URGENT: NATO Preparing Psy-Op in Syria

November 29, 2012
Land Destroyer 

Internet connections & telecom reportedly failing across Syria, right as NATO has finished preparing their proxy “SNC” and "FSA", and readies for final push.
In early summer, NATO had attempted to overwhelm Damascus and Aleppo with a torrent of psychological operations, communication disruptions, foreign terrorists crossing Syria's borders, and a devastating assassination of top Syrian officials in the heart of Damascus. The idea was to cause panic, division, mass defections and fold the Syrian state when in reality, it was more than able to fight on. Syria called the bluff and here it still stands.

With the Israel-Gaza charade concluded, it was reported that NATO would pivot back toward Syria - and it has. It has handpicked a new proxy-regime (the newly formed Syrian Oppisition) to act as the face of the terrorists battling Syrian civilians and soldiers alike within the country, while it has been conducting a concerted and refocused propaganda campaign to paint the Syrian government as once again, "imminently about to fall." 

Reports are now trickling in that communications are failing across the country and another attempt at a Libyan-style "Mermaid Dawn" is being made by NATO and its terrorist proxies inside Syria. The hope is, that after several months more of terrorism, threats, sanctions, and pressure put on the border by both Israel on the Golan Heights, and Turkey along Syria's north, that this time the trick might work.

If operations are not already in progress, they will be soon, and one must recall historical instances when this tactic has been used before so as to recognize it when it is tried again. 

Reposted below, is Thierry Meyssan's June 2012 warning regarding NATO psychological operations - and the information is as relevant "now" as ever.
Inside Syria, unity and resilience is more important now than ever. 

"Thierry Meyssan
voltairenet.org
June 12, 2012

In a few days, perhaps as early as Friday, June 15, at noon, the Syrians wanting to watch their national TV stations will see them replaced on their screens by TV programs created by the CIA. Studio-shot images will show massacres that are blamed on the Syrian Government, people demonstrating, ministers and generals resigning from their posts, President Al-Assad fleeing, the rebels gathering in the big city centers, and a new government installing itself in the presidential palace.

This operation of disinformation, directly managed from Washington by Ben Rhodes, the US deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, aims at demoralizing the Syrians in order to pave the way for a coup d’etat. NATO, discontent about the double veto of Russia and China, will thus succeed in conquering Syria without attacking the country illegally. Whichever judgment you might have formed on the actual events in Syria, a coup d’etat will end all hopes of democratization. 

The Arab League has officially asked the satellite operators Arabsat and Nilesat to stop broadcasting Syrian media, either public or private (Syria TV, Al-Ekbariya, Ad-Dounia, Cham TV, etc.) A precedent already exists because the Arab League had managed to censure Libyan TV in order to keep the leaders of the Jamahiriya from communicating with their people. There is no Hertz network in Syria, where TV works exclusively with satellites. The cut, however, will not leave the screens black.

Actually, this public decision is only the tip of the iceberg. According to our information several international meetings were organized during the past week to coordinate the disinformation campaign. The first two were technical meetings, held in Doha (Qatar); the third was a political meeting and took place in Riyad (Saudi Arabia).


The first meeting assembled PSYOP officers, embedded in the satellite TV channels of Al-Arabiya, Al-Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Fox, France 24, Future TV and MTV. It is known that since 1998, the officers of the US Army Psychological Operations Unit (PSYOP) have been incorporated in CNN. Since then this practice has been extended by NATO to other strategic media as well.

They fabricated false information in advance, on the basis of a “story-telling” script devised by Ben Rhodes’s team at the White House. A procedure of reciprocal validation was installed, with each media quoting the lies of the other media to render them plausible for TV spectators. The participants also decided not only to requisition the TV channels of the CIA for Syria and Lebanon (Barada, Future TV, MTV, Orient News, Syria Chaab, Syria Alghad) but also about 40 religious Wahhabi TV channels to call for confessional massacres to the cry of “Christians to Beyrouth, Alawites into the grave!.”

The second meeting was held for engineers and technicians to fabricate fictitious images, mixing one part in an outdoor studio, the other part with computer generated images. During the past weeks, studios in Saudi Arabia have been set up to build replicas of the two presidential palaces in Syria and the main squares of Damascus, Aleppo and Homs. Studios of this type already exist in Doha (Qatar), but they are not sufficient.
The third meeting was held by General James B. Smith, the US ambassador, a representative of the UK, prince Bandar Bin Sultan (whom former U.S. president George Bush named his adopted son so that the U.S. press called him “Bandar Bush”). In this meeting the media actions were coordinated with those of the Free "Syrian" Army, in which prince Bandar’s mercenaries play a decisive role.

The operation had been in the making for several months, but the U.S. National Security Council decided to accelerate the action after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, notified the White House that he would oppose by all means, even by force, any illegal NATO military intervention in Syria.
The operation has a double intent: the first is to spread false information, the second aims at censuring all possible responses.

The hampering of TV satellites for military purposes is not new. Under pressure from Israel, the USA and the EU blocked Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi, Libyan and Iranian TV channels, one after the other. However, no satellite channels from other parts of the world were censured."

The broadcast of false news is also not new, but four significant steps have been taken in the art of propaganda during the last decade. 

• In 1994, a pop music station named “Free Radio of the Thousand Hills” (RTML) gave the signal for genocide in Rwanda with the cry, “Kill the cockroaches!” 
• In 2001, NATO used the media to impose an interpretation of the 9/11 attacks and to justify its own aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq. At that time already, it was Ben Rhodes who had been commissioned by the Bush administration to concoct the Kean/Hamilton Commission report on the attacks. 
• In 2002, the CIA used five TV channels (Televen, Globovision, ValeTV and CMT) to make the public in Venezuela believe that phantom demonstrators had captured the elected president, Hugo Chávez, forcing him to resign. In reality he was the victim of a military coup d’etat. 
• In 2011, France 24 served as information ministry for the Libyan CNT, according to a signed contract. During the battle of Tripoli, NATO produced fake studio films, then transmitted them via Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, showing phantom images of Libyan rebels on the central square of the capital city, while in reality they were still far away. As a consequence, the inhabitants of Tripoli were persuaded that the war was lost and gave up all resistance.

Nowadays the media do not only support a war, they produce it themselves.

This procedure violates the principles of International Law, first of all Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights relating to the fact of receiving and imparting information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Above all, the procedure violates the United Nations General Assembly resolution, adopted after the end of World War II, to prevent further wars. Resolutions 110, 381 and 819 forbid “to set obstacles to free exchange of information and ideas” (like cutting off Syrian TV channels) and “all propaganda provoking or encouraging threats to peace, breaking peace, and all acts of aggression”. By law, war propaganda is a crime against peace, the worst of crimes, because it facilitates war crimes and genocide.

Western-backed Terrorists in Syria Slaughter Civilians in Bombing

Tony Cartalucci
Infowars.com
Nov 28, 2012

Twin car bombs carried out by the Western-backed so-called “rebels” have killed dozens of civilians in a Christian-Druze neighborhood in Damascus, highlighting the sectarian extremism, not “democratic” aspirations, as well as the level of depravity, driving opponents of the Syrian government. Immediately after the explosions, and as casualty figures began trickling in, Associated Press (AP) attempted to spin and downplay the act of terrorism, claiming in its report, “Twin car bombs kill 20 in Syria, hospitals say,” that:

“Syrian hospital officials say twin car bombs have killed at least 20 people in a Damascus suburb that is mostly loyal to President Bashar Assad.”

Excusing egregious acts of terrorism aimed at Syria’s civilian population by claiming those targeted were “mostly loyal to President Bashar Assad” has been a favorite tactic of AP, BBC, CNN, Fox News, and others. In reality, the vast majority of Syrians, from Christians to Druze, from Shia’a Muslims to moderate Sunnis, are targets of the sectarian extremist, Saudi-Wahhabi indoctrinated terrorists the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia have been funding, arming, importing from across the region, and arraying against the people of Syria since at least 2007.

The terrorists in Syria have recently received a boost by the West, arranging for them a political front in Doha, Qatar to act as the reasonable “face” for their armed terrorism, portraying the premeditated destabilization by foreign terrorists as an indigenous struggle for “freedom and democracy.” Already, even that front has suffered setbacks, as its newly US-Qatari appointed leader, Moaz al-Khatib, has been revealed as not only involved with Western oil corporations, but also has declared on Al Jazeera his intentions of establishing an “Islamic state.”

Clearly, blowing up a neighborhood full of Christians and Druze would fall in line with just such a plan, driving yet more of Syria’s diverse population beyond its borders to live as permanent refugees – not with alleged plans of “freeing” the country, or gracing a multicultural society that has lived together for centuries with “democracy.”

To reiterate, the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia had planned as far back as 2007 to specifically use sectarian extremists to overrun and overthrow Syria. This was revealed in a report published by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Seymour Hersh, titled “The Redirection.” Citing US, Saudi, and Lebanese officials, as well as former US intelligence agents, Hersh reported:

“To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.” -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

Hersh’s report would also include:

“the Saudi government, with Washington’s approval, would provide funds and logistical aid to weaken the government of President Bashir Assad, of Syria. The Israelis believe that putting such pressure on the Assad government will make it more conciliatory and open to negotiations.” -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

Clearly, that is exactly what is playing out now in Syria, despite the Western media’s best efforts to portray otherwise. The US Army’s own reports indicate that very hotbeds of violence in Syria today, match precisely with 2007 identified Al Qaeda-Muslim Brotherhood epicenters that were supplying terrorists to Iraq to fuel similarly deadly sectarian violence there.

Image: (Left) West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center’s 2007 report, “Al-Qa’ida’s Foreign Fighters in Iraq” indicated which areas in Syria Al Qaeda fighters filtering into Iraq came from. The overwhelming majority of them came from Dayr Al-Zawr in Syria’s southeast, Idlib in the north near the Turkish-Syrian border, and Dar’a in the south near the Jordanian-Syrian border. (Right) A map indicating the epicenters of violence in Syria indicate that the exact same hotbeds for Al Qaeda in 2007, now serve as the epicenters of so-called “pro-democracy fighters.”

Additionally, the sectarian nature of these Western-backed terrorists was also warned against in Hersh’s 2007 report, specifically noting that if the plan went ahead, a sectarian bloodbath would ensue – and those hit hardest would include the Levant’s Christian populations. Hersh would report:

“Robert Baer, a former longtime C.I.A. agent in Lebanon, has been a severe critic of Hezbollah and has warned of its links to Iranian-sponsored terrorism. But now, he told me, “we’ve got Sunni Arabs preparing for cataclysmic conflict, and we will need somebody to protect the Christians in Lebanon. It used to be the French and the United States who would do it, and now it’s going to be Nasrallah and the Shiites” -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

Clearly this threat has now expanded over to neighboring Syria’s Christian populations. Western-backed terrorism has already targeted Christians across Syria, as reported in the LA Times’ “Church fears ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Christians in Homs, Syria,” as well as in USA Today’s distorted, but still telling, “Christians in Syria live in uneasy alliance with Assad, Alawites.” With the recent bombing of a Christian-Druze neighborhood in Damascus to add to the list, it is clear a concerted campaign of genocide is aimed at Syria’s many minorities by Western-backed sectarian extremists – on record, purposefully arrayed against Syria for this very purpose.

Image: Libyan Mahdi al-Harati of the US State Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf)-listed terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), addressing fellow terrorists in Syria. Harati is now commanding a Libyan brigade operating inside of Syria attempting to destroy the Syrian government and subjugate the Syrian population. Traditionally, this is known as “foreign invasion.”

The silence of the UN, as well as the continued covering up by Western media agencies regarding this premeditated genocide is an egregious crime against humanity, one becoming increasingly difficult to cover up. The fraud of NATO’s Libya intervention is now fully revealed, with Libya’s “freedom fighters” exposed as Al Qaeda thrust into power by Western arms, cash, and diplomatic recognition. In Syria, before the legitimate ruling government has been destroyed, the West’s “freedom fighters” are now revealed for what they truly are.

PA sends draft upgrade resolution to UN

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has submitted a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly asking for upgrading of Palestine’s status at the UN to “observer state” from “observer entity.”

The acting PA Chief, Mahmoud Abbas sent the 316-worded resolution late Monday, ahead of his departure to New York to attend the General Assembly, which would vote on the bid on Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. 

Palestinians need a majority vote from the assembly’s 193 members to win the bid and currently as many as 130 nations, which already recognize Palestine as a sovereign state, are in favor of the upgrade. 

The PA cites Israel’s continued aggression against Palestinians and Tel Aviv’s settlement activities on the Occupied Palestinian Territories as the major reasons for its push for the upgrade.

The Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas has thrown its weight behind Abbas and welcomed the “step of going to the United Nations for state observer status.”

The observer state status will grant Palestinians access to UN agencies and the International Criminal Court where they could file complaints against Israel.

On Sunday, Abbas said he was “fully confident” that Palestinians could win the majority vote and secure the upgrade.

The United States and Israel, however, have spared no means for the past two years to stymie the Palestinians’ efforts towards upgrading Palestine’s status at the UN, arguing that it is only through negotiations with Israel that Palestinian statehood ambitions can yield.

The US blocked Palestine’s full membership bid at the UN Security Council last year, using its veto power.

In 2010, Israel broke down the talks after refusing to extend a moratorium on its settlement activities on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The draft reportedly calls for the resumption of the talks with Israel following the UN vote on the upgrade.

[http://presstv.com/detail/2012/11/27/274769/pa-sends-draft-upgrade-resolution-to-un/]

Rise Of The Great Pharaoh Morsi

SOURCE

Thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president clashed with his supporters in cities across the country Friday, burning several offices of the Muslim Brotherhood, in the most violent and widespread protests since Mohammed Morsi came to power, sparked by his move to grant himself sweeping powers.

The violence, which left 100 people injured, reflected the increasingly dangerous polarization in Egypt over what course it will take nearly two years after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Critics of Morsi accused him of seizing dictatorial powers with his decrees a day earlier that make him immune to judicial oversight and give him authority to take any steps against "threats to the revolution". On Friday, the president spoke before a crowd of his supporters massed in front of his palace and said his edits were necessary to stop a "minority" that was trying to block the goals of the revolution.

RELATED: Gaza conflict offers Egypt's new leader a defining 'moment,' but it's brief

"There are weevils eating away at the nation of Egypt," he said, pointing to old regime loyalists he accused of using money to fuel instability and to members of the judiciary who work under the "umbrella" of the courts to "harm the country."

Clashes between his opponents and members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood erupted in several cities. In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, anti-Morsi crowds attacked Brotherhood backers coming out of a mosque, raining stones and firecrackers on them. The Brothers held up prayer rugs to protect themselves and the two sides pelted each other with stones and chunks of marble, leaving at least 15 injured. The protesters then stormed a nearby Brotherhood office.

State TV reported that protesters burned offices of the Brotherhood's political arm in the Suez Canalcities of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said, east of Cairo.

In the capital Cairo, security forces pumped volleys of tear gas at thousands of pro-democracy protesters clashing with riot police on streets several blocks from Tahrir Square and in front of the nearby parliament building.

Tens of thousands of activists massed in Tahrir itself, denouncing Morsi and chanting "Leave, leave" and "Morsi is Mubarak ... Revolution everywhere." Many of them represented Egypt's upper-class, liberal elite, which have largely stayed out of protests in past months but were prominent in the streets during the anti-Mubarak uprising that began Jan. 25, 2011.

"We are in a state of revolution. He is crazy of he thinks he can go back to one-man rule," one protester, Sara Khalili, said of Morsi.

"If the Brotherhood's slogan is 'Islam is the solution' ours is 'submission is not the solution'," said Khalili, a mass communications professor at the American University in Cairo. "God does not call for submission to another man's will."

Frustration had been growing for months with Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, who came to office in June. Critics say the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he hails, has been moving to monopolize power and that he has done little to tackle mounting economic problems and continuing insecurity, much less carry out deeper reforms.

Morsi's supporters, in turn, say he has faced constant push-back from Mubarak loyalists and from the courts, where loyalists have a strong presence. The courts have been considering a string of lawsuits demanding the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated assembly writing the next constitution. The courts already dissolved a previous version of the assembly and the Brotherhood-led lower house of parliament.

Morsi made his move Thursday, at a time when he was bolstered by U.S. and international praise over his mediating of a cease-fire ending a week of battles between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Only a day earlier, Morsi had met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton just before the truce was announced.

Mustafa Kamel el-Sayyed, a Cairo University political science professor, said Morsi may be confident that the U.S. won't pressure him on his domestic moves. "The U.S. administration is happy to work with an Islamist government (that acts) in accordance with U.S. interests in the region, one of which is definitely the maintaining of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel" and protecting Israel's security.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday that Morsi's declarations "raise concern for many Egyptians and for the international community."

The U.S. calls for Egyptians to "resolve their differences over these important issues peacefully and through democratic dialogue," she said.

On Thursday, Morsi unilaterally issued amendments to the interim constitution that made all his decisions immune to judicial review or court orders. He gave similar protection to the constitutional panel and the upper house of parliament, which is dominated by the Brotherhood and also faced possible disbanding by the courts.

Morsi, who holds legislative as well as executive powers, also declared his power to take any steps necessary to prevent "threats to the revolution," public safety or the workings of state institutions. Rights activists warned that the vague — and unexplained — wording could give him even greater power than those Mubarak held under emergency laws throughout his rule.

The decree would be in effect until a new constitution is approved and parliamentary elections are held, not expected until the Spring.

The state media described Morsi's decree as a "corrective revolution," and supporters presented the move as the only way to break through the political deadlock preventing the adoption of a new constitution.

US Troops Promised To Be Deployed in Egypt

Israel and Palestine are momentarily at a ceasefire, but the potential reasoning behind the recess could have some real international implications. Israel’s Debka reports that the pause in fighting comes after the US promised to send troops to Sinai.

According to Debka, US troops will soon be en route to the Sinai peninsula, Egyptian territory in North Africa that’s framed by the Suez Canal on the West and Israel on the East. In its northeast most point, Sinai is but a stone’s throw from Palestinian-controlled Gaza, and according to Debka, Hamas fighters there have been relying on Iranian arms smugglers to supply them with weaponry by way of Egypt.

Debka reports this week that Sinai will soon be occupied by US troops, who were promised by President Barack Obama to Israel’s leaders as a condition that a ceasefire be called. Once deployed, the Americans will intervene with the rumored arms trade orchestrated by Iranians, ideally cutting off supplies for Hamas while at the same time serving as a thorn in the side of Iran.

“Once the missile and arms consignments depart Iranian ports or Libyan arms bazaars, Tehran has no direct control of their transit from point to point through Egypt until they reach Sinai and their Gaza destination,” Debka reports. “All the same, a US special forces operation against the Sinai segment of the Iranian smuggling route would count as the first overt American military strike against an Iranian military interest.”

The decision to send US troops to Sinai in exchange for a ceasefire was reportedly arranged early Wednesday morning after Pres. Obama made a deal over the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the days prior, Israel was relentless in targeting Gaza, killing more than 100 persons — including civilians — during a renewed assault on Hamas. A ceasefire has since been called after a week of fight, but more military action could soon occur, claims Israel, if the flow of weapons to Gaza is not stopped. Netanyahu has been adamant with his pleas for the United States to strike Iran in an effort to disrupt its nuclear enrichment facilities, a demand which up until now has been brushed aside by Pres. Obama. The White House has up until now insisted on diplomatic measures in order to make an impact on any Iranian output, but Debka’s sources suggest that US troops may now have to intervene in Sinai if any smugglers should attempt to move weapons into Gaza.

“By opening the Sinai door to an American troop deployment for Israel’s defense, recognizes that the US force also insures Israel against Cairo revoking or failing to honor the peace treaty Egypt signed with Israel in 1979,” adds Debka.

According to their sources, US troops are expected in Egypt early next week. Meanwhile, American forces have all but surrounded Iran and are stationed in countless bases across the Middle East.

SOURCE:
http://rt.com/usa/news/ceasefire-us-sinai-israel-435/

Iran urges use of alternative currencies in global trade

Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Mahmoud Bahmani has called for the use of local currencies in the global trade system as alternative to dominant tenders.

Speaking on the sidelines of the D-8 meeting in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Thursday, Bahmani pointed to the negative impacts of fluctuations in developed economies on the developing nations and emerging markets. 

“Iran has taken proper measures to remove dominant currencies, particularly dollar and euro, from its foreign currency reserves as well as its international trade. [In doing this, Iran has shown that] it is possible to do trade without relying on major currencies,” he added.

The CBI governor also praised the remarkable growth in the volume of trade among the D-8 member states from USD527.24 million in 2006 to USD71 billion in 2011, and called for more concerted efforts to remove the existing trade barriers. 

At the meeting of the governors of the D8 member states in Islamabad, Bahmani tabled a proposal for the establishment of a joint bank by the member countries which was welcomed by the participants. 

The D-8 group comprises Iran, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, Bangladesh and Indonesia. 

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, and the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan participated in the Islamabad summit. 

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/22/273998/iran-urges-new-currencies-in-global-trade/

Qataris and Saudis: Wolves in Syria, Ewes in Gaza

Tens of years during which most of the Arab countries and their summits did not provide anything to the Palestinian cause but words and speeches, while the Palestinian people was the sole victim, and most of the Arab countries made plots against each other and stood up against the resistance in Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.

“They (referring to the Zionists) are not wolves, but most of us became ewes,” said Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem on Saturday during the urgent ministerial meeting of the Arab League in Cairo to tackle the Zionist assault on Gaza.

It took long for the Arab leaders to find a suitable description for their fear of the Zionist entity. Their meetings which coincided with attacking Gaza have resulted in nothing but in the first aid which was even insufficient for healing the wounds of victims.

Gaza had been under a similar attack in 2008, where peace initiative remained on table besides the first aid.

At that time, Arab leaders tried to unify under the Doha summit, but they failed to get Gaza out of its crisis.

“In addition to the verbal support, we should make practical moves,” said the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the Doha summit.

However, the practical moves that Assad called for, were practiced against Damascus. After Arab leaders’ inability to everything in Gaza, they sharpened their ambitions to overthrow the regime in Syria.

“We should mobilize all means of international pressure against the Syrian regime, as stated by his excellency Qatar’s PM,” said Nabil al-Arabi, Arab League Secretary General during an Arab League session in 2012.

“I believe that our Council shouldn’t be careless towards the level of serious escalation in Syria,” declared Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faissal during the same session.

“We want to impose a tangible economic pressure, perhaps the Syrian regime realizes the inevitability of meeting the demands of its people,” also stated the Qatari PM.

Sanctions were not enough; yet, arming the opposition is a more practical means. It is an intuitive initiative by the mind which armed resistance in Gaza with some bandages and medicines.

“In this solution Yes, we support the arming of the Syrian opposition,” said Saud al-Faissal.

Who said that Arabs are ewes? They are wolves towards each other, but EWES only before what they call ‘Israel’.

Hamas chief thanks Iran for its support during war on Gaza

Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Meshaal has thanked the Islamic Republic of Iran for helping the Gaza Strip in its victory against the Israeli regime’s attack.

Mashal made the remarks in a press conference in Cairo on Tuesday, adding Iran "had a role in arming” and financing Gazans during the war. 

Hamas chief stated that Israel has failed to achieve any of its goals noting, “After eight days, God stayed their hand from the people of Gaza, and they were compelled to submit to the conditions of the resistance.”

He warned Tel Aviv against violating the cease-fire agreement between the Palestinian resistance movement and the Israeli regime. 

He also thanked ceasefire mediator Egypt, stating that the African country “acted responsibly and understood the demands of the resistance and the Palestinian people.” 

Moreover, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah also said in a televised speech that the truce between Hamas and the Israeli regime is a victory for Palestine. 

“We should learn from this great experience to benefit from it and reinforce our power,” Nasrallah said. 

Earlier in the day, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr announced during a joint press conference with the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the Israeli regime and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas have reached a ceasefire agreement. 

Following the truce agreement, Gazans poured into the street to celebrate the victory by chanting “God is great,” and "The resistance is victorious." 

Under the deal, Palestinians and Israelis agreed to end all hostilities against each other. Israel also agreed to open all crossings and facilitate the movement of people and goods in and out of the Gaza Strip, but it did not accept to lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip. 

The Israeli regime’s deadly offensive on the blockaded Gaza Strip killed 162 Palestinians since November 14. 

In retaliation, Palestinian resistance fighters continued to pour rockets and missiles into the Israeli cities, killing at least five Israelis, including one soldier. 

Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unrelenting poverty, and unprecedented unemployment rate among the population of about 1.7 million Palestinians. 

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/22/273837/hamas-thanks-iran-for-its-support-in-war/

Syrian Rebels Executes Opposition Journalist for Single Criticism

The so-called Free Syrian Army terrorist group executed an opposition journalist who had criticized his FSA friends. 

According to a report by Arabi Press news website, Mohammad Khaled, an opposition journalist, was executed by the FSA for criticizing what he had cited as "the mistakes of revolution and revolutionary forces".

He was executed by the death squad of the al-Shahba terrorist group after he was sentenced to death in a superficial military court and after the ruling was approved by a Salafist sheikh in Aleppo.

Arabi Press quoted another journalist who said on the condition of anonymity that Khaled was killed because he had harshly criticized the Shahba terrorist group's chief Ahmad Shama.

Journalists covering the Syrian conflict are being targeted by Syrian rebels, but this incident was actually much surprising because Khaled was working for the armed rebels fighting against the Damascus government and has apparently been killed for one single criticism.

The Committee to Protect Journalist said at least 24 other journalists have been killed while covering the Syrian conflict since November, including one killed just over the border in Lebanon. The CPJ has ranked Syria the most dangerous place in the world for journalists.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107120818

"The goal of the Gaza operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages"

Gaza City: Israel pounded Gaza enclave with a barrage of missiles from land and sea for a fifth day on Sunday, killing at least three children, targeting media houses and threatening to “send Gaza back to the Middle Ages”.

At least eight Palestinian journalists were injured when air raids hit buildings housing local media offices today in strikes that have already claimed nearly 60 lives.

While the first round of strikes destroyed a building housing Arab Al Quds television network, the second round of raids hit a building with offices of Sky News, al-Arabiya, and the official Hamas-run channel al-Aqsa TV.

Even as media reports said efforts for a ceasefire were on, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel was ready to “significantly expand” its operation in Gaza. Israel’s Interior Minister went a step ahead when he said “the goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages”.

Qatari emir’s visit to Gaza aimed at locating Hamas leaders: Report

Qatar’s King Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has reportedly located the whereabouts of senior Hamas members during his recent visit to the Gaza Strip, and later provided Israel with the information to assassinate them.

According to a report published by the Fars news agency, the emir of Qatar distributed a number of watches and ballpoint pens among Hamas leaders, which could transmit low-frequency signals to Israeli satellites. 

The Israeli military officials would then use the received signals to spot the high-tanking Hamas fighters, and launch assassination strikes on them. 

Sheikh Hamad arrived in Gaza on October 23 to become the first head of state to visit the besieged enclave since the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, took power in the territory five years ago. 

Qatar’s emir has met Israeli leaders in the past, and is working hard to boost the diplomatic clout of his small Persian Gulf country. 

Gaza has been blockaded by the Israeli regime since 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.

The Israeli military frequently carries out airstrikes and other attacks on Gaza Strip, saying the actions are being conducted for defensive purposes. However, disproportionate force is always used, in violation of international law, and civilians are often killed or injured. 

The new wave of Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has claimed more than 41 lives since November 14. Ahmed al-Ja'abari, the popular and influential head of the Hamas military wing, the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, was assassinated in an Israeli attack on his car on Wednesday. 

On Friday, Ahmed Abu Jalal, a field commander of the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, was also killed in an Israeli airstrike on the central Gaza district of Maghazi. 

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/17/272801/qatar-emir-located-hamas-cmdrs/

'Gaza People completely exposed to the fourth most powerful military'

In heavily populated Gaza scores of civilians have been killed or injured in the latest attacks by Israeli forces. Human rights activists report from its largest hospital that some of the injuries are “consistent with the use of white phosphorous”.

RT spoke with two human rights activists, Adie Mormech and Joe Catron, who have witnessed the mounting civilian casualties at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza following the first day of Israel’s military operation “Pillar of Defense”.

RT: We're now joined live from embattled Gaza by human rights activist Adie Mormech. Thank you for coming on. Israeli officials are hailing the operation as a “successful series of pinpoint strikes with minimal collateral damage.” Does that sound right to you?

Adie Mormech: I’ve just come back from Shifa hospital, and every single ambulance that comes in every 10 minutes was elderly or children coming into the hospital. I saw a girl arrive early on and she didn’t have a hand, just pulled out of the ambulance. It is the civilians who are the majority of the injured that are coming in to Shifa. We’ve just spent time in the intensive care unit, there was a little girl that arrived, she was just one year old, Hanin Tafish, and she was not showing any signs of life. Her little body was being moved around and then about an hour afterwards we heard that she too had passed away. This was after another airstrike. There are so many children and men and women that are being killed, being injured, and this is a massive, massive crime against a defenseless population. We’ve seen it before during operation Cast Lead, they killed 330 children and 1,400 adults, what’s going to happen now? How on earth have we allowed this to take place again, this kind of carnage is developing, now there’ll be more blood and we know that Israel does not hesitate for one second about killing lots and lots of civilians. These are crimes against humanity and war crimes as the United Nations report exposed in the previous attacks on Gaza.

RT: Russia says Israel is using disproportionate level of force against in its relations with the  Palestinians. But it must also be mentioned there’re two sides to this and both sides are using weapons. What is being done by Hamas to protect civilians? Are people able to reach bomb shelters in time and get the medicine they need?

AM: How on earth can there be any bomb shelters in Gaza, Gaza is one of the most tightly packed places in the world, one of the most crowded places on the planet. How on earth can there be enough bomb shelters? People are completely exposed to the fourth most powerful military in the world. The bombs are raining down on them, it is an attack on a defenseless population, over the half the population are children. There’s 130 injured now and the toll is rising…13 killed, the toll is rising. And we’re expecting more and more, Israel has said it will increase the attacks. There’s a bomb now, just heard it in the background, we’ve just heard the sound of it. Every 10 minutes there’s ambulance arriving… I just think it’s time for everybody to look at this situation!

RT: Hamas has vowed to unleash "hell" on Israel in response – will the movement be able to deliver on its threat?

AM: I think that for now as long as Israel keeps pummelling Gaza and killing so many civilians, so many people, I’d imagine there will be a response from the Hamas government. There’s a continuity to the narrative, that is, forgetting the chronology of this, forgetting the incredibly advanced weaponry that is being unleashed on  Palestinian civilians and forgetting the entire context, the fact that Palestinians have been living under siege for five years, not giving them any chance of development. Many people have died from not having access to medical [help] abroad. And it’s really time everybody stood up and said what Desmond Tutu said, that this is worse than apartheid in South Africa. And take to the streets, mobilize, because if the governments are going to typically buy the party line in this disease of supporting Israel no matter what, despite the horrific carnage I’m seeing everywhere – if you would dare come and look at the hospital, and meet the families that are now weeping every morning for that loss of life, you would see yourself that this is despicable. And you can see the numbers, the value of Palestinian life versus an Israeli life as it is presented in the West, because the casualties are so much higher on the Palestinian side. Let alone the collective punishment, which is against the Geneva Convention’s article 33, of the entire population, most of whom are children. It’s an absolutely obscene, disgraceful attack on a civilian population, and there’re so many people who are losing their lives. And the whole take, and the true scenes of tragedy should send messages to the rest of the world to say if governments don’t do anything, the people have to take to the streets, the people have to isolate and boycott Israel, the people have to say “no more, no more” until finally the governments listen.

http://rt.com/news/israel-gaza-conflict-civilians-813/

US and Turkey step up the intervention calls

One week after the reelection of President Barack Obama, the drumbeat for war against Syria has escalated sharply.

Over the past two days, military threats have escalated on both Syria’s northern and southwestern borders, with Turkey threatening intervention and Israel repeatedly firing on Syrian forces, allegedly in retaliation for stray shells tha

t have landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Simultaneously, Washington has plowed ahead with the sordid business of fabricating a new “sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.” This was placed on the agenda after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s announcement at the end of last month that the last body to be so anointed—the Syrian National Council—had turned out to be a bunch of out-of-touch exiles who needed to be replaced with more representative figures, handpicked by the American State Department.

The new, and supposedly improved, body has been dubbed the National Coalition of Forces of the Syrian Revolution and Opposition. While Washington officials have obscenely compared it to the Continental Congress of the American Revolution, this coalition is nothing more than a front for US imperialism, cobbled together by means of threats, bribes and blackmail.

The leaders of the old Syrian National Council, which was largely dominated by the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, had strenuously objected to having their outfit unceremoniously wound up. After days of wrangling in a luxury hotel in the Qatari capital of Doha, they were brought on board, having been promised 40 percent of the seats in the leadership.

In the end, while Hillary Clinton made much of putting together a more “representative” body to serve as a front for the US-backed war for regime-change, the new coalition amounts to the same gang of thieves, intelligence agents and Islamist politicians, refurbished with a bit of “diversity.” Seats in the leadership have been reserved for minorities, including the Alawite sect, which are overwhelmingly hostile to the so-called “rebels,” and for women.

Heading the body is a Sunni cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Mouaz al Khatib. Its vice presidents include Riad Seif, the Syrian businessman and confidante of the US embassy in Damascus who served as Washington’s standard bearer for a new “united” opposition. Its general secretary is Moustafa al-Sabagh, who was chairman of the Syrian Business Forum, a front of exiled Syrian capitalists that offered to join Qatar and Saudi Arabia in paying salaries to the Syrian “rebels.”

There is no indication that any of these figures have any real connection with, much less control over, the sectarian militias, Islamic jihadists, foreign fighters and suicide bombers who are playing the principal role in waging a civil war for regime-change inside Syria. There is even less evidence that any of them have a base of popular support inside the country.

Nonetheless, they are being sent on tour to seek recognition from the Arab League and the “Friends of Syria,” comprised of Washington and its allies, as the first step toward turning the coalition into a provisional government to be installed on “liberated” Syrian soil.

Among the “principles” agreed to by those forming the new coalition is a commitment “not to take part in any dialogue or negotiations with the regime” in Damascus. This represents a direct US repudiation of the UN-brokered agreement reached in Geneva last June in which Washington committed itself to supporting “peaceful dialogue and negotiation” to bring an end to the civil war in Syria and a transition to a new constitutional order.

US imperialism has no interest in such a settlement. It is determined to use military force and the intensification of the bloodbath being inflicted upon the Syrian people to install a puppet government subordinated to US interests in the region. A primary US aim in this military adventure is to deprive Tehran of its main ally in the Arab world in preparation for an even bloodier war against Iran itself.

To the north, Turkish F-16 fighter planes flew threatening sorties along the Syrian border on Monday in supposed retaliation for clashes that have taken place between Syrian security forces and the Western-backed “rebels” in the border area. Ankara last month vowed that it would take military action in response to any Syrian shells landing on its soil.

Turkey is in talks with both the Obama administration and NATO on escalating the intervention in Syria. NATO’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, announced on Monday that “Turkey can rely on NATO solidarity,” citing “plans in place to defend and protect Turkey.” The statement follows reports that Ankara is seeking the deployment of US Patriot missiles on the Syrian border, a first step in imposing a “no-fly zone” and carving out a so-called humanitarian buffer zone in northern Syria.

In a further indication of the steady advance toward military intervention, the chief of the British defense staff, Gen. Sir David Richard, told the BBC Sunday that Britain is preparing to send troops into Syria this winter under the pretext of humanitarian aid. “There is no military reason why one shouldn’t, and I know that all these options are quite rightly being examined,” he said.

Once again, the American people, and the entire world, are being dragged into a war of aggression based on lies and false pretexts. A war against Syria will be waged to further not “humanitarianism” and “democracy,” but rather the strategic aims of US imperialism in the oil-rich Middle East and the profit interests of America’s ruling financial and corporate oligarchy.

The plans for another eruption of US militarism were concealed by both major parties from the public as they went through the motions of a national election that precluded any ability of the electorate to express its hostility to war.

The struggle against militarism cannot be waged within the confines of the existing capitalist two-party system in the US. The task of stopping another war can be carried forward only by the working class mobilizing its own independent political strength in the fight for socialism.

Source Global Reaserch