaiNews) - In its article, "Suu Kyi demands apology for mine violence," Bangkok Post reported that:

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has demanded an apology for monks hurt in a violent police crackdown at a Chinese copper mine protest, after she held talks with the two sides.

The "monks," of course, form the foundation of Suu Kyi's so-called "pro-democracy" movement, as well as the leading front carrying out genocidal violence against Myanmar's Rohingya population. Suu Kyi's recent demand for an apology stands in stark contrast to her habitual silence over the plight of the Rohingya. The common denominator behind this consistent hypocrisy is the targeting of Chinese interests across the country.

Image: The Western media gladly fills their coverage of the Monywa mine protest with images of battered, "victimized" "monks," while downplaying both the violence these same "monks" have visited upon Rohingya refugees in Rakhin state, as well as the indefensible silence of Aung San Suu Kyi regarding that violence.

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The violence against the Rohingya, carried out by Suu Kyi's own support base, threatens to destabilize the Rakhine state where exists significant Chinese interests including a deep-water port and an oil pipeline terminal that is to connect Sittwe, Myanmar with Kunming, China. Likewise, the protests in Monywa, located further north, target a Chinese mine. The protesters cited "human rights" and "environmental" concerns, mirroring identical efforts by NGOs subsidized by Western corporate-financier interests seeking to supplant China and exploit Myanmar's vast natural resources themselves, who had targeted and halted the construction of Myitsone Dam.   

Image: Praying for genocide. While Associated Press claims these protesters are demonstrating against ethnic violence targeting Rohingya refugees, the sign they carry clearly states that they seek the expulsion of the refugees from Myanmar, and are merely protesting against the Myanmar Army's use of force to protect the refugees from attacks that have left scores dead and thousands of homes destroyed. 

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One of the most prominent of these NGOs is the "Burma River Network" (BRN). While BRN's website fails to mention where they get their funding or who they are affiliated with, California-based, Ford Foundation, Sigrid Rausing Trust, Tides Foundation, Open Society-funded "International Rivers (page 3)" who is also active in blocking the development of Myanmar's rivers, gives them away by listing them as "partners" alongside the "Kachin Development Networking Group" (KDNG).

Together these organizations interlock, cross-reference, and cross-post with other US-funded NGOs operating in Myanmar. These include the Irrawaddy, Era Journal, and the Democratic Voice of Burma, all admitted by the Burma Campaign UK (page 15) to be funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) along with "Mizzima" also fully funded by NED and Soros' Open Society.

The protests at the Monywa mine have been ongoing. They too have been supported by Western corporate-financier funded foundations. The "Burma Partnership" has been particularly prolific in regards to protesting China's mine. Upon its "About Us" page, is listed a myriad of associations and organizations directly linked to Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, including the Students and Youth Congress of Burma, the Forum for Democracy in Burma, and the Nationalities Youth Forum, which is directly funded by the Euro-Burma Office (in turn funded by the EU, and US National Endowment for Democracy), and convicted financial criminal George Soros' Open Society.

A clear pattern has developed, exposing Aung San Suu Kyi's motives as being purely political. Her indefensible silence over violence against the Ronhingya, while she vocally decries crackdowns on her own Western-funded mobs as they attempt to evict Chinese interests from the country - all pave the way for equal or worse exploitation by uncontested Western corporate-financier hegemony as Western interests prepare to take advantage of the newly "opened" Myanmar as part of their "pivot" toward Asia. 

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Corbett Report - Middle East Update

December 1, 2012 (Corbett Report)

Published on Nov 30, 2012

SHOW NOTES AND MP3: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=6273

Corbett Report Radio #262

Nile Bowie of NileBowie.blogspot.com joins us tonight to go over some news headlines from across the Middle East, including the UN General Assembly vote on Palestinian statehood, western double standards in the “Arab Spring” and the American-ization of Saudi Arabia. We also talk about the recent 9/11 conference in Kuala Lumpur and Nile’s upcoming trip to China and North Korea.

WORKS CITED

• Nile Bowie’s blog
• War on Syria: Gateway to WWIII by Nile Bowie and Tony Cartalucci (free download)
• The Moral Imperative of Reinvestigating 9/11
• UN implicitly recognizes Palestinian statehood
• Qatari poet jailed for life for ‘insulting’ Emir with his poem
• Total blackout: Syria goes offline nationwide
• U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors
• Saudis say No to the Prophet Muhammad, Yes to Paris Hilton

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Stop Imperialism - Episode 50

Syria's Internet outage, terrorism plagues Iraq, rebels in Congo, and bonds in Argentina.


November 30, 2012 (Stop Imperialism)

 

Podcast Powered By Podbean

In today's episode:

1. Syria (On the Ground)

a) Syrian internet goes dark

b) Syria rebels kill top ruling party official

c) Twin car bombs reportedly kill 34, wound dozens in Syria

d) Syria child soldiers: Rebels using children in war - Human Rights Watch

2. Syria (International)

a) U.S. weighs bolder effort to intervene in Syria's conflict

b) The war for Syria is also a war for Iraq

c) Syrian govt fins rare friends in Latin America

d) Excerpt from "Saving Syria: Assessing Options for Regime Change" (pg. 6)

3. Iraq

a) Iraq bombings target Shi'ite areas

b) Iraq Deputy PM opposes pressure on MEK

c) Lukoil considers Iraq's West Qurna-1 this year as Exxon may exit

4. Congo

a) Congolese M23 rebels say leaving positions in Goma

b) Congo general pledges war as rebels prepare to quit Goma

c) UN relief agencies working 'around the clock' to assist displaced in DR Congo

5. Under the Radar

a) Argentine bonds rally as U.S. ruling quells default fears

b) Serdyukov dismissed to ensure impartiality of probe into Defense Ministry embezzlements - Medvedev

c) Israeli PM denounces UN draft resolution on Palestinian statehood as 'one-sided'

d) Lawmakers consider dissolving Detroit

       e) GMO giant hires retired cops to hunt down farmers

*The summary of Eric Draister's latest episode of the "Reality Principle" on Boiling Frogs can be found here. New listeners can subscribe to listen at the bottom of the page. Episodes are free to the public after 4 weeks.

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McCain, Lévy Openly Conspire Against World Peace

Against the will of the international community, in open defiance of their own contrived international law, American and French warmongers openly plot the destruction of Syria.

November 29, 2012 (LD) - A recent event held by the Neo-Conservative Foreign Policy Initiative, featured a "conversation" with Senator John McCain and self-proclaimed "philosopher" Bernard-Henri Lévy. Both men played a pivotal role in arranging and promoting the arming, funding, and diplomatic recognition of terrorists in Libya who have now overrun much of the country, committed wide scale atrocities, and have left a US Ambassador dead and a US consulate burnt to the ground. Despite this, they now openly seek to repeat their "success" in Syria.

Watch FPI's "The Consequences of Inaction in Syria" with several facts kept in mind...

1. Libya's "freedom fighters" are verified terrorists. Benghazi, Libya was their epicenter. 
2. These very same terrorists are now being purposefully armed, funded, and funneled into Syria, via NATO member Turkey.  
3. The violence in Syria is the result of a premeditated US-Israeli-Saudi plan stretching back to 2007, confirmed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his article "The Redirection." 
4. The current "rebels" in Syria are sectarian driven, genocidal members of the Muslims Brotherhood and Al Qaeda, already subjugating segments of Syria's population along the Turkish-Syrian border to medieval, Saudi-inspired autocracy and barbarism. 
5. The so-called "Syrian National Council" is run by a Western big-oil representative who openly admits he seeks to establish an "Islamic state" upon the ashes of secular Syria. 
6. Worst of all, McCain and Lévy admit the US, French, European, and even Turkish people reject wholly the notion of intervention in Syria, as well as the fact that the International community has, on numerous occasions blocked attempts to approve of meddling in Syria's internal affairs, yet both men, and the interests they represent continue to conspire to push the conflict further, at the cost of more lives, and at the risk of unraveling regional stability.

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URGENT: NATO Preparing Psy-Op in Syria

Internet connections & telecom reportedly failing across Syria, right as NATO has finished preparing their proxy "SNC" and readies for final push. 

November 29, 2012 (LD) - In early summer, NATO had attempted to overwhelm Damascus and Aleppo with a torrent of psychological operations, communication disruptions, foreign terrorists crossing Syria's borders, and a devastating assassination of top Syrian officials in the heart of Damascus. The idea was to cause panic, division, mass defections and fold the Syrian state when in reality, it was more than able to fight on. Syria called the bluff and here it still stands.

With the Israel-Gaza charade concluded, it was reported that NATO would pivot back toward Syria - and it has. It has handpicked a new proxy-regime to act as the face of the terrorists battling Syrian civilians and soldiers alike within the country, while it has been conducting a concerted and refocused propaganda campaign to paint the Syrian government as once again, "imminently about to fall."

Reports are now trickling in that communications are failing across the country and another attempt at a Libyan-style "Mermaid Dawn" is being made by NATO and its terrorist proxies inside Syria. The hope is, that after several months more of terrorism, threats, sanctions, and pressure put on the border by both Israel on the Golan Heights, and Turkey along Syria's north, that this time the trick might work.

If operations are not already in progress, they will be soon, and one must recall historical instances when this tactic has been used before so as to recognize it when it is tried again.

Reposted below, is Thierry Meyssan's June 2012 warning regarding NATO psychological operations - and the information is as relevant now as ever. Inside Syria, unity and resilience is more important now than ever.

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Thierry Meyssan
voltairenet.org
June 12, 2012

In a few days, perhaps as early as Friday, June 15, at noon, the Syrians wanting to watch their national TV stations will see them replaced on their screens by TV programs created by the CIA. Studio-shot images will show massacres that are blamed on the Syrian Government, people demonstrating, ministers and generals resigning from their posts, President Al-Assad fleeing, the rebels gathering in the big city centers, and a new government installing itself in the presidential palace.

This operation of disinformation, directly managed from Washington by Ben Rhodes, the US deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, aims at demoralizing the Syrians in order to pave the way for a coup d’etat. NATO, discontent about the double veto of Russia and China, will thus succeed in conquering Syria without attacking the country illegally. Whichever judgment you might have formed on the actual events in Syria, a coup d’etat will end all hopes of democratization.

The Arab League has officially asked the satellite operators Arabsat and Nilesat to stop broadcasting Syrian media, either public or private (Syria TV, Al-Ekbariya, Ad-Dounia, Cham TV, etc.) A precedent already exists because the Arab League had managed to censure Libyan TV in order to keep the leaders of the Jamahiriya from communicating with their people. There is no Hertz network in Syria, where TV works exclusively with satellites. The cut, however, will not leave the screens black.

Actually, this public decision is only the tip of the iceberg. According to our information several international meetings were organized during the past week to coordinate the disinformation campaign. The first two were technical meetings, held in Doha (Qatar); the third was a political meeting and took place in Riyad (Saudi Arabia).


The first meeting assembled PSYOP officers, embedded in the satellite TV channels of Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Fox, France 24, Future TV and MTV. It is known that since 1998, the officers of the US Army Psychological Operations Unit (PSYOP) have been incorporated in CNN. Since then this practice has been extended by NATO to other strategic media as well.

They fabricated false information in advance, on the basis of a “story-telling” script devised by Ben Rhodes’s team at the White House. A procedure of reciprocal validation was installed, with each media quoting the lies of the other media to render them plausible for TV spectators. The participants also decided not only to requisition the TV channels of the CIA for Syria and Lebanon (Barada, Future TV, MTV, Orient News, Syria Chaab, Syria Alghad) but also about 40 religious Wahhabi TV channels to call for confessional massacres to the cry of “Christians to Beyrouth, Alawites into the grave!.”

The second meeting was held for engineers and technicians to fabricate fictitious images, mixing one part in an outdoor studio, the other part with computer generated images. During the past weeks, studios in Saudi Arabia have been set up to build replicas of the two presidential palaces in Syria and the main squares of Damascus, Aleppo and Homs. Studios of this type already exist in Doha (Qatar), but they are not sufficient.
The third meeting was held by General James B. Smith, the US ambassador, a representative of the UK, prince Bandar Bin Sultan (whom former U.S. president George Bush named his adopted son so that the U.S. press called him “Bandar Bush”). In this meeting the media actions were coordinated with those of the Free "Syrian" Army, in which prince Bandar’s mercenaries play a decisive role.

The operation had been in the making for several months, but the U.S. National Security Council decided to accelerate the action after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, notified the White House that he would oppose by all means, even by force, any illegal NATO military intervention in Syria.
The operation has a double intent: the first is to spread false information, the second aims at censuring all possible responses.

The hampering of TV satellites for military purposes is not new. Under pressure from Israel, the USA and the EU blocked Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi, Libyan and Iranian TV channels, one after the other. However, no satellite channels from other parts of the world were censured.
The broadcast of false news is also not new, but four significant steps have been taken in the art of propaganda during the last decade.

• In 1994, a pop music station named “Free Radio of the Thousand Hills” (RTML) gave the signal for genocide in Rwanda with the cry, “Kill the cockroaches!”
• In 2001, NATO used the media to impose an interpretation of the 9/11 attacks and to justify its own aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq. At that time already, it was Ben Rhodes who had been commissioned by the Bush administration to concoct the Kean/Hamilton Commission report on the attacks.
• In 2002, the CIA used five TV channels (Televen, Globovision, ValeTV and CMT) to make the public in Venezuela believe that phantom demonstrators had captured the elected president, Hugo Chávez, forcing him to resign. In reality he was the victim of a military coup d’etat.
• In 2011, France 24 served as information ministry for the Libyan CNT, according to a signed contract. During the battle of Tripoli, NATO produced fake studio films, then transmitted them via Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, showing phantom images of Libyan rebels on the central square of the capital city, while in reality they were still far away. As a consequence, the inhabitants of Tripoli were persuaded that the war was lost and gave up all resistance.

Nowadays the media do not only support a war, they produce it themselves.

This procedure violates the principles of International Law, first of all Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights relating to the fact of receiving and imparting information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Above all, the procedure violates the United Nations General Assembly resolution, adopted after the end of World War II, to prevent further wars. Resolutions 110, 381 and 819 forbid “to set obstacles to free exchange of information and ideas” (like cutting off Syrian TV channels) and “all propaganda provoking or encouraging threats to peace, breaking peace, and all acts of aggression”. By law, war propaganda is a crime against peace, the worst of crimes, because it facilitates war crimes and genocide.

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Fortune 500 Awards Tunisian President "Chatham House Prize"

Corporate-financier think-tank Chatham House showers Tunisia's President Moncef Marzouki with accolades and praise.

November 28, 2012 (LD) - The Chatham House, a corporate-financier funded think-tank based in the United Kingdom, announced on its website earlier this week that it had awarded President Moncef Marzouki of Tunisia their 2012 "Chatham House Prize." Chatham House claimed on their website that Marzouki has "ensured that Tunisia remains at the forefront of the new democratic wave in the Middle East and North Africa."

Marzouki, who accepted the award in person (presented by the Duke of York in London) was one of several nominees which also included Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Previous recipients include US-British backed "democracy icon" Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar. 


Image: Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki speaks in London before the Chatham House, a think-tank representing the collective interests of the largest corporations and financial institutions on Earth. Many of these special interests are responsible for the years of support he received while in exile, laundered through fronts such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), cultivating him as the future head of the West's new client-regime in Tunisia.  

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Ironically, Tunisia's streets are now, just days later, filled with protesters decrying the very same economic conditions that spurred protests early in 2011 leading to Moncef's ascension to power. Marzouki's security forces have begun cracking down using teargas and birdshot, leaving 250 wounded. Protesters claim that some have also been killed, but government sources deny this, and the Western media, unlike in 2011, has granted Tunisia's new strongman the benefit of the doubt.

Such generosity exhibited by the Western press is owed to who Marzouki really is a representative for - the very corporate-financier interests that are partnered with the Chatham House.

Marzouki, who had been living in exile in Paris France for years, was head of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, a US National Endowment for Democracy and George Soros Open Society-funded International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) member organization. He was also founder and head of the Arab Commission for Human Rights, a collaborating institution with the US NED World Movement for Democracy (WMD) including for a "Conference on Human Rights Activists in Exile" and a participant in the WMD "third assembly" alongside Marzouki's Tunisian League for Human Rights, sponsored by NED, Soros' Open Society, and USAID.

Image: Just some of Chatham House's "corporate members." Clearly the think-tank represents big-business and their collective interests, and are not in fact engaged in "independent thinking on international affairs" as their website claims.  

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 Image: A visual representation of the National Endowment for Democracy's corporate-financier ties found across their Board of Directors. Far from "human rights advocates," they are in fact simply leveraging such issues to disguise what is in reality corporate-financier hegemonic expansion.

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Like the Chatham House, NED is run by and for immense Western corporations and financial institutions, and features upon its board of directions a combination of pro-war Neo-Conservatives and representatives of some of the largest corporate-financier interests in America. Marzouki, like the heads other Western client regimes installed in the wake of the US-engineered "Arab Spring," has been long-cultivated, well-funded, and vigorously supported for assuming his role in the creation of subservient Tunisian proxy government.

Even as he repeats the very abuses his predecessor, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was accused of, he will continue to receive the West's support, along with his counterpart in Egypt Mohammed Morsi, in direct contradiction of nearly 2 years of US State Department rhetoric, rhetoric still being sounded against Syria, Russia, China, Iran, and a myriad of other nations still slated for destabilization and "regime change."

Image: (AFP, Fethi Belaid) This week: Protesters in Tunisia, rising up against the same economic destitution that spurred uprisings in 2011's so-called "Arab Spring" have been met with teargas and birdshot, with protesters claiming deaths have occurred. Instead of the resounding condemnation sounded by the West in 2011, current Tunisian President Marzouki has instead been invited to London to receive a "prize" for his work regarding "democracy."

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Marzouki's "Chatham House Prize" is just the latest exhibit in a long history of servile obedience to the West. While Egypt currently is taking the spotlight, it would be wise to keep the West's other proxy in the region under close scrutiny, especially as his security forces begin sending protesters to the hospital and to their graves.  

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Analysis: Egypt & Morsi's Power Grab

November 28, 2012 (Stop Imperialism)

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Geopolitical analyst Eric Draitser appears on RT to discuss the political crisis in Egypt. He explains the reasons behind President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood's power grab and the possible long-term implications. Draitser also points out the true nature of some elements within the opposition and how the conflict might be resolved.

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Breaking: Western-backed Terrorists in Syria Slaughter Christians in Bombing

Al Qaeda terrorists, backed, armed, funded, and diplomatically recognized by the West, have detonated 2 car bombs in Christian-Druze quarters in Damascus, killing dozens. 

November 28, 2012 (LD) - Twin car bombs carried out by the Western-backed so-called "rebels" have killed dozens of civilians in a Christian-Druze neighborhood in Damascus, highlighting the sectarian extremism, not "democratic" aspirations, as well as the level of depravity, driving opponents of the Syrian government. Immediately after the explosions, and as casualty figures began trickling in, Associated Press (AP) attempted to spin and downplay the act of terrorism, claiming in its report, "Twin car bombs kill 20 in Syria, hospitals say," that:

"Syrian hospital officials say twin car bombs have killed at least 20 people in a Damascus suburb that is mostly loyal to President Bashar Assad."

Excusing egregious acts of terrorism aimed at Syria's civilian population by claiming those targeted were "mostly loyal to President Bashar Assad" has been a favorite tactic of AP, BBC, CNN, Fox News, and others. In reality, the vast majority of Syrians, from Christians to Druze, from Shia'a Muslims to moderate Sunnis, are targets of the sectarian extremist, Saudi-Wahhabi indoctrinated terrorists the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia have been funding, arming, importing from across the region, and arraying against the people of Syria since at least 2007.


The terrorists in Syria have recently received a boost by the West, arranging for them a political front in Doha, Qatar to act as the reasonable "face" for their armed terrorism, portraying the premeditated destabilization by foreign terrorists as an indigenous struggle for "freedom and democracy." Already, even that front has suffered setbacks, as its newly US-Qatari appointed leader, Moaz al-Khatib, has been revealed as not only involved with Western oil corporations, but also has declared on Al Jazeera his intentions of establishing an "Islamic state."

Clearly, blowing up a neighborhood full of Christians and Druze would fall in line with just such a plan, driving yet more of Syria's diverse population beyond its borders to live as permanent refugees - not with alleged plans of "freeing" the country, or gracing a multicultural society that has lived together for centuries with "democracy."


To reiterate, the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia had planned as far back as 2007 to specifically use sectarian extremists to overrun and overthrow Syria. This was revealed in a report published by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Seymour Hersh, titled "The Redirection." Citing US, Saudi, and Lebanese officials, as well as former US intelligence agents, Hersh reported:

"To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda." -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007) 

Hersh's report would also include: 

"the Saudi government, with Washington’s approval, would provide funds and logistical aid to weaken the government of President Bashir Assad, of Syria. The Israelis believe that putting such pressure on the Assad government will make it more conciliatory and open to negotiations." -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

Clearly, that is exactly what is playing out now in Syria, despite the Western media's best efforts to portray otherwise. The US Army's own reports indicate that very hotbeds of violence in Syria today, match precisely with 2007 identified Al Qaeda-Muslim Brotherhood epicenters that were supplying terrorists to Iraq to fuel similarly deadly sectarian violence there.

Image: (Left) West Point's Combating Terrorism Center's 2007 report, "Al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq" indicated which areas in Syria Al Qaeda fighters filtering into Iraq came from. The overwhelming majority of them came from Dayr Al-Zawr in Syria's southeast, Idlib in the north near the Turkish-Syrian border, and Dar'a in the south near the Jordanian-Syrian border. (Right) A map indicating the epicenters of violence in Syria indicate that the exact same hotbeds for Al Qaeda in 2007, now serve as the epicenters of so-called "pro-democracy fighters."

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Additionally, the sectarian nature of these Western-backed terrorists was also warned against in Hersh's 2007 report, specifically noting that if the plan went ahead, a sectarian bloodbath would ensue - and those hit hardest would include the Levant's Christian populations. Hersh would report:

"Robert Baer, a former longtime C.I.A. agent in Lebanon, has been a severe critic of Hezbollah and has warned of its links to Iranian-sponsored terrorism. But now, he told me, “we’ve got Sunni Arabs preparing for cataclysmic conflict, and we will need somebody to protect the Christians in Lebanon. It used to be the French and the United States who would do it, and now it’s going to be Nasrallah and the Shiites" -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

Clearly this threat has now expanded over to neighboring Syria's Christian populations. Western-backed terrorism has already targeted Christians across Syria, as reported in the LA Times' "Church fears 'ethnic cleansing' of Christians in Homs, Syria," as well as in USA Today's distorted, but still telling, "Christians in Syria live in uneasy alliance with Assad, Alawites." With the recent bombing of a Christian-Druze neighborhood in Damascus to add to the list, it is clear a concerted campaign of genocide is aimed at Syria's many minorities by Western-backed sectarian extremists - on record, purposefully arrayed against Syria for this very purpose.

Image: Libyan Mahdi al-Harati of the US State Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf)-listed terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), addressing fellow terrorists in Syria. Harati is now commanding a Libyan brigade operating inside of Syria attempting to destroy the Syrian government and subjugate the Syrian population. Traditionally, this is known as "foreign invasion." 

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The silence of the UN, as well as the continued covering up by Western media agencies regarding this premeditated genocide is an egregious crime against humanity, one becoming increasingly difficult to cover up. The fraud of NATO's Libya intervention is now fully revealed, with Libya's "freedom fighters" exposed as Al Qaeda thrust into power by Western arms, cash, and diplomatic recognition. In Syria, before the legitimate ruling government has been destroyed, the West's "freedom fighters" are now revealed for what they truly are.

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Walmart & 112 Dead Factory Workers

How many more tragic disasters await so multinational corporations can offshore jobs, exploit deplorable working conditions overseas, and continue filling the corporate-consumerist troughs? 

November 27, 2012 (LD) - 112 Bangladeshi workers perished in a factory fire last week - the cause is still under investigation. And as the tragedy made its way across international news headlines, it quickly became clear the factory was producing clothing for mega-retailer WalMart in the United States.

Image: (Getty Images) The price others pay for American consumerism. Walmart claims it didn't know the factory was still producing goods for its stores. It also claims it will work to improve conditions for overseas workers - but if this were true, and overseas workers were working with similar wages under similar "acceptable" conditions found in America, why outsource jobs in the first place? Clearly Walmart is just paying lip service.

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Associated Press (AP) reported in their article, "Walmart Admits Bangladesh Factory Was Making Clothing For Retailer Before Fire," that: 

The garment factory in Bangladesh where a weekend fire killed at least 112 people had been making clothes for Wal-Mart without the giant U.S. retailer's knowledge, Wal-Mart said.

The report also stated: 

"Today, we have terminated the relationship with that supplier," America's biggest retailer said in a statement Monday. "The fact that this occurred is extremely troubling to us, and we will continue to work across the apparel industry to improve fire safety education and training in Bangladesh."

Regarding the conditions of the factory, AP reported: 

Survivors of the weekend fire said an exit door was locked, fire extinguishers didn't work and apparently were there just to impress inspectors, and that when the fire alarm went off, bosses told workers to return to their sewing machines. Victims were trapped or jumped to their deaths from the eight-story building, which had no emergency exits.

However, what Walmart hopes the public never figures out is that if ever the mega-retailer manages to bring standards and wages up to what the West would consider "acceptable," their offshore supply chain would no longer benefit them and their profit margins - jobs would be better off kept on American soil, where they began in the first place. Clearly Walmart has no intention of "improving" anything except perhaps better obfuscating their supply chain from the general public. 


Additionally, the mega-retailer's alibi that it "didn't know" the factory was still producing clothing for their stores is both irresponsible and unacceptable. In order to circumvent safety concerns and liability, Walmart may have just as easily "known" and set up the arrangement to maintain plausible deniability while maintaining its profitable supply chain. Walmart is responsible for its supply chain, and if is difficult to keep track of factories scattered across the planet to fill stores in America, then that's all the more reason to bring the jobs back home.

Walmart isn't the only mega-corporation who has offshored American jobs to dungeons and deathtraps overseas - Apple's relationship with Taiwan's Foxconn is another example. Operating in mainland China, where windows must be locked and safety nets deployed below to prevent waves of suicide attempts that sweep across the oppressed, underpaid workforce (also here, here, and here) as they churn out iPads and iPhones to sate America's consumerist hunger, Foxconn has become a notorious name in the generally under-reported world of exploited labor.

Image: Foxconn has installed "suicide nets" under the windows of upper floor to prevent deaths after waves of suicide sweep its underpaid, overworked employees. While many allegedly champion for "human rights" across the West, when they do so by tapping on their slave-made iPhones and iPads, they are merely compounding, not solving the problem.

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Ironically, many who tout themselves as "liberal" and interested in human rights, can be found "tweeting," updating their Facebook accounts, e-mailing, and discussing their pet humanitarian causes on iPads and iPhones created by the modern equivalent of slave labor.  

Don't Just Boycott Walmart - Replace it Permanently 

Walmart's questionable supply chain is not a new topic, it is simply back in the news because of a particularly tragic repercussion of its habitual disregard for human life. Campaigns to force Walmart, or Apple, or any other large multinational corporation to reform their behavior has only caused them to bury their abuses deeper, further from necessary oversight. It is only tragedies like the fire in Bangladesh that momentarily bring the truth of Walmart's continued, willful negligence to the surface.

Many people are quick to call for a boycott - and this is indeed a superb idea. But it is an idea that will never take hold unless it is taken to the next level - by doing so, it will address the myriad of problems Walmart's business model has created, and not just human rights abuses.

Boycotting Walmart must be done in tandem with a concerted local effort to create citizen-networks, clubs, hackerspaces, and makerspaces to pool resources together and begin replacing permanently, large multinationals like Walmart, not through mere protests or policy changes, but through local innovation and entrepreneurship. These local networks will produce small businesses and jobs, leveraging technology while giving local communities exactly what they want, and a direct hand in the manufacturing process, not merely a chance to "belly up" to the corporate-consumerist troughs filled daily at Walmart. 

Developing this local infrastructure will not happen overnight, and it will not cause Walmart to shutter its doors tomorrow, or even this week. But technology is already negating the massive, centralized, scale of economy business models employed by Walmart and other mega-multinationals. And while a handful of friends and family getting together after work, pooling their resources to leverage modern technology to create a workspace within which they can create, design, invent, and produce, may seem like a small drop in a very large bucket to fill, people pursuing this solution in parallel around the country, and around the world will quickly gain momentum collectively, creating local supply chains that directly benefit local people - in the United States and in Bangladesh - no disparity required.

With all real solutions, effort, education, organization on a local level, and persistence will be required - but it is a price that is at the same time a benefit, and when compared with the continuously deteriorating economy and social fabric of Western society within the current paradigm it is mired, it seems like a small price to pay, and one that seems it should begin being paid immediately.

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Stop Imperialism - Podcast 49

Morsi's power grab in Egypt, terrorists in Syria blow up mosque, Kurds & army build up in northern Iraq, and Greeks oppose austerity. 

November 27, 2012 (Stop Imperialism)

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In today's episode:

• 1. Egypt  -  Morsi power grab: Crisis end 'imminent,' Ahmed Mekki, Egypt minister, says
• 2. Syria  -  FSA insurgents blow up mosque in Aleppo
• 3. Iraq  -  Iraqi army, Kurds continue buildup in disputed region
• 4. Greece  -  Most Greeks want the Euro, oppose austerity: poll
• 5. Under the Radar  -  BP seeks deal with Nord Stream to bring Russia gas to UK

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Occupy Sandy Aids Storm Victims

Local disaster response outpaces, outperforms, outclasses federal relief efforts.

Editor's Note: For the past two years I have been writing about what is wrong in this world. Now I believe the time has come to focus more attention on what we should do about it. From agriculture to technology, to local education and infrastructure, to leveraging the latest in science and technology to improve and expand our healthcare system, the newly created website LocalOrg will serve as a clearinghouse for both concepts and success stories. 

We are not helpless observers. If we don't like what we see everyday when we read the news, now is the time to commit our intellect and our own two hands to building the future we would rather see - not merely pawning off this great responsibly to "elected representatives" who habitually defy our will and purposefully work against our best interests. 

The following article was written as one of the first exclusive entries for LocalOrg. If you have solutions or success stories you would like to see researched and covered, e-mail me at cartalucci@gmail.com. 

-Tony Cartalucci

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November 26, 2012 (LocalOrg) - Local people know best what's going on on a local level. Federal agencies busy appropriating budgets and following protocol will never be able to compete against competent, well-organized local networks.

When Hurricane Sandy swept New York City earlier this month, people waited for Red Cross and FEMA to respond, seemingly under the impression that the right and responsibility to react to a disaster laid solely in the hands of the state. When it became clear that the urgent response needed was never coming, people who were already organized as part of ongoing anti-corporate and banking protests used their infrastructure to begin relieving affected people. 

The Black Agenda Report's article, "The Hurricane and the Failed State," notes that:

So-called advanced nations are never so advanced that they can stand up to the forces of nature. New York and New Jersey are just the latest examples of seemingly safe and “developed” places which were laid low by a change in the weather. Then again, things outside of human control can expose what was already present but kept hidden. Hurricane Sandy showed us that our society is in reality, not advanced at all.

After the hurricane struck the east coast, it was clear that the United States is nothing more than a failed state with a big military and a strong currency. There is nothing in place to help the masses of citizens in times of crisis. That is because the system isn’t meant to help them. It is meant to help certain individuals and corporations, and everyone else is on their own.

The article continued:

The charitable organization most people were directed to was the Red Cross. That same Red Cross did nothing after receiving millions of dollars in donations during hurricane Katrina, yet is still forced down Americans’ throats as the only solution in every catastrophe. The borough president of Staten Island, righteously angry about Red Cross inaction, used the occasion of a press conference to tell the public to stop giving them money.

While the Red Cross collected more than $23 million dollars during a celebrity telethon but did nothing with the money, Occupy Sandy had no money yet managed to provide food, clothing and medical care to the hardest hit neighborhoods. The Occupy teams pumped water from damaged homes and even gave direction to the National Guard and FEMA teams. The least effective group got all the cash, but Occupy did the real work without help from the public or private sector.

The article concludes by stating:

The new lessons are the same as the old. Activism without acquiescence to political power can succeed in bringing about tremendous change. There will always be catastrophes but we should not expect a failed system to save us from them.

The conclusion is particularly meaningful and should remind us all that ultimately we ourselves are the only ones who truly have our own best interests at heart - and the interests of our friends, families, and neighbors.

If ever a sentiment has been qualified by a real world example, the community response marshaled by the underfunded, underrated Occupy Sandy movement - working in the shadow of multi-million dollar federal agencies and international organizations - is it. Occupy Sandy's advantage was that despite the little resources they had, their intentions were genuine, their purpose was both urgent and personal, and the stakes were a community they themselves must live in and the benefits of getting it back up and running again as quickly as possible.

Whatever one may blame Hurricane Sandy on, or what the political beliefs are of Occupy Sandy may be, when the moment of truth came, they put politics aside, and successfully utilized pragmatism to solve urgent and overwhelming problems.

Whatever your organization may be, coming up with your own local contingency plans, as well as studying the successes of movements like Occupy Sandy, should become a priority. Because whatever the constant din of reassuring federal propaganda may have you believe, from New Orleans to New York, the real message is clear - get a plan, get a program, and do it yourself or it won't get done.

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US-Created "Syrian Opposition" Led by Big Oil Rep

As in Libya, Syrian "opposition" is led by long-time servants of Western corporate-financiers. 

November 26, 2012 (LD) - A year ago, it was reported that Libya's new NATO-installed prime minister, Abdurrahim el-Keib, was in fact a long-time US resident, having taught at the University of Alabama and was formally employed by the Petroleum Institute, based in Abu Dhabi, UAE and sponsored by British Petroleum (BP), Shell, France's Total, the Japan Oil Development Company, and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. El-Keib is listed as a "Professor and Chairman" in his Petroleum Institute profile which also describes extensive research conducted by him sponsored by various US government agencies and departments over the years.

His long history of serving and working in coordination with Western governments and corporations made him and his collaborators the ideal candidates to prepare Libya for its place within the Wall Street-London international order.

Now it is revealed that the US-handpicked opposition, announced in Doha, Qatar earlier this month, is led by a similarly compromised figure, Moaz al-Khatib. The corporate-financier-funded Carnegie Endowment for International Peace reported of al-Khatib that:

Moaz al-Khatib, an oil sector engineer and former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, has garnered substantial praise since his designation, while Riad Seif and Suhair al-Atassi bring their own credibility to the coalition. They have now set up shop in Cairo and have received the full endorsement of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Turkey, and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council as the "sole representative" of the Syrian opposition. The European Union and the United States have endorsed the group in a more general fashion.

Even more importantly, from Syrian citizens of various affiliations with whom I have met recently, it is clear that al-Khatib and his associates seem to draw praise for their opposition to the regime—as an imam, al-Khatib refused to follow the speeches imposed by the regime and was imprisoned—their resistance, and their tolerance. These endorsements are a first achievement, but a number of steps are necessary before Moaz al-Khatib becomes the real head of the Syrian opposition and enters into a substantive relationship with EU leaders.

However, this resounding praise should be kept in the context that among the Carnegie Endowment's sponsors are in fact many "oil sector" giants including British Petroleum (BP), Chevron, Exxon, and Shell.


VoltarieNet's Thierry Meyssan reported in an article titled, "The many faces of Sheikh Ahmad Moaz Al-Khatib" that: 

Completely unknown to the international public only a week ago, Sheikh Moaz al-Khatib has been catapulted to the presidency of the Syrian National Coalition, which represents pro-Western opposition in the Damascus government. Portrayed by an intense public relations campaign as a highly moral personality with no partisan or economic attachments, he is in truth a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and an executive of the Shell oil company.

Indeed, al-Khatib had worked at the al-Furat Petroleum Company for six years, according to the BBC, which is partnered with Shell Oil. Al-Khatib is also said to have lobbied for Shell in Syria between 2003-2004, and has likewise taught classes in both Europe and the United States, this according to his biography featured on his own website.

Video: The smirking crypto-sectarian extremist, and new Western proxy of the recently re-contrived "Syrian National Council," Moaz al-Khatib admits that he's been promised legitimacy and weapons despite openly declaring his intention of overthrowing the secular nation-state of Syria, and installing an "Islamic state." Qatari state propaganda walks al-Khatib through the all-too-familiar talking points repeated by the US, UK, EU, Turkey and their Persian Gulf  collaborators. Qatar's minister of state for foreign affairs sells the "legal" argument for circumventing the United Nations Security Council.    

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While the global public is repeatedly told that the violence in Syria is the result of "pro-democratic" forces fighting against the "brutal regime" of President Bashar al-Assad, it is Moaz al-Khatib himself who inexplicably states that two certified autocracies, those of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are propping him up and that it is an "Islamic state" he hopes to create upon the rubble of a destroyed Syria.

Qatari state media front, Al Jazeera, credits the Qatari minister of state for foreign affairs for the very creation of al-Khatib's new "opposition coalition. Al-Khatib, in an Al Jazeera interview, counts the two absolute monarchies of Qatar and Saudi Arabia as his "friends," and admits - that while he cannot say who - "friends" have promised him weapons as he embarks on the creation of this "Islamic state." Despite his assurances that his planned "Islamic state" will exhibit tolerance, festering extremist regimes such as Libya and Egypt, created with the same Western-backed formula now at work in Syria, have already proven such assurances are merely rhetoric aimed at placating public opinion long enough for Syria's secular institutions to be irrevocably disfigured.

Already in Syria, al-Khatib's "freedom fighters" are exposed as both foreign extremists - affiliates of Al Qaeda, as well as sectarian-driven Muslim Brotherhood militants that have plagued Syria's sociopolitical landscape for decades. Clearly, al-Khatib has played a role in perpetuating this plague, clearly he plans to continue well into the foreseeable future - this time with Western, Turkish, Qatari and Saudi support.

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Al Qaeda "Virtue Police" Show up Along NATO Protected Turkish-Syrian Border

NATO-backed terrorists along Turkish-Syrian border establish Al Qaeda-style "Virtue & Vice Police," heralding the West's true designs for Syria. 

November 24, 2012 (LD) - An obscure, unreported pair of Getty images created on November 21, 2012 depict masked, armed terrorists atop a building with the words "Committee for Promotion of Virtues and Prevention of Vice" scrawled across its facade. The images were taken in al-Bab, northern Syria.

Images: Screenshots from Getty Images depicting Al Qaeda-style "virtue police" atop a building in northern Syria. The accompanying captions provided by AFP run roughshod over the intelligence of potential readers, claiming the "Committee for Promotion of Virtues and Prevention of Vice" is actually aimed only at "FSA" fighters, and seeks to "fight abuses and crimes committed by members of the Free Syrian Army."  In reality, the West and its media agencies are continuing to bury a premeditated US-Israeli-Saudi plan to fund and arm sectarian extremists to overrun Syria.

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While the establishment of Al Qaeda-style "virtue police" along Syria's borders is troubling enough, what is perhaps even more disturbing is the AFP caption that accompanied the images. The caption reads:

Syrian members of the Committee for Promotion of Virtues and Prevention of Vice stand guard ontop of a building with a freshly painted wall with the name of the committee in Arabic at their headquarters in al-Bab, northern Syria, on November 21, 2012. The committee was created to fight abuses and crimes committed by members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) only, and has 80 elements recruited outside the FSA. The rebels faced growing criticism, particularly after a video was posted on YouTube earlier in November, appearing to show opposition fighters beating and executing soldiers after attacks.

The caption presumes absolute ignorance on behalf of potential readers as to what "Committee for Promotion of Virtues and Prevention of Vice" actually means in the context of sectarian extremism linked to groups such as Al Qaeda, leading US-backed efforts to topple the Syrian government. Not only do the committees have nothing to do with fighting "abuses and crimes committed by members of the Free Syrian Army," but to suggest that the "committee" is only policing fellow terrorists betrays the last 2 years of documented evidence regarding the so-called "FSA" and its members who hail from Al Qaeda linked groups both inside Syria and beyond, including the notorious Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) hailing from Benghazi, Darnah, and Tobruk, Libya.

"Virtue Police" Simply a Manifestation of NATO-backed Terrorist Flooding over Turkish Border. 

It was exposed at length that many of the so-called "Free Syrian Army's" fighters were in fact foreign terrorists imported into Syria via long-established Al Qaeda networks used to feed fighters first into Afghanistan during the 1980's, then into Afghanistan and Iraq during America's occupation of both nations over the past decade.

The documented details of this network were exposed in the extensive academic efforts of the US Army's own West Point Combating Terrorism Center (CTC). Two reports were published between 2007 and 2008 revealing a global network of Al Qaeda affiliated terror organizations, and how they mobilized to send a large influx of foreign fighters into Iraq.

Image: Cover of the US Army's West Point Combating Terrorism Center report, "Al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq." The report definitively exposed a regional network used by Al Qaeda to send fighters into Iraq to sow sectarian violence during the US occupation. This exact network can now be seen demonstrably at work with NATO support, overrunning Libya and now Syria. The terrorists in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi that US Ambassador Stevens was arming, is described by the 2007 West Point report as one of the most prolific and notorious Al Qaeda subsidiaries in the world. 

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The first report, "Al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq," was extensively cited by historian and geopolitical analyst Dr. Webster Tarpley in March of 2011, exposing that NATO-backed "pro-democracy" rebels in Libya were in fact Al Qaeda's Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), listed by the US State Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf) as an international terrorist organization.

The West Point report exposed Libya as a global epicenter for Al Qaeda training and recruitment, producing more fighters per capita than even Saudi Arabia, and producing more foreign fighters than any other nation that sent militants to Iraq, except Saudi Arabia itself.

Image: Libya, despite its relatively small population, came in second overall, producing foreign fighters to wage sectarian war in Iraq. Libya exceeded all other nations per capita in producing foreign fighters, including Al Qaeda's primary patrons, Saudi Arabia. These diagrams were produced by West Point's Combating Terrorism Center, on pages 8 and 9 of its "Al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq" report. 

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But Libya's foreign fighters weren't drawn equally from across the nation. They predominately emanated from the east (Cyrenaica), precisely where the so-called 2011 "pro-democracy revolution" also began, and where most of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi's attention had been focused over the course of at least three decades, fighting militant extremists. The cities of Darnah, Tobruk, and Benghazi in particular fielded the vast majority of foreign fighters sent to Iraq and also served as the very epicenter for the 2011 violent, NATO-backed uprising.

Image: (Left) West Point's Combating Terrorism Center's 2007 report, "Al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq" indicates that the vast majority of Al Qaeda terrorists arriving in Iraq from Libya, originated from the country's eastern region, and from the cities of Darnah and Benghazi in particular. (Right) A map indicating rebel held territory (red) during Libya's 2011 conflict. The entire region near Benghazi, Darnah, and Tobruk served as the cradle for the so-called revolution. The US government is just now revealing the heavy Al Qaeda presence in the region, but clearly knew about it since at least as early as 2007, and as other reports indicate, decades before even that. 

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Clearly, the US military and the US government were both well aware of the heavy Al Qaeda presence in Cyrenaica since as early as 2007. When violence flared up in 2011, it was clear to many geopolitical analysts that it was the result of Al Qaeda, not "pro-democracy protesters." The US government, its allies, and a complicit Western press, willfully lied to the public, misrepresented its case to the United Nations and intervened in Libya on behalf of international terrorists, overthrowing a sovereign government, and granting an entire nation as a base of operations for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).

A similar scenario is now playing out in Syria, where the West, despite acknowledging the existence of Al Qaeda in Benghazi, Libya, is using these militants, and the exact same networks used to send fighters to Iraq, to flood into and overrun Syria. This, after these very same Libyan militants were implicated in an attack that left a US ambassador dead on September 11, 2012.

Image: Libyan Mahdi al-Harati of the US State Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf)-listed terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), addressing fellow terrorists in Syria. Harati is now commanding a Libyan brigade operating inside of Syria attempting to destroy the Syrian government and subjugate the Syrian population. Traditionally, this is known as "foreign invasion." 

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LIFG terrorists are veritably flooding into Syria from Libya. In November 2011, the Telegraph in their article, "Leading Libyan Islamist met Free Syrian Army opposition group," would report:

Abdulhakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, "met with Free Syrian Army leaders in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey," said a military official working with Mr Belhadj. "Mustafa Abdul Jalil (the interim Libyan president) sent him there." 

Another Telegraph article, "Libya’s new rulers offer weapons to Syrian rebels," would admit

Syrian rebels held secret talks with Libya's new authorities on Friday, aiming to secure weapons and money for their insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

At the meeting, which was held in Istanbul and included Turkish officials, the Syrians requested "assistance" from the Libyan representatives and were offered arms, and potentially volunteers.

"There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria," said a Libyan source, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There is a military intervention on the way. Within a few weeks you will see."

Later that month, some 600 Libyan terrorists would be reported to have entered Syria to begin combat operations and have been flooding into the country ever since.

Image: (Left) West Point's Combating Terrorism Center's 2007 report, "Al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq" also indicated which areas in Syria Al Qaeda fighters filtering into Iraq came from. The overwhelming majority of them came from Dayr Al-Zawr in Syria's southeast, Idlib in the north near the Turkish-Syrian border, and Dar'a in the south near the Jordanian-Syrian border. (Right) A map indicating the epicenters of violence in Syria indicate that the exact same hotbeds for Al Qaeda in 2007, now serve as the epicenters of so-called "pro-democracy fighters."

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In Syria, the southeastern region near Dayr Al-Zawr on the Iraqi-Syrian border, the northwestern region of Idlib near the Turkish-Syrian border, and Dar'a in the south near the Jordanian-Syrian border, produced the majority of fighters found crossing over into Iraq, according to the 2007 West Point study.

These regions now serve as the epicenter for a similar Libyan-style uprising, with fighters disingenuously portrayed as "pro-democracy" "freedom fighters." These are also the locations receiving the majority of foreign fighters flowing in from other areas described in the 2007 report, mainly from Saudi Arabia via Jordan, and from Libya, either directly, through Turkey, or through Egypt and/or Jordan.

Image: The most prominent routes into Syria for foreign fighters is depicted, with the inset graph describing the most widely used routes by foreign fighters on their way to Iraq, as determined by West Point's 2007 Combating Terrorism Center report "Al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq" (page 20).  These same networks are now being used, with the addition of a more prominent role for Turkey, to target Syria directly. (Click to enlarge)

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While many Western  think-tank documents, including the joint US-Israeli "Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," recognized Syria as a threat to corporate-financier hegemony throughout the Middle East and beyond, it wasn't until at least 2007 that a fully articulated plan was developed for actually rolling back or eliminating Syria as a viable, independent nation-state.

The specific use of Al Qaeda-affiliated militant organizations, not just inside Syria, but from across the region was a key component of the plan,  revealed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his 2007 New Yorker report titled, ""The Redirection: Is the Administration's new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?"

In the report it specifically stated:

"To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda." -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007) 

Hersh's report would continue by stating: 

"the Saudi government, with Washington’s approval, would provide funds and logistical aid to weaken the government of President Bashir Assad, of Syria. The Israelis believe that putting such pressure on the Assad government will make it more conciliatory and open to negotiations." -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

The link between extremist groups and Saudi funding was also mentioned in the report, and reflects evidence presented by the West Point CTC indicating that the majority of fighters and funding behind the sectarian violence in Iraq, came from Saudi Arabia. Hersh's report specifically states:

"...[Saudi Arabia's] Bandar and other Saudis have assured the White House that “they will keep a very close eye on the religious fundamentalists. Their message to us was ‘We’ve created this movement, and we can control it.’ It’s not that we don’t want the Salafis to throw bombs; it’s who they throw them at—Hezbollah, Moqtada al-Sadr, Iran, and at the Syrians, if they continue to work with Hezbollah and Iran.” -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

But despite this documented conspiracy stretching back years before the so-called "Arab Spring" began in 2011, and now visible manifestations of sectarian extremists establishing Al Qaeda-style institutions to brutalize and subjugate the Syrian population along the Turkish-Syrian border, the deceitful, misleading captions of Getty Images, as well as repetitive op-eds, reports and official statements across the Western media and from government representatives, continue in their attempts to deny the so-called "Free Syrian Army" are in fact international terrorists, driven by sectarian extremism, not aspirations for a "free and democratic" Syria.

Along with this reality, is the West's propping up of the "Syrian National Council," mere window dressing for the extremist groups the West and its Persian Gulf allies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar are arming and funding. As undeniable evidence mounts regarding who the West is really supporting, and what the Syrian government is really fighting against, the credibility of the silent, ineffectual UN and the "primacy of international law" crumbles by the day.

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