World Must Unite Against US-Saudi-Israeli Proxy War in Syria

• US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel have conspired to destroy Syria by way of arming sectarian extremists since 2007.
• The West now admits it, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have provided thousands of tons of weapons to militants in Syria - while also conceding that Al Qaeda's Syrian franchise, Jabhat al-Nusra is the best armed, most well equipped militant front in the conflict.
• US, Saudi, Israeli-backed terrorists are now committing a myriad of horrific atrocities against all of Syria's population, including Sunni Muslims - meaning neither "democracy" nor even "sectarianism" drives the conflict, but rather the destruction of Syria in its entirety. 
• US State Department acknowledges Syria faces threat from Al Qaeda, demands blockade of arms/aid from reaching government to fight terrorists the US State Department admits are present in every major Syrian city.

March 30, 2013 (LD) - Since 2007, the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel have been documented as conspiring to overthrow the Syrian government by way of sectarian extremists, including groups "sympathetic to Al Qaeda," and in particular, the militant, sectarian Muslim Brotherhood. While the West has attempted to portray the full-scale conflict beginning in Syria in 2011 as first, a "pro-democracy uprising," to now a "sectarian conflict," recent atrocities carried out by US-Saudi-Israeli proxies have shifted the assault to include Sunni Muslims unable or unwilling to participate in the destruction of the Syrian state.

Such attacks included a mortar bombardment of Damascus University, killing 15 and injuring dozens more, as well as the brutal slaying of two prominent Sunni Muslim clerics - the latest of which was beheaded, his body paraded through the streets of Aleppo, and his head hung from the mosque he preached in. While the West attempts to mitigate these events by labeling the victims as "pro-government," the reality is that the forces fighting inside Syria are funded, armed, directed, and politically supported from abroad - and therefore do not represent any of the Syrian people's interests, including those Syrians who do not support the government.  

It is abundantly clear that the West's goal is neither to institute "democracy," nor even take sides in a "sectarian conflict," but rather carry out the complete and permanent destruction of Syria as a nation-state, sparing no one, not even Sunnis.

Such a proxy war exists contra to any conceivable interpretation of "international law." The world is left with a moral imperative to not only denounce this insidious conflict brought upon the Syrian people, compounded and perpetuated entirely by external interests, but demands that concrete action is taken to ensure that this act of aggression is brought to an end.



The US, UK, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have admitted to colluding together, flooding Syria with thousands of tons of weapons via Jordan to Syria's south, and NATO-member Turkey to Syria's north. And in an otherwise inexplicable conundrum, while the likes of US Secretary of State John Kerry insist this torrent of weapons is being directed to "moderates," neither the US nor its allies are able to explain why Al Qaeda terror front Jabhat al-Nusra has emerged as the most heavily armed, best equipped militant organization in the conflict.

AP reported specifically in their article, "Officials: Arms shipments rise to Syrian rebels," that:

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on the sidelines of a Syrian opposition meeting in Italy last month that the weapons are ending up in the hands of secular groups. "I will tell you this: There is a very clear ability now in the Syrian opposition to make certain that what goes to the moderate, legitimate opposition is in fact getting to them, and the indication is that they are increasing their pressure as a result of that," he said, without elaborating.

But even AP admits that: 

Syrian opposition activists estimate there are 15-20 different brigades fighting in and around Damascus now, each with up to 150 fighters. Many of them have Islamic tendencies and bear black-and-white Islamic flags or al-Qaeda-style flags on their Facebook pages. There is also a presence of Jabhat al-Nusra, one of the strongest Islamic terrorist groups fighting alongside the rebels.

The US State Department's own statement regarding the designation of al-Nusra as a listed Al Qaeda terror organization states:

Since November 2011, al-Nusrah Front has claimed nearly 600 attacks – ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and improvised explosive device operations – in major city centers including Damascus, Aleppo, Hamah, Dara, Homs, Idlib, and Dayr al-Zawr.

According to the US State Department, al-Nusra is carrying out hundreds of attacks with a wide array of weaponry, across the entire nation of Syria, indicating a massive front and implying an equally massive network of logistical support, including foreign sponsorship. What's more, is that the US State Department acknowledges al-Nusra's presence even in cities close to Syria's borders where the CIA is admittedly overseeing the distribution of weapons and cash. The New York Times, in their June 2012 article, "C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition," reported that:

A small number of C.I.A. officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to American officials and Arab intelligence officers.  

And in New York Times' more recent March 2013 article, "Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid From C.I.A.," it is admitted that weapons are being funneled into Syria across both its borders with Turkey and Jordan: 

With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders.

 The article would also state: 

Although rebel commanders and the data indicate that Qatar and Saudi Arabia had been shipping military materials via Turkey to the opposition since early and late 2012, respectively, a major hurdle was removed late last fall after the Turkish government agreed to allow the pace of air shipments to accelerate, officials said. 

Simultaneously, arms and equipment were being purchased by Saudi Arabia in Croatia and flown to Jordan on Jordanian cargo planes for rebels working in southern Syria and for retransfer to Turkey for rebels groups operating from there, several officials said.

The US State Department acknowledges that the well armed, prominent terror front al-Nusra is operating in the very areas the CIA is feeding weapons and cash into.

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" and also happen to be areas the US CIA is admittedly distributing weapons and other aid in. 

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Such a reality directly contradicts the US State Department's official position, and no explanation is given as to how "moderates" can be provided with such extensive support, and still be eclipsed militarily and logistically by terror-front al-Nusra. That is, unless of course, the US, British, Saudi, and Qatari weapons aren't simply just handing the weapons directly to terrorists, precisely as planned as early as 2007. 

The Destruction of Syria Began in 2007, Not 2011

While the West has attempted to reclaim Syria as part of its sphere of influence for decades, concrete plans for the latest proxy war were laid at least as early as 2007. It was admitted in 2007 that the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel conspired together to fund, arm, and direct sectarian extremists including militants "sympathetic" to Al Qaeda, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, against the governments of Iran and Syria. In Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh's 2007 New Yorker article,  "The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" the conspiracy was described as follows:

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.

Hersh also cited US, Saudi, and Lebanese officials who indicated that, "in the past year, the Saudis, the Israelis, and the Bush Administration have developed a series of informal understandings about their new strategic direction," and that, "the Saudi government, with Washington’s approval, would provide funds and logistical aid to weaken the government of President Bashir Assad, of Syria. The report would also state: 

Some of the core tactics of the redirection are not public, however. The clandestine operations have been kept secret, in some cases, by leaving the execution or the funding to the Saudis, or by finding other ways to work around the normal congressional appropriations process, current and former officials close to the Administration said.

Mention of the Muslim Brotherhood already receiving aid even in 2007 was also made:

The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, a branch of a radical Sunni movement founded in Egypt in 1928, engaged in more than a decade of violent opposition to the regime of Hafez Assad, Bashir’s father. In 1982, the Brotherhood took control of the city of Hama; Assad bombarded the city for a week, killing between six thousand and twenty thousand people. Membership in the Brotherhood is punishable by death in Syria. The Brotherhood is also an avowed enemy of the U.S. and of Israel. Nevertheless, Jumblatt said, “We told Cheney that the basic link between Iran and Lebanon is Syria—and to weaken Iran you need to open the door to effective Syrian opposition.”

There is evidence that the Administration’s redirection strategy has already benefitted the Brotherhood. The Syrian National Salvation Front is a coalition of opposition groups whose principal members are a faction led by Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian Vice-President who defected in 2005, and the Brotherhood. A former high-ranking C.I.A. officer told me, “The Americans have provided both political and financial support. The Saudis are taking the lead with financial support, but there is American involvement.” He said that Khaddam, who now lives in Paris, was getting money from Saudi Arabia, with the knowledge of the White House. (In 2005, a delegation of the Front’s members met with officials from the National Security Council, according to press reports.) A former White House official told me that the Saudis had provided members of the Front with travel documents.

The Wall Street Journal in 2007 would also implicate the Muslim Brotherhood and more specifically, the so-called "National Salvation Front," in its article, "To Check Syria, U.S. Explores Bond With Muslim Brothers."

It is clear that the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel planned to use sectarian extremists against the nation of Syria starting at least as early as 2007, and it is clear that now these sectarian extremists are carrying out the destruction of Syria with a massive torrent of weapons and cash provided by the US and its regional allies, just as was described by Hersh's report.

A Moral Imperative to Save Syria 

Syria is under attack by an insidious, premeditated foreign assault, intentionally using terrorist proxies in direct and complete violation of any conceivable interpretation of both national and international law. The world has a moral imperative to support the Syrian people and their government as they fight this assault - both politically and logistically. While US Secretary John Kerry is unable to account for how his nation's support for moderates has left Al Qaeda's al-Nusra front the premier militant faction in Syria, he has demanded that Iraq help stem the flow of alleged aid Iran is providing the Syrian government as it fights these terrorists.

Does US Secretary of State John Kerry deny that Syria is fighting a significant (and continuously growing) Al Qaeda presence within their borders, which according to the US State Department's own statement, is operating in every major city in the country? What conceivable explanation or excuse could be made to justify the blockading of aid sent to Syria to fight Al Qaeda terrorists? In fact, why isn't the US aiding the Syrian government itself in its fight against Al Qaeda - a terrorist organization the US has used as an excuse to wage unending global war since 2001 when Al Qaeda allegedly killed some 3,000 American civilians?

Does Secretary Kerry believe that further arming "moderates" is a legitimate strategy to counter Al Qaeda's growing presence in Syria when these "moderates" openly defend Al Qaeda's al-Nusra? The US' own hand-picked "Syrian opposition leader,"  Mouaz al Khatib, demanded the US reconsider its designation of al Nusra as a terrorist organization. Retuers reported in their article, "Syrian opposition urges U.S. review of al-Nusra blacklisting," that:

The leader of Syria's opposition coalition urged the United States on Wednesday to review its decision to designate the militant Islamist Jabhat al-Nusra as a terrorist group, saying religion was a legitimate motive for Syrian rebels.

"The decision to consider a party that is fighting the regime as a terrorist party needs to be reviewed," Mouaz Alkhatib told a "Friends of Syria" meeting in Morocco, where Western and Arab states granted full recognition to the coalition seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

The US is directly responsible for the emergence and perpetuation of Al Qaeda and other extremist groups in Syria. The statements of Secretary John Kerry are made merely to maintain an increasingly tenuous "plausible deniability." The precedent being set by the US and its allies is one of using full-scale proxy invasions, that if successful in Syria, will be directed into Iran, up through the Caucasus Mountains in Russia, and even onto China's doorstep via extremists the West is cultivating amongst the Uighurs. It is also clear that the West is directly responsible for the extremists within their own borders, and that these extremists are being used as a political tool against the people of the West, just as they are being used as a mercenary force abroad.  

A united front between nations against this wanton state sponsorship of terrorism is needed - with nations pledging political and logistical support to the Syrian people to defeat this open conspiracy. Individually, we can identify, boycott, and permanently replace the corporate-financier interests who conceived of and are driving this agenda. Failure to stop such wide scale criminality against the Syrian people now, will only invite greater criminality against us all in the near future.

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WARNING: "Final" Psy-Op Vs. Syria Begins

March 29, 2013 (LD)  - Out of time, out of legitimacy, and out of options, the West is attempting once again to prop up its faltering terrorist proxies with another psychological operation aimed at breaking the will of the Syrian people, despite the West's multiplying tactical and political shortcomings. It began with a suspicious CBS News/AP report titled, "AP: "Master plan" underway to help Syria rebels take Damascus with U.S.-approved airlifts of heavy weapons," which claims to divulge a "covert" plan by the West to flood Syria's northern and southern borders with increased weapons and fighters for a "final" push to take the capital. The article would claim:

Mideast powers opposed to President Bashar Assad have dramatically stepped up weapons supplies to Syrian rebels in coordination with the U.S. in preparation for a push on the capital of Damascus, officials and Western military experts said Wednesday.

A carefully prepared covert operation is arming rebels, involving Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, with the United States and other Western governments consulting, and all parties hold veto power over where the shipments are directed, according to a senior Arab official whose government is participating. His account was corroborated by a diplomat and two military experts.

One must question why the Western media would boldly declare to the world what is supposed to be a "covert" operation, if such an operation had any tactical chance of succeeding - unless of course, the announcement was designed to either cover for wide-scale Western special operations inside Syria, or to help achieve a psychological victory (or both) - to induce panic and terror across the Syrian population in tandem with recent, and increasingly barbaric terrorist attacks on Syria's civilians.


One such attack included the recent mortar bombardment of Damascus University which left at least 15 dead. The New York Times seemed to take special pleasure in describing in great detail the disruptive effect the attack had on people attempting to live normal lives during the ongoing conflict in their article, "Syria’s War Invades a Campus That Acted as a Sanctuary."

Now, echos of NATO's spectacularly failed July 2012 "Operation Damascus Volcano" - where the Western media coordinated a propaganda blitzkrieg designed to portray Syria as on the verge of collapsing with Aleppo and Damascus' fall "imminent," are appearing once again in the headlines. Just a day after CBS/AP's announcement of the so-called "covert Master Plan," the Western media is reporting "rebel gains" including the alleged cutting off of Daara in Syria's south - meant to foreshadow the once again "inevitable fall" of Damascus. AFP cited the discredited "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" in their article, "Syria rebels seize town on key highway to south: NGO," that:

"Rebels seized control of Dael after destroying the three army checkpoints at the entrances to the town," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "The town is located on a main road linking Daraa to Damascus."

The Britain-based watchdog said that a child was among 10 civilians killed in the fighting for the town over the past 24 hours.

At least 15 rebels and a media activist working with them were also killed, as were 12 loyalist troops, it added.

"Large swathes of Daraa (province) are now under rebel control. Their advance in the south is escalating," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

In actuality, the so-called "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" is a single opposition propagandists,  Rami Abdel Rahman, based in a comfortable countryside home in the UK, disingenuously masquerading as a human rights organization. When not feeding the biased-hungry Western media, Rami Abdel Rahman can be found scurrying in and out of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London to meet with Britain's Foreign Secretary, William Hague.





Photo: From Reuters: "Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, leaves the Foreign and Commonwealth Office after meeting Britain's Foreign Secretary, William Hague, in central London November 21, 2011. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor"

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Reuters had even admitted in their December 2011 article, "Coventry - an unlikely home to prominent Syria activist," that "Rami Abdulrahman," is openly part of the Syrian opposition who seeks the end of the Syrian government. Abdulrahman admits that he had left Syria over 10 years ago, has lived in Britain ever since, and will not return until "al-Assad goes."

This facade is fully sanctioned by the Western media which despite acknowledging him as a biased, compromised source, consistently misrepresents him to their audience as a credible "human rights organization," while almost exclusively deferring to him to lend credibility to their otherwise baseless narratives.

When entire articles hinge on Rami Abdel Rahman's verified propaganda, perception management, not journalism, is dictating headlines and overarching narratives.

The Syrian people have resisted the collective efforts of the US, UK, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and their regional partners for 2 years, and have defeated at least two previous psychological operations aimed at toppling the government and destroying the country. The tides have shifted across public opinion, and evidence that the West has intentionally sought to arm and direct sectarian extremists against the Syrian nation since at least 2007, are reaching a crescendo.

While the West now openly admits it is working directly with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and NATO-member Turkey to supply thousands of tons of weapons to militants in Syria, it cannot explain how else Al Qaeda's Al Nusra front has become the best armed and most well equipped front in the conflict - unless these thousands of tons of weaponry were sent directly to them, as was intended to begin with, according to Seymour Hersh's 2007 article, "The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" which 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.

A window is closing, and the West is resorting to dangerous desperation. Syria and its allies, as well as concerned interests around the world, must be more vigilant and resilient than ever. The tell-tale signs of a psychological operation are there - but for a psychological operation to succeed, a nation's people must not be prepared or aware that it is coming. By raising awareness of this most recent, insidious attempt at snatching a psychological victory from the jaws of a tactical defeat, we can help quicken the day when the West's war machine finally stumbles and falls, giving the people of Syria their lives back.

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Syrian Conflict: The Price of Defying the West

Haaretz piece reveals Syrian conflict is direct punitive result of Assad defying West, obstructing US-Israeli attack on Iran.

 March 28, 2013 (LD) - Haaretz has recently published an exceptionally revealing article, confirming that the Brooking Institution's "Which Path to Persia?" report - a plan for the undermining and destruction of Iran - had indeed been set in motion, and that the current Syrian conflict is a direct result of Syria and Iran defying the West and disrupting what was to be a coup de grâce delivered to Tehran.

The article is titled, "Assad’s Israeli friend," appears at first to be a ham-handed attempt to portray Syrian President Bashar Al Assad as somehow allied with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Instead, it actually reveals that Israel had attempted to execute verbatim, the strategies prescribed in the Brookings Institution's "Which Path to Persia?" report, where Israel was to lure Syria away from Iran ahead of a US-Israeli strike and subsequent war with Tehran.

Syria obviously did not fall into the trap, and as a result, has been plunged into a destructive, spiteful war of proxy aggression by the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and their regional allies.

The Haaretz piece states specifically: 

In moving closer to Assad, Netanyahu had a number of motives. First, he wanted to put some space between Syria and Iran, in the hope that Damascus would stand aside in the event of an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities in Natanz and Fordow.

Second, Israel’s loss of its alliances with Turkey and later with Egypt, compounded by apprehension about a deteriorating security situation in the south, pushed Jerusalem into buying quiet on its northern borders.

The third motive was to weaken Hezbollah, while the fourth was to address concerns that the Syrian rebels were in fact Al-Qaida operatives and that the fall of Assad’s regime would turn Syria into a hostile Islamic state.

Of course, while Haaretz admits that the so-called "Syrian rebels" are in fact vicious Al Qaeda terrorists with no intention of instituting anything resembling "freedom" or "democracy" in Syria, contrary to the West's own long-peddled narrative, Israel is in fact one of three primary co-conspirators in raising the terrorist army in the first place.


In Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh's 2007 New Yorker article,  "The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" Israel was implicated directly in an insidious conspiracy to funnel aid and arms to sectarian extremists in a bid to topple Iran and its regional allies: 

In the past year, the Saudis, the Israelis, and the Bush Administration have developed a series of informal understandings about their new strategic direction. At least four main elements were involved, the U.S. government consultant told me. First, Israel would be assured that its security was paramount and that Washington and Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states shared its concern about Iran. 

Second, the Saudis would urge Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian party that has received support from Iran, to curtail its anti-Israeli aggression and to begin serious talks about sharing leadership with Fatah, the more secular Palestinian group. (In February, the Saudis brokered a deal at Mecca between the two factions. However, Israel and the U.S. have expressed dissatisfaction with the terms.)

The third component was that the Bush Administration would work directly with Sunni nations to counteract Shiite ascendance in the region.

Fourth, 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. Syria is a major conduit of arms to Hezbollah. The Saudi government is also at odds with the Syrians over the assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister, in Beirut in 2005, for which it believes the Assad government was responsible. Hariri, a billionaire Sunni, was closely associated with the Saudi regime and with Prince Bandar. (A U.N. inquiry strongly suggested that the Syrians were involved, but offered no direct evidence; there are plans for another investigation, by an international tribunal.)

The Israeli belief that pressuring Syria would make it more "conciliatory and open to negotiations," as well as the "motivations" cited by the recent Haaretz piece, are torn straight from Brooking Institution's 2009 "Which Path to Persia?" report. The report stated specifically: 

"...the Israelis may want to hold off [on striking Iran] until they have a peace deal with Syria in hand (assuming that Jerusalem believes that one is within reach), which would help them mitigate blowback from Hizballah and potentially Hamas. Consequently, they might want Washington to push hard in mediating between Jerusalem and Damascus." -page 109 (.pdf)

Which Path to Persia? .pdf
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Clearly Syria refused the disingenuous "peace deal" with Israel, unlike its regional neighbors Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar who are now all working in lock step with US-Israeli interests. While these neighbors were spared the sedition and carnage visited upon other Arab nations during the US State Department orchestrated "Arab Spring," Syria has been hit hardest and longest. The resilience of Syria may have delayed or even shelved Western designs aimed at reasserting hegemony across the Middle East, including delaying indefinitely war with Iran.

Israel's disingenuous attempts to reproach Syria are only one of several prescribed strategies Brookings called for in their 2009 report that have already come to pass. Another was Brookings' suggestion to deslist and arm the bizarre terrorist cult, Mujahedeen e-Khalq (MEK). MEK had been listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department for decades, yet it was still heavily armed, funded, and its operatives even trained on US soil - this despite the group being listed for kidnapping and slaughtering US officers and civilian contractors.

In 2012, the US State Department would finally officially delist MEK, and announce that they would begin funding and arming them in earnest against Iran. The LA Times would report in their September 2012 article, "U.S. to remove Iranian group Mujahedin Khalq from terrorist list," that:

The small but influential Iranian exile group Mujahedin Khalq will be removed from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, a U.S. official said Friday, following a high-priced lobbying campaign claiming the controversial group had renounced violence.

The New Yorker and the Uk's Daily Mail would each in turn report that MEK was being armed, trained, and directed by the West in terrorist activities against Iran, including the assassination of Iranian scientists.

Image: MEK is just one of many terrorist organizations, that despite being listed by the US State Department as such, still receives weapons, training, cash, and political support from the US government. This is a pattern seen repeated in Libya and most recently in Syria - each case spun and excused with a myriad of lies wrapped in false, constantly shifting narratives. 

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The US' delisting and arming of MEK proves that the West possesses the political duplicity to hypocritically arm their own "declared" enemies. This double game of condemning terrorist organizations while simultaneously arming and directing them against the West's enemies goes far in explaining how thousands of tons of weapons NATO and its regional allies have sent to so-called "moderates" in Syria have ended up almost exclusively in the hands of Al Qaeda's Syrian franchise, al-Nusra , which has emerged as the most heavily armed, well funded, most organized militant front in the conflict. 

The Brookings report is not just a piece of paper - it is a documented conspiracy, executed in plain sight by corporate-financier interests that have transcended at least two US presidencies in their latest campaign against Iran, Syria, and the wider Middle East. Haaretz may hope that people quickly read the article and conclude that Israel is somehow backing the Syrian state, never realizing what is being reported is instead a disingenuous "peace deal" meant to lure in, then fatally betray Syria just as was done to Libya. 

Haaretz also hope readers do not realize the obvious - that Syria refused these insidious advances by the West which lead chronologically to the 2011 "uprising," that Haaretz itself now admits is the work of terrorists, not "freedom fighters," and that the New Yorker in 2007 revealed as being engineered by the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel itself.

It is clear that Syria is being punished, divided, and destroyed for obstructing Western designs against Iran.  It is also clear that those forces fighting inside Syria against the Syrian people and their government, are aiding and abetting foreign aggression and what is essentially an attempt by Western interests to recolonize the Arab World. As mortars fired by NATO's proxy forces, aimed at Damascus University, claim another 10-15 innocent lives, the public must be aware of the premeditated, punitive nature of the unhinged atrocities now being committed by these "rebels."

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Stop Imperialism: Episode 62

Syria, Iraq, Cyprus, BRICS, and more... 


March 28, 2013 (StopImperialism.com)

IN TODAY’S EPISODE:

1. Syria
	Syrian rebels fire chemical weapons in Aleppo, killing at least 16 – government Syria rebels and regime blame each other for 1st alleged chemical weapons attack Syrian warplanes strike Lebanon border Ghassan Hitto voted premier of Syria’s rebel territory
	Segment Start: 00 h 09 min 35 sec	Segment End: 00 h 34 min 12 sec
2. Iraq
	At least 48 killed, 167 wounded in bombings in Baghdad Muqtada al-Sadr lashes out against US, Maliki Maliki re-elected as head of Dawa Party Maliki’s opponents mull next move Sunni Iraqi leaders accused of supporting terrorism Iraqi oil pipeline through Aqaba in final stages
	Segment Start: 00h 35 min 56 sec	Segment End: 00h 57 min 10 sec
3. Cyprus
	Resistance in Cyprus grows to Europe’s bailout plan Cyprus bailout plan revised to reduce burden on smaller account holders Cyprus bailout incites turmoil as blame flies Russia sees Cyprus plan as ‘unfair’ plot to seize money of its citizens
	Segment Start: 00 h 58 min 10 sec	Segment End: 01 h 17 min 12 sec
4. BRICS
	4 BRICS deals expected when Putin visits Africa BRIC GDP to surpass output of US, European nations by 2020 Bashar al-Assad asks BRIC nations to end conflict
	Segment Start: 01 h 18 min 43 sec	Segment End: 01 h 34 min 51 sec
5. US Education
	AFT’s Weingarten on why she got arrested, ‘the gall’ of reformers, etc. Karen Lewis’ keynote address to the NY CoRE Conference
	Segment Start: 01 h 36 min 10 sec	Segment End: 01 h 59 min 03 sec
6. Under the Radar
	Candidates begin campaigning for presidential elections in Venezuela Russia to address Afghanistan standoff at UN Security Council session Bosco Ntaganda surrenders Prepare for a run-off, Cord tells Kenyans Turkey ratifies agreement with TANAP consortium Saudi Oil Minister Naimi: Non-dollar oil trade ‘won’t fly’
	Segment Start: 02 h 01 min 26 sec	Segment End: 02 h 11 min 45 sec

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CONFIRMED: US Shipping Weapons to Syria - Al Nusra's "Mystery" Sponsors Revealed

March 25, 2013 (LD) - While US President Barack Obama and the Western media lied in concert to the world regarding America's role in supporting terrorists operating in Syria, it is now revealed that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been shipping weapons to Syria via NATO-member Turkey and Jordan since at least early 2012. The New York Times in their article titled, "Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With C.I.A. Aid," admits that:

With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders.

The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.

The New York Times piece attempts to spin America's role in arming militants in Syria. The Times continues by stating: 

The American government became involved, the former American official said, in part because there was a sense that other states would arm the rebels anyhow. The C.I.A. role in facilitating the shipments, he said, gave the United States a degree of influence over the process, including trying to steer weapons away from Islamist groups and persuading donors to withhold portable antiaircraft missiles that might be used in future terrorist attacks on civilian aircraft. 

This is categorically false. Already, in 2007, US officials had divulged plans to destroy Syria by arming sectarian extremists, using Saudi Arabia and other regional actors as proxies to launder US and Israel support through - maintaining a degree of credibility amongst the terrorist receiving the aid, as well as a degree of plausible deniabiliy for Washington and Tel Aviv politically. In Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh's 2007 New Yorker article,  "The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" the strategy was described as follows:

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.

Perhaps more importantly, the report would also state: 

Some of the core tactics of the redirection are not public, however. The clandestine operations have been kept secret, in some cases, by leaving the execution or the funding to the Saudis, or by finding other ways to work around the normal congressional appropriations process, current and former officials close to the Administration said.

Clearly, that "sense that other states would arm the rebels anyhow" was gleaned from premeditated conspiracies long-ago hatched between Washington, Tel Aviv, and Riyadh. And as the terrible consequences of this conspiracy come to fruition with tens of thousands dead, the West is eager to disclaim any and all responsibility, hoping sincerely that the public hasn't the collective memory or intelligence to pick up a newspaper from 2007 and read what they had already admitted to planning.

"Mystery" of Al Qaeda's al-Nusra Sponsorship Revealed   

The confirmed admission implicates NATO directly in militarily intervening in Syria's ongoing conflict and reveals the source of arms and cash that have ended up primarily in the hands of Al Qaeda's Syrian franchise, US designated terror front, Jabhat al-Nusra. (see here for other examples of US arming listed terror organizations)

The CIA, Western media, and Western politicians insist that they have taken every precaution to ensure the now admitted torrent of cash and weapons that have been flowing into Syria to compound and perpetuate the bloodbath, did not end up in the hands of terrorists. However, no plausible explanation has been given as to where al-Nusra is getting its cash and weapons from, or how it has managed to eclipse the extensively Western-backed "moderates," to become the premier front in the fight against the Syrian people.

Indeed, the New York Times' article "Syrian Rebels Tied to Al Qaeda Play Key Role in War," states:

The lone Syrian rebel group with an explicit stamp of approval from Al Qaeda has become one of the uprising’s most effective fighting forces, posing a stark challenge to the United States and other countries that want to support the rebels but not Islamic extremists.

Money flows to the group, the Nusra Front, from like-minded donors abroad. Its fighters, a small minority of the rebels, have the boldness and skill to storm fortified positions and lead other battalions to capture military bases and oil fields. As their successes mount, they gather more weapons and attract more fighters. 

 

The group is a direct offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Iraqi officials and former Iraqi insurgents say, which has contributed veteran fighters and weapons.

While the London Telegraph reports in their article, "Syria: how jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra is taking over Syria's revolution," that:

And in recent weeks it is Jabhat al-Nusra, a radical jihadist group blacklisted by the US as terrorists and a group that wants Syria to be an uncompromising Islamic state governed by sharia, that is holding sway.

The group is well funded – probably through established global jihadist networks – in comparison to moderates. Meanwhile pro-democracy rebel group commanders say money from foreign governments has all but dried up because of fears over radical Islamists.

The effect is changing the face of the Syrian revolution

"The group is well funded – probably through established global jihadist networks – in comparison to moderates." Could the London Telegraph be capable of such incomplete or incompetent reporting regarding what it seems to allude to as an unsolvable "mystery" regarding al-Nusra's sponsors?

In October of 2012, the Land Destroyer Report published, "NATO Using Al Qaeda Rat Lines to Flood Syria With Foreign Terrorists," which traced the logistical network now admitted to by the New York Times. This logistical network was then overlaid with Al Qaeda's regional networks, documented extensively during the US occupation of Iraq by the US Army's own West Point Combating Terrorism Center. The very regions along the Turkish-Syrian border, the Jordanian-Syrian border, and the Iraqi-Syrian border which served as recruiting and staging grounds for Al Qaeda terrorists during the Iraq War, now serve as the primary logistical hubs admittedly overseen by the CIA.

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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It is now admitted that thousands of tons of weapons have been smuggled into Syria by the US and its regional allies. While the Western media has attempted in the past to feign ignorance as to where Al Qaeda's al-Nusra was getting their weapons from, it is now abundantly clear - al-Nusra's power has expanded across Syria in tandem with the CIA's ever-expanding operations along the nation's borders. If the US is working directly with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, to arm militants, who else could possibly be working to arm and fund al-Nusra on a greater scale if not this axis itself?

This criminal conspiracy appears to have escaped the UN's competence and capabilities, requiring that states around the world mobilize an expedient response to the dangerous, unhinged and genocidal campaign being waged by the West against Syria. If the West refuses to end its direct fueling of the Syrian crisis or answer for how their weapons have ended up almost exclusively in al-Nusra's hands, Syria's allies must begin contemplating open and extensive aid to help the nation defend itself against overt international terrorism.

Reports indicate that it was al-Nusra who used chemical weapons in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, according to the London Telegraph. An Al Qaeda terror front wielding WMDs, we are told, is the sum of all fears and the ultimate impetus driving the unending "War on Terror." Through direct, intentional actions by the West itself, this nightmare has become a reality - one that must be addressed, lest the world descend into global anarchy or worse.

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Kerry Demands Iraq Stop "Arms Flow" to Syria even as US Arms/Funds Al Qaeda

March 24, 2013 (LD) - Absurd demands were put forth by US Secretary of State John Kerry, regarding Iraqi airspace and alleged aircraft passing through it with arms and cash supposedly destined for the Syrian government. The Washington Post reported in its article, "Kerry: Iraq helping Syria’s Assad by allowing arms flow," that:

Iraq is helping to shore up the besieged regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by allowing Iranian arms and fighters to cross into Syria from Iraq, Secretary of State John F. Kerry charged Sunday.

During an unannounced trip to Baghdad, Kerry lobbied Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for greater scrutiny of flights that cross Iraq. He appeared to make little headway with Maliki, a Shiite with long ties to Iran and little inclination to do U.S. bidding 10 years after the American invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

As Kerry lodged his feckless complaints, the United States, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel continue to ship literally thousands of tons of weapons to sectarian extremists arrayed against the Syrian government since at least 2007. A recent report published by the London Telegraph titled, "US and Europe in 'major airlift of arms to Syrian rebels through Zagreb'," stated of such shipments:

... 3,000 tons of weapons dating back to the former Yugoslavia have been sent in 75 planeloads from Zagreb airport to the rebels, largely via Jordan since November

The story confirmed the origins of ex-Yugoslav weapons seen in growing numbers in rebel hands in online videos, as described last month by The Daily Telegraph and other newspapers, but suggests far bigger quantities than previously suspected.

The shipments were allegedly paid for by Saudi Arabia at the bidding of the United States, with assistance on supplying the weapons organised through Turkey and Jordan, Syria's neighbours. But the report added that as well as from Croatia, weapons came "from several other European countries including Britain", without specifying if they were British-supplied or British-procured arms.

British military advisers however are known to be operating in countries bordering Syria alongside French and Americans, offering training to rebel leaders and former Syrian army officers. The Americans are also believed to be providing training on securing chemical weapons sites inside Syria.

And while the US insists that these weapons are being funneled into the hands of "moderate," "secular" fighters by its own CIA agents operating on and across the Turkish-Syrian border, it is admitted that Al Qaeda's Syrian franchise, al-Nusra, has emerged as the most effective, organized fighting force amongst the so-called opposition. CNN's article, "Syrian opposition group turns down leader's resignation," stated explicitly that:

Fighting in the area has intensified in recent days as rebels backed by Nusra Front fighters gain territory.

The radical Islamist al-Nusra Front has emerged as one of the most effective groups in the Syrian resistance, drawing on foreign fighters with combat experience in Iraq and elsewhere.

In December, the U.S. State Department moved to blacklist the rebel group as a foreign terror organization linked to al Qaeda in Iraq.

If 3,000 tons of weapons were sent to moderates in Syria by the US and Saudi Arabia, who could possibly be sending even more weapons to al-Nusra, establishing them as the premier armed front in Syria? Clearly, such a turn of events is not possible without al-Nusra receiving extensive and continuous state-sponsorship. Indeed, the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel had conspired as early as 2007 to supply just such groups with arms, cash, and military aid to overthrow the Syrian government. Documented in Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh's article, "The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" it was stated that:

"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."

It is beyond doubt that the West and its regional allies are now doing just that - bolstering militant groups sympathetic to Al Qaeda, and the 3,000 tons of weapons were funneled primarily, and intentionally into the hands of Al Qaeda's al-Nusra front. Disturbing then, that Kerry is demanding that Iraq cease alleged aid being sent to Syria to fight these extremist groups - groups the US sent over 4,000 of its own sons to fight and die during the 10 year occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and extremists who were allegedly behind the death of 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001, tipping off a costly and unending "War on Terror."

The absurdity of Secretary John Kerry's demands, and the unraveling agenda he now represents, set new lows for American foreign policy and will irreparably damage America's image globally for many years to come. The insidious campaign pursued versus Syria, now at this juncture, has damaged Western interests and global standings to such an extent that even victory tomorrow would not avert or blunt the lasting ramifications of its willful, murderous, hegemonic aggression.

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West Drops Syria WMD Narrative As Evidence Points to Western-Armed Terrorists

March 24, 2013 (LD) - For the US, UK, France, and its regional partners including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, nothing would have suited their interests more than if the recent chemical attack reported in Aleppo Syria turned out to be (or could have been portrayed as being) the work of the Syrian government, or even "loose" weapons that had fallen into the hands of Al Qaeda terrorists the West both arms and condemns simultaneously.

However, a strange silence has fallen across the Western media regarding the chemical attack which Israel had even claimed to have "confirmed."  Now, a recent report published in the London Telegraph by Channel 4 journalist Alex Thomson has produced convincing evidence that implicates the West's terrorist proxies as the perpetrators, and goes far in explaining the otherwise inexplicable silence exhibited by Wall Street and London's propaganda machine. Titled, "Syria chemical weapons: finger pointed at jihadists," Thomson reported that:

The military's version of events is that the home-made rocket was fired at a military checkpoint situated at the entrance to the town. The immediate effects were to induce vomiting, fainting , suffocation and seizures among those in the immediate area.

A second source - a medic at the local civilian hospital - said that he personally witnessed Syrian army helping those wounded and dealing with fatalities at the scene. That Syrian soldiers were among the reported 26 deaths has not been disputed by either side.

The military source who spoke to Channel 4 News confirmed that artillery reports from the Syrian Army suggest a small rocket was fired from the vicinity of Al-Bab, a district close to Aleppo that is controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra - a jihadist group said to be linked with al-Qaeda and deemed a "terrorist organisation" by the US.

Thomson describes his contact in Syria as "a trusted and hitherto reliable source." Thomson's report, coupled with the silence across the West's governments and media houses, implies that indeed this version of the story falls closest yet to the truth. The West's silence in the face of an otherwise spectacular opportunity to advance its agenda may also indicate its faltering legitimacy and the loss of confidence that it can rewrite, at will, reality to suit its agenda - as it has done so many times in the past.

The West also faces a growing crisis if its terrorist proxies continue using chemical weapons, whatever their origin. CNN had reported in December of 2012, in a report titled, "Sources: U.S. helping underwrite Syrian rebel training on securing chemical weapons," that: 

The United States and some European allies are using defense contractors to train Syrian rebels on how to secure chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria, a senior U.S. official and several senior diplomats told CNN Sunday.

The training, which is taking place in Jordan and Turkey, involves how to monitor and secure stockpiles and handle weapons sites and materials, according to the sources. Some of the contractors are on the ground in Syria working with the rebels to monitor some of the sites, according to one of the officials.

This would implicate the West directly in giving terrorists using chemical weapons against Syria's population the knowledge and training to handle just such weapons. While the West continues to insist there is a divide between the terrorists it is arming, funding, and training, and the terrorists openly fighting under the banner of sectarian extremism, it is clear that even the US' hand-picked "interim government" is run entirely by the sectarian extremist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. Thomson's report implicates the Al Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra as possibly being behind the attack, and notes that it is listed by the US as a "terrorist organisation." However, so-called Syrian opposition leader, Moaz al-Khatib, had personally defended al-Nusra, openly admitting it was fighting alongside his Western-backed front.

As the West's credibility crumbles regarding Syria, and as its "success" in Libya continues to burn, its arming, training, aiding and abetting of terrorists carrying out increasingly horrific atrocities which now appear to include the use of chemical weapons, will haunt them not only in their pursuit of transforming the Levant, but in many years to come, in regards to all of their geopolitical ambitions.

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Storyful - Niche Propagandists Work Full-Time Distorting Syria Conflict

March 24, 2013 (LD) - The Western media monopolies, the same media houses that willfully and repeatedly told lies regarding "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq to help sell the corporate-financier engineered invasion and occupation of the Middle Eastern nation for a decade, have been very busy since. They helped sell NATO and its corporate-financier backers' war of aggression and subjugation against Libya, and has been attempting to sell a repeat of the atrocities committed in North Africa, this time in Syria.

They certainly have their hands full. With the emergence of social media and the US State Department's overt attempts at co-opting it to execute its geopolitical agenda, it would be very helpful if there were entire companies dedicated to trawling Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter to supply the Western media houses with prepackaged, filtered content designed specifically to help them bolster their predetermined, biased, self-serving conclusions.

One such company indeed exists. Called, "Storyful," it claims on its website that:

Storyful is the first news agency of the social media age. We help newsrooms find the most valuable content on the social web.

Image: A screenshot of Storyful's website as of March 23, 2013. Storyful is a niche propaganda organization which supplies the Western media monopolies with filtered, prepackaged biased accounts of world events - including of the ongoing Syria crisis (archived here). It boasts that it's content, trawled from across the Internet's various social media platforms, is cited 10's of thousands of times across the Western media.

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Listed under "who we work with," are the same notorious corporate-financier propagandists who have mislead and distorted public perception for decades, including: The New York Times, ABC (Australia), France24, ABC News (US), The Economist, Reuters, and Bloomberg. Also listed are open conspirators working with the US State Department since at least 2008 to exploit emerging social media platforms to sell the West's corporate-financier geopolitical aspirations, including Google and YouTube.

But how do we know Storyful is specifically helping the same Western media houses that insidiously sold us the Iraq War, to now sell the West's narrative versus Syria? Storyful itself admits as much in an entire page (archived here) dedicated to its work on trawling for activist propaganda regarding Syria.

Image: Taken from "Storyful's" "Ongoing Syria Coverage page, it represents a biased, one-sided collection of "activist" accusations, videos, and photographs meant to portray the Syrian conflict as per the West's established narrative. While "Storyful" claims to be a "news agency," it clearly is disinterested in balanced coverage, and exposes itself as a niche propaganda outfit. 

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Titled, "Ongoing Syria Coverage," Storyful admits:

Storyful has validated and published close to 3,000 Syria-related items since the beginning of the conflict there in March 2011. Our team follows emerging events, but also monitors the nuanced ebb and flow of the conflict.

In July and August alone, Storyful sourced footage was broadcast more than 14,000 times by news organisations around the world.

While Storyful's "case study" regarding Syria is brief, every single example is drawn from woefully unreliable "activist" accounts. There are no stories regarding atrocities and abuse carried out by the so-called opposition. Surely, if "Storyful" was a genuine "news agency" as it claims to be, it would have provided balanced coverage of the events in Syria. However, it is as much a "news agency" as the BBC is, who is habitually caught fabricating stories, using faked/inappropriate photography in its coverage, and taking cash to skew its so-called "documentaries."

It is abundantly clear that what the Western media has been telling us regarding Syria for the past 2 years has been a lie. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the so-called "pro-democracy" movement is nothing more than a reignited Muslim Brotherhood terror campaign, involving everyone from Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists on the streets, to card-carrying Muslim Brotherhood members leading the West's various contrived opposition fronts. There is now little doubt of the validity regarding Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh's 9 page New Yorker report in 2007 that foreshadowed what was described then as a Western conspiracy to overthrow the governments of Iran and Syria with sectarian extremists with direct ties to Al Qaeda. 

Similar reports from as far back as 2007, including the Wall Street Journal's ""To Check Syria, U.S. Explores Bond With Muslim Brothers" likewise contradict fully the narrative put forth by the West's media monopolies, with the help of niche propagandists like "Storyful." Worse yet, are reports like those out of the Fortune 500 funded and chaired Brookings Institution like 2009's "Which Path to Persia?" which meticulously documents plans to use subversion, faux-democracy movements, and even arming and funding listed-terrorist organizations like Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) to overthrow the nation of Iran. In fact, Brookings prescribed in 2009 that MEK be "de-listed" first before being used against Iran - advice that would eventually be acted upon in 2012, when indeed, MEK was de-listed.

Image: Gavin Sherian of Storyful's response to a torrent of evidence contradicting his and his organization's misrepresentation of the conflict in Syria. From Sherian's cackling unprofessional behavior, to the clearly biased nature of Storyful's own "Ongoing Syria Coverage" page, it is clear that Storyful is yet another tentacle sprouting forth from Wall Street and London's corporate-media machine. 

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This torrent of evidence has in fact been addressed by "Storyful's" director, Ireland-based Gavin Sheridan with the one-worded response, "lol." One should not expect more from a man who makes his living supplying content to notoriously deceitful media organizations who have habitually lied to the public for decades. What is more important is that people realize that social media has become a new and important platform that the corporate-financier interests seek to monopolize, just as they have printed and broadcasted media.

Organizations like "Storyful" seek to cash in on this desire, and fill a niche within the intricate web of propaganda and lies industrialists and financiers have built up throughout modern history. It is important to expose and understand what "Storyful's" role is, and that other organizations are most likely hiding with them in the dank corners of Wall Street and London's expansive media machine.

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Western Media Celebrates Faux Progress in Myanmar

March 24, 2013 (LD) - Even as mobs loyal to Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi hacked to death scores of Rohingya refugees in a racist, genocidal orgy of violence, the West has been of late, showcasing what it calls a  newly "open," "independent," and "free" Myanmar. The Los Angeles Times wrote a particularly absurd piece titled, "Myanmar pivots uneasily away from China," where it states:

Myanmar's recent pivot from China toward the West, and a more open government, came as a surprise to many outsiders. In rapid succession, President Thein Sein's government suspended the $3.6-billion Chinese-built Myitsone hydroelectric project, held nominally free elections and released political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Times' article is particularly deceitful on several fronts. First, such "progress" has not been underway for even a year, and considering the level of repression we have been told exists in Myanmar, nothing resembling a "free," "open," or "independent" nation could take shape in such short time even with the best intentions and most expedient reform policies in place. What the Times and its corporate-financier sponsors are really celebrating is the open doors their long ousted corporate-financier interests are now enjoying after decades of exclusion.

Image: "Increasingly open, public protests," as the LA Times calls them, are acceptable so long as they target China's interests. This protest is allegedly villagers protesting a Chinese copper mine, a protest Aung San Suu Kyi supported, while ignoring her own followers' genocidal assault on Rohingya refugees in Rakhine state. The West's narrative hinges entirely on the general public's ignorance. 

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The Times also categorically fails  to mention who was really behind the derailment of the Myanmar-Chinese Myitsone hydroelectric project. While the Times, like many other outlets across the West's media monopolies, attempts to portray it as the "will of the people prevailing," it was in fact Aung San Suu Kyi and a myriad of Western-funded faux NGOs arrayed against the project specifically to disrupt and expel Chinese interests from the region.

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.

Of course, each weighed in on the proposed dam, and each portrayed it as having a negative social and environmental impact on Kachin State. US-based International Rivers hailed the halting of construction as a "huge success for civil society groups in Burma, China and internationally," while NED-created Irrawaddy solemnly reported in 2008, "Irrawaddy Dam Construction Begins, Human Rights Abuses Begin," where the article bemoans China's investments in Myanmar before citing a single, anonymous "witness" who claims soldiers providing security for the construction site are disrupting people - as proof of "human rights abuses." The Irrawaddy also makes reference to the "Kachin Environmental Organization," a founding member of the above mentioned "Burma River Network," who in turn has dedicated entire sections of their website to chastising all dam construction within Myanmar.

Aung San Suu Kyi as well  played a leading role protesting and ultimately halting the construction of the Myitsone Dam. The Western-funded International Rivers reported, "Aung San Suu Kyi Joins the Campaign to Save the Irrawaddy," while the NED-created Irrawaddy paper reported, "Suu Kyi Attends 'Save the Irrawaddy' Art Event."


"Open Public Protests" (As Long as they are Against China)


The LA Times also celebrates what it calls "increasingly open, public protests." However, these are only protests against Chinese interests in Myanmar. And while these "open public protests" take place with the full backing of the West and its media monopolies, with any attempt to crackdown on them decried as an assault on human rights, the West's own proxies are slaughtering Rohingya refugees by the dozens with little or no serious action taking place.

Such double standards were acutely prominent when Aung San Suu Kyi spoke up against abuse alleged against her "Saffron monk" protesters during an anti-China rally at a mine, while she remained silent while these same protesters butchered Rohingya across Rakhine state.

In its article, "Suu Kyi demands apology for mine violence," the 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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In fact, Suu Kyi's silent complicity with the genocide of the Rohingya is not mere double standards. The violence her supporters are creating as they exterminate the Rohingya serves to deliberately destabilize yet another epicenter of Chinese interests, its port and logistical hub in Sittwe, Rakine, and pipeline and road it is constructing across Myanmar and into Yunnan province, China.  

The West has insidiously couched its hegemonic designs behind "freedom," openness," and "independence," when under closer inspection, it is plainly obvious that it is implementing none of the above. That is of course unless by  "freedom" and "openness" one means for the West's corporations to pillage and exploit Myanmar without nationalist boundaries obstructing them, and "independence" as meaning "independence" from its traditionally allies, to be replaced by a new servile dependency on Wall Street and London's global financial order.

While it may be argued that China's relationship with Myanmar falls short on many fronts, it is assured that Myanmar's new relationship with the insidious, manipulative interests of Wall Street and London, the heirs of the imperialists who subjugated Myanmar so many years ago will, set new a new standard for exploitation, destitution, disparity, and subjugation - especially as the West attempts to array Myanmar along with its other Southeast Asian neighbors against China to fight its proxy war with Beijing well into the 21st century.

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