| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 4:47 am Post subject: Syrian Ambassador mentions 'A Clean Break'/war for Israel |
| Syrian Ambassador (Imad Moustapha) to the USA mentions 'A Clean Break' (war for Israel) agenda at UCLA presentation:
Articles about Ambassador Moustapha's recent presentation at UCLA ('A Clean Break' & JINSA/CSP/PNAC Neocons Richard Perle, David Wurmser and Douglas Feith mentioned):
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/August_2005/0508026.html
me > Archives > August_2005 > Syrian Envoy Calls on U.S. to Soften Its Anti-Syrian Rhetoric
Washington Report, August 2005, pages 26, 29
Special Report
Syrian Envoy Calls on U.S. to Soften Its Anti-Syrian Rhetoric
By Pat McDonnell Twair
Syrian Ambassador to the U.S. Imad Mustapha (Staff photo S. Twair).
WASHINGTON’S surging animosity toward Syria is unwarranted, stated Syria’s Ambassador to the U.S. Imad Mustapha at a June 2 speech at the University of California at Los Angeles.
According to the diplomat, Syria repeatedly warned U.S. officials prior to the invasion of Iraq that Washington did not understand the dynamics of the region and that such a war would be opening a Pandora’s Box with perilous results.
“We believed war in Iraq would create more problems than it could solve,” he explained, adding, “We don’t need another war in our region.”
Syria is paying a heavy price for opposing the war, its ambassador emphasized, “as the U.S. intensifies its accusations that we are harboring Saddam loyalists and allowing so-called ‘insurgents’ to cross from our borders into Iraq.”
When high-level Washington officials voiced these allegations, Mustapha said, he was instructed by Damascus to meet with top Pentagon officials, whom he assured that Syria was neither protecting Saddam’s cohorts nor permitting fighters to trickle through its borders into Iraq.
“We increased our border patrols and built barriers at the border,” he averred, “we offered to cooperate with the U.S. and proposed a trilateral protection of the borders. I was met with an adamant refusal by the U.S.”
Harking back to Sept. 11, 2001, the ambassador said Damascus handed over a wealth of data it had collected on al-Qaeda over the preceding 20 years. His government had warned the U.S., he said, that its support of the Taliban in the struggle against the Soviets in Afghanistan would have dire results.
“We knew that these ‘Arab Afghans’—as we referred to them—would someday return to their own countries and continue their holy wars against their own governments,” he stated.
Mustapha said that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell thanked Syria for giving the U.S. information that aborted planned attacks in Canada and Bahrain.
“We cooperated before and we are now,” the ambassador continued. “Personally, I think Washington is publicly accusing us of sending in ‘insurgents’ because it wants to blame someone for its failure in Iraq.”
Allowing that there is no short-term solution for the quagmire in Iraq, Mustapha said he was bothered to hear the U.S. state it will remain there until the situation is stable.
“The best approach is for the U.S. to publish a clear road map announcing its timetable for a pull out,” he advised. “Iraqis look around them and see the Americans are building two of the world’s largest military bases in Iraq and wonder if they really plan to leave or intend to stay.”
Another troubling development is the growing rift between Iraq’s Sunni and Shi’i populations which, Mustapha noted, did not exist before the U.S. invasion. Syria, too, has a mix of both, he pointed out, and does not want dissention to spread.
Turning to discord with Israel, Mustapha said that, three times in the past 15 years, Syria was on the verge of signing a peace agreement based on the return of the Golan Heights.
“We were there,” he said, “and then [Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin was assassinated. Negotiations resumed with Shimon Peres. We were ready to sign a treaty, then Peres called for early elections and lost. He was succeeded by Binyamin Netanyahu, who said he didn’t believe in the principle of land for peace.”
Conditions once more were ripe for a settlement when Ehud Barak was in power, Mustapha continued, but at the last minute before agreeing to return the Golan, negative polls influenced Barak to renege. When Ariel Sharon succeeded Barak, he stressed, the new Israeli leader flatly stated he was not willing to “give” the Golan to Syria.
“We won’t stop our initiative for peace,” the ambassador vowed. “We’ve managed to create a debate inside Israel among leading journalists and military men over the possibility of resuming peace talks.”
Mustapha said he is pessimistic, however, because negotiations between Syria and Israel are not on the Bush administration’s agenda.
As for Lebanon, Mustapha pointed out that Syria entered Lebanon for the noble cause of ending a 15-year civil war. In his opinion Syria should have left three or four years ago, but Mustapha predicted that relations between the two states will improve, noting that even the Lebanese opposition to Damascus now wants to work with it.
The first query during the question-and-answer session was whether the assassination of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was a U.S./Israeli operation.
“I don’t know who perpetrated the crime,” Mustapha replied. “Whoever did it knew that Syria would be targeted [as the culprit]. Nothing in Syria’s modern history has caused it more damage. For Syria to assassinate Hariri is akin to political suicide. Just consider who has capitalized on this murder.”
A second part of the question concerned Mustapha’s opinion of the neocons’ strategy paper, “A Clean Break: Strategy for Securing the Realm.”
“In 1996,” he summarized, “the neocons authored a ‘Clean Break’ document calling for the U.S. to: (1) annul the Oslo agreement and never put pressure on Israel; (2) change the regime in Iraq for a pro-Western government; and (3) weaken Syria, especially through Lebanon.
“Now,” he told the audience, “I know students like to do research so look up this document on the Internet, find out the names of the signatories of this document and see what each is doing in the U.S. government today.”
Another question dealt with a Syria/Iran united front against the U.S.
“Syria doesn’t even have a common border with Iran,” Mustapha pointed out, “and we never created a front. It would be preposterous for us to create a front against the only superpower in the world. France and Germany cooperate with Iran, but it’s not okay for Syria to do so—why?”
A student asked why Syrian intelligence agents remain in northern Lebanon.
“We’ve withdrawn from Lebanon—end of the story,” Mustapha replied. “You can be making this charge for the next 30 years, but I urge you to use logic. Why would Syria be so stupid as to leave three, four, even a dozen agents in Lebanon. For what?”
Another hostile student asserted: “Your boss Bashar Assad supports Hezbollah so how can Syria be a friend of the U.S.?
“These are propaganda statements,” the Syrian diplomat responded, noting that “Syria didn’t create Hezbollah, Israel is responsible for it. When Sharon besieged Beirut in 1982, Hezbollah emerged to fight Israeli troops on Lebanese soil. Hezbollah never sent a suicide bomber to Israel. Since Israel withdrew from Lebanon the situation has been calmer.”
Why does Damascus harbor terrorist groups such as Hamas and Jihad? asked another audience member.
“Syria never engaged in any operations that took place in Israel,” Mustapha asserted. “We have no communication with anyone in Israel or the occupied territories. Do they think we plan terrorist attacks by satellite phone which anyone can listen to? We have no leverage whatsoever on what happens in the occupied territories.”
UCLA Professor Steven Spiegel interjected to ask that if Iran has communications with Jihad and Hamas, then why couldn’t Syria?
“Do you think a desperate Palestinian would take directions from Damascus?” the ambassador retorted. “We know the only way to get back the Golan is to negotiate, not support terrorism.”
Asked when will Syria allow free elections, Mustapha replied: “Syria is in the process of reform. Granted, we’re not the Switzerland of the Middle East, but we will be making two major decisions June 6 on opening a market-oriented economy and allowing all parties to participate in elections.
“We haven’t done a good job in civil and political liberties,” he acknowledged, “but we are evolving. We have excelled in religious freedom for Muslims, Christians and Jews. We are 70 percent Muslim but we observe Christian holidays as national holidays. And for the past 50 years, women have enjoyed equal rights, with many holding top level professional jobs and ministerial offices.”
Mindful of Western political pundits predicting a conflict with Syria, the ambassador concluded: “The Iraqis are paying a heavy price to have democracy. We can evolve on our own without it being imposed upon us. Portraying Syria as the enemy of the U.S. isn’t fair.”
Pat McDonnell Twair is a free-lance writer based in Los Angeles.
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http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=25567
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First Stop Syria; Next Stop Iran
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/07/20/first-stop-syria-next-stop-iran.php
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You can hear JINSA/PNAC Zionist extremist operative Richard Perle basically lying to Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC) about the 'A Clean Break'/war for Israel agenda via the audio link via the following URL for the Armed Services Committee hearing (beginning at one hour and fourteen minutes into it):
http://gorillaintheroom.blogspot.com/2005/04/operating-off-different-agenda.html
Last edited by Alpha on Sun Oct 23, 2005 2:11 pm; edited 14 times in total | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 6:07 pm Post subject: Policy on Syria Moves Toward Regime Change |
| One just needs to read James Bamford's 'A Pretext for War' book to know that Bush was lying in response to the question about the 'Downing Street Memo' yesterday:
'A Clean Break'/war for Israel agenda (pages 261-269 from James Bamford's 'A Pretext for War' book):
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/02/11/a-clean-break-from-james-bamford-s-a-pretext-for-war.php
http://www.irmep.org/Policy_Briefs/3_27_2003_Clean_Break_or_Dirty_War.html
Syrian Ambassador to US discusses 'A Clean Break'/war for Israel agenda :
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/06/10/syrian-ambassador-mentions-a-clean-break-war-for-israel.php
US/Israel were behind Hariri Assassination
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/03/13/hariri-killed-by-us-and-israel.php
Israeli Origins of Bush II's Iraq War :
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/04/26/the-israeli-origins-of-bush-ii-s-war.php
JINSA Zionist operative John Bolton was after war with Syria for Israel:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/05/26/jinsa-zionist-operative-bolton-was-after-war-with-syria.php
Do a search for JINSA at www.google.com
Syria and Saudis Next in U.S.-Israeli Crosshairs:
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/headlines/syria_and_saudis_next_in_u_s_israeli_crosshairs
Bush and Blair lied in their responses to the Downing Street Memo question posed to them in the joint press conference (see transcript via link included in the initial post of following message thread):
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/06/06/after-the-downing-street-memo-case-for-impeachment-builds.php
Americans turn against Bush and a war on Iraq that is getting nowhere
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=645323
http://nomorewarforisrael.blogspot.com
French Journalist Describes Mistreatment by U.S. Forces During Siege of Fallujah:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/08/140259
I heard in the 'Headlines' section of 'Democracy Now' that the Senate secretly expanded the Patriot Act yesterday as the Bill of Rights is being shredded before our eyes because of continued US support of Israel which is the root cause of our terror problem which has resulted in extremist laws passed like those of the Patriot Act:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/08/140249
LA Times: U.S. policy on Israel key motive for 911 Attack:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/02/19/la-times-u-s-policy-on-israel-key-motive-for-911-attack.php
Senate votes to increase power of USA Patriot Act:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/06/09/senate-panel-votes-to-widen-usa-patriot-act.php
Just saw the following article posted at http://www.whatreallyhappened.com as it is right in accordance with the 'A Clean Break'/war for Israel agenda mentioned above:
Policy on Syria Moves Toward Regime Change
Posted Jun 9, 2005 09:13 AM PST
Category: SYRIA
Forcible regime change violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Charter, the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Democratic Charter, the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons, Including Diplomatic Agents treaty, and forciboy kidnapping a head of state (as the US has done to Aristide and Saddam) violates 18 U.S.C. sections 112, 878 and 1201.
So, who would want such evil?
Sharon stirs up conflict with Syria and Iran
Iran, Libya, Syria are next?
Israel instructs America to attack Iran and Syria
Syria's Next
US Assures Israel That Syria And Iran Are Next
Sharon Recruits US Mercenaries Against Syria
Sharon Wants U.S. Action Against Syria
Iraqi WMD 'possibly in Syria'
Sharon Says US Should Also Disarm Iran, Libya and Syria
http://www.nysun.com/article/15051
June 8, 2005 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version
Policy on Syria Moves Toward Regime Change
BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
June 8, 2005
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/15051
WASHINGTON - In the wake of Lebanon's first elections following Syrian withdrawal, American policy toward the world's remaining Ba'athist government is approaching support for regime change.
President Bush's top foreign policy advisers met last week to discuss the government of Bashar al-Assad, mulling, according to two administration officials briefed later, a tougher policy that would allow American forces or encourage Iraqi soldiers to pursue terrorists that escape to Syria from Iraq for safe haven.
At the State Department, the Bureau of Near East Affairs and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor have asked Congress for explicit legal authority to fund liberal opposition parties inside Syria through regional initiatives that have hitherto focused on reforming American allies such as Jordan and Egypt, two administration officials told The New York Sun.
The White House is also pressing to expand the U.N. inquiry into the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, to include a probe of the June 2 murder of the anti-Syrian journalist Samir Kassir in Lebanon. Later this month, the White House is expected to apply tougher sanctions to Syria, possibly freezing bank accounts of the regime's top leaders, in accordance with the 2003 Syria Accountability Act.
The new approach is also palpable in routine diplomatic matters. Last Friday, when envoys from the Arab League arrived for a State Department briefing on Mr. Bush's meetings with the Palestinian Arab leader, Mahmoud Abbas, Syria's representative was turned away from Foggy Bottom and told his government was not invited, according to one diplomatic source who requested anonymity.
The latest developments in Washington suggest a more concerted effort by the Bush administration to foment the collapse of the regime, according to America's ambassador in Damascus between 2001 and 2003, Theodore Kattouf.
"My sense is that this administration is willing to roll the dice and take a chance on a post-Bashar al-Assad leadership if he is not willing to drastically change Syria's internal and foreign policies," Mr. Kattouf said in an interview yesterday. "However, Bashar is not the regime, and his fall would not necessarily lead to the result this administration would welcome."
America's message to the Arab world has been stern regarding Syria. A front-page story ran yesterday in the influential, Saudi-owned Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, which quoted anonymous Bush administration sources as saying that their "advice to Mr. Assad is to retire." Arab journalists here on Monday were briefed by Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs David Welch.
The story yesterday prompted an exiled opposition group, the Reform Party of Syria, to send out an e-mail proclaiming that the State Department for the first time had endorsed "regime change" for Syria. "These are the pre-steps to the final countdown of the Assad regime. America is already preparing for the alternative, which is democracy," the president of the Reform Party of Syria, Farid Ghadry, said yesterday.
The Washington bureau chief for al-Hayat, Salameh Nematt, told the Sun yesterday, however, that the Asharq al-Awsat story will be read by the Syrians as a message from the Saudis. The paper is published by Prince Faisal bin Salman, the son of the deputy prime minister and head of the air force.
"The Syrians are going to read this story as a message from the Saudis, whom the Syrians fear might get excited about a prospect of a regime change that will bring the Sunni Muslims, who are the majority, to power in Syria," Mr. Nematt said.
Damascus has taken steps to meet, on the surface at least, the demands of the international community to end its occupation of Lebanon. Not only have the Syrians withdrawn troops, but yesterday at a Ba'ath party conference, the Syrian vice president who exercised so much influence over Lebanon, Abdul-Halim Khaddam, announced his resignation.
The message to Syria is being carried by some of the president's domestic opponents. On Monday, after meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Annan regarding the inquiry into Hariri's death, Senator Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and harsh critic of the president's foreign policy, said he believed Syria was squarely behind the slaying of the former prime minister.
"There is no question, no question in mind from all I've seen, they were behind the assassination, and I think that the only good thing could be said from that assassination is that they so overstepped, maybe it was the arrogance of power, so overstepped their position, Syria did, that we've all seen the public reaction against it," Mr. Leahy said.
An administration official familiar with the U.N. report also said that it shows very clearly that Syria was behind the murder of Hariri.
"Could we prove this in a criminal court? Not beyond a reasonable doubt. But there is no other plausible explanation. There were movements of individuals before the assassination who would have been known by Syrian intelligence, the preparations for the attack could not have escaped Syrian intelligence," the official said.
June 8, 2005 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version
Last edited by Alpha on Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:49 am; edited 6 times in total | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:09 pm Post subject: Syria denies US charge |
| The following is in accordance with the 'A Clean Break'/war for Israel agenda as well:
Syria denies US charge
Friday 10 June 2005 7:08 PM GMT
Anti-Syrian feelings have been running high in Lebanon
Syria has denied a US charge that it has drawn up an assassination hit list targeting Lebanese political leaders.
Syrian Expatriates Minister Buthaina Shaaban, who often speaks for the government, on Friday said Syria had completely withdrawn from Lebanon and denied that Damascus had drawn up an assassination hit list in Lebanon.
"Syria never had a history of hit lists... I think they should look somewhere else unless they want to use this as a pretext to target Syria without finding any proof," she said.
"The killings in Lebanon are as much dangerous for Syria than they are for Lebanon and therefore it is impossible for Syria to contemplate such a thing," she told CNN, speaking in English.
Earlier on Friday, the United States accused Syria of drawing up a list of Lebanese politicians for assassinations.
The accusation by a senior Washington official came on a day when President George Bush called on Damascus to respond to reports its intelligence agents are still operating in Lebanon.
"I think they should look somewhere else unless they want to use this as a pretext to target Syria without finding any proof"
Buthaina Shaaban,
Syrian Expatriates Minister
"Obviously we are going to follow up on these troubling reports, and we expect the Syrian government to follow up on these troubling reports," Bush said on Friday.
"Our message to Syria, and it's not just the message of the United States - the United Nations has said the same thing - is that in order for Lebanon to be free, is for Syria to not only remove her military but to remove intelligence officers as well," Bush said.
Hit list
Bush made his comments after a senior administration official said Washington had received what it believes to be credible information that Syria has compiled a hit list targeting prominent Lebanese political leaders "in an attempt to intimidate the Lebanese people".
The official said the information came from "a variety of credible Lebanese sources" following the assassinations of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri in February and anti-Syrian columnist Samir Kassir last week.
"We see these claims as credible," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to administration policy against speaking openly on intelligence.
Pattern alleged
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday had expressed concern about the possibility of a "pattern" of political killings.
The US blames Syria for the
recent killings in Lebanon
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, asked about the report of a hit list, said he could not comment on intelligence matters.
But the White House accused Syria of interference and intimidation inside Lebanon during its national elections, and demanded that it remove all of its intelligence agents from the country.
Lebanon's elections, the first in three decades without a Syrian military presence, are being held in different regions over four weeks from 29 May to 19 June.
Damascus, which pulled its troops out of Lebanon in April, has denied there are any intelligence agents left.
McClellan repeated a call for the United Nations to send verification teams back to Lebanon and said Secretary-General Kofi Annan was considering the possibility.
"It's important for the international community to send a clear message to Syria that it must stop meddling in Lebanon," he said.
Agencies
By
You can find this article at:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AF4ECB5F-1488-4866-825E-6828695D721C.htm | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:23 pm Post subject: Killing Samir Kassir: Another Chapter in the Bushcon Plan fo |
| Killing Samir Kassir: Another Chapter in the Bushcon Plan for Total War
http://kurtnimmo.com/blog/index.php?p=694 | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2005 6:26 am Post subject: Zionist Robin Wright goes after Syria for Israel |
| washingtonpost.com
U.S. Wary Of Syria Targeting Lebanese
Alleged Hit List Aims at Regaining Control
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 10, 2005; 1:29 PM
Bush administration officials alleged yesterday that Syria has developed a hit list targeting senior Lebanese political figures in an attempt to regain control of its neighboring state, just six weeks after Syria said it had ended almost three decades of military occupation.
"These are threats against some of the most prominent Lebanese political leaders. The purpose would be to create instability and to create internal strife," a senior administration official said. After a brief lull in Syrian interference in Lebanon, senior Syrian intelligence personnel have been seen back in Lebanon, particularly over the past week, the official added.
President Bush said today he was "disturbed" by the "troubling reports" that Syrian intelligence officers might still be in Lebanon.
"Our message to Syria -- and it's not just the message of the United States, the United Nations has said the same thing -- is that, in order for Lebanon to be free, is for Syria to not only remove her military, but to remove intelligence officers as well," Bush told reporters at a brief question-and-answer period while meeting with South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States is concerned about a potential "pattern" of political killings. "What we don't want is that there is a pattern now of assassination of key figures because that would be very, very destabilizing in Lebanon, and I think it would have to point a finger at those forces that have been destabilizing in Lebanon," Rice said on "The Charlie Rose Show."
Lebanese opposition leader Walid Jumblatt also expressed concern yesterday about the potential for assassinations after the car bombing last week of a leading journalist critical of Syria. "Probably there is a decision -- with the knowledge or without the knowledge of President [Bashar] Assad -- to continue the assassinations," he said on a Lebanese television talk show.
The Bush administration is also concerned about the return of Syrian intelligence because Lebanon is now halfway through a four-phase election for parliament, which will in turn form a new government. Syria has dominated Beirut's government since shortly after it first deployed troops there in 1976, initially under an Arab League mandate to try to quell Lebanon's civil war.
Although Syrian troops have pulled out under terms mandated in a U.N. resolution, Rice said the United States has doubts about the withdrawal of its intelligence agents. "We need to keep pressure on the Syrians to be transparent about what they're doing in Lebanon," she said. "We're being very clear to people that we want an international spotlight on what is going on in Lebanon so that the Lebanese people can carry out their elections in . . . a place that is free of this kind of foreign influence," Rice said.
The senior administration official said that a "variety of credible Lebanese sources" had said Damascus has developed a "hit list" of senior Lebanese political leaders, and that the sources had reported seeing "familiar figures" from Syrian intelligence back in Lebanon. "There are efforts by Syrians to put back in place the system of intimidation," he added.
At the United Nations, Syrian Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad said that any intelligence operatives in Lebanon were from France, the United States or Israel. "I am sure there are no Syrians there. Let them investigate themselves," Mekdad told Reuters.
The United Nations is also concerned about Syria's presence in Lebanon. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said yesterday that he may send a U.N. verification team back to Lebanon. In the meantime, U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen is being dispatched this week to Damascus for talks with the Assad government about its presence in Lebanon.
Syria's return to Lebanon would be a major violation of U.N. Resolution 1559, co-sponsored by the United States and France, which demanded a total Syrian withdrawal from its tiny neighbor. U.S. and U.N. officials estimated that Damascus had 14,000 troops and 5,000 intelligence officials. Damascus said the last troops pulled out on April 28.
"We are now receiving reports that there may be elements that are still there, and we are considering the possible return of the verification team to ascertain what's going on," Annan told reporters.
The U.S. and U.N. concerns follow the assassination of two leading opponents of Syria's intervention. Former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, 19 aides and security guards were killed by a bombing of his motorcade on Feb. 14. And prominent journalist Samir Kassir, who often wrote about Syrian intervention in Iraq, was killed in a sophisticated car bombing on June 2.
Rice repeated the U.S. demand yesterday for an international investigation into the trend. "We need to be very clear that we expect a full investigation of the assassination of Mr. Kassir, following on the assassination of Mr. Hariri," she said.
U.S. officials said Syrian intelligence is using Palestinian refugee camps. "They have figured out that one of the places they might be able to hide in is those camps," which are not controlled by the Lebanese Army, the senior administration official said.
The U.S. allegations, ironically, come on the same day that Syria's ruling Baath Party called for improving diplomatic relations with the United States. The final communique of the party congress called for a "constructive dialogue" with Washington and "an exchange of visits on all levels," according to Syrian television. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 5:58 am Post subject: Invasions & Rumors of Invasions: US troops Amassed on Sy |
| Invasions & Rumors of Invasions: US troops Amassed on Syria
http://kurtnimmo.com/blog/?p=726 | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 8:15 am Post subject: U.S. Launches Airstrikes in Western Iraq |
| U.S. Launches Airstrikes in Western Iraq
By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 3 minutes ago
American troops bombarded a dusty border town with airstrikes and tank fire Friday, capturing 100 militants in the third major recent attempt to uproot tenacious insurgents who are believed to use the region to sneak foreign suicide bombers in from Syria.
Four suicide attacks around Iraq, including one in the capital, killed 11 people as rebels seeking to lead Iraq into a civil war intensified the pace and scope of attacks against Iraq's still-weak security forces. More than 60 people have died in suicide attacks over the past two days.
In a campaign codenamed Romhe, Arabic for spear, about 1,000 Marines and Iraqi forces, backed by battle tanks, fought their way into Karabilah in the volatile Anbar province.
During daylong battles, Marines and Iraqi soldiers fought "insurgents holed up in buildings within the city," Marine Capt. Jeffrey Pool said from Ramadi, the provincial capital.
"Coalition aircraft using precision-guided munitions destroyed these targets. Only buildings occupied by insurgents firing on Marines and Iraqi soldiers were bombed. Three buildings were confirmed destroyed," Pool said.
No American or Iraqi military casualties were reported.
In other violence, a suicide car bomber killed five Iraqis, including two civilians, and wounded 10 others in Fallujah, Pool said. The target was Fallujah's mayor and police brigade commander for the Interior Ministry's new public order unit, Maj. Gen. Mahdi Sabih, police said. He escaped unharmed.
Marines carried out two major operations in the area last month, killing 125 insurgents in the first campaign, Operation Matador, and 14 in the second, Operation New Market. Eleven Marines were killed in those two actions, designed to scatter and eradicate insurgents using the road from Damascus to Baghdad.
The new campaign began just before dawn in the desert wastes around Karabilah and nearby Qaim, a lawless town about 200 miles west of Baghdad that squats at the crossroads of an insurgent smuggling route leading into Iraq from neighboring Syria.
During Friday's assault, troops captured about 100 foreign fighters and discovered at least one car bomb factory, said Col. Bob Chase, chief of operations for the Second Marine Division. He said U.S. and Iraqi troops encountered some resistance, but didn't characterize it as significant.
Iraqi troops did not participate in the earlier anti-insurgent offensives but Chase said this time they not only fought alongside Americans, but used their language skills and knowledge of the area to spot foreign fighters.
Also near Ramadi, two Marines were killed in action Thursday when their vehicle hit a bomb during combat operations, the military said. The deaths raised to 13 the number of Marines killed in separate attacks around Anbar during the past week. Two sailors also have died.
At least 1,716 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
In other violence, U.S. forces killed a 10-year-old boy Thursday while he was walking on a Baghdad street, police said. The U.S. military confirmed Friday that a child was killed during an "escalation of force" incident.
The Karabilah operation came one day after U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Don Alston called the Syrian border the "worst problem" in terms of stemming the influx of foreign fighters to Iraq.
U.S. military intelligence officials believe the area is the main entry point used by extremist groups such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq to smuggle foreign fighters into the country. Syria is under intense pressure from Washington and Baghdad to tighten control of its porous 380-mile border with Iraq.
The area has been flush with insurgents in recent weeks. Marines carried out June 11 airstrikes that killed about 40 militants after a nearly five-hour gunfight on the outskirts of Karabilah. Insurgent in the area also killed 21 people — beheading three of them — thought to be a group of missing Iraqi soldiers. The bodies were found June 10.
At least 1,095 people have been killed since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's Shiite-led government was announced in late April.
According to an AP count, from April 26 through June 16, at least 136 vehicle bombings have killed at least 492 people and wounded at least 1,409. In addition, at least 10 suicide bombers, wearing explosives, have killed at least 188 people and wounded at least 493.
It is unclear how many insurgents have also died in that period, but they are thought to number more than 290.
Also Friday:
_A car bomb killed four people and wounded another 15 outside a mosque in nearby Habaniyah, Pool said.
_A suicide car bomber missed an Iraqi army patrol and slammed into a loaded fuel tanker in Baghdad, killing two people and wounding another six, police said.
_Another suicide attacker died after a failed attempt to kill the Iraqi army commander in Tuz Khormato, 130 miles north of Baghdad. Seven people were wounded, police said.
_The bodies of two Iraqis working for American forces were found near the town of Beiji, north of Baghdad. They had disappeared Monday. | | | | Alpha | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:14 am Post subject: US Presses for Syria 'Regime Change' |
| US Presses for Syria 'Regime Change'
By Anton La Guardia
http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/05/wsyria05.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/05/ixworld.html
Israel predicted yesterday that America would impose fresh sanctions on
Syria in
an attempt to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. Shaul Mofaz, the
defence
minister, said he believed sanctions would follow publication of a
United
Nations report expected to implicate senior Syrian officials in the
murder of
Rafik al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister. "I won't be
surprised if
Syria gets a red card," Mr Mofaz told Israel radio. "[The United
States] will
take actions against Syria, beginning with economic sanctions and
moving on to
others, that will make it clear to the Syrians that their policies do
not comply
with UN decisions, the US's new world order or the prohibition of
sovereign
states to support terrorism." On Saturday, President George W Bush and
his
national security council are to discuss America's options on Syria,
ranging
from tightening existing limited sanctions to military action.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blundering into Syria?, by Paul Craig Roberts
Blundering into Syria?
By Paul Craig Roberts
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10062005.html
October 6, 2005
Blundering Into Syria?
The Triumph of Ideology Over Reality
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Not content with the terrorist-breeding instability he caused by invading Iraq, President Bush is plotting with Israel to repeat the disaster in Syria.
The diplomatic editor of the London Telegraph reports (Oct. 5) that the US is aiming at Syrian "regime change." The British newspaper quotes Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz as saying that a report blaming Syria for the assassination of a former Lebanese government official will be the catalyst that starts the ball rolling. Mofaz says the report will be the pretext for Bush to impose sanctions on Syria, "beginning with economic sanctions and moving on to others."
The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, reports (Oct. 3) that the Bush administration has asked Israel's government to recommend a successor for Syrian president Bashar al Assad. No doubt, the Bush administration will describe Israel's selection of Syria's new president as the workings of democracy.
The Stratfor Intelligence Brief reports (Oct. 5) that Bush's National Security Council is deciding whether to bomb Syrian villages along what are thought to be "the infiltration routes used by jihadists" and to have US special forces conduct operations inside Syrian territory.
Obviously, far from heeding demands from US generals and congressional members of his own political party for a plan to withdraw from Iraq, Bush intends to widen the war.
How can Bush, his National Security Council, and Israel be so blind to the consequences of destabilizing Syria? A CIA report concluded that the US invasion of Iraq created a training ground for al Qaeda. Doesn't Bush understand that creating chaos in Syria will have the same result?
The National Security Council needs to quickly consult some real Middle East experts before Bush's reckless policies in the face of seething anti-American sentiment cause the overthrow of US puppet rulers in Egypt, Jordan, and Pakistan, and dethrone the princes ruling the American oil protectorates in the Middle East.
If the Bush administration cannot defeat insurgency in Iraq, how can it defeat insurgency in Iraq and Syria? In Iraq, Syria, and Iran? The Bush administration is fanatical, divorced from reality.
Last week Lt. Gen. William Odom, former director of the National Security Agency, said that Bush's invasion of Iraq was "the greatest strategic disaster in US history." This is quite a distinction for Bush and his government. Are the morons now going to double the distinction by attacking Syria and quadruple it by attacking Iran?
Why don't Congress and the American public understand that the US cannot afford to worsen the disaster in which it finds itself?
Nothing better illustrates the reality-denying capability of the Bush administration than its secretary of state Condi Rice's speech at Princeton University on September 30. It is a fantasy speech, devoid of awareness that "regime change" in Iraq substituted Shi'ite clergy for a secular ruler. The US secretary of state has no inkling of the conflict generated between Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurd by the US imposed attempt to produce and to adopt a constitution?
The Bush administration's Middle East policy is the triumph of ideology over reality. Something must be done to stop Bush before he mimics in the MIddle East Hitler's invasion of Russia. The American people cannot afford the blood and treasure that the fanatical Bush administration is willing to squander in the Middle East.
What can be done about a president who is immune to reason? A bill of impeachment is a good start.
The Bush administration has already done more damage to Americans than the September 11 attacks. The American people and their congressional representatives must hold Bush accountable before it is too late. The Bush administration has no intention of stopping with Iraq. At Princeton, Condi Rice again declared the administration's intention to use US military force to transform the societies in the Middle East. "Now is not the time to falter or fade," declared the US secretary of state.
Such total oblivion to the "greatest strategic disaster in US history" is far more scary than Muslim terrorists.
Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com
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GI's and Syrians in Tense Clashes on Iraqi Border
By James Risen and David E. Sanger
The New York Times, 15 October 2005
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101505Z.shtml
Washington, Oct. 14 - A series of clashes in the last year between American and Syrian troops, including a prolonged firefight this summer that killed several Syrians, has raised the prospect that cross-border military operations may become a dangerous new front in the Iraq war, according to current and former military and government officials.
The firefight, between Army Rangers and Syrian troops along the border with Iraq, was the most serious of the conflicts with President Bashar al-Assad's forces, according to American and Syrian officials.
It illustrated the dangers facing American troops as Washington tries to apply more political and military pressure on a country that President Bush last week labeled one of the "allies of convenience" with Islamic extremists. He also named Iran.
One of Mr. Bush's most senior aides, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that so far American military forces in Iraq had moved right up to the border to cut off the entry of insurgents, but he insisted that they had refrained from going over it.
But other officials, who say they got their information in the field or by talking to Special Operations commanders, say that as American efforts to cut off the flow of fighters have intensified, the operations have spilled over the border - sometimes by accident, sometimes by design.
Some current and former officials add that the United States military is considering plans to conduct special operations inside Syria, using small covert teams for cross-border intelligence gathering.
The broadening military effort along the border has intensified as the Iraqi constitutional referendum scheduled for Saturday approaches, and as frustration mounts in the Bush administration and among senior American commanders over their inability to prevent foreign radical Islamists from engaging in suicide bombings and other deadly terrorist acts inside Iraq.
Increasingly, officials say, Syria is to the Iraq war what Cambodia was in the Vietnam War: a sanctuary for fighters, money and supplies to flow over the border and, ultimately, a place for a shadow struggle.
Covert military operations are among the most closely held of secrets, and planning for them is extremely delicate politically as well, so none of those who discussed the subject would allow themselves to be identified. They included military officers, civilian officials and people who are otherwise actively involved in military operations or have close ties to Special Operations forces.
In the summer firefight, several Syrian soldiers were killed, leading to a protest from the Syrian government to the United States Embassy in Damascus, according to American and Syrian officials.
A military official who spoke with some of the Rangers who took part in the incident said they had described it as an intense firefight, although it could not be learned whether there had been any American casualties. Nor could the exact location of the clash, along the porous and poorly marked border, be learned.
In a meeting at the White House on Oct. 1, senior aides to Mr. Bush considered a variety of options for further actions against Syria, apparently including special operations along with other methods for putting pressure on Mr. Assad in coming weeks.
American officials say Mr. Bush has not yet signed off on a specific strategy and has no current plan to try to oust Mr. Assad, partly for fear of who might take over. The United States is not planning large-scale military operations inside Syria and the president has not authorized any covert action programs to topple the Assad government, several officials said.
"There is no finding on Syria," said one senior official, using the term for presidential approval of a covert action program.
"We've got our hands full in the neighborhood," added a senior official involved in the discussion.
Some other current and former officials suggest that there already have been initial intelligence gathering operations by small clandestine Special Operations units inside Syria. Several senior administration officials said such special operations had not yet been conducted, although they did not dispute the notion that they were under consideration.
Whether they have already occurred or are still being planned, the goal of such operations is limited to singling out insurgents passing through Syria and do not appear to amount to an organized effort to punish or topple the Syrian government.
According to people who have spoken with Special Operations commanders, teams like the Army's Delta Force are well suited for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering inside Syria. They could identify and disrupt the lines of communications, sanctuaries and gathering points used by foreign Arab fighters and Islamist extremists seeking to wage war against American troops in Iraq.
What the administration calls Syria's acquiescence in insurgent operations organized and carried out from its territory is a major factor driving the White House as it conducts what seems to be a major reassessment of its Syria policy.
The withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon earlier this year in the wake of the assassination in February of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, in Beirut led to a renewed debate in the White House about whether - and how - to push for change in Damascus.
With no clear or acceptable alternative to Mr. Assad's government on the horizon, the administration now seems to be awaiting the outcome of an international investigation of the Hariri assassination, which may lead to charges against senior Syrian officials.
Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor in charge of the United Nations investigation of the killing, is expected to complete a report on his findings this month.
If Mr. Mehlis reports that senior Syrian officials are implicated in the Hariri assassination, some Bush administration officials say that could weaken the Assad government.
"I think the administration is looking at the Mehlis investigation as possibly providing a kind of slow-motion regime change," said one former United States official familiar with Syria policy. The death - Syrian officials called it a suicide - on Wednesday of Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan of Syria, who was questioned in connection with the United Nations investigation, may have been an indication of the intense pressure building on the Assad government from that inquiry.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the United States ambassador to Iraq, issued one of the administration's most explicit public challenges to Damascus recently when he said that "our patience is running out with Syria."
"Syria has to decide what price it's willing to pay in making Iraq success difficult," he said on Sept. 12. "And time is running out for Damascus to decide on this issue."
Some hawks in the administration make little secret of their hope that mounting political and military pressure will lead to Mr. Assad's fall, despite their worries about who might succeed him. Other American officials seem to believe that by taking modest military steps against his country, they will so intimidate Mr. Assad that he will alter his behavior and prevent Syrian territory from being used as a sanctuary for the Iraqi insurgency and its leadership.
"Our policy is to get Syria to change its behavior," said a senior administration official. "It has failed to change its behavior with regard to the border with Iraq, with regard to its relationships with rejectionist Palestinian groups, and it has only reluctantly gotten the message on Lebanon."
The official added: "We have had people for years sending them messages telling them to change their behavior. And they don't seem to recognize the seriousness of those messages. The hope is that Syria gets the message."
There are some indications that this strategy, described as "rattling the cage," may be working. Some current and former administration officials say that the flow of foreign fighters has already diminished because Mr. Assad has started to restrict their movement through Syria.
But while he appears to be curbing the number of foreign Arab fighters moving through Syria, the American officials say he has not yet restricted former senior members of Saddam Hussein's government from using Syria as a haven from which to provide money and coordination to the Sunni-based insurgency in Iraq.
"You see small tactical changes, which they don't announce, so they are not on the hook for permanent changes," a senior official said about Syria's response. "They are doing just enough to reduce the pressure in hopes we won't pay attention, and then they slide back again."
In an interview with CNN this week, Mr. Assad denied that there were any insurgent sanctuaries inside Syria. "There is no such safe haven or camp," he insisted.
In this tense period of give and take between Washington and Damascus, the firefight this summer was clearly a critical event. It came at a time when the American military in Iraq was mounting a series of major offensives in the Euphrates Valley near the Syrian border to choke off the routes that foreign fighters have used to get into Iraq.
The Americans and Iraqis have been fortifying that side of the border and increasing patrols, raising the possibility of firing across the unmarked border and of crossing it in "hot pursuit."
From time to time there have been reports of clashes, usually characterized as incidental friction between American and Syrian forces. There have been some quiet attempts to work out ways to avoid that, but formal agreements have been elusive in an atmosphere of mutual mistrust.
Some current and former United States military and intelligence officials who said they believed that Americans were already secretly penetrating Syrian territory question what they see as the Bush administration's excessive focus on the threat posed by foreign Arab fighters going through Syria. They say the vast majority of insurgents battling American forces are Iraqis, not foreign jihadis.
According to a new study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, intelligence analysis and the pattern of detentions in Iraq show that the number of foreign fighters represents "well below 10 percent, and may well be closer to 4 percent to 6 percent" of the total makeup of the insurgency.
One former United States official with access to recent intelligence on the insurgency added that American intelligence reports had concluded that 95 percent of the insurgents were Iraqi.
This former intelligence official said that in conversations with several midcareer American military officers who had recently served in Iraq, they had privately complained to him that senior commanders in Iraq seemed fixated on the issue of foreign fighters, despite the evidence that they represented a small portion of the insurgency.
"They think that the senior commanders are obsessed with the foreign fighters because that's an easier issue to deal with," the former intelligence official said. "It's easier to blame foreign fighters instead of developing new counterinsurgency strategies."
Top Pentagon officials and senior commanders have said that while the number of foreign fighters is small, they are still responsible for most of the suicide bombings in Iraq. Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of United States Central Command, said on Oct. 2 on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" that he recognized the need to avoid "hyping the foreign fighter problem."
But he cautioned that "the foreign fighters generally tend to be people that believe in the ideology of Al Qaeda and their associated movements, and they tend to be suicide bombers."
"So while the foreign fighters certainly aren't large in number," he said, "they are deadly in their application."
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