The Syria Thread 2011 - Present

[MacCruiskeen]

From TIME Magazine, ten years ago:

Syria in Bush's Cross Hairs
By Adam Zagorin/Washington Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006

http://content.time.com/time/world/arti ... 51,00.html

The Bush Administration has been quietly nurturing individuals and parties opposed to the Syrian government in an effort to undermine the regime of President Bashar Assad. Parts of the scheme are outlined in a classified, two-page document that says that the U.S. already is "supporting regular meetings of internal and diaspora Syrian activists" in Europe. The document bluntly expresses the hope that "these meetings will facilitate a more coherent strategy and plan of actions for all anti-Assad activists."

The document says that Syria's legislative elections, scheduled for March 2007, "provide a potentially galvanizing issue for... critics of the Assad regime." To capitalize on that opportunity, the document proposes a secret "election monitoring" scheme, in which "internet accessible materials will be available for printing and dissemination by activists inside the country [Syria] and neighboring countries." The proposal also calls for surreptitiously giving money to at least one Syrian politician who, according to the document, intends to run in the election. The effort would also include "voter education campaigns" and public opinion polling, with the first poll "tentatively scheduled in early 2007."

American officials say the U.S. government has had extensive contacts with a range of anti-Assad groups in Washington, Europe and inside Syria. To give momemtum to that opposition, the U.S. is giving serious consideration to the election-monitoring scheme proposed in the document, according to several officials. The proposal has not yet been approved, in part because of questions over whether the Syrian elections will be delayed or even cancelled. But one U.S. official familiar with the proposal said: "You are forced to wonder whether we are now trying to destabilize the Syrian government."

Some critics in Congress and the Administration say that such a plan, meant to secretly influence a foreign government, should be legally deemed a "covert action," which by law would then require that the White House inform the intelligence committees on Capitol Hill. Some in Congress would undoubtedly raise objections to this secret use of publicly appropriated funds to promote democracy.

The proposal says part of the effort would be run through a foundation operated by Amar Abdulhamid, a Washington-based member of a Syrian umbrella opposition group known as the National Salvation Front (NSF). The Front includes the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that for decades supported the violent overthrow of the Syrian government, but now says it seeks peaceful, democratic reform. (In Syria, however, membership in the Brotherhood is still punishable by death.) Another member of the NSF is Abdul Halim Khaddam, a former high-ranking Syrian official and Assad family loyalist who recently went into exile after a political clash with the regime. Representatives of the National Salvation Front, including Abdulhamid, were accorded at least two meetings earlier this year at the White House, which described the sessions as exploratory. Since then, the National Salvation Front has said it intends to open an office in Washington in the near future.

"Democracy promotion" has been a focus of both Democratic and Republican administrations, but the Bush White House has been a particular booster since 9/11. Iran contra figure Elliott Abrams was put in charge of the effort at the National Security Council. Until recently, Elizabeth Cheney, daughter of the Vice President, oversaw such work at the State Department. In the past, the U.S. has used support for "democracy building" to topple unfriendly dictators, including Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic and Ukraine's Vladimir Kuchma.

However, in order to make the "election monitoring" plan for Syria effective, the proposal makes clear that the U.S. effort will have to be concealed: "Any information regarding funding for domestic [Syrian] politicians for elections monitoring would have to be protected from public dissemination," the document says. But American experts on "democracy promotion" consulted by TIME say it would be unwise to give financial support to a specific candidate in the election, because of the perceived conflict of interest. More ominously, an official familiar with the document explained that secrecy is necessary in part because Syria's government might retaliate against anyone inside the country who was seen as supporting the U.S.-backed election effort. The official added that because the Syrian government fields a broad network of internal spies, it would almost certainly find out about the U.S. effort, if it hasn't already. That could lead to the imprisonment of still more opposition figures.

Any American-orchestrated attempt to conduct such an election-monitoring effort could make a dialogue between Washington and Damascus — as proposed by the Iraq Study Group and several U.S. allies — difficult or impossible. The entire proposal could also be a waste of effort; Edward P. Djerejian, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria who worked on the Iraq Study Group report, says that Syria's opposition is so fractured and weak that there is little to be gained by such a venture. "To fund opposition parties on the margins is a distraction at best," he told TIME. "It will only impede the better option of engaging Syria on much more important, fundamental issues like Iraq, peace with Israel, and the dangerous situation in Lebanon."

Others detect another goal for the proposed policy. "Ever since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which Syria opposed, the Bush Administration has been looking for ways to squeeze the government in Damascus," notes Joshua Landis, a Syria expert who is co-director of the Center for Peace Studies at the University of Oklahoma. "Syria has appeared to be next on the Administration's agenda to reform the greater Middle East." Landis adds: "This is apparently an effort to gin up the Syrian opposition under the rubric of 'democracy promotion' and 'election monitoring,' but it's really just an attempt to pressure the Syrian government" into doing what the U.S. wants. That would include blocking Syria's border with Iraq so insurgents do not cross into Iraq to kill U.S. troops; ending funding of Hizballah and interference in Lebanese politics; and cooperating with the U.N. in the investigation of the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Senior Syrian government officials are considered prime suspects in Hariri case.

Money for the election-monitoring proposal would be channeled through a State Department program known as the Middle East Partnership Initiative, or MEPI. According to MEPI's website, the program passes out funds ranging between $100,000 and $1 million to promote education and women's empowerment, as well as economic and political reform, part of a total allocation of $5 million for Syria that Congress supported earlier this year.

MEPI helps funnel millions of dollars every year to groups around the Middle East intent on promoting reforms. In the vast majority of cases, beneficiaries are publicly identified, as financial support is distributed through channels including the National Democratic Institute, a non-profit affiliated with the Democratic Party, and the International Republican Institute (IRI), which is linked to the G.O.P. In the Syrian case, the election-monitoring proposal identifies IRI as a "partner" — although the IRI website, replete with information about its democracy promotion elsewhere in the world, does not mention Syria. A spokesperson for IRI had no comment on what the organization might have planned or under way in Syria, describing the subject as "sensitive."

U.S. foreign policy experts familiar with the proposal say it was developed by a "democracy and public diplomacy" working group that meets weekly at the State department to discuss Iran and Syria. Along with related working groups, it prepares proposals for the higher-level Iran Syria Operations Group, or ISOG, an inter-agency body that, several officials said, has had input from Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, deputy National Security Council advisor Elliott Abrams and representatives from the Pentagon, Treasury and U.S. intelligence. The State Department's deputy spokesman, Thomas Casey, said the election-monitoring proposal had already been through several classified drafts, but that "the basic concept is very much still valid."

http://content.time.com/time/world/arti ... 51,00.html

[tapitsbo]

Of course some allege that the Assad regime fostered the eventual opposition themselves as part of complex interactions with factions in the Iraq War. Maybe partly true but Mac's article presents a different view...

It's not like the events in Lebanon in the 00s had anything to do with all of this either. Not...

Jack's comment that there were foreign countries involved on all sides of the Syrian conflict is quite funny. A lot of us can see that some of those countries were trying to support war and Libya/Iraq style chaos while others were backing a state that protected a preferable state of affairs whatever flaws it might have had.

That is to say some parties were literally backing "conflict" and some backing "peace."

What policy would I like my government to follow? Putting an end to low-key recruitment of jihadists would be nice, for starters.

[tapitsbo]

Reading about (leading factions of) the Syrian opposition forcing minorities to destroy their relatives' tombstones really fucking bothered me. Out of all the fucked up shit I read about, I'm not sure why this makes me feel so viscerally repulsed.

[seemslikeadream]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw

[Harvey]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw

Was about to point out that if Wesley Clarke is right, the decision to invade Syria occurred even before Iraq happened, and post this clip again (which in fairness I only knew about from RI.)

[Sounder]

It is nice to see that there is still some room at the UN for voices for peace.

Will anybody listen?

‘The campaign to confuse the American people has been intense’



The campaign to vilify Assad and Syria even creeps in here at RI.

Thank-you Alfred Marder and UPC.

[tapitsbo]

A lot of politicians in countries in the West or closely tied to the West, Israel, etc. have made low-key noises about keeping Assad around. The Saudi funders of the hollow "FSA" also prop up the Egyptian government which supports Assad's. Certainly the anti-Assad alliance has avoided decisively decapitating his government so to speak.

The whole conflict seems to have been about keeping the meat grinder going. It's not like there's any coherent plan to replace the war with some sort of peace. The goal would appear to be manufactured conflict, forever.

[seemslikeadream]

“Pigs! Crusaders!”: US-Backed Fundamentalist Militias drive US Commandos out of al-Ray, Syria
By Juan Cole | Sep. 17, 2016 |

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –
As Raf Sanchez of The Telegraph writes, fundamentalist militiamen of the US-backed Free Syrian Army chased US commandos out of al-Ray in Syria near the Turkish border, cursing them as “pigs” and “crusaders” and asserting that the US is attempting a military occupation of Syria.

Some 250 US troops are embedded with the leftist Kurdish militia, the YPG, and these fundamentalist Arab Syrian fighters have tangled with the Kurds over the latter’s hope of establishing a contiguous Kurdish mini-state in norther Syria.
Turkey’ has intervened in northern Syria, ostensibly against Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), but in reality to stop the Syrian Kurds from achieving their hoped-for mini-state or Rojava.
At one point US spec ops troops embedded with the Kurds were caught on camera wearing YPG insignia, which includes a hammer and sickle.
The pro-Kurdish press is puzzled as to why the US would risk such a two-faced policy in Syria.
It is urging Washington to ally directly with Kurdish Syrian rebels.
The contradictory US policies in Syria, of backing leftist Kurds when convenient and of supporting local fundamentalists on the other hand. Both are theoretically opposed to Daesh, but neither has exhibited either fear or loathing of Daesh sufficient to make them fight the hard line organization systematically in al-Raqqa province, its base.
The Kurdish YPG did fight Daesh and take the city of Manbij away from the terrorist organization. But this fighting was in furtherance of the Rojava project.
Related video:
RT America: “American troops flee Syrian town after threats from US-backed rebels”
http://www.juancole.com/2016/09/crusade ... andos.html

Syria, Russia: Coalition airstrike kills regime forces
By Steve Almasy, Barbara Starr and Richard Roth, CNN
Updated 11:06 PM ET, Sat September 17, 2016
syria airstrike pentagon presser sot_00000905

A man emerges from the wreckage of a courthouse in rebel-held Idlib, Syria after it was hit by airstrikes in December 2015.
CNN Exclusive: Undercover in Syria


(CNN)Hours after US-led coalition airstrikes reportedly killed dozens of Syrian troops, the US and Russian ambassadors to the United Nations chastised each other outside an emergency Security Council meeting.

The strike occurred Saturday in an eastern part of Syria that is not a part of a delicate and nearly week-old ceasefire. The US military said it was targeting ISIS militants and if it hit Syrian troops, it was an accident.
Russia and Syria said the strikes prove the United States and its allies are sympathetic to ISIS.
The Russian military said 62 Syrian soldiers were killed near Deir Ezzor Airport, according to state media. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 83 and said at least 120 soldiers were wounded.
Russia's permanent UN representative, Vitaly Churkin, questioned the timing of the strikes, two days before Russian-American coordination in the fight against terror groups in Syria was to begin.
Churkin spoke to reporters after abruptly leaving an UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria. Churkin was upset with US ambassador Samantha Power, who lambasted Russia's support of the Syrian regime to the media outside the meeting while he was speaking.
"I have never seen such an extraordinary display of American heavy-handedness," he said.
Power angrily denounced the Russian call for the UN meeting as a stunt.
Power said "even by Russia's standards, tonight's stunt -- a stunt replete with moralism and grandstanding -- is uniquely cynical and hypocritical."
If US-led coalition airstrikes did hit Syrian forces Saturday, it was unintentional and Washington regrets any loss of life, she said before proceeding to list atrocities she said the Syrian regime has perpetuated during the five-year civil war.
"Since 2011, the Assad regime has been intentionally striking civilian targets with horrifying, predictable regularity. They have besieged civilian areas, prevented life-saving aid from reaching people who are starving to death, and dying of illnesses that could be treated with basic medicine."
Whether the diplomatic squabbling will cause the ceasefire to fall apart is unclear.
Report: At least 62 killed
The Syrian military said an airstrike by the US-led coalition hit a regime military position in eastern Syria.
The US military said the coalition thought it was hitting ISIS militants, but hours later said the airstrike may have struck Syrian soldiers.
Although the US hasn't officially said Syrian troops were killed, a senior administration official told CNN late Saturday the US relayed its regret through Russia for the "unintentional loss of life."
A statement from US Central Command said the coalition conferred with the Russian military before the strike.
"The coalition airstrike was halted immediately when coalition officials were informed by Russian officials that it was possible the personnel and vehicles targeted were part of the Syrian military," US Central Command said.
The Russian military said 62 Syrian soldiers were killed near Deir Ezzor Airport, according to the state-run Sputnik News Agency. It quoted Russian Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov as saying two F-16s and two A-10s carried out four strikes.
A US official told CNN they broadly described the geographic area to the Russians -- as is customary -- before the strike but did not give a precise location. The coalition thought it was going after an ISIS tank position.

Russia blames the United States
About 25 minutes into the strike, the Russians called the United States and said coalition forces were hitting Syrian troops, the US official said. The United States immediately withdrew and did not strike other planned targets in that area, the official said.
Another US official said the Pentagon trusts the Russian military unit that placed the call informing them of the incorrect target and had little doubt something went wrong.
Syrian troops have been battling ISIS in Deir Ezzor for years, and the Islamist militants control most of the city.
"Syria is a complex situation with various military forces and militias in close proximity, but coalition forces would not intentionally strike a known Syrian military unit," CENTCOM said.
Russia blamed the United States for failing to coordinate with them on the airstrikes, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman told Sputnik.
"If this airstrike was carried out due to an error in the coordinates of the target, it is a direct consequence of (the) US side's unwillingness to coordinate its actions against terrorist groups with Russia," Sputnik quoted the spokesman as saying.
The UN Security Council was holding an emergency meeting to discuss the airstrikes.
ISIS militants launched an attack on the Syrian position after the airstrikes, Sputnik reported, citing the Russian Ministry of Defense. Syrian state-run news agency SANA said the military was able to regain control of the area ISIS held briefly.
The incident comes during a fragile ceasefire that went into effect Monday. The truce calls for a halt to the violence between the Syrian regime and rebel forces.

Delicate ceasefire
The Syrian military said it viewed the strike as evidence the United States and the coalition support ISIS. It called the incident a serious and blatant aggression, SANA reported.
Russia's Foreign Ministry had similar words, according to spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. She said Russia had concluded the White House is defending to ISIS. She also said that the United States didn't communicate its intention to carry out operations in the area.
The ceasefire has offered some respite from violence in the civil war, which has killed an estimated 430,000 people since 2011 and touched off an international refugee crisis. But there have been reports of violations, and both the Russians and Americans have said the other party is not fulfilling its obligations.
The main focus of the ceasefire was to allow humanitarian aid to reach the Syrian people besieged by war. Once the humanitarian relief was in, the Russians and Americans were meant to agree on targeting jihadist factions: Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, the former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, and ISIS. To do that, they are supposed to set up a Joint Implementation Center.
CNN military analyst Lt. Col. Rick Francona said it is not clear now what will happen.
"This might put in danger this Joint Implementation Center that the US and the Russians are supposed to set up in the next few days to coordinate just these kinds of strikes against ISIS and to prevent just what happened," he said Saturday.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/17/middleeas ... me-forces/

[Nordic]

Really, nobody has yet entered anything in this thread how the US just butchered 80 Syrian soldiers and wounded 100 more providing air support for ISIS?

This is a big fucking deal.

Oh, and by coincidence (a happy one for the empire and I should put "coincidence" in quotes) at the moment this hot the US "news", some pipe bombs went off in NYC. Oh the horror!!

[Nordic]

Of course the US is saying "gosh this was an accident" but nobody else in the world believes this shit.

And here's a nice example of just how grotesque our government officials have become.

https://www.rt.com/news/359753-zakharov ... sia-syria/

‘Take a trip to Syria to see what “embarrassed” means’: Russia’s Zakharova to US’ Power


Published time: 18 Sep, 2016 14:01

The Russian FM spokeswoman invited the US ambassador to the UN to visit Syria and see firsthand what “embarrassed” means. This comes after the UN ambassador lashed out at Moscow for hinting the US supports IS after coalition airstrikes hit the Syrian Army.
During a speech at an emergency UN Security Council meeting called by Russia to discuss the deadly airstrikes delivered by the US-led coalition, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said that Moscow’s representative should be “embarrassed” for her words suggesting that the strike indicated that Washington is defending Islamic State (IS, former ISIS, ISIL) terrorists.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the strike near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor that killed 62 Syrian soldiers bordered between “gross negligence” and “direct assistance” to IS.

Read more
Timing & other aspects of US strike on Syrian army suggest intentional provocation – Churkin
In response to Power’s accusations, Maria Zakharova wrote on Facebook: “Dear Samantha Power, in order to know the meaning of the word “embarrassed,” I highly encourage you to travel to Syria and talk to the people there for yourself. And by that I do not mean the Al-Nusra Front militants, nor the moderate opposition, whose humanitarian situation Washington seems to be so worried about. I likewise am not referring to the Western warriors for justice for Syria. I’m referring to the actual people that continue to live there in spite of the bloody experiment that has been waged on their homeland for over six years, with active participation by Washington.”

The Moscow representative went on to say she herself is in constant communication with people on the ground, which includes both opposition forces dispersed across Syrian towns, and the orphaned children left in the wake of the fighting there.

“Let’s go there together,” she said, promising she would shoulder the expenses of Power’s Syria trip.

“Do say yes. Don’t be frightened. Nobody will lay a finger on you in my presence. Unless, of course, your guys don’t again ‘mistakenly’ strike the wrong target. You’ll make lots of new memories. And find out what ‘embarrassed’ means in the process,” the Moscow representative added.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that four air strikes had been carried out by the US-led anti-ISIS coalition near Deir ez-Zor, where Syrian units had been surrounded by IS terrorists.

Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin had questioned the “joint efforts” the two countries were to undertake to stabilize the violent situation and ensure delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged areas.

Read more
© Carlo Allegri‘US is defending ISIS’: Russia convenes UNSC meeting after US coalition strike on Syrian army
Accompanying the Joint Implementation Group (JIG) document signed by both parties to streamline cooperation on the ground, Churkin issued the following statement:

“The beginning of work of the Joint Implementation Group was supposed to be September 19. So if the US wanted to conduct an effective strike on Al-Nusra or ISIS, in Deir ez-Zor or anywhere else, they could wait two more days and coordinate with our military and be sure that they are striking the right people.”

“Instead they chose to conduct this reckless operation,” Churkin said. “So it may well be, one has to conclude, that the airstrike has been conducted in order to derail the operation of the Joint Implementation Group and actually prevent it from being set in motion,” Churkin said. “It may well be that the United States is trying to hide the fact that they are actually not in control of the situation, that they allowed the situation to get out of control.”

And I hate to judge a book by its cover, but the wretched Samantha Power looks like she went over to The Dark Side of the Star Wars universe (she's on the right).

[Nordic]

Here is the monstrous Samantha Powers' speech at the UNSC, lecturing Russia after WE slaughtered 83 people.

[slimmouse]

After the United States launched an attack against Syrian forces in Deir al-Zour early on Saturday morning, Russia is now calling for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council and an immediate explanation from the United States.

The Americans claim that the bombing was merely a mistake; however, it is hard to make that claim when the two sides were in battle with one another at the time of the airstrikes. In addition, the United States did not inform the Russians of the attack plan and thus Russia was not able to inform the U.S. that the Syrian forces were in that location. As a result, many may legitimately wonder whether or not the U.S. did not contact the Russians in order to maintain plausible deniability.

“If previously we had suspicions that Al-Nusra Front is protected this way, now, after today’s airstrikes on the Syrian army we come to a really terrifying conclusion for the entire world: The White House is defending IS [Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL],” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in an interview with Rossiya 24.

“We demand a full and detailed explanation from Washington. That explanation must be given at the UN Security Council,” Zakharova added.

“[US coalition] strikes have cleared the way for ISIS fighters to take over Deir ez-Zor city now,” said Syrian Minister of Defense Fahd Jassem al-Freij. “It is only because of Russian Air Force support [that] the offensive of the terrorist group was stopped. We request that the air support for the Syrian armed forces be continued by the Russian air force in order to destroy the terrorists.”

The Russian military confirmed that it did indeed engage in airstrikes against ISIS forces immediately after learning about the U.S. “mistake.”

We are now witnessing a situation in which the world is teetering on the edge of a tragic confrontation between two nuclear powers. Within the span of one hour, the United States and Russia have bombed the same area and opposing forces.

We call on the United States to end its foolish and immoral proxy war on Syria and to immediately cease bombing and military efforts against the Syrian government before it is too late for all of us.

http://www.activistpost.com/2016/09/rus ... itary.html]

[Harvey]

I noticed that in the last few decades, Russia and America were on the same page to the degree that Islamism was generating maximum dollar weapons and security procurement.

[conniption]

Really, nobody has yet entered anything in this thread how the US just butchered 80 Syrian soldiers and wounded 100 more providing air support for ISIS?

This is a big fucking deal. ..

SLaD posted about the incident right above your complaint, son:

"Syria, Russia: Coalition airstrike kills regime forces"

and you're right, this is a big deal, and Samantha Power is a (fill-in) .

~~~

MoA

September 17, 2016
U.S., Israel Launch Airstrikes On Syrian Government Forces - Directly Supporting ISIS And Al-Qaeda

[seemslikeadream]

thanks ....I'm used to being ignored

and where have you been for 8 long days