The Spreaders of Jihad

[alanjjohnstone]

Jim W. Dean is the managing editor of the Veterans Today, an online foreign policy and military affairs journal. According to Jim W. Dean, the United States , UK , France and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf that have engaged in a long-fought war against Syria have a variety of motives for trying to dismantle and bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad. “As for a motive, the West wants to cut off arms supply routes through Syria to Hezbollah and to be able to stage bases in Northern Syrian for offense against Iran both with planes and missiles. That is the military reason. They also want to block Iran's long term pipeline access to the Mediterranean Sea that way, in case Turkey had a change of heart over running the lines into their system. And the Saudis and Qatar both want a land route to the Mediterranean over territory they effectively control,”   http://www.countercurrents.org/ziabari210713.htm

[alanjjohnstone]

Britain has said it believes forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad were responsible for a chemical weapons attacks in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, saying the Syrian government had "something to hide". "I know that some people in the world would like to say that this is some kind of conspiracy brought about by the opposition in Syria," said the foreign secretary, William Hague, on Friday. "I think the chances of that are vanishingly small and so we do believe that this is a chemical attack by the Assad regime." Again the main media has this story prominently placed but none had the temerity to actually ask Hague what evidence he has for such a statement.  Again we are being faced with a nation’s reluctance to permit UN inspectors a free reign as a reason for escalation.  Hague,s reference to conspiracy theories led me to recall Blair’s 2003 dismissal of the war for oil motive in Iraq as a “conspiracy theory” What was that Marx said about history repeating itself, first as tragedy then as farce…unfortunately i am not laughing at the Syrian suffering

[alanjjohnstone]

Again i have to go to the right wing press for a reasoned article on Syria where as the BBC , the Guardian and the Independent continue to beat the war drums http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2013/08/before-we-bomb-syria-shouldnt-we-seek-proof-of-guilt-.html

[alanjjohnstone]

Qatar transporting Libyan weaponry to Syrian rebels http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/09/16/324324/libya-weapons-smuggled-into-syria-un/ "On June 21, a report by The New York Times said evidence collected in Syria together with flight control data and interviews with militia members, smugglers, militants, analysts and officials in several countries attest to the fact that a great deal of effort, spearheaded and financed by Qatar, is underway to transport arms from Libya to foreign-backed militants in Syria."

[alanjjohnstone]

We are assured by the US/UK that the moderates in the Syrian Free Army are in charge. The Free Syrian Army is driven out of Aziz, a town on the Turkish border. Several of their men are killed, perhaps as many as 100 captured by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, the most hardline group linked to al-Qaeda on the rebel side. We are assured that the resistance is home-spun.  It's claimed that two Muhajireen fighters were killed a Tunisian and a Libyan, the senior jihadi commander in the area, said to be a Kuwaiti – ordered the attack. We are assured it is about democracy. The most extreme jihadi groups have taken a position that Western journalists are spies to acquire new targeting information for drone and missile strikes against them. A jihadist forum announced that "journalists are the enemy to the mujahideen in Syria and globally". Any Western journalists should be arrested and punished according to Sharia. The border crossings into Turkey provide a lucrative income from smuggling and stealing from aid shipments. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24160189

[ALB]

It appears that the most non-jihadist "moderate" rebels are members of …. the Muslim Brotherhood:

Quote:

Syria, where the main component of the opposition is the Muslim Brotherhood

I don't know how accurate this report is but I wouldn't be surprised.

[alanjjohnstone]

Washington Post reports that  "Foreign fighters man checkpoints, serve as commanders on the battlefield and have become the de facto rulers of towns and cities in areas under rebel control, giving them a visible and much-feared presence across large swaths of territory, according to Syrians living in the north as well as analysts. Saudis, Tunisians and Libyans are among the most frequently encountered nationalities, the residents and analysts say, but men from Chechnya, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates also are present. The Pakistani Taliban announced in August that it had established a presence in Syria. Among those killed in recent battles was a Moroccan commander who had spent years as a prisoner of the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay"http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/foreign-extremists-dominate-syria-fight/2013/10/01/5871685e-2ae7-11e3-b141-298f46539716_story.html?wprss=rss_middle-east

[ALB]

It appears(though not sure how reliable this source is, but it was also reported in the papers yesterday) that the rebels in Syria are now just rival brands of fanatical Islamists striving to impose their brutal rule on the people of Syria, particularly on women (Saudi Arabia is financing and arming one of these gangs) and minorities:http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-the-army-of-islam-saudi-arabias-greatest-export/5352638Talk about out of the frying pan into the fire.

[alanjjohnstone]

The fears of the Alawites and the blind eye of the Western media.http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/10/the-alawites-fact-fiction-and-fear/

[ALB]

Here's an SWP article from last year supporting Islamists (against secularists). The idiots.http://socialistworker.co.uk/art/27973/Egypt%3A+Faith+in+the+revolt

[ALB]

Here's how things are for women in Saudi Arabia, the main supporters financially and with arms, of the Syrian rebels:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24658753Is this the sort of regime that its mercenaries in Syria will be imposing on the people there if they manage to overthrow the government? And there are some Trotskyist groups who still back the rebels in this civil war.This said, Saudi Arabia's interest in Syria will be more strategic than religious: they want to weaken Iran, their main rival for regional hegemony, by overthrowing a regime sympathetic to the regime in Tehran.

[alanjjohnstone]

The extremist Wahabbist regime of Saudi Arabia is stepping up its intervention in Syria by creating a proxy army.  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/07/syria-crisis-saudi-arabia-spend-millions-new-rebel-force  Saudi Arabia is preparing to spend millions of dollars to arm and train thousands of Syrian fighters in a new national rebel force. Sources say the intensifying Saudi effort is focused on Jaysh al-Islam (the Army of Islam or JAI), created in late September by a union of 43 Syrian groups. It is being billed as a significant new player on the fragmented rebel scene. The Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, is also pressing the US to drop its objections to supplying anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles to the JAI. Jordan is being urged to allow its territory to be used as a supply route into neighbouring Syria.  Said one senior western official. "It's a political step. These new rebel formations seem to be relabelling themselves and creating new leadership structures. It's part of a quite parochial political game – and above all a competition for resources." "The Saudis and Qataris lack the means to shape insurgent groups," suggested Thomas Pierret of Edinburgh University. "They have a lot of money but very poor intelligence and human resources and organisational skills. They are very dependent on the western military. They are too used to having relationships with clients and using personal networks. "That's why they've been forced to turn to Syrian groups which already have military credibility. They are becoming less selective and more realistic and putting aside their reservations about who they support. But I doubt they are able to unify the whole thing. The Saudis say 'you should unite and we will give you money.' But some will end up getting more money than others and the coalition will break apart."

[alanjjohnstone]

Syria's genuine sincere rebel activists give up.  http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024008029 But he believes that his message, unpopular among his revolutionary colleagues, is one they need to hear — that their revolution has ended; that a dangerous wave of Islamic extremism has welled up in its place; that they should work to stop the fighting now; and that if they can’t, they should hope it’s Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who wins… "…  For too long on the ground, there was too much focus on the crimes the regime was committing and not enough on our own problems. And addressing these problems was always being delayed….we would say it would all end soon — Assad is going to fall in two weeks; Assad is going to fall in a month; Assad’s going to fall in Aleppo. At each moment, we thought it was going to end very soon, and that meant we were neglecting the mistakes that were being made (among the revolution). We were thinking, OK, the regime’s going to fall, and we can solve this later. We just need to get rid of Assad. This was a big mistake…"   http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/confessions-of-a-syrian-activist-i-want-assad-to-win 

[alanjjohnstone]

Another story about disillusioned rebels fearful of the jihadists. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/18/syria-revolution-civil-war-conflict-rivalry "I need Bashar [al-Assad] to last for two more years," said the businessman. "It would be a disaster if the regime fell now: we would split into mini-states that would fight among each other. We'll be massacring each other – tribes, Islamists and battalions…"

[J Surman]

There's a very interesting and pertinent article here:http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/15078/syria%E2%80%99s-kurds-and-turkeydiscussing the impact of the strength of the Syrian Kurds in the north (bordering Turkey and Iraq) fighting the mostly foreign 'rebels', independently of the Syrian army. They've been left to their own devices for some time now and have a semi-autonomous area, even in control of non-kurdish areas. The writer muses about the possible / probable repercussions for Turkey. The Turkish/Kurdish 'peace talks' have pretty well stalled again and it's anyone's guess where this is headed now.

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