Russian military buildup in Syria...

[backtoiam]

I don't know how many countries in the middle east they grow dope in but I always seem to forget about this. I always think about oil but the global poppy trade is huge. In todays money maybe trillions. A lot more than oil as stake in the middle east. Not to mention mining resources.

Opium Harvesting, c.200 metres from Camp Bastion Airfield Perimeter
October 12, 2015


Anthony C Heaford

(RINF) – In this 7.5° view of Afghanistan, captured from an Airfield guard tower, we can see several less auspicious elements of the ISAF invasion and occupation:

• Corruption
• Duplicity
• Heroin Production
• Incompetence

The photograph shows five men harvesting opium a couple of hundred metres from Camp Bastion perimeter defences, seen in the foreground.

Not only was this illegal drug production being carried out in the shadow of ISAF’s Main Operating Base, it was being done under the protection of British soldiers. Her Majesty’s Armed Forces (Army and RAF) were protecting this man’s cash crop from illicit ‘taxation’ by the Afghan National Police or Army.

The duplicity is in what the Ministry of Defence tell people we are doing, and what we are actually doing. As this photo was taken there was a World Service edition of ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ playing. The particular BBC correspondent, Quentin Sommerville, was ‘embedded’ with British soldiers in Helmand, who were assisting in the destruction of poppy fields. This must raise the question as to why poppy fields on the edge of Bastion’s airfield were protected whilst another farmer’s crop in a neighboring valley was
destroyed?


The land in the once barren valley was now watered by the effluent of the 30,000 people living in Camp Bastion, creating a mini property boom for the owner of the land, a Mohammad Daoud. The valley bordering Camp Bastion’s airfield had become a busy agricultural area, with parcels of land rented out to tenant farmers, migrant farm laborers camping a hundred metres from the defences, plus all the associated traffic.

Whether this is the same Mohammad Daoud as former Governor of Helmand Province Mohammad
Daoud is yet to be confirmed. If confirmed, the irony of former Governor Daoud having previously championed British poppy eradication efforts would illustrate our corruption accurately.

To quote former Governor Daoud:

“Unless the international community includes poppy eradication and fighting drugs in their list of ways to fight terrorism, they will not succeed in this fight because it (the drug trade) is the fuel in the machine of
terrorism.”

Our incompetence is best ‘illustrated’ by the deaths of two US Marines, Sergeant Bradley Atwell and Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Raible, and the destruction of £200+ million worth of equipment, in the Taliban’s audacious airfield raid of 2012.

The attackers of 14th September launched the raid from this same valley, where despite it’s proximity to £££Billions of aircraft across the airfield, the Command appeared to assess the risk there as minimal to non existent. This ‘lax’ attitude (criminal negligence in my eyes) reportedly extended to not providing any night vision equipment to soldiers guarding the airfield on a moonless Afghan night. To describe this as simple ‘incompetence’ is being very generous indeed to those responsible.

Two men are dead because the British Army and Royal Air Force failed to protect a stationary target – an airfield. I can only apologize for my part in that.

Author: Anthony C Heaford
Craftsman / Vehicle Mechanic in British Territorial Army 2009 to 2013, No.30088729.
Six month tour of Afghanistan, April to October 2012. Based in Camp Bastion.

Arlene Lane

proof about the CIA involvement into the drug trade and opium as never been more obvious than it is today, and this area in Afghanistan is turning over twenty times than it used to into the many trillions which I believe funds more than it’s black op’s, as well as being part of the worlds biggest Terrorist Network it is involved into a lot of sabotage of ships, trains and planes like the Malaysia airlines for example. tony lane

http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/exp ... ium-trade/

[backtoiam]

As I have stated previously my mind remains parked in cynical mode almost all the time on all issues until history unfolds itself and I see what it truly is. The only real tool I have is always assuming that the media mainstream bullhorn is full of shit and that seems to have a 99.9% success rate. Attempting to interpret the steps on big moves is always difficult because not knowing what higher steps and goals may be as they relate the current ones becomes tedious. If Putin truly is defying the oligarchy magicians that decide what money is and who shall have some I can only imagine what terrible things may result. I'm still struggling with the possibility that this is the case, but my mind is always open.

Is Washington Cheering on ISIS?
Oct 12, 2015 3 Comments
Chris Ernesto

(RINF) – The old adage, “desperate times call for desperate measures” appears to be the theme of U.S. officials these days.

With Russia entering the fray in Syria, the United States’ ultimate goal of ousting President Bashar al-Assad is becoming much more elusive.

So is that why U.S. officials and analysts essentially applauded this weekend when ISIS killed a top Iranian military commander in Syria?
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/09/politics/iran-general-killed-syria-isis/

“There’s no doubt that it is a psychological blow to pro-regime forces in Syria,” a current U.S. intelligence official said, referring to the ISIS killing of Iranian Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani.

“The losses for the (Iranian) Guard Corps are increasing,” said former CIA officer Reuel Marc Gerecht. “We see the funeral announcements all the time of (Iran Revolutionary) Guard members who are perishing in Syria.”

So, ISIS – who the U.S. claims to be fighting in Syria – kills people in Syria, and the U.S. is crowing about it? That’s a dead giveaway.

It probably shouldn’t be shocking though, given U.S. President Barack Obama announced in 2013 that his government would directly arm terrorist groups in Syria when he waived a federal law designed to prevent weapons from being sent to designated-terrorist organizations.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/20/kuhner-how-obama-arms-al-qaeda/#ixzz34efaOR2W

“I’m not sure it’s the Iranian objective to beat ISIS,” said Gerecht. “I think the primary Iranian objective is to ensure that Assad does not fall.”

That may or may not be the case, but it’s clear that Washington’s objective is to oust Assad, not to defeat ISIS.

The U.S. has not achieved its hegemonic goals in Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Libya, Yemen, Iran and other countries in recent times.

And now as Russia appears to be supplanting the U.S. as the presumed leader in fighting extremism, Washington is reeling at the prospect of losing potential control of the government in Syria.
http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/russia-supplants-u-s-in-global-war-against-jihadists/

Certainly, more desperate measures are ahead.
http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/was ... ent-534110

[Iamwhomiam]

I don't know how many countries in the middle east they grow dope in but I always seem to forget about this. I always think about oil but the global poppy trade is huge. In todays money maybe trillions. A lot more than oil as stake in the middle east. Not to mention mining resources.

Opium Harvesting, c.200 metres from Camp Bastion Airfield Perimeter
October 12, 2015


Anthony C Heaford

(RINF) – In this 7.5° view of Afghanistan, captured from an Airfield guard tower, we can see several less auspicious elements of the ISAF invasion and occupation:

• Corruption
• Duplicity
• Heroin Production
• Incompetence

The photograph shows five men harvesting opium a couple of hundred metres from Camp Bastion perimeter defences, seen in the foreground.

Not only was this illegal drug production being carried out in the shadow of ISAF’s Main Operating Base, it was being done under the protection of British soldiers. Her Majesty’s Armed Forces (Army and RAF) were protecting this man’s cash crop from illicit ‘taxation’ by the Afghan National Police or Army.

The duplicity is in what the Ministry of Defence tell people we are doing, and what we are actually doing. As this photo was taken there was a World Service edition of ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ playing. The particular BBC correspondent, Quentin Sommerville, was ‘embedded’ with British soldiers in Helmand, who were assisting in the destruction of poppy fields. This must raise the question as to why poppy fields on the edge of Bastion’s airfield were protected whilst another farmer’s crop in a neighboring valley was
destroyed?


The land in the once barren valley was now watered by the effluent of the 30,000 people living in Camp Bastion, creating a mini property boom for the owner of the land, a Mohammad Daoud. The valley bordering Camp Bastion’s airfield had become a busy agricultural area, with parcels of land rented out to tenant farmers, migrant farm laborers camping a hundred metres from the defences, plus all the associated traffic.

Whether this is the same Mohammad Daoud as former Governor of Helmand Province Mohammad
Daoud is yet to be confirmed. If confirmed, the irony of former Governor Daoud having previously championed British poppy eradication efforts would illustrate our corruption accurately.

To quote former Governor Daoud:

“Unless the international community includes poppy eradication and fighting drugs in their list of ways to fight terrorism, they will not succeed in this fight because it (the drug trade) is the fuel in the machine of
terrorism.”

Our incompetence is best ‘illustrated’ by the deaths of two US Marines, Sergeant Bradley Atwell and Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Raible, and the destruction of £200+ million worth of equipment, in the Taliban’s audacious airfield raid of 2012.

The attackers of 14th September launched the raid from this same valley, where despite it’s proximity to £££Billions of aircraft across the airfield, the Command appeared to assess the risk there as minimal to non existent. This ‘lax’ attitude (criminal negligence in my eyes) reportedly extended to not providing any night vision equipment to soldiers guarding the airfield on a moonless Afghan night. To describe this as simple ‘incompetence’ is being very generous indeed to those responsible.

Two men are dead because the British Army and Royal Air Force failed to protect a stationary target – an airfield. I can only apologize for my part in that.

Author: Anthony C Heaford
Craftsman / Vehicle Mechanic in British Territorial Army 2009 to 2013, No.30088729.
Six month tour of Afghanistan, April to October 2012. Based in Camp Bastion.

Arlene Lane

proof about the CIA involvement into the drug trade and opium as never been more obvious than it is today, and this area in Afghanistan is turning over twenty times than it used to into the many trillions which I believe funds more than it’s black op’s, as well as being part of the worlds biggest Terrorist Network it is involved into a lot of sabotage of ships, trains and planes like the Malaysia airlines for example. tony lane

http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/exp ... ium-trade/

You silly fellow! They are Avocados.

Everyone knows there's more money in avocados than there is in drugs!

[AlicetheKurious]

Seemslikeadream, when I warned about analysts who are wolves in sheep's clothing, experts at repackaging American/Zionist imperialist propaganda so that it appeals to audiences of leftist and alternative media, Juan Cole was one of those I had in mind. His many rapt "progressive" admirers don't seem to notice that he has rarely, if ever, disagreed with America's bombing and other military attacks against other countries. In the case of Iraq, he did initially disagree, arguing that crippling economic sanctions would work better, but he later changed his mind and said that bombing was, in fact, more effective. In the case of Afghanistan, he was all for bombing the crap out of it, but worried that an all-out invasion would subject American troops to the kind of attacks that British troops had suffered during the British Empire's occupation of that country. This is the sort of garbage that self-stroking, smug "leftists" raptly lap up, their minds disarmed: American imperialist bullying all dressed up with a pipe and tweed jacket and a professor's degree, spoken in a thoughtful and cultured tone.

It is clearly a winning formula, widely used.

The article you posted from his website, written by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty hack Anna Shamanska is a good example.

Syria's civil war erupted in 2011 after Assad's forces brutally dispersed peaceful antigovernment protests, setting off a spiral of violence and armed opposition.
...
Russian conspiracy theories are particularly rampant. Some accuse the West of secretly supporting terrorists, presumably reflecting speculation in some corners that Washington was involved in creating IS or alluding to overt U.S. support for some of the armed forces fighting to dislodge Assad's government.
...
The broad and fractured opposition to Assad's regime controls some Syrian territory, including stretches in the hands of extremist groups like IS and Al-Qaeda's Al-Nusra Front and others in the hands of relative moderates like the Free Syrian Army and Syrian National Council.

And finally, a truly shocking and horrible quote by one Anton Nosik (actually it's "Nossik"; I wonder why it was misspelled?), described as a "Kremlin critic", is used to equate between ridiculing the non-existent "moderate opposition" supported by the US (the legitimate Syrian opposition does exist, but is not for sale, and therefore is ignored by the US), and a fervent Russian desire to see Syria "erased from the face of the earth".

Pro-Kremlin Twitter satirist Lev Sharansky published a cartoon similarly lampooning the idea of a moderate Syrian opposition: [above]
That argument isn't limited to pro-Kremlin hacks, by the way. Anton Nosik, a prominent Kremlin critic whom some describe as the "founder of the Russian Internet," shocked many liberals when he wrote on LiveJournal that "whoever bombs Syria today, I very much welcome it. And if [Syria] is erased from the face of the earth, I wouldn't be disappointed at all, I would only say thanks."

In fact, Nossik is not just a "Kremlin critic"; he loathes the Russian government, and as he says in the video below, does not identify his nationality as Russian, but as Jewish. He is a Zionist anti-Russian subversive, dubbed "the guru of the internet", who spreads anti-Russian propaganda via his blogs, and on international speaking tours, including this little speech he made in the Israeli Presidential Conference 'Facing Tomorrow', in Israeli-occupied Jerusalem, on June 21-23, 2011.

If the writer of the article had been honest, she would have acknowledged that his genocidal desire to see Syria "erased from the face of the earth" is a much more accurate reflection of his Zionist ideology, rather than of widespread Russian views. But that would defeat the sleazy purpose of the article, wouldn't it.

[seemslikeadream]

it is always enlightening and a pleasure to read you Alice..I have the utmost respect for you

[AlicetheKurious]

Thank you, slad, you're very kind.

[IanEye]

Does Obama have a Syria Strategy? Putin Does.
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment)

In his “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday President Obama made some remarks on Syria, but do they add up to a policy?

Obama said:

1. He is giving up on a Pentagon plan to train thousands of “moderate” Syrian fighters to take on Daesh (ISIS, ISIL). He admits that the rebels only really want to fight al-Assad and his regime. Obama did not admit that there are very few moderates left who hold any substantial territory. The most effective fighters have been the extremists, Daesh and its rival, al-Qaeda in Syria (the Support Front). Many former Free Syria Army units, who really were moderate, have by now joined or allied with these two.

2. He will continue to bomb Daesh targets in Syria, even though these aerial raids appear to have produced no results.

3. He will not escalate the US military involvement in Syria.

4. His hope is to give enough support to the “moderate rebels” that they can in turn put pressure on the regime and Putin to make Bashar al-Assad step down. (But since he’s not training rebels any more and is just bombing Daesh, how would this result be achieved).

I have long held that Obama is simply trying to contain Daesh in Syria and Iraq, but that nothing he is doing will have the effect of rolling it back. Since Daesh is an enemy of the al-Assad regime, for Obama to contain and weaken it willy-nilly helps al-Assad. This outcome is not the one Obama says he wants, but it is an outcome impossible to avoid.
The place the rebels allied with al-Qaeda have made the big advances in recent months is the north west province of Idlib. Most of the province fell to the “Army of Conquest,” which groups hard line Salafis like the Freemen of Syria (Ahrar al-Sham) with the Support Front al-Qaeda forces. The Support Front reports directly to Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks on the US. With Idlib, the “Army of Conquest” can hope to move against Latakia to its west, Syria’s major port, on which the regime depends for survival.

I think that Obama can’t decently get involved in Idlib precisely because the victorious forces there are essentially al-Qaeda-led. (There are also remnants of small FSA groups in Idlib but frankly each just has a few villages and in the aggregate they don’t amount to all that much.) So the US is irrelevant to the major military development on the ground in Syria in the past year!

In contrast, Putin knows what he wants and has an idea about how to achieve it.

He is giving air support with helicopter gunships and SU-35 fighter jets to the Syrian Arab Army, Hizbullah guerrillas who have joined the fight in northern Hama and southern Idlib, and Iranian special ops forces.
And, there are glimmers of some success. The Syrian Arab Army has taken back several villages north of Hama, with an eye toward an eventual campaign to expel Daesh from Idlib.
The combination of aerial support and local on the ground forces worked for NATO in the former Yugoslava (Clinton got the Serbs to leave the Kosovars alone that way). It also worked for the US in Afghanistan. In the long run Russia may be getting itself into a quagmire. In the short term, they area already containing the western Salafi and al-Qaeda forces from taking Latakia, and perhaps even planning to roll them back. That would be a concrete achievement for Moscow of a sort Obama is lacking.



.

[AlicetheKurious]

IanEye, the voice-over of that Reuters video totally misses the HUGE significance of the images.The very fact that the Saudi Crown Prince and the UAE Foreign Minister went in person to Russia, and the Saudi Crown Prince referring to the Russians as their "friends" at this particular time, and in this context, is a very clear and shocking message to the Americans. You could even say a slap in the face.

[IanEye]

IanEye, the voice-over of that Reuters video totally misses the HUGE significance of the images.

That seems to happen a lot with the news media.

I am sort of counting down to October 20th, the 4 year anniversary of Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi's death.

Here in the U.S., everyone seems to focus on September 11th, 2012 aka "Benghazi" but this completely misses the point.

If the GOP really wanted to bring down Hillary, they would focus on October 20th, 2011.

[Nordic]

[82_28]

Whether they want to admit it or not is hardly the issue, if they do or don't they are doing it because it is the issue. They are the issue and many are onto their "game" and it can only manifest from here. It has to become more bold in being Mos Eisley just because it can. The pentagon and CIA were pretty much unchallenged before they pulled their stunt through contractors who maybe didn't know what they were doing when they were installing the charges. They were just following orders listed on their morning's invoice, plans etc.

I work for a basically major telco company and when I look at shit and find out that others who are in the field really don't know what the fuck they're doing either. It's about ordering parts. The parts get sent from somewhere. They get warehoused. But the installation crew has no clue -- engineering has no clue -- it's just a code or box you click. It's just the new device that was ordered and is told to go to some place. Go home and get paid on Friday. I've never had a corporate job until now, but this is how I called it when I was a mere lad. It's equipment. No field engineer is gonna know if there's no thermite or whatever in what they deliver and install. It all would have been easy to get past "security" back then.

I wish I had drawings of the telco rooms of WTC. Someone somewhere has them.

Super easy to do this shit because it is need to know contractors who do it.

[stefano]

Alice, good to see you back. What do you make of the Qataris sending troops and jets to join the Saudi intervention in Yemen, or the amazing international consensus not to do anything that might annoy Khartoum about atrocities in Darfur? There's a united front there between the US, China, Russia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which is odd. I'd appreciate your thoughts on these things, which I've found puzzling.

It reveals 'a pattern of deliberate policy to brutalise the civilian population', HRW's UN and Crisis Advocacy Director, Philippe Bolopion, told AC. 'The UN Security Council response has been abysmal, with no meaningful effort to hold Sudan accountable or put an end to these abuses'. China and Russia were 'blocking more meaningful engagement', he said, while France, the United Kingdom and United States 'accepted the status quo'.
[...]
Rights activists widely believe that Washington and Khartoum stitched up a deal and then passed it to the African group to sponsor. On 24 September, Sudan was asked to present the draft as a compromise between it and the USA. The European Union (EU), Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, Norway and Switzerland tried to strengthen the text, we hear. However, China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia opposed any amendments. Changes are largely in the language, not the substance.

[km artlu]

The Russian colonel in the video above uses a phrase I hadn't heard previously: "creating controllable chaos". That seems to be the most logical definition of actual US regional policy aims since at least 2003.

All the analysis of failure in, for example Iraq, seems misguided. Destruction of national sovereignty in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and now apparently also in Yemen, is pursuant of US interests. So…."Mission Accomplished".

[backtoiam]

All the analysis of failure in, for example Iraq, seems misguided. Destruction of national sovereignty in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and now apparently also in Yemen, is pursuant of US interests. So…."Mission Accomplished".

Yep. When I hear "failed policy in the mideast" I always think the same thing. Big oil companies got their contracts. Mining concerns bombed the hell out of the people living in the areas they wanted, and all that business. Now it just a matter of keeping the locals from retaking what they lost.

[Nordic]

“Unless the international community includes poppy eradication and fighting drugs in their list of ways to fight terrorism, they will not succeed in this fight because it (the drug trade) is the fuel in the machine of
terrorism.”

Exactly!