June 2012 Reference List
Not all the articles or videos referenced on this post are from June 2012; however, they are all considered essential reading for an in-depth understanding of the current crisis in Syria. It is possible that some links which were on the May Reference List are repeated here. That may encourage readers to refer to the May page for more information.
The images on this page will include pictures of Syrians taken before the crisis so they may be acknowledged as a people with dignity, deserving as anyone of peace and the freedom to choose the destiny for their country themselves. Syrians will not be the victims of others.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31712.htm#.T-q4ISyb67Y.email
By Jonathan Cook
Few can doubt that Syria is next on the West’s hit list. And this time, the script-writers in Washington seem to believe that the task of turning a functioning, if highly repressive, state into a basket case can be achieved without the West’s hand being visible at all. This time the white hat has been assigned to our allies, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, who, according to the latest reports, are stoking an incipient civil war not only by arming some among the rebels but also by preparing to pay them salaries too, in petro-dollars.
The importance to Western governments of developing more “complex” narratives about intervention has been driven by the need to weaken domestic opposition to continuing Middle East wars. The impression that these wars are being inspired and directed exclusively from “inside”, even if by a heterogeneous opposition whose composition remains murky to outsiders, adds a degree of extra legitimacy; and additionally, it suggests to Western publics that that the cost in treasure and casualties will not be born by us.
JUNE 27 2012
Syria and the Phantom
What was that Turkish F-4 Phantom II up to when the Syrians shot it down?
Ankara said the plane strayed into Syrian airspace, but quickly left and was over international waters when it was attacked, a simple case of carelessness on the part of the Turkish pilot that Syrian paranoia turned deadly.
But the Phantom—eyewitnesses told Turkish television that there were two aircraft, but there is no official confirmation of that observation—was hardly on a Sunday outing. According to the Financial Times, Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, told the newspaper “the jet was on a test and training mission focused on Turkey’s radar defense, rather than Syria.”
Translation: the F-4 was “lighting up” a radar net. It is a common—if dangerous and illegal—tactic that allows one to probe an opponent’s radar system. Most combat radar is kept in a passive mode to prevent a potential enemy from mapping out weaknesses or blind spots that can be useful in the advent of an attack. The probes also give you valuable information on how to neutralize anti-aircraft guns and ground to air missiles.
“Lighting up” radar was what the US Navy EP-3E Aries II was doing near China’s Hainan Island when it collided with a Chinese interceptor in 2001. Nations normally take a very dim view of warplanes entering their air space, particularly if there is tension between the countries involved….
Even if Syria identified the plane as a Phantom, they could have taken it for an Israeli craft. Israel was the number one foreign user of F-4s, although they retired them in 2004. Indeed, the Turkish Phantom might even have begun life as an Israeli warplane.
If the Syrians are on hair-trigger alert, one can hardly blame them. The US, the European Union (EU), and NATO openly admit they are gunning to bring down the Assad regime. Turkey is actively aiding the Free Syrian Army organize cross-border raids into Syria, and it is helping Saudi Arabia and Qatar….
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THE DAILY BEAST
SYRIA’S PROPAGANDA CLOUD: HOW THE WEST IS FALLING FOR MISINFORMATION
by Riad al-Khouri 22 JUNE 2012
Having just returned from Syria a few days ago, I can confirm that the situation on the ground there is very disturbing, though perhaps not in the way that many might assume. As it stands, the government remains in control over most of the country—including the economy—despite the best efforts of propagandists to say otherwise. Yet if the Syrian economy worsens, and if the crisis there comes to involve more and more groups—both inside and outside the country—there is a growing possibility that what started as a conflict between the Syrian government and a ragtag group of rebels will become a powder keg that could escalate into a regional war and possibly even an international confrontation………These days, unfortunately, this oversimplification is all that seems to make it into the newspapers or on the airwaves. The fatuity of 21st-century media and the blinkered ignorance of audiences, especially Western viewers and readers who are under the illusion that they are well-informed, mean that this circus of disinformation will likely continue. My message in this tawdry mess is for people in the West to be wary of propaganda (especially that coming out of their own countries), which is helping to escalate the Syrian crisis into this season’s geo-strategic summer blockbuster.
Riad al Khouri, a Jordanian political economist who lives and works in the Middle East, is a strategic adviser to the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
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Ammar Waqqaf is an independent Syrian political analyst based in England.
Q: Why do you think the western powers are so keen to see regime change in Syria?
A: Western powers would be fools not to exploit such an opportunity to turn a key regional player from an opposing side into an allied one. Achieving such a target would seriously upset the current balance in the Middle East and lead to the total isolation and subsequent fall of Iran. This would mean a long-term total grip on the region for these countries.
Such dominance is not only vital in securing long-term stability in the energy resources markets, but it is also important in beating competitor powers to such resources.
Q: Do you think that Syria needs political changes, and do you feel that such changes can occur under Ba’athist leadership?
A: I do believe that Syria needs significant political changes, or reforms so to speak. As for whether they can be achieved under the Ba’ath rule, I can assure you that many would prefer this happening under a progressive secular party than under an Islamic or ethnic one.
The Ba’ath party needs much reform itself, as well, and it is its ability to carry out such reform in a meaningful way that would determine whether people would eventually entrust it with the much-needed overhaul of the political system in Syria.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************http://www.rt.com/news/cia-officers-turkey-syria-378/“Revealed: CIA secretly operates on Syrian border, supplies arms to rebels” 21 June 2012American secret service operatives are distributing illegal assault rifles, anti-tank rocket launchers and other ammunition to Syrian opposition, the New York Times reports. But due to some rebels’ links to Al Qaeda, the CIA’s task is precarious.The paper reports that for weeks now, officers based in southeast Turkey have supervised the flow of illegal arms to numerous opposition factions ready to fight the regime of President Bashar Assad. The only problem is some of the rebel groups have links with terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda, so the CIA mission must be careful not to arm proven terrorists by mistake.
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http://www.rt.com/news/syria-rebels-us-arms-028/
“Not ‘if’ but ‘when”: US intervention in Syria on countdown” 17 June 2012
“A delegation from Syrian opposition is reportedly in talks with US officials over the targets they want to attack to weaken the Syrian government and the arms they want America to provide to do it. A “Libya lite” operation in Syria may be imminent.
The unnamed US official reportedly said that “the intervention will happen. It is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’.”
The delegation from the Syrian Free Army is meeting with US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford and the State Department’s expert on Syria, Fred Hof, according to a report by debkafile, an Israeli news website, which is considered to have strong ties with the intelligence community.
The Syrian rebels have brought with them two lists for American approval. One is that of targets in Syria they want to attack to hurt President Assad’s government. The second is a list of heavy weapons they need to carry out the attacks, which they want to get from the US, the report says.”
Any seizure would have been carried out by members of the Special Boat Service, SBS, the only military unit authorised to performing opposed embarkations at sea. The helicopters are believed to be the same ones that prompted US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, recently to berate Russia for sending military hardware to Syria.”
Nossel was hired by AI in January 2012. In her early career, Nossel worked for Ambassador Richard Holbrooke under the Clinton Administration at the United Nations. Most recently, she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Organizations at the U.S. Department of State, where she was responsible for multilateral human rights, humanitarian affairs, women’s issues, public diplomacy, press and congressional relations.
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“The Next Revolution: Islamists in Tunisia take their Jihad to Syria” by
DOMENICO QUIRICO 18 June 2012 ”
Yusef is set to leave for Syria to fight Bashir al-Assad’s unholy regime. Other young Tunisians have already joined the jihad, recruited in the city’s most radical mosques, and given a ticket to Turkey, along with directions on how to reach the army of rebels. “There are many other brothers: Egyptian, Libyan, Algerian,” says Yusef. Similar international Muslim brigades fought in Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia.
Yusef doesn’t look at us as he lays out his life story: poverty, the school, petty crimes to survive — and finally the revolution.
He is one among many other “ street thugs” from the slums who have kept the revolution alive in the streets, under the blows and tear gas. When asked if he is scared of a war which, at the end of the day is not his own, the boy suddenly comes to life: “ You don’t know anything,” he says. “Fear, courage… My strength is not in weapons. It is inside. I am an instrument. Muslims had become dependent on the things that you gave and taught us. This is our rebirth. How can we be afraid of a tyrant’s army? Don’t you see that God is helping us? God moved the Americans’ minds. The Americans are helping, arming and funding us. They are an instrument of the holy cause.”
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http://wrongkindofgreen.org/2012/03/12/argentinian-journalist-stella-calloni-denounces-avaaz-latin-american-unions-follow-her-lead/“ARGENTINE JOURNALIST STELLA COLLONI DENOUNCES AVAAZ; LATIN AMERICAN UNIONS FOLLOW HER LEAD” March 12, 2012 “You lie. You know that hundreds of mercenaries have entered Syria, and special operations troops (the worst and dirtiest within the armies of United States, United Kingdom, France, Israel), and what they have in mind with this story about repression is to do the same as they did in Libya, first sending in these groups and mercenaries to create ‘focus’, so as to later say, when the government under attack defends itself, this it is attacking a rebellious people. You lie, as did Goebbles, who now looks small next to you. …..”
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http://carnegie-mec.org/publications/?fa=48503 “Saudi Arabia Reins in its Clerics on Syria”, Frederic Wehrey, 13 June 2012. “A column in the daily newspaper al-Jazirah obliquely condemns senior clerics who use their prestige and reputation to extract money from their constituents for uncertain purposes. It goes on to warn that “history will repeat itself,” citing parallels between the Syrian crisis and the Saudi experience in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Iraq. There, ostensibly charitable donations proved a slippery slope for the recruitment of Saudi youth to fight in these conflicts and also ended up in the hands of al-Qaeda militants who later attacked the Kingdom.” …On June 7, (the regime) followed up on its ban on donations with an edict from the Senior Ulema Council that expressly prohibited calls for jihad in Syria outside of official channels. A clerical member of the Supreme Judicial Council asserted that support to the Syrian people had to be “consistent with state policy” and that unauthorized calls for jihad were an “embarrassment to the state.”
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The Sykes-Picot agreement set new boundaries for many countries in the region, and began a period of direct control of the Middle East that the West has sought to perpetuate to the present.
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US and Iraq’s former colonial master, the UK, NATO has been transparent in its desire to once again exercise direct control over the countries in the region. The few regimes that are opposed to NATO hegemony are being faced with a concerted effort by NATO and its regional backers to overthrow them.”
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This link is to a blog of Aussie ‘revolutionaries’
http://strangetimes.lastsuperpower.net/?page_id=2 Local Aussie ‘left’ blog includes contributions by Arthur Dent (formerly Albert Langer) and supports US intervention in the ME: “the war in Iraq: the left has always fought against fascism. We therefore supported the overthrow of the fascist Baath Party in Iraq. The United States currently has no choice but to drain the swamps and support the democratisation of the Middle East. We are glad about that!”
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West Desperately Attempts to Spin Syrian Crisis
SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/west-desperately-attempts-to-spin.html
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The Houla Hoaxsters
Another “Benghazi moment” – This Time in Syria
By Justin Raimondo June 4, 2012
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31502.htm#.T822VPqVjWI.email
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http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/salt140112.html Who Is Killing Whom in Syria? Interview with Jeremy Salt
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By MACKENZIE WEINGER 29 May
“Saudi Arabia is financially and politically backing the civilian opposition [in Syria], and Qatar has been widely reported to be funding and arming the jihad rebels who were leading this insurrection,” he said. “We can be absolutely sure that this is nothing to do with human rights when it comes to the West’s concern, and even more sure when it comes to the concern of Saudi Arabia. This is how preposterous the Western media coverage is, of this uprising.”
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