Russian Warship Movements Through Turkish Straits
(Sept. 3, 2013) - As tension rises in Western capitals and the USA and France are trying to mobilize their parliaments and the public support for an intervention in Syria, Russian Udaloy class destroyer Admiral Panteleyev passed through the Turkish Straits and entered into the Mediterranean. It is also reported that the intelligence gathering ship SSV-201 Priazovye is also sailing to the Mediterranean and may pass through the Turkish Straits today.

'Exacting high price for Syria WMD use will deter other leaders weighing attack on Israel'

(JPost) - A US strike on Syria will reinstate American deterrence in the region and will help dissuade other regional leaders who could be contemplating an unconventional attack on Israel, former Military Intelligence chief and the Director of the Institute for National Securities Studies, Amos Yadlin, said Sunday.

Yadlin and INSS researcher Avner Golov published a paper outlining where Israel's short-term and long-term interests lay in the context of a possible US strike on Syria.

From a broader perspective, it's important for Israel that the US once again positions itself as an actor with strategic influence in the Middle East, and improves its regional credibility and deterrence in the region in relation to conventional and unconventional conduct by its rivals.

PM implores ministers not to speak about Obama's decision on Syria

(JPost) - Netanyahu, at the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting where both he and Moshe Ya'alon briefed the ministers on Syria, said that the situation was still developing.

"There are sensitive and delicate issues here. We are managing the situation carefully and responsibly. There is no room for private comments. I ask you to continue to act responsibly," he said. "I ask you to refrain from acting carelessly and irresponsibly toward our ally in order to get a momentary headline."

In an apparent reference to Naftali Bennett and Uri Ariel, he said, "You were elected to serve Israeli citizens from inside the government, and these types of comments do not serve Israel's citizens."

○ Chemical Assad? On the Chemical Warfare Attack in Syria
○ Kerry's "Munich Moment" and Other Historical Fallacies
○ Israel Escalating Efforts to Shape Allies' Strategy on Egypt

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"Kerry also said that Israel, America's closest ally in the region,
 backed the need for a U.S. military response."

Right, once again going to war for Israel and the Arab Gulf states. Fighting Iran in Syria.

○  Mondoweiss: Dubious Intelligence and Iran Blackmail: How Israel is driving the US to war in Syria

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Israel announces successful joint missile test with US in Med

(JPost) -  The Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that Israel and the United States had successfully conducted a joint missile test in the Mediterranean Sea, a short time after Russia said it had detected a missile launch in the area.

The statement by the Defense Ministry said that the test of the Anchor missile took place at around 9:15 A.M. Israel time, which coincides with the report by Moscow that it had detected two ballistic missiles launched from the same region of the sea. The Russian embassy in Damascus, however, was quick to affirm that there was no evidence of a missile strike on Syria.

Israel initially said that it was unaware of any missile laumches in the area. "We are not aware, at this time, of such an event having occurred," an IDF spokeswoman in Jerusalem said.

Israel test fires target missile in Mediterranean

FSA statement: will break with the infidel powers of the western nations who refuse to make the same sacrifices as the Syrian people. Will break with the Syrian National Council (SNC) and all member nations of the UN Security Council for letting the Assad regime pass the red line with no repercussions. The FSA will join forces with all groups fighting in Syria ... meaning the Al Qaeda groups of the Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

Link to YouTube video - FSA Threats Chemical Weapons in Syria.

Tension rises in Syria as FSA chief killed by Al-Qaeda jihadists

FSA says Al-Qaeda to announce Islamic state in Syria

BEIRUT, Lebanon (Asharq Al-Awsat) July 16, 2013 -- A senior figure in the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has stated that Al-Qaeda was about to announce an Islamic state in northern Syria. The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said the time for the announcement was confirmed to be the first day of Eid, at the end of Ramadan, and that "the Bab El-Hawa and Harem border points are the main targets, the first to control arms and ammunition supplies, and the second to raise funds by smuggling crude oil."

He said: "The implementation of this plan started last week with the killing of Commander Fadi El-Qash and his brother in Dana village, followed by the killing of senior member of the Supreme Command Council, Kamal Hamami, and will be followed by more assassinations of officers and important figures in the FSA." The sources confirmed that "the FSA circulated this information within limited, trusted circles as soon as it became available, and will avoid any confrontation that could weaken the rebels in their fight against the government forces."

Syria Kurdish militias battle al Qaeda fighters, driving civilians across border into Iraq

○  Threat Level Raised for Al Qaeda Attacks - US Stat   Aug. 3, 2013
○  US Has 'Moral Obligation' to Destroy Syria (Assad)   Aug. 24, 2013
○  Neocon Design Wrapped In 'Humanity'   Aug. 26, 2013

In Rush to Strike Syria, U.S. Tried to Derail U.N. Probe

(IPS) Aug. 27, 2013 - Kerry asserted that he had warned Syrian Foreign Minister Moallem last Thursday that Syria had to give the U.N. team immediate access to the site and stop the shelling there, which he said was "systematically destroying evidence". He called the Syria-U.N. deal to allow investigators unrestricted access "too late to be credible".

After the deal was announced on Sunday, however, Kerry pushed UN SG Ban Ki-moon in a phone call to call off the investigation completely. The Wall Street Journal reported the pressure on Ban without mentioning Kerry by name. It said unnamed "U.S. officials" had told the secretary-general that it was "no longer safe for the inspectors to remain in Syria and that their mission was pointless."

But Ban, who has generally been regarded as a pliable instrument of U.S. policy, refused to withdraw the U.N. team and instead "stood firm on principle", the Journal reported. He was said to have ordered the U.N. inspectors to "continue their work".

The Journal said "U.S. officials" also told the secretary-general that the United States "didn't think the inspectors would be able to collect viable evidence due to the passage of time and damage from subsequent shelling."

State Dep't Ms Harf: Daily Press Briefing on August 26, 2013

France with President Hollande (has prerogative to bomb Syria w/o vote in parliament) waged war against the Islamic militants in Mali this year with support of Obama. Libyan arms and the Tuareg rebels were emboldened with local AQIM terrorists and formed a threat to the French uranium interests (Aréva) in Niger. The French have close ties to Lebanese factions and Syria because of history - French protectorate. France foreign policy is about pure self-interest and corporate power. An eyeopener, documentary by Al Jazeera - President De Gaulle, West-Africa and the Foccart network. How the establishment of colonial nations, secret service, mercenaries and arms transports, manage to pull off covert action and dupe democracies, voters and nations. Watch the Al Jazeera documentary or read about sinking the Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand.

The German intelligence (BND) gave us Curveball. The Real Story of 'Curveball': How German Intelligence Helped Justify the US Invasion of Iraq. Need we to consider how thrustworthy the "revelations" are?

Lisa Pease in Consortium News: The Still-Sketchy Intel on Syria.

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Part of my diary: Jordan: US forces plan shield against Syria  Oct 13th, 2012

AMMAN, Jordan (ABC News) - From the edge of a steep mountain overlooking a desert compound built into an old rock quarry, machine gunfire echoes just outside hangars where U.S. special operations forces are training Jordanian commandos. The Americans, who arrived in the kingdom a few weeks ago at the request of the Jordanians, are helping them develop techniques to protect civilians in case of a chemical attack from neighboring Syria, according to Jordanian officials.

Also covered in my diary - US Promotion of Middle-East Peace In Turmoil  Dec 29th, 2012

The Redirection, Is the Strategic Shift in US Policy Benefitting Our Enemies by Seymour Hersh

(The New Yorker) March 5, 2007 - 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 [Hariri assassination? - Oui] 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.

○  Syria Will Become A Sunni Islamic State

John Kerry invokes apocalyptic 'domino theory' in call with House Democrats

(Mondoweiss) - In a Labor Day conference call with 127 House Democrats, Secretary of State John Kerry invoked an apocalyptic scenario, summoning visions of American power and credibility incinerated in a terrible Middle East-wide conflagration laced with nerve gas and enriched uranium.

An aide to one of the members of Congress who participated in the call told me that Kerry warned that the failure to punish Bashar Al-Assad for using chemical weapons on Syrian civilians could lead to future chemical attacks on Israel and Turkey, emboldening Iran to forge ahead with an alleged nuclear weapons program and perhaps even enter the battlefield in support of Syria. Next, Kerry hammered on the Holocaust, declaring that the US faced a "Munich moment" on Syria.

Kerry talks about Iran and risks of nerve gas attacks

Kerry combined the axis of evil to the use of neurotoxins in Damascus, tying in Iran which has been brutalized by Saddam's regime and suffered prolonged sarin and mustard gas attacks. "It sends a message not just to Syria, but to Iran, North Korea and terrorist groups."

The most frequent recurring questions: How convinced is American intelligence about the Assad regime's culpability for the chemical attack, a decade after woefully misrepresenting the case that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction? And how does a military response advance U.S. national security interests?  

As far as I can see, Obama and Kerry have been packaged and gift-wrapped by PM Netanyahu on Syrian war framing. Israeli intelligence, diplomacy and war rhetoric.

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Syrian and Middle Eastern Christians Condemn US Strike Plans

(Informed Comment) - Syria and Lebanon are multicultural societies, but the American discourse about Syria tends to focus on the Muslim majority and to ignore the substantial Christian minorities. It is interesting that these Eastern Christians are solidly against an American missile strike on Syria.

The  Greek Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, Gregorius III Lahham, said, "The military strike that is expected against Syria will increase the distress of the Christians and lead to the destruction of Syria, of both its Christians and its Muslims-no one will be spared." Gregorius added that 450,000 Syrian Christians had been displaced from their homes since 2011, either remaining inside Syria or fleeing abroad. Christians may make up as many as 14% of the Syrian population of 22 million.

The Bishopric of Damascus praised the call of Pope Francis I to make Saturday a day of mourning and prayer on behalf of Syria. They said that the planned military strike was planned out by the enemies of the Syrian people.

The Maronite Catholic patriarch of Lebanon, Bishara Butrus al-Ra'i, and the bishops warned against a US strike on Syria.

Obama and Kerry done their best to bend the truth so the attack on Syria would be claimed as legitimate. It was framed as follows: putting case before the UN Security Council was a no-no, the evidence isn't there. It had to be framed around the use of a nerve agent on civilians with a high body count. By invoking the 1925 Geneva Protocol signed under the auspices of the League of Nations and the UN Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1993, the Obama administration found an opening for legitimacy of a punitive attack. This legal argument is on very thin ice as it's the UN Security Council which needs to act. So Obama used the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine for a quick reaction on Syria to "protect the civilians " from further nerve gas attack. That's why Obama and Kerry were very careful in their statements as "regime change" would void the legality to act. Lo and behold, the US Senate Commission added this goal to the resolution and this makes any attack on Syria "f*cking" illegal, no doubts about it. The morons, thank you. And Obama and Kerry keeping a straight face while mouthing their lies and deceit before the global community.

To make the US attack on Syria to remove Assad more legal ...

Arab states want to take costs
Arab states, according to Kerry agreed to pay the cost of a U.S. military operation.  The sum offered was "pretty significant."  Defense Chuck Hagel said again that the military was ready whenever Obama give an order.

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See my comment - Report on Gas Attack in Khan al-Assal.
My earlier diary - CW Experts Skeptical About US Claim Use of Sarin Gas by Syria   Jun 15th, 2013

At today's G20 Conference in St. Petersburg:
○  Europe sides with Russia's Putin, urges against US 'military solution' in Syria.
○  Syrian and Middle Eastern Christians Condemn US Strike Plans
○  Rebel Brutality Poses Dilemma as West Weighs Strike on Assad

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Al-Qaida-linked Syria rebels hit Christian village

BEIRUT (AP) -- Al-Qaida-linked rebels launched an assault on a regime-held Christian village in the densely populated west of Syria and new clashes erupted near the capital, Damascus -- part of a brutal battle of attrition each side believes it can win despite more than two years of deadlock.

As the world focused on possible U.S. military action against Syria, rebels commandeered a mountaintop hotel in the village of Maaloula and shelled the community below, said a nun, speaking by phone from a convent in the village. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Al Nusra Front terrorists battle regime-held Christian village of Maaloula

DAMASCUS, Syria (Huff Post) -- The sound of artillery reverberated through a predominantly Christian village north of Damascus as government troops and al-Qaida-linked rebels battled for control of the mountainside sanctuary.

The hit-and-run attacks on the ancient village of Maaloula, one of the few places in the world where residents still speak Aramaic, highlighted fears among Syria's religious minorities about the growing role of extremists among those fighting in the civil war to topple President Bashar Assad's regime.

The fighting in Maaloula, a scenic village of about 3,300 perched high in the mountains, began early Wednesday when militants from Jabhat al-Nusra stormed in after a suicide bomber struck an army checkpoint guarding the entrance.

○  Jihadists: It's Our Duty to Fight Against Alawites

Round-up: News from the North, Changes to Opposition, Egypt, and a lot of Miscellany

(Syria Comment) - Though the man beheaded may not have been a priest, it seems that the priest in question was killed by rebels all the same, explained in an article by Nina Shea - The Shadow War Against Syria's Christians:

On June 23, Catholic Syrian priest Fr. François Murad was murdered in Idlib by rebel militias.  How he was killed is not yet known and his superiors "vigorously deny" that he was a victim of beheading, as some news sources are claiming.  It is apparent,  however, that he was a victim of the shadow war against Christians that is being fought by jihadists alongside the larger Syrian conflict.  This is a religious cleansing that has been all but ignored by our policymakers, as they strengthen support for the rebellion.

The Iranians and the Shia press refer to the butcher jihadists of Al-Nusra Front, Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya and Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham as Takfiris. See the recent beheadings murders of Syrian Catholic priest Father François Murad 49, and two of his assistants.

Have a peaceful cultural summer

VIDEO: Passionate plea by woman not to bomb Syria, do protect the Christian minority, don't give support to the Al Qaeda rebels

Tough crowd heckles McCain in town hall meeting on Syria

(CNN) - Sen. John McCain, whose endorsement of President Barack Obama's plan to launch military strikes against Syria provided the president a key Republican backer, faced vocal opponents of military action during a town hall in Arizona Thursday.

Link to YouTube video here   or link @CNN

Link to YouTube video here.

Baghdad: Searching for Steele

(Al Jazeera) - When the Wikileaks documents came out in November 2010, there was one leak in particular that caught my attention. It referenced something called "Frago 242," which was short for "Fragmentary Order 242" - a US military order instructing US soldiers to ignore Iraqi-on-Iraqi torture.

Sparked by Wikileaks' release of classified US military documents, this investigation uncovers how the Pentagon sent James Steele, a US veteran of the 'dirty wars' in Central America, to oversee sectarian police commando units in Iraq that set up secret detention and torture centres to get information from insurgents.

Composed of violent Shia militias, these commandos evolved into death squads and eventually numbered over 17,000 men. There were also references in the files to a General Adnan Thabit, who was visiting the American embassy at the time.

Link to YouTube - video.

The Iraq war is indicative of a very dysfunctional, brutal time. I hope this film will be a legacy that says: If you want to go to war, this is what war means. It means 14-year-old boys being hung up and tortured, it means men being turned on spits - that is your 'counterinsurgency'. I feel it is important that this information comes out and I am shocked that we want to forget it so quickly.

From El Salvador to Iraq: Washington's man behind brutal police squads

Found only a single mention of "Fraga 242" here @BooMan, a diary by danps in 2010 - State-run Iranian media beats the NY Times on WikiLeaks reporting. Of course, the "Salvador option" was witnessed and reported at the time. With "Fraga 242" the order is laid at the desk of President George Bush.

Excellent reporting by Steven D in October 2006 - You Get What You Pay For, and in Iraq We Paid for Death Squads.

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Andrew Bacevich on Taking Action in Syria

(Bill Moyers) - With the probability of American intervention, Syria is everywhere in the news.  Phil Donahue, filling in for Bill Moyers, speaks with historian and Vietnam veteran Andrew Bacevich about America's role in the world and the possible repercussions of our actions in the Middle East.  Given what we know about what's going on in Syria, is a U.S. response justified? And if we take action, where and when does it stop? Is a military response justified and if we take action, where does it stop?

Andrew Bacevich on Changing Our Military Mindset

Propaganda: Repeating Lies Over and Over Again. What had effect perhaps 60 years ago leading up to WWII and during the Cold War, today people can find the other views and opinions through modern media. Listening to the press conference of John Kerry and French FM Laurent Fabius, it's repeating the same old lines of total bs. Reading from the same playbook as Samantha Power yesterday and the day before that by President Obama. The EU will only act on Syria and the apparent gas attack through the UN Security Council. No one knows whether Obama will wait that long. The objective is to degrade the military capability of the Assad regime and make a political solution possible. Kerry mentioned the strenghtening of the Al Qaeda groups but provides no insight how to deal with these thugs committing war crimes every day.

It's just a disgusting mess in US foreign policy towards the Middle-East. Kerry did mention our "national interest," meaning Israel, Lebanon and Turkey. Kerry dares to speak out that if Assad isn't stopped with his chemical arsenal, it will endanger all of us. Both Kerry and Fabius referred to the heinous scenes on videos of children suffering in neurotoxin attack in Ghouta, telling the world it's Assad's crime. No, the US will do all that's necessary to get rid of Assad and hope for the best. There is no room for failure. I find it once again stunning he mentions the gas attack of Assad in the same breath as Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Also mentions Syria, Hezbollah, Iran and North Korea with possessing WMDs and risk of proliferation to terror groups. This does injustice to Iran and its people who have been on the receiving end of heinous gas attacks in the 1980s by Iraq. Iran has signed and ratified the CWC protocol and treaty. Iran leadership has always condemned the use of nerve gas in the strongest terms. John Kerry, you are a fraud! It's just ugly propaganda based on LIES.

CIA files: In 1980s ... US helped Saddam gas Iran

WASHINGTON Aug. 26, 2013 - The United States provided Iraq with intelligence on preparations for an Iranian offensive during the Iran-Iraq war even though it knew Baghdad would respond with chemical weapons.

Foreign Policy magazine said the US knew in 1983 that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein would not hesitate to resort to shelling Iranian forces with sarin or mustard gas.

"As Iraqi attacks continue and intensify the chances increase that Iranian forces will acquire a shell containing mustard agent with Iraqi markings," a top secret CIA report said in November 1983.

Link to YouTube video - Iraq-Iran War 1980-1988.

In late 1987, US satellite imagery showed that Iran was concentrating a large force east of the southern Iraqi port city of Basra in preparation for a spring offensive. The images also showed that the Iranians had identified a strategic weakness in the Iraqi defenses.

The report, titled "At the Gates of Basra," was shown to President Ronald Regan, who wrote a note in the margins that said, "An Iranian victory is unacceptable." The United States decided to inform Baghdad of its findings and help the Iraqis with intelligence on Iranian logistics centers and anti-aircraft defenses.

US Policy In Support of Sunni Militants

○   JPost - America's real Middle East priority: Iran

http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=_t&ie=UTF-8&sl=sr&tl=en&u=http://www.prav da.rs/2013/09/03/strogo-cuvana-tajna-obama-ustuknuo-jer-su-mu-rusi-oborili-f-22-i-4-rakete-tomahavk/

Kept secret: Obama balked because the Russians shot down the F-22 Tomahawk missiles and 4!
...A U.S. military plane crashed near the border with Jordan. Damaged rockets into the sea. About the overthrow of the F - 22 Raptor writes the newspaper "Los Angeles Times".
The newspaper also reported that 30 August Syrian air defenses shot down four American missiles "Tomahawk" Russian anti-missile system "Kevlar - 1".
These are the first Russian anti-aircraft missiles of it have been destroyed by American missiles.
According to the newspaper, the loss of a modern aircraft F - 22 in northern Jordan and felling 4 rocket is the main reason for the sudden delay of the aggression against Syria. Conveys the same message and the "Oklahoma Post" citing U.S. military sources.