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Syria

Russia And Israel – A Double Standard In International Condemnation

December 15, 2021 Gavin O'Reilly, Popular Resistance. , , , , ,
Over the past month, in a break from its usual focus on COVID-19, the Western mainstream media has dedicated a sizeable amount of coverage to unverified claims by unnamed US intelligence officials that the Russian Federation is planning an imminent military invasion of its western neighbour Ukraine – under the rule of the successive US-EU friendly governments of Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky since 2014, when the CIA-orchestrated Euromaidan colour revolution toppled the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych, following his November 2013 decision to suspend an EU trade deal in favour of pursuing closer ties with Moscow. The coverage, which comes at a time of increased tensions in Eastern Europe amidst a build-up of refugees on the Belarus-Poland border being labelled as an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko to destabilise the European Union, has resulted in widespread condemnation of Moscow by the Western media and political establishment...

In Syria Probe, OPCW Erased Experts’ Inconvenient Findings

November 27, 2021 Aaron Maté, The Grayzone. , , ,
In the early days of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ investigation of an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria, expert toxicologists ruled out chlorine gas as the cause of death for the more than 40 civilians reported at the scene. Instead of publishing this finding, senior OPCW officials concealed it, and then launched an investigation of a veteran inspector who questioned the censorship. The suppression of the toxicologists is among a series of deceptions by the OPCW leadership to corrupt the Douma probe’s scientific process, as detailed in this new multi-part investigation by The Grayzone. More than three years later, the high-level campaign of censorship and muzzling has mired the world’s top chemical weapons watchdog in scandal.

US Lawmakers Raise Questions Over Biden’s Reasoning For Syria Air Strike

November 21, 2021 Middle East Eye. , ,
More than 30 bipartisan US lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden questioning the administration's reasoning for bypassing Congress and launching a military strike in Syria earlier this year. Led by Democrats Jamaal Bowman, Peter DeFazio and Republican Nancy Mace, the lawmakers said that Biden appeared to be "acting in contravention of the Constitution". They also said that the administration has offered less of a basis for its strike than the previous Donald Trump administration did when conducting a strike in Syria.

Syria Massacre Coverup Shows Danger Of Assange Precedent

November 16, 2021 Caitlin Johnstone, Consortium News. , , ,
The report contains many significant revelations, including that the U.S. military has been grossly undercounting the numbers of civilians killed in its airstrikes and lying about it to Congress, that special ops forces in Syria have been consistently ordering airstrikes which kill noncombatants with no accountability by exploiting loopholes to get around rules meant to protect civilians, that units which call in such airstrikes are allowed to do their own assessments grading whether the strikes were justified, that the U.S. war machine attempted to obstruct scrutiny of the massacre “at nearly every step” of the way, and that the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations only investigates such incidents when there is “potential for high media attention, concern with outcry from local community/government, concern sensitive images may get out.”

Ex-CIA Analyst On Hidden Realities Of Syria War

November 15, 2021 Aaron Maté, The Grayzone. , , ,
As a CIA analyst, David McCloskey covered Syria from 2008 to 2014. He draws on his experience for his new spy thriller, “Damascus Station,” set during the early years of the Syrian war. David McCloskey joins Aaron Maté to discuss “Damascus Station”; the early years of the Syrian war; the role of foreign powers including the US; the US decision to support the insurgency despite knowing that Al Qaeda and other Salafi jihadist groups were its “primary engine”; allegations of chemical weapons attacks in Syria; and the direction of US policy in post-war Syria. Guest: David McCloskey. Former CIA analyst who covered Syria for six years, from 2008 to 2014. Wrote memos for the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), lived and worked in CIA field stations throughout the region, and briefed senior White House officials, members of Congress, and Arab royalty.

Bellingcat Funded By Contractors That Aided Extremists In Syria

October 10, 2021 Kit Klarenberg, The Grayzone. , , ,
Since its launch in July 2014, the self-styled open-source investigations website Bellingcat has cemented itself as a darling of mainstream Western media, with its dives into alleged Syrian government chemical weapon attacks and Russian intelligence operations showered with praise, puff pieces, and glitzy awards. While vehemently insisting that it is independent of government influence, Bellingcat is funded by both the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy and the European Union. CIA officials have declared their “love” for Bellingcat, and there are unambiguous signs that the outlet has partnered closely with London and Washington to further the pair’s imperial objectives. Now that the media consortium has obtained access to high-tech satellites capable of capturing 50cm resolution imagery of any place on Earth, it is time to place these connections under the microscope.

It’s Time To End The US War On Syria, Not Restart It

July 27, 2021 Coleen Rowley and Wyatt Miller, Counterpunch. , , ,
The Biden administration’s ending of a 20 year war in Afghanistan is a good sign but its airstrikes in Iraq and Syria last month are a bad sign. These airstrikes highlight the US military’s ongoing, but underreported, deployment to Syria. In May, the AP claimed President Biden would soon put a stop to a US energy company’s ongoing theft of oil from a region in Syria that’s illegally occupied by US troops. So far, it’s not clear anything has changed. Syrian oil reportedly continues to be extracted by Americans, in what constitutes “pillaging” under international law. The company is owned by an ex-US special forces operative and a George W. Bush administration appointee. Some may be surprised by this.

Why Is OPCW Chief Fernando Arias Afraid Of His Own Inspectors?

July 12, 2021 Aaron Maté, The Grayzone. , , ,
The stated mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is to ensure “a world free of chemical weapons.” From his executive suite at The Hague, however, OPCW Director General Fernando Arias has been on a different mission: keeping the organization free of accountability for an explosive Syria cover-up scandal, and trying to silence two veteran inspectors who blew the whistle. Arias has refused to address the manipulation of the OPCW’s probe into an alleged chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma. Back in April 2018, the US, UK and France accused Syria of dropping chlorine gas cylinders that killed dozens, and bombed the war-torn country in purported retaliation.

Axis Of Resistance Responds To Biden’s Aggression

July 11, 2021 Richard Medhurst. , , ,
Richard Medhurst: "The Americans have come under attack in numerous places in Iraq and Syria in the last 24 hours. It appears to me, and I think anyone would agree, to be a coordinated move by the resistance. So I am going to show you what has taken place. So you had three attacks that took place. One was at the Ain al Asad Air Base. You may recall that this is the air base that the Iranians fired at after Trump assassinated General Suleimani. There were no casualties because they actually warned the Americans in advance. It was more of a warning, a retaliation without casualties. And this is the strategy that is being pursued. I plotted what is going on on a map..."

Pressed For Answers On Syria, OPCW Chief Offers New Lies And Excuses

July 5, 2021 Aaron Maté, The Grayzone. , , ,
Facing Growing Outcry, OPCW Director General Fernando Arias Went Before The UN And Told New Falsehoods About His Organization’s Syria Cover-Up Scandal — Along With More Disingenuous Excuses To Avoid Addressing It.

Biden’s Bombing Of Iraq And Syria Only Serves The Weapons Industry

June 29, 2021 Glenn Greenwald, Glenn Greenwald blog. , , ,
For the second time in the five months since he was inaugurated, President Joe Biden on Sunday ordered a U.S. bombing raid on Syria, and for the first time, he also bombed Iraq. The rationale offered was the same as Biden's first air attack in February: the U.S., in the words of Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, “conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region.” He added that “the United States acted pursuant to its right of self-defense.” Embedded in this formulaic Pentagon statement is so much propaganda and so many euphemisms that, by itself, it reveals the fraudulent nature of what was done. To begin with, how can U.S. airstrikes carried out in Iraq and Syria be "defensive” in nature? How can they be an act of “self-defense"?

US Again Bombs Nations On Other Side Of The World In ‘Self-Defense’

June 28, 2021 Caitlin Johnstone, Caitlin's Newsletter. , , ,
The US is again illegally bombing nations on the other side of the planet which it has invaded and occupied and branded this murderous aggression as "defensive". "At President Biden's direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region," reads a statement by Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby. "The targets were selected because these facilities are utilized by Iran-backed militias that are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks against U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq. Specifically, the U.S. strikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq, both of which lie close to the border between those countries."

Sanctions On Syria – A Silent Death And Killing Hope

June 16, 2021 Vanessa Beeley, The Wall Will Fall. , , ,
Sanctions are very often described, by those enforcing them, as “non-lethal” measures. I would argue that sanctions, when used as a brutal and vindictive component of a neo-colonialist hybrid war strategy, are arguably more devastating than a military war. When they are imposed by global super-force nations against target nations like Syria, in conjunction with a proxy war that has been fomented and sustained by the same nations, it becomes as much a weapon of mass destruction as the terrorist/mercenary armies these US aligned nations have unleashed upon the Syrian people. Thus it is almost impossible to speak about the economic sanctions against Syria in isolation and without referring to the parallel measures that ensure they hit the poorest people in Syria the hardest.

How Washington Is Positioning Syrian Al-Qaeda’s Founder As Its ‘Asset’

June 10, 2021 Ben Norton and Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone. , , ,
March 2021 - marked the 10th anniversary of the Western regime-change war on Syria. And after a decade of grueling conflict, Washington is still maneuvering to extend its longstanding relationship with the Salafi-jihadist militants fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. With the northeastern province of Idlib under the control of a self-proclaimed “Syrian Salvation Government” led by the rebranded version of Syria’s al-Qaeda franchise, and protected under the military aegis of NATO member state Turkey, powerful elements from Brussels to Washington have been working to legitimize its leader. This June, PBS Frontline aired a special, “The Jihadist,” featuring a sit-down interview with Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, de facto president of the “Syrian Salvation Government” and founder of the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda originally called Jabhat al-Nusra, today re-branded as Hay-at Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.

Resistance Axis Victory

June 8, 2021 Richard Medhurst, Press TV. , , ,
Syrians have re-elected Bashar al Assad for a fourth consecutive term as their President. Western nations like Britain, the United States and France have sought to undermine the elections, rejecting the results in advance, dubbing them “illegitimate” and “undemocratic”. These same nations prevented Syrians from casting ballots at their Syrian consulates and have sought to overthrow the Syrian government and coup al Assad since 2001. By funding of terrorist groups, supporting an exiled Syrian opposition, they have attempted to force their imperialist agenda onto the Syrian people. Nevertheless, despite ten years of war and suffering, brought on by economic sanctions from the West, Syrians have rejected regime change and colonialism.
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