Video/Photos-US Out of Syria/Justice For Trayvon Martin Rally-Boston
by Michael Borkson Email: nosanctions (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!)	21 Jul 2013
July 20, 2013- Boston,Mass.: There was a joint rally to protest US military involvement in Syria as well as to demand justice for murdered youth Trayvon Martin.
July 20, 2013- Boston,Mass.: There was a joint rally to protest US military involvement in Syria as well as to demand justice for murdered youth Trayvon Martin. Despite the oppressive heat, there was a good turnout for this rally at Park St. on Boston Common. Speakers made the clear connection linking the US wars abroad against the poor in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now Syria, to the domestic US wars at home against the poor and people of color, as in the Trayvon Martin case and the congressional "sequester" cuts to vital social programs; while mega-billions are appropriated for the US war machine and NSA surveillance on innocent Americans. A wide range of anti-war and social justice organizations helped put this rally together: UNAC, A.N.S.W.E.R., the International Action Center, United For Justice with Peace, Veterans For Peace, the Committee For Peace and Human Rights, and others I may have omitted. Here are links to a video and photos I took at the rally: VIDEO: http://youtu.be/w0_DG32Ld1c PHOTOS: http://www.flickr.com/photos/protestphotos1/sets/72157634718859841/detai Next sat. July 27 at 1pm at Park St. in Boston there will be a rally to free military wiki-leaks whistleblower Bradley Manning; as his military trial continues. Other relevant links are: www.justicewithpeace.org www.UNACpeace.org

From The Pages Of "Workers Vanguard"-Hands Off Syria!

Click on the headline to link to the "International Communist League" website.

Markin comment:

I place some material in this space which may be of interest to the radical public that I do not necessarily agree with or support. Off hand, as I have mentioned before, I think it would be easier, infinitely easier, to fight for the socialist revolution straight up than some of the“remedies” provided by the commentators in these entries. But part of that struggle for the socialist revolution is to sort out the “real” stuff from the fluff as we struggle for that more just world that animates our efforts.

***************

Workers Vanguard No. 1009	28 September 2012

Imperialists’ Hands Off Syria!

For the past year and a half, the Syrian population has been crushed between two reactionary forces that have ravaged the country in a devastating civil war. Faced with an insurgency dominated by forces centrally from the majority Sunni Muslim population and backed by sundry imperialist and regional powers, the murderous Ba’ath Party regime of Bashar al-Assad has sought to stamp out the rebellion through the massive use of firepower, including against residential areas. Insurgents have likewise carried out gruesome massacres of civilians. Key Syrian opposition leaders have appealed for imperialist military intervention, echoing the Libyan “rebels” who became willing tools for the NATO bombing campaign last year. While the imperialists are currently focusing on providing material and logistical support to the anti-Assad forces, the Obama White House has declared that military options are not “off the table.”

Revolutionary Marxists support neither side in this civil war, in which a victory of one combatant or the other would do nothing to further the cause of the working class and the oppressed. However, workers internationally do have a side in opposing military intervention by the imperialists. In the event of imperialist attack, we would stand for the defense of Syria while maintaining proletarian political opposition to Assad’s bloodsoaked rule.

The civil war grew out of a series of demonstrations in the provincial city of Dara’a in Syria’s southern Sunni region in March 2011 as “Arab Spring” protests were sweeping North Africa and the Near East. The demonstrations spread beyond Dara’a, and the Assad regime murderously unleashed troops and tanks on civilians. Increasing numbers of soldiers defected, forming the core of an array of anti-government militias. Key commanders of this so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) were for years part of the Assad regime’s repressive machinery.

Presenting itself as the main political leadership of the opposition is the Syrian National Council (SNC), a coalition of exiles and opposition groups. A number of the principal spokesmen for this lash-up have longstanding ties to U.S. State Department and national security officials, as detailed by the London Guardian (12 July) article, “The Syrian Opposition: Who’s Doing the Talking?”

The SNC today is dominated by the reactionary Muslim Brotherhood, which controls the largest number of seats in the Council as well as the committee that distributes money and other aid to anti-Assad forces in Syria. Furthermore, Sunni jihadist groups from other Muslim countries have increasingly joined the armed rebellion. These developments have complicated matters for the U.S. rulers, who are conscious that those who just killed their ambassador to Libya were fundamentalists financed and armed by Washington last year to help overthrow Muammar el-Qaddafi.

Syria is a patchwork of ethnic, national and sectarian groupings, where the regime dominated by the Alawite minority holds sway over the Sunni majority, Kurds, Christians, Druze and others, posing the danger of the conflict degenerating into communal warfare. This situation is the legacy of the divide-and-rule policies of the colonial powers, which carved up the Near East following World War I (see article on page 4).

Although the Obama administration is wary of directly intervening militarily into the conflict, it has allocated some $25 million to the Syrian “rebels” in accordance with a secret order signed by the president earlier this year. All the while, Washington has maintained the pretense of not supplying “lethal weapons.” U.S. intelligence agents, working with their counterparts from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are “drawing on their experience in Libya” to help direct support to the anti-Assad forces (Wall Street Journal, 13 June). They work out of a secret “nerve center” set up in Adana, a Turkish city near the Syrian border, which is also home to Incirlik, the U.S. air base. According to the New York Times (21 June), arms are funneled into Syria “by way of a shadowy network of intermediaries including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood.”

The imperialists have imposed on Syria a broad range of economic sanctions, with the Obama administration ratcheting up U.S. measures last month. Syria has been particularly hard hit by an oil embargo imposed a year ago by the European Union (EU). Until then, oil exports, almost all of which went to EU member states, were the mainstay of the Syrian economy, which has severely contracted under the embargo. The main casualties have been rural and urban laborers, especially the poor and most vulnerable, who face rampant inflation, massive layoffs and shortages of gasoline and other refined oil products as well as staple foods. Attempts to implement United Nations Security Council sanctions have been thwarted by opposition from Russia, which is also supplying the Assad regime with intelligence and arms, and China.

Behind Washington’s drive to effect “regime change” in Damascus is the determination of America’s imperialist rulers to perpetuate and extend their world dominance. Syria has historically occupied a pivotal position in the oil-rich Near East. The country exerts key influence in Lebanon, particularly through its support to the Shi’ite fundamentalist Hezbollah, and serves as the most significant Arab ally of Iran. Tehran’s influence in the region was given a major boost by the U.S. invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2003 and the installation of a predominantly Shi’ite regime in Baghdad. For years, the U.S. rulers have been hostile toward Iran, as have been the Sunni monarchs in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, who have been major suppliers of arms to anti-Assad forces, especially to the Sunni jihadists. What the U.S. ended up getting through its murderous occupation of Iraq was an Iran-friendly regime.

French imperialism, now under Socialist Party president François Hollande, has been beating the drums for an “international coalition” to impose a “no-fly zone” over part of Syria. However, the White House has resisted any such move, even as the chorus of influential figures in Washington calling for U.S. military intervention now extends beyond right-wing Republicans like John McCain to include the likes of William Perry and Madeleine Albright. The latter two served, respectively, as secretary of defense and secretary of state under Democratic president Bill Clinton in the mid-late 1990s as the U.S. rained bombs on Iraq and the former Yugoslavia.

Just as the New York Times retailed Washington’s lies about Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction” in the run-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, so today the bourgeois press prints any fabrication put out by the Syrian opposition. Thus, the press worldwide reported that the Syrian military had perpetrated the August 25 massacre of at least 245 men, women and children in Daraya, near Damascus. Yet an on-site investigation by veteran journalist Robert Fisk pointed to the killing of civilians by insurgents (Independent, 29 August). A local resident told Fisk: “One of the dead was a postman—they included him because he was a government worker.”

It was a U.S.-financed group of Iraqi exiles, Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress, that generated the bogus reports of Hussein’s WMDs. This summer, it was the U.S.-backed Syrian opposition that put out patently spurious reports claiming that Assad was moving chemical weapons out of storage facilities and preparing to use them. When Obama last month warned of “enormous consequences,” the Syrian government countered that it would only use chemical weapons “in case of external aggression.”

Uniquely among the principal minorities in Syria, the Kurds as a people constitute a nation that extends into Turkey, Iran and Iraq. But their struggle against national oppression has been betrayed time and again by competing nationalist leaders who act as lackeys of the imperialists or of one local bourgeois regime or another. To achieve Kurdish self-determination requires the proletarian revolutionary overthrow of the four capitalist states and the formation of a Socialist Republic of United Kurdistan.

During the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt last year, we pointed to the working class, whose strikes played a major role in bringing down both despotic regimes, as the potential gravedigger of the bourgeois order. We underlined the urgent need for the proletariat to act as the leader of all the oppressed masses. However, while the proletariat continues to wage economic struggles, politically it is subordinated to Islamist and other bourgeois forces.

For the proletariat to emerge as a contender for power, it is necessary to undertake the forging of vanguard workers parties that oppose the imperialists and all domestic bourgeois forces—from the military bonapartists and liberal political figures to reactionary political Islam. There will be no end to ethnic and national oppression, no emancipation of women, no end to the exploitation of working people short of a thoroughgoing proletarian revolution that opens the road to the establishment of a socialist federation of the Near East, as part of the struggle for world proletarian revolution. 

From The SteveLendmanBlog-Stepped Up Media War on Syria

Sunday, June 10, 2012


Stepped Up Media War on Syria

by Stephen Lendman

When America goes to war or plans one, media scoundrels march in lockstep. Journalism is the first casualty. Managed news misinformation substitutes for truth and full disclosure.




Cheerleading propaganda is relentless. Readers and viewers are betrayed. Imperial wars are called liberating ones. Separating fact from fiction is challenging.




Only replacing independent regimes with pro-Western puppet ones matters. Media scoundrels support it. Blood on their hands doesn't deter them. Steady income eases conscience pangs. Soul selling pays well.




NYT and Washington Post editorials discussed below reflect the latest White House statement on Syria. It reads like bad fiction, saying:




"The United States strongly condemns the outrageous targeted killings of civilians including women and children in Al-Qubeir in Hama province as reported by multiple credible sources."




"This, coupled with the Syrian regime’s refusal to let UN observers into the area to verify these reports, is an affront to human dignity and justice."




"There is no justification for this regime’s continued defiance of its obligations under the Annan Plan, and Assad’s continued abdication of responsibility for these horrific acts has no credibility and only further underscores the illegitimate and immoral nature of his rule."




"The future of Syria will be determined by the Syrian people, and the international community must come together in support of their legitimate aspirations."




"We call once more on all nations to abandon support for this brutal and illegitimate regime, and to join together to support a political transition in Syria—one that upholds the promise of a future for which far too many have already died."




Fact check




Assad security forces and/or supporters had nothing to do with Houla and Qubeir village massacres. Western-recruited death squads bear full responsibility. Claiming otherwise won't change facts.




According to Reuters, UN monitors visited Qubeir. So did journalists accompanying them. Claiming otherwise ignores what some media sources reported.




"The smell of burnt flesh hung in the air and body parts lay scattered around the deserted" village, said Reuters.




UN spokeswoman Sausan Ghosheh said one house showed bullet and rocket fire damage. Another was burnt.




One home had "pieces of brains on the floor." Blood was everywhere. Around 78 people were shot at close range, stabbed, or "burned alive." Targeted Qubeir residents were pro-Assad loyalists.




They were murdered for supporting the wrong side. Pro-Gaddafi Libyans were killed the same way. Reuters may have inadvertently absolved Assad, saying:




Qubeir killings replicated Houla deaths two weeks earlier. "The conflict is becoming increasingly sectarian. (Pro-Assad) shabbiha militiamen from the Alawite community appear to be off the leash...."




UK journalist Alex Thomson said Syrian insurgents tried to get him killed. On June 8, his blog site headlined "Set up to be shot in Syria's no man's land?" saying:




Dead journalists are bad news for Assad. His Channel 4 News team travelled in UN vehicles. They were abandoned when surrounded by "shouting militia."




They were fired on. They had to take evasive action. The incident took place last weekend. Thomson and crew are back home.




Were they set up to be shot, he asked?




"Suddenly four men in a black car beckon us to follow. We move out behind."




"We are led another route. Led in fact, straight into a free-fire zone. Told by the Free Syrian Army to follow a road that was blocked off in the middle of no-man’s-land."




"At that point there was the crack of a bullet and one of the slower three-point turns I’ve experienced. We screamed off into the nearest side-street for cover. Another dead-end."




"Predictably the black car....led us to the trap....I'm quite clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot...."




"The UN duly drove back past us, witnessed us surrounded by shouting militia, and left town."




"Please, do not for one moment believe that my experience with the rebels....was a one-off."




Human rights lawyer Nawaf al Thani tweeted him. He was also set up. Thomson believes so have others getting too close to insurgents.




"In a war where they slit the throats of toddlers back to the spine, what's the big deal in sending a van full of journalist into the killing zone" to die?”




On June 8, a New York Times editorial headlined "Assad, the Butcher," saying:




Qubeir was "the fourth massacre in two weeks."




"Despite his claims that the violence is the work of 'terrorists,' (Assad) has a lot to hide. On Thursday, Syrian troops and pro-government supporters barred the monitors from Qubeir, and the monitors were fired upon."




Fact check




Insurgents fired on monitors, not Assad forces. It wasn't the first time and won't be the last. Earlier, observer head General Robert Mood had a close call.




He could have been killed but said little. The incident passed. It's forgotten. Maybe it warned him to support pro-Western forces, not Assad.




It happened again. On May 9, Reuters headlined "Syria rebels kill 7, bomb explodes near UN monitors," saying:




Eight Syrian soldiers were wounded. They were escorting UN monitors. Mood led them. He downplayed the incident, saying:




"The important thing is not speculating about who was the target, what was the target, but to make the point that this is what the Syrian people are seeing every day and it needs to stop."




Speaking forthrightly might help. Downplaying attacks that could have killed him betrays his mandate. So does not naming responsible parties.




Assad forces were protecting him. Insurgents attacked. Twice he escaped unharmed. Maybe next time he won't be as lucky.




As explained above, monitors went to Qubeir. They were delayed but not deterred. Neither were journalists accompanying them.




According to Times-think, Annan's peace plan "g(ave) Russia, China and some other" Security Council members "six more weeks to excuse their inaction."




Russia and China are "complicit in more than 12,000 Syrian deaths....A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman was still in a fantasy world on Friday, calling on both sides in the conflict to stop the fighting."




"....Washington needs to marshal all of the pressure and shaming it can find" to get both countries to bend.




Fact check




Moscow and Beijing reject foreign intervention. They understand Washington's regime change plans. They don't want Syria to replicate Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. They support conflict resolution, not more war.




They have no blood on their hands. Obama's are irreparably stained. Scoundrel media share guilt. Promoting bloodshed is unconscionable.




"With every new atrocity, calls for military action grow."




The Times effectively endorsed it. Imperial interests alone matter. Mass killing followed by more of it is a small price to pay. Who's keeping count?




A same day Washington Post editorial headlined "The UN's Syria disaster," saying:




"THIS MAY BE remembered as the week in which the illusion that the bloodshed in Syria could be stopped by United Nations diplomats was destroyed once and for all. Inside the country, the killing sharply and sickeningly accelerated."




These type comments come perilously close to endorsing war.




Regime change "in Syria" depends on "Assad (being) confronted with irresistible force."




This one crosses the line.




How long Russia and China can prevent what looks certain remains unclear. They're trying. On June 8, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said:




"There will not be a Security Council mandate for outside intervention, I guarantee you that."




"There are sides in the Syria conflict, especially the so called (opposition) Syrian National Council, who are saying no negotiations with the regime, only continued armed battle until the Security Council gives a mandate for outside intervention."




"Either we gather everyone with influence at the negotiating table or once again we depart into ideology... where it is declared shamelessly that everything is the fault of the regime, while everyone else are angels and therefore the regime should be changed."




On June 9, SANA state media reported Syrian UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari saying Qubeir killings occurred hours before armed clashes happened. He added that Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabia, and other media aired fake videos.




"The Syrian TVs will air the true images of the massacre," he explained. "The instigative media channels have taken to airing such fabrications before the UN Security Council meetings."




Responsible gunmen came from Jreijes village. Residents called police for help.




"What is taking place in some parts of Syria is an unjustifiable heinous massacre, but some statements made during this session are part of the butchery, since the diagnosis of the situation is incorrect as it is based on political and media operation rooms that are detached from the situation on the ground."




"The Syrian government extends a hand of reconciliation with all political powers whose hands are clear of the Syrian blood to reach the shores of safety we all spire to."




"Are suicide bombings that targeted Syria acts in self-defense? Are attacks on hospitals, medical staffs and schools democratic (acts)?''




On June 9, Press TV reported that insurgents attacked Damascus infrastructure. A power station was shelled. Blackouts followed.




"Gunmen have also reportedly targeted military units charged with protecting an oilfield in" Dayr al-Zawr.




Car bombs killed police and civilians in Damascus. Another one killed police in Idlib.




Insurgents bear full responsibility for months of violence. Assad is right calling them "outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups." He also said unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.




The buck stops in Washington. Media scoundrels share blame. Don't they always?




A Final Comment




On June 8, DEBKAfile said Moscow "flatly rejected (Obama's) proposal to post 5,000 armed UN monitors in Syria, most of them Russian troops, as the core of a new plan to resolve the Syrian crisis."




DF said Russia is getting more hardline. Talks aren't being held to replace Assad. Annan's peace plan failed. It wasn't designed to succeed.




Washington's mission to Moscow reached a "dead end." The "Syrian conflict and Iranian nuclear controversy are becoming inextricably intermeshed."




P5+1 countries are "seriously considering not turning up for their third round of nuclear talks in Moscow on June 18 - 19."




DF also says "Russia is prepared to use military power to defend Iran and Syria."




Last February, Russia Today interviewed Colonel-General (ret.) Leonid Ivashov. He's a former Russian Joint Chiefs of Staff member.




He said maneuvers conducted at the time were meant to "demonstrate Russia's readiness to use military power to defend its national interests and to bolster its political position."




Iran and Syria are allies, he said. They're "guaranteed partners of Russia."




"A strike against" either country "is an indirect strike against Russia and its interests. Russia would lose important positions and allies in the Arab world. Therefore, by defending Syria (and Iran), Russia is defending its own interests."




He added that Russia is "defending the entire world from Fascism. Everybody should acknowledge that Fascism is making strides on our planet. What they did in Libya is nearly identical to what Hitler and his armies did against Poland and then Russia. Today, therefore, Russia is defending the entire world from Fascism."




On June 4, DF said Obama this fall plans to implement "an embargo on aircraft and sea vessels visiting Iranian ports. Any national airline or international aircraft (entering) Iran will be barred from US and West European airports."




The same holds for "private and government-owned vessels, including oil tankers."




Obama keeps advancing the ball closer to war. First Syria, then Iran, then other targeted states.




Canadian psychiatrist Robert Hare describes psychopathic behavior clinically. He said 10% on Wall Street exhibit it. It holds for Obama, top administration officials, and congressional party leaders.




They're amoral, deceitful, manipulative, and completely self-interested. They breach social and legal standards. They suffer no guilt. They exhibit callous unconcern for others.




They disregard safety and can't maintain long-term relationships. They're anti-social and have no sense of moral responsibility. They're "without conscience." Clinically, they're psychopathic. "(T)heir game is self-gratification at" the expense of others.




They're all take and no give. They flagrantly violate societal rules. They're psychopathically vicious. They're indifferent to human suffering.




Hare stressed that "if we can't spot them, we are doomed to be their victims, both as individuals and as a society."




Perhaps he had George Bush, Dick Cheney, Obama, Romney, and other amoral hawks in mind.




Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.




His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"




http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html




Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.




http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

US Intervention in Syria by Stephen Lendman

US Intervention in Syria by Stephen Lendman

Email: lendmanstephen (nospam) sbcglobal.net (verified) 30 Apr 2011
imperialism

US Intervention in Syria - by Stephen Lendman

Despite genuine popular Middle East/North Africa uprisings, Washington's dirty hands orchestrated regime change plans in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Jordan, and Syria as part of its "New Middle East" project.

On November 18, 2006, Middle East analyst Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya's Global Research article headlined, "Plans for Redrawing the Middle East: The Project for a 'New Middle East,' " saying:

In June 2006 in Tel Aviv, "US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice (first) coin(ed) the term" in place of the former "Greater Middle East" project, a shift in rhetoric only for Washington's longstanding imperial aims.

The new terminology "coincided with the inauguration of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Oil Terminal in the Eastern Mediterranean." During Israel's summer 2006 Lebanon war, "Prime Minister Olmert and (Rice) informed the international media that a project for a 'New Middle East' was being launched in Lebanon," a plan in the works for years to "creat(e) an arc of instability, chaos, and violence extending from Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria to Iraq, the Persian Gulf, Iran, and the borders of NATO-garrisoned Afghanistan."

In other words, "constructive chaos" would be used to redraw the region according to US-Israeli "geo-strategic needs and objectives." The strategy is currently playing out violently in Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria, and may erupt anywhere in the region to solidify Washington's aim for unchallengeable dominance from Morocco to Oman to Syria.

Partnered with Israel, it's to assure only leaders fully "with the program" are in place. Mostly isn't good enough, so ones like Mubarak, Gaddafi, Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, likely Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh (now damaged goods), and Syria's Bashar al-Assad are targeted for removal by methods ranging from uprisings to coups, assassinations, or war, perhaps in that order.

Nazemroaya now says Syrian "protesters are being armed and funded by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states via Jordan and Saad Hariri in Lebanon," besides US and Israeli involvement.

Pack Journalism Goes to War with Washington

America's pack journalism never met an America imperial initiative it didn't support and promote, no matter how lawless, mindless, destructive or counterproductive. For example, an April 28 New York Times editorial headlined, "President Assad's Crackdown," saying:

He "appears determined to join his father in the ranks of history's blood-stained dictators, sending his troops and thugs to murder anyone who has the courage to demand political freedom."

Whether about Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, Haiti's Aristide, former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, Venezuela's Chavez or others for many decades, Times "journalists" and opinion writers have a sordid history of supporting America's imperial ruthlessness, including perpetual wars killing millions for power, profit, and unchallengeable dominance.

Now Times writers laud Obama for intervening in Libya and trying "to engage Syria....in hopes that Mr. Assad would make the right choice," meaning get "with the program" by surrendering Syrian sovereignty.

Despite clear evidence of US intervention, Obama "issued a statement condemning the violence and accusing Mr. Assad of seeking Iranian assistance in brutalizing his people. That is a start, but it is not nearly enough."

War is always a last choice so The Times endorses "international condemnation and tough sanctions, (as well as) asset freezes and travel bans for Mr. Assad and his top supporters and a complete arms embargo."

However, "Russia and China, as ever, are determined to protect autocrats. That cannot be the last word."

Times opinions are shamelessly belligerent, one-sided, wrong-headed, and mindless on rule of law issues, including about prohibitions against meddling in the internal affairs of other countries except in self-defense until the Security Council acts.

Instead, the "newspaper of record" remains America's leading managed news source, backing the worst of Washington's imperial arrogance and ruthlessness. As a result, it omits inconvenient facts to make its case, including America's notorious ties to numerous global despots on every continent.

WikiLeaks Released Cables Expose America's Regime Change Plan

Though widely reported since mid-April, The Times hasn't acknowledged information (though sketchy) from Washington Post writer Craig Whitlock's April 17 report headlined, "US secretly backed Syrian opposition groups, cables released by WikiLeaks show," saying:

Through its Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), "The State Department has secretly financed Syrian political opposition groups and related projects, including a satellite TV channel (London-based Barada TV) that beams anti-government programming into the country, according to previously undisclosed diplomatic cables."

"Barada TV is closely affiliated with the Movement for Justice and Development, a London-based network of (pro-Western) Syrian exiles."

Funding began at least after the Bush administration cut ties with Damascus in 2005. In April 2009, a diplomatic cable from Damascus said:

"A reassessment of current US-sponsored programming that supports anti-(government) factions, both inside and outside Syria, may prove productive."

In February 2006, Bush officials announced funding to "accelerate the work of reformers in Syria." Nonetheless, Barada TV denied receiving money, its news director Malik al-Abdeh saying:

"I'm not aware of anything like that. If your purpose is to smear Barada TV, I don't want to continue this conversation. That's all I'm going to give you."

America's National Endowment for Democracy: A Global Regime Change Initiative

Besides covert CIA activities, US-government funded organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and International Republican Institute (IRI) operate as US foreign policy destabilizing instruments. They do it by supporting opposition group regime change efforts in countries like Syria, despite claiming "dedicat(ion) to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world....in more than 90 countries."

In MENA nations (Middle East/North Africa) alone, NED's web site lists activities in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Yemen, Kuwait, Morocco, Lebanon, Bahrain, Libya, Sudan, and Syria.

The IRI's web site includes (destabilizing anti-democratic) initiatives in Afghanistan, Egypt, GCC states, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, and Palestine.

Other US imperial organizations are also regionally active, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), operating contrary to their stated missions.

In January 1996, based on firsthand knowledge, former CIA agent (from 1952 - 1977) Ralph McGehee discussed covert NED efforts in Cuba, China, Russia and Vietnam, saying:

The government-funded organization "assumed many of the political action responsibilities of the CIA," including:

-- "efforts to influence foreign journalists;"

-- money laundering;

-- isolating "democratic-minded intellectuals and journalist in the third world;"

-- distributing propaganda articles "to regional editors on each continent;"

-- "disseminating an attack on people in Jamaica;"

-- funding anti-Castro groups in South Florida as well as Radio and TV Marti, airing regime change propaganda;

-- anti-communist grants; and

-- much more while claiming its mission is "guided by the belief that freedom is a universal human aspiration that can be realized through the development of democratic institutions, procedures and values."

In a 2005 interview, another former CIA agent (1957 - 1968), Philip Agee, author of "Inside the Company," explained NED's origins and covert efforts to destabilize and oust Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, calling efforts "similar to what (went on) in Nicaragua in the 1980s minus the Contra terrorist operations (that) wreaked so much destruction on the Nicaraguan economy."

Founded in 1982, NED distributes government funds to four other organizations, including the IRI, NDI, Chamber of Commerce's Center for Private Enterprise (CIPE), and the AFL-CIO's American Center for International Labor Solidarity.

In fact, a 2010 Kim Scipes book titled, "AFL-CIO's Secret War against Developing Country Workers: Solidarity or Sabotage?" discusses its covert anti-worker "labor imperialism," including regime change initiatives.

Manipulated Popular Uprising in Syria

Since late January, popular uprisings began, suspiciously orchestrated by outside forces to destabilize and oust Assad. In fact, Richard Perle's 1996 "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," prepared for Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu during his first term, stated:

"Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq - an important Israeli objective in its own right."

It added:

"Syria challenges Israel on Lebanese soil. An affective approach, and one with which America can sympathize, would be if Israel seized the strategic initiative along its northern borders by engaging Hizbollah, Syria, and Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon...."

"Given the nature of the regime in Damascus (much the same today), it is both natural and moral that Israel abandon the slogan comprehensive peace and move to contain Syria, drawing attention to its weapons of mass destruction programs, and rejecting land for peace deals on the Golan Heights," Syrian territory colonized by Israel since 1967.

Perle's report was a destabilization and regime change manifesto, implemented in Iraq, Libya, elsewhere in the region, and now Syria. The strategy includes managed news, funding internal and external dissident groups, and other initiatives to oust leaders like Assad.

On March 30, 2011, Haaretz writer Zvi Bar'el headlined "Why did website linked to Syria regime publish US-Saudi plan to oust Assad?" saying:

"According to the report....the plan was formulated in 2008 by the Saudi national security advisor, Prince Bandar bin Sultan and Jeffrey Feltman, a veteran US diplomat in the Middle East who was formerly ambassador to Lebanon and is currently the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs."

Dividing Syria into large cities, towns and villages, the plan involved "establishing five recruitment networks," using unemployed youths, criminals, other young people, and media efforts "funded by European countries but not" America, as well as a "capital network of businesspeople from the large cities."

Training included "sniper fire, arson, and murdering in cold blood," journalists reporting it by hard to monitor satellite phones depicting "human rights activists....demanding not the regime's fall," but need for social networks training "as a means for recruitment."

"After the recruitment and training phases, which would be funded by Saudi Arabia for about $2 billion," thousands of "activists" would be given communications equipment to begin public actions. "The plan also suggest(ed) igniting ethnic tensions between groups around the country to stir unrest," including in Damascus "to convince the military leadership to disassociate itself from Assad and establish a new regime."

"The hoped-for outcome is the establishment of a supreme national council that will run the country and terminate Syria's relations with Iran and Hezbollah."

The Jordan-based Dot and Com company was named as the behind the scenes recruiter, a company run by Saudi intelligence under Bandar to destabilize Syria and oust Assad.

Whether or not the plan was implemented, some of its features are now playing out violently across the country. Orchestrated in Washington, it's to install a totally "with the program" regime, the same war strategy ongoing in Libya.

A Final Comment

On April 28, Russia and China blocked a US-backed UK, French, German and Portugal proposed Security Council resolution condemning Syrian violence. Damascus' UN ambassador, Bashar Ja'arari, said it failed because several members were fair-minded enough to reject it, knowing Libya's fate after Resolution 1973, calling only for no-fly zone protection.

UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe reported about 400 deaths so far. Other estimates are higher. Russian, Chinese and Syrian representatives say government security forces killed by armed extremists are among them. According to RT.com:

"Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry had clearly outlined its position: it condemned all those responsible for the deaths of protesters during the clashes with the police. But, it urged (no intervention) in Syria's internal affairs," that could easily escalate to Western regime change plans.

Federation Council to the Asian Parliamentary Assembly, Rudik Iskuzhin, believes Syrian intervention may mean Iran is next, saying:

"We very well understand that the hidden motive of all of the recent revolutionary processes is Iran, to which the destabilization in Syria will eventually ricochet. Libya, just like Syria, was an important ally of" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Western powers and Israel want the alliance subverted.

On April 29, China ruled out force against Syria, Foreign Affairs Ministry Vice-Minister He Yafei saying it "cannot bring a solution to the problem and will only cause a greater humanitarian crisis." Insisting proposed solutions comply with the UN Charter and international law, he added:

"Any help from the international community has to be constructive in nature, which is conducive to the restoration of stability and public order and ensuring the maintenance of economic and social life."

American intervention assures "constructive chaos," the agenda Washington pursues globally, focusing mainly on controlling Eurasia's enormous wealth and resources. Either one or multiple countries at a time, it includes turning Russia and China into vassal states, a goal neither Beijing or Moscow will tolerate.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen (at) sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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