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Talks between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran broke down on Friday over IAEA demands for access to a sensitive military site. The failure of the negotiations, ahead of a quarterly IAEA report expected this week on Iran’s nuclear programs, has prompted new threats from Israel.

Under pressure from the US and its allies, the IAEA has insisted that its inspectors visit the Parchin military base, where it claims Iran might have carried out specialised explosive tests related to building a nuclear warhead. Tehran, which is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has to date rejected such an inspection, pointing out that Parchin is not a nuclear facility.

Iranian officials have hinted that they might permit access to Parchin, despite not being required to do so under the NPT. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said after the talks that it was “a very complex issue” as it involved his country’s “national security.” IAEA chief inspector Herman Nackaerts told the media there were no plans at present for another meeting.

The IAEA is far from being an impartial body. Allegations about the Parchin military base are just one aspect of a controversial appendix, headed “Possible Military Dimensions to Iran’s Nuclear Program,” contained in an IAEA report last November. Much of the appendix was not new and depended on doubtful intelligence from foreign agencies, including the US and Israel. Previous IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei, who was replaced by Yukiya Amano in 2009, had refused to publish the document because of its doubtful character.

The Associated Press reported being told by diplomats that the IAEA had gone one step further by establishing a “dedicated team” of about 20 experts focussed entirely on Iran’s nuclear programs. One diplomat likened the plan to the agency’s Iraq “Action Team” —a squad of experts that operated in the 1990s, devoted to investigating Iraq’s alleged efforts to build nuclear weapons.

The failure of last Friday’s talks is bound up with the virtual collapse of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 grouping—the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. The last summit in Moscow in June ended without any agreement for a further top-level meeting. Iran rejected an ultimatum to halt uranium enrichment to 20 percent, ship its stockpile of that material out of the country and shut its Fordow enrichment plant. The US refused to concede Tehran’s demands for an easing of economic sanctions or an acknowledgement of Iran’s right under the NPT to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

The breakdown of international negotiations has been followed by escalating Israeli threats to launch an unprovoked attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Speaking on Friday in reference to the upcoming IAEA report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said there was now “further proof that Iran is galloping toward obtaining nuclear capability and that it continues to ignore the demands of the international community.”

Speaking to Channel 2 News on Friday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman again indicated that the government was prepared to attack Iran, declaring there was no way that “the State of Israel can accept a nuclear Iran.” Israeli deputy parliamentary speaker Danny Danon commented to the Associated Press: “We have seen too many teams, too many summits, too much talk. It is about time to take action.”

Iran has repeatedly denied US and Israeli claims that it plans to build a nuclear weapon. As a NPT signatory, its nuclear facilities, including the Fordow and Natanz enrichment plants, are monitored and inspected by the IAEA. By contrast, Israel, which has refused to sign the NPT or allow inspectors into the country, has a substantial arsenal of nuclear bombs and the means for delivering them.

Details from this week’s IAEA report have already been leaked to the media, asserting that hundreds of new centrifuges have been installed, mainly at the Fordow plant, which is built deep underground. Tehran has also been adding to its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium, which it insists is required to fuel a research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. Uranium enriched to 20 percent is well below the 90 percent level required to build a nuclear weapon.

At this point, the Obama administration has played down talk of any imminent attack on Iran. White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said on Friday that, while Iran “is continuing to violate its international obligations,” there was “time and space” for a diplomatic solution.

A White House official told the New York Times that Iran’s enrichment activities, as confirmed by the IAEA report, would “add to Iran’s ability to produce more 20 percent low-enriched uranium.” He pointed out, however, that any “breakout”—that is, production of weapons grade uranium “would not be a quiet affair: the IAEA is in the facility regularly and would detect a move” to build a weapon. He said the work at Fordow violated UN resolutions, but “it is also not a game-changer.”

Nevertheless, the US is pressing for the IAEA board of governors to formally rebuke Iran over its failure to cooperate with the agency. The Obama administration, in collaboration with the European Union, has imposed draconian sanctions on Iran that block its key oil exports. At the same time, the Pentagon has built up its military forces in the Persian Gulf, including two aircraft carrier battle groups, in preparation for a potential military attack on Iran.

Iran is currently hosting a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Opening the gathering on Sunday, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi pointedly noted that NAM had previously called for the elimination of all nuclear arsenals. “We believe that the timetable for ultimate removal of nuclear weapons by 2025, which was proposed by NAM, will only be realised if we follow it up decisively,” he told delegates.

These comments underline the hypocrisy of the US-led confrontation with Iran. While Washington is threatening to launch a war against Iran over its alleged plans to build a nuclear weapon, it is an open secret that Israel has a nuclear arsenal. The Obama administration is exploiting the nuclear issue as a means of fashioning a regime in Tehran, in line with US ambitions for dominance of the energy-rich regions of the Middle East and Central Asia.

By Peter Symonds

27 August, 2012

@ WSWS.org

The Army Forces Clean al-Izaa, Al-Ameriya, Tal al-Zarazer in Aleppo from Mercenaries

Aug 27, 2012

PROVINCES, (SANA)- The army forces in Aleppo on Monday cleared al-Izaa, Al-Ameriya, Tal al-Zarazer neighborhoods from terrorists, killing a great number of them while arresting scores others.

An army unit also purified the Trade Mall neighborhood at Said al-Dawla area from the mercenaries who were positioned there as a base for their crimes against civilians.

Meanwhile, the security forces stormed a den for the armed terrorist groups in al-Inzarat Neighborhood in Aleppo and seized a huge amount of ammunition and weapons.

SANA’s reporter in Aleppo said that the seized weapons include PKC machineguns, Russian rifles, pump-action shotguns, ammunition and a large quantity of bombs.

Another Army unit hit a warehouse for ammunitions at Masaken Hananou and cars equipped with machineguns, killing a big number of terrorists.

Army units also purified the buildings of Vocational Training, Maisaloun school, Jamil Kabani school in al-Mashhad neighborhood and al-Yarmouk School in Bustan al-Qasr area, killing a great number of mercenaries.

Authorities Continue Purist of terrorists in Ariha, Idleb

The competent authorities in Ariha, Idleb, continued their hunt operations against the remnants of the terrorists, inflicting heavy losses among them.

An official source in Idleb told SANA reporter that the clash with the terrorists led to the killing of a number of them while others were arrested.

Army Units restore Security and Stability to al-Hrak, Daraa

In al-Hrak, Daraa countryside, the authorities clashed with a number of terrorists, killing a number of them including Sabri Nizar al-Qadah, Imad Hamdi al-Shawamra and Eiyad Yousef al-Khayrat.

Meanwhile, the Army units restored security and stability to al-Hrak in Daraa countryside after purifying it from the remnants of the armed terrorist groups who perpetrated crimes against the civilans, sabotaged the private and public properties.

A source in Daraa told SANA reporter that the pursuit operations which lasted for several days in the city of al-Hrak led to the killing of scores of terrorists, arresting others and confiscating their weapons which included RPGs, snipers, machineguns, hand-made bombs and explosives.

Authorities Kill Terrorists who Attacked Tankers Loaded with Fuel Bound for al-Hasaka

The authorities clashed on Monday with a group of armed terrorists who attacked tankers loaded with fuel coming from Homs and headed to al-Hasaka.

An official source in the province told SANA’s reporter that the authorities killed several terrorists and that weapons and ammunition, including machineguns and pump-action shotguns, were seized.

Authorities Raid Terrorist Hideout in Hama

On Sunday night, the authorities raided a terrorist hideout inside a house in al-Murabet neighborhood in Hama city, arresting a number of terrorists and confiscating weapons.

Confiscated weapons included bazooka rounds, Malotka missiles, NATO snipers, Australian sniper rifles, PKC machineguns, Russian light machineguns, mortar launchers and rounds, RPG rounds, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and materials used for manufacturing them.

Authorities kill terrorists in al-Samak neighborhood of Hama

In cooperation with the families, the competent authorities pursued an armed terrorist group which was planting explosives at al-Samak neighborhood in Hama, killing all its members.

A source in Hama told SANA reporter that among the terrorists killed were Basel Zaidan and Khaled Omar al-Fara. The explosives were dismantled.

Prime Minister Inspects Work at Health Ministry, Stresses Importance of Meeting Citizens’ Needs

Aug 27, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Prime Minister Dr. Wael al-Halqi inspected on Monday work at the Health Ministry and the efforts made to continue providing healthcare and health services to citizens, particularly in areas affected by the vandalism of terrorist groups.

During his tour of the Ministry, Dr. al-Halqi underlined the importance of the efforts of workers in the services sector to meet citizens’ needs, particularly in hospitals, emergency services and healthcare centers, noting that these workers carry out their duties admirably despite the economic siege, media pressure and misleading campaigns leveled against these sectors.

The Prime Minister affirmed that the government will spare no effort to continue providing the requirements of health security and health services, stressing the need to continue providing health establishments’ needs in terms of medicine and medical supplies, particularly in provinces that need them the most.

For his part, Health Minister Dr. Asaad al-Nayef said that his Ministry will intensify efforts to continue providing health services to citizens in cooperation with relevant sectors, particularly the civil sector, adding that the Ministry is working to provide the growing needs of health establishments to continue providing services to citizens.

He added that a new shipment of medical supplies and medicine, including equipment for dialysis, ultrasound and colonoscopy, in addition to incubators, operating tables and more, is due to arrive within the next two weeks.

Haidar: Iran’s Role is in the Interest of Syrian People… Polticial Process Must Be Between National Sides

Aug 27, 2012

TEHRAN, (SANA) – State Minister for National Reconciliation Affairs Dr. Ali Haidar said that Iran’s role is in the interest of the Syrian people and is based on preventing foreign interference and halting violence, stressing that the political process in Syria must be between national sides.

At a press conference on Monday, Haidar affirmed that and that any call for foreign intervention will have no place in the coming political stage, and that any suggestion that manifests the US-western project to fragment the region is a non-national suggestion.

He said that everyone knows that Iran has an active role in producing a political process that helps Syrians emerge from the crisis, and that the Syrian themselves – both the people and the leadership – are moving towards a political solution, not any other sort of solution.

Haidar stressed that that Syrian wants a change that makes Syria stronger and more capable of confronting and resisting the US-western project and its tools in the region, adding that any political solution must be based on preventing foreign intervention and rejecting violence from any side, and that this solution must be achieved by the Syrians without interference from any external side and must preserve the unity of people and land and Syria’s historic strategic choices.

He pointed out that doors are still open for everyone, and that this was discussed with friends and allies in Iran, affirming that militants who cross borders from other countries to carry out their own agendas in Syria have nothing to do with the political process and will never be a part of it since they didn’t come to Syria to defend the Syrians’ interests and just demands, adding that this is an entirely different issue that the Syrian government is dealing with through confrontations on the ground against these militants.

Haidar underlined the need to distinguish between the political process as a whole and national dialogue which is one of the axis of the political process and a method to find safe ways out of the crisis that meet the Syrians’ just demands which are well-known and which the government is working to achieve.

“As for the reason behind the insistence by the US and some western countries and their tools in the region to have President al-Assad abdicate as a first step to resolving the crisis in Syria, I will respond that this is unacceptable in principle for the reason – as everybody knows – that this suggestion came from abroad and is a direct interference in Syria’s internal affairs and a violation of the sovereignty of a country, a sovereignty which is acknowledged by all countries of the world, and this violates the international convention of the people’s right to self-determination,” he explained.

Haidar went on to say that the issue, structure and mechanisms of change are purely Syrian issues, and that no-one has the right to interfere in them. Therefore, discussing these points constitutes interference in Syrian affairs, adding “all suggestions – whether they are abdication, a transitional phase, a transitional government or otherwise – that interfere in these points are rejected by the Syrians.”

He stressed that the only acceptable thing is helping Syrians engage in dialogue, abandon weapons and adopt a political process, noting that it’s possible to pose ideas through dialogue which is open to everyone, and that there will be no veto on any idea.

Haidar said ”There are voices abroad who raise slogans that call for rejecting the othe, or who seek resort to weapons and the continuation of fighting until one side conquers the other and speak about fragmenting Syria.”

He said that any project that leads to the rise of the Western-US project in the region, that is redrawing the region on sectarian and racist foundations will have no place in the upcoming political process.

”We want the kind of change that makes Syria more powerful in the face of US-Western project and their tools in the region, which is, on the whole, intended to serve the Zionist project.”

He stressed that the Palestinian cause is in the heart and mind of every Syrian citizen until whole Palestine is back.

Haidar added that the Iranian proposal for solving the crisis in Syria consists of a host of ideas and is not the full proposal to be put forward during the Summit, ”This proposal is based on the principles of rejecting foreign interference and violence or even attempts to justify it for one reason or another, and emphasizes the political solution by the Syrians themselves.”

He said that halting violence must be part of an integral project, adding that there must be a handover of weapons and finding a solution to the issue of gunmen, and that no other weapon exist except that of the state.”

”There are more than 300 armed groups in Syria that are not linked to each other, and the terms used by media such as ”Free Army” or specific groups with leadership and authorities are untrue,” Haidar added.

He said that reconciliation goes far beyond than a meeting of two sides, but it is about producing a new environment for a web of relationships among the Syrians that eliminate the effects of the past and addresses its problems in a serious and true manner.

Haidar said that some thought that national reconciliation is a political dialogue, but there still are hundreds of questions, especially about that parties who are to come to dialogue and their actual representation of the Syrian people.

Haidar said that national dialogue takes time and work for achieving the so-called social reconciliation that allows for producing the real representatives of the Syrian people.

On the countries who are interfering in the Syrian internal affairs, Haidar said that no country would accept that another provides weapons, funds, media and political support to armed groups with the aim of weakening or disintegrating the state.

“Iran stands at one distance among all Syrians, doesn’t support a side at the expense of the other side.. so the countries concerned should retreat from their measures of boycott and restore the diplomatic relations.. at that time, Syria sees what could be fulfilled in this file,” Haidar said.

On the Egyptian initiative, Haidar said that Egypt or any country has to stand at one distance among the Syrians, so it has to adopt a clear stance on the violence and who fund it.

“Iran’s vision on the crisis and the way of solution is based on a reality which states that the Syrians have rights and demands that should be met, and the Syrian state seeks to fulfill these demand, but the problem lies in the foreign intervention,” Haidar said.

As for the hostile stances of Turkish Premier and his Foreign Minister to Syria, Haidar underlined that the Turkish leadership doesn’t say what it is content with, and that the Turkish leaders were conveying messages from the West and the US in particular.

On the Iranian initiative, Haidar said that it concentrates on the halt of violence to make the atmospheres available to go for the political process.

As for the plan of the new UN Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, Haidar stressed that the average of success or fail of his paln is related to the international agreement on this plan, adding “the issue is not a personal one.”

Preliminary Meetings of NAM Summit Reaches Early Agreement on 688 Articles of Draft Closing Statement

Aug 27, 2012

TEHRAN, (SANA) – The preliminary meetings of the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) continued on Monday in Tehran with the participation of Syria’s delegation headed by Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Dr. Fayssal Mikdad.

The experts meeting reached an early agreement on 688 articles of the Summit’s draft closing statement.

Boroujerdi: A Proposal to Form a committee including Iran, Egypt and Venezuela to resolve Crisis in Syria

Aug 27, 2012

TEHRAN, (SANA)-Chairman of Iran’s Shura Council’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi announced that a proposal was presented to form a committee which includes Iran, Egypt and Venezuela to resolve the crisis in Syria, adding that the three countries are members in the Non-Aligned Movement.

“Syria’s issue is internal.. though some organizations like the OIC have suspended Syria membership, but any change in the reality didn’t happen,” Boroujerdi said in a statement on Monday.

On the role of NAM conference to resolve the crisis in Syria, Boroujerdi added “there are proposals to make use of the possibilities of the member states to resolve the crisis.”

He underlined that the situations in Syria are stable in contrary to what is being broadcast by a number of western media, saying that the Syrian government has control on all aggravated regions like Aleppo.

As for the Iranian abducted citizens in Syria, Boroujerdi denied rumors about their killing, considering such rumors as a psychological war by some western media to pass “special goals.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry: NAM Summit Provides Important Opportunity for Resolving Crisis in Syria

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesmen Ramin Mehmanparast affirmed that the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit due to be held on August 30-31 in Tehran provides an important opportunity to resolve crises around the world, including the Syrian crisis, away from western interference.

In a statement, Mehmanparast said that the NAM member countries have reached an agreement regarding the majority of the articles in the draft closing statement of the summit, which he considered an indicator to them agreeing to resolve crises through mutual action without western interference.

He said that member countries agreed that they must take steps and work for reaching political solutions and preventing foreign interference and unilateral steps by the US and its allies, adding that meetings on the sideline of the summit resulted in forming a liaison group to communicate with the Syrian government and the opposition to reach a solution.

Mehmanparast noted that the sideline of the Tehran summit presents a chance for exchanging viewpoints and bringing them closer on the basis of the six-point plan, which would help reach a mechanism for ending violence and meeting the aspirations of the Syrians through a democratic process.

He pointed out that Iran and countries that share its efforts to achieve a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis seek peace, contrary to some major powers and regional countries that claim to defend the Syrian people while at the same time they send weapons to terrorists.

Mehmanparast explained that the draft closing statement includes three articles, with the first covering international issues of interest to all countries such as defending sovereignty, rejecting occupation, the issues of Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Africa and Latin America.

He said that Iran wishes to make use of its presidency of the NAM to benefit from all members’ viewpoints to achieve development and economic cooperation through a global administration adopting peace, justice, respecting human rights, and rejecting occupation and hegemony, adding that this should be done with the participation of all independent and capable countries within the NAM movement which encompasses 120 member countries and 17 observer countries, making it the second largest bloc of countries after the UN.

Mehmanparast pointed out that the NAM seeks to change the structure of how the world is run to achieve noble goals, including the reform of the UN which suffers security issues and whose structure is no longer valid.

On the western efforts to downplay the Tehran summit and to prevent some sides, countries and personalities from participating in it, Mehmanparast said the considerable participation in this summit represents a failure of western pressure against Tehran and attempts to isolate it.

He stressed that the Iranian people turned the western embargo into an opportunity to achieve progress and prosperity, making Iran a role model for countries who seek independence, noting that so far, 50 countries announced their participation in the NAM summit on the summit level, in addition to 30 foreign ministers, which marks a big political and diplomatic success for Tehran.

Russian President’s Special Envoy: NAM Summit in Tehran will be Positive Step to Solve Syrian Crisis

The Russian President’s Special Envoy, Konstantin Shuvalov said that the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit due to be held in Tehran on Thursday and Friday will be a positive step to solve the crisis in Syria through cooperation among the participating countries.

Shuvalov, who arrived in Tehran on Monday to take part in the Summit’s meetings, stressed in a statement to the Iranian News Agency (Mehr) the importance of the summit and the necessity of finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis, adding there is hope that the foreign ministers and leaders of NAM member countries would adopt decisions that would find a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

He said that the message he carried from the Russian president included important topics as the Non-Aligned Movement has an influential role in addressing international issues , calling upon member countries to work on solving current crises and the importance that they be true allies.

SANA Calls on Media Outlets to Disregard any News Coming via Email Addressed Attributed to SANA as False and Misleading

Aug 27, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on Monday issued a warning to all mass media outlets to disregard and ignore any news coming via email addresses attributed to SANA as false and misleading.

SANA reiterates that the only source of its news is the official website www.sana.sy and its special news bulletin, and that it does not send its news via email.

SANA calls upon all media outlets to inform it of any news they receive in SANA’s name via email.

390 People Involved in Recent Events Released

Aug 27, 2012

PROVINCES, (SANA) – 390 people who were involved in the recent events and didn’t shed Syrian blood were released on Monday.

In Damascus, 332 people were released, in addition to 20 in Hama and 38 in Homs who had turned themselves in, with the released individuals pledging not to return to bearing arms, carrying out vandalism or doing anything that harms Syria’s security in the future.

A number of the release people said that this marks a fresh start for them, allowing them to return to their normal lives.

Earlier in July, 100 people turned themselves in to the authorities in Hama and were released after pledging to refrain from bearing arms or committing vandalism.

Terrorist Deib Confesses to Trying to kill a citizen in Lattakia, Injuring three civilians

Aug 27, 2012

LATTAKIA, (SANA)-Terrorist Alaa Khaled Deib admitted that he tried to kill a citizen at Souk al-Bala in Lattakia and opened fire at the people, injuring three civilians.

“I have met a leader of an armed terrorist group called Suhaib Kilia from Jabal al-Akrad in Lattakia countryside.. he showed me a photo for a man from the family of Ghandour whom he said that he cooperates with the State and that we should kill him,” Deib said in confessions broadcast by the Syrian TV on Monday.

“After four days of my arrival in Lattakia, Suhaib informed me that he will send me a pistol through a taxi driver.. my mission was to kill the person of the photo he showed to me.. he promised to give money in return for the operation,” Deib said.

He added “Later, a man phoned me saying that he cooperates with Suhaib.. he gave me the pistol with 16 bullets.. I started to pursue the man from Ghandour family for three days.. on August 12th I hunted him at Souk al-Bala and tried to open fire at him, but the bullet failed, then I opened fire on three persons, injuring three among them a female citizen called Zainab Haddad.

For her part, Mrs. Haddad said that while she was walking at Souk al-Bala to buy a shoe, she felt a fever in her foot.. a shop keeper told her that she was hit in the leg.

Salehi, Jalili and Larijani Meet Haidar, Affirm Iran’s Support for Resolving Crisis in Syria via Dialogue

Aug 26, 2012

TEHRAN, (SANA) – Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday discussed with Syrian State Minister for National Reconciliation Affairs, Dr. Ali Haidar, bilateral relations and regional and international issues, particularly the crisis in Syria and means for restoring security and stability in it.

Salehi stressed the need for restoring security and stability in Syria, reiterating Iran’s readiness to host dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition.

He also stressed Tehran’s commitment to restoring stability to Syria via peaceful methods, lauding the six-points plan and the principles of the recent meeting in Tehran on Syria, affirming that the Syrian crisis can only be solved by dialogue, and that sustainable calm and stability can only be realized through ending violence, finding mechanisms for meeting the people’s demands, providing an atmosphere for dialogue between the government and the opposition, and supporting political participation of all parties and national dialogue.

In turn, Haidar lauded Iran’s position and the help it provides to restore sustainable calm and security in Syria, praising Iran’s efforts to establish communication with the Syrian opposition.

He also affirmed that the crisis in Syria can be resolved through dialogue, and that any political projects for resolving the crisis must involve a complete cessation of violence, rejection of foreign interference, and preventing the sending of weapons and foreign militants into Syria.

On a relevant note, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili underlined during his meeting with Haidar that Iran has always emphasized the need for national dialogue and finding a Syrian solution to the crisis.

Jalili underscored the need for ending violence, disarming the opposition, and ending some countries’ support of militants, calling for benefiting from new initiatives and involving new sections of the Syrian people in national dialogue.

For his part, Haidar said that Syrian-Iranian relations are deep-rooted and without peer, and that the Syrian people wish to determine their fate on their own through democracy and without foreign interference, which is why Syria is prepared to launch national dialogue.

He affirmed that Syria will overcome the current conditions in the end and will remain part of the resistance axis.

In a similar meeting, Minister Haidar discussed bilateral relations and the situation in Syria with Speaker of Iranian Shura Council Ali Larijani, with Larijani reiterating his country’s support for Syria’s people and leadership in the face of the conspiracy targeting it.

In turn, Haidar reviewed the efforts being exerted in order to restore Syria to normal, affirming that the solution lies in inclusive national dialogue which can only be achieved if violence ends and if foreign sides cease arming and funding militant groups.

The tyranny of capitalism in India cannot be grasped, let alone resisted, in isolation from its wider social context. Capitalism is far more dangerous in India than in the Euro-America because of the culture and economics of caste.

Today, India (after China and the US) has the world’s third largest middle class (250-300 million); 49 enlisted dollar billionaires (black market economy and overseas banks allow some crooks to remain unlisted); and the single largest concentration of the world’s poor (800 million), most of them illiterate or semi-literate, considering 70 per cent in India’s 1.2 billion are either illiterate or have no more than a primary education. A political analyst, representing the views of Indian elite, calls this “a new triad of India ‘s political economy,” and adds, “The poor were always with us, but billionaire businessmen and a huge middle class were not. They constitute a historical novelty for India .” A more empathetic view with compelling stories and statistics, delineating the depredation of the elite and the suffering of the people, is brought home in a new book which demonstrates that the economy “may be in good statistical health,” but “it is by no means in good social or ecological health.” Unravelling the social consequences of the growth story, the authors point out that the footprint of the wealthiest Indians is 330 times that of the poorest 40 per cent; and that with each new Special Economic Zone, India lose the capacity to feed 50, 000 to 1,00,000 people each year. * [Aseem Shrivastava and Ashish Kothari, Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India ( New Delhi : Penguin, 2012).]

Till 1991, that is before the economic liberalisation, India was supposedly a socialist state which actually worked to empower and educate the privileged sections of society, and since then, the same caste and class groups, hiding behind the middle class identity, are reaping the benefits of free market bonanza while the poor are fully exposed to the relentless inequalities of capitalism. As India is producing thousands of millionaires, it has one-half of the world’s malnourished children and one third of the world’s absolute poor. India produces 100,000 students a year in global top 10 per cent and also churns out millions with zero skills. Millions of children, despite the recently introduced the Right to Education legislation, are unable to go to school. And those who do continue to be trapped in underfunded, brutal and ineffective state schools which are among the worst in the world. Denial of basic facilities deprives the poor children of early acquisition of fundamentals. The good-for-nothing education gives them zero skills and robs their life chances. Their lives, like that of their parents and ancestors, remain cheap.

The story of the making of brand India—the subject of hundreds of academic as well as popular tomes mostly written by, or on behalf of the corporate houses—conveniently leaves aside the vital question of who has collared the benefits and in what proportion. That India is a great democracy and witnessing momentous changes is the trajectory of the fortunate few who have reaped the most from the neo-liberal policies, subverting democracy and reinforcing their privileges in the new power structures. For those who remain bereft of bare minimums of life and constitute 70 per cent of the population, India is a very limited, if not a sham, democracy. It is also notable that by keeping millions of people in subhuman conditions, India is performing way below its potential. What is the socio-cultural and political imperative of such lopsided development? Is violence only by killing, maiming, imprisoning (though even on this score Indian state is guilty of large-scale crimes against the less fortunate), or does it also include displacing, dispossessing, and sentencing people to a lifetime of starvation, deprivation and humiliation? A 2012 United Nations report on India ‘s human rights record says, “The country’s economic policies, driven by the neo-liberal economic paradigm, continue to perpetuate ‘exclusion’ and violate Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of the Constitution.” * [Quoted in “Growth Pangs,” The Times of India , New Delhi , 3 June, 2012 .]

The key to grasp India ‘s woes can be found by recognising the underlying causes that reproduce such inequalities. Contrary to the elitist refrain that economic growth and expansion of middle class alongside new opportunities of individual mobility have made caste irrelevant (as “its hierarchy is replaced by competing equalities”), the ground surveys and statistics show the reality of huge reproduction of inequalities in caste terms. Two outstanding studies of existing data on caste and occupation and standard of living of caste groups— Blocked by Caste (2010) and The Grammar of Caste (2011)—contradict the elitist claims and affirm the persistence of economics—and discrimination—of caste. * [Sukhdeo Thorat and Katherine Newman, eds., Blocked by Caste: Economic Discrimination in Modern India ( New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2010); Ashwini Deshpande, The Grammar of Caste: Economic Discrimination in Contemporary India ( New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2011).] As the author of The Grammar of Caste puts it,

…[D]ata point more towards continuation of traditional hierarchies rather than towards their dissolution, with upper castes at the top, Scheduled Castes-Scheduled Tribes at the bottom, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) somewhere in between… What is very revealing is that lip-service to merit notwithstanding, contemporary, formal, urban sector labour markets show a deep awareness of caste, religious, gender, and class cleavages, and that discrimination is very much a modern sector phenomenon, perpetuated in the present. So it is neither a thing of the past nor confined only to the rural areas. * [ Ashwini Deshpande, The Grammar of Caste , pp. xiv-xv.]

Another offbeat scholar who has studied caste seriously makes a point which helps us better grasp why things are as they are: “There can be no denying that for centuries they [dalits and other lowered castes] have been at the receiving end of all communication—information (nay, disinformation), sermons, commands and the like, and compelled into a position of powerlessness. Not surprisingly, the legacy [of caste and domination] persists.” * [Debi Chatterjee, Ideas and Movements Against Caste in India ( Delhi : Abhijeet Publications, 2010), p. 285.]

Ambedkar, a prophetic figure for the caste-oppressed and framer of the Constitution, was prescient in grasping that “democracy in India is only top dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.” He tried hard to integrate progressive elements of social justice into the Constitution, but also underlined that rights are protected not by law but by the social and moral conscience of society. At the euphoric dawn of democracy, his was the lone voice that warned against the life of contradictions that India was going to enter with equality in politics and graded inequality in social and economic realm. He strove to make the national leadership recognise that caste and brahmanism were structural and ideological obstruction to the idea of democracy, and that without eliminating them, India could never become a society where freedom and equality were available to everyone. But the national pundits colluded to ignore caste as far as possible. Only the question of untouchability was debated as its presence was too glaring and Ambedkar too insistent to leave it to the mercy of caste elites. Even this charity was cynically exploited to reduce the whole question of caste to the question of untouchability. Thus, in a height of hypocrisy, even today, the Indian Parliament debates caste-based reservations and atrocities based on caste, (and all political parties play caste card and distribute electoral tickets mostly on caste basis) but Parliament, thanks to the overwhelming casteist influence in the body politic, has never ever debated caste as an institutionalised discrimination, let alone doing something about making India caste-free.

A sociologist has pointed out “the official and social-moral ban on public discussion of caste in the decades after Independence ,” but the ruling castes moulded the state apparatus and body politic in such a way that caste was reinvented as a modern institution capable of reproducing caste inequalities. * [Satish Deshpande, Contemporary India : A Sociological View ( New Delhi : Penguin, 2004).] Transition from colonial to Independent economy and introduction of development plans had generated new economic and educational opportunities, but confirming Phule-Ambedkar’s worst fears, these were usurped by the dominant social groups. The investment priorities of the successive Five Years Plans under Nehru and his successors were enormously biased in favour of upper caste-class sections of society. * [N K Sarkar, Social Structure and Development Strategy in Asia (New Delhi: People’s Publishing House, 1978), p. 25.] A nexus of brahmanic-feudal-bureaucratic influence reinforced the hold of the traditional power structure through manipulations of the newly introduced participatory democracy. Hidden behind the innocuous labels of traditional Hinduism or modern secularism, the new brahmanism was equated with nationalism and the shaper of Indian unity, with the corollary to pigeonhole the majority—dalits, adivasis, OBCs, Muslims, Sikhs, and other ethnic-religious categories—into different categories of minorities. It is notable that upper castes, barely 15 per cent of the population, have never presented themselves as a minority. Also, this group—which controls different levers of power and possess the lion’s share of country’s wealth—remains “the most elusive social group in modern India in statistical terms.” * [Satish Deshpande, Contemporary India , p. 110.]

The many faces of new dominance developed the communal, secular and liberal discourse in such a manner that it subsumed all national space, eliding or evading all issues concerning empowerment and education of the vast majority. All these forces colluded to subvert the new participatory democracy and reinforced a new hierarchy of caste and class. The caste elites utilised their money, muscle, and intellectual knavery to debase the new politics as a matter of perception which blurs reality and elections as the ability to project credibility, thus reinforcing a new oppressive power structure.

Dollops of reservations, subsidies, grants, cultural tokenism, and the rhetoric of democracy, justice and unity in diversity notwithstanding, the basic economics—and politics—of caste remained by and large intact. All these factors affected the nature of the new classes that have emerged in new India . Though the castes are increasingly getting separated from their former assigned tasks, the link between privilege and high caste status remains strong. And so is low caste status and assignment of most laborious and non-intellectual tasks. Politics is the only arena where traditionally subjugated social groups are far better represented, and this reflects in the mounting anger of the privileged groups towards parliamentary politics and politicians. But here, too, dalit-adivasi-OBC-Muslim politicians, with some exceptions, have become mere tools in the hands of powerful vested interests. Arithmetic of elections and dependence of parties and politicians on corporate houses for fighting elections turn them into worst kind of power players.

The fact is, the locus of power has decidedly shifted from Parliament to the corporate towers. This is the fundamental debasement of democracy, not the deepening of democracy, as political pundits wax eloquent to keep the excluded multitude in good humour. India ‘s procedural democracy and progress paradigm are fattening a “favoured minority” and multiplying inequalities with reproduction of caste and class. The democratic promise of the passage from exclusion to inclusion, from corruption to honesty, from bad principles to good ones remains, by and large, confined to the realm of the Constitutional provisions and public rhetoric. Life remains oppressive in India for a large number of people who struggle daily for sheer survival.

If the Indian democracy does not seem to be failing the people, it is because the situation is no different in the rest of the world. What kind of democracy prevails in the world that produces 10 million super millionaires and one billion hungry and homeless children? Do the ruling set really want “health, education, dignity and justice for all” as they crow in public, in the glare of limelight? The truth is, the globalised upper classes and techno-managerial elites in every country are obsessed with making money, for which they connect with their counterparts in other countries. Thus, Indian elites are not connected with the suffering Indians but with elites from other parts of the world. They are bound up with the corporate economics and politics to plunder the people and the earth under the banner of globalisation. They have rendered democracy hollow:

Modern democracies have been around for long enough for neo-liberal capitalists to learn how to subvert them. They have mastered the technique of infiltrating the instruments of democracy—the “independent” judiciary, the “free” press, the parliament—and moulding them to their purpose. The project of corporate globalisation has cracked the code. Free elections, a free press, and an independent judiciary mean little when the free market has reduced them to commodities available on sale to the highest bidder. * [Arundhati Roy, An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire ( Massachusetts : South End Press, 2004), p. 3.]

Such developments have a long background, but it is not just the neo-liberal capitalists who have made democracies hollow. Such perspective tends to obscure the long-standing complicity of a corrupt intelligentsia in subverting democracies around the world, especially in a country like India . After all, how free and fair were elections, judiciary, the media and academia in India before the economic liberalisation of 1991? The point is, the larger brahmanic forces had already taken control of “democracy” in India before the “project of corporate globalisation” entered the country of caste. Earlier, the hierarchies of caste and gender institutionalised graded inequalities, and were sanctified by the brahmanic scriptures the majority were forbidden to read. In the brahmanic eyes, there was no greater sin than education and equality of dalits, lowered castes and women. Despite resistances from below, caste continued to retain its ideological-cultural dominance, and its prescriptions went on to become social attitudes and cultural common sense. This state of affairs continued in the modern times due to hypocrisy of the caste elites. In fact, brahmanism got a new lease of life during colonialism; first by colluding with the colonial powers (which allowed it to rejuvenate and refurbish its old cultural resources), and then by emerging as the political-ideological engine of nationalism and capturing power after the Independence. That is why the tyranny of capitalism in India cannot be grasped, let alone resisted, in isolation from its wider social context. Capitalism is far more dangerous in India than in the Euro-America because of the culture and economics of caste.

By Braj Ranjan Mani

25 August, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

[Braj Ranjan Mani is the author of Debrahmanising History (Manohar, 2005). His new book, Reconstructing Knowledge: Transforming the Self and Society, is due soon.]

The British government’s threat to invade the Ecuadorean embassy in London and seize Julian Assange is of historic significance. David Cameron, the former PR man to a television industry huckster and arms salesman to sheikdoms, is well placed to dishonour international conventions that have protected Britons in places of upheaval. Just as Tony Blair’s invasion of Iraq led directly to the acts of terrorism in London on 7 July 2005, so Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague have compromised the safety of British representatives across the world.

Threatening to abuse a law designed to expel murderers from foreign embassies, while defaming an innocent man as an “alleged criminal”, Hague has made a laughing stock of Britain across the world, though this view is mostly suppressed in Britain. The same brave newspapers and broadcasters that have supported Britain’s part in epic bloody crimes, from the genocide in Indonesia to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, now attack the “human rights record” of Ecuador, whose real crime is to stand up to the bullies in London and Washington.

It is as if the Olympics happy-clappery has been subverted overnight by a revealing display of colonial thuggery. Witness the British army officer-cum-BBC reporter Mark Urban “interviewing” a braying Sir Christopher Meyer, Blair’s former apologist in Washington, outside the Ecuadorean embassy, the pair of them erupting with Blimpish indignation that the unclubbable Assange and the uncowed Rafael Correa should expose the western system of rapacious power. Similar affront is vivid in the pages of the Guardian, which has counselled Hague to be”patient” and that storming the embassy would be “more trouble than it is worth”. Assange was not a political refugee, the Guardian declared, because “neither Sweden nor the UK would in any case deport someone who might face torture or the death penalty”.

The irresponsibility of this statement matches the Guardian’s perfidious role in the whole Assange affair. The paper knows full well that documents released by WikiLeaks indicate that Sweden has consistently submitted to pressure from the United States in matters of civil rights. In December 2001, the Swedish government abruptly revoked the political refugee status of two Egyptians, Ahmed Agiza and Mohammedel-Zari, who were handed to a CIA kidnap squad at Stockholm airport and “rendered” to Egypt, where theywere tortured. An investigation by the Swedish ombudsman for justice found that the government had “seriously violated” the two men’s human rights. In a 2009 US embassy cable obtained by WikiLeaks, entitled “WikiLeaks puts neutrality in the Dustbin of History”, the Swedish elite’s vaunted reputation for neutrality is exposed as a sham. Another US cable reveals that “the extent of [Sweden’smilitary and intelligence] cooperation [with Nato] is not widely known” and unless kept secret “would open the government to domestic criticism”.

The Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, played a notorious leading role in George W Bush’s Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and retains close ties to the Republican Party’s extreme right. According to the former Swedish director of public prosecutions Sven-Erik Alhem, Sweden’s decision to seek the extradition of Assange on allegations of sexual misconduct is “unreasonable and unprofessional, as well as unfair and disproportionate”. Having offered himself for questioning, Assange was given permission to leave Sweden for London where, again, he offered to be questioned. In May, in a final appeal judgment on the extradition, Britain’s Supreme Court introduced more farce by referring to non-existent “charges”.

Accompanying this has been a vituperative personal campaign against Assange. Much of it has emanated from the Guardian, which, like a spurned lover,has turned on its besieged former source, having hugely profited from WikiLeaks disclosures. With not a penny going to Assange or WikiLeaks, a Guardian book has led to a lucrative Hollywood movie deal.The authors, David Leigh and Luke Harding, gratuitously abuse Assange as a “damaged personality” and “callous”. They also reveal the secret password he had given the paper in confidence, which was designed to protect a digital file containing the US embassy cables. On 20 August, Harding was outside the Ecuadorean embassy, gloating on his blog that “Scotland Yard may get the last laugh”. It is ironic, if entirely appropriate, that a Guardian editorial putting the paper’s latest boot into Assange bears an uncanny likeness to the Murdoch press’s predictable augmented bigotry on the same subject. How the glory of Leveson, Hackgate and honourable, independent journalism doth fade.

His tormentors make the point of Assange’s persecution. Charged with no crime, he is not a fugitive from justice. Swedish case documents, including the text messages of the women involved, demonstrate to any fair-minded person the absurdity of the sex allegations – allegations almost entirely promptly dismissed by the senior prosecutor in Stockholm, Eva Finne, before the intervention of a politician, Claes Borgstr?At the pre-trial of Bradley Manning, a US army investigator confirmed that the FBI was secretly targeting the “founders, owners or managers of WikiLeaks” for espionage.

Four years ago, a barely noticed Pentagon document, leaked by WikiLeaks, described how WikiLeaks and Assange would be destroyed with a smear campaign leading to “criminal prosecution”. On 18 August, the Sydney Morning Herald disclosed, in a Freedom of Information release of official files, that the Australian government had repeatedly received confirmation that the US was conducting an “unprecedented” pursuit of Assange and had raised no objections. Among Ecuador’s reasons for granting asylum is Assange’s abandonment “by the state of which he is a citizen”. In 2010, an investigation by the Australian Federal Police found that Assange and WikiLeaks had committed no crime. His persecution is an assault on us all and on freedom.

By John Pilger

25 August, 2012

@ JohnPilger.com

John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain’s Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US

President al-Assad: The Scheme Directed against the Entire Region Not only Syria…the Syrian People Will Not Allow the Scheme to Pass whatever the Cost

Aug 26, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday said the scheme currently taking place is not only directed against Syria but also against the entire region in which Syria is the cornerstone, which is why the foreign powers are trying to target Syria to complete their plots in the whole region.

The President’s statements came during his meeting with the Chairman of Iran’s Shura Council’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi.

President al-Assad reaffirmed Syria’s firmness in its approach of resistance and defending the legitimate rights of the people notwithstanding the scale of cooperation between the Western and some regional countries that is aimed to deviate Syria from its stances.

He stressed that the Syrian people will not allow this scheme to pass and reach its goals whatever the cost.

The talks during the meeting dealt with the brotherly relations and strategic cooperation between Syria and Iran in the various fields.

Boroujerdi, for his part, underscored the common interests shared between Syria and Iran, stressing that the security of Syria is Iran’s security.

He reaffirmed Iran’s continued support for Syria, government and people, on all levels and its constant consultation with Damascus regarding any initiatives proposed for getting out of the crisis in Syria, considering this an essential issue for the success of any initiative.

The Iranian official said that in the same way Iran suffered from terrorism and has overcome that difficult period, Syria is likewise able to do so as both countries are like “steel”, stressing that the foreign powers, no matter what level their conspiracies could reach, cannot undermine Damascus and Tehran’s resistant role in the region.

Afterwards, Vice-president Farouk al-Shara received Bororjerdi and discussed with him the bilateral relations, with al-Shara expressing appreciation of the objective stances of Iran towards what is taking place in Syria.

Earlier, Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Walid al-Moallem, had met with Boroujerdi and discussed with him the situation in Syria and the role of the anti-resistance axis foreign powers in targeting Syria’s security and stability.

On August 7th, President al-Assad met with Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, and discussed with him the solid cooperatiin and strategic relations between their countries and the situation in the region.

The meeting also touched upon the attempts of the Western countries and their allies in the region to strike the axis of resistance through targeting Syria by supporting terrorism in it.

Large Number of Terrorists Killed in Aleppo, Damascus Countryside and Homs

Aug 26, 2012

PROVINCES, (SANA)_Units of the armed forces on Sunday clashed with terrorists, causing them heavy losses in different parts of Aleppo and its countryside.

A source in the province told SANA reporter that an armed forces’ unit clashed with terrorists in Bab al-Hadid in Aleppo, killing and injuring a number of them.

The source added that the military units clashed with terrorists near the Cultural Center in Hanano neighborhood, killing most of them. In Aleppo countryside, the Syrian Arab Army carried out a qualitative operation in Manbij area, causing heavy losses among the terrorists near the Agricultural School, the source also mentioned.

SANA also reported that units of the armed forces destroyed a den of terrorists near the Directorate of Land Reclamation HQ in Deir Hafer village in Maskana, according to the source.

The source said that the army forces killed a number of terrorists, including a sniper, near a mall in Saif al-Dawla area, as they also killed several snipers stationed on buildings’ roofs in Mahalt Sayyed Ali area overlooking al-Aziziyeh and al-Suleimaniyeh neighborhoods in the city.

The source pointed out that several terrorists were killed and injured near the Industrial School in al-Saliheen region, as three cars equipped with DShK machineguns were destroyed in Tal Hidyeh, south of the province.

A unit of the armed forces targeted terrorists near al-Tananir Square in Aleppo.

An armed forces unit cleared the Scientific Institute of Aleppo of armed groups which vandalized it, killing many terrorists and arresting others.

Spiritual leader of the Arab Anglican Church in Aleppo, Father Ibrahim Nassir, told the Syrian TV that terrorists wrought havoc in the Institute because they oppose intellect and words, stressing that the targeting of this academic establishment which educated generations of Syrians for over a century is an act of vandalism against the entire country

Nassir thanked the Syrian Armed Forces who are fulfilling their duty and responding to citizens’ appeals to save them from terrorists.

Armed forces units targeted gatherings of terrorists in the areas of Maysaloun, Saif al-Dawla, Bustan al-Basha, al-Marja roundabout, al-Sakhour roundabout and al-Baidin roundabout in Aleppo, killing several terrorists and destroying vehicles equipped with DShK machineguns.

On Saturday, a unit of the armed forces clashed with terrorists near Serbian swimming pool in Aleppo.

The clash resulted in the killing of a number of terrorists and destroying their cars which were equipped with DShK machineguns.

The Syrian armed forces also carried out a qualitative operation near the Sports Institute roundabout in Aleppo, inflicting huge losses among the mercenary terrorists and destroying a number of their cars which were equipped with DShK machineguns.

Armed Forces Continue Clearing Darayya Area from Terrorists

The armed forces continued their work to clear the area of Darayya in Damascus countryside from terrorist groups, pursuing terrorists and raiding their hideouts.

These operations resulted in the deaths of a large number of terrorists, the arrests of others, and the confiscation of large amounts of weapons.

Confiscated weapons include RPG launchers, US-made sniper rifles, mortar rounds, homemade rockets and improvised explosive devices, and materials and equipment for making them, in addition to silencers, night-vision goggles and wireless communication devices.

In addition, engineering units dismantled three explosive devices planted by terrorists in the streets of Darayya.

Terrorists Severely Hit in al-Hosn and Talkalakh

An armed forces’ unit pursued an armed terrorist group that attacked citizens and law-enforcement members near al-Ouja roundabout in al-Hosn town in Homs countryside, killing and injuring its members.

SANA correspondent quoted a source in the governorate as saying that the authorities in Talkalakh city repelled on Saturday an armed terrorist group which tried to attack the law-enforcement members and inflicted huge losses among them.

Authorities Hunt Terrorists in Idleb Province

The authorities for the 5th day continued pursuit of the armed terrorist groups in Ariha, Idleb and the surrounding areas, inflicting heavy losses among them through qualitative operations that target the mercenaries.

A source told SANA reporter that the authorities hunted the terrorists at al-Sina’a neighborhood in Ariha, killed and injured a number of them while others were arrested.

The source added that during the operation two cars equipped with Dushka machineguns were destroyed.

An armed forces unit clashed with a terrorist group that attempted to block Harem road in Idleb and seized cars containing food bound for Idleb city, with the armed forces eliminating a large number of terrorists and recovering the stolen goods.

In the villages and wilderness surrounding Dama area in Idleb, an armed forces unit chased down terrorist groups and killed many of their members.

Authorities Arrest Wanted Terrorists in Hama

Following investigations, the authorities chased down terrorist groups in the neighborhoods of al-Sabouniyeh and al-Ulaylat in Hama, arresting several wanted men and confiscating their weapons.

An official source told SANA that confiscated items include 11 7.62 automatic rifles, an Israeli-made sniper rifle, a NATO sniper rifle, 6 explosive devices, 2 Israeli-made bazooka launchers, and 30 mortar rounds.

Terrorists Assassinate Preacher of al-Imam al-Nawawi Mosque in Front of His Home in Damascus

A terrorist group assassinated sheikh Hasan Bertawi, preacher of al-Imam al-Nawawi Mosque in Rukneddin neighborhood in Damascus.

A source at the Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf) said that the terrorists lay in wait for sheikh al-Bertawi and shot him dead in front of his home in Rukneddin.

Armed Terrorist Group Burns and Destroys Seven Tankers Loaded with Fuel and Gasoline

An armed terrorist group today attacked 7 tankers loaded with fuel and gasoline near al-Nairab bridge in Aleppo, burning and destroying them.

A source in Aleppo told SANA reporter that the tankers were heading for Aleppo to supply the citizens with those two materials, but the terrorists sabotaged them to prevent the people from their basic needs.

Salehi, Jalili and Larijani Meet Haidar, Affirm Iran’s Support for Resolving Crisis in Syria via Dialogue

Aug 26, 2012

TEHRAN, (SANA) – Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday discussed with Syrian National Reconciliation Minister Dr. Ali Haidar bilateral relations and regional and international issues, particularly the crisis in Syria and means for restoring security and stability in it.

Salehi stressed the need for restoring security and stability in Syria, reiterating Iran’s readiness to host dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition.

He also stressed Tehran’s commitment to restoring stability to Syria via peaceful methods, lauding the six-points plan and the principles of the recent meeting in Tehran on Syria, affirming that the Syrian crisis can only be solved by dialogue, and that sustainable calm and stability can only be realized through ending violence, finding mechanisms for meeting the people’s demands, providing an atmosphere for dialogue between the government and the opposition, and supporting political participation of all parties and national dialogue.

In turn, Haidar lauded Iran’s position and the help it provides to restore sustainable calm and security in Syria, praising Iran’s efforts to establish communication with the Syrian opposition.

He also affirmed that the crisis in Syria can be resolved through dialogue, and that any political projects for resolving the crisis must involve a complete cessation of violence, rejection of foreign interference, and preventing the sending of weapons and foreign militants into Syria.

On a relevant note, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili underlined during his meeting with Haidar that Iran has always emphasized the need for national dialogue and finding a Syrian solution to the crisis.

Jalili underscored the need for ending violence, disarming the opposition, and ending some countries’ support of militants, calling for benefiting from new initiatives and involving new sections of the Syrian people in national dialogue.

For his part, Haidar said that Syrian-Iranian relations are deep-rooted and without peer, and that the Syrian people wish to determine their fate on their own through democracy and without foreign interference, which is why Syria is prepared to launch national dialogue.

He affirmed that Syria will overcome the current conditions in the end and will remain part of the resistance axis.

In a similar meeting, Minister Haidar discussed bilateral relations and the situation in Syria with Speaker of Iranian Shura Council Ali Larijani, with Larijani reiterating his country’s support for Syria’s people and leadership in the face of the conspiracy targeting it.

In turn, Haidar reviewed the efforts being exerted in order to restore Syria to normal, affirming that the solution lies in inclusive national dialogue which can only be achieved if violence ends and if foreign sides cease arming and funding militant groups.

Boroujerdi: Only Way to Resolve Crisis in Syria is Through Political Option

Aug 26, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Chairman of Iran’s Shura Council’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, reiterated his country’s rejection of any foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs, affirming that holding the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran is an opportunity to help resolve the crisis in Syria.

During a press conference at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus on Sunday, Boroujerdi said that his country’s initiative regarding Syria which will be presented at the NAM summit follows up on the consultative meeting held in Tehran which saw the participation of 30 countries that reject foreign intervention in Syria and believe in a political solution, with a special meeting due to be held on the sideline of the summit leading to forming a communication group.

He said that the main element in this issue is the approval of the Syrian government which welcomed dialogue as a positive preliminary step until the militant opposition and the countries supporting them decide to adopt the political solution, noting that the numbers iof those who support dialogue and a political solution are increasing each day as most countries realized that the militant actions of armed terrorist groups are futile.

Boroujerdi said that Iran is prepared to provide a suitable environment for dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition, saying that the Iranian initiative can be launched as soon as the opposition agrees to enter dialogue, adding that the names of the opposition groups who voiced readiness for dialogue will be announced after the NAM summit.

He also reiterated his country’s opposition of the suspension of Syria’s membership in the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference, saying that these steps were prompted by US pressure.

On whether there’s coordination between Iran and the US regarding the Iranian initiative, Boroujerdi said that the US is one of the main reasons for the crisis in Syria as it worked since the beginning to direct its allies in the region towards military action against Syria. Therefore, there is no coordination with the US regarding the initiative.

He pointed out that the US provided weapons and support to terrorists in Syria, and worked to prevent Iran’s participation in the Geneva meeting, affirming that the idea of the US being able to impose its will and to achieve all its goal is erroneous.

Boroujerdi noted that Russia and China oppose the US policy against Syria, and that their use of veto at the Security Council and the presence of their fleets in the Mediterranean show their commitment to defending Syria’s independence.

He said that the main reason for trying to change the polticial structure in Syria is due to its support for resistance against Israel.

Boroujerdi pointed out that some members of the opposition who aren’t looking for polticial solutions rejected the government’s calls for withdrawing gunmen and weapons, voicing Iran’s faith in the reforms in Syria and in the fact that security and calm will help speed them up.

He affirmed that military intervention in Syria has become very unlikely after Russia and China opposed it strongly, saying that the media campaign against Syria has been exposed as negative media distorts the reality of what is happening in Syria.

On Iran’s coordination with regional countries to resolve the crisis in Syria, Boroujerdi said Iran is working to alter the Turkish policy towards Syria and that detailed talks were held in this regard.

Regarding the recent Iranian-Saudi talks which were held in Mecca, Boroujerdi hoped that Saudi Arabia would encourage armed groups to adopt the political option and abandon the militant option.

He also said that it’s possible to negotiate over forming a communication committee including Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey as per Egypt’s suggestion, affirming that any such step should be done in coordination with the Syrian government to ensure its success.

On the role of UN Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi in resolving the crisis, Boroujerdi noted that Brahimi has experience in resolving crises, and that Iran hopes that he will engage in resolving the crisis in a practical manner without being influenced by the countries who call for military action against Syria.

Regarding the abduction of Iranian visitors in Syria, Boroujerdi said that this is a humanitarian matter and a human rights issue, calling on all countries to fulfill their humanitarian obligation to help resolve this issue.

As for Israel’s threats to Iran, Boroujerdi affirmed that Israel doesn’t have the courage to carry out its threats as it knows very well the results of such stupidity, particularly after its defeat in July 2006 and the failure of its aggression against Gaza.

Salehi Stresses Iran’s Rejection of Foreign Interference in the Internal Affairs of Countries

Aug 26, 2012

TEHRAN, (SANA)_ The preparatory expert-level meetings of the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) kicked off in Tehran on Sunday, with the participation of 120 delegations, among them the Syrian delegation headed by Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Dr. Fayssal Mikdad.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi stressed in the inaugural speech his country’s rejection of foreign interference in the internal affairs of the countries of the region under any pretext, indicating that foreign interference poses an obstacle to the development of the peoples of those countries. He called for not using human rights to exert pressure on countries.

”The world has been witnessing major developments over more than a year, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, which we support the demands of their people in freedom and justice that can be achieved through dialogue and respecting human rights,” Salehi said.

“We are now faced with many major developments and we have to invest all the potentials of the NAM for establishing security, peace and justice all over the world, particularly in such a sensitive period where an atmosphere of contradiction and disagreement prevails the international relations,” stressed the Iranian Foreign Minister.

He added that “This makes us in great need of collective and decisive steps that take the current world to another oworld that moves the cultural levels to a higher place and elevates respect to all internationally acknowledged rights, especially the right of self-determination and the right to have democratic governments.”

Salehi continued that “We as a movement must beware of the policies of interference and selfishness and adopt the approach of peaceful dialogue among civilizations and cultures as the way for putting an end to disputes, achieving peace and terminating racial discrimination.”

He saw that the UN, six decades on its inception, needs political reforms, calling upon the UN General Assembly to shoulder its responsibilities in solving the issues of international security and peace.

The Iranian official affirmed that the policy of terrorism and threats minimizes the international presence and weakens the position of the UN that is based on common interests, underscoring Tehran’s denouncement of any interference in the countries’ affairs under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

Salehi said that the Zionist entity represents international terrorism, stressing that achieving peace in the region is contingent upon ending the Israeli occupation of the Arab lands and the return of Palestinian refugees to their lands.

He considered the time being appropriate for moving ahead with eliminating terrorism, including the daily increasing international terrorism backed by the Western countries.

Salehi reaffirmed the peacefulness of Iran’s nuclear program, saying “Iran doesn’t want confrontation with anybody. What it wants is its internationally acknowledged rights to peaceful use of nuclear energy.”

He pointed out that the world today needs effective cooperation among the NAM members on the basis of justice and equality with the aim to effectively counter the main issues threatening humanity, stressing the necessity of finding a just system capable of confrontation to resolve the main international issues transparently.

The 16th NAM Summit in Tehran lasts from August 26 to 31. The expert-level meetings are scheduled for August 26-27, to be followed by foreign ministers’ meeting on 28-29. The leaders are due to meet on August 30—31.

The summit discusses international issues, regional crises, the situation in the Middle East and Latin America. Human rights issues, food security and heath are also on the table.

Mehmanparast Stresses Proposal of Plan on Confronting Foreign Interference against Syria on Sidelines of NAM Summit

The Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, stressed that the Syrian crisis will be raised on the sidelines of the NAM conference to confront foreign interference in it.

Mehmanparast said on Sunday that members of the Non-Aligned Movement reject any foreign interference or activities of international extremist and terrorist groups in Syria, pointing out that the Syrian crisis will be discussed on the sidelines of the Summit in the framework of the regional issues, as members are to exchange viewpoints and discuss the issue of confronting any foreign interference in this country.

He added that members of the Movement are willing to hear the viewpoints of the Syrian people, follow up reforms and provide a comprehensive plan to solve the problems of this country.

The Iranian official underlined the importance of providing suitable atmosphere in Syria to fulfill the popular demands of the Syrians in a democratic course, expressing belief that this aim could be met in the framework of Annan’s six-point Plan.

He stressed that the Syrian people are meant to take the decision regarding the issues of their country, pointing out that whatever decision should be accompanied with the halt of violence and through a democratic framework.

On the possibility of achieving the Iranian proposal regarding the formation of an international contact group to settle the Syrian crisis with the Iranian membership, Mehmanparast said that this issue will be posed and discussed on the sidelines of the NAM Summit in Tehran.

Information Minister Hails Iranian Media’s Role in Conveying Reality in Syria

Aug 26, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- Information Minister, Omran al-Zoubi, hailed the role played by the Iranian media via its various channels, particularly those speaking Arabic, in conveying an objective image of the reality of what is taking place in Syria.

During his meeting on Sunday with Chairman of Iran’s Shura Council’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, al-Zoubi stressed that parts of the war on Syria is a media war that is based on circulating a large amount of fabricated news items to convey an image that is contrary to the reality with the aim of misleading the Arab and international public opinion.

He highlighted the shift in the course of media since the war on Iraq, during which he said media was side by side with the occupation forces, only to now turn into a tool and a party in the aggression on Syria.

Minister al-Zoubi affirmed the solid cooperation between Syria and Iran in the field of media on several levels including those of training and qualification and expertise exchange, stressing the necessity of expanding the prospects of this cooperation in service of the common interests in both countries.

For his part, Boroujerdi reiterated Iran’s stand in support for Syria in the face of the crisis it is going through, underlining the scale of international and regional pressures practiced on Syria since the start of the crisis.

He cited among those pressures the suspension of Syria’s membership in the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, noting that this crisis has uncovered who are the real friends of Syria and who are its enemies.

Boroujerdi highlighted also the scope of the misleading media practiced by some channels in terms of falsifying facts and fabricating news about Syria so as one can see two scenes of Damascus: the Damascus living normal life, “which we saw firsthand,” and the Damascus seen on some channels like al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera reflecting a contrary image.

The Iranian official expressed deep regret over the martyrdom of a number of Syrian journalists and media figures at the hands of armed terrorist groups which are targeting the civilians in Syria.

Libyan Terrorist Relates Details of How Terrorists are Trained in Libya with Funding from Arab Gulf Countries and Sent to Syria

Aug 26, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – In confessions broadcast by the Syrian Arab TV on Sunday after the 8:30 PM news, Libyan terrorist Ibrahim Rajab al-Farajani said that societies and organizations funded by Arab Gulf countries and affiliated with Al Qaeda train terrorists in Libya then send them to Syria via Turkey.

Al-Farajani, a Libyan from the city of Benghazi born in 1993, said that he joined a militant group after the events in Libya, and that during his time with this group he became aware that its members were in contact with people in al-Zantan area where Qatari and Emirati planes loaded with weapons, Toyota SUVs and Qatari officers who trained militants in the use of AK-47 rifles and machineguns of various calibers and gave them monthly payments of 2000 Libyan dinars.

He revealed that sheikhs from Qatar and the Emirates funded Jihadists in order to establish an Islamic emirate in Libya, while some mosque Imams in Libya urged people to bear arms and go to places like Chechnya and Algeria to take part in their version of Jihad.

Al-Farajani said that eventually he joined a battalion affiliated with Al Qaeda which trained Syrians in the use of rocket launchers and grenades then sent them to Syria gradually to fight the Syrian army.

He pointed out that the battalion made a passport for him without even telling him that he was to be sent to Syria, then he was sent to Turkey by plane and arrived in Antioch, where a Syrian took them to a house containing people from Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Syria, all of them wearing masks and well-trained.

One of these men, a Syrian from Damascus referred to as Abu al-Bara’a, showed them videos and gave them books to prepare them mentally for fighting in Syria, then al-Farajani was sent into Syria along with people from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, arriving in a house in the village of Atma in Idleb which contained RPG launchers and PKC machineguns, with a car equipped with a DShK machinegun parked outside.

Afterwards, al-Farajani accompanied four terrorists into the town of Saraqeb in a pickup truck to where a group of Syrians were using a girls’ highschool to train in the use of DShK and PKC machineguns and RPG launchers.

He went on to say that he went with two terrorists into the a number of towns then headed towards Aleppo, ending up in Tel Rifa’at in Aleppo countryside where they met Syrian militants hiding in a school, and later met terrorists from Kuwait, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Syria in a house in the town of Mare’a.

He concluded by saying that he left that house with the terrorists and was given weapons and USD 50,000 to be given to people in Damascus and its outskirts.

The Sunday Telegraph: Fundamentalist Groups Recruit More Britons to Fight in Syria

Aug 26, 2012

MANCHESTER, BRITAIN, (SANA)- Fundamentalist groups are recruiting increasing numbers of young Britons to head to Syria and fight along the armed terrorist groups, according to the British newspaper of the Sunday Telegraph.

An investigation by the Sunday Telegraph published on Saturday, revealed that “fundamentalist groups in the Syrian civil war are recruiting growing numbers of young people from Britain with no previous links to the country,” noting that many of those are from Pakistani and Sudanese origins.

The investigation, prepared by Andrew Gilligan, has established that the young British people travelling to Syria are mainly of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sudanese parentage and are separate from the hundreds of British residents of Syrian descent who have been recruited by those groups and sent to Syria.

The Sunday Telegraph said “MPs, community leaders and anti-extremism campaigners are deeply worried that a new generation is being radicalised in Syria, in the same way as British bombers and terror plotters of the past decade were schooled along the Afghan-Pakistan border. But the British security authorities appear to be taking little or no action.”

The investigation referred to one of those ‘Jihadi Britons’ called Alshafie Elsheikh, 23, from White City in west London, who, the newspapers said, travelled to Syria this spring, according to Dr Salah al Bander, a former Liberal Democrat councilor and director of the Sudanese Diaspora and Islamism Project at the Sudan Civic Foundation.

The newspaper quoted al-Bander as saying that Elsheikh “is of Sudanese, not Syrian, ancestry – and told Dr al Bander that he knew of more than 20 others like him preparing to travel to the fight.”

“He told me before he left that he was going to join the jihad brigades in Syria, describing it as a holy cause,” said al Bander, adding that “[Elskeikh] said he was joining two other UK-based mujahideen, one of Somali origin and the other from Morocco.”

Al-Bader continued that Elsheikh told him that they were not trained in using firearms “but had been preparing for the trip since last year by doing very advanced physical exercises.”

“When I asked him about the numbers of his associates that were planning to go to Syria, he said that as far he knew there were 21 individuals ready to leave the UK very soon,” said al-Bader.

Elsheikh’s mother, Maha Elgizouli, told the Sunday Telegraph, who could not contact Elsheikh himself, that her son had left her a note saying he had “gone to fight for God”, but refused to speak further.

The investigation showed that at least 30 young Britons who are not of Syrian origin have travelled to take part in the fighting in it, quoting Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingam Perry Barr.

“There are a lot of sheikhs [religious leaders and scholars] in the West Midlands who are involving young people in this activity,” Barr told the British newspaper.

Barr expressed extreme concern “because I see similar things to what happened at the original stages of the Afghanistan war where we were supporting the mujahideen against the Russians. We wanted to get the Russians out and we armed people, we encouraged people to go out there and fight in the jihad.”

When the rhetoric starts to ratchet, the bombs are ready to explode. Before the assault the attacking nation unleashes a propaganda offensive that shapes the public mind to regard the soon to be attacked nation as wanton killers, which must be eliminated before they eradicate every woman, child and baby seal in the universe.

Commentators smirk at U.S. administration accusations against Hezbollah, but don’t seem to realize these accusations predict the preparation of a combined U.S./Israeli attack against the Party of God. Why? Because these nations expect Hezbollah to react militarily to the attack on Iran. It’s doubtful that Hezbollah will respond – why fight a losing war – but the saviors of peace in the Middle East are prepared to take another aggressive step in the arena they safeguard and complete their task – total elimination of Israel’s adversaries. Jordan, Egypt and Libya are defenseless; Iraq has tumbled; Syria will soon be gone; Iran awaits its fate – Hezbollah is the last man standing and will be the last man walking.

A bus with Israeli tourists is attacked in Bulgaria and immediately, without a single bit of evidence, U.S. and Israeli intelligence accuse Hezbollah – reason being the terrorist attack had the marks of a Hezbollah operation – a triple piece of propaganda.

(1) With no more proof than could be attributed to Paraguay, Hezbollah is accused of the crime.

(2) Although none of the few foreign attacks attributed to Hezbollah have been definitely proven (only two, back in the 1990s, have some credible evidence), and no attacks had been noted in twenty years, we are led to believe that Hezbollah is an active foreign terrorist organization.

(3) Although Hezbollah has never been linked to an attack on a bus with tourists, we are told this is a familiar Hezbollah operation.

As if reality and truth have no place in conversation, U.S. government sources inform us that Hezbollah is responsible for terrorism in South America and Europe, where it is expanding its activities. Too bad, the Latinos and Euros don’t know about this, or do they know the opposite – Hezbollah is not disturbing their sleep during these moments.

All this not so subtle preparation leads to the August 10 coup de grace from the U.S. Treasury and State Departments – unverified and undocumented accusations that “the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah is deeply involved in the Syrian government’s violent campaign to crush the uprising there. Hezbollah has trained and advised government forces inside Syria and has helped to expel opposition fighters from areas within the country. Hezbollah secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, has overseen those activities, which is part of the Syria government’s increasingly ruthless efforts to fight against the opposition.”

When pressed to supply proof, the government spokespersons retreated to conclusions from press reports, without specifying the press reports (a Google search does not reveal any press reports of this type) and classified intelligence; not plain vanilla intelligence but classified intelligence, which, of course, cannot be revealed – in other words, no proof.

The opposite has been noted. Despite Hezbollah’s close attachment to the Assad regime and dependence on its moral and military support, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has been unusually quiet in expressing support for Assad. His comments have been scarce and only reflect those of anyone who relies on another for assistance. One comment:

Nasrallah Renews Support for Assad, July 19, Hussein Dakroub, Daily Star

BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah renewed his support Wednesday for the regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad and praised the three generals killed in a bombing in Damascus, describing them as comrades-in-arms to the resistance party.

He also reiterated his call for dialogue between the Syrian regime and opposition to end the 16-month unrest.

Hezbollah’s website is milder in its contempt for the Syrian rebels and more informative on the situation than the New York Times. Trust, but verify.

The decades of Hezbollah’s questionable terrorist activities have been summarized by Israel “can do no wrong” Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, affectionately known as CAMERA. Although it is possible that some Hezbollah members have ties with other organizations and Hezbollah may approve of and assist in actions that retaliate against attacks upon its personna, there is scarce proof that Hezbollah has terrorism as an agenda. Hezbollah has issues with Israel and can be provoked, but its aggressive tactics don’t seem to extend beyond that issue, which is an important consideration. Nevertheless, any Hezbollah relation to terrorist activities are inexcusable and should be condemned

Starting with its year of formation in 1985 (everything before that date has nothing to do with the Hezbollah organization nor has been verified), CAMERA lists violence, other than in the tit-for-tat war with Israel, it attributes to Hezbollah.

Feb. 16, 1985: Hezbollah publicizes its manifesto. It notes that the group’s struggle will continue until Israel is destroyed and rejects any cease-fire or peace treaty with Israel. The document also attacks the U.S. and France.

June 14, 1985: Hezbollah terrorists hijack TWA flight 847. The hijackers severely beat Passenger Robert Stethem, a U.S. Navy diver, before killing him and dumping his body onto the tarmac at the Beirut airport. Other passengers are held as hostages before being released on June 30.

According to a Time Magazine June 24, 2001 summary of the story, “the hijackers were identified by an accomplice as members of Islamic Jihad (or Holy War), the shadowy Shi’ite Muslim organization that is regarded as a sort of umbrella for various fundamentalist terror groups operating in Lebanon and other Middle East countries.”

Dec. 31, 1986: Under the alias Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, Hezbollah announces it had kidnapped and murdered three Lebanese Jews. The organization previously had taken responsibility for killing four other Jews since 1984.

The alias is only speculation. There is no evidence that the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth is other than a group of extremists who call themselves Organization of the Oppressed on Earth.

Feb. 17, 1988: The group kidnaps Col. William Higgins, a U.S. Marine serving with a United Nations truce monitoring group in Lebanon, and later murders him.

Same doubt as above.

March 17, 1992: With the help of Iranian intelligence, Hezbollah bombs the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 and injuring over 200.

July 18, 1994: Hezbollah bombs the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires-again with Iranian help-killing 86 and injuring over 200.

These charges have legs, but not sufficient proof. The responsibility for these atrocities have had contradictory conclusions.

The Los Angeles Times headline reads: Islamic Jihad Says It Bombed Embassy.

March 19, 1992|WILLIAM R. LONG | TIMES STAFF WRITER

BUENOS AIRES – Workers uncovered more bodies Wednesday in the bomb-wrecked rubble of the Israeli Embassy, while a terrorist group in the Middle East claimed responsibility for the devastating attack.

In Beirut, a statement bearing the name of the pro-Iranian group Islamic Jihad (Islamic holy war) claimed responsibility for the bombing, which it said was a suicide attack carried out by an Argentine who had converted to Islam.

The Islamic Jihad statement said a Muslim convert called “Abu Yasser” carried out the bombing to avenge the deaths of Sheik Abbas Moussawi and his family in an Israeli air raid Feb. 16 in southern Lebanon. Moussawi, a Shiite Muslim leader, was believed to head Hezbollah, or Party of God, a pro-Iranian terrorist organization linked by experts to Islamic Jihad.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “The Argentinean Intelligence Service (AIS) completed a comprehensive report on the international aspects of the terrorism. The main conclusions of the report are as follows:

The Iranian Government instigated the attack. Its implementation was the responsibility of then-Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian.

Iranian Intelligence charged Hezbollah with mounting the attack.

Hezbollah’s operational unit abroad led by Imad Mughniya perpetrated the attack. Syria was also in the know.”

Four arrest warrants of Iranians, but no indictments of Hezbollah, came from the AIS report. Note that the bombings in Argentina, although unjustified, were assumed to be retaliation to killings of Lebanese citizens by Israeli military and its intelligence agency. The latter obvious terrorist attacks have not been condemned by the western nations.

Despite no entries after 1994 by CAMERA of foreign terrorism by Hezbollah, Hezbollah is labeled an international terrorist organization.

Arriving at year 2011, after a pause of seventeen years in accusations of terrorist actions by Hezbollah, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli based and pro-Israel group, restarts the accusations with new charges against the Lebanese organization.

1) Turkey: On May 26, 2011, there was an attempted attack on the life of David Kimchi, the Israeli consul in the heart of Istanbul. The attack failed but wounded eight Turkish civilians, and might have been a so-called “work accident.” According to the Italian Corriere della Sera, July 2011, the Turkish authorities concluded that the attempted assassination had been carried out by three Hezbollah operatives who had arrived from Beirut. They followed the consul’s daily routine, in our assessment intending to attack him on his way to the consulate.

Intelligence sources in Ankara denied the report in the Italian daily, calling it Israeli propaganda. “Israel releases false information once in a while for disinformation purposes,” the source said.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/italian-newspaper-istanbul-blast-was-hezbollah-attempt-on-Israeli-consul-s-life-1.373935

2) Thailand: In the middle of January, 2012, an attack against an Israeli target in Bangkok was prevented, apparently a venue customarily frequented by Israelis. On January 12, Thai police at the Bangkok airport arrested Hussein Atris, a Shi’ite Hezbollah operative from south Lebanon, as he was trying to flee the country. In his possession were a Lebanese and an expired Swedish passport. During the investigation the Thai police uncovered a supply of chemicals for manufacturing explosives for the attack/attacks.

According to National Police Chief Priewpan Damapong, Atris insisted that the materials seized were not intended for attacks in Thailand but were going to be transported to a yet-to-be-named third country (a Stratfor source has cited the Philippines as a logical destination). He also allegedly told authorities that, although he was a member of Hezbollah, he was not a member of the group’s militant arm – a big difference. (Several terrorists in the United States have been members of a U.S. political Party. Did they operate from Party orders?)

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/hezbollah-threat-thailand

3) India: At 15:00 hours on February 13, 2012, a day after the anniversary of the death of Hezbollah’s senior terrorist operative Imad Mughniyeh, a motorcyclist attached an explosive device to the car of an Israeli Ministry of Defense representative in New Delhi. In the car were the local driver and the wife of the Israeli Ministry of Defense representative, who was seriously wounded. Of the series of six attempted attacks initiated by Iran and Hezbollah, it was the only one which was carried out and harmed an Israeli. The Indian media reported that the police had detained five men for interrogation who had been detected by security cameras as they examined the Israeli car. The Indian media also reported that the motorcycle had been found abandoned near the site of the attack.

Where is a documented Hezbollah link to any of the six attempted attacks?

4) Georgia: On February 13, 2012, the same day as the attack in New Delhi, an explosive device was attached to an Israeli embassy car in the capital city of Tbilisi. A Georgian employee of the Israeli embassy driving an embassy car felt the car was dragging something behind it. He alerted the police, whose demolition experts neutralized the bomb. The Israeli prime minister accused Iran and Hezbollah of responsibility for the attacks in Tbilisi and New Delhi, following those in Azerbaijan and Thailand. The Iranians, however, denied any and all involvement in the attacks in India and Georgia, and accused Israel of planning the attacks itself to incite world public opinion against Iran.

Except for the political Israeli PM’s unverified statement, where is a documented link to Hezbollah?

Similar to the bombings in Argentina, these atrocities were provoked by the killings of Iranian citizens, and assumed to have been done by Israel’s Mossad.

The Europeans are not in sync with U.S. characterization.

NYT, Aug 15 Despite Alarm by U.S., Europe Lets Hezbollah Operate Openly

Hezbollah has maintained a low profile in Europe since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, quietly holding meetings and raising money that goes to Lebanon, where officials use it for an array of activities – building schools and clinics, delivering social services and, Western intelligence agencies say, carrying out terrorist attacks

Although no Hezbollah attacks have been reported since 1994, and the Lebanese political Party has no relation to the 9/11 attack, the NYT prints: “Hezbollah has maintained a low profile in Europe since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2000,” and “Western intelligence agencies say, (Hezbollah is) carrying out terrorist attacks (in Europe).

Nor is it probable that Hezbollah is quietly holding meetings and raising money that goes to Lebanon. Lebanese Shiites have scattered throughout the world for generations, working and sending money back to Party of God agencies and to support their families in Lebanon.

The militarist/nationalist regimes of the post World War II era dispatched the rulers appointed by the Post World War I British-French alliance, which arranged the Middle East to satisfy its interests. Unable to rearrange the nations’ borders in accord with ethnic persuasions, the Arab regimes suppressed ethnic rivalries. Soon, the Middle East will contain only nationalist regimes without the militarist bite and with renewed ethnic conflicts. With Hezbollah pulverized, the Palestinians will lose their last defense and face a catastrophic fate. Because challenging the Israel-United States alliance by conventional means will not be possible, we can expect decades of severe terrorism. Getting rid of the one-sided terrorist will open an expanded era of multi-minded terrorists.

Will the United States government ever learn?

By Dan Lieberman

23 August, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Dan Lieberman is editor of Alternative Insight, www.alternativeinsight.com, a commentary on foreign policy and politics. He is author of the book A Third Party Can Succeed in America and a Kindle: The Artistry of a Dog. Dan can be reached at alternativeinsight@earthlink.net

The UN’s Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has spent her entire time in office as an active accomplice in the genocide being conducted by the western funded Ethiopian regime against the people of the Ogaden.

A report on the genocide in the Ogaden remains under lock and key in Navi Pillay’s office under her direct order. The investigations this report was based on were conducted by at least two teams sent to the Ogaden in 2007 after the independence war and counterinsurgency being waged there first hit the worlds stage with the killing of a dozen or so Chinese oil workers exploring for oil despite being warned off by fighters from the Ogaden National Liberation Front.

According to persons with first hand participation in the investigation in the Ogaden in 2007 the report contains words such as “murder”, “mass murder”, “scorched earth policy”, “food blockade”, “medicine blockade”, “crimes against humanity” and even “genocide”.

With both the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders expelled from the Ogaden since 2007, before the investigation was completed, there is little possibility of any really independent observers providing any alternative to the still secret report. Two Swedish journalists who attempted to do so were nearly murdered by the Ethiopian death squads in the region and are now rotting in an Ethiopian dungeon, convicted of “terrorism”.

After years of demands from authors of the report Navi Pillay still is refusing to release it.

One person from within Ms. Pillay’s office reports that when challenged to provide a reason for suppressing this well documented expose of the worst ongoing crime in the world Ms. Pillay blamed the Obama White House and in particular President Obama’s Senior Advisor for Africa Gayle Smith.

Apparently Navi Pillay knows where and when she must kneel down to Pax Americana and would prefer to be an accomplice in genocide rather than lose the position marking the pinnacle of her career in service to the USA and its bosses and underbosses at the UN.

Today Navi Pillay, for the first time, is expressing “deep concern” over the actions of the Ethiopian regime formerly headed by the now deceased Meles Zenawi, decades long head of a regime that is now in the beginning stages of collapse.

It seems she can see the handwriting on the wall and doesn’t want to be caught out completely in distancing herself from the most corrupt, brutal and murderous dictator in Africa if not the world, Meles Zenawi.

With the Ethiopian empire crumbling and the independence of the Ogaden seemingly inevitable it will be up to the liberation fighters turned new government to try to bring Ms. Pillay to justice, though the list she is a part of includes many much more powerful, and ultimately responsible, than she.

By Thomas C. Mountain

23 August, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Thomas C. Mountain is the most widely distributed independent journalist in Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. His interviews on the genocide in the Ogaden can be seen on PressTV and RTTV. He can be reached at thomascmountain at yahoo dot com.

How an American Disaster Paved the Way for Big Oil’s Rise — and Possible Fall — in Iraq

In 2011, after nearly nine years of war and occupation, U.S. troops finally left Iraq. In their place, Big Oil is now present in force and the country’s oil output, crippled for decades, is growing again. Iraq recently reclaimed the number two position in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), overtaking oil-sanctioned Iran. Now, there’s talk of a new world petroleum glut. So is this finally mission accomplished?

Well, not exactly. In fact, any oil company victory in Iraq is likely to prove as temporary as George W. Bush’s triumph in 2003. The main reason is yet another of those stories the mainstream media didn’t quite find room for: the role of Iraqi civil society. But before telling that story, let’s look at what’s happening to Iraqi oil today, and how we got from the “no blood for oil” global protests of 2003 to the present moment.

Here, as a start, is a little scorecard of what’s gone on in Iraq since Big Oil arrived two and a half years ago: corruption’s skyrocketed; two Western oil companies are being investigated for either giving or receiving bribes; the Iraqi government is paying oil companies a per-barrel fee according to wildly unrealistic production targets they’ve set, whether or not they deliver that number of barrels; contractors are heavily over-charging for drilling wells, which the companies don’t mind since the Iraqi government picks up the tab.

Meanwhile, to protect the oil giants from dissent and protest, trade union offices have been raided, computers seized and equipment smashed, leaders arrested and prosecuted. And that’s just in the oil-rich southern part of the country.

In Kurdistan in the north, the regional government awards contracts on land outside its jurisdiction, contracts which permit the government to transfer its stake in the oil projects — up to 25% — to private companies of its choice. Fuel is smuggled across the border to the tune of hundreds of tankers a day.

In Kurdistan, at least the approach is deliberate: the two ruling families of the region, the Barzanis and Talabanis, know that they can do whatever they like, since their Peshmerga militia control the territory. In contrast, the Iraqi federal government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has little control over anything. As a result, in the rest of the country the oil industry operates, gold-rush-style, in an almost complete absence of oversight or regulation.

Oil companies differ as to which of these two Iraqs they prefer to operate in. BP and Shell have opted to rush for black gold in the super-giant oilfields of southern Iraq. Exxon has hedged its bets by investing in both options. This summer, Chevron and the French oil company Total voted for the Kurdish approach, trading smaller oil fields for better terms and a bit more stability.

Keep in mind that the incapacity of the Iraqi government is hardly limited to the oil business: stagnation hangs over its every institution. Iraqis still have an average of just five hours of electricity a day, which in 130-degree heat causes tempers to boil over regularly. The country’s two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, which watered the cradle of civilization 5,000 years ago, are drying up. This is largely due to the inability of the government to engage in effective regional diplomacy that would control upstream dam-building by Turkey.

After elections in 2010, the country’s leading politicians couldn’t even agree on how to form a government until the Iraqi Supreme Court forced them to. This record of haplessness, along with rampant corruption, significant repression, and a revival of sectarianism can all be traced back to American decisions in the occupation years. Tragically, these persistent ills have manifested themselves in a recent spate of car-bombings and other bloody attacks.

Washington’s Yen for Oil

In the period before and around the invasion, the Bush administration barely mentioned Iraqi oil, describing it reverently only as that country’s “patrimony.” As for the reasons for war, the administration insisted that it had barely noticed Iraq had one-tenth of the world’s oil reserves. But my new book reveals documents I received, marked SECRET/NOFORN, that laid out for the first time pre-war oil plans hatched in the Pentagon by arch-neoconservative Douglas Feith’s Energy Infrastructure Planning Group (EIPG).

In November 2002, four months before the invasion, that planning group came up with a novel idea: it proposed that any American occupation authority not repair war damage to the country’s oil infrastructure, as doing so “could discourage private sector involvement.” In other words, it suggested that the landscape should be cleared of Iraq’s homegrown oil industry to make room for Big Oil.

When the administration worried that this might disrupt oil markets, EIPG came up with a new strategy under which initial repairs would be carried out by KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton. Long-term contracts with multinational companies, awarded by the U.S. occupation authority, would follow. International law notwithstanding, the EIPG documents noted cheerily that such an approach would put “long-term downward pressure on [the oil] price” and force “questions about Iraq’s future relations with OPEC.”

At the same time, the Pentagon planning group recommended that Washington state that its policy was “not to prejudice Iraq’s future decisions regarding its oil development policies.” Here, in writing, was the approach adopted in the years to come by the Bush administration and the occupation authorities: lie to the public while secretly planning to hand Iraq over to Big Oil.

There turned out, however, to be a small kink in the plan: the oil companies declined the American-awarded contracts, fearing that they would not stand up in international courts and so prove illegitimate. They wanted Iraq first to have an elected permanent government that would arrive at the same results. The question then became how to get the required results with the Iraqis nominally in charge. The answer: install a friendly government and destroy the Iraqi oil industry.

In July 2003, the U.S. occupation established the Iraqi Governing Council, a quasi-governmental body led by friendly Iraqi exiles who had been out of the country for the previous few decades. They would be housed in an area of Baghdad isolated from the Iraqi population by concrete blast walls and machine gun towers, and dubbed the Green Zone. There, the politicians would feast, oblivious to and unconcerned with the suffering of the rest of the population.

The first post-invasion Oil Minister was Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, a man who held the country’s homegrown oil expertise in open contempt. He quickly set about sacking the technicians and managers who had built the industry following nationalization in the 1970s and had kept it running through wars and sanctions. He replaced them with friends and fellow party members. One typical replacement was a former pizza chef.

The resulting damage to the oil industry exceeded anything caused by missiles and tanks. As a result the country found itself — as Washington had hoped — dependent on the expertise of foreign companies. Meanwhile, not only did the Coalition Provisional authority (CPA) that oversaw the occupation lose $6.6 billion of Iraqi money, it effectively suggested corruption wasn’t something to worry about. A December 2003 CPA policy document recommended that Iraq follow the lead of Azerbaijan, where the government had attracted oil multinationals despite an atmosphere of staggering corruption (“less attractive governance”) simply by offering highly profitable deals.

Now, so many years later, the corruption is all-pervasive and the multinationals continue to operate without oversight, since the country’s ministry is run by the equivalent of pizza chefs.

The first permanent government was formed under Prime Minister Maliki in May 2006. In the preceding months, the American and British governments made sure the candidates for prime minister knew what their first priority had to be: to pass a law legalizing the return of the foreign multinationals — tossed out of the country in the 1970s — to run the oil sector.

The law was drafted within weeks, dutifully shown to U.S. officials within days, and to oil multinationals not long after. Members of the Iraqi parliament, however, had to wait seven months to see the text.

How Temporary the Victory of Big Oil?

The trouble was: getting it through that parliament proved far more difficult than Washington or its officials in Iraq had anticipated. In January 2007, an impatient President Bush announced a “surge” of 30,000 U.S. troops into the country, by then wracked by a bloody civil war. Compliant journalists accepted the story of a gamble by General David Petraeus to bring peace to warring Iraqis.

In fact, those troops spearheaded a strategy with rather less altruistic objectives: first, broker a new political deal among U.S. allies, who were the most sectarian and corrupt of Iraq’s politicians (hence, with the irony characteristic of American foreign policy, regularly described as “moderates”); second, pressure them to deliver on political objectives set in Washington and known as “benchmarks” — of which passing the oil law was the only one ever really talked about: in President Bush’s biweekly video conferences with Maliki, in almost daily meetings of the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, and in frequent visits by senior administration officials.

On this issue, the Democrats, by then increasingly against the Iraq War but still pro-Big Oil, lent a helping hand to a Republican administration. Having failed to end the war, the newly Democrat-controlled Congress passed an appropriations bill that would cut off reconstruction funds to Iraq if the oil law weren’t passed. Generals warned that without an oil law Prime Minister Maliki would lose their support, which he knew well would mean losing his job. And to ramp up the pressure further, the U.S. set a deadline of September 2007 to pass the law or face the consequences.

It was then that things started going really wrong for Bush and company. In December 2006, I was at a meeting where leaders of Iraq’s trade unions decided to fight the oil law. One of them summed up the general sentiment this way: “We do not need thieves to take us back to the middle ages.” So they began organizing. They printed pamphlets, held public meetings and conferences, staged protests, and watched support for their movement grow.

Most Iraqis feel strongly that the country’s oil reserves belong in the public sector, to be developed to benefit them, not foreign energy companies. And so word spread fast — and with it, popular anger. Iraq’s oil professionals and various civil society groups denounced the law. Preachers railed against it in Friday sermons. Demonstrations were held in Baghdad and elsewhere, and as Washington ratcheted up the pressure, members of the Iraqi parliament started to see political opportunity in aligning themselves with this ever more popular cause. Even some U.S. allies in Parliament confided in diplomats at the American embassy that it would be political suicide to vote for the law.

By the September deadline, a majority of the parliament was against the law and — a remarkable victory for the trade unions — it was not passed. It’s still not passed today.

Given the political capital the Bush administration had invested in the passage of the oil law, its failure offered Iraqis a glimpse of the limits of U.S. power, and from that moment on, Washington’s influence began to wane.

Things changed again in 2009 when the Maliki government, eager for oil revenues, began awarding contracts to them even without an oil law in place. As a result, however, the victory of Big Oil is likely to be a temporary one: the present contracts are illegal, and so they will last only as long as there’s a government in Baghdad that supports them.

This helps explain why the government’s repression of trade unions increased once the contracts were signed. Now, Iraq is showing signs of a more general return to authoritarianism (as well as internecine violence and possibly renewed sectarian conflict).

But there is another possibility for Iraq. Years before the Arab Spring, I saw what Iraqi civil society can achieve by organizing: it stopped the world’s superpower from reaching its main objective and steered Iraq onto a more positive course.

Many times since 2003 Iraqis have moved their country in a more democratic direction: establishing trade unions in that year, building Shi’a-Sunni connections in 2004, promoting anti-sectarian politicians in 2007 and 2008, and voting for them in 2009. Sadly, each of these times Washington has pushed it back toward sectarianism, the atmosphere in which its allies thrive. While mainstream commentators now regularly blame the recent escalation of violence on the departure of U.S. troops, it would be more accurate to say that the real reason is they didn’t leave far sooner.

Now, without its troops and bases, much of Washington’s political heft has vanished. Whether Iraq heads in the direction of dictatorship, sectarianism, or democracy remains to be seen, but if Iraqis again start to build a more democratic future, the U.S. will no longer be there to obstruct it. Meanwhile, if a new politics does emerge, Big Oil may discover that, in the end, it was mission unaccomplished.

By Greg Muttitt

23 August, 2012

@ TomDispatch.com

Greg Muttitt is the author of Fuel on the Fire: Oil and Politics in Occupied Iraq (New Press), just published, and described by Naomi Klein as “nothing short of a secret history of the war.” Since 2003, he has worked with Iraqi trade unions campaigning against the privatization of Iraq’s oil, most of that time as co-director of the British charity Platform.

Somewhere in my home I have a set of photo albums I rarely go near. I fear the flood of cruel memories that might be evoked from looking at the countless photos I took during a trip to Iraq. Many of the pictures are of children who developed rare forms of cancer as a result of exposure to Depleted Uranium (DU), which was used in the US-led war against Iraq over two decades ago.

I remember visiting a hospital that was attached to Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. The odor that filled its corridors was not the stench of medicine, but rather the aroma of death. At a time of oppressive siege, the hospital lacked even basic anesthetic equipment and drugs. Children sat and stared at their visitors. Some wailed in inconceivable pain. Parents teetered between hope and the futility of hope, and at prayer times they duly prayed.

A young doctor gave a sweeping diagnosis: “No child that ever enters this place ever leaves alive.” Being the young reporter I was at the time, I diligently made a note of his words before asking more questions. I didn’t quite grasp the finality of death.

Several years later, Iraq’s desolation continues. On August 16, 90 people were killed and more were wounded in attacks across the country. Media sources reported on the bloodbath (nearly 200 Iraqis were killed this month alone), but without much context. Are we meant to believe that violence in Iraq has transcended any level of reason? That Iraqis get blown up simply because it is their fate to live in perpetual fear and misery?

But the dead, before they were killed, were people with names and faces. They were fascinating individuals in their own right, deserving of life, rights and dignity. Many are children, who knew nothing of Iraq’s political disputes, invited by US wars and occupation and fomented by those who feed on sectarianism.

We often forget this. Those who refuse to fall into the trap of political extremes still tend to process and accept violence in one way or another. We co-exist with tragedy, with the belief that bombs just go off randomly and that surviving victims cannot be helped. We somehow accept the idea that refugees cannot be repatriated and the hungry cannot be fed.

This strange wisdom is most apparent in Sudan. In the Upper Nile state, people are dying from sheer exhaustion before they reach refugee camps in Batil. Some walk for weeks between South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, seeking respite and any chance of survival. Those who endure the journey – compelled by fighting between the Sudanese army and rebels groups – might not survive the harshness of life awaiting them at Batil. The BBC News reported on August 17, citing a warning by Medecins Sans Frontieres, that “[p]eople are dying in large numbers in a refugee camp in South Sudan.”

I almost stumbled on the ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ in Batil (as described by MSF’s medical co-ordinator, Helen Patterson) while reviewing reports of the deteriorating situation in some Darfur refugee camps. Batil now hosts nearly 100,000 of the estimated 170,000 refugees who recently fled their homes. According to the medical charity, 28% of the children are malnourished, and the mortality rate is twice that of the accepted emergency threshold.

Darfur is, of course, a festering wound. Many of the internally displaced refugees often find themselves in a constant state of displacement, as was the case earlier this month. UN officials say that ‘all’ 25,000 people in a single refugee camp, Kassab, went on the run again after armed groups clashed with government forces. They settled in another ‘shelter’ nearby, the town of Kutum. According to the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), the supposed new shelter ‘lacks water, food and sanitation’ (CNN, August 9).

Since then, the story has somewhat subsided. Not because the fleeing refugees are in a good standing, but because this is all the attention that 25,000 refugees can expect from a media awash with news of two-faced politicians and celebrity scandals. It might take a ‘peacemaking’ celebrity to place Batil or Kassab on the media map for another day or two, and surely nothing less than a sizable number of deaths to make the refugees a relevant news item once again.

That said, no attention-seeking VIP is likely to venture out to Mali anytime soon. While the humanitarian crisis in West Africa is reaching frightening levels, the media continues to address the conflict in Mali in terms of the logic of Western interests being threatened by rebels, coups and jihadists. Aside from the fact that few ask of Western complicity in the chaos, 435,000 refugees are flooding neighboring countries. This was the most recent estimate by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on August 16, but the fact is ignored by most media.

The World Food Program says that the food crisis is devastating – not only for distraught refugees, but also for millions within the country. Malian children are, of course, outnumbering all other victims. They are helplessly dragged around through endless deserts. When they die, they merely leave a mark as yet another statistic, estimated without much certainty, and, sadly, without value.

However, here may lay the moral to the story. Every Malian, Sudanese, Iraqi, Syrian, Palestinian, Yemeni or Rohingya child matters immensely to those around him. His or her life – or death – might conveniently serve to fortify a political argument, make a good National Geographic reportage, or a Facebook photo with many ‘shares’ and ‘likes’. But for parents, families, friends and neighbors, their children are the center of their universe, however poor and seemingly wretched. Thus, when UNICEF or UNRWA complains about a shortage of funds, it actually means that thousands of innocent people will needlessly suffer, and that centers of many universes will dramatically implode, replacing hope with bottomless despair, and often rage.

It may be convenient to assign conventional political wisdom to explain complex political issues and violent conflicts. But protracted conflicts don’t make life any less precious, or children any less innocent. It is a tragedy when Iraqis seem to be on a constant parade of burying their loved ones, or when the Sudanese seem to be on a constant quest to save their lives. It’s a greater tragedy, however, when we get so used to the unfolding drama of human violence that we can accept as destined the reality of children crossing the Sahara in search of a sip of water.

By Ramzy Baroud

23 August, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press, London.)

Almost three years ago I wrote an analytical piece on the concept of deliberately engineering wars, big and small, by elitists to distract the masses away from particular global developments that work to the benefit of the establishment power structure. That article was entitled ‘Will The Globalists Trigger Yet Another World War?’:

http://www.alt-market.com/neithercorp/press/2010/01/will-globalists-trigger-yet-another-world-war/

In that analysis, I concluded that since at least 2008, the power’s that be (whether posing as Republicans or Democrats) had set in a motion a series of events that revolved around Iran, and most disturbingly, Syria, which could be used to trigger a vast global war scenario. Today, unfortunately, it seems my concerns were more than valid, and circumstances evolving in that particular region are dire indeed.

Now, some may argue that circumstances in the Middle East have always been “dire” and that it does not take much to predict a renewal of chaos. Admittedly, for the past six years alone the American public has been treated to one propaganda campaign after the other testing the social waters to see if a sizable majority of the citizenry could be convinced to support strikes against Iran. The U.S. and Israeli governments have come very close on several occasions in rhetoric and in the build up of arms, to just such an event. However, I would submit that the previous threats of war that came and went are absolutely nothing in comparison to the danger today.

Syria’s civil war has developed into something quite frightening, well beyond the blind insurrections of the so-called “Arab Spring”. So many outside interests (especially U.S. interests) are involved in the conflict it is impossible to tell whether there are actually any real revolutionaries in Syria anymore. This unsettling of the country’s foundation has taken a turn which I warned about recently, namely, the removal of UN monitors from the area, which was announced only days ago:

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/16/syria-crisis-idINL6E8JGDXH20120816

The removal of UN monitors is a sign that some kind of strike is near the horizon.

Accusations of potential “chemical weapons stores” in Syria are being floated by the Department of Defense as a clear cut rationale for invasion, and Israel has essentially admitted that an attack on Iran is not only on the table but beyond planning stages into near implementation. Even Israeli citizens are openly worried that their government is “serious” this time in its calls for preemptive attack, stockpiling gas masks and even protesting against the policy:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-14/israel-plans-for-iran-strike-as-citizens-say-government-serious.html

The tension of the atmosphere surrounding this crisis is unlike anything the Middle East has seen in decades, and that includes the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

But before we can understand the true gravity of this situation, we must first confront some misconceptions…

Firstly, I realize that there are many people out there who have natural and conditioned inclinations towards the hatred of Muslim nations. There are also just as many people out there who are inclined to distrust the intentions of the government of Israel. Both sides make good points on occasion, and both sides also have a tendency to get lazy, painting with a ridiculously broad brush and blaming all the woes of the world on one side or the other so that they don’t have to think through the complexities of globalism and the one world technocratic club, or accept that “Al-Qaeda” is not the biggest threat to peace and stability. It’s much easier to convict an entire race, or an entire religion, than it is to comprehend the mechanizations of an elite minority that plays both sides off each other.

Whatever side you may favor, simply know that in the end the sides are irrelevant. We could argue for months about who is just, who is right, who was there first, etc. Again, it’s irrelevant. What does matter, though, are the potential consequences of an exponential conflict in the region, which no one can afford.

Sadly, there are still plenty of Americans out there that believe the U.S. is the “richest nation on the globe” and has finances beyond reckoning with which to wage endless wars.

Here are the facts. Here is exactly what will happen if the U.S., NATO, or Israel, enter into a hot war with either Iran or Syria, and the results are not optimistic:

1) Syria And Iran Will Join Forces

In 2006, Iran and Syria signed a mutual defense treaty in response to the growing possibility of conflict with the West. Both countries are highly inclined to fulfill this treaty, and it would seem that Iran is already doing so, at least financially, as Syria spirals into civil war. In fact, the U.S. supported insurgency in Syria was likely developed in order to strain or test the mutual aid treaty. Given that the CFR is now applauding Al-Qaeda for its efforts in destabilizing the country, I hardly find it outlandish to suggest that the entire rebellion is being at least loosely organized by NATO interests to either draw Iran into open military support of Assad and a weakening proxy war, or to remove Syria from the equation in preparation for a strike on Iran itself (take notice that whenever the mainstream media shows images of Syrian rebels, they are always smiling or looking valiant with guns held high; a typical subliminal tactic used to paint them as “the good guys”):

http://www.cfr.org/syria/al-qaedas-specter-syria/p28782

2) Iran Will Shut Down The Strait Of Hormuz

With all the grandstanding at the Department of Defense, you would think that the Hormuz is a non-issue. This is a mistake. The strait is around 21 miles wide at its narrowest point which lays right off the coast of Iran, however, of that 21 miles only two safe shipping lanes are available, each measuring a miniscule 2 miles across. Hormuz is one of two of the most vital oil transit checkpoints in the world, and approximately 20% of all oil produced passes through it. The logistics for blocking the two working shipping lanes on the strait are simple given the existence of the new Ghader Missile System, which Iran tested successfully this year. The weapon is specifically designed as a “ship-killer” with the ability to travel at Mach 3, and evade most known radar methods:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-01-01/iran-missile-test/52318422/1

In the tightly boxed in waterways of the Hormuz, a large scale and difficult to track missile attack would be devastating to any Navy present, and would turn the sea lanes into a junk yard impossible to navigate for oil tankers. Result? A catastrophic inflationary event in oil around the world, making gasoline unaffordable for most people and most uses. The EU’s recent move to stockpile oil in preparation for an Iran strike reveals the seriousness of the situation:

http://www.euractiv.com/energy/europe-starts-piling-oil-iran-wa-news-514340

3) Israeli Action Will Draw In The U.S.

Forget what the U.S. Joint Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey says; the U.S. will absolutely involve itself militarily in Iran or Syria following an Israeli strike. To begin with, there is no way around a supporting or primary role, especially when Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz. With 20% of the world’s oil supply on hiatus, at least half of the American populace will be crying out for U.S. military involvement. Guaranteed. Dempsey’s claim that Israel may not get American support is simply a charade meant to infer that the subversion of Syria and Iran is not necessarily a joint venture, which it absolutely is. There is zero chance that an Israeli strike will not be met with frantic calls by the Pentagon and the White House to open the floodgates of U.S. military might and protect one of our few “democratic allies” in the Middle East.

4) Syria Will Receive Support From Russia And China

The Russian government has clearly stated on numerous occasions that they will not step back during a strike against Syria, and has even begun positioning naval ships and extra troops at is permanent base off the coast of Tartus, a development which I have been warning about for years:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/03/us-syria-russia-navy-idUSBRE8720AO20120803

Tartus is Russia’s only naval base outside the periphery of its borders, and is strategically imperative to the nation. Action by the U.S. or Israel against Syria would invariably ellicit, at the very least, economic retaliation, and at the most, Russian military involvement and possible widespread war.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/21/us-syria-crisis-idUSBRE8610SH20120821

China, on the other hand, will likely respond with full scale financial retaliation, up to and including a dump of U.S. Treasury Bonds (a move which they have been preparing for since 2005 anyway). With oil prices skyrocketing due to increased Middle Eastern distress, multiple countries including the BRIC trading bloc nations and most of the ASEAN trading bloc will have the perfect excuse to dump the dollar, allowing for the introduction of the IMF’s newly revamped SDR (Special Drawing Rights) global currency mechanism to take hold.

Syria is the key to what I believe will be an attempt on the part of globalists within our government to actually coax a volatile conflict into being, a conflict that will create ample cover for the final push towards global currency, and eventually, global governance.

5) Economic Implosion Will Become “Secondary”…To The Banksters’ Benefit

In the minds of the general public, the economic distress that we will soon face regardless of whether or not there is ever a war with Iran and Syria will be an afterthought, at least for a time, if the threat of global combat becomes reality. The fog of war is a fantastic cover for all kind of crime, most especially the economic kind. Sizable wars naturally inhibit markets and cause erratic flux in capital flows. Anything, and I mean anything, can be blamed on a war, even the destruction of the U.S. economy and the dollar. Of course, the real culprits (international and central banks) which have been corrupting and dismantling the American fiscal structure for decades will benefit most from the distraction.

Syria and Iran are, in a way, the first dominos in a long chain of terrible events. This chain, as chaotic as it seems, leads to only one end result: Third world status for almost every country on the planet, including the U.S., leaving the financial institutions, like monetary grim reapers, to swoop in and gather up the pieces that remain to be fashioned into a kind of Frankenstein economy. A fiscal golem. A global monstrosity that removes all sovereignty whether real or imagined and centralizes the decision making processes of humanity into the hands of a morally bankrupt few.

For those on the side of Israel, the U.S., and NATO, and for those on the side of the Middle East, Russia China, etc., the bottom line is, there will be no winners. There is no “best case scenario”. There will be no victory parade, for anyone. There will be no great reformation or peace in the cradle of civilization. The only people celebrating at the end of the calamitous hostilities will be the hyper-moneyed power addicted .01%, who will celebrate their global coup in private, laughing as the rest of the world burns itself out, and comes begging them for help.

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You can contact Brandon Smith at: brandon@alt-market.com

Alt-Market is an organization designed to help you find like-minded activists and preppers in your local area so that you can network and construct communities for mutual aid and defense. Join Alt-Market.com today and learn what it means to step away from the system and build something better.

By Brandon Smith

22 August 2012

@ Activist Post