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  April War Update North Korea, Afghanistan, Central African Republic

  Seth Rutledge in Member Posts on May 09, 2013
  Tagged in: Untagged 

  North Korea: The US has performed joint military exercises with S. Korea using nuclear-capable bombers and 10,000 US troops. The UN increased sanctions against N. Korea in response to their satellite launch and nuclear test on February 12.  The US has increased its military presence in the region, including installing missile batteries in Guam[1] effective against China and Russia. The US invaded N. Korea in 1950 resulting in over three million deaths.[2] Since 1950 the US and has imposed sever sanctions against N. Korea  leading to millions of deaths due to starvation, crumbling sanitation infrastructure, and lack of medical supplies.[3] 

  Afghanistan: On March 11 Hamid Karsai, the president of Afghanistan, stated that the US is secretly negotiating with the Taliban and that a recent terror attack was “in the service of foreigners not withdrawing from Afghanistan.”[4]  The CIA, Saudi Arabia and Pakistani intelligence created the Taliban[5]  in the 1970s and financed them to fight against Afghan and Soviet forces until the Taliban took power in 1996.  US aid to the Taliban continued until 2001.[6]
  

  There are over 100,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan, of which 68,000 are from the US.[7]  The US plans to continue military operations there for at least a decade after the 2014 “withdraw” date,[8] and will need to spend $13-55 billion/year to maintain the current government.  The war has cost the US over $630 billion to date[9], and total costs including medical care and disability for veterans will exceede $2 trillion.[10]  3,281 NATO soldiers have been killed, and 17,674 US troops have been wounded since the beginning of the war in 2001.[11]  At least 20,000 Afghan civilians have been killed and many more injured since 2001.[12]

  In addition to it’s military bases in Afghanistan (near Russian, China, and Iran), the US has economic interests in Afghanistan.  Afghanistan provides over 82% of the world’s opium,[13] representing a multi-billion dollar industry.[14]  Afghan Minister of Counter Narcotics General Khodaidad has accused NATO forces of taxing opium production, and profiting from the drug trade.[15]  US financial companies make massive profits laundering hundreds of billions of dollars of drug money,[16] and the opium trade funds the Taliban and international terrorists.[17]  
  

  Central African Republic (CAR): on March 24 rebel forces deposed the government in a military coup, ending a conflict that has displaced 207,000 people since December 2012.[18]  600 French and 100 US troops oversaw the transition without interfering.[19]  France has plans to begin mining uranium.[20]  The rebel’s new government called on the EU for aid, and seeks to revise the CAR’s contracts with China.[21]

   

  
  

  ---

  [1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/03/us-missile-defence-system-guam-north-korea

  [2] http://necrometrics.com/20c1m.htm#Ko

  [3] http://www.globalresearch.ca/sanctions-of-mass-destruction-smd-us-sponsored-economic-blockade-destroys-north-korea-s-health-care-system/20215

  [4] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323826704578351963393889782.html

  [5] “The Globalization of NATO” by Mahdi Nazemroaya pg. 125

  [6] http://www.thenation.com/article/bushs-faustian-deal-taliban#

  [7] http://www.isaf.nato.int/images/stories/File/Placemats/ISAF-ANA Troops Placemat-Feb19 2013.pdf
  
  

  [8] http://www.defensenews.com/article/20121115/DEFREG02/311150011/USMC-General-U-S-Forces-Remain-Afghanistan-Past-2014

  [9] http://costofwar.com/

  [10] http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-most-expensive-war-in-world-history-costs-of-iraq-afghanistan-wars-could-rise-to-6-trillion/5329432?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-most-expensive-war-in-world-history-costs-of-iraq-afghanistan-wars-could-rise-to-6-trillion

  [11] http://icasualties.org/OEF/Index.aspx

  [12] http://unama.unmissions.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=K0B5RL2XYcU=&tabid=12254&language=en-US (page 15)

  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/may/20/afghanistan.comment

  [13] http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/WDR2012/WDR_2012_web_small.pdf (page 36)

  [14] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/afghanistan/drugs-market.htm

  [15] http://publicintelligence.net/usnato-troops-patrolling-opium-poppy-fields-in-afghanistan/

  [16] http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/04/wachovia-paid-trivial-fine-for-nearly-400-billion-of-drug-related-money-laundering.html

  [17] http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20073655-503543.html

  [18] http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2013/04/central-african-republic-refugee-crisis.html

  [19] http://nsnbc.me/2013/04/04/central-african-intrigue-the-coup-in-the-central-african-republic/

  [20] http://cent-afr-rep.ru/uran-zoloto-neft/

  [21] http://nsnbc.me/2013/04/04/central-african-intrigue-the-coup-in-the-central-african-republic/
• 

  War Update March: Haiti, Syria, Libya

  Seth Rutledge in Member Posts on Mar 29, 2013
  Tagged in: Untagged 

   

  Haitian's have taken to the street to protest the UN presence in their country, a police station was burned and tear gas was used to disperse the crowd.  The UN mission in Haiti brought cholera to Haiti over two years ago, so far causing more than 8,000 deaths and 600,000 illnesses.  The UN has refused to allocate the funds necessary to end the epidemic, despite the nearly 677 million spend on maintaining the nearly 10,000 strong UN military occupation of the country.  Haiti has been under UN control since the 2004 US coup ousted their democratically elected government and installed a regime marred by electoral fraud and opposition exclusion, executive overreach, and paramilitarism.  The current government is powerless to stop the exploitation of Haiti’s mineral resources by international mining companies who were recently granted 1/6th of the total land in Haiti and pay only 2.5% royalties.  International sweatshops have also setup in Haiti’s “free trade zones” where they are exempt from taxes, duties, and can pay workers 4.50$/day and receive subsidies.  One such complex, the Caracol Industrial Park forcefully displaced 366 farming families in 2011 from 250 hectares who had produced 1,400 metric tons of food/year.
  
  Syria: The US has facilitated and air drop of 3,000 tons of weaponry for the Free Syrian Army (FSA), and are training FSA fighters in Jordan.  The US has pledged an additional 60 million to purchase armored vehicles and other equipment for the FSA.  Israel, recipient of nearly 4 billion in US military aid/year, has been treating wounded FSA fighters.  Israel has permitted a US energy company to extract oil from the Golan Heights, Syrian land occupied since 1967 that provides 1/3 of Israel’s water.  The FSA have clashed with Hezbollah in Lebanon vowing to eliminate the military/political organization in Lebanon.
  Libya: ongoing inter militia fighting has recently displaced more than 3,000 and disrupted oil exports.  Armed resistance to the NATO installed government was finally quelled in the brutal siege of Bani Walid in October 2012, but the country is now under the control of militias and protest continues in the face of repression.  The south has been declared a closed zone of military operations under the control of a military governor.  Libyans now face a myriad of difficulties including: restriction of free speech; drug, arms, and human trafficking; a soaring murder rate; persecution of Christians and Sufi’s; and the repression of women.  The US has deployed marines to combat terrorism, but the groups that they are allegedly combating control large areas, such as Ansar al-Sharia the group accused of leading the assault on the embassy in Benghazi that killed US ambassador Stephens.
• 

  A Syrian's Perspective: Bashar al-Assad's Democratic Movement

  Seth Rutledge in Member Posts on Mar 29, 2013
  Tagged in: Untagged 

  The Democratic Movement vs. The Foreign Invasion
  
  Bashar al-Assad has recently been demonized by the mainstream and so-called alternative media who claim that he is a brutal dictator. Actually Bashar is a reformer who has done much to further the causes of democracy and freedom. It is the opposition and their foreign supporters who represent the most repressive elements of the former ruling party in Syria. To fully understand this its is helpful to look at the historical context of the current crisis. The so-called “spontaneous popular uprising” started in Daraa on March 15^th, 2011. The court house, police stations, governor's house, and other public buildings were looted and torched by the “peaceful protestors” in the first week of the crisis. The people in Homs then began to protest in solidarity with Daraa, but this was uncharacteristic of peaceful Homs and many Syrians knew that it was a fake revolution.

  About 110 unarmed police officers were murdered in Daraa and Homs, sparking anger against the “revolutionaries.” There was an incident in the city Baniyas where an Alawite truck driver was attacked by an armed mob, skinned, and paraded through the city. This disgusted almost all Syrians and since then not a single major city actually rebelled against the government. The foreign backed “revolutionaries” would attack a neighborhood, police station, or army base, from across the borders of Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq. Then they would claim that the city was in rebellion.

   

  But the Syrians, seeing the same lies in all the western and Arab news stations, and the exiled rotten officials adopting the 'revolution', mostly took an anti-revolution stance. That is why whenever the rebels would infest a town or city you would immediately hear of a massacre to punish the residents for not supporting them. Of course the mainstream media would claim that it was Assad forces punishing the town that dared to oppose him!

   

  Assad took advantage of the revolution to introduce his packages of reforms, putting aside those in the old guards who opposed them. Many of the old guard then joined the opposition abroad.

   

  The opposition demanded the removal of article 8 from the Syrian constitution making the Baath Party head of the government. Instead of just deleting it Bashar Assad had the constitution re-written buy a specialized committee of Syrian experts from all parties in Syria and with input from all Syrians. A referendum was held and the new constitution was approved with almost 90% of a voter turnout of 60%. Assad then enacted a Media Law that would allow more freedom of expression and the establishment of new independent media outlets. Assad eased requirements on the formation of political parties, excluding sectarian based parties. We now have at least nine new political parties.

  Municipal elections were held in December 2011. Many of those who won seats were assassinated or threatened throughout the country by the same revolutionaries who claimed to want democracy. Parliamentary elections were held in May 2012 with no eligibility restraints on the candidates. Many new members of parliament have also been assassinated by the FSA including the wife and three daughters of parliament elect trustee Abdulla Mishleb in the infamous Houla massacre. Historical Context: Syria in the 1980s
  
  Recent events can be better understood in the context of Syrian history. Bashar al-Assad is the son of late president Hafez al-Assad. Hafez was described by western mainstream media as a tyrant and oppressor but he was not nearly as bad as any other leader in his time like Thatcher, Reagan, or any of the region's rulers including Turkey's military rule.
  
  The current anti-Assad opposition often refer to the 1982 Hama 'massacre'. They claim that Hafez besieged the city and then bombed it killing up to 40,000 civilians. I lived in Damascus at that time and you must understand the conditions in the country at the time to know what really happened. 1) The Muslim Brotherhood was engaged in a war of terror at that time, nothing less than what the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is doing now. The Muslim Brotherhood's forces were called the 'Fighting Vanguard' (Arabic “Al Taleea Al Muqatleh”). Many of the present leaders of the FSA are the same men who led the Fighting Vanguard in the 80s; and they were as savage as their sons now. One of the Fighting Vanguard's bombings included the Azbakiyeh Bombing in Damascus which took the lives of over 175 civilians and injured hundreds more, and there were many other terror attacks.
  
  2) The entire Hama episode was led by Hafez al-Assad's younger brother (Bashar al-Assad's uncle) Rifaat Assad. Rifaat was heading the Saraya Difaa (later to become the Republican Guard). At that time the Syrian minister of defense was Mustapha Tlass, and the Syrian minister of foreign affairs was Abdul Halim Khaddam. All three of them: Riffaat al-Assad, Mustapha, and Abdul Khaddam are leading and financing the political opposition against Bashar from abroad right now.

  In the current conflict Mustapha's son Manaf Tlass was sent to negotiate a settlement with his cousins who were rebelling in Rastan. But instead of negotiating he gave them weapons from the Republican Guards caches and leaked secrets causing the deaths of many Republican Guard soldiers at the hands of the FSA.

  Thirty years after the fighting in Hama a report by US intelligence was declassified revealing that the death toll didn't even reach 2,000. That number included 400 Muslim Brotherhood Fighting Vanguard militants; many Syrian Army soldiers and officers; Baath Party and other state officials; and a number of civilians who were caught in the fire.

  3) At the same time the Syrian Army was fighting the Israeli, US and French Armies in Lebanon.
  
  4) Syria was under harder sanctions than it is now. Syria has been under increasingly severe western sanctions since 1956, 15 years before Hafez Assad took power.

  Bashar al-Assad's Damascus Spring: Syria in the 2000s

  Late Hafez Assad followed a more complex policy regarding foes and foreign agents in his government than Bashar does. Hafez would keep his foes in their posts but under his watchful eyes. When Bashar was selected by the Syrian Parliament to succeed his father in 2000 he removed all of the treasonous foes and foreign agents that Hafez had maintained in office.
  
  Bashar's first reform was to ease some political restrictions, allowing politicians to move more freely. In June 2000 the Damascus Spring was started. It lasted until Autumn 2001 by which time most of the treasonous opposition's foreign funding, and relations with the US Department of State and corporate think tanks had been exposed. The corrupt officials and their families were expelled from Syria and settled in foreign countries. They used their massive accumulations of wealth to mount political opposition to Bashar from abroad.

  In 2003 the US was occupying Iraq. US Secretary of State Collin Powell visited Bashar and handed him a list of demands including: 1. Cutting all ties with the five main Palestinian factions in Syria, 2. Severing Syria's relations with Iran in exchange for a promise of better relations with some Arab states. 3. Signing a peace treaty with Israel similar to one Syria had already refused. 4. Removing books from schools with any enmity towards Israel. 5. Allowing western banks and companies unhindered access to Syrian markets and resources along with other neo-liberal reforms.

  Bashar refused these demands in the face of the nearly 200,000 coalition troops across the Syrian border in Iraq. Instead Bashar sought to hinder the occupation of Iraq and demanded that the occupying forces withdraw. Because of the proximity of Damascus to the western boarder with Lebanon Syria has the strategic need to secure this border. None the less in 2000 Bashar started withdrawing Syrian troops from Lebanon where they had battled Israeli forces. The troops were reduced from 35,000 in the year 2000 to 14,000 in early 2004.

  In 2005 Lebanese Prime Minster Rafic Hariri was assassinated with the help of members of the Lebanese Future Movement party and likely the help of the US and France. This was a political blow to Assad within Lebanon, and he was also blamed for the assassination using media manipulation and prepared activists. Tens of thousands of Lebanese took to the streets to condemn the killing of Hariri including members of Syria's closest allies Hizbullah and Amal. The media claimed that the crowds were against the Syrian Army presence in Lebanon. US and France tried to pressure Assad into reinforcing the Syrian Army in Lebanon to stabilize the country but Bashar withdrew all Syrian troops from Lebanon. This background gives the context accompanying president Assad's reform attempts in Syria, where he had to face foreign powers from abroad and their agents from within. The current crisis is not a civil war or rebellion, but a foreign aggression against a sovereign nation.

  About the author:

  The author was born and lived in Damascus, Syria. He moved to Germany ten years ago and runs a company that organizes tourist groups to Syria. Before the conflict he went to Syria often to stay for days and months. He has been an outspoken defender of the Syrian government and has been targeted by the Free Syrian Army who destroyed his property and threatened his life, and so writes under the name Arabi Souri. This article was edited by Seth Rutledge.
• 

  War Update February

  Seth Rutledge in Member Posts on Mar 06, 2013
  Tagged in: Untagged 

   

  Syria: an alleged hacked British defense contractor email reveals a US/Qatar plan to deploy a chemical weapon false flag attack in Syria.ⁱ Israel conducted an air strike on Syria; the US reportedly approved and is poised to carry out similar strikes.ⁱⁱ The US has given the rebels 50$ million.ⁱⁱⁱ 4 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance.^iv

  Ethiopia: In December Ethiopian paramilitaries renewed attacks on communities in Ogden^v in an ongoing campaign to clear the land for resource extraction. The Ethiopian government’s army and paramilitaries have used rape, torture, and murder to drive communities into Internally Displaced Person camps where they are starved. There are currently 3.7 million people in need of assistance and over 1.5 million without food or water.^vi As many as 1 million Muslims peacefully protested on February 7^th demanding freedom of religion and release of political prisoners; journalists attempting to cover the protests have been detained and protestors oppressed.^vii The UK has recently provided training and funding directly to the paramilitaries forces^viii; the US provides up to $600 million yearly aid to Ethiopia^ix which is diverted to the military and paramilitary.^x

  Somalia: The US recognized the UN appointed^xi government of Somalia. US troops have operated in Somalia since 1992; Somalia has been under a US funded occupation since the overthrow of the Islamic Courts Union in 2007. First the Ethiopian military, and then the African Union army, destroyed tens of square miles of densely populated areas to crush the resistance and clear the land for mineral and energy exploitation^xii. Millions of displaced Somalis are now starving in refugee camps.^xiii The separatist Putland government has ordered the execution of political opposition leaders and fired upon peaceful demonstrations.^xiv The appointed federal government is not opposed to separating Somalia into smaller states.^xv

  Mali: the Malian military has committed extrajudicial killings of the northern residents.^xvi Over 412,000 people have fled Mali, and 5 million have been affected by the fighting.^xvii The French and Malian military, with US military support, have re-captured N. Mali, but French bombings continue to batter the guerilla insurgency.^xviii Tuareg rebels sought independence in the 1960's at the purported end of French colonial rule; Tuareg rebellions in 1990 and 2008 challenged the right of French uranium mining companies to poison their land in neighboring Niger.^xix French Special Forces have deployed to protect uranium mines in Niger, and US troops and drones are to be deployed on the Mali border.^xx

  i http://www.voltairenet.org/article177357.html, http://www.cyberwarnews.info/reports/a-look-into-the-britam-defence-data-leak-files/ http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/01/revealed-secret-documents-hacked-syria-false-flag-we-have-the-whole-list-2546608.html http://ruvr.co.uk/2013_01_30/Britam-security-hack/

  ii http://world.time.com/2013/02/01/the-fallout-from-the-air-raid-on-syria-why-israel-is-concerned/

  iii http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/14846

  iv http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2013/01/four-million-people-in-need-of-humanitarian-assistance-in-syria-un/

   

  v http://ogaden.com/hornnews/ethiopia.html

  vi http://indepthafrica.com/in-ethiopia-a-war-on-humanitarian-agencies-and-staff/

   

  vii http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-07-17-ethiopia-rocked-by-massive-muslim-protests

  viii http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/10/ethiopia-forces-human-rights-funding

   

  ix http://ethiopia.usaid.gov/history-usaid-involvement-ethiopiav
  

  x http://indepthafrica.com/in-ethiopia-a-war-on-humanitarian-agencies-and-staff/

  xi http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/08/2012818183718864689.html

  xii http://terrorfreesomalia.blogspot.com/2010/08/galgala-faroles-waterloo.html

  xiii http://www.countercurrents.org/mountain190711.htm

  xiv http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2013/02/more-anti-regime-rallies-in-puntland.html

   

  xv http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2012/11/getting-somalia-wrongagain.html

  xvi http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/01/mali-malian-army-islamist-groups-executed-prisoners

  xvii http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=150&Body=+Mali+&Body1

  xviii http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-12/france-bombs-hideout-as-mali-insurgency-deepens/4513852

   

  xix http://web.archive.org/web/20080311152154/http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2008-02/2008-02-08-voa29.cfm?CFID=271210454&CFTOKEN=65103413

  xx http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-escalate-imperialist-war-in-mali-and-niger/5321787

   
• 

  Conversation With a Syrian in Syria

  Seth Rutledge in Member Posts on Feb 23, 2013
  Tagged in: Untagged 

  February 19, 2013

  Aref Hamdoush lives in Lattakia.  He is a military and political analyst and has studies military science for 5 years.  His sources include friends in the Syrian army, and former friends who have joined the FSA.

  Seth Rutledge - Are there many demonstrations going on in Syria?

  Aref Hamdoush: millions went into streets to tell the world we are with Bashar al Assad, millions all over Syria and even Syrians out side Syria all over the world.

  S- How do most Syrians want to proceed: regime change, new elections, or something else?

  A- I will answer this for sure, most Syrians want elections immediately with Assad as a candidate. Why, because more than 80% of the Syrians support him, we asked for this a long time ago.

  S- Do Syrian’s support the Syrian National Coalition? Are they legitimate representatives of Syria?

  A- The Syrian National Coalition is not national, they represent the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood only caused us troubles in the 80s. The Syrian National Coalition want’s a no-fly zone; no Syrian want’s a no-fly zone unless he is an agent of the West. The Iraqis tell us: don’t make our mistake.

  If the SNC have the support of a large number of Syrians on the ground, then why are they afraid of the elections? Their support on the ground is getting closer to zero day by day.

  You see Syrian society is made of many sects and religions. If the SNC, lead by extremists, wants to kill all of the other sects and religions then they are not with Syria. Any revolution in the world its purpose is to improve the country, not to bring it back into darkness and extremism like the USA and Saudi Arabia define Islamic.  If they care about Syria they wouldn’t sell it’s factories to the Turks; they wouldn’t cut Alawite prisoners into pieces and send the parts to their families.

  S- What is your opinion of the FSA?

  A- Personally if one stood by me I would kill him. They are traitors, they want peace with Israel, they are agents of the USA and Israel, and they are no longer Syrians. Do you know where the name “Free Army” came from? Do you know what happened in Afghanistan, what happened in 9/11?

  When the name “Free Army” started it was in Afghanistan, that’s what they called the Taliban when they fought against Russia- Free Army, Free Fighters. It’s the same here with the FSA, and with the Free Lebanon Army in Lebanon.

  You know it’s not about who is against the system, it’s about who is supporting the FSA with money, weapons, and politically. I was not with the government; I’m against 60% of what they are doing. But it’s better than the FSA, they are blind to Syria. So it doesn’t matter if you don’t agree with the government, it’s the only way for Syria to survive.

  S- Is it true that the government is bombing bread lines?

  A- Why would they do that? The first time the media said that there was a bread shortage Syrian TV showed people taking bread and nothing was going on. Then, about a month ago, there was a real problem getting bread because the FSA told their sleeping cells to buy large amounts of bread and throw it away.  If the government blew people up while taking bread I think all the people would be against the government; and if 23 million Syrians were against the government then the government would have been gone long ago. If the Syrians want to remove the government it would be removed in weeks.

  S- Who do you think is behind the bombing of Aleppo University?

  A- Lets be clear: any bomb going off has Al Qaeda behind it, by all it’s names.

  S- Why aren’t more Syrians marching in support of the government?

  A- There is no need to march; it’s not about people being for or against the government. We have lives and are living them, if we march every day how can we work? Also many have joined the army to fight those extremists.

  In Aleppo people are just trying to survive. But here in Lattakia nothing is going on, it’s all normal. People working, boys and girls walking in the streets with normal clothes, all the prices are almost normal here, many new shops and restaurants have opened. There are no fights.

  What the FSA is doing in Aleppo, they are punishing people because they are against the FSA but cutting the roads, destroying the electricity.

  S- How do you feel about the National Coordinating Body for Democratic Change, it says here it’s a “pro-reform organization that is based in Damascus. It is a broad popular coalition of Pan-Arabists, Nationalists, Kurdish Parties and Organizations, Syrian Socialists, Internationalist Socialists, Marxist Organizations, Peace Movements, Human Rights Organizations, Religious NGOs and other organizations. It is by far the largest and most inclusive pro-reform organization. Although it is by far the largest and most representative pro-reform organization, its initiatives have been largely ignored by Western and Gulf Arab mainstream politicians and media.” http://nsnbc.me/2012/10/24/the-dynamics-of-the-crisis-in-syria-conflict-versus-conflict-resolution-part-1/

  A- That is the group that I support.

  S- Was Bashar al Assad elected?

  A- Yes Bashar al Assad was elected by the Syrians all over Syria in 2000

  S- Why was Assad elected unopposed? Doesn’t that make it a sham election?

  A- I don't know really, I only remember when we went to election box and put yes to him

  S- Do you think the electoral system needs reform?

  A- The coming elections are different than any Syrian has witnessed.

  S- When will the next elections be?

  A= I can't remember the date, but the people against Bashar and Bashar will participate.

  S- Why are these people protesting if Syrians support Assad? http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m94891&hd=&size=1&l=e

  A- You see the black flags, those of are Al Qaeda, they are pro FSA. Theirs signs say: from Hama 1982 until now 2013.

  Do you know the truth about 1982? At that time Egypt sent Special Forces to defeat our president Hafiz, may God bless his soul. Israel was attacking us in Lebanon, and in Iraq. The black oil company trained terrorists and sent them into Syria. Aleppo was the Muslim Brotherhoods base. The world was against us, Lebanon was in civil war and the Syrian army went to finish that war. The king of Jordan was killing all the Palestinians, so the Syrian army was going to go there, but Israel threatened us with a nuke. The president’s brother wanted Syria for himself so he was preparing a military coup; and our president was in very bad health, but he managed to kick his brother out of Syria.

  At that time Damascus had bunkers, we were in war all over Syria. We did not have any financial reserves or food reserves, many places were under heavy attack from the Muslim Brotherhood. Hafiz sent the Special Forces to Aleppo and bombed Hama. The world was against us, still we managed to survive and claim victory.

  When Hafiz bombed Hama it affected some people who carry a great grudge against the government, even if they have the best jobs and so on.

  S- What are their demands?

  A- First they demanded fixing the system and some parts of the Constitution, like section 8. When the government did that they asked for more, the government gave them more and put in a new Constitution for voting. There last demand was on the Emergency Law, so the government removed it as well.

  Then suddenly they asked the police and all government forces to get out of Dar’a. The government agreed, and then the crime rate went up 80%. The people asked the army to go into the city; when the army went to enter it they saw some men dressed like the clothes of our army. So they entered with civilian clothes (keep in mind Dar’a is on the Jordanian border.) So the army cleared Dar’a without killing anyone. Then the problems moved into another border city; then they demanded to remove the president.

  That’s what happened. Even inside Dar’a on of the Sheikhs told people to calm down because everything was completed so there was no need to protest. Some strangers threatened to kill the Sheikh, if he kept telling that to people.

  We started seeing so many strangers dressed in army clothes in the protests, and they started shooting the security and police men. So the security men fired back at them. Some people think that the army was infiltrating the protests; some said that they didn’t see any stranger and the police just fired on them for nothing. Then the Turks and Qataris came on TV and started speaking about the freedom of the Syrian people, and Al Jazeera started spreading lies and the Al Arabia channel, and CNN, BBC and so on.  They said things that had not been seen on the ground, we found out it was a lie. Just like in Libya.

  S- Why doesn’t the government just hold a presidential election?

  A- It will happen soon, but how is it going to be an election by all Syrians if the FSA is keeping people from even opening up their shops and schools? They will kill anyone who tries to vote in the places they are.

  S- If the FSA is so evil why are people still supporting them?

  A- Because of religion, that's all. But so many are against them who were with them at the start. Many protest against the FSA inside their occupied cities; some of the rural cities rose up against them and the FSA fired on them with live ammo.

  S- Are you worried that NATO will start bombing Syria?

  A- NATO can’t bomb Syria. Where would they bomb us from? Turkey had the green light to make war on Syria by the USA, so Erdogan had a big meeting with the heads of the Turkish army; they told him that they would destroy Damascus and Aleppo and other cities, but it would open the boarders to millions of PKK to come into Turkey so Istanbul and Ankara would be destroyed as well.  Also Iran and Iraq would enter the war, it would be a trap to the NATO forces, they would be destroyed by Russian, Iranian, Iraqi, and Syrian missiles and forces. Also Turkey has enough internal problems.

  NATO can’t attack from the sea because Syria has a large arsenal of anti-ship missiles including the Yakhont missiles that Russia gave us which can destroy an aircraft carrier or destroyer. Syria also has very powerful anti-air systems that could bring down all kinds of aircraft and missiles.

  Iran would close the Persian Gulf and the price of oil would skyrocket causing weapons factories to close. 35 American bases would be destroyed in the first 10 minutes of any war by Iran, so the cost could not be handled, especially the safety of Israel.  If Israel started the war and the USA joined in it would mean WW3. They could not control the wars end, it could last 6 months, or years, and by that time no world will remain as it is.

  Syria will achieve the big project by our President Bashar the united second Arabic nation: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine; and we will be a super power.

  S- Yes the stakes are high, but if the US doesn't do it then the petro-dollar could collapse, so really the US can't afford not to.

  A- The dollar must collapse so the world economic will collapse as well, it's the plan my friend. The world will be changed, but not by war with the USA. A big revolution will divide the USA. Syria will be very powerful, Europe will vanish, and Germany will join the BRIC union.

  S- Why doesn't Assad just go? Does Syria really need Assad? Or is it just his ego?

  A- Its not about ego, we don’t want him to go, we love him, he is a true leader. He stood against 130 countries and let Syria survive for more than 2 years. The question is why should he leave? It’s not about him as president or not, it’s about if Syria remains or not. When this crisis is done Syrians will choose what will come.

  S- What would be the consequences if he were to leave?

  A- Destruction to Syria, losing everything.
• 

  pod 6

  Seth Rutledge in Member Posts on Feb 09, 2013
  Tagged in: Untagged 

  another podcast:

  https://archive.org/details/Podcast6_212

  Pod 6 lineup Triqui Oaxaca Mexico Repression http://intercontinentalcry.org/oaxaca-triqui-protest-camp-suffers-new-eviction/
  Colombia indigenous violence and FARC peace talks http://intercontinentalcry.org/indigenous-communities-in-colombia-still-plagued-by-violence-amidst-reconciliatory-talks/
  LIFG in libya http://larouchepac.com/node/25165
  mining in Oaxaca http://internationalpoliticalforum.com/san-juan-copala-oaxaca-natural-resources-indigenous-rights/
  canada mining genocide congo http://www.consciousbeingalliance.com/2012/07/canada-in-the-wars-in-central-africa
  the politics of gas pakistan afghanist ect. http://nsnbc.me/2013/02/01/the-volatility-of-gas-geo-politics-and-the-greater-middle-east-an-interview-with-major-agha-h-amin/
  https://archive.org/details/Podcast6_212

   
• 

  pod 7 Somalia and Ethiopia

  Seth Rutledge in Member Posts on Feb 09, 2013
  Tagged in: Untagged 

  This podcast looks at the despicable genocide in Somalia and Ethiopia in the name of the US gov. and multinational corporations. I used to think that Congo was the worlds worst conflict, but I think the Somalia and Ethiopia might be worse (at least recently.) 2011 saw 1,300 children die each day- the result of intentional genocide to clear the way for corporate exploitation of the land, and to secure US domination of the key horn of Africa trade routes. https://archive.org/details/Pod7SomaliaAndEthiopia
  
  
  
  

  Thomas mountain etheiopi aon life support http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/8811
  
  http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2013/02/more-anti-regime-rallies-in-puntland.html

  http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/2013/02/british-troops-to-be-deployed-to-somalia.html

   

  putland oil war http://terrorfreesomalia.blogspot.com/2010/08/galgala-faroles-waterloo.html

   

  oromo ethiopia invasion: http://ogaden.com/hornnews/ethiopia.html

   

  http://hornofafrica-abdikarim.blogspot.com/2013/02/ethiopian-annihilation-of-ogaden-people.html?spref=bl
• 

  The Unfinished Battle For Aleppo

  Seth Rutledge in Member Posts on Feb 07, 2013
  Tagged in: Untagged 

  I did not write this, but I did do some extensive editing to make it more understandable in English, so here it is on my blog. 
  
  The Unfinished Battle of Aleppo
  by Aref Hamdoush
  Aleppo - the economic capital of Syria, home of 6 million, and one of the most important historical cities of the Syrian Arabic Republic. Aleppo is where the primary factories of medicine and industry are located in Syria . Thus, its strategic importance could determine the fate of the ongoing bloody conflict in Syria.
  Until the battle for Aleppo the Free Syrian Army (FSA) had been using guerilla style tactics, not taking a stand and holding territory, but constantly moving.  They had also stayed mostly in the countryside where they could hide and blend in with the civilian population more easily.  These tactics made it very difficult for the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) defeat them as they learned in Homs and elsewhere.

  In August 2012 the SAA lured the FSA into Aleppo by creating false security blunders.  Initially 40 thousand militants; trained and battle hardened in Libya, Afghanistan, Turkey, and other places; came and their numbers continued to mount to roughly 200 thousand in January 2013.  Then the FSA sought to destroy the Syrian anti-air defenses so that the Turkey could establish a no-fly zone; they offered Turkey the gas rich city of Latakia in return.

  Urban warfare is the most brutal of all. A soldier will fight with a gun, knife, and even his hands. From house to house door to door, there are no rests in such fights. The SAA started the battle with false television reports that the field commander of the FSA had ordered a retreat.  This allowed the SAA to take and fortify many strategic sites, and then began targeted attacks on FSA leaders, armored vehicles, and ammunition deposits. 
  The SAA attacked in small units to split the FSA held areas and capture them one at a time.  The SAA suffered many losses to the FSA’s artillery and armored vehicles.  It was discovered that the FSA possessed chemical weapons and S200 long range anti-air missiles. 

  The FSA succeeded in establishing supply routes from Aleppo to the Turkish border and occupying large areas of the city.  The FSA had planned to capture strategic sites in the city to setup chemical rockets and anti-air missiles.  The SAA bombed critical FSA positions, and the FSA took out fighter jets with their anti-air missiles.  The SAA special forces were able to capture the FSA’s anti-air defense sites with cover from their heavy artillery.

  The SAA sent a large military convoy to cut the FSA’s supply lines from Turkey by closing the border; but they walked into a trap and were captured resulting in the loss of military equipment, hostages and killings of many SAA soldiers.  The opportunity to close the borders was lost. 
  The FSA also made a grave mistake: they had made a deal with the Kurdish communities in Aleppo where they would kill all the Alawites but not harm the Kurds; and in return they would be allowed into the Kurdish areas.  However they violated the deal and killed Kurds as well as they moved into the areas in large numbers, causing the Kurds to turn against them. 

  In January the FSA failed to take out all of the air defenses and began to retreat.  However the battle is far from over.  The FSA destroyed the economy of Aleppo which had disastrous consequences: power outages and fuel shortages all over Syria.  Many died because of limited energy and inadequate food.  Many Syrian girls and women were raped, killed and used as human shields; children were forced to fight; journalists were kidnapped; and emergency vehicles where attacked.  All this in the name of human rights and freedom.

  About the author: Aref Hamdoush lives in Lattakia.  He is a military and political analyst and has studies military science for 5 years.  His sources include friends in the Syrian army, and former friends who have joined the FSA.
• 

  The Hidden Martin Luther King Lectures

  Seth Rutledge in Member Posts on Jan 21, 2013
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  The Martin Luther King Massey lectures (published as Conscience for Change, and then Trumpet of Conscience) is his best work; although almost totally unknown. There is no online transcript available anywhere (believe me I searched everywhere) so I transcribe some of it below.

   

  Really awesome stuff check it out, and the other four lectures are great too (link below, I also uploaded them to archive.org so you can stream them as well.)

   

  "Young Negros had traditionally imitated whites in dress conduct and though in a rigid middle class pattern. .. now they ceased imitating and began initiating leadership passed into the hand of Negros and their white allies began learning from them. This was a revolutionary and wholesome development for them both. It is ironic that today so many educators ND sociologist are seeking to instill middle class values in negro youth as an ideal in social development, it was precipice when negro threw off their middle class values that they made a historic social contribution. they abandoned those values when they put careers and wealth in a secondary role, they cheerfully became jailbirds and trouble makers, they took off their brooks brothers attire and put on their overalls to work in the isolated rural south.

   

  They challenged and inspired white youth to imitate them. Many abandoned school, not to reject education by to seek it in more direct ways. They were constructive school dropouts, a variety that strengthened society and themselves...

   

  The collective effort that was born out of the civil right alliance was awesomely fruitful for this century and the first years of the 1960s. the repressive forces that had not been seriously challenged for almost a decade now faced and aroused adversary, a current of humanist thought and action swept across the land scoring fist small then larger victories. the awakening grew in breath and the contested issues encompassed other social questions.

   

  A phalanx of reliable young activists took protests from hiding and revived a sense of responsible rebellion. a peace movement was born.... it stimulated a broader social movement that elevated the moral level of the nation in the struggle against the preponderant evils of the society descent values were preserved. moreover a significant body of young people learned that in opposing the forces that were crushing them they added stature and meaning to their lives. The alliance of negro and white youth fought bruising engagements with the statusquo inspired each other with a moral mission and give each other an example of sacrifice and dedication.

   

  These years the late 60s are a most crucial time for a movement that I have been describing. There is a sense in which it can be said that the civil rights and peace movements are over at least in their first form the protest form which have them their first victories. There is a sense that the alliance of responsible young people has fallen apart under the impact of failures discouragement and consequent extremism and polarization. It has entered a time of temptation to despair because it is clear now how deep and systematic are the evils it confronts.

   

  There is a strong temptation to despair of programs and actions and to dissipate energy in hysterical talk there is a temptation to break up into mutually suspicious extremist groups in which blacks reject the participation of whites and whites reject the reality of their own history.

   

  But meanwhile as the young people face this crisis leaders in the movement are working out programs to bring the social movement form their early and now inadequate protest phase into to a new stage of massive active non violent resistance to the evils of the modern system. As this work and the planning proceeds we begin to glimpse tremendous vistas of what it might mean to the world if the new programs of resistance succeed if the and forge in an even wider alliance today awakened youth.

   

  Non violent active resistance to social evils including massive civil disobedience when there is need for it can unite in new active synthesis the best insights of all three groups I have pointed out in our young people.
  From the hippies it can accept the vision of peaceful means to a goal of peace and also their sense of beauty gentleness and the unique gifts of every mans spirit. From the radicals it can adopt the burning sense of urgency the recognition for the need for direct and collective action and the need for strategy and organization.

   

  And because the emerging program is neither one of anarchy nor despair it can welcome the work and insight of those your people who have not rejected our present society in it's totality. They can challenge the other groups to integrate the new vision into history as it actually is into society as it actually works. They can help the movement not to break the bruised reed or quench the smoking wick of values that are already recognized in the society that we want to change and they can help to invoke the possibility of honorable compromise .

   

  If the early civil rights movement bore international fruit in the formation of a peace core this new alliance could do far more already the best young workers in the US are talking about the need to organize in international dimensions they are beginning to form conscious connections with their opposite numbers in other countries. The conscious of an awakened activist cannot be satisfied with a focus on local problems if only because he sees that local problems are all interconnected with world problems the young men who begin to see that they must refuse to leave their country to fight and kill might decide to leave their country at least for a while in order to share their lives with others ..

   

  There is not an outline in existence for what structure this growing world consciousness might find for itself but a dozen years ago there was not an outline for the civil right movement... the spirit is awake the structure will follow if we keep our ears open to the spirit. Perhaps the structural forms will emerge from other countries propelled by another experience of the shaping of history. But we don't have much time, the revolutionary spirit is already worldwide, if the anger of the peoples of the world at the injustice of things is to be channeled into a revolution of love and creativity we must begin now to work urgently with all the peoples to shape a new world."

   

   

  http://archive.org/details/MartinLutherKingJr.MasseyLectures3
• 

  War Update Jan 2013

  Seth Rutledge in Member Posts on Jan 21, 2013
  Tagged in: Untagged 

  This war update will be published in the February Peace Newsletter

   

  Mexico: On December 21 tens of thousands of Zapatistas peacefully occupied five municipalities in Chiapas and spoke out against the police and paramilitary violence against their communities. On December 23 the Triqui people were brutally evicted from their protest camp in Oaxaca City where they seek the right to return to their lands.  The Triqui were driven off their land by paramilitary groups funded by the Mexican government and seeking to clear the way for international mining companies.[1]  Many indigenous groups in Mexico practice self-rule and deny the legitimacy of the Mexican government’s fraudulent elections.  The “war on drugs” has been used as a pretext to crush these movements through widespread violations of human rights including killings, tortures and disappearances.[2] [3]  The conflict has resulted in 70,000 deaths, more than 20,000 disappearances, and more than a quarter million displacements over the past five years.[4]  The US has supplied the Mexican government with over $1.7 billion in military aid since 2008.[5]

  Colombia: new reports reveal displacement of indigenous people increased by 83% in 2012 with 5.4 million people displaced since 1985.[6] [7]  The increase is attributed to the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, passed in 2011, which allows for the sale of communal landholdings. The US has provided $7.1 billion in military aid to Colombia since 1996.[8]  The reports reveal the Colombian military tortured, raped and killed thousands of civilians, then dressed them as militants to receive more military aid from the US mostly between 2004-2008.[9] [10] 
  
  Syria: Hundreds of demonstrations have called for the world to protect the 612,847 refugees in danger of freezing this winter. US ally Saudi Arabia has given $100 million to the National Coalition, the US backed opposition government created to distribute funds to militant groups and who envision an Islamic State in Syria.[11]  The US has sanctioned Al-Nursa, an Al-Qaeda affiliate involved in key victories against the Syrian government, despite the objection of the National Coalition.[12]  The UN warns of the sectarian nature of the conflict and the Local Coordinating Committees have called for the Free Syrian Army to refrain from revenge killings of whole communities.[13]
  
  Mali: The French military, with US aid, deployed troops and launched air strikes against Al-Qaeda groups in N. Mali.   In 2012 thousands of Tuareg entered Mali fleeing ethnic cleansing in Libya[14] after the fall of the Giddafi, and attempted to establish an autonomous nation.  Al Qaeda groups, strengthened by US support in their fight against Giddafi and now in control of areas of Libya,[15] [16]  [17] then supplanted the Tuareg.  After the rebellion in the north, the government of Mali in the south was overthrown by a military coup lead by US trained Captain Amadou Masogo.[18]  [19]Mali has large reserves of gold, uranium, oil and other natural resources. 
  
  

  
  

  ---

  [1]http://intercontinentalcry.org/oaxaca-triqui-protest-camp-suffers-new-eviction/

   

  [2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/23/mexico-drug-war-violence-indigenous-repression-_n_882615.html

   

  [3] http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/11/09/mexico-widespread-rights-abuses-war-drugs

   

  [4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/javier-sicilia/caravan-to-highlight-fail_b_1761073.html

   

  [5] http://justf.org/All_Grants_Country

   

  [6] http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/27481-large-scale-displacements-in-colombia-up-83-.html

   

  [7] http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpPages)/22FB1D4E2B196DAA802570BB005E787C?OpenDocument&count=1000

   

  [8]http://justf.org/Country?country=Colombia&year1=1996&year2=2013&funding=All+Programs&x=37&y=9

   

  [9] http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/12/massacres-under-the-looking-glass/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=massacres-under-the-looking-glass

   

  [10] http://www.icc-cpi.int/NR/rdonlyres/3D3055BD-16E2-4C83-BA85-35BCFD2A7922/285102/OTPCOLOMBIAPublicInterimReportNovember2012.pdf

   

  [11]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgWWXvmZmsc&feature=player_embedded

   

  [12] http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2012/12/us-backed-syrian-opposition-demands.html

   

  [13] http://www.lccsyria.org/10711

   

  [14] http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m81833

  [15] http://tarpley.net/2011/03/24/the-cia’s-libya-rebels-the-same-terrorists-who-killed-us-nato-troops-in-iraq/

   

  [16] http://larouchepac.com/node/25165

   

  [17] http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/01/03/libya-militias/1802523/

   

  [18] http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2012/03/conflict-in-mali-northern-africa.html

   

  [19] http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/leader-of-mali-military-coup-trained-in-us/2012/03/23/gIQAS7Q6WS_story.html