tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37640725296537634152024-03-14T17:36:48.352+11:00Hands OFF Syria In solidarity with the Secular People of Syria.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger643125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-87161872634220172602023-12-24T21:56:00.002+11:002023-12-24T21:56:58.008+11:00The Atrocities In Gaza Are The Perfect Embodiment Of ‘Western Values’<div><div class="has-text-align-center wp-block-post-excerpt" style="margin-block-end: 0px; margin-block-start: var(--wp--preset--spacing--60); margin-bottom: var(--wp--style--block-gap); margin-left: auto !important; margin-right: auto !important; margin-top: var(--wp--style--block-gap); max-width: var(--wp--style--global--content-size); text-align: center;"><p class="wp-block-post-excerpt__excerpt" style="line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">by Caitlin Johnstone | December 20, 2023</p></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnaH6-Oh9sZpJjCgAqth2AkZ3T4CKVSIL2-682VqRTayq3t6RsjOGUM-WWMSRkZJl3F7m1C7-AfyTPGfjT3XyD0KbZ6TmfgeB-USK1W_ljBAkExICIGrWkDcG03v9Vfnw9wh4qbTz8AmriF8HfL1oAqbCcR803Dvmg97HwBYx-t9-DO9nYgtfeVSJJvDrG/s800/gaza%20under%20attack.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnaH6-Oh9sZpJjCgAqth2AkZ3T4CKVSIL2-682VqRTayq3t6RsjOGUM-WWMSRkZJl3F7m1C7-AfyTPGfjT3XyD0KbZ6TmfgeB-USK1W_ljBAkExICIGrWkDcG03v9Vfnw9wh4qbTz8AmriF8HfL1oAqbCcR803Dvmg97HwBYx-t9-DO9nYgtfeVSJJvDrG/s16000/gaza%20under%20attack.jpeg" /></a><br /><br /><div><br /></div><div> When Israeli president Isaac Herzog <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/4343274-israels-president-defends-ongoing-war-if-it-werent-for-us-europe-would-be-next/">described</a> the assault on Gaza as a war “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” he wasn’t really lying. He was telling the truth — just maybe not quite in the way that he meant it.<br /><br />The demolition of Gaza is indeed being perpetrated in defense of western values, and is itself a perfect embodiment of western values. Not the western values they teach you about in school, but the hidden ones they don’t want you to look at. Not the attractive packaging with the advertising slogans on the label, but the product that’s actually inside the box.<br /><br />For centuries western civilization has depended heavily on war, genocide, theft, colonialism and imperialism, which it has justified using narratives premised on religion, racism and ethnic supremacy — all of which we are seeing play out in the incineration of Gaza today. <br /><br />What we are seeing in Gaza is a much better representation of what western civilization is really about than all the gibberish about freedom and democracy we learned about in school. A much better representation of western civilization than all the art and literature we’ve been proudly congratulating ourselves on over the centuries. A much better representation of western civilization than the love and compassion we like to pretend our Judeo-Christian values revolve around.<br /><br />It’s been so surreal watching western rightists babbling about how savage and barbaric Muslim culture is amid the 2023 zombie resurrection of Bush-era Islamophobia, even while western civilization amasses a mountain of ten thousand child corpses.<br /><br />That mountain of child corpses is a much better representation of western culture than anything Mozart, da Vinci or Shakespeare ever produced.<br /><br />This is western civilization. This is what it looks like. <br /><br />Western civilization, where Julian Assange <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2023/12/19/assange-appeal-hearing-set-for-february/">awaits his final appeal in February</a> against US extradition for journalism which exposed US war crimes.<br /><br />Where we are fed a nonstop <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2023/06/05/caitlin-johnstone-15-reasons-why-media-dont-do-journalism/">deluge of mass media propaganda</a> to manufacture our consent for wars and aggression which have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/05/15/war-on-terror-911-deaths-afghanistan-iraq/">killed millions</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/09/conflicts-us-war-on-terror-displaced-37-million-people-report">displaced tens of millions</a> in the 21st century alone.<br /><br />Where we are kept distracted by vapid entertainment and artificial culture wars so we don’t think too hard about what this civilization is and who it is killing and maiming and starving and exploiting.<br /><br />Where news cycles are dominated more by celebrity gossip and Donald Trump’s latest mouth farts than by the mass atrocities that are being actively facilitated by western governments.<br /><br />Where liberals congratulate themselves for having progressive views on race and gender while the officials they elect help rip apart children’s bodies with military explosives.<br /><br />Where Zionist Jews center themselves and their emotions because opposition to an active genocide makes them feel like they are being persecuted, and where Israel supporters who are not Jewish still kind of feel like they are being persecuted also.<br /><br />Where a giant globe-spanning empire powered by militarism, imperialism, capitalism and authoritarianism devours human flesh with an insatiable appetite while we congratulate ourselves on how much better we are than nations like Iran or China.<br /><br />These are western values. This is western civilization.<br /><br />Ask somebody to tell you what their values are and they’ll give you a bunch of pleasant-sounding words about family and love and caring or whatever. Watch their actions to see what their actual values are and you’ll often get a very different story.<br /><br /><br />That’s us. That’s western civilization. We say we value freedom, justice, truth, peace and free expression, but our actions paint a very different picture. The real western values, the actual product inside the box underneath the attractive label, are the ones you see acted out in Gaza today.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/12/20/the-atrocities-in-gaza-are-the-perfect-embodiment-of-western-values/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SOURCE</a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-78942376762230870772023-02-22T10:19:00.010+11:002023-03-06T13:52:02.458+11:00Putin's Presidential Address to Federal Assembly<div class="read__lead entry-summary p-summary" id="read-lead" itemprop="description" role="heading" style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #020c22; font-size: 20px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px 0px 48px; padding: 0px;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="font-family: "ITCFranklinGothicW10-Bk 862339", arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px auto 29px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Vladimir Putin delivered his Address to the Federal Assembly. The ceremony took place in Gostiny Dvor, Moscow. </p><div style="margin: 0px auto 29px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">21 Feb 2023</span></span></div></div></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRFiaoA7K6hr9Ytw-NNStu9fo01C_n2n0_xrp-VrXUVIWp0rVDeasuP-2ozetV5oXxE-qpQDuOzl5GfTxg5Q3fEiFv6fnPIMWXoXcvHaOt7eXTM-4iI1bfzvZ_5e0aUEUOVVg5Q2G3E0FH9nnhw3hTaiHqGWCYvOwv2XLYPSi1ETqMxomAKKHID27N3Q/s1880/Putin%20speech%2021%20Feb%202023.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1160" data-original-width="1880" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRFiaoA7K6hr9Ytw-NNStu9fo01C_n2n0_xrp-VrXUVIWp0rVDeasuP-2ozetV5oXxE-qpQDuOzl5GfTxg5Q3fEiFv6fnPIMWXoXcvHaOt7eXTM-4iI1bfzvZ_5e0aUEUOVVg5Q2G3E0FH9nnhw3hTaiHqGWCYvOwv2XLYPSi1ETqMxomAKKHID27N3Q/s16000/Putin%20speech%2021%20Feb%202023.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Good Afternoon,</div><br />Members of the Federation Assembly – senators, State Duma deputies, Citizens of Russia,<br /><br />This Presidential Address comes, as we all know, at a difficult, watershed period for our country. This is a time of radical, irreversible change in the entire world, of crucial historical events that will determine the future of our country and our people, a time when every one of us bears a colossal responsibility.<br /><br />One year ago, to protect the people in our historical lands, to ensure the security of our country and to eliminate the threat coming from the neo-Nazi regime that had taken hold in Ukraine after the 2014 coup, it was decided to begin the special military operation. Step by step, carefully and consistently we will deal with the tasks we have at hand.<br /><br />Since 2014, Donbass has been fighting for the right to live in their land and to speak their native tongue. It fought and never gave up amid the blockade, constant shelling and the Kiev regime’s overt hatred. It hoped and waited that Russia would come to help.<br /><br />In the meantime, as you know well, we were doing everything in our power to solve this problem by peaceful means, and patiently conducted talks on a peaceful solution to this devastating conflict.<br /><br />This appalling method of deception has been tried and tested many times before. They behaved just as shamelessly and duplicitously when destroying Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. They will never be able to wash off this shame. The concepts of honour, trust, and decency are not for them.<br /><br />Over the long centuries of colonialism, diktat and hegemony, they got used to being allowed everything, got used to spitting on the whole world. It turned out that they treat people living in their own countries with the same disdain, like a master. After all, they cynically deceived them too, tricked them with tall stories about the search for peace, about adherence to the UN Security Council resolutions on Donbass. Indeed, the Western elites have become a symbol of total, unprincipled lies.<br /><br />We firmly defend our interests as well as our belief that in today’s world there should be no division into so-called civilised countries and all the rest and that there is a need for an honest partnership that rejects any exclusivity, especially an aggressive one.<br /><br />We were open and sincerely ready for a constructive dialogue with the West; we said and insisted that both Europe and the whole world needed an indivisible security system equal for all countries, and for many years we suggested that our partners discuss this idea together and work on its implementation. But in response, we received either an indistinct or hypocritical reaction, as far as words were concerned. But there were also actions: NATO’s expansion to our borders, the creation of new deployment areas for missile defence in Europe and Asia – they decided to take cover from us under an ‘umbrella’ – deployment of military contingents, and not just near Russia’s borders.<br /><br />I would like to stress –in fact, this is well-known – that no other country has so many military bases abroad as the United States. There are hundreds of them – I want to emphasise this – hundreds of bases all over the world; the planet is covered with them, and one look at the map is enough to see this.<br /><br />The whole world witnessed how they withdrew from fundamental agreements on weapons, including the treaty on intermediate and shorter-range missiles, unilaterally tearing up the fundamental agreements that maintain world peace. For some reason, they did it. They do not do anything without a reason, as we know.<br /><br />Finally, in December 2021, we officially submitted draft agreements on security guarantees to the USA and NATO. In essence, all key, fundamental points were rejected. After that it finally became clear that the go-ahead for the implementation of aggressive plans had been given and they were not going to stop.<br /><br />The threat was growing by the day. Judging by the information we received, there was no doubt that everything would be in place by February 2022 for launching yet another bloody punitive operation in Donbass. Let me remind you that back in 2014, the Kiev regime sent its artillery, tanks and warplanes to fight in Donbass.<br /><br />We all remember the aerial footage of airstrikes targeting Donetsk. Other cities also suffered from airstrikes. In 2015, they tried to mount a frontal assault against Donbass again, while keeping the blockade in place and continuing to shell and terrorise civilians. Let me remind you that all of this was completely at odds with the documents and resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, but everyone pretended that nothing was happening.<br /><br />Let me reiterate that they were the ones who started this war, while we used force and are using it to stop the war.<br /><br />Those who plotted a new attack against Donetsk in the Donbass region, and against Lugansk understood that Crimea and Sevastopol would be the next target. We realised this as well. Even today, Kiev is openly discussing far-reaching plans of this kind. They exposed themselves by making public what we knew already.<br /><br />We are defending human lives and our common home, while the West seeks unlimited power. It has already spent over $150 billion on helping and arming the Kiev regime. To give you an idea, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the G7 countries earmarked about $60 billion in 2020–2021 to help the world’s poorest countries. Is this clear? They spent $150 billion on the war, while giving $60 billion to the poorest countries, despite pretending to care about them all the time, and also conditioning this support on obedience on behalf of the beneficiary countries. What about all this talk of fighting poverty, sustainable development and protection of the environment? Where did it all go? Has it all vanished? Meanwhile, they keep channelling more money into the war effort. They eagerly invest in sowing unrest and encouraging government coups in other countries around the world.<br /><br />The recent Munich Conference turned into an endless stream of accusations against Russia. One gets the impression that this was done so that everyone would forget what the so-called West has been doing over the past decades. They were the ones who let the genie out of the bottle, plunging entire regions into chaos.<br /><br />According to US experts, almost 900,000 people were killed during wars unleashed by the United States after 2001, and over 38 million became refugees. Please note, we did not invent these statistics; it is the Americans who are providing them. They are now simply trying to erase all this from the memory of humankind, and they are pretending that all this never happened. However, no one in the world has forgotten this or will ever forget it.<div>.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnfdMWm8gadMgHUKdd2AoQoqDFQmwVy5F6hI0zKE7tySbA0NbeBEA75wfLYHWAekeKY_AmMg8tHsG7miTEApisYDd3we9T3k9acfIA0354ieho-I_6Hf7UJ75GeOZLLjxkxPIIFjUdEyJ9dJ5sxO9r2dsEH5QafIG5FMOY_qBVcrBKVAWiUKZfrwuZlQ/s940/Putin%20speech%20Feb%202023.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnfdMWm8gadMgHUKdd2AoQoqDFQmwVy5F6hI0zKE7tySbA0NbeBEA75wfLYHWAekeKY_AmMg8tHsG7miTEApisYDd3we9T3k9acfIA0354ieho-I_6Hf7UJ75GeOZLLjxkxPIIFjUdEyJ9dJ5sxO9r2dsEH5QafIG5FMOY_qBVcrBKVAWiUKZfrwuZlQ/w640-h394/Putin%20speech%20Feb%202023.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br />None of them cares about human casualties and tragedies because many trillions of dollars are at stake, of course. They can also continue to rob everyone under the guise of democracy and freedoms, to impose neoliberal and essentially totalitarian values, to brand entire countries and nations, to publicly insult their leaders, to suppress dissent in their own countries and to divert attention from corruption scandals by creating an enemy image. We continue to see all this on television, which highlights greater domestic economic, social and inter-ethnic problems, contradictions and disagreements.<br /><br />I would like to recall that, in the 1930s, the West had virtually paved the way to power for the Nazis in Germany. In our time, they started turning Ukraine into an “anti-Russia.”<br /><br />Actually, this project is not new. People who are knowledgeable about history at least to some extent realise that this project dates back to the 19th century. The Austro-Hungarian Empire and Poland had conceived it for one purpose, that is, to deprive Russia of these historical territories that are now called Ukraine. This is their goal. There is nothing new here; they are repeating everything.<br /><br />The West expedited the implementation of this project today by supporting the 2014 coup. That was a bloody, anti-state and unconstitutional coup. They pretended that nothing happened, and that this is how things should be. They even said how much money they had spent on it. Russophobia and extremely aggressive nationalism formed its ideological foundation.<br /><br />Quite recently, a brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was named Edelweiss after a Nazi division whose personnel were involved in deporting Jews, executing prisoners of war and conducting punitive operations against partisans in Yugoslavia, Italy, Czechoslovakia and Greece. We are ashamed to talk about this, but they are not. Personnel serving with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ukrainian National Guard are particularly fond of chevrons formerly worn by soldiers from Das Reich, Totenkopf (Death’s Head) and Galichina divisions and other SS units. Their hands are also stained with blood. Ukrainian armoured vehicles feature insignia of the Nazi German Wehrmacht.<br /><br />Neo-Nazis are open about whose heirs they consider themselves to be. Surprisingly, none of the powers that be in the West are seeing it. Why? Because they – pardon my language – could not care less about it. They do not care who they are betting on in their fight against us, against Russia. In fact, anyone will do as long as they fight against us and our country. Indeed, we saw terrorists and neo-Nazis in their ranks. They would let all kinds of ghouls join their ranks, for God’s sake, as long as they act on their will as a weapon against Russia.<br /><br />In fact, the anti-Russia project is part of the revanchist policy towards our country to create flashpoints of instability and conflicts next to our borders. Back then, in the 1930s, and now the design remains the same and it is to direct aggression to the East, to spark a war in Europe, and to eliminate competitors by using a proxy force.<br /><br />We are not at war with the people of Ukraine. I have made that clear many times. The people of Ukraine have become hostages of the Kiev regime and its Western handlers, who have in fact occupied that country in the political, military and economic sense and have been destroying Ukrainian industry for decades now as they plundered its natural resources. This led to social degradation and an immeasurable increase in poverty and inequality. Recruiting resources for military operations in these circumstances was easy. Nobody was thinking about people, who were conditioned for slaughter and eventually became expendables. It is a sad and dreadful thing to say, but it is a fact.<br /><br />Responsibility for inciting and escalating the Ukraine conflict as well as the sheer number of casualties lies entirely with the Western elites and, of course, today’s Kiev regime, for which the Ukrainian people are, in fact, not its own people. The current Ukrainian regime is serving not national interests, but the interests of third countries.<br /><br />The West is using Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia and as a testing range. I am not going to discuss in detail the West's attempts to turn the war around, or their plans to ramp up military supplies, since everyone is well aware of that. However, there is one circumstance that everyone should be clear about: the longer the range of the Western systems that will be supplied to Ukraine, the further we will have to move the threat away from our borders. This is obvious.<br /><br />The Western elite make no secret of their goal, which is, I quote, “Russia’s strategic defeat.” What does this mean to us? This means they plan to finish us once and for all. In other words, they plan to grow a local conflict into a global confrontation. This is how we understand it and we will respond accordingly, because this represents an existential threat to our country.<br /><br />However, they too realise it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield and are conducting increasingly aggressive information attacks against us targeting primarily the younger generation. They never stop lying and distorting historical facts as they attack our culture, the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional religious organizations in our country.<br /><br />Look what they are doing to their own people. It is all about the destruction of the family, of cultural and national identity, perversion and abuse of children, including pedophilia, all of which are declared normal in their life. They are forcing the priests to bless same-sex marriages. Bless their hearts, let them do as they please. Here is what I would like to say in this regard. Adult people can do as they please. We in Russia have always seen it that way and always will: no one is going to intrude into other people’s private lives, and we are not going to do it, either.<br /><br />But here is what I would like to tell them: look at the holy scripture and the main books of other world religions. They say it all, including that family is the union of a man and a woman, but these sacred texts are now being questioned. Reportedly, the Anglican Church is planning, just planning, to explore the idea of a gender-neutral god. What is there to say? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.<br /><br />Millions of people in the West realise that they are being led to a spiritual disaster. Frankly, the elite appear to have gone crazy, and it looks like there is no cure for that. But like I said, these are their problems, while we must protect our children, which we will do. We will protect our children from degradation and degeneration.<br /><br />Clearly, the West will try to undermine and divide our society and to bet on the fifth columnists who, throughout history, and I want to emphasise this, have been using the same poison of contempt for their own Fatherland and the desire to make money by selling this poison to anyone who is willing to pay for it. It has always been that way.<br /><br />Those who have embarked on the road of outright betrayal, committing terrorist and other crimes against the security of our society and the country’s territorial integrity, will be held accountable for this under law. But we will never behave like the Kiev regime and the Western elite, which have been and still are involved in witch hunts. We will not settle scores with those who take a step aside and turn their back on their Motherland. Let this be on their conscience, let them live with this – they will have to live with it. The main point is that our people, the citizens of Russia, have given them a moral assessment.<br /><br />I am proud, and I think we are all proud that our multi-ethnic nation, the absolute majority of our citizens, have taken a principled stance on the special military operation. They understand the basic idea of what we are doing and support our actions on the defence of Donbass. This support primarily revealed their true patriotism – a feeling that is historically inherent in our nation. It is stunning in its dignity and deep understnding by everyone – I will stress, everyone – of the inseparable link between one’s own destiny and the destiny of the Fatherland.<br /><br />My dear friends, I would like to thank everyone, all the people of Russia for their courage and resolve. I would like to thank our heroes, soldiers and officers in the Army and the Navy, the Russian Guards, the secret services staff, and all structures of authority, the fighters in Donetsk and Lugansk corps, volunteers and patriots who are now fighting in the ranks of the BARS combat army reserve.<br /><br />I would like to apologise that I will not be able to mention everyone during today’s speech. You know, when I was drafting this speech, I wrote a very long list of these heroic units but then removed it from my text because, as I said, it is impossible to mention everyone, and I was afraid to offend anyone I might leave out.<br /><br />My deepest gratitude to the parents, wives and families of our defenders, the doctors and paramedics, combat medics and medical nurses that are saving the wounded; to the railway workers and drivers that are supplying the front; to the builders that are erecting fortifications and restoring housing, roads and civilian facilities; to the workers and engineers at defence companies, who are now working almost around-the-clock, in several shifts; and to rural workers who reliably ensure food security for the country.<br /><br />I am grateful to the teachers who sincerely care for the young generations of Russia, especially those that are working in very difficult, almost front-line conditions; the cultural figures that are visiting the zone of hostilities and hospitals to support the soldiers and officers; volunteers that are helping the front and civilians; journalists, primarily war correspondents, that are risking their lives to tell the truth to the world; pastors of Russia’s traditional religions and military clergy, whose wise words support and inspire people; government officials and business people – all those who fulfill their professional, civil and simply human duty.<br /><br />My special words go to the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. You, my friends, determined your future at the referendums and made a clear choice despite the neo-Nazis’ threats and violence, amid the close military actions. But there has been nothing stronger than your intent to be with Russia, with your Motherland.<br />(Applause)<br /><br />I want to emphasise that this is the reaction of the audience to the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. Once again, our deepest respect for them all.<br /><br />We have already begun and will expand a major socioeconomic recovery and development programme for these new regions within the Federation. It includes restoring production facilities, jobs, and the ports on the Sea of Azov, which again became Russia’s landlocked sea, and building new, modern road,s like we did in Crimea, which now has a reliable land transport corridor with all of Russia. We will definitely implement all of these plans together.<br /><br />Russia’s regions are currently providing direct assistance to the cities, districts and villages in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. They are doing it sincerely, like true brothers and sisters. We are together again, which means that we have become even stronger, and we will do everything in our power to bring back the long-awaited peace to our land and ensure the safety of our people. Our soldiers, our heroes are fighting for this, for their ancestors, for the future of their children and grandchildren, for uniting our people.<br /><br />Friends, I would like to ask you to pay your respects to our fellow soldiers who were killed in the attacks of neo-Nazis and raiders, who gave up their lives for Russia, for civilians, the elderly, women and children.<br /><br />(A minute of silence)<br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br />We all understand, and I understand also how unbearably hard it is for their wives, sons and daughters, for their parents who raised those dignified defenders of the Fatherland – like the Young Guard members from Krasnodon, young men and women who fought against Nazism and for Donbass during the Great Patriotic War. Everyone in Russia remembers their courage, resilience, enormous strength of spirit and self-sacrifice to this day.ur duty is to support the families that have lost their loved ones and to help them raise their children and give them an education and a job. The family of each participant in the special military operation must be a priority and treated with care and respect. Their needs must be responded to immediately, without bureaucratic delays.<br /><br />I suggest establishing a dedicated state fund for bringing targeted, personalised assistance to the families of fallen fighters, as well as veterans of the special military operation. This entity will be tasked with coordinating efforts to offer social, medical support and counselling, and also address matters related to sending them to health resorts and providing rehabilitation services, while also assisting them in education, sports, employment and in acquiring a new profession. This fund will also have an essential mission to ensure long-term home care and high-technology prosthetics for those who need that.<br /><br />I am asking the Government to work with the State Council Commission on Social Policy and with the regions to resolve the organisational matters as quickly as possible.<br /><br />The state fund must be transparent in its work, while streamlining assistance and operating as a one-stop-shop, free from red tape or administrative barriers. Every family without exception, and every veteran will have their personal social worker, a coordinator, who will be there for them in person to resolve in real time any issue they might face. Let me emphasise that the fund must open its offices in all regions of the Russian Federation in 2023.<br /><br />We already have measures in place for supporting Great Patriotic War veterans, combat veterans, as well as participants in local conflicts. I believe these essential elements will be added to the state fund’s mission moving forward. We need to explore this possibility, and I am asking the Government to do so.<br /><br />Make no mistake: the fact that we are establishing a state fund does not mean that other institutions or officials at other levels of government will be relieved of their responsibility. I expect all federal agencies, regions and municipalities to stay focused on veterans, on service personnel and their families. In this context, I would like to thank the senior regional officials, mayors, and governors who routinely meet with people, including by visiting the line of contact, and support their fellow countrymen.<br /><br />On a special note, let me say that today, career service personnel, mobilised conscripts, and volunteers all share frontline hardships, including in terms of provisions, supplies and equipment, remuneration, and insurance payments to the wounded, as well as healthcare services. However, there are complaints that make it all the way to my office, as well as to the governors, as they have been telling me, and to the military prosecutor’s office and the Human Rights Commissioner, showing that some of these issues have yet to be resolved. We need to get to the bottom of each complaint on a case-by-case basis.<br /><br />And one more thing: everyone understands that serving in the special military operation zone causes immense physical and mental stress, since people risk their lives and health every day. For this reason, I believe that the mobilised conscripts, as well as all service personnel, and all those taking part in the special military operation, including volunteers, must benefit from a leave of absence of at least 14 days every six months without counting the time it takes them to travel to their destination. This way, every fighter will be able to meet family and spend time with their loved ones.<br /><br />Colleagues, as you are aware, a 2021–2025 plan for building and developing the Armed Forces was approved by a Presidential Executive Order and is being implemented and adjusted as necessary. Importantly, our next steps to reinforce the Army and the Navy and to secure the current and future development of the Armed Forces must be based on actual combat experience gained during the special military operation, which is extremely important, I would even say absolutely invaluable to us.<br /><br />For example, the latest systems account for over 91 percent, 91.3 percent, of Russia's nuclear deterrence forces. To reiterate, based on our newly acquired experience, we must access a similarly high quality level for all other components of the Armed Forces.<br /><br />Officers and sergeants who act as competent, modern and decisive commanders, and they are many, will be promoted to higher positions as a matter of priority, sent to military universities and academies, and will serve as a powerful personnel reserve for the Armed Forces. Without a doubt, they are a valuable resource in civilian life and at governments at all levels. I just want our colleagues to pay attention to that. It is very important. The people must know that the Motherland appreciates their contribution to the defence of the Fatherland.<br /><br />We will widely introduce the latest technology to ensure high-quality standards in the Army and Navy. We have corresponding pilot projects and samples of weapons and equipment in each area. Many of them are significantly superior to their foreign counterparts. Our goal is to start mass production. This work is underway and is picking up pace. Importantly, this relies on domestic research and the industrial base and involves small- and medium-sized high-tech businesses in implementation of the state defence order.<br /><br />Today, our plants, design bureaus and research teams employ experienced specialists and increasing numbers of talented and highly skilled young people who are oriented towards breakthrough achievements while remaining true to the tradition of Russian gunsmiths, which is to spare no effort to ensure victory.<br /><br />We will certainly strengthen the guarantees for our workforce, in part concerning salaries and social security. I propose launching a special programme for low-cost rental housing for defence industry employees. The rental payments for them will be significantly lower than the going market rate, since a significant portion of it will be covered by the state.<br /><br /><br />The Government reviewed this issue. I instruct you to work through the details of this programme and start building such rental housing without delay, primarily, in the cities that are major defence, industrial and research centres.<br />.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxTwbMxlTfWoE3giL8Wl0KnK9fIEI5GxbXWnPvimhetL-4T47ToVvi2GcnIhdBypQrAdOYUPlsbZQtTIFRHIsk4Es6r04yhkXIOSbVy6BbMRcF4egLvwePbkVnk0ajYSqqaoPyrrEFuEEj0bca_EJGIGqEm6XlvppKtJukPs1ZEB54pKseJzbYbaBEpw/s1880/Federal%20Assembly.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxTwbMxlTfWoE3giL8Wl0KnK9fIEI5GxbXWnPvimhetL-4T47ToVvi2GcnIhdBypQrAdOYUPlsbZQtTIFRHIsk4Es6r04yhkXIOSbVy6BbMRcF4egLvwePbkVnk0ajYSqqaoPyrrEFuEEj0bca_EJGIGqEm6XlvppKtJukPs1ZEB54pKseJzbYbaBEpw/w640-h394/Federal%20Assembly.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br />Colleagues,<br /><br />As I have already said, the West has opened not only military and informational warfare against us, but is also seeking to fight us on the economic front. However, they have not succeeded on any of these fronts, and never will. Moreover, those who initiated the sanctions are punishing themselves: they sent prices soaring in their own countries, destroyed jobs, forced companies to close, and caused an energy crisis, while telling their people that the Russians were to blame for all of this. We hear that.<br /><br />What means did they use against us in their efforts to attack us with sanctions? They tried disrupting economic ties with Russian companies and depriving the financial system of its communication channels to shutter our economy, isolate us from export markets and thus undermine our revenues. They also stole our foreign exchange reserves, to call a spade a spade, tried to depreciate the ruble and drive inflation to destructive heights.<br /><br />Let me reiterate that the sanctions against Russia are merely a means, while the aim as declared by the Western leaders, to quote them, is to make us suffer. “Make them suffer” – what a humane attitude. They want to make our people suffer, which is designed to destabilise our society from within.<br /><br />However, their gamble failed to pay off. The Russian economy, as well as its governance model proved to be much more resilient than the West thought. The Government, parliament, the Bank of Russia, the regions and of course the business community and their employees all worked together to ensure that the economic situation remained stable, offered people protection and preserved jobs, prevented shortages, including of essential goods, and supported the financial system and business owners who invest in their enterprises, which also means investing in national development.<br /><br />As early as in March 2022, we launched a dedicated assistance package for businesses and the economy worth about a trillion rubles. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this has nothing to do with printing money. Not at all. Everything we do is solidly rooted in market principles.<br /><br />In 2022, there was a decline in the gross domestic product. Mr Mishustin called me to say, “I would like to ask you to mention this.” I think that these data were released yesterday, right on schedule.<br /><br />You may remember that some predicted that the economy would shrink by 20 to 25 percent, or maybe 10 percent. Only recently, we spoke about a 2.9 percent decline, and I was the one who announced this figure. Later it came down to 2.5 percent. However, in 2022, the GDP declined by 2.1 percent, according to the latest data. And we must be mindful of the fact that back in February and March of last year some predicted that the economy would be in free fall.<br /><br />Russian businesses have restructured their logistics and have strengthened their ties with responsible, predictable partners – there are many of them, they are the majority in the world.<br /><br />I would like to note that the share of the Russian ruble in our international settlements has doubled as compared to December 2021, reaching one third of the total, and including the currencies of the friendly countries, it exceeds half of all transactions.<br /><br />We will continue working with our partners to create a sustainable, safe system of international settlements, which will be independent of the dollar and other Western reserve currencies that are bound to lose their universal appeal with this policy of the Western elite, the Western rulers. They are doing all this to themselves with their own hands.<br /><br />We are not the ones reducing transactions in dollars or other so-called universal currencies – they are doing everything with their own hands.<br /><br />You know, there is a maxim, cannons versus butter. Of course, national defence is the top priority, but in resolving strategic tasks in this area, we should not repeat the mistakes of the past and should not destroy our own economy. We have everything we need to both ensure our security and create conditions for confident progress in our country. We are acting in line with this logic and we intend to continue doing this.<br /><br />Thus, many basic, I will stress, civilian industries in the national economy are far from being in decline, they have increased their production last year by a considerable amount. The scale of housing put into service exceeded 100 million square meters for the first time in our modern history.<br /><br />As for agricultural production, it recorded two-digit growth rates last year. Thank you very much. We are most grateful to our agricultural producers. Russian agrarians harvested a record amount – over 150 million tonnes of grain, including over 100 million tonnes of wheat. By the end of the agricultural season, that is, June 30, 2023, we will bring our grain exports to 55–60 million tonnes.<br /><br />Just 10 or 15 years ago, this seemed like a fairy tale, an absolutely unfeasible plan. If you remember, and I am sure some people do remember this – the former Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture are here – just recently, agrarians took in 60 million tonnes overall in a year, whereas now 55–60 million is their export potential alone. I am convinced we have every opportunity for a similar breakthrough in other areas as well.<br /><br />We prevented the labour market from collapsing. On the contrary, we were able to reduce unemployment in the current environment. Today, considering the major challenges coming at us from all sides, the labour market is even better than it used to be. You may remember that the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent before the pandemic, and now, I believe, it is 3.7 percent. What is the figure, Mr Mishustin? 3.7 percent? This is an all-time low.<br /><br />Let me reiterate that the Russian economy has prevailed over the risks it faced – it has prevailed. Of course, it was impossible to anticipate many of them, and we had to respond literally on the fly, dealing with issues as they emerged. Both the state and businesses had to move quickly. I will note that private actors, SMEs, played an essential role in these efforts, and we must remember this. We avoided having to apply excessive regulation or distorting the economy by giving the state a more prominent role.<br /><br />What else there is to say? The recession was limited to the second quarter of 2022, while the economy grew in the third and fourth quarters. In fact, the Russian economy has embarked on a new growth cycle. Experts believe that it will rely on a fundamentally new model and structure. New, promising global markets, including the Asia-Pacific, are taking precedence, as is the domestic market, with its research, technology and workforce no longer geared toward exporting commodities but manufacturing goods with high added value. This will help Russia unleash its immense potential in all spheres and sectors.<br /><br />We expect to see a solid increase in domestic demand as early as this year. I am convinced that companies will use this opportunity to expand their manufacturing, make new products that are in high demand, and to take over the market niches vacated or about to be vacated by Western companies as they withdraw.<br /><br />Today, we clearly see what is going on and understand the structural issues we have to address in logistics, technology, finance, and human resources. Over the past years, we have been talking a lot and at length about the need to restructure our economy. Now these changes are a vital necessity, a game changer, and all for the better. We know what needs to be done to enable Russia to make steady progress and to develop independently regardless of any outside pressure or threats, while guaranteeing our national security and interests.<br /><br />I would like to point out and to emphasise that the essence of our task is not to adapt to circumstances. Our strategic task is to take the economy to a new horizon. Everything is changing now, and changing extremely fast. This is not only a time of challenges but also a time of opportunities. This is really so today. And our future depends on the way we realise these opportunities. We must put an end – and I want to emphase this – to all interagency conflicts, red tape, grievances, doublespeak, or any other nonsense. Everything we do must contribute to achieving our goals and delivering results. This is what we must strive to achieve.<br /><br />Enabling Russian companies and small family-run businesses to successfully tap the market is a victory in itself. Building cutting-edge factories and kilometres of new roads is a victory. Every new school, every new kindergarten we build is a victory. Scientific discoveries and new technologies – these are also victories, of course. What matters is that all of us contribute to our shared success.<br /><br />What areas should we focus the partnership of the state, the regions and domestic business on?<br /><br />First, we will expand promising foreign economic ties and build new logistics corridors. A decision has already been made to extend the Moscow-Kazan expressway to Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Tyumen, and eventually to Irkutsk and Vladivostok with branches to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. This will, in part, allows us to considerably expand our ties with Southeast Asian markets.<br /><br />We will develop Black Sea and Sea of Azov ports. We will pay special attention to the North-South international corridor, as those who work on this every day know. Vessels with a draft of up to 4.5 meters will be able to pass through the Volga-Caspian Sea Canal this year. This will open up new routes for business cooperation with India, Iran, Pakistan, and the Middle Eastern countries. We will continue developing this corridor.<br /><br />Our plans include expedited modernisation of the eastern railways – the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Railway (BAM) – and building up the potential of the Northern Sea Route. This will create not only additional freight traffic but also a foundation for reaching our national goals on developing Siberia, the Arctic and the Far East.<br /><br />The infrastructure of the regions and the development of infrastructure, including communications, telecommunications and railways will receive a powerful impetus. Next year, 2024, we will bring to a proper condition at least 85 percent of all roads in the country’s largest metropolises, as well as over half of all regional and municipal roads. I am sure we will achieve this.<br /><br />We will also continue our free gas distribution programme. We have already made the decision to extend it to social facilities – kindergartens and schools, outpatient clinics and hospitals, as well as primary healthcare centres. This programme will now be permanent for our citizens – they can always request a connection to the gas distribution system.<br /><br />This year, we will launch a large programme to build and repair housing and utility systems. Over the next ten years, we plan to invest at least 4.5 trillion rubles in this. We know how important this is for our people and how neglected this area has been. It is necessary to improve this situation, and we will do it. It is important to give the programme a powerful start. So, I would like to ask the Government to ensure stable funding for this.<br /><br />Second, we will need to significantly expand our economy’s production capabilities and to increase domestic industrial capacity.<br /><br />An industrial mortgage tool has been created, and an easy-term loan can now be taken out not only to purchase production facilities, but also to build or upgrade them. The size of such a loan was discussed many times and there were plans to increase it. It is a decent amount for a first step: up to 500 million rubles. It is available at a rate of 3 or 5 percent for up to seven years. It sounds like a very good programme and should be put to good use.<br /><br />New terms for industrial clusters took effect this year, including a lower fiscal and administrative burden on resident companies, and long-term state orders and subsidies to support demand for their innovative products, which are just entering the market.<br /><br />According to estimates, these measures will generate high-demand projects worth over 10 trillion rubles by 2030. Investment is expected to reach about 2 trillion this year alone. Please note that these are not forecasts, but existing benchmarks.<br /><br />Therefore, I would like the Government to expedite the launch of these projects, give a hand to businesses and come up with systemic support measures, including tax incentives. I am aware that the financial bloc does not like to provide incentives, and I partly share this approach: the taxation system must be consistent and without niches or exemptions, but this particular case calls for a creative approach.<br /><br />So, starting this year, Russian companies will be able to reduce their revenue taxes if they purchase advanced domestic IT solutions and AI-enhanced products. Moreover, these expenses will be credited at one and a half times the actual cost, meaning that every ruble invested in purchasing such products will result in a tax deduction of 1.5 rubles.<br /><br />I propose extending these deductions to purchases of all kinds of Russian high-tech equipment. I would like the Government to come up with a list of such equipment by specific industry and with the procedure for granting deductions. This is a good solution to reinvigorate the economy.<br /><br />Third, a crucial issue on our economic development agenda to do with the new sources of funding investment, which we have been talking about a lot.<br /><br />Thanks to our strong payments balance, Russia does not need to borrow funds abroad, kowtow and beg for money, and then hold long discussions on what, how much and on what conditions we would pay back. Russian banks are working stably and sustainably and have a solid margin for security.<br /><br />In 2022, the volume of bank loans for the corporate sector increased, I repeat, increased. There was considerable concern about that, but we have reported growth, an increase of 14 percent, or more than we reported in 2021, before the miliary operation. In 2021, the figure was 11.7 percent; last year, it was 14 percent. The mortgage portfolio went up by 20.4 percent. We are growing.<br /><br />Last year, the banking sector as a whole operated at a profit. It was not as large as in the preceding years, but it was considerable nevertheless: 203 billion rubles. This is another indicator of the stability of the Russian financial sector.<br /><br />According to our estimates, inflation in Russia will approach the target figure of 4 percent in the second quarter this year. I would like to remind you that the inflation rate has reached 12, 17 and 20 percent in some EU countries. Our figure is 4 or 5 percent; the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry are still discussing the figure, but it will be close to the target. Given these positive dynamics and other macroeconomic parameters, we are creating objective conditions for lowering long-term interest rates in the economy, which means that loans for the real economic sector will become more affordable.<br /><br />Individual long-term savings are a vital source of investment resources around the world, and we must also stimulate their attraction into the investment sphere. I would like the Government to expedite the submission of draft laws to the State Duma to launch the relevant state programme as soon as this April.<br /><br />It is important to create additional conditions to encourage people to invest and earn at home, in the country. At the same time, it is necessary to guarantee the safety of people’s investment in voluntary retirement savings. We should create a mechanism here similar to the one used for insuring bank deposits. I would like to remind you that such savings, worth up to 1.4 million rubles, are insured by the state on guarantee deposits. I propose doubling the sum to 2.8 million rubles for voluntary retirement savings. Likewise, we must protect people’s investment in other long-term investment instruments, including against the possible bankruptcy of financial brokers.<div>.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9kQ6PVoKdE6zeexVpdE6bH9asfVr9WgGkVAioBNUWcOLW6PQTH94Q3GYt7ZZ9p3SmYJyLthW0UFAOrUKIGR6b8VuzKISsChZg9zae6IKC2IIBvENG2ih0Guwum632Ufga7Pu7wLEBIQ3tmjLiyHu12f44-F8Eh0YQB-03XonEZ-xKGC0AFlxfDf9rw/s1880/Putin%20Speech.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9kQ6PVoKdE6zeexVpdE6bH9asfVr9WgGkVAioBNUWcOLW6PQTH94Q3GYt7ZZ9p3SmYJyLthW0UFAOrUKIGR6b8VuzKISsChZg9zae6IKC2IIBvENG2ih0Guwum632Ufga7Pu7wLEBIQ3tmjLiyHu12f44-F8Eh0YQB-03XonEZ-xKGC0AFlxfDf9rw/w640-h394/Putin%20Speech.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br />Separate decisions must be taken to attract funds to rapidly growing and high-tech businesses. We will approve support for the placement of their shares on the domestic stock market, including tax benefits for both the companies and the buyers of their stock.<br /><br />Freedom of enterprise is a vital element of economic sovereignty. I will repeat: against the backdrop of external attempts to contain Russia, private businesses have proven their ability to quickly adapt to the changing environment and ensure economic growth in difficult conditions. So, every business initiative aimed at benefiting the country should receive support.<br /><br />I believe it is necessary to return, in this context, to the revision of a number of norms of criminal law as regards the economic elements of crime. Of course, the state must control what is happening in this area. We should not allow an anything-goes attitude here but we should not go too far, either. It is necessary to move faster towards the decriminalisation I mentioned. I hope the Government will consistently and seriously conduct this work together with Parliament, the law-enforcement bodies and business associations.<br /><br />At the same time, I would like to ask the Government to suggest, in close cooperation with Parliament, additional measures for speeding up the de-offshorisation of the economy. Businesses, primarily those operating in key sectors and industries should operate in Russian jurisdiction – this is a fundamental principle.<br /><br />Colleagues, in this context I would like to make a small philosophical digression. This is what I would like to single out.<br /><br />We remember what problems and imbalances the Soviet economy faced in its later stages. This is why after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its planned system, in the chaos of the 1990s, the country began to create its economy along the lines of market relations and private ownership. Overall, this was the right thing to do. The Western countries were largely an example to follow in this respect. As you know, their advisers were a dime a dozen, and it seemed enough to simply copy their models. True, I remember they still argued with each other – the Europeans argued with the Americans on how the Russian economy should develop.<br /><br />And what happened as a result? Our national economy was largely oriented to the West and for the most part as a source of raw materials. Naturally, there were different nuances, but overall, we were seen as a source of raw materials. The reasons for this are also clear – naturally, the new Russian businesses that were taking shape were primarily oriented toward generating profit, quick and easy profit in the first place. What could provide this? Of course, the sale of resources – oil, gas, metals and timber.<br /><br />Few people thought about other alternatives or, probably, they did not have the opportunity to invest long-term. This is the reason other, more complex industries did not make much headway. It took us years – other governments saw this clearly – to break this negative trend. We had to adjust our tax system and make large-scale public investments.<br /><br />We have achieved real and visible change. Indeed, the results are there, but, again, we should keep in mind the circumstances in which our major businesses developed. Technologies were coming from the West, cheaper sources of financing and lucrative markets were in the West, and capital started flowing to the West as well. Unfortunately, instead of expanding production and buying equipment and technology to create new jobs in Russia, they spent their money on foreign mansions, yachts and luxury real estate.<br /><br />They began to invest in the economy later, but initially the money flowed rapidly to the West for consumption purposes. And since their money was there, that is where their children were educated, where their life was, their future. It was very difficult and almost impossible for the state to track and prevent these developments, because we lived in a free market paradigm.<br /><br />Recent events have clearly shown that the image of the West as a safe haven for capital was a mirage. Those who failed to understand this in time, who saw Russia only as a source of income and planned to live mostly abroad, have lost a lot. They just got robbed there and saw even their legitimate money taken away.<br /><br />At some point I made a joke – many may still remember it – I told Russian businesspeople that they will make themselves sick running from courtroom to courtroom and from office to office in the West trying to save their money. That is exactly how it turned out.<br /><br />You know, I will say something that is quite simple, but truly important. Trust me, not a single ordinary citizen in our country felt sorry for those who lost their assets in foreign banks, lost their yachts or palaces abroad, and so on. In their conversations around the kitchen table, people have all recalled the privatisation of the 1990s, when enterprises that had been built by our entire nation were sold for next to nothing and the so-called new elites flaunted their lavish lifestyle.<br /><br />There are other key aspects. During the years that followed the breakup of the Soviet Union, the West never stopped trying to set the post-Soviet states on fire and, most importantly, finish off Russia as the largest surviving portion of the historical reaches of our state. They encouraged international terrorists to assault us, provoked regional conflicts along the perimeter of our borders, ignored our interests and tried to contain and suppress our economy.<br /><br />I am saying this because big business in Russia controls strategic enterprises with thousands of workers that determine the socioeconomic well-being of many regions and, hence, the overall state of affairs. So, whenever leaders or owners of such businesses become dependent on governments that adopt policies that are unfriendly to Russia, this poses a great threat to us, a danger to our country. This is an untenable situation.<br /><br />Yes, everyone has a choice. Some may choose to live in a seized mansion with a blocked account, trying to find a place for themselves in a seemingly attractive Western capital, a resort or some other comfortable place abroad. Anyone has the right to do that, and we will never infringe on it. But it is time to see that in the West these people have always been and will always remain second class strangers who can be treated any way, and their money, connections and the acquired titles of counts, peers or mayors will not help at all. They must understand that they are second class people there.<br /><br />There is another option: to stay with your Motherland, to work for your compatriots, not only to open new businesses but also to change life around you in cities, towns and throughout your country. We have quite a few businesspeople like this, real fighters in our business community, and we associate the future of our business with them. Everyone must know that the sources of their prosperity and their future can only be here, in their native country Russia.<br /><br />If they do, we will create a very strong and self-sufficient economy that will not remain aloof in the world but will make use of all its competitive advantages. Russian capital, the money earned here, must be put to work for the country, for our national development. Today, we see huge potential in the development of infrastructure, the manufacturing sector, in domestic tourism and many other industries.<br /><br />I would like those who have come up against the predatory mores of the West to hear what I have to say: running around with cap in hand, begging for your own money makes no sense, and most importantly, it accomplishes nothing, especially now that you realise who you are dealing with. Stop clinging to the past, resorting to the courts to get at least something back. Change your lives and your jobs, because you are strong people – I am addressing our businesspeople now, many of whom I have known for years, who know what is what in life.<br /><br />Launch new projects, earn money, work hard for Russia, invest in enterprises and jobs, and help schools and universities, science and healthcare, culture and sports. In this way, you will increase your wealth and will also win the respect and gratitude of the people for a generation ahead. The state and society will certainly support you.<br /><br />Let us consider this as a message for your business: get moving in the right direction.<br /><br />Colleagues,<br /><br />Russia is an open country and at the same time, a distinct civilization. There is no claim to exclusivity or superiority in this statement, but this civilization of ours – that’s what matters. Our ancestors passed it to us and we must preserve it for our descendants and pass it on to them.<br /><br />We will develop cooperation with friends, with all those who are ready to work with us. We will adopt the best practices but will primarily rely on our own potential, on the creative energy of Russian society, on our traditions and values.<br /><br />Here I would like to mention the character of our people who have always been distinguished by their generosity, magnanimity, mercy and compassion, and Russia, as a country, fully reflects these traits. We know how to be good friends, how to stand by one’s word. We will never let anyone down and will always support those in a difficult situation without hesitation.<br /><br />Everyone remembers that during the pandemic we were actually the first to support some European countries, including Italy and other states when they were going through the most difficult weeks of the COVID outbreak, and let’s not forget how we are helping Syria and Turkiye after a devastating earthquake.<br /><br />It is the people of Russia that are the foundation of our national sovereignty and our source of power. The rights and freedoms of our citizens are immutable – they are guaranteed by the Constitution and we will not depart from this despite the external challenges and threats.<br /><br />I would like to emphasise in this context that elections to local and regional government bodies next September and the presidential elections in 2024 will take place in strict accordance with the law and observance of all democratic, constitutional provisions.<br /><br />Elections always reveal different approaches to resolving social and economic goals. That said, the leading political forces are consolidated and united in the main idea – the security and wellbeing of the people; our sovereignty and our national interests override everything else for us.<br /><br />I would like to thank you for this responsible, firm position and recall the words of Pyotr Stolypin, a patriot and a proponent of a strong Russian state. He said this in the State Duma over a hundred years ago, but it is still consonant with our times. He said: “In the cause of defending Russia, all of us must unite and coordinate our efforts, our commitements and our rights for supporting one historical supreme right – the right of Russia to be strong.”<br /><br />Volunteers at the frontline include deputies of the State Duma and regional parliaments, representatives from different levels of executive government bodies, municipalities, cities, districts and rural areas. All parliamentary parties and leading public associations are taking part in collecting humanitarian aid to help at the front.<br /><br />Thank you once again – thank you for such a patriotic stand.<br /><br />Local governments as a public authority closest to the people play a huge role in strengthening civil society and solving everyday problems. People’s trust in the state as a whole, social welfare of the country’s citizens and their confidence in the successful development of the country depends on how they work.<br /><br />I would like to ask the Presidential Executive Office and the Government to submit proposals on creating tools of direct support for the best managerial teams and practices in large, medium-sized and small municipalities.<br /><br />The free development of society means being ready to take responsibility for yourself and your loved ones, for your country. These qualities must be encouraged from a young age in the family. Of course, the system of education and our national culture are extremely important for strengthening our common values and our national identity.<br /><br />The state will use the resources of the Presidential Grants Foundation, the Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, the Institute for Internet Development and other instruments to support all forms of creative endeavour, such as contemporary and traditional art, realism and avant-garde, classical and innovative works. It is not genres or trends that matter. Culture must serve the good, beauty and harmony, ponder some very complicated and contradictory issues in life, but its main mission is not to tear down society but to nurture the best human qualities.<br /><br />Cultural development will be a priority of rebuilding peaceful life in Donbass and Novorossiya. We will have to rebuild, repair and provide equipment to hundreds of cultural facilities there, including museum collections and buildings, which help people feel the connection between the past and the present and create a link to the future, to feel their affiliation with the common cultural, historical and educational space of the centuries-old great Russia.<br /><br />We must work together with our teachers, academics and professionals to seriously improve the quality of school and university textbooks, first of all in the humanities – history, social science, literature and geography – so that our young people learn as much as possible about Russia, its great past, its culture and traditions.<br /><br />We have brilliant, talented young people who are willing to work for the benefit of our country in areas like scientific research, culture, the social sphere, business and public administration. The Leaders of Russia competition, as well as the Leaders of Revival competition currently taking place in the new constituent entities of the Federation, are opening up new horizons for career growth for these very people.<br /><br />Notably, a number of winners and finalists in these competitions have voluntarily joined military units. Many of them are now working in the liberated territories helping rebuild economic and social life, and they are acting professionally, decisively and courageously.<br /><br />Generally speaking, nothing can replace the school of war. People return entirely different, and they are ready to lay down their lives for the Fatherland, wherever they may be working.<br /><br />Let me stress that it’s precisely those who were born and raised in Donbass and Novorossiya, who have fought for them, they will be and should form the foundation of our joint effort to develop these regions. I want them to hear me: Russia is counting on you.<br /><br />With the ambitious tasks facing our country in mind, we must seriously revise our approaches to the system of professional education, to our science and technology policy.<br /><br />At the recent meeting of the Council for Science and Education, we discussed the need to prioritise our efforts, to concentrate resources on obtaining specific and fundamentally meaningful scientific results, primarily in areas where we have done a fair amount of work and which are of critical importance to our country, including transport, energy, housing and utilities, public healthcare, agriculture, and the manufacturing industry.<br /><br />Innovative technology invariably relies on existing fundamental research. Here, just like in culture – and I want to emphasise this – we must give researchers greater freedom for creativity. We should not have everyone just focused on the results that we will need tomorrow. Fundamental science makes its own rules.<br /><br />Also, setting and fulfilling ambitious goals is a powerful incentive for young people to choose science as their field and a chance to prove their leadership skills and being the best in the world. Our research teams have much to be proud of.<br /><br />Last December, I met with some of our young researchers. One of their questions concerned housing. A mundane, but important issue. Housing certificates for young researchers are already available. Last year, an additional one billion rubles was set aside for these purposes. I hereby instruct the Government to identify reserves to expand this programme.<br /><br />In recent years, the prestige of secondary vocational education has grown significantly. The demand for graduates of technical schools and colleges is just huge, colossal. You see, if our unemployment has fallen to a historic low of 3.7 percent, it means that people are working, new personnel is needed.<br /><br />I believe that we should significantly expand the Professionalitet project, under which educational and industrial clusters are created, the educational base is updated, and enterprises and employers develop educational programmes based on the needs of the economy in close contact with colleges and technical schools. And of course, it is very important for mentors with experience in real, complex production to join in.<br /><br />The task is clear: in the next five years we need to train about a million specialists of working professions for the electronics industry, the robotics industry, mechanical engineering, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and the defence industry, construction, transport, nuclear and other industries that are key to ensuring the security, sovereignty and competitiveness of Russia.<br /><br />Finally, a very important question is about our higher education. Significant changes are also overdue here, considering the new requirements for specialists in the economy, social sectors, and in all spheres of life in our country. What we need here is a synthesis of all the best that was in the Soviet system of education and the experience of recent decades.<br /><br />In this regard, the following is proposed.<br /><br />First, to return to the basic training of specialists with higher education, which is traditional for our country. The term of study can be four to six years. At the same time, programmes can be offered that differ in terms of training, depending on the specific profession, industry and labour market demand even within the same specialty and one university.<br /><br />Second, if a profession requires additional training or niche specialisation, in this case a young person will be able to continue education by doing a master’s degree or choosing residency training.<br /><br />Third, postgraduate studies will be made into a separate level of professional education, the task of which is to train personnel for scientific and teaching professions.<br /><br />I want to emphasise that the transition to the new system should be smooth. The Government, together with parliamentarians, will need to make numerous amendments to legislation on education, on the labour market, and so on. Here you need to think everything through, work out every detail. Young people, our citizens should have new opportunities for quality education, employment and professional growth. I repeat: opportunities, not problems.<br /><br />And I would like to specifically note that those students who are studying now will be able to continue their education under existing programmes. And also, the level of training and higher education diplomas of citizens who have already completed studies under current undergraduate, specialist or master’s programmes are not subject to revision. They must not lose their rights. I ask the Russian Popular Front to take all issues related to changes in the field of higher education under special control.<br /><br />This year was declared the Year of the Teacher and Mentor in Russia. Teachers are directly involved in building the country’s future, and it is important to raise the social status of their work. Parents should talk to their children more about gratitude for their teachers, and teachers should instil in children respect and love for their parents. Let’s always remember this.<br /><br />I will talk about support for children and Russian families in a minute.<br /><br />I would like to note that the so-called children’s budget, or budget allocations to support families in Russia, has increased manifold rather than by a small percent over the past few years. These expenses are the fastest growing part of the country’s main financial document – the budget, the law on the budget. I would like to thank the parliament members and the Government for their uniform, consolidated understanding of our national priorities.<br /><br />On February 1, the maternity capital in Russia was again adjusted for inflation. As we promised, it was adjusted by last year’s inflation rate, that is, by 11.9 percent. Russian citizens – residents of the new regions of the Federation – are also entitled to this support now. I suggest granting maternity capital to families in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions where children were born starting from 2007, that is, when this programme was launched throughout Russia. I will recall that at one time we made a similar decision for the residents of Crimea and Sevastopol.<br /><br />We will continue implementing large-scale programmes aimed at improving the living standards of Russian families.<br /><br />I would like to emphasise that the Government and the regions of the Federation have been given a practical goal – to ensure noticeable, tangible growth in real wages in Russia.<br /><br />As we all know, an important indicator, a starting point here is the minimum wage. We raised it twice last year, almost by 20 percent overall.<br /><br />We will continue raising the minimum wage, doing it at a rate that is higher than the inflation rate and the real wage growth rate. Since the start of this year, the minimum wage was adjusted by 6.3 percent.<br /><br />I suggest supplementing the planned increase by an additional 10 percent starting January 1, 2024. Thus, the minimum wage will have grown by 18.5 percent to constitute 19,242 rubles.<br /><br />Now I would like to mention adjustments to the taxation system for the benefit of Russian families. Starting last year, families with two or more children have been relieved of paying tax on the sale of housing if they are purchasing a new, bigger flat or house.<br /><br />It is necessary to make better use of these instruments – they have proven to be in demand. Families should have more money in their family budgets to be able to resolve their most important and urgent problems.<br /><br />I suggest increasing the amount of social tax deductions: for children’s education costs – from current 50,000 rubles to 110,000 rubles per year, and for costs on personal education, medical treatment or purchase of medications – from current 120,000 to 150,000 rubles. The state will reimburse the 13 percent income tax paid on these increased amounts.<br /><br />Naturally we need not only to increase this deduction, but also to make this benefit easily available to people. This deduction should be granted proactively, quickly and online. This process should be easy for applicants.<br /><br />Next. The well-being, the quality of life of Russian families, and therefore the demographic situation, depend directly on the state of things in the social sphere.<br /><br />I know that many regions of the Federation are ready to significantly speed up renovation of social infrastructure, cultural and sports facilities, relocation of people from dilapidated housing, and comprehensive development of rural areas. This attitude will certainly be supported.<br /><br />We will use the following mechanism here: the regions will be able to receive now and use the funds that have been set aside in the 2024 federal budget for national projects, through interest-free treasury loans – they will be automatically repaid in April of 2024. It is a good tool.<br /><br />We will keep this issue under constant review, and I ask the State Council Commission On Economy and Finance to become involved in this work.<br /><br />However, we don't need to rush and chase after numbers, especially to the detriment of the quality of the facilities being built. Additional financial resources must be used efficiently to give a high return.<br /><br />This is particularly vital for the modernisation of primary health care, a large-scale programme that we launched in 2021. I ask the Government and regional leaders not to forget that the benchmark – I have said this many times – is not the numbers in reports, but concrete, visible, tangible progress in the availability and quality of medical care.<br /><br />I also instruct the Government to adjust the regulatory framework for organising the procurement of ambulances with diagnostic equipment. They allow for medical check-ups and preventive examinations to be carried out directly at enterprises, schools, offices and in remote communities.<br /><br />We have launched a large-scale school renovation programme. By the end of this year, a total of almost 3,500 school buildings will have been renovated. I would like to point out that most of them are in rural areas and we have done this on purpose. This year such work is also being carried out in the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. It is meaningful and visible, people really see what is happening. This is very good.<br /><br />From 2025 onwards, federal funds will be regularly and systematically allocated to the regions for repairing and renovating kindergartens, schools, vocational schools and colleges so as to avoid situations where buildings are in dilapidated condition.<br /><br />Next, we have set a major goal, to build more than 1,300 new schools between 2019 and 2024. Of these, 850 are now open. Another 400 will open this year. I want the regions to stay on track to meet these objectives. The amount of federal funding for this 2019–2024 programme is almost 490 billion rubles. We will not cut these costs, we will keep this amount intact.<br /><br />This year, we increased the amount of infrastructure budget loans. We are sending additional funds, not as previously planned, but an additional 250 billion rubles for expanding transport, utility and other infrastructure in the regions.<br /><br />I hereby instruct the Government to allocate, in addition to these funds, an additional 50 billion rubles – which will be purposefully used to upgrade public transport in the constituent entities of the Federation this year. This upgrade will be used for the latest technology. Please pay special attention to small towns and rural areas.<br /><br />We have decided to extend the Clean Air project through 2030. The goal is to improve the environment in major industrial centres. I want industrial companies and regional and local authorities to keep in mind that a significant reduction in harmful emissions remains on the agenda.<br /><br />In addition, we have accomplished much in reforming the waste management industry. We are building up recycling and sorting capacity which will help us build a closed-loop economy. Further elimination of old landfills and hazardous material sites is our top priority. I want the Government, in conjunction with the regions, to draft a list of harmful sites that will be eliminated upon the completion of this programme.<br /><br />We will continue to restore unique water bodies, including Lake Baikal and the Volga River. In the medium term, we will extend this work to other rivers such as the Don, Kama, Irtysh, Ural, Terek, Volkhov and Neva rivers, and Lake Ilmen. We must not forget about medium and small rivers. I want all levels of government to pay attention to this.<br /><br />As part of an earlier instruction, a draft law on promoting tourism in specially protected nature areas has been submitted. It was recently discussed at a meeting with the Government. It should clearly define what can be built and where and what cannot, and generally set forth the principles of the ecotourism industry. This is a critically important issue for our country. I ask the State Duma to speed up consideration of this draft law.<br /><br />Now I will say a few words about what is happening around us.<br /><br />Colleagues, I will talk about one more issue.<br /><br />In early February, the North Atlantic alliance made a statement with actual demand to Russia, as they put it, to return to the implementation of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, including admission of inspections to our nuclear defence facilities. I don’t even know what to call this. It is a kind of a theatre of the absurd.<br /><br />We know that the West is directly involved in the Kiev regime’s attempts to strike at our strategic aviation bases. The drones used for this purpose were equipped and updated with the assistance of NATO specialists. And now they also want to inspect our defence facilities? In the current conditions of confrontation, it simply sounds insane.<br /><br />I would like to draw your attention specifically to the fact that they are not letting us conduct full-scale inspections under this treaty. Our repeated applications to inspect different facilities remain unanswered or are rejected under formal pretexts, and we cannot verify anything on the other side.<br /><br />I would like to stress that the United States and NATO are openly saying that their goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. And what, after such statements they are supposed to tour our defence facilities, including the latest ones, as if nothing happened? A week ago, I signed an executive order putting new land-based strategic systems on combat duty. Are they going to poke their nose there as well? Do they think we will let them go there just because?<br /><br />Having made this collective statement, NATO actually claimed to be a participant in the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Arms. We agree with this, please go ahead. Moreover, we believe this framing of the issue is long overdue. Let me recall that the US is not the only nuclear power in NATO. Britain and France also have nuclear arsenals. They are developing and upgrading them and these arsenals are also directed against us – they are also directed against Russia. The latest statements by their leaders merely confirm it – listen for yourselves.<br /><br />We cannot just ignore this and have no right to do so especially now. Nor can we forget that the Soviet Union and the United States initially signed the first Treaty on Strategic Offensive Arms in 1991 in a completely different situation – in conditions of abating tensions and growing mutual trust. Subsequently, our relations reached a level that allowed Russia and the US to say they no longer considered each other enemies. Wonderful, everything was going very well.<br /><br />The Treaty of 2010 that is in force contains critically important provisions about indivisible security and the direct link between strategic offensive and defensive arms. All of that has long been forgotten. The United States withdrew from the ABM Treaty. It is now a thing of the past. Importantly, our relations have degraded which can be credited entirely to the United States.<br /><br />After the Soviet Union broke up, they began to revise the outcomes of World War II and to build an American-style world ruled by one master. To do this, they began to rudely destroy the foundations of the international order laid down after WWII in order to cross out the legacy of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences. Step by step, they proceeded to revise the existing international order, to dismantle security and arms control systems, and plotted and carried out a series of wars around the world.<br /><br />To reiterate, all of that was done for the sole purpose of dismantling the post-WWII architecture of international relations. This is not a figure of speech. This is how it all unfolded in reality. After the Soviet Union collapsed, they sought to perpetuate their global dominance regardless of the interests of modern Russia or other countries for that matter.<br /><br />Sure enough, the international situation changed after 1945. New centres of growth and influence have been formed and are rapidly expanding. This is a natural and objective process that cannot be ignored. But the United States trying to refashion the international order to suit exclusively its own needs and selfish interests is unacceptable.<br /><br />Now, they are using NATO to give us signals, which, in fact, is an ultimatum whereby Russia should, no questions asked, implement everything that it agreed to, including the New START Treaty, whereas they will do as they please. As if there is no connection between strategic offensive weapons and, say, the conflict in Ukraine or other hostile Western actions against our country. As if there are no vociferous claims about them seeking to inflict a strategic defeat on us. This is either the height of hypocrisy and cynicism, or the height of stupidity, but they are not idiots. They are not stupid after all. They want to inflict a strategic defeat on us and also to get to our nuclear sites.<br /><br />In this regard, I am compelled to announce today that Russia is suspending its membership in the New START Treaty. To reiterate, we are not withdrawing from the Treaty, but rather suspending our participation. Before we come back to discussing this issue, we must have a clear idea of what NATO countries such as France or Great Britain have at stake, and how we will account for their strategic arsenals, that is, the Alliance's combined offensive capabilities.<br /><br />Their statement comes, in fact, as a request to join this process. Well, come onboard, we do not mind. Just try not to lie to everyone this time and present yourselves as champions of peace and detente. We know the truth. We are aware of the fact that certain types of US nuclear weapons are reaching the end of their service life. In this regard, we know for certain that some politicians in Washington are already pondering live nuclear tests, especially since the United States is developing innovative nuclear weapons. There is information to that effect.<br /><br />Given these circumstances, the Defence Ministry and Rosatom must make everything ready for Russia to conduct nuclear tests. We will not be the first to proceed with these tests, but if the United States goes ahead with them, we will as well. No one should harbour dangerous illusions that global strategic parity can be disrupted.<br /><br />Colleagues, citizens of Russia,<br /><br />Today, we are together living through challenging times and overcoming all difficulties together as well. It could not have been otherwise because we have been raised on the example of our great ancestors and must be worthy of their behests that are passed down from generation to generation. We are moving only forward owing to our devotion to our Motherland, our will and our unity.<br /><br />This cohesion was on display from the first days of the special military operation – hundreds of volunteers, representatives of all ethnicities of our country came to recruitment offices. They decided to stand by the defenders of Donbass, to fight for their native land, for their Fatherland, for the truth and justice. Today, warriors from all regions of our multi-ethnic Motherland are fighting shoulder to shoulder on the frontlines. They pray in different languages, but they all pray for victory, for their fellow soldiers and for the Motherland. (Applause.)<br /><br />Their difficult military labour, their exploits are finding a powerful response all over Russia. People are supporting our fighters. They don’t want to stay on the sidelines. The front is now passing through the hearts of our people in their millions. They are sending medicine, communication devices, transport, warm clothes and camouflage nets, to name a few – everything that helps protect the lives of our fighters.<br /><br />I know the comfort letters from children and schoolkids give to our soldiers at the front. They take them into battle as a cherished possession because the sincerity and purity of children’s wishes bring tears to their eyes. They feel more forcefully for whose sake they are fighting and whom they are defending.<br /><br />Warriors, their families and civilians greatly appreciate the care with which volunteers are surrounding them. They have been acting boldly and decisively from the very start of the special military operation. Under fire and shelling they are leading children, elders and all those in trouble out of basements; they were and still are bringing food, water and clothes to hot spots; they are setting up humanitarian aid centres for refugees and helping doctors in field hospitals and on the combat contact line; they continue to risk their lives to save others.<br /><br />The Russian Popular Front alone raised over five billion rubles as part of the All for Victory initiative. The flow of donations does not stop. Every contribution is important and this applies to those made by large companies and businesspeople. But especially touching and inspiring are the donations of people with modest incomes, which are contributing part of their savings, salaries and pensions. This coming together to help our warriors, civilians in the zone of hostilities and refugees is worth a lot.<br /><br />Thank you for this sincere support, cohesion and mutual aid. It is impossible to overstate their importance.<br /><br />Russia will meet any challenges because we are all one country, a big and united nation. We are confident in ourselves and confident in our strength. The truth is on our side. (Applause.)<br /><br />Thank you.<br /><br />The Anthem of the Russian Federation plays.<br /><br /><p style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #020c22; font-family: "ITCFranklinGothicW10-Bk 862339", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px auto 29px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #606778; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/70565" target="_blank">SOURCE</a></span></p></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-73974796275275300772023-02-16T17:02:00.001+11:002023-03-06T13:57:19.766+11:00President al-Assad’s speech on the repercussions of the earthquake that hit Syria<p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">President Bashar Al-Assad on Thursday gave a speech on Syria TV about the repercussions of the earthquake that struck the country</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">16 Feb 2023</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhediLoCbpW_-d3BFGeutRUaz_lJl0BbwDCba4CKiMoVYedwCFnbpVHCKk0fmdT-9sErMzoGVo1hL_NE9y_NZONvQjRzzcNWwtuc4uKL0W0b-_d59AGu8l7z9_bRH6YZHI8WmKxSBni1DeRhIBUxJ39BBkpHQnrzwS3E8mVZfJyysbhuYJQW0CLqf6Usw/s660/president%20assad.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="660" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhediLoCbpW_-d3BFGeutRUaz_lJl0BbwDCba4CKiMoVYedwCFnbpVHCKk0fmdT-9sErMzoGVo1hL_NE9y_NZONvQjRzzcNWwtuc4uKL0W0b-_d59AGu8l7z9_bRH6YZHI8WmKxSBni1DeRhIBUxJ39BBkpHQnrzwS3E8mVZfJyysbhuYJQW0CLqf6Usw/s16000/president%20assad.jpg" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Following is the full text of the speech..</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Brothers and sisters,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A homeland is a home, and its protection is a duty, regardless of the type and magnitude of the challenge, and regardless of the capabilities. This was the case since the first moments of the earthquake. This deep and overwhelming sense towards the homeland, our home, Syria, was felt by the one family inhabiting it, individuals and institutions. And there was this massive surge on the part of everyone to protect, save and help their brothers and sisters affected by the earthquake in Aleppo, Lattakia and Hama. This national patriotic and humanitarian scene is not surprising for any of us; for we have felt it at different turns of the war on Syria. But now, it is clearer and more comprehensive. More importantly, it is more expressive, for it comes after twelve years of war and embargo, with the accompanying death, sabotage and lack of resources on the national level.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, despite the cruelty of all this, it has not changed the essence of our feeling and our thinking towards each other and towards the homeland, whether it is the land or the people inhabiting it, towards its concepts, customs and traditions.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If this war has exhausted and drained a lot of the national resources, and weakened the capabilities to face more crises, the war itself gave the Syrian society the expertise and the ability to act quickly and effectively in the early hours of the earthquake. The magnitude of the disaster and the tasks that we should all shoulder are much larger than the available capabilities. However, what our society, its individuals and institutions, was capable of doing was also much larger than the available capabilities. This was not only because of the war and the sanctions, but also because Syria has not been an earthquake area for about two and a half centuries. Neither the buildings nor the institutions nor the equipment were prepared for different types of natural disasters. This made it the first challenge of its kind, and the largest of its kind. Nothing compensated for those weaknesses except the quick and highly effective response of the government, civil-society organizations and individuals who volunteered in the rescue work, those who made in kind or financial donations, residents and expatriates. They have tried every possible way to break the embargo in order to provide every possible assistance to their disaster-affected brothers and sisters. This is in addition to the emergency aid sent by sisterly and friendly countries, which constituted a significant support for the national efforts to alleviate the impact of the earthquake and save many of the injured.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2-40.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f31a1; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="alignright wp-image-300850 size-full tie-appear" decoding="async" height="190" loading="lazy" src="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2-40.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 5px 25px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></span></a></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, from the experiences of other countries in this area, earthquakes have immediate and long-term effects. What we shall face for months and years, in terms of economic, social and services challenges is no less important than what we faced during the first days. And it needs a lot of thinking, dialogue, solidarity and organization on the part of all national sectors. It is important not to look at the repercussions as a separate case related exclusively to the earthquake; for it is a cumulative case of war, terrorist sabotage, the embargo and its effects and of the earthquake recently. Added to this are faults that have accumulated in different sectors for decades before the war.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The scene might look complicated, and it might be difficult to categorize the reasons leading to each problem separately. But it might give us an opportunity to solve those accumulated problems in an interrelated manner. This means moving from addressing the negative aspects of the emergency conditions into the positive aspects of comprehensive treatment. And it means moving forward instead of standing fixed in facing crises. This cannot happen all at once, but in a prioritized manner depending on the available capabilities, and in stages. But what is important is having the vision based on a national consensus and a broad dialogue.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But even then, we need to continue dealing with the repercussions of the earthquake step by step. After completing the rescue stage, providing emergency shelters and the basic requirement in terms of food, clothes and medicine, which have been done so far. The relevant government institutions have started to provide temporary housing, until permanent housing is provided at a later stage.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Creating a fund for supporting the affected people is under study. The fund aims at supporting them until they become capable of restoring the different aspects of their life capabilities. This will happen after the damage is assessed, and criteria are drawn for the identification of those covered and the support provided. All this should be done in parallel with curbing economic decline which usually hits affected areas and impacts the national economy in general. The necessary legislation will be passed and measures taken in order to alleviate the economic burdens on their population and accelerate the economic cycle there. These have been started to be examined before being presented for discussion and taking the appropriate decisions in the next few days. There are also some other ideas which have been proposed recently and will be announced by the relevant institutions, after being properly examined, discussed and their feasibility ensured.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Brothers and sisters,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When societies suffer different kinds of earthquakes, geological, political, military, cultural, social or other kinds of violent tremors, they are bound to loose part of their stability, because their institutional and social controls are shaken. This includes laws, regulations, concepts, traditions and morals. This, in turn, gives rise to negative aspects already there, but have been latent or limited as a result of those controls.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Enthusiasm and vigor in treating these manifestations which appear on the surface are necessary in crises, provided they are based on wisdom and awareness, on facts not exaggeration and illusions. So, let’s look for the truth instead of promoting rumours which have eclipsed scenes of heroism, sacrifice, devotion, solidarity and the unlimited enthusiasm we have seen during the hours and days which followed the earthquake. For they will send messages of frustration to all those who have made that amazing and extraordinary patriotic scene, and promote instead an image at odds with the pure and honourable image we have drawn in the minds of others.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Is there an event, small or large, that can obscure the images of heroism projected by our national civil and military institutions, civil society, and individual volunteers involved in rescue work like a beehive, day and night? They are credited with all that has been achieved. They have born the homeland, with all its hopes and pain, in unlimited enthusiasm and forbearance and great sacrifice. They have embodied the homeland in all its beautiful meanings and noble values.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Was it this spontaneous popular surge to support the disaster-affected with a flood of good that suspended their poverty and need? It was a surge of activity and feeling which equaled the well-off, who gave without being asked, and the needy, who cut some of their limited resources and daily sustenance in order to help a disaster affected person. They have been a real and live model of morals in their noblest manifestations, patriotism in its deepest meanings and humanity in its most sublime attributes.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Can we ever forget those who have mobilized in order to defend the real image of our society in the different mass and social media, not allowing the distorted image that some people have been trying to market to affect our reputation as a society, and preventing that image from affecting its morals, solidarity and altruism, which is the highest value on the individual and collective levels?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are many other stories and endless details, individuals, heroes, courageous and valiant persons who stand as role models for the present and guiding lights for the future.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For all those, residents and expatriates, who alleviated this painful tragedy with what they could, materially and morally, with something or with a word, we don’t say thank you, because loving one’s homeland, serving and defending it is a duty that does not require thanks, but we say to them: we are proud of you, and your homeland is proud of you.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the midst of our pain and sadness for the victims, our pride in our compatriots, we should not omit to thank all the countries which have stood with us from the first hours of the disaster, our Arab brothers and our friends whose in kind and field assistance have made the greatest impact in strengthening our capabilities to face the difficult circumstances in those critical hours.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I would like to thank in particular the rescue teams from different countries which took active part in rescue operations and continued to work until the last moments of hope of finding a live person under the rubble. They conducted their work with the same enthusiasm and devotion as their Syrian colleagues. They were real brothers. So, on behalf of every Syrian, we thank them and are grateful to them.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Brothers and sisters,</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All of us in this homeland, Muslims and Christians, believe in God; and believing in God means believing in God’s will. For us, God’s will is a destiny which brings us things we like and things we dislike. If we are not in a position to comprehend God’s wisdom in the calamities and graces which befall us, and their reasons, we are certainly in a position to learn the lessons from them. The first and most important thing which we should learn from this tough experience, now that we have been able, together, with all parts of our spectrum and sectors, to overcome our circumstances and limited capabilities, is to believe in our own tremendous capabilities, and to believe that our solidarity enables us to do it and that our fragmentation stifles it.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, let’s believe in God, believe in our homeland, in the will capable of making miracles when we possess it, in order for Syria to remain proud of its people, strong in its history, rich in its dignity, capable in its will.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">May God grant His mercy to our missed ones and healing to our wounded. May God protect Syria and its people from all harm.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you…</span></p><p><br /></p><p>The Video of the speech is below. Please click to watch on Facebook, then select "cc" option to select the subtitles.</p>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="314" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FSyrianPresidency%2Fvideos%2F2882891385177520%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=0" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe> <div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-13076179928130136622023-02-03T11:07:00.004+11:002023-02-08T20:05:26.179+11:00(Chemical File) … Politicization and Falsification of Facts to Target Syria<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">2 Feb 2023</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">by <a href="https://sana.sy/en/?p=298594" target="_blank">SANA</a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">The US and a number of the Western states are continuing to use the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as a weapon in the war waged against Syria, and a tool to exert political pressure to serve the agendas of these states in Syria and to justify their attack on it.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dozens of cases of using chemical weapons by terrorist organizations in Syria have been ignored by the countries supporting these organizations, and the United Nations has refused to investigate most of them:</span></p><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">December 8, 2012-</strong></span> Syria sent letters to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the Security Council informing them that (al-Qaeda) terrorists were manufacturing chemical weapons in a laboratory located near the Turkish city of Gaziantep and threatening to use them against Syrians, after which the Council begun to consider for the first time the so-called (chemical file) in Syria.</span></li></ul><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> </strong><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">March 19, 2013</strong> </span>– The first use of chemical weapons took place in Syria through the firing of a toxic gas missile by terrorists in the Khan al-Asal area of Aleppo Province, which led to the martyrdom of 25 people, including 16 military personnel, and injuring dozens.</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/3-2.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f31a1; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-298597 alignright tie-appear" decoding="async" height="168" loading="lazy" src="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/3-2.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 5px 25px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></span></a></p><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> </strong><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">March 21, 2013</span> –</strong> Syria sent an urgent letter to the UN Secretary-General calling for the dispatch of a specialized and impartial mission to investigate the incident and identify its perpetrators. This move did not satisfy the states sponsoring terrorism. France and the United Kingdom confused the letter and covered the use of chemical weapons by terrorists in Khan al-Asal.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first scandal in the (chemical file) was embodied when the investigation team appointed by the UN Secretary-General, led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, headed to Damascus five months after the Khan al-Asal incident, while everyone knows that chemical gases and evidence of their use are affected by the expiration of this long period.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">August 21, 2013</strong></span> – In conjunction with the presence of Sellstrom and his team in Damascus and his intention to go to Khan Al-Asal to initiate investigations, the alleged incident of using chemical weapons took place in Ghouta in Damascus countryside, so the mission’s destination was diverted from Khan Al-Asal to that area.</span></li></ul><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">September 13, 2013</strong></span> – Syria informed the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, of its accession to Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1992, and the accession entered into force on October 14, 2013.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">June 2014</span> –</strong> Sigrid Kaag, Head of the Joint Mission on the elimination of chemical weapons in Syria, made a briefing at the Security Council in which she confirmed that Syria had destroyed all of its chemical stockpile on board an American ship and other European ships.</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/4-2.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f31a1; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-298598 alignright tie-appear" decoding="async" height="168" loading="lazy" src="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/4-2.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 5px 25px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></span></a></p><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">January 5, 2016</strong></span> – The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) announced the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria by 100 percent, noting that the last quantity of these weapons was destroyed in the US state of Texas.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The West’s lies and scandals related to this file resulted in many incidents, including the two incidents in Khan Sheikhoun on April 4<sup style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">th</sup>, 2017 and Douma on April, 7<sup style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">th</sup>, 2018, despite Syria’s accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention and its disposal of its entire stockpile of these weapons and their production materials and facilities.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">November 2017</strong></span> – The Security Council closed the (Joint Investigative Mechanism JIM) file due to the false and unprofessional practices in its work, as a result of the American, British, and French pressures on its team to issue non-objective and biased reports against Syria.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Syria sent more than 215 letters to the UN Secretary-General, the Security Council, the OPCW, the Resolution 1540 Committee, and the committees concerned with combating terrorism, which included accurate information about the terrorist organizations’ possession of toxic chemicals and their use against civilians and military personnel, with the support of well-known countries and their intelligence agencies.</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/5-2.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f31a1; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-298599 alignright tie-appear" decoding="async" height="168" loading="lazy" src="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/5-2.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 5px 25px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></span></a></p><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Washington and its allies turned the OPCW into a tool against Syria, as it issued reports prepared remotely that lacked the minimum standards of credibility and objectivity, and based its conclusions on false witnesses, speculations, and assumptions based on what it called open sources, and on what was presented by the terrorist organization (the White Helmets) and its sponsors.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The United States, France and Britain obstructed conducting investigations into the alleged incident in Douma by the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), by launching a military act of aggression against Syria on the 14th of April 2018, which resulted in the destruction of scientific centers containing laboratories for peaceful civilian purposes that were visited by the OPCW missions which emphasized their civilian character.</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/6.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f31a1; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-298600 alignright tie-appear" decoding="async" height="150" loading="lazy" src="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/6.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 5px 25px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></span></a></p><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">April 26, 2018</span> –</strong> The Syrian and Russian missions to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons presented 17 witnesses from the city of Douma, who were in the city on the day of the alleged attack on April 7, and proved during a press conference at the organization’s headquarters in The Hague that the attack was a fabricated play.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">June 27, 2018</span> –</strong> The 4<sup style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">th </sup>special session of the Conference of the States Parties to the OPCW adopted a decision to establish the so-called “Investigation and Identification Team” which constituted a dangerous turning point in the history of the organization because it reflected the extent of politicization carried out by the United States and Western countries to push the organization to engage in political aspects and interfere in the affairs of countries whose policies do not agree with these countries.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">February 13, 2019</span> </strong>– BBC correspondent Riam Dalati confirmed in tweets that his interviews with terrorists of (the White Helmets), and investigations that took months about the scenes that were said to have been filmed in Douma city hospital on the day of the alleged attack, proved that they were (just a play), and that everything said about the attack using sarin was fabricated, and that at least one country in the NATO was aware of what was happening at the hospital.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">March 1, 2019</strong> </span>– The team of the Fact-Finding Mission about the alleged incident in Douma issued a report that included a serious distortion of the facts on the ground, many contradictions and inconsistencies, and completely neglected the role of the (White Helmets) terrorist organization, the terrorist arm of Jabhat al-Nusra, in implementing the agenda of the countries that stood behind the war waged against Syria.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">May 17, 2019</strong></span> – Australian Ian Henderson, the leader of the Fact-Finding Mission team to Douma, who examined the site of the alleged incident, confirmed that the results of the organization’s report (do not correspond to reality and contradict engineering expertise), indicating that the tests that were conducted at two locations of the accident, as well as the post-analysis show that it is possible that the chemical cylinders were placed on the ground and did not fall from the air, and this completely refutes the report of the organization, and he was later expelled from the organization because of his disclosure of tampering with the investigations.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">November 24, 2019 </strong></span>– The British Daily Mail Newspaper revealed that a scientist employed by the organization said in a leaked e-mail: that the investigations on the ground in Douma did not find strong evidence about the alleged attack, and that facts were deliberately hidden in the organization’s reports, which confirms its tampering with the report.</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/7.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f31a1; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-298601 alignright tie-appear" decoding="async" height="150" loading="lazy" src="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/7.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 5px 25px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></span></a></p><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">December 15, 2019</strong></span> – The British Daily Mail Newspaper revealed new documents proving that the OPCW tampered with the final report on the Douma incident by making significant changes to the evidence of field investigators, noting that a high-ranking official in the organization ordered the concealment of an important document that undermines the allegations that were circulated about the use of chemical weapons.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">December 27, 2019</strong></span> – WikiLeaks published 4 leaked documents from the OPCW Organization that exclude the use of chlorine gas in the city of Douma, in a new confirmation of tampering with the Organization’s final report on the alleged chemical attack.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">March 14, 2020</strong> </span>– A new leak was published by (The Grayzone) in which an official at the OPCW revealed that the organization’s administration launched a (malicious and flawed attack) against two veteran inspectors, who proved the incorrectness of its story regarding the alleged attack in Douma, warning of the existence of a climate of intimidation designed to keep other staffers frightened into silence.</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/8.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f31a1; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-298602 alignright tie-appear" decoding="async" height="168" loading="lazy" src="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/8.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 5px 25px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></span></a></p><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">September 28, 2020</strong></span> – An informal meeting of the Security Council was held according to the (Arria-Formula) on the (chemical file) in Syria to expose Western manipulation of the file, in which the Brazilian José Bustani, the first director-general of the OPCW, and expert Ian Henderson participated via Skype, after the US refused to grant them entry visas, to prevent them from addressing the council directly and reveal loopholes in the investigation, but they participated remotely and exposed along with the director of the American website (The Grayzone) and an American academic from Boston all the lies and manipulation on the part of the organization.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">February 16, 2021</strong> </span>– 18 scientists and prominent personalities, led by Jose Bustani, the first director-general of the OPCW and the American thinker, Noam Chomsky, called on the current director of the organization, Fernando Arias, to restore its credibility and integrity after the manipulation by the Fact-Finding Mission about the alleged incident in Douma.</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/9.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f31a1; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-298603 alignright tie-appear" decoding="async" height="168" loading="lazy" src="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/9.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 5px 25px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></span></a></p><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">March 16, 2021</strong> –</span> Former US Senator Tulsi Gabbard confirmed that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons distorted its report on the alleged attack in Douma, to justify the US-British-French aggression against Syria on April 14, 2018.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">April 16, 2021</strong></span> – Members of the European Parliament Claire Daly and Mike Wallace confirmed during a session to question the OPCW Director General, Fernando Arias, that senior investigators who participated in the investigation into the alleged attack in Douma rejected the report of the organization, accusing its management of manipulating the results of the investigation, and demanded that it stop ignoring the accusations and information provided by the investigators regarding the falsification of the report.</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/10.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f31a1; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-298604 alignright tie-appear" decoding="async" height="150" loading="lazy" src="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/10.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 5px 25px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></span></a></p><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">April 21, 2021</strong></span> – Western countries, through pressure and blackmail, during the 25<sup style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">th</sup> session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), passed a decision to suspend the rights and privileges of Syria’s membership in the organization. Syria affirmed that the decision represents a dangerous development in the process of the OPCW work and constitutes an aggressive plot against a state party to the convention.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">July 31, 2021 –</strong></span> Journalists Piers Robinson and Aaron Maté revealed, in an investigation prepared by (The Grayzone), the distortions carried out by the OPCW Director-General during the Security Council session in June, his attempt to cover up the scandal of fake reports prepared by the organization about the incident, and his refusal to investigate or provide explanations about the systematic manipulation of the investigations, in addition to ignoring and belittling the scientists who protested against the distorted report and confirmed its falsity.</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/11.jpg" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f31a1; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-298605 alignright tie-appear" decoding="async" height="203" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="http://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/11.jpg" srcset="https://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/11.jpg 300w, https://sana.sy/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/11-110x75.jpg 110w" style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; float: right; height: auto; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 5px 25px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.4s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></span></a></p><ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px 15px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">August 10, 2021 –</strong> </span>(The Gray Zone) revealed that fake agents and experts linked to British intelligence participated in the fabrication of plays about the alleged chemical attacks in Syria, and their later use in the framework of the terrorist war waged against it.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">January 27, 2023</span> </strong><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">– </strong>The so-called (Investigation and Identification Team) of the OPCW issued its final report on the alleged incident in Douma.</span></li><li style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: outside none disc; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: blue; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">January 28, 2023 </strong></span><strong style="border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">– </strong>Syria affirmed its categorical rejection of the misleading report, due to its lack of any scientific evidence and its neglect of the objective observations raised by state parties, experts, academics, documented media reports, and former inspectors from the organization which confirm beyond any doubt, from the scientific, legal and engineering aspects, and the tests conducted by specialists, including those who were commissioned by the OPCW to work on the ground, that this incident was completely fabricated.</span></li></ul><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Syria consistently condemns the use of chemical weapons anywhere, at any time and under any circumstances, and calls upon States parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the United Nations to assume their responsibilities to safeguard the Organization’s independence, credibility and future.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://sana.sy/en/?p=298594" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">SOURCE | SANA</a></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Related | See More:</span></b><br /><br /></p><h1 class="name post-title entry-title" itemprop="itemReviewed" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Thing" style="background-color: white; border: 0px none; box-sizing: border-box; color: #990909; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 19px; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsQ0LReuF9RT0GJIbeAGXPrC5fIp6dlF2OuF8brOr-nf_pRbEk5TLoyCYKQryHwY7ec3VkyAVsmw-Ryc6Qjxly9UH0I8SBSDrCiynaykLl53mfpaMaSSY-7Z7W2vf9DfqWD3xfPu_MBFsL/s768/pjimage-14.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="768" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsQ0LReuF9RT0GJIbeAGXPrC5fIp6dlF2OuF8brOr-nf_pRbEk5TLoyCYKQryHwY7ec3VkyAVsmw-Ryc6Qjxly9UH0I8SBSDrCiynaykLl53mfpaMaSSY-7Z7W2vf9DfqWD3xfPu_MBFsL/s16000/pjimage-14.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #161616; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: 0.1em; line-height: 1.3; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 400;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1;">While Western media covers up their credibility issues, these pseudo-experts and spooks have helped drive the dirty war on Syria.</strong> </span></h3><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">A tight-knight cast of characters has sought to destabilize the Syrian government by convincing Syrians, Western citizens, foreign states, and international bodies that the CIA-backed Free Syrian Army is a legitimate, “moderate” alternative, while flooding news across the globe with opposition propaganda.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Its key actors have also played a central part in high-profile chemical weapon deceptions, participating in the attacks’ staging, generating media coverage, orchestrating official investigations and even legal actions, all with the clear goal of cultivating Western support for regime change. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">Despite facing official investigation into corrupt practices and being exposed for serious credibility issues, these figures have been treated with adulation by a Western mainstream media that appears just as committed to destabilizing Syria as they have been.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Among the most prominent figures among this group of self-proclaimed experts is supposed chemical weapons specialist Hamish de Bretton-Gordon. Previously Commanding Officer of the UK CBRN Regiment and NATO’s Rapid Reaction CBRN Battalion, his past </span><a href="http://www.militaryspeakers.co.uk/speakers/hamish-de-bretton-gordon-obe/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">deployments</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> have included spells in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cyprus, Kosovo, and Iraq.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Once upon a time, de Bretton Gordon’s Twitter profile identified him as a member of 77th Brigade, the British Army’s shadowy</span><a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-30-uk-information-operations-in-the-time-of-coronavirus/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">psychological warfare division</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">, which</span><a href="https://www.rt.com/op-ed/518508-boris-johnson-intelligence-cyber-ops/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">maintains</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> a vast militia of real, fake and automated social media accounts that it deploys to disseminate propaganda in support of UK Foreign Office objectives, and discredit government critics. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-78738 size-full" data-attachment-id="78738" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-caption="" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="photo5764878669070841346" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/photo5764878669070841346.jpg?fit=592%2C250&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/photo5764878669070841346.jpg?fit=300%2C127&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/photo5764878669070841346.jpg?fit=592%2C250&ssl=1" data-orig-size="592,250" data-permalink="https://thegrayzone.com/2021/08/04/network-uk-intel-operatives-syrian-chemical-weapons/photo5764878669070841346/" height="250" sizes="(max-width: 592px) 100vw, 592px" src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/photo5764878669070841346.jpg?resize=592%2C250&ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/photo5764878669070841346.jpg?w=592&ssl=1 592w, https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/photo5764878669070841346.jpg?resize=300%2C127&ssl=1 300w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 20px 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; transition: all 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.3, 0.7, 0.7, 1) 0s;" width="592" /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Chillingly, official Army</span><a href="https://www.army.mod.uk/umbraco/Surface/Download/Get/10550#:~:text=5%20CAPABILITIES-,Information%20Manoeuvre%20combines%20and%20synchronises%20five%20information%20capabilities%20to%20exploit,more%20important%20than%20'ownership'." style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">doctrine</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> states the Brigade is “notably” key to the purported “grey zone between peace and war” that informs UK military thinking in the 21st century. The designation was removed from de Bretton-Gordon’s Twitter account after this journalist drew attention to it. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In British media, de Bretton-Gordon is portrayed as a gallant human rights hero who is responsible for</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> “</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">t</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">raining local doctors how to treat gas attacks and risking his life on battlefields, to convincing world leaders to take threats seriously.”</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">A </span><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hamish-de-bretton-gordon-the-iraq-veteran-on-the-front-line-of-the-war-against-chemical-weapons-in-syria-kfq7w76pm" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">glowing Times of London profile</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> features a photo of de Bretton- Gordon posing beside a hunting trophy and a well-stocked bar in his elegant country home, clad in a desert camo-colored smoking jacket. The article opens with the following passage: “B</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">eneath the smoke-hazed starlight of the desert night, a young tank captain waited for his moment of war. He was a romantic man and it was his first conflict.”</span></p><figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-78739" class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_78739" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 0.8125rem; font-style: italic; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 20px 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; transition: all 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.3, 0.7, 0.7, 1) 0s; width: 1694px;"><img alt="" class="wp-image-78739 size-full" data-attachment-id="78739" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-caption="<p>From the September 05 2020 Times of London profile of Hamish de Bretton-Gordon</p>
" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="DBG" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?fit=1024%2C724&ssl=1" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?fit=300%2C212&ssl=1" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?fit=1694%2C1198&ssl=1" data-orig-size="1694,1198" data-permalink="https://thegrayzone.com/2021/08/04/network-uk-intel-operatives-syrian-chemical-weapons/screen-shot-2021-08-04-at-6-30-28-pm/" data-recalc-dims="1" height="827" sizes="(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px" src="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?resize=1170%2C827&ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?w=1694&ssl=1 1694w, https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?resize=300%2C212&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?resize=1024%2C724&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?resize=768%2C543&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?resize=1536%2C1086&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?resize=1200%2C849&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?resize=770%2C545&ssl=1 770w, https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-04-at-6.30.28-PM.png?resize=1400%2C990&ssl=1 1400w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%; width: 750px;" width="1170" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-78739" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #464646; line-height: 1.8; margin: 0px; padding: 7px 12px;">From the September 05 2020 Times of London profile of Hamish de Bretton-Gordon</figcaption></figure><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Behind the legendary aura spun out by UK media, questions linger about de Bretton-Gordon’s field work. He is often referred to as the founder or director of Doctors Under Fire, an</span><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-56524550" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">NGO</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> or</span><a href="https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/18710734.sneak-peek-hamish-de-bretton-gordons-chemical-warrior/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> humanitarian group</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">. However, no operation of that name is registered as a commercial or charitable entity in the UK, or seemingly anywhere else in the world – clearly, no mainstream reporter has ever checked. He has also been lauded for his collection of soil samples in Syria, conducted through another suspicious organization he founded in Aleppo called CBRN Taskforce.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The vital question of how and why de Bretton-Gordon came to be involved in such a hazardous, sensitive activity has been left unexplored. This is an extraordinary failing on the part of the media, given that the work would necessarily require him to operate in areas occupied by Salafi-jihadist insurgents. He would also have potentially collaborated with or at least been in extremely close quarters with these elements, which have every reason to falsely accuse the Syrian government of chemical weapons use.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Further, there are strong indications that de Bretton Gordon’s activities were conducted in explicit support of regime change, and on behalf of at least one belligerent state participant in the Syrian conflict.</span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #161616; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: 0.1em; line-height: 1.3; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">‘Signs of Heavy Editing’</h3><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In an April 2015 Guardian</span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/28/no-fly-zone-chemical-attacks-syria" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">op-ed</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">, de Bretton-Gordon disclosed that his sample-gathering activities began two years earlier. Contemporary media reports</span><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mi6-tests-smuggled-syria-soil-for-nerve-agent-2qnnrt902jw" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">refer</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> to UK foreign intelligence service MI6 conducting operations to covertly smuggle soil samples out of Syria for analysis at Porton Down at precisely this time, strongly suggesting his involvement in the scheme. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">A 2016</span><a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/british-terrorism-expert-reveals-isis-7610317" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> article</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> also characterizes him as a “former spy,” a unique designation that doesn’t appear in any online biographies of de Bretton Gordon or other news pieces mentioning him.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">One</span><a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/syria-using-poison-gas-sarin-1893721" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">report</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> on the MI6 program quoted an anonymous “senior Western source,” who suggested that an objective of these operations was to encourage US intervention.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">“MI6 played the leading role but the American military wants more evidence before it agrees Assad has crossed the line in the use of chemical weapons. The question is what is the West going to do now? If nobody reacts, there was not much point in conducting the tests,” they said.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Accordingly, some of these samples were delivered directly to Washington. In April 2015, evidence de Bretton-Gordon collected from an alleged chlorine attack in Sarmin, Syria</span><a href="https://www.hstoday.us/channels/global/how-avon-protection-helps-defend-against-cbrne-threats/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">was presented</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> to the UN Security Council by Samantha Power, then-US Ambassador to the body and one of most notorious interventionists in government.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In September 2016, de Bretton-Gordon</span><a href="http://www.appgfriendsofsyria.org/2016/09/remarks-by-hamish-de-bretton-gordon.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">addressed</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> the UK parliament’s now-defunct All-Party Friends of Syria Group. In his remarks, he boasted of how documentation relating to an alleged April 21st, 2014 barrel bomb attack in the Syrian town of Talmenes that CBRN Taskforce supplied to an OPCW/UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) probe resulted in the pair announcing they possessed “conclusive evidence” that government forces were behind the strike.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The JIM </span><a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/dc3651.doc.htm" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">report</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> on the Talmenes incident did indeed make that charge. However, it also indicated that the material submitted by CBRN Taskforce showed unambiguous signs of falsification. In all, a nameless witness connected to the organization provided testimony, 42 videos of supposed impact sites, and soil samples to the JIM. The results, the report noted, were</span><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10796150/Syria-chemical-weapons-how-the-Telegraph-found-evidence-of-chlorine-and-ammonia-gas-bombs.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">published</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> by the conservative Daily Telegraph in an article painting de Bretton Gordon as a valiant investigator.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">While the JIM did not ultimately depend on the CBRN-supplied samples, the videos became a key source of evidence. However, clips related to the first site, “location #1”, failed to pass muster.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Two videos depicted an individual measuring a three-meter-wide and one-meter-deep crater in a backyard, with no remnants of the bomb visible. The JIM’s examination concluded they didn’t show the aftermath of a barrel bomb strike, finding instead that the pit featured was “probably” caused by a small explosive (“TNT equivalent”) buried in the ground.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Another clip of the same crater, said to have been broadcast by “local” media, portrayed the damaged outer jacket of a barrel bomb lying next to the aforementioned crater, animal carcasses strewn nearby. Expert scrutiny of the clip reinforced the JIM’s ruling that no barrel bomb attack had occurred. Indeed, the bodies of the animals were said to be “clean and intact,” making it “highly unlikely” they were in close vicinity to whatever actually caused the crater when it exploded. Moreover, analysis of the video’s metadata found it was created one day </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">before</i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> the alleged incident – and yet another clip depicting the same courtyard was disregarded due to “signs of heavy editing.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">As a result of these “inconsistencies”, location #1 was excluded entirely from the JIM’s investigation. Why all other CBRN Taskforce submissions were not automatically discounted remains unclear.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Further, how an individual or organization that supplied provably fraudulent material has been permitted to play any role whatsoever in multiple inquiries into alleged chemical weapon attacks in Syria by international bodies ever since remains a highly disquieting riddle.</span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #161616; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: 0.1em; line-height: 1.3; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Citizen journalism and civil rescuers, made by the UK Foreign Office</h3><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The report’s reference to “local” – or opposition – media having broadcast one of the bogus videos supplied by de Bretton Gordon’s Taskforce is also conspicuous when considering that British intelligence may well have created the outlet, in addition to helping mock up the clips.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Internal UK Foreign Office files released by a self-proclaimed hacktivist collective Anonymous in September 2020 reveal that ARK, a shadowy “conflict transformation and stabilization consultancy” headed by </span><a href="https://syriapropagandamedia.org/entrepreneurial-justice-operations-related-to-the-syrian-conflict-role-of-the-commission-for-international-justice-and-accountability-and-other-businesses-controlled-by-william-wile#alistair-harriss-biography" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">probable</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> MI6 operative Alistair Harris, trained and equipped hundreds of citizen journalists in Syria over many years. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Activists” were tutored in “camera handling, lighting, sound, interviewing, filming a story,” post-production techniques including “video and sound editing and software, voice-over, scriptwriting,” and “graphics and 2D and 3D animation design and software.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">ARK’s students were even</span><a href="https://ufile.io/hodmtmlm" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">instructed</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> in practical propaganda theory – namely “target audience identification, qualitative and quantitative techniques, media and media narrative analysis and monitoring,” “behavioral identification/understanding,” “campaign planning,” “behavior, behavioral change, and </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">how communications can influence it</i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> [emphasis added],” and more. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Content these “stringers” created was disseminated via “TV, FM radio, social media [platforms] and print material [including] posters, magazines and comics” established by ARK, in order to “promote the moderate opposition” within and without the country.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The company stated that it “frequently directs and connects international journalists” – working for the BBC, CNN, Guardian, New York Times and Reuters, among others – “to appropriate opposition figures.” In turn, ARK was “regularly approached” by the opposition Syrian National Council for “media handling advice,” including in the wake of the</span><a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n24/seymour-m.-hersh/whose-sarin" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">highly suspicious</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> August 2013 chemical strike in Ghouta.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">ARK’s most well-known creation was the supposed rescue group known as the White Helmets. The contractor spearheaded an “internationally-focused communications campaign designed to raise global awareness” of the supposed first responders and “keep Syria in the news” for several years.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">This was before management of the endeavor was handed over to Mayday Rescue, the brainchild of the late British mercenary James Le Mesurier, a former ARK employee who apparently committed suicide in 2019 amidst a </span><a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2021/05/07/syria-white-helmets-mayday-fraud-netherlands/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">corruption investigation</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> by state donors into the White Helmets’ bookkeeping.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Le Mesurier’s third wife, Emma Winberg, was also</span> <a href="https://www.rt.com/op-ed/508929-white-helmets-founder-le-mesurier/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">heavily involved</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> in Whitehall’s information warfare operations in Syria through a company called Innovative Communications and Strategy (Incostrat). She founded the outfit in 2014 alongside military intelligence veteran</span> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-tilley-mbe-2972056/?originalSubdomain=uk" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Paul Tilley</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">, the former UK Ministry of Defence strategic communications director for the Middle East and North Africa, who, like Le Mesurier, had attended the elite Sandhurst Military Academy.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the same vein as ARK, the company produced slick propaganda promoting extremist groups as credible alternatives to the Syrian government, while whitewashing the barbarous deeds that became their calling card in areas they occupied. One such jihadist entity</span> <a href="https://ufile.io/baabjoyj" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">may have been</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> the fundamentalist, Saudi-backed Jaysh Al-Islam (the Army of Islam), which</span> <a href="https://www.rt.com/op-ed/454205-uk-paying-white-helmets-syria-jaish/amp/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">worked closely</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> with the White Helmets in the areas it occupied, including Douma at the time of the now-notorious April 2018 chemical weapons deception.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">It is no coincidence that ARK, the White Helmets, Le Mesurier, Mayday Rescue, and de Bretton-Gordon would each play a fundamental role in the propaganda operation that sold the Douma incident to the world – and the subsequent</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/12/07/opcw-executives-whistleblower-syria-leaks/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">sabotage</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> of the OPCW probe into what happened.</span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #161616; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: 0.1em; line-height: 1.3; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">An irreconcilable contradiction</h3><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In March 2019, the OPCW issued a </span><a href="https://www.opcw.org/sites/default/files/documents/2019/03/s-1731-2019%28e%29.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">final report</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> on Douma, which concluded there were “reasonable grounds” to believe a chemical weapons attack had occurred, and “the toxic chemical was likely molecular chlorine.”</span> <a href="https://wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/document/actual_toxicology_meeting_redacted/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Leaked files</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> have revealed that these findings were explicitly contrary to the evidence collected by investigators who actually visited the city, which pointed strongly to a false flag incident.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">A consortium of UK-based scholars called the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda, and Media has</span><a href="https://syriapropagandamedia.org/how-the-opcws-investigation-of-the-douma-incident-was-nobbled" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> meticulously documented</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> how the investigation was “nobbled.” According to the Working Group, the OPCW dispatched two teams; one to Syria, one to Turkey, with the latter collecting samples from and interviewing witnesses supplied by the White Helmets, all of which was suggestive of a chemical weapon attack. The final report relied almost exclusively on this fudged evidence.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">There were also strong indications that Len Phillips, a </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/len-phillips-obe-5723a359/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">former</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> OPCW inspection team leader who turned freelance in April 2018, and is reported to have met frequently with Le Mesurier, was integral to influencing the probe.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Before leaving the OPCW, Phillips oversaw four other investigations into alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria between 2015 and 2017, all heavily dependent on evidence provided by the White Helmets. The Working Group found at least three of the probes</span> <a href="https://syriapropagandamedia.org/how-the-opcws-investigation-of-the-douma-incident-was-nobbled#distortion-of-evidence-in-earlier-reports-where-phillips-was-ffm-team-leader" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">excluded or ignored</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> unambiguous signs the events had been staged.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In April 2019, Phillips</span> <a href="https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11936321" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">registered</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> a company in the UK, PHBG Consultants Ltd. Though listed as the sole director and shareholder, the company’s name implies others are involved. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">If the ‘PH’ is Phillips, is the BG de Bretton-Gordon?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The company’s stated “nature of business” is “risk and damage evaluation” relating to “engineering related scientific and technical consulting activities.” </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The OPCW’s final report on Douma refers to “consultations with engineering experts”, which is surely how the problem of its on-site investigators</span> <a href="http://syriapropagandamedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Engineering-assessment-of-two-cylinders-observed-at-the-Douma-incident-27-February-2019-1.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">finding</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> there was a “higher probability” that cylinders alleged to have been dropped from Syrian Air Force helicopters were “manually placed…rather than being delivered from aircraft” was resolved.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The final report also depended on external consultations with toxicology experts to reach its finding that a chemical weapon was used. However, those specialists were unable to reconcile the problem of White Helmets-disseminated photos and videos of dead bodies, including children, lying in piles in a housing complex, foaming from the mouth – clear signs of exposure to a nerve agent, when none was found either in Syria or Turkey.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">A suppressed</span> <a href="https://wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/document/FirstdraftInterimReport/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">draft interim report</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> on the incident contained a lengthy section outlining in detail why it was inconceivable that the victims could have been afflicted by chlorine, and how no other alternative chemical culprit could be identified. This contradiction was considered so noteworthy, in fact, that it was referenced repeatedly in the 116-page document’s opening summary, described as an “inconsistency” that “cannot be rationalised.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The appraisal reflected the views of four chemical weapons specialists expressed to OPCW investigators in</span> <a href="https://wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/document/actual_toxicology_meeting_redacted/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">June 2018</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">. The final report makes no reference to these findings, or the meeting, limply concluding it was “not currently possible” to “precisely link” the symptoms with a “specific chemical”, while</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1212407312817766400" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">slyly conflating</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> the highly divergent properties and indicators of sarin and chlorine.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Regime change enthusiasts have offered a </span><a href="https://twitter.com/Brian_Whit/status/1408103974348197888" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">panoply</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> of peculiar </span><a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/05/01/lethality-chlorine-gas-possible-explanation-high-casualties-deaths-following-april-7-2018-attacks-douma-syria/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">explanations</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> for the grave incongruity at the very heart of the Douma incident. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Yet mainstream media reports published in the immediate aftermath of the event and prior to the arrival of OPCW investigators in the city show chemical weapons specialists were at first unanimous in declaring the victims had been afflicted by a nerve agent.</span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #161616; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: 0.1em; line-height: 1.3; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">‘They Could’ve Escaped’</h3><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">On April 10th, long-time chemical weapons researcher Alastair Hay,</span><a href="https://www.opcw.org/sites/default/files/documents/2021/01/s-1925-2021%28e%29.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> then-member</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> of the OPCW’s Education and Outreach board, and</span><a href="https://www.opcw.org/opcw-hague-award" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">recipient</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> of the organization’s Hague Award in 2015, </span><a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nerve-gas-used-in-syria-attack-leaving-victims-foaming-at-the-mouth-evidence-suggests/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">forcefully dismissed</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> the notion that corpses featured in the White Helmets-supplied footage could have been afflicted by chlorine, as their symptoms were “much, much more consistent with nerve-agent-type exposure.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">“It’s just bodies piled up…There’s a young child with foam at the nose and a boy with foam on its [sic] mouth. Chlorine victims usually manage to get out to somewhere they can get treatment,” he said. “Nerve agent kills pretty instantly…People have pretty much died where they were when they inhaled the agent. They’ve just dropped dead.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">A consequent Washington Post</span> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/04/11/chlorine-sarin-or-something-else-the-big-questions-in-alleged-syrian-chemical-weapons-attack/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">article</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> reinforced Hay’s analysis, reporting that “outside experts” had concluded “the speed with which the victims died suggested that a nerve agent was used,” as “chlorine usually takes longer to work.” That same day though, de Bretton-Gordon appeared in the Financial Times</span> <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3656dfc6-3d96-11e8-b7e0-52972418fec4" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">peddling</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> a novel theory.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">“The big question is whether it was chlorine or sarin. I am favoring a mix of the two,” he hypothesized. De Bretton-Gordon then argued that if Washington subsequently launched airstrikes on Damascus – which happened three days later – it would be “an indication of irrefutable evidence” of Syrian government culpability for the attack.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">On April 16th, he</span> <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5620439/Syrian-girl-seen-harrowing-hospital-video-chemical-attack-tells-survived.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">reiterated</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> this view to the Daily Mail. The same article also quoted a White Helmet operative’s firm dismissal of chlorine as the agent responsible.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Sarin you breathe and it kills you. There were many who died on the stairs. If it was chlorine, they could’ve escaped. But they died after just taking a few steps,” they said.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Chemically, a combination of chlorine and sarin makes no sense as a weapon, as chlorine compounds would simply decompose the nerve agent outright in the event they were successfully stored in the same container.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Of course, de Bretton-Gordon may have spoken out of pure ignorance. He has an extensive history of issuing headline-grabbing, unscientific claims, including warning of the potential</span> <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/chlorine-bomb-attacks-jihadists-are-growing-threat-uk-warns-chemical-warfare-expert-10274947.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">threat</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> of jihadists returning to the UK from Syria using components from household fridges to construct IEDs. There was also the time he claimed the Russian military could</span> <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6712843/russia-could-use-deadly-nerve-agent-novichok-in-missiles-or-grenades-in-any-future-war-with-the-west-expert-warns/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">employ</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> novichok hand grenades on battlefields.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Another interpretation may be that de Bretton-Gordon was attempting to explain away the looming, irresolvable disconnect between symptoms exhibited by victims of the alleged strike and the FFM’s actual chemical findings. Given the inevitable paradox created by that massive discrepancy, resolving this quandary was surely of supreme concern to all invested in the event’s staging.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Alternatively, there’s the question of whether de Bretton-Gordon himself had been concocting samples containing chlorine and sarin. The</span> <a href="https://www.rt.com/op-ed/521976-syria-opcw-saraqib-chemical-weapons-india/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">findings</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> of an OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) probe into an alleged chemical attack in the Syrian city of Saraqib in February 2018 made clear someone was cooking up evidence in this manner. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The</span> <a href="https://www.opcw.org/documents/2021/04/s19432021/note-technical-secretariat-second-report-opcw-investigation-and" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">inquiry</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">, which ruled the Syrian government had dropped “at least” one cylinder containing chlorine on the city, depended entirely on a May 2018 OPCW FFM</span> <a href="https://www.opcw.org/sites/default/files/documents/S_series/2018/en/s-1626-2018_e_.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">investigation</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> of the incident, which arrived at the same conclusion.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">FFM staffers didn’t actually visit the site of the purported strike, and all samples reviewed were provided by the White Helmets. The IIT report claims that they contained both chlorine- and sarin-related chemicals.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Strikingly, the IIT recorded that it would be “difficult” to fill a cylinder with both chemicals, so it explored the question of whether “cross-contamination” may have occurred during the sampling process, “or at a later stage in the handling of the samples themselves.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Its findings left open the possibility that “contamination occurred before sampling or after the samples were taken, but before they were secured by the OPCW in sealed packaging.” Still, “since the FFM did not make findings related to the use of sarin in Saraqib…</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">the IIT</i> <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">refrained from pursuing this aspect of the incident further</i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> [emphasis added].”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">By any objective measure, the IIT’s failure to explore that tantalizing lead was an absolutely staggering dereliction of its investigative duties, amounting to willful blindness in legal terms.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Other areas of the report similarly underline the inspectors’ determination to hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil. One of the cylinders reportedly involved in the strike was excluded from the IIT’s consideration, despite “consistent” witness accounts indicating both were dropped by a single Syrian Arab Army helicopter, due to a “lack of certainty” over whether it was moved to a location “further away” from the crater it supposedly created “with no clear explanation.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nonetheless, the IIT contended this glaring incongruity in no way implied the incident was staged, reasoning that if it had been orchestrated by opposition actors, it was “hard to comprehend” why the cylinder was placed and video-recorded so far away from its accompanying crater, “thus creating uncertainties as to its significance for this incident.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In other words, if this </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">was</i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> a false flag, those choreographing it would surely have done a better job. Inspectors’ reliance on ‘evidence’ gathered by the White Helmets is all the more questionable given longstanding OPCW protocol</span> <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20180416-what-does-opcw-field-mission-look-like" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">stating</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> that a chain of custody for all physical evidence is “100% critical”. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">“The OPCW would never get involved in testing samples that our own inspectors don’t gather in the field, because we need to maintain chain of custody of samples from the field to the lab to ensure their integrity,” an OPCW spokesperson</span> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/syria-crisis-chemical-weapons-idINDEE93P0AO20130426" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">said</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> in April 2013.</span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #161616; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 24px; letter-spacing: 0.1em; line-height: 1.3; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">‘Ready for Trial’: UK information warriors move from warfare to lawfare</h3><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The clear role of British intelligence in forging material has greatly influenced global media coverage. As a result, it has driven public support for regime change across the West, corrupted official investigations by international bodies, and helped trigger destructive military interventions.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The same bogus findings cooked up by the UK’s information warriors may be used in future kangaroo prosecutions of Syrian officials for war crimes, thus reinforcing the perception that the West’s long-running dirty war on Damascus was a righteous mission.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The shift in objective from warfare to lawfare was made clear by Emma Winberg in June 2018, at an </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DFRLab/videos/2181817018499506/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">event</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> on the subject of “archiving atrocities” hosted by NATO’s unofficial think tank in Washington, The Atlantic Council.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">“We’re in a phase of the conflict where we’re having to look ahead and plan for the next phase, where it’s less about advocacy to act on Syria, and instead how we best preserve what we do have, how we capture that in the most meaningful and effective way, that helps with future documentation and processes,” she said.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">However, these efforts date back to the very beginning of the crisis. Leaked documents</span> <a href="https://ufile.io/d3dnkx5e" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">reveal</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> that in 2011, the UK intelligence contractor, ARK, collaborated with a shadowy consultancy firm called Tsamota to “extract contemporaneous documentation from the conflict zone,” thus “[ensuring] that when the conflict ends, the raw material of a post-conflict war crimes process is ready for trial, in turn providing a key contribution to truth telling, reconciliation and the future of Syria.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">To this end, an endeavor created by Tsamota and called </span><a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/19/commission-for-international-justice-and-accountability-cija-syria-al-qaeda/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Commission for International Justice and Accountability</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> (CIJA) has collected thousands of kilos of documentation from abandoned government buildings in opposition-occupied areas of the country. As</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/19/commission-for-international-justice-and-accountability-cija-syria-al-qaeda/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">documented by Grayzone</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> in 2019, these operations necessitated CIJA securing protection and assistance from numerous Islamist militias active in these areas, including the al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">While the organization has</span> <a href="https://www.csce.gov/international-impact/interview-chris-engels-director-investigations-and-operations-commission" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">received</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> tens of millions in funding from the governments of Canada, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, UK, and US for its efforts, few indictments have followed. A rare exception was the April 2020</span> <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-court-hands-down-historic-syrian-torture-verdict/a-56670243" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Koblenz trial</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> in Germany, in which two former Syrian security service officers who defected in 2012, were prosecuted for torture. One willingly provided their Western counterparts with sensitive information, while the other became a member of the opposition delegation.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">A defendant has since been</span> <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-court-hands-down-historic-syrian-torture-verdict/a-56670243" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">found guilty</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity, and received a somewhat paltry four-and-a-half years in prison. His conviction was</span> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/18/bashar-al-assads-war-crimes-exposed" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">heavily dependent</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> on documents recording the</span> <a href="https://syriapropagandamedia.org/entrepreneurial-justice-operations-related-to-the-syrian-conflict-role-of-the-commission-for-international-justice-and-accountability-and-other-businesses-controlled-by-william-wile#the-central-crisis-management-cell-documents" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">meetings and directives</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> of the “Central Crisis Management Cell,” established by the Syrian government in late March 2011 in response to the uprising.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Notably, the files record that lethal attacks on Syrian security forces began almost immediately after the allegedly peaceful protests began. However, soldiers were under clear orders from the inception to “counter with weapons” only those “who carry weapons against the state,” while guaranteeing “civilians are not harmed.” </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">“Ensure that no drop of blood is shed when confronting and dispersing peaceful demonstrations,” an August 2011 directive unequivocally stated.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The question of where the vast sums CIJA received ultimately ended up is a particularly urgent one given that the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has</span> <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/anti-fraud/media-corner/news/24-03-2020/olaf-unravels-fraud-among-partners-rule-law-project-syria_en" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">formally accused</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> it of fraud and “submission of false documents, irregular invoicing, and profiteering.” </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">OLAF made the allegation in relation to a project delivered by CIJA under the EU’s “Rule of Law” project in Syria, and recommended that authorities in the UK, Netherlands, and Belgium prosecute the group.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/CourtRecords/CR2020_00175.PDF" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Seated on the board</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> of CIJA is Toby Cadman, a lawyer</span> <a href="https://chambers.com/lawyer/toby-cadman-uk-bar-14:1281957" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">who</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> “[advises] clients how best to identify, approach and influence the key decision makers of Westminster, Washington DC, Brussels and further afield.” In 2016,</span> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/guernica-37---international-justice-chambers/about/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">he founded</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> “international justice chambers” Guernica 37, which </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201220072019/https:/www.guernica37.com/emmalemesurier" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">counts</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> UK information warrior Emma Winberg among its staff. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">That same year, Cadman authored an</span> <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/toby-cadman/its-your-turn-doctor-medi_b_10267754.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics&ir=UK+Politics&guccounter=2" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">op-ed</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> for the Huffington Post announcing that he had joined a “non-profit group that brings together doctors, military and humanitarian specialists and lawyers,” Medics Under Fire – the original name of de Bretton-Gordon’s fictional Doctors Under Fire.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Prosecutions in absentia for staged chemical weapons attacks could be in the offing in future. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In October 2020, The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté caught US and UK-government funded propaganda platform Bellingcat</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/10/28/draft-debacle-bellingcat-smears-opcw-whistleblower-journalists-with-false-letter-farcical-claims/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">publishing</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> a bogus draft letter to an OPCW whistleblower that was never sent. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the aftermath of the debacle, Chris York, a former Huffington Post journalist with a history of</span><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/31/nobody-sets-out-to-become-a-war-propagandist-it-just-sort-of-happens/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"> <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">fanatically smearing</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda, and Media, attempted to defend the letter’s authenticity in private communications with this journalist. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">In the process, he made an intriguing disclosure.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">“There’s a whole bunch of stuff about Douma that isn’t public yet because it would put any future investigations and possible criminal trials in jeopardy,” York claimed.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">He may have been bluffing, attempting to legitimize an obvious con job he himself had fallen for good and proper months earlier, and</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2021/03/24/author-bellingcat-opcw-whistleblower/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #af2424; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">been on the verge of publishing</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">. But there’s also the chance York knows something the rest of us do not.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">--------------------------</span></p><h3 style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"> Source: </span><a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2021/08/04/network-uk-intel-operatives-syrian-chemical-weapons/" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" target="_blank">The Grayzone</a><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"> </span></h3><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b2b2b; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-78968312092685004772021-07-18T20:06:00.013+10:002021-07-29T21:21:47.481+10:00President Bashar al-Assad took constitutional oath today, received the Chinese Foreign Minister and then went with his family to al-Midan area in Damascus to eat Shawarma. <div><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">17 July 2021 - </span>By Janice Kortkamp</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqoLFaG9KLsetMYxsjGfLDDpspOT7emBvlx4vQNpltWZUVo4aOz5snmm_ny3Evv1WiLTqkolZQNMM-nlpOH0fsoZkyvzKKAEouz_ZzEv_9DZ7z3q8GE3IbvHAw_s_1Fj0kmIKBufEOuySt/s945/216965747_1779130905624087_6506334576137801288_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="643" data-original-width="945" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqoLFaG9KLsetMYxsjGfLDDpspOT7emBvlx4vQNpltWZUVo4aOz5snmm_ny3Evv1WiLTqkolZQNMM-nlpOH0fsoZkyvzKKAEouz_ZzEv_9DZ7z3q8GE3IbvHAw_s_1Fj0kmIKBufEOuySt/s16000/216965747_1779130905624087_6506334576137801288_n.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>The jig is up as the saying goes.<br /><br />Meaning the fairy tale false narratives, endless lies, and cover ups of the US and allies' unpopular terrorist proxy regime change attempt war against Syria have all been exposed over the years. And this photo tells the tale. <br /><br />President Assad of Syria and his family went out into the Damascus neighborhood of Midan for shawarma sandwiches, just after he gave his inaugural speech at the swearing in ceremony as Syria's re-elected leader yesterday. <br /><br />Problems abound in Syria. An estimated half a million people have died. Nearly half the population was displaced with millions becoming refugees outside the country. There are huge swaths of horrific destruction of infrastructure. The economy is shattered while corruption, smuggling, and the black market continue to be major issues. Electricity is scarce. The US, Turkey and Israel all are illegally occupying Syrian lands. And the army, the brave and stalwart Syrian Army soldiers with their allies, must keep fighting the remaining terrorist groups, particularly ISIS and al Qaeda. <br /><br />Syria has won against the combined efforts of the "leaders of the free world" and western regional puppets to conquer it though the costs have been catastrophically and tragically high. <br /><br />The problems left behind because of the Washington DC regime change addicts' aggression including the economic- and reconstruction-killing sanctions ... all primarily for Israel's ambitions to be the dominant player in the region ... will be difficult to solve and will take considerable time. <br /><br />But I have every faith in the Syrian people to overcome them. <br /><br />Always and forever, I stand with Syria</span><span>! </span></span></i>🇸🇾❤🇸🇾</span><div>
<p class="MsoNormal">.<o:p></o:p></p><div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCnLxSFOrbTE-5lH4g8DKnMfsUuZ6Ezucf3fykoX3hpLijwwZoQZtVeVkVcK7Zucb9pmIj_o4f9HAjQjj7BmB3m1kAb1Y20m-aEmMrh4rpbnoLG6G1JmSxIa-qaHph-6aUb2IjIZ_igOm/s960/218604433_6565770473440468_1217364419607794124_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="799" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCnLxSFOrbTE-5lH4g8DKnMfsUuZ6Ezucf3fykoX3hpLijwwZoQZtVeVkVcK7Zucb9pmIj_o4f9HAjQjj7BmB3m1kAb1Y20m-aEmMrh4rpbnoLG6G1JmSxIa-qaHph-6aUb2IjIZ_igOm/s16000/218604433_6565770473440468_1217364419607794124_n.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0sRabjaOtM0ZBFnOIaaJ2Q6fn5Cul4T3RsDk0dp5Ce8MDJwivyLetfdz6MZNGtP66hyvQSes-2q50x9MiCBohcAaBvJwV-4N-gT5-H5NdXWcwCNBS9-oKtqnS-XL7l_mOV_6iJsFYZPBh/s960/219169778_1779130935624084_7396333542462379268_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0sRabjaOtM0ZBFnOIaaJ2Q6fn5Cul4T3RsDk0dp5Ce8MDJwivyLetfdz6MZNGtP66hyvQSes-2q50x9MiCBohcAaBvJwV-4N-gT5-H5NdXWcwCNBS9-oKtqnS-XL7l_mOV_6iJsFYZPBh/s16000/219169778_1779130935624084_7396333542462379268_n.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYI9ufehXnVlLEIEek4hj9zg0B8hSiLGaF8GkNLmnitGWa27Hw0soIL0szMTmqaJDQ6CwvS0uqhJ1qm0OPK9NGFUcUI9ag2OwO7yg5VnxJGLvzFd5tV8tmPoO6y4phmFY0kV2cugvCaKWw/s735/218957767_1690147541185838_8577599835613804462_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="720" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYI9ufehXnVlLEIEek4hj9zg0B8hSiLGaF8GkNLmnitGWa27Hw0soIL0szMTmqaJDQ6CwvS0uqhJ1qm0OPK9NGFUcUI9ag2OwO7yg5VnxJGLvzFd5tV8tmPoO6y4phmFY0kV2cugvCaKWw/s16000/218957767_1690147541185838_8577599835613804462_n.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2OnJLiUxWWqn_5xOravUL5a8MIaOUjF0-mcNs4OiD-notmfCS_HA7eCU4l9PrNgbvzeXi5pPJ-Bw55m3TPYnHqUMVNWBijDGHc0ukvUCu0AyFQ36p4SjhiZAbVjfSbduxUbKZfvLM41wk/s960/217612074_1779131018957409_7221917412848461147_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2OnJLiUxWWqn_5xOravUL5a8MIaOUjF0-mcNs4OiD-notmfCS_HA7eCU4l9PrNgbvzeXi5pPJ-Bw55m3TPYnHqUMVNWBijDGHc0ukvUCu0AyFQ36p4SjhiZAbVjfSbduxUbKZfvLM41wk/s16000/217612074_1779131018957409_7221917412848461147_n.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFEboe300e8JsM4Rd0qsCtTJLQsEDFFr4cxqXeD7Rs-jCoSANCQ0n5W6i6kkBXcDiduThyphenhyphen28Ub3MOqY50yw_ExxG1SyPJQg_OLuESAAdRXLc4UY7KT5_eKtSU4L4PE6yiYMrlM3_aPQaHX/s960/216969036_1779130972290747_4098489498144634102_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFEboe300e8JsM4Rd0qsCtTJLQsEDFFr4cxqXeD7Rs-jCoSANCQ0n5W6i6kkBXcDiduThyphenhyphen28Ub3MOqY50yw_ExxG1SyPJQg_OLuESAAdRXLc4UY7KT5_eKtSU4L4PE6yiYMrlM3_aPQaHX/s16000/216969036_1779130972290747_4098489498144634102_n.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p></div><br /><br /><img src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t57/1/16/1f1f8_1f1fe.png" /><br /><br /><br />#Syria #Bashar al-Assad #Syrian_President #Assad_Family #Damascus</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-21260305548064666452021-07-18T16:30:00.008+10:002021-07-18T20:02:56.228+10:00President Bashar al-Assad sworn in for 4th term in Syria<p> 17 July 2021</p><p>Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been sworn in for a fourth seven-year term after winning more than 95.1 percent of the votes casted on May this year.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmQb4Sgt6EVOkDOUENKyLU8-OtSX7xNBb0lHh8jmDs7roTuESYtEn4RbegyG5eFHfyAi91wdNQb5On0smwLQWJIcQKA4PRWkZV2FtbvG7witVCPfYpj8NbTaJOsgKmRz6BjpgRUYjIsEQ1/s2048/216230360_4391630124214119_1965984353834233171_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1428" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmQb4Sgt6EVOkDOUENKyLU8-OtSX7xNBb0lHh8jmDs7roTuESYtEn4RbegyG5eFHfyAi91wdNQb5On0smwLQWJIcQKA4PRWkZV2FtbvG7witVCPfYpj8NbTaJOsgKmRz6BjpgRUYjIsEQ1/s16000/216230360_4391630124214119_1965984353834233171_n.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #626262; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;">President Bashar al-Assad takes the oath of office for another term at the Syrian presidential palace in the capital, Damascus [Syrian Presidency via Telegram)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The swearing-in ceremony on Saturday 17th July was held at the presidential palace in Damascus and attended by more than 600 people, including members of parliament, political, party, media, religious figures and families of the martyrs and the injured.<br /><br />The elections “have proven the strength of popular legitimacy that the people have conferred to the state”, al-Assad, 55, said in his inauguration speech.<br /><br />The main points in the speech were:<div> <br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The door of national reconciliation will remain open. "We tell each and every one of those who bet on the demise of the homeland, you are exploited by the enemies of our country against your own people, and the revolution with which they deceived you is an illusion."<br /><br /></li><li>The title of the coming stage is to increase production and to open doors for investments.<br /><br /></li><li> 3000 facilities are under construction in Syria. <br /><br /></li><li> The main impediment to investment in Syria is the Syrian funds frozen in the Lebanese banks. "The Syrian money frozen in the Lebanese banks are 40 billion and 60 million." Overcoming this obstacle is associated with the change in the current circumstances in Lebanon.<br /><br /></li><li> Renewable energy is the way to resolve the problem of electricity outage. <br /><br /></li><li> We will liberate all areas in Syria from the Turkish and US occupation forces and their terrorists. <br /><br /></li><li> We salute all honest Syrian residents, who resist occupation forces, in north of Syria. <br /><br /></li><li> Syria will never abandon the Palestinian cause. <br /><br /></li><li> We trust our Russian and Iranian friends. <br /><br /></li><li> The enemies of Syria bets on turning Syrian citizens into mercenary. <br /><br /></li><li> Let’s get ready for the future, let’s confront frustration with hope, let's confront inaction with action and let’s prepare for further construction and liberation, so that the homeland restores life.</li></ul><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; 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text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn1hE5dG80MvHwNoatZbz2PuB-ff8lzg7Akyem_cavYlfUB8GheYMx4l8EZ5Kqhi1sDg4mpMV7fSIvBTFVCfgA1VYkDX-MAyWhL2GIqXzEnJ2Dign7KZsOAud0U9kFvHewQeJiqn5Z9R7s/s1385/President+Assad+with+the+first+lady+Asma.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="1385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn1hE5dG80MvHwNoatZbz2PuB-ff8lzg7Akyem_cavYlfUB8GheYMx4l8EZ5Kqhi1sDg4mpMV7fSIvBTFVCfgA1VYkDX-MAyWhL2GIqXzEnJ2Dign7KZsOAud0U9kFvHewQeJiqn5Z9R7s/s16000/President+Assad+with+the+first+lady+Asma.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p></div></div><div><br /></div><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">Shaaban: President al-Assad’s speech concentrated on having lessons from the war on Syria</h3>Special Advisor at the Republic Presidency, Bouthaina Shaaban, stressed the importance of the speech delivered by President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday after taking the constitutional oath in which he focused on the necessity for Syrians to have lessons from the war on their homeland.<br /><br />In an interview with Syria TV on Saturday, Shaaban said that the President was frank and transparent in the speech in which he underlined the responsibility of the Syrians and what they can do whether in terms of the ongoing war against their country or regarding the future.<br /><br />She said that the international changes are always existed, stressing that the US sanctions are not a fate that kills peoples if those peoples have the will and capability.<br /><br />She added that the Syrians are able to draw the future of their country with their own hands.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://sana.sy/en/?p=242233" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source</a></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-87931035965837188242021-04-19T11:49:00.008+10:002021-04-19T12:05:10.866+10:00At UN, Aaron Maté debunks OPCW’s Syria lies and confronts US, UK on cover-up<p> <span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #656565; font-size: 16px;">Video by The GrayZone | 16 April 2021 </span></p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ge4W9e6YeXQ" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; color: #656565; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #656565; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #656565; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>Video: </b>Aaron Maté's presentation to an Arria-Formula Meeting of the United Nations Security Council, April 16 2021.</span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #656565; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #656565; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #656565; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #656565; font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div><span><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #656565; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;">Speaking to the United Nations Security Council, Aaron Maté of The Grayzone takes apart the OPCW's excuses for refusing to address the organization's Syria cover-up scandal.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #656565;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #656565; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">OPCW inspectors found no evidence to support allegations of a Syrian government chemical weapons attack in the city of Douma in April 2018. But their findings were suppressed, and the team was sidelined.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #656565;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #656565; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The OPCW leadership now claims that "most of the analytical work took place" in the "last six months" of the Douma investigation, when the original team was out of the picture. Comparing the OPCW's own published reports, Maté shows why that is demonstrably false.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #656565;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #656565; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The bulk of the work was in fact carried out by the original team in the first weeks of the probe, and the “analytical work” conducted after their censorship is minor in scale and riddled with deceptions and unsupported conclusions.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #656565;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #656565; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Maté also addresses a new claim by OPCW Director General Fernando Arias that "I don't know why" the OPCW's final Douma report "was contested." This is another demonstrably false claim, as Arias' own prior statements show.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #656565;"><br /></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #656565; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJWWHC06JwLRfbYtYVe3E5rglOLc9XbkkdGa5tqmPc5OQu9HYWXpucxgWSkkcM3hrS8l32p7stuBZKNHo0Xp7bU699jYxmnTZiC0nRVexjYYfNC0XmRvB2ZErHEq00_87JSHBaJt5E1Qyu/s616/aaron+mate.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="616" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJWWHC06JwLRfbYtYVe3E5rglOLc9XbkkdGa5tqmPc5OQu9HYWXpucxgWSkkcM3hrS8l32p7stuBZKNHo0Xp7bU699jYxmnTZiC0nRVexjYYfNC0XmRvB2ZErHEq00_87JSHBaJt5E1Qyu/s320/aaron+mate.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Maté also asks the US and UK ambassadors if they will support a new proposal from distinguished signatories -- including five former OPCW officials — to let the OPCW's own Scientific Advisory Board assess the claims of the dissenting inspectors. The US and UK Ambassadors left the meeting -- it is unclear when -- and so did not respond.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #656565; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">------------------------</div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #656565; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Link: Berlin Group21 proposal to OPCW:<br /><br /><a href="https://www.berlingroup21.org/background%E2%80%8B" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #e51515; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">https://www.berlingroup21.org/background</a><br /><br /><br />The Grayzone's coverage of the OPCW's Syria cover-up scandal:<br /><br /><a href="https://thegrayzone.com/category/opcw-douma/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #e51515; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">https://thegrayzone.com/category/opcw-douma/</a></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #656565; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #656565; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">---------------------</div><span face=""Open Sans", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #656565; font-size: 16px;">Pushback with Aaron Maté </span><div style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #656565; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Support Pushback at Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #e51515; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.17s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-69979072343631404022021-03-31T11:17:00.002+11:002021-07-18T20:15:42.271+10:00What has Washington offered to Syrians other than terrorism and siege?<div>24 April 2020 </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpijgYVyBpdTILpboUN0ZTRmsxLVXg7OGGDubgKcvygYV2pfEzG3UbJ9PYdIQL3pfgD_4q8yZ8bTEOqZ6IODkhF5KRw88J1Yz1qjXy6CZXtnBjqMTn3tW7_Z-znN7aO0-cMigjTQuzV9hF/s660/us+offering+to+syria.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="660" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpijgYVyBpdTILpboUN0ZTRmsxLVXg7OGGDubgKcvygYV2pfEzG3UbJ9PYdIQL3pfgD_4q8yZ8bTEOqZ6IODkhF5KRw88J1Yz1qjXy6CZXtnBjqMTn3tW7_Z-znN7aO0-cMigjTQuzV9hF/s16000/us+offering+to+syria.png" /></a><br /><br /><div><br />US officials continue to lie and mislead the US public opinion to cover up the flagrant role of the USA in backing, financing and arming terrorist organizations in Syria, mainly, “Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra”, which stand out as the two major forms of terrorism throughout the war on Syria.<br /><br />The US has covered their terrorist acts by false humanitarian pretexts, but all in vain, as the truth of their terrorism was eventually revealed through field facts on the ground.<br /><br />The latest US allegations were made by US special envoy to Syria James Jeffrey, who gave a bunch of lies about what he called “a humanitarian support” provided by Washington to the Syrian people, estimating it to $ billions.<br /><br />Dozens of media and intelligence reports, released by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), detailed in numbers the successive American administrations’ funding of terrorist organizations; the foremost of which is Daesh, affirming Washington’s involvement in worsening and inflaming wars in the region by backing terrorism in it and spreading chaos.<br /><br />The report of OCCRP shows that the US Department of Defense spent more than $ 2 billion on purchasing weapons to supply the terrorist organizations that it called “moderate opposition” in Syria.<br /><br />Tens of reports, published by various media outlets in the past years, quoting US sources including the Congress, have stressed that American weapons ended up in the hands of terrorist organizations in Syria.<br /><br />Since August 2014, Washington has led an illegal show-off coalition, claiming to fight Daesh, which resulted in the expansion of extremist organizations in Syria and Iraq, in addition to committing several massacres wherein thousands of innocent civilians were killed and infrastructure severely damaged.<br /><br />A report by OCCRP has confirmed that Washington’s purchase of weapons, with the aim of delivering them to terrorists, began in September 2015 during the administration of former US President Barack Obama.<br /><br />Until May 2017, the Pentagon had earlier spent more than $ 700 million to buy automated weapons, anti-tank grenade launchers, mortars and ammunition.<br /><br />According to the contracts, the report said, the armament process is continued, as no less than $ 900 million will be spent by 2022, while additional amounts of $ 600 million have already been allocated in the budget or requested by President Donald Trump’s administration.<br /><br />The facts and confessions, made by US officials, along with what was revealed by the American media over the past years, have shown that all the programs, designated by Washington to provide support for what it calls the “opposition”, are in fact intended to be sent to the terrorist organizations.<br /><br />For instance, the program launched by the CIA, during the era of former president Obama in 2013, on which $ hundreds of millions had reached the hands of “al-Nusra and Daesh”terrorists. Consequently, this program was halted in 2017 after exposing its details in the media.<br /><br />The United States publicly funded the terrorist organization “White Helmets” with tens of millions of dollars. This terrorist organization is organically linked to “al-Nusra” and evidently is backed by it in preparing and promoting the use of chemical weapons against civilians, as happened in Eastern Ghouta in Damascus countryside several times, and also in areas in Aleppo, with the aim of accusing the Syrian Arab army and the government.<br /><br />The White Helmets terrorist organization has received the most recent financial support of $ 5 million from the US State Department several months ago.<br /><br />The close connection of the White Helmets to the United States and Britain was proven through the obituary, issued by the British Foreign Office, to the White Helmets’s co-founder, former British intelligence officer James Le Mesurier, upon his death.<br /><br />In addition to the financial and logistic support of military equipment provided by Washington to terrorist organizations in Syria, the United States has had a prominent role in the political coverage of terrorist crimes at the Security Council through submitting several draft resolutions to the UNSC to complete what they are doing against Syria.<br /><br />In September 2016, the American army provided direct military support to Daesh terrorist organization, launching aggressive strikes against a unit of the Syrian Arab Army in Jabal al-Tharda in Deir Ezzor, to enable Daesh terrorists to control it, along with evacuations from battle fields, made by American planes to save Deash leaders or to provide them with intelligence.<br /><br />The United States, through its occupation of parts of the lands in northern Syria, is plunder oil and depriving the Syrian people of it. Defying international law, the US President announced last December that his country “has put oil in Syria under its control and is now able to do with it as it wishes”. Trump was obliged to declare so after the Russian Defense Ministry had issued documents and photos, showing Washington’s smuggling of the Syrian oil to other countries under cover of private US military companies and special forces units.<br /><br />Ironically, Washington describes all the above mentioned as “aiding the Syrian people”, including the illegal siege imposed without the United Nations’ approval; a siege that is exercised with the spirit of jungle law that deprives the Syrians their right to import energy carriers, food and medicine.<br /><br />During the current period, and with the Coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the US and its Western allies continue to adhere to the policy of imposing sanctions against the Syrian people, taking a toll on its livelihood, instead of extending a helping hand to confront the deadly pandemic.<br /><br />Such policy adds an extra burden to the Syrian State, especially in light of the destruction and sabotage of the infrastructure caused due to the international terrorism over the past nine years, especially to the health sector.<br /><br />All these facts and others undoubtedly prove that all of the US’s lies and allegations, including what was recently presented by James Jeffrey about the so-called “humanitarian support” to the Syrian people, are void, as they are nothing but a continuation of the series of lies and misleading campaigns, practiced by the United States to target Syria and its people.<br /><br /><a href="https://sana.sy/en/?p=190429" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SANA</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Facebook post</div><div><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/handsoffsyria/posts/2994341234012598" data-show-text="true" data-width="500"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/handsoffsyria/posts/2994341234012598" class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><p>#Syria | What has Washington offered to Syrians other than terrorism and siege?
24 April 2020
US officials continue...</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/handsoffsyria/">Hands OFF Syria</a> on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/handsoffsyria/posts/2994341234012598">Friday, 24 April 2020</a></blockquote></div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-51552646509691946382021-03-30T00:51:00.007+11:002021-07-18T20:16:38.152+10:00US Senator: The US launches brutal war on Syria, it is necessary to stop it<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimtlJcynZk3MaxqOahzNtnDQ3bauAXtXrcl02EyF8h7qARt8HtwRk9Zi77ODIOMeaYG_NGD17IVM0cHjaR0-lHdzIF2WH9Zlj_0SGf9MMwbgXKncn2GibRAx_XK-GEJRbNVMI5aKlYAaal/s660/Black.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="660" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimtlJcynZk3MaxqOahzNtnDQ3bauAXtXrcl02EyF8h7qARt8HtwRk9Zi77ODIOMeaYG_NGD17IVM0cHjaR0-lHdzIF2WH9Zlj_0SGf9MMwbgXKncn2GibRAx_XK-GEJRbNVMI5aKlYAaal/s16000/Black.jpg" /></a></p><br /><br /><div>Former US Senator Richard Black has reaffirmed that the United States of America supports terrorist organizations to destroy Syria and steal its wealth, and it imposes sanctions to deprive its people of the basic necessities of life in one of the most “cruel and barbaric wars”, stressing the need to stop “this madness.”<br /><br />Black’s remarks came in a speech during Schiller Institute International Conference in the US on “The US aggressiveness, the terrorist war on Syria, and role of the US and NATO in that”<br /><br />“I am astonished by the outrageous US aggression against Syria,” Black said, adding “it is important to acknowledge after ten years of war that the West loves terrorists whom the Syrian people hate.”<br /><br />Black clarified that the US is not fighting a war on terror as it claims, but rather it is closely allied with terrorists such as al-Qaeda terrorist organization to implement its political agendas and destroy countries that reject its dictations.<br /><br />Black noted that US arms dealers are benefiting greatly from lucrative deals such as anti-tank missiles that the CIA has provided terrorist organizations with to kill innocent Syrians in their cities and villages.<br /><br />Black referred to the intense propaganda campaign launched by the United States and NATO against Syria and their false accusations that the Syrian Arab Army had used chemical weapons to find a pretext for launching an aggression against Syria, pointing out that in 2018, the then Defense Secretary James Mattis admitted that the United States had no evidence of these allegations.<br /><br />He added that <b>two Turkish parliamentarians were accused of “treason” after they revealed a criminal indictment that showed how a cell affiliated with al-Qaeda infiltrated to smuggle 2.2 kilograms of sarin gas across the border from Turkey to be used against civilians in Syria</b>.<br /><br />Black stated that “the American forces invaded in 2015 illegally northern Syria and seized the Syrian oil. <b>An American oil company was authorized to build a refinery at a cost of USD 150 million and to explore for more oil on the sovereign Syrian lan</b>d,” adding, “The United States stole the wealth of these people, leaving the Syrians to freeze in the winter while we steal their fuel.”<br /><br />Black added “The same area in the north is Syria’s bread basket, and this was also stolen. We gave it to the mercenaries who ship Syrian wheat to Turkish merchants while the Syrians are starving.”<br /><br />Black stressed that the sanctions imposed by the United States on Syria have caused immense suffering to the Syrians, indicating that “<b>The sanctions do nothing but attack the innocent, the poor and the helpless…It is one of the cruelest and most barbaric types of war that could be launched…We steal food, fuel and medicine from the poor… We ban the supplies needed for reconstruction.</b>” “With the aim of prolonging the war, which” will continue as long as we continue to fund it. “<br /><br />Black added “The world must reject these never-ending wars…We have fought for 10 years against the Syrians…We have oppressed the Iraqi people for 30 years and dropped more than a quarter of a million bombs on Iraq, and we bombed them while we sit in military camps and bases occupying their country…This madness must stop.”<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div><div>Source | <a href="http://sana.sy/en/?p=227839" rel="nofollow">SANA</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-35806379319301413652021-03-23T11:44:00.005+11:002021-07-18T20:17:50.092+10:00The shadow war in Syria<br />By <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173548/http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ML02Ak01.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pepe Escobar</a> | Dec 2, 2011 <div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxc4fJ4MRo7lf4d_J3FKN1KyqVUt6lGy53HUZGM57JUNuNVhwgtozzaIWRlhpABzfVJCqJy7iILeE1SuuQN-aQhWODuPHAlohkLStD5NuVzfJrCln7FdqkziWmUWSaSLseLYGiex5QEFFK/s498/Shadow+war+in+Syria.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="imp" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxc4fJ4MRo7lf4d_J3FKN1KyqVUt6lGy53HUZGM57JUNuNVhwgtozzaIWRlhpABzfVJCqJy7iILeE1SuuQN-aQhWODuPHAlohkLStD5NuVzfJrCln7FdqkziWmUWSaSLseLYGiex5QEFFK/s16000/Shadow+war+in+Syria.JPG" /></a></div><br /><div><br /><br />Target Syria - the strategic prize that outstrips Libya. The stage is set. The stakes couldn't be higher. Libya 2.0 equals Syria? It's more like Libya 2.0 remix. With the same R2P (''responsibility to protect'') rationale - starring civilians bombed into ''democracy''. But with no UN Security Council resolution (Russia and China will veto it). Instead, Turkey shines, fanning the flames of civil war.<br /><br />US Secretary of State Hillary ''we came, we saw, he died'' Clinton set the scene on Indonesian TV a few weeks ago, when she prophesied there would be ''a civil war'' in Syria, with a well financed and ''well-armed opposition'' crammed with army deserters.<br /><br />Now it's up to NATOGCC to make it happen. NATOGCC is of course the now fully accomplished symbiosis between selected<br /><br /> <br />North Atlantic Treaty Organization members such as Britain and France and selected petromonarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council, aka the Gulf Counter-revolution Club, such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).<br /><br />So feel free to bask in the glow of yet another mercenary paradise.<br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">The NATOGCC war</h3>The Libyans formerly known as rebels, with explicit consent from Transitional National Council (TNC) chairman Mustafa Abdul NATO, aka Jalil, have already shipped to Syria - via Turkey - 600 highly motivated troops fresh from toppling the Gaddafi regime, to fight alongside the Free Syria Army (FSA). This followed a secret meeting in Istanbul between the TNC and the Syrian ''rebels'', rebranded as Syrian National Council.<br /><br />The trigger-happy Libyans have access to a wealth of weapons plundered from the Gaddafi's regimes military depots or gently ''donated'' by NATO and Qatar. A delicious parallel may already be traced with the House of Saud in the 1980s - which gave the green light for hardcore Islamists to go fight in Afghanistan, instead of raising hell at home.<br /><br />For the TNC, better keep those testosterone-heavy, unemployed warriors away in the Middle East rather than raising hell in Northern Africa. And for NATO member Turkey, in the absence of war (blame those pesky Russians and Chinese), the next best option is to rely on mercenaries to do the job.<br /><br />The pressure is relentless. Diplomats in Brussels confirmed to Asia Times Online that NATOGCC operatives have set up a command center in Iskenderun, in Hatay province in Turkey. Crucial Aleppo, in northwest Syria, is very close to the Turkish-Syrian border. The cover story for this command center is to engineer ''humanitarian corridors'' to Syria.<br /><br />Although these ''humanitarians'' come from NATO members US, Canada and France, and GCC members Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, their cover is that they're only innocent ''monitors'', and not part of NATO. Needless to say these humanitarians consist of ground, naval, air force and engineering specialists. Their mission: infiltrate northern Syria, especially Idlib, Rastan, Homs but most of all the big prize, Aleppo, the largest city in Syria, with at least 2.5 million people, the majority of which are Sunni and Kurdish.<br /><br />Even before this news from Brussels, the French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine - as well as the Turkish daily Milliyet - had already revealed that commandos from French intelligence and the British MI6 are training the FSA in urban guerrilla techniques, in Hatay in southern Turkey and in Tripoli, in northern Lebanon. Weapons - from shotguns to Israeli machine guns and RPGs - have been smuggled en masse.<br /><br />It's no secret in Syria that armed gangs - from Salafis to petty criminals - have been attacking regular soldiers, the police and even civilians since the early stages of the protest movement. Of roughly 3,500 people killed during the past seven months, a large number of civilians and more than 1,100 soldiers were killed by these gangs.<br /><br />And then there are the deserters. So when the Assad regime insists the current Syrian tragedy is to a great extent incited by well-paid and well-armed elements - not to mention mercenaries - at the service of foreign powers, it is essentially correct.<br /><br />In Homs, a local source tells Asia Times online that as far as the FSA is concerned, ''it's clear that they are just a nice media cover for criminals. They had a video of themselves in Baba Amr in which they appeared like complete idiots (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173548/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tC3RebQ2hc">here it is</a>, with captions conveniently!). But whoever these kids or guys are, they have lots of support amongst the Sunni population. Also, they are connected within the community, whether rich or poor. A Christian woman who teaches at a private school just outside Homs which has largely Sunni students had her car stopped and stolen by some gang. When she came to Homs she made some phone calls and her car was returned. So whoever stole her car outside city limits had connections to middle to high class people in the city and they were able to return the car. This tells me of the infiltration of the dogma of the revolution in Homs. The 'concept' of FSA is probably supported enough, and just the people of poor areas like Baba Amr, Bayada and Khalidiyya can self-sustain the FSA.''<br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">Round up the usual votes</h3>Just as in Libya, the Arab League also duly fulfilled its doormat function for NATOGCC, voting for harsh sanctions that include a freeze of Syrian government assets, no more trade deals with the central bank and no more Arab investment. In short: economic war. The Lebanese paper L'Orient Le Jour politely called it ''a political euphemism''. Of the 22 League members, 19 voted - Syria was already suspended. Iraq - where the government is majority Shi'ite - and Lebanon - where Hezbollah is part of the government - were the only ones that ''dissociated'' themselves from the vote.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the nasty opportunist game of musical chairs - the Syrian version - is also in effect. The Syrian National Council and its Islamist cohorts totally rejected any dialogue with the Bashar al-Assad regime. The secretary-general of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, Riad Chakfi, pulled a ''Libyan rebel'' and implored the Turkish army to invade northern Syria and establish a buffer zone. Dodgy exiles such as former vice-president Abdelhalim Khaddam - exiled in Paris - and another vice-president, Rifaat al-Assad - exiled in Spain - are under the illusion that the Muslim Brotherhood (which will be the top power in a ''new'' Syria) would allow them to sit on the throne.<br /><br />This is downright silly - because the name of the game in a ''new'' Syria will be the House of Saud. The House of Saud is the crucial link between the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (which is getting closer and closer to taking power); the AKP party in Turkey (which is essentially a Muslim Brotherhood lite); and the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. The Saudis are crucial investors in Turkey. They are positioning themselves as major investors in Egypt. And they're dying to become a major investor in ''new'' Syria.<br /><br />Then there's the key question of Turkey's game. In the Syrian dossier, Turkey is not a mediator anymore; it has become a brash advocate of regime change. Forget about the Tehran-Damascus-Ankara entente, which was a reality not along ago, in 2010. Forget about soft power and the much-advertised foreign policy of ''zero problems with our neighbors'', coined by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.<br /><br />Davutoglu himself announced Turkey's own sanctions on Syria - a replay of the Arab League's, with freezing of the government's financial assets and no transactions with the central bank. Davutoglu insists a military buffer zone inside Syria, along the border with Turkey, is ''not on the agenda'' - but that's exactly what those shady NATOGCC ''humanitarian monitors'' are up to. Since mid-November Turkish media has been ablaze detailing plans for a no-fly zone in northern Syria and the aforementioned buffer zone stretching as far as Aleppo.<br /><br />The motive? Ask ''prophet'' Hillary Clinton - to foment civil war.<br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">Showdown, Club Med style</h3>In its mad rush to sell the Turkish political model to the majority-Sunni parts of the Arab world (yet the GCC is not buying), Turkey may be severely miscalculating its crucial relations with both Russia and Iran. Around 70% of Turkey's energy is imported from Russia and Iran. Not to mention that both Russia and Iran are fuming with Turkey bowing to NATO pressure to host a radar station as part of missile defense.<br /><br />Russia has very clear ideas about the Syrian scenario. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been more than explicit for weeks now; ''We absolutely do not accept a scenario of military intervention in Syria.''<br /><br />Last week's meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of the emergent BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), in Moscow, was unmistakable.<br /><br />The BRICS essentially drew the red lines. No excuse whatsoever for a foreign intervention in Syria, as in ''any external interference in Syria's affairs, not in accordance with the UN Charter, should be excluded.'' No ''bomb bomb Iran''; instead, dialogue and negotiations. And no additional sanctions, deemed ''counterproductive''. The BRICS clearly see how the Libya scenario is slowly morphing into the modified NATOGCC war.<br /><br />To add extra sauce, the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov - equipped with nuclear missiles - has already left Murmansk towards the Eastern Mediterranean, alongside the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and the frigate Ladny. They will arrive at the Tartus naval base, in Syria, in mid-January, and will be met by other ships from the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.<br /><br />Tartus, hosting around 600 military and technicians from the Russian Defense Ministry, is a center of maintenance and refueling for the Russian Black Sea fleet. It will be a thrill to watch whether the Russians will invite members of the George H W Bush Carrier Strike Group - now also in the Eastern Mediterranean - for a volleyball match.<br /><br />It's fair to argue that masses of Syrians want something other than the Assad regime - but certainly not some variant of humanitarian bombing, not to mention civil war. They saw NATO's legacy in Libya - virtually the whole infrastructure of the country destroyed, cities bombed to dust, tens of thousands of dead and wounded, al-Qaeda-linked fanatics wielding power in Tripoli, widespread ethnic hatred. They don't want a brand new massacre. But NATOGCC does.<br /><br />Pepe Escobar is the author of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173548/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0978813820/simpleproduction/ref=nosim">Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War</a> (Nimble Books, 2007) and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173548/http://www.amazon.com/Red-Zone-Blues-snapshot-Baghdad/dp/0978813898">Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge</a>. His new book, just out, is <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173548/http://www.amazon.com/Obama-Does-Globalistan-Pepe-Escobar/dp/1934840831/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233698286&sr=8-1">Obama does Globalistan</a> (Nimble Books, 2009).<br /><br />He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.<br /><br />(<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173548/http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ML02Ak01.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Source</a> | Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd.)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-7700242520472221052021-03-23T11:01:00.015+11:002021-03-23T12:05:28.628+11:00NATO dreams of civil war in SyriaBy <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173545/http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ML15Ak03.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pepe Escobar</a> | 15 Dec 2011 <div><br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxs7oQvL7ABlGKb8wwWC9KiNEy5IQtYnQ73VQHvlx5FrSepmjMh1rQsNoIqFrDUIRwDndVJwx1qbNaNLpKEj8kmC65-oxT_qQ3inaxSthHDYzS4KT4PkGObbTkiT8EtsAQk22TFYVojKre/s886/pe.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" class="imp" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="794" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxs7oQvL7ABlGKb8wwWC9KiNEy5IQtYnQ73VQHvlx5FrSepmjMh1rQsNoIqFrDUIRwDndVJwx1qbNaNLpKEj8kmC65-oxT_qQ3inaxSthHDYzS4KT4PkGObbTkiT8EtsAQk22TFYVojKre/w359-h400/pe.jpg" width="359" /></a></div><hr align="center" color="grey" size="1" width="100%" /></div><div><br /><blockquote>"THE DESTRUCTION OF SYRIA - 10 YEARS ON <br />By the end of 2011, we had a pretty good idea where the Syria drama was going.<br />Back to future. Check it out, or re-check it out here, in one of my 2011 columns straight from the Asia Times vanished archives. <br />This one focuses on toxic intra-NATO games when they realized they could not impose R2P on Syria - as they had done with Libya." <br />~ Pepe Escobar (23 March 2021)</blockquote><div><hr align="center" color="grey" size="1" width="100%" /></div><div><br />Every grain of sand in the Syrian desert now knows there won't be a "responsibility to protect"-enabled North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) “humanitarian” intervention to provoke regime change in Damascus. A protracted war like in Libya is not feasible - even though those faultless democratic practitioners, the House of Saud, have offered to pay for it, lavishly.<br /><br />Yet the fog of near war remains impenetrable. What is NATO really up to in Syria?<br /><br />It was already established (see <a href="https://www.handsoffsyria.org/2021/03/the-shadow-war-in-syria.html">The shadow war in Syria</a> Asia Times Online, December 2, 2011) that NATO had set up a command and control center in Turkey's southern Hatay province - where British commandos and French intelligence are training the dodgy Free Syria Army (FSA). The target: to foment a civil war engulfing northern Syria.<br /><br />Now comes the confirmation, via the website of former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, that a pincer movement may be in effect, involving Jordan. [1]<br /><br />Edmonds quotes local sources according to whom "hundreds of soldiers who speak languages other than Arabic" have been "moving back and forth ... between the King Hussein air base in al-Mafraq" and "Jordanian villages adjacent to the Syrian border".<br /><br />Edmonds sustains none of this is being reported by US media because of a gag order from above that in theory expired this Tuesday. And don't try asking King Abdullah of Jordan about it.<br /><br />The base at al-Mafraq is virtually across the border from Dar'a. A lot of action has been going on in Dar'a recently - an epicenter of the anti-President Bashar al-Assad movement. As far as the Syrian news agency Sana is concerned, security forces have been routinely killed by "terrorist gangs". As far as the "rebels" are concerned, these are patriotic army defectors attacking military supply lines.<br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">Let's hit plan B</h3>By adopting this pincer movement, NATO in Syria is now actively diversifying into an Iraq-in-the-1990s strategy; to submit Syria to a prolonged state of siege before eventually going for the kill.<br /><br />Yet as much as NATO would pray to Allah for the contrary, Syria is not Libya. It's much smaller and compact, but more populated and with a real, battle-tested army. On top of being immensely estranged from each other by the current eurodrama, the Brits and former colonial power France have calculated they have everything to lose economically if they engage in the folly of a conventional war.<br /><br />As for the Syrian opposition stalwarts - the Syrian National Council (SNC) - they are a joke. Most are Muslim Brotherhood, with a sprinkling of Kurds. The leader, Burhan Ghalioun, is an opportunist Paris exile with zero credibility (for the average Syrian) although in a recent Wall Street Journal interview he made all the right noises to appease the Israel lobby (no more ties with Iran, no more support to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza).<br /><br />The FSA claims 15,000 army defectors. But it's infected with mercenaries and what scores of Syrian civilians describe as armed gangs. The SNC, in thesis, is anti-guerrilla. But that's exactly what the FSA is actively practicing, attacking Syrian soldiers and Ba'ath party offices.<br /><br />The SNC key tactic for now is to sell Western public opinion the Libya-style "potential" nightmare of an imminent massacre in Homs. Not many are buying it - apart from the usual, strident, corporate media suspects. Although both are based in Istanbul, the SNC and the FSA can't seem to get their act together; they look like a lethal version of The Three Stooges.<br /><br />Then there is the Arab League, which is now controlled by The Eight Stooges; the six GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council, aka Gulf Counter-revolution Club) monarchies plus "invited" GCC members Morocco and Jordan. The stooges are subcontractors of NATO's Greater Middle East on (humanitarian) steroids. Nobody, though, is asking where were the stooges were when Beirut and southern Lebanon were destroyed in 2006, and when Gaza was destroyed in 2008 - in both instances by Israel. The stooges don't dare question the divine rights of the US/Israel axis.<br /><br />NATO's tactics in Syria have been crystal clear for a while now. France, under neo-Napoleonic liberator of Libya President Nicolas Sarkozy, concentrates on turbo-charging escalation. A the same time, Paris is trying to position the rise and rise of the Muslim Brotherhood all across the Arab world as a strategic Western interest - as in curbing Iranian influence.<br /><br />Then there's the ongoing economic blockade - impossible without cooperation from Iraq (it won't happen), Lebanon (it won't happen) and Jordan (it could, but to Jordan's detriment).<br /><br />But NATO's wet dream is really to push Turkey to do the dirty work. Irretrievably broke as they are, NATO countries - including the US - simply cannot launch yet another Middle East war that would send oil prices through the roof.<br /><br />What NATO cannot fathom is the possibility of a sectarian Sunni-Shi'ite war re-exploding in Iraq. In this case, the only safe haven would be Iraqi Kurdistan. And that would strengthen Kurdish unity - from Iraq to Syria, from Turkey to Iran. Turkey in this case would have more pertinent fish to fry than to get embroiled in a war in Syria.<br /><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">Turkey's double game</h3>Still, the great imponderable in this complex chessboard is Turkey - as in what precisely happened to their much-lauded foreign policy of "zero problems with our neighbors", devised by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.<br /><br />Faced with Riyadh's impotence, and Cairo in turmoil, Ankara seems to have monopolized the mantle of Sunni leadership - or guardian of Sunni orthodoxy facing those Shi'ite heretics, mostly from Iran (but also Iraq, Alawis in Syria and Hezbollah).<br /><br />At the same time, to please NATO and the US, Ankara allows the deployment of missile defense in its territory - which is directed not only against Iran but most of all against Russia. Not to mention Ankara harbors the secret - forbidden - desire to "solve" the Kurdish question for good by establishing an autonomous zone in Syrian territory.<br /><br />And Ankara also wants to make money; winners in Libya were British and French oil interests, while losers were the Italians and the Turks. But so far Turkey is also losing, especially in Hatay province near the Syrian border, as a free-trade agreement between both countries has been canceled.<br /><br />To the West's despair, the Assad regime is far from being strangled. To counteract the hefty package of Arab League/Turkish sanctions, the regime has accelerated trade with China - by bartering and bypassing the international financial system.<br /><br />No wonder Washington is taking the long-haul approach. It has deployed back to Damascus its ambassador Robert Ford - a former assistant to the sinister former destabilizer of Nicaragua John Negroponte when he was ambassador in Baghdad, and a current enthusiast of the House of Saud counter-revolution.<br /><br />Ford will have plenty of time to exchange e-mails with a Syrian opposition totally in bed with former colonial power France. Talk about a stooge festival; this one is bound to carve its own niche in the annals of Middle East infamy.<br /><br /><b>Note</b><br />1. The report is <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173545/http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2011/12/11/bfp-exclusive-developing-story-hundreds-of-us-nato-soldiers-arrive-begin-operations-on-the-jordan-syria-border/">here</a>. An interview with Syrian journalist Nizar Nayouf is <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173545/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v1h1bUfCVc">here</a>.<br /><br />Pepe Escobar is the author of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173545/http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0978813820/simpleproduction/ref=nosim">Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War</a> (Nimble Books, 2007) and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173545/http://www.amazon.com/Red-Zone-Blues-snapshot-Baghdad/dp/0978813898">Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge</a>. His new book, just out, is <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150330173545/http://www.amazon.com/Obama-Does-Globalistan-Pepe-Escobar/dp/1934840831/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233698286&sr=8-1">Obama does Globalistan</a> (Nimble Books, 2009).<br /><br />He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com.<br /><br />-----------------------------------------------<div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. </span><br /><br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="Table7" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; width: 667px;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-size: 13px;" width="1"></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-23976032426271922402021-03-16T19:56:00.008+11:002021-03-16T19:59:20.867+11:00Al-Jaafari: Since 2011, European and Western states have been involved in crisis in Syria, sent tens of thousands of terrorists<p></p>16 March 2021<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/#"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7KC3hrpb-dCkS6M_pUkELcVL4Ew5YjKMJhgCqve2CrRXfY-LT7WylwmRbyzwyQvOC3psFQcvPxcFrQs08oOrQY11cclgdZ3Zwk0n6_JGlFsKQrd1TTg2kvmAX6CfTA6kJ2XDploqx55m/w400-h200/Jaafari.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br />Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari has affirmed that since the year 2011, many European and Western states have been involved in in the crisis in Syria through sending tens of thousands of terrorists who target the Syrian state and its people, asserting that Syria is determined to eliminate all the remnants of terrorism, and to put an end the “cross-border” foreign terrorists.<br /><br />In a speech delivered at a conference organized by the European Centre for the Study of Extremism, which is affiliated to Cambridge University, al-Jaafari called for uniting the efforts for combating terrorism with full coordination and cooperation with the Syrian Government, and in light of the relevant Security Council’s resolutions without violating the Syrian sovereignty.<br /><br />He noted that handling the humanitarian issue in Syria can be done through lifting the coercive economic measures imposed on the Syrian people, and that the determination of some governments not to abide by the Security Council’s resolutions through rejecting the return of terrorists and their families to their countries reveals the rate of their hypocrisy.<br /><br />Following is the full speech of Dr. al-Jaafari at the Conference:<br /><br /><i>Lords, Your Eminence, Excellencis, Ladies and Gentlemen good evening.<br /><br />I am delighted to be presenting my keynote-speech today at the 2nd Eurocse (to be pronounced: Eurocsee) Syria International conference held by European Center for the Study of Extremism in the esteemed educational heritage of Cambridge.<br /><br />I understand that Eurocse/ The European Center for the Study of Extremism has been running a unique program about Syria in the last five years. However, it seems that it has neither been easy in the UK even for British institutions to be conducting a free and fair dialogue nor hold a Track-Two diplomacy and break media blockade in the UK and Europe.<br /><br />Therefore, I highly appreciate and thank the Center, its Patrons (Lords, Baronesses and Ambassadors) and academic Boards; and I am delighted to be extending my sincere and special thanks to all those who worked hard to make the whole of the Syrian programme at Eurocse and this particular conference a reality against all odds. In particular, it gives me a great pleasure to be thanking the Director of the Eurocse and the convener of this conference pro. Dr. Makram Khory-Makhool for his resilience, restless and genuine effort.<br /><br />Allow me at the outset to emphasize that in Syria we depart always from the Holy Book of International Diplomacy & Relations, which is the Charter of the United Nations. This holy book calls for the respect of sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity, and non-interference in the internal affairs of member states. As you all know, Syria is a founding member of the UN. We have always been an integral part of the international legitimacy. With clear words: we are not newcomer to the rule of law.<br /><br />Ladies & Gentlemen…<br /><br />Discussing a thorny topic such as the European-Syrian relations and the current negative role of Europe in the crisis in Syria will undoubtedly take us all to horizons steeped in history and geography and will push us towards many questions that are not easy to find unanimous answers to.<br />Is Europe an unknown for us, the Syrians?<br />Are we, the Syrians, unknown to Europe?<br /><br />definitely, the answer is NO…<br /><br />Geographically, we, the Syrians, are among the closest countries and nations to the European continent. A factor that has increased our interaction over ages…<br /><br />Historically, interaction and exchange between Syria and Europe were never interrupted in one day, nor in one era, but rather a continuous process that contributed with all its pros and cons in drawing the region’s map and its role on the global stage.<br /><br />Culturally speaking, the reciprocal process has existed throughout the ages, and its fingerprints are present in both regions.<br /><br />Stories of seven emperors of the Roman Empire from Syria itself, such as Julia Domna and Philip the Arab, were not just a strange coincidence, nor is it a coincidence that the most beautiful architecture that Rome boasts today, the Pantheon, is designed and implemented by the Syrian engineer Apollodor of Damascus.<br /><br />The Syrians had a great role in civilization and culture, east and west, and this civilized role was demonstrated by being a bridge between ancient Greece and the West. History tells that at least four of the Popes are of Syrian origin. Saint Paul set out from Damascus to spread Christianity in Europe…<br /><br />In front of the House of Justice building in Rome, stands a statue of the Syrian jurist Babinian. He is described by the figure who has given a lot in the field of law and legislation in Europe.<br /><br />Some may not know that the name of this Continent came from Syria… Europe, a name means broad face, is the daughter of Agenor, the Phoenician king of Tire city, according to Greek mythology. It is claimed that the continent of Europe was named after the Phoenician princess Europe, and her picture is printed today on the 2-Euro coin.<br /><br />The equation tends towards saying that a lot brings us together, and that Syria has offered a lot to Europe… SO, what happened? Where did the mistakes happen, and why did the EU no longer have independence in dealing with the situation in Syria and prefer to rotate in the American orbit?<br /><br />What have we, the Syrians, done for Europe to deal with us unfairly and unjustifiably?<br /><br />Are we, the Syrians, the cause of the two World Wars which resulted in the bloodshed of hundred millions of victims?<br /><br />Are we, the Syrians, who had a colonial record in the European continent? Are we, the Syrians who had plotted the Sykes-Picot agreement to divide countries and plant Israel in the heart of Europe?<br /><br />Are we the ones who had allowed extremists or facilitated their smuggling to Europe through the Turkish border? Are we the ones who had funded, trained, and supported ISIS and its affiliated terrorist entities to destroy Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Brussels?<br /><br />Are we the ones who have imposed unilateral coercive economic measures and suffocated economic blockade on the European Peoples?<br /><br />Are we the ones who hold regular donor conferences for EU without prior consultation with the European countries? Are we the ones who politicize the refugee file and submit to the blackmail practiced by the Turkish authorities in order not to throw the Syrians into the Mediterranean?<br /><br />Are we the ones who spend billions of euros on European refugees in neighboring countries in order to prevent them from returning back home?<br /><br />Many, many questions that need fair answers, but above all they need the political will and the moral stand of the European Union in order to put a definitive and unconditional end to Syrians’ sufferings. Our suffering is genuine and should not be reduced to a mere rhetoric said by Josep Borrell the high commissioner.<br /><br /> Some countries celebrate these days what they call “the 10th anniversary of the Syrian conflict”. The EU adopted last Thursday a resolution that makes Europe a part of the problem rather than a part of the solution. The resolution is biased, un-genuine and takes side against the Syrian government in flagrant violation of the provisions of the UN charter and the principles of international law.<br /><br /> The EU has joined other groups and institutions in this endeavor to diabolize the image of the Syrian government and the leader of the country and his family.<br /><br />On Wednesday March 10, 2021, Mr. Josep Borrell said at the EP debate that latest data suggests the poverty rate stands at 80%. And 12 million Syrians – nearly 60% of the population – are severely hit by food insecurity, and the pandemic has exacerbated the challenges. This statement condemns Mr. Borrell and the European Union, which has always advocated for human rights. Is not the EU joining unilateral coercive economic measures and imposing sanctions on Syria to starve the Syrian people? is not an economic terrorism? Is not a crime against humanity and democracy?<br /><br />From the very beginning in 2011, Some countries were involved in the crisis in Syria. They used to send and support tens of thousands of terrorists who target the Syrian state and its people. The danger of these terrorists is no longer limited to Syria, it now threatens all countries around the world including Europe itself.<br /><br />For the first time in modern history, a new phenomenon has emerged. We all know that using terrorism as a political weapon was a kind of western strategy that was implemented in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Iraq, Bolivia, Iran, Libya and elsewhere.<br /><br />However, for the first time a new version of this strategy was created on purpose in the intelligence services’ laboratories, a new strategy deemed adequate to the Syrian scene. I mean by this that those hostile same governments who launched a terrorist war against Syria claim that they care for the safety and security of the Syrian people!<br /><br />The United Nations system concerned with combating terrorism has persistently ignored the reality of the terrorist war that Syria has been subjected to since 2011.<br /><br />Needless to say, that this unbalanced practice was going on as a result of the political and financial polarization practices pursued by the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Those European governments were negatively exploiting their membership in the Security Council against Syria to the maximum extent. Their aim was distorting the facts, demonizing the position of the Syrian government, affording political and media coverage for terrorist armed groups, and preventing Security Council from listing those groups and hundreds of foreign fighters as terrorist entities and individuals.<br /><br />The situation reached a degree of rudeness when the US Permanent Representative and the government of her country went on for many months, denying the very existence of a well-known terrorist organization in Syria called the “Al-Nusra Front”!<br /><br />Let me remind you here that Al-Jazeera Channel, which is owned by the ruling family in Qatar. Al-Jazeera Channel correspondent Ahmed Mansour had conducted two long prestigious television interviews with the terrorist Abu Muhammad al-Julani, the leader of “Al-Nusra Front”. It gave him the free of charge platform to promote his terrorist ideology. Recently, Martin Smith an American journalist interviewed this terrorist for the “Front Line” program on the PBS. I would like also to remind you that the Qatari delegation to the United Nation has explicitly announced that it opposes the Security Council’s decision to list “Al-Nusra Front” organization in the lists of terrorist entities.<br /><br />Well, do not be surprised that one day these governments will nominate Abu Muhammad al-Julani for the Nobel Peace Prize!<br /><br />With the beginning of 2014, the threat of terrorism became widespread in Syria and Iraq, and indications began to appear that the threats of terrorism would not stop within the borders of these two countries, as the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters expanded in a way that threatens international peace and security. the international public opinion, namely in the countries of the EU, started to raise serious questions about the role of the governments of these same countries and their involvement in turning blind eyes on the travel of thousands hundreds of extremists from EU to Syria and Iraq to join terrorist groups, such as “Al Qaeda”, “ISIS” and “Al-Nusra Front”.<br /><br />So, the magic began to fall back on the wizard, and the terrorist goods that were exported to Syria in particular began to return to the country of origin to pose a threat to European security. This situation coincided with a firm Russian and Chinese position within the Security Council in the face of the attempts of the United States, the United Kingdom and France to distort the facts about the terrorism that Syria is suffering from, financed and supported by regional governments, foremost among which is Turkey , Qatar and Israel.<br /><br />Thus, the Security Council began to witness moves to adopt many resolutions related to combating terrorism, most of which were directly or indirectly linked to the tragic situation in Syria. New languages appeared in the Security Council’s resolutions about ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Jabhat Al-Nusra, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and their role in spreading terrorism in Syria and Iraq, stealing oil and antiquities to finance terrorism, and about foreign terrorist fighters. The Security Council began to address theoretically rather than practically the phenomenon of liberating hostages in exchange for ransom payments to terrorist armed groups. It is the dangerous practice assigned to the Qataris who were financing terrorism directly or indirectly through these ransoms, in vigilant violation of the Security Council Resolution 2133.<br /><br />The Security Council had adopted (23) resolutions in the field of combating terrorism, linked to the situation in Syria in a way or another. Yet regional governments keep on supporting, financing, and facilitating the transfer of terrorists, weapons, and money to Syria. In blatant rudeness, they call the terrorists “the Syrian armed moderate opposition”.<br /><br />The Americans, along with other members, prevented the Security Council from listing many terrorist organizations and individuals on the sanctions lists imposed by the Council on entities and individuals involved in supporting, arming, financing and laundering money for the interest of terrorist acts in Syria.<br /><br />The American Permanent Representative continued for many months kept denying the existence of a terrorist organization in Syria under the name “Jabhat al-Nusra”. She kept stating that this group is a myth that the Syrian government invoked in order to justify for itself the suppression of peaceful demonstrators! until the US government caved into reality and allowed, along with its allies, the Security Council to list this terrorist organization on the sanctions lists at the end of the May of 2013.<br /><br />Even when the terrorist group of “Al-Nusra Front” like lizard changed its name to “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham”, the US government continued to reject the request of Syria and the Russian Federation to include this new name on the Security Council’s lists, and it did not approve its listing until the US Treasury Department included Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in the US sanctions regulations!<br /><br />Currently, the United States continues to obstruct the request of Russia, China and Syria to list the most dangerous terrorist organization operating in Syria that includes the most violent foreign terrorist fighters, which is known as Hurras al-Din. In this particular case, hypocrisy has reached an unprecedented level, as the US Treasury Department has included Hurras al-Din on the US sanctions list, but it still refuses to list this terrorist organization on the lists of the Security Council!<br /><br />The Syrian government has documented and authenticated information about the involvement of individuals in the fighting with the terrorist organizations of “ISIS”, “Jabhat al-Nusra” and “Hurras al-Din”, after their conditional release from Guantanamo and the imposition of house arrest on them in countries in Latin America!<br /><br />These same governments, most of them, are former colonial powers or war mongers, insult the UN charter and our intelligence by claiming that they are invading parts of Syria under the false flag of article /51/ of the charter! They resort to article /51/ to cover up their misgivings, but they establish a so-called international coalition based on unilateral action and without any authority given by the Security Council! People can’t be arsonists and claim that they are firefighters!<br /><br />Hence, we call on unifying the efforts to fight terrorism in full coordination and cooperation with the Syrian government. This should be done in accordance with the relevant Security Council resolutions, and in a way that does not violate the Syrian sovereignty.<br /><br />The insistence of some governments not to abide by the Security Council resolutions through their refusal to take back their national terrorist fighters and their families reveal their deep hypocrisy. Syria is determined to eliminate all remnants of terrorism and to put an end to the phenomenon of “cross-border” foreign terrorist fighters.<br /><br /> In this context, we emphasize on the attempts to interfere in our internal affairs under the pretexts of humanitarian aid.<br /><br />We assure our rejection to the Brussels conference, which is to be held under the slogan of Syrian aid while the European Union imposes sanctions on Syria, which exacerbate the suffering of the Syrian people. It is an irony to witness the EU imposing criminal unilateral economic coercive measures against Syrian people and claiming, at the same time, its determination and commitment to help the same Syrian people.<br /><br />The Syrian government has always been keen to engage positively in the political track, in accordance with its national and constitutional determinants. In this regard, Syria strictly emphasizes on the independence of the constitutional committee. with the assurance that the political process is owned and led by the Syrian people who have the exclusive right to determine their future without external interference.<br /><br />To that end, we call on the United Nations to play its role as an honest and impartial mediator, and to prevent some countries from interfering in the affairs of this committee, imposing their agendas, or directing suspicious recommendations to the Secretary-General’s envoy.<br /><br />Some Western countries are influenced by the United States of America. They keep on obstructing the political path, politicizing the humanitarian needs and using them as a pretext to achieve their political agendas. They adopt measures as “Cross-border Assistance” which violates the Syrian sovereignty. They keep continuing to promote the so-called “Gaziantep hop”, by currently preparing to extend the effects of the Security Council resolutions 2165 & 2533. Speaking of Gaziantep, I invite you to view Snowden’s documents that show evidence that this area has now become the main center that Turkish authorities use to train terrorist fighters before they are sent to Syria or Libya or Yemen or elsewhere.<br /><br />Let me conclude by saying that addressing the humanitarian crisis will not be achieved through distributing assistance or accusing the Syrian government of being uncooperative, but by lifting the unilateral coercive measures imposed on the Syrian people. some international humanitarian organizations complain about the lack of funding. Only increasing the humanitarian assistance with the full coordination with the Syrian government will enhance the UN credibility.<br /></i><br /><a href="http://sana.sy/en/?p=226436" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SANA</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-31474799564897537562021-03-07T13:14:00.006+11:002021-07-29T21:52:26.572+10:00Tulsi Gabbard calls out the US dirty war on Syria that Biden, aides admit to (by Grayzone)Pushback with Aaron Maté - 6 March 2021<br /><div><span style="color: #030303;"><span style="font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5bi9SJgBfL_4Xx3CDT5sOYHaNltj0eqZ_EpwtHOujoqWmBkClv8jjLOVZIJVR4EtypsivFrWLTy6noa6SVl98t93mtj3FI75nh8WgGrOH3OSCBuh5csuPVn64jWpxeWMTr3EM9HzHChkL/s1220/aaron+mate+-+pushback.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="1220" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5bi9SJgBfL_4Xx3CDT5sOYHaNltj0eqZ_EpwtHOujoqWmBkClv8jjLOVZIJVR4EtypsivFrWLTy6noa6SVl98t93mtj3FI75nh8WgGrOH3OSCBuh5csuPVn64jWpxeWMTr3EM9HzHChkL/w640-h362/aaron+mate+-+pushback.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><span face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto" face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #030303;">
</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">While Joe Biden has faced some mild Congressional pushback for bombing the Iraq-Syria border, Tulsi Gabbard says her former colleagues are ignoring the larger issue: the ongoing US dirty war on Syria. After a decade of proxy warfare that empowered Al Qaeda and ISIS, the US is now occupying one-third of Syria and imposing crippling sanctions that are crushing Syria's economy and preventing reconstruction. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto" face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #030303;">
</span>While Gabbard has been vilified for her stance on Syria, many top White House officials -- including Joe Biden himself -- have already acknowledged the same facts that she has called out. Aaron Maté plays clips of Biden and some of his most senior aides admitting to the horrific realities of the US dirty war on Syria, and argues that Gabbard only stands apart in being wiling to criticize it. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;">Featuring video clips from: Tulsi Gabbard, former Democratic Congressmember; President Joe Biden; Brett McGurk, National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa; Martin Dempsey, former Joint Chiefs chairman; Rob Malley, Special Envoy for Iran; John Kerry, Special Envoy for Climate & former Secretary of State; former President Donald Trump; Alena Douhan, UN Special Rapporteur on Sanctions; Dana Stroul, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East; Vice President Kamala Harris. <br /></span></div><div><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial;"><br /></span></div><div><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mBdO1Rc9ctU" width="560"></iframe> </p><p><br /></p><p>Find more reporting at <a href="https://thegrayzone.com">https://thegrayzone.com</a></p><div>Support Pushback at Patreon: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate">https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate</a></div><div>Support our Grayzone's journalism at Patreon: <a href="https://patreon.com/grayzone">https://patreon.com/grayzone</a><br /> Facebook: https://facebook.com/thegrayzone Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/thegrayzonenews">https://twitter.com/thegrayzonenews</a> Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegrayzonenews Minds: <a href="https://minds.com/thegrayzone">https://minds.com/thegrayzone</a> Mastodon: <a href="https://mastodon.social/@thegrayzone">https://mastodon.social/@thegrayzone</a><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #030303; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><div><span class="style-scope yt-formatted-string" dir="auto" face="Roboto, Arial, sans-serif" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 0px; color: #030303; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-14833234113802128832021-03-03T12:04:00.004+11:002021-03-03T12:07:22.011+11:00US Forces transport 25 ISIS terrorists from Iraq into Syria2 March 2021<br /><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjseSm_E07p1DWpaBpdKurs-aZTrGhVZA5ofu_ha0iQFEmmWzQLbK9yhJRm3xfFVuOfTbw2B9c5fom3V-8fr9k_hMoiYVD8FOPbx1iLIclwVeHFJQOvIDMQ_aOdT6d3Sv_X1_g4Zt7fN-8_/s660/US+transporting+Daesh.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="660" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjseSm_E07p1DWpaBpdKurs-aZTrGhVZA5ofu_ha0iQFEmmWzQLbK9yhJRm3xfFVuOfTbw2B9c5fom3V-8fr9k_hMoiYVD8FOPbx1iLIclwVeHFJQOvIDMQ_aOdT6d3Sv_X1_g4Zt7fN-8_/w400-h200/US+transporting+Daesh.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />The US occupation forces moved 25 terrorists affiliated to Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) organization from the Iraqi lands into Syria's Deir Ezzor countryside, as part of Washington’s investment in terrorism to prolong the span of hostile war against Syria.<br /><br />Special sources revealed to SANA reporter in Hasaka that 25 Daesh terrorists entered into Syrian lands on Feb. 28th, under the protection of the US occupation forces. They were gathered near al-Sahel village in Markada town in Hasaka southern countryside.<br /><br />The sources added that the terrorists were later transported via armored vehicles to the base of Bulgar Camp, east of al-Shaddadi city in Hasaka southern countryside, then to al-Shaddadi in Deir Ezzor countryside.<br /><br />According to the sources, the US occupation forces intend to set up points of gathering for the terrorists in a form of small camps to prepare them logistically and supply them with weapons before sending them to areas specified by the US occupation <b>to carry out attacks on the sites of the Syrian Arab Army, residential centers and vital facilities</b>.<div><br /></div><div>Nisreen Othman / Mazen Eyon<br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://sana.sy/en/?p=224585" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SANA</a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-85679573777313401082021-02-28T00:54:00.006+11:002021-03-01T00:58:47.619+11:00Biden bombs Syria -- Demand U.S. out of the Middle East!by <a href="https://www.answercoalition.org/biden_bombs_syria" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Answer Coalition</a> | 27 Feb 2021<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9zgqLqkupfFHBi1vUgH5BDDgEYymKgQ5mJpjA1p72cimDNPw_RjdFWFdf0N2DEolfFj3UAgrvWiNW_atzkhFn4HUmtltvv29TfEjxDfcSxSKs5eNVYnAXbhAMcASZNzn9nPbpH4lPdB_H/s690/syria_demo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="459" data-original-width="690" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9zgqLqkupfFHBi1vUgH5BDDgEYymKgQ5mJpjA1p72cimDNPw_RjdFWFdf0N2DEolfFj3UAgrvWiNW_atzkhFn4HUmtltvv29TfEjxDfcSxSKs5eNVYnAXbhAMcASZNzn9nPbpH4lPdB_H/w640-h426/syria_demo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /> <br /><div style="text-align: justify;">In what is now a rite of passage for a new U.S. President, Joe Biden ordered a military assault on Syria on Feb. 25, just over a month after assuming the presidency. U.S. missiles struck Syrian facilities in Boukamal, just over the Iraqi border. Reports indicate that anywhere from five to 22 people were killed in the assault.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Pentagon and mainstream media allege the strikes targeted “Iranian-backed militias” in Syria in retaliation for a rocket attack against U.S. occupation forces in Iraq earlier in the month. The U.S. government and corporate-owned media routinely use the same deceptive branding when it targets Syrians who want to oust the U.S. from the illegal occupation of their country.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Pentagon’s spokesman John Kirby said the attack signals that “President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel.” The idea that the U.S. can bomb Syria -- a sovereign country -- in self-defense while it occupies the country as well as neighboring Iraq flies in the face of all logic. Yet it is the same justification the Trump administration used for its Ja. 4, 2020 assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani when he landed at Baghdad International Airport on a mission to ease tensions in the region.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The real message the United States is trying to send is that the people of the Middle East must sit idly by while it occupies and wages endless war against their homelands, and that Biden will -- like his predecessors -- defend U.S. imperialist interests in the region. This includes continuing the campaign of military action against Iran, Iraq, Syria, and any country that dares to stand in the way of the Pentagon war makers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The only path to peace is the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the region. U.S. troops out NOW!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-52966499472324098742021-02-27T15:05:00.002+11:002021-02-28T01:09:48.267+11:00Why America is the greatest country - by Chris Kanthan<h3 style="text-align: left;">I just know that everything is okay because I live in the greatest country. And America is the greatest country because everything is okay.</h3><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZl1wUM_DNJ9GQFEIpMaebXn2aBZKyCrESCFRo5SmU2pYXxLOXTDooEOvL10WiFMFC3fJq7R03OUdmNAgpk-g4Kk6wDQiSL51ody-Raw7L8b6XOyEm_nm8MPjR8Pt3U_hEfDWDmDEkrv4F/s696/veteran-1807121_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="696" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZl1wUM_DNJ9GQFEIpMaebXn2aBZKyCrESCFRo5SmU2pYXxLOXTDooEOvL10WiFMFC3fJq7R03OUdmNAgpk-g4Kk6wDQiSL51ody-Raw7L8b6XOyEm_nm8MPjR8Pt3U_hEfDWDmDEkrv4F/w640-h360/veteran-1807121_1280.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image Credit: Asylum 13 Riots!</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />May 11, 2018 <br /><br />That America is the greatest country today and in the history of mankind is of no doubt. It feels really silly to even write an article about such an indisputable fact. We are the sole superpower with the biggest economy, the most desired currency and the mightiest military. If you’re reading this, you can thank the American innovation called the Internet. Throughout the world, people listen to American music, watch American movies and pay a premium for American brands – from clothing to electronics to food – and dream of immigrating to America. That’s called Soft Power.<br /><br />Of course, America is not a paradise where everything is perfect. Let’s address some of the concerns of the nitpicking naysayers.<br /><br />Is everyone in America wealthy? Well, a majority of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck, tens of millions don’t earn enough to pay for their own food and healthcare, young people are turning into debt serfs due to student loans, people close to retirement have no savings, and the top 0.1% have as much wealth as the bottom 90%. Jeff Bezos made over $100 million a day in 2017, while Amazon warehouse employees work like slaves who built the pyramids. The takeaway from all this: if you work hard and become rich, you never have to worry about such abysmal statistics.<br /><br />Our government also has ever-increasing debt that will never be paid off. How will it all end? Will we default or impose severe austerity or use inflation to get rid of the debt? If the interest rates go up in the near future, will the stock market and the housing bubble <a href="https://worldaffairs.blog/2017/11/26/financial-meltdown-imminent-and-inevitable/">burst again</a>? Some people say that the Federal Reserve Bank has ruined the free market and our entire economy is <a href="https://www.nationofchange.org/2015/06/23/feds-giant-ponzi-scheme/">inherently a Ponzi system</a> that is destined to collapse. I don’t understand these crazy things, but when you live in the greatest country, you can rest assured that intractable problems will somehow be solved. (Maybe you should buy gold or cryptocurrencies, who knows?).<br /><br />As a nation, we are getting sicker every day. That’s a puzzle, indeed. I don’t know why 70% of us are now obese or overweight. It wasn’t like that at all thirty or forty years ago. Perhaps it’s because there is abundance of awesome food made from great technology such as GMO and WWII chemical weapons that were turned into pesticides. Regardless of the root cause, isn’t it wonderful that we have had numerous solutions for the weight problems? Stay away from fat … no, it’s the sugar … no, really, it’s the carb … or, just go the gym. Finally, we have settled on the greatest solution: accept yourself, you’re beautiful regardless of your weight. If you have the right attitude, facts don’t matter.<br /><br />Chronic illnesses are through the roof over the last few decades. Autism, asthma, arthritis, allergies, cancer, diabetes, immune disorders etc. all have skyrocketed in the recent decades. It’s a little strange that the greatest scientists can’t really figure out why. And nobody ever finds cures for these diseases. All we can do is control the symptoms, be on medications forever and trust science and medicine. If you live in the greatest country, how can you not believe that Big Pharma is working to make the world a better place?<br /><br />If you’re worried about skyrocketing healthcare expenses, get a good job and don’t be like those 75 million Americans on Medicaid or those other tens of millions with no healthcare coverage at all. There’s no excuse in the greatest country.<br /><br />When you’re rejoicing the glories of the greatest country, always take the time to thank our military-industrial complex. We have spent $20 trillion on military and wars since the end of Cold War in 1991. What a coincidence … that spending matches our national debt! Anyhow, we wouldn’t be the greatest country if we are not constantly eliminating monsters all over the world. Trust me, we only get rid of Hitlers. Go back and look at all the past media coverage … everyone was a Hitler. And they all had WMD’s and were planning to take over the world. That’s why when we killed 500,000 Iraqi children, Madeleine Albright rightly pointed out it was worth it.<br /><br />Sometimes we drop 25,000 bombs and missiles in one year on ultra-poor people in Sudan, Yemen, Somalia etc. Thankfully, we never get to see the pictures of dead children — that would ruin the patriotic feeling. Spreading peace and freedom isn’t easy. Sometimes <a href="https://worldaffairs.blog/2017/05/28/embracing-islamic-terrorism/">we arm and fund maniacal terrorists</a> when they assist us in regime change operations (like in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria etc.), but I am happy that we eventually kill those terrorists. A happy ending makes everything okay.<br /><br />The key to realizing the greatness of America is to get information from the mainstream media and then carefully repeat the opinions of wise pundits. You don’t think that the greatest nation would have liars and propagandists on TV, do you? When the same opinion is voiced by hundreds of experts in all the prestigious newspapers, magazines and social media, you know that you don’t have to think. We get prepackaged truth with easy-to-remember talking points!<br /><br />Trust and faith are key to happiness. If you find yourself worrying about various issues, you’re not using all the wonderful tools that the greatest country provides you – sports, entertainment, social media, movies, TV shows, alcohol, drugs, sex, pornography, consumerism etc.<br /><br />I just know that everything is okay because I live in the greatest country. And America is the greatest country because everything is okay.<div><br /></div><div><span><a name='more'></a></span><br />First Published at <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/#">NationOfChange</a><div class="td-post-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 26px; margin-top: 21px; padding-bottom: 16px;"><div class="at-below-post addthis_tool" data-url="https://www.nationofchange.org/2018/05/11/why-america-is-the-greatest-country/" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div><div id="om-fexgom8pia7qm0mj7tjf-holder" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div></div><footer style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><div class="td-post-source-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 11px;"><ul class="td-tags td-post-small-box clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; display: table; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 600; height: 20px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; float: left; line-height: 20px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 4px; margin-left: 0px;"></li></ul></div></footer></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-76174325346970725542021-02-27T13:47:00.006+11:002021-02-27T13:55:08.822+11:00Deconstructing the Syrian War - by Chris Kanthan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiikMY2W-5djinikyyAuMo7v4k7PkEMFzzZxuY7GXPCRO7V6PQigW4hpZpAjGHcNegvFx4FaUliccOBI74mGn3c8cF5ZoWolRFdZ2YSf_HtZaou8mi5vdY8RTugUbI2DSb1pMs6T0G0WAPO/s750/Chris+Kanthan+book.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="483" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiikMY2W-5djinikyyAuMo7v4k7PkEMFzzZxuY7GXPCRO7V6PQigW4hpZpAjGHcNegvFx4FaUliccOBI74mGn3c8cF5ZoWolRFdZ2YSf_HtZaou8mi5vdY8RTugUbI2DSb1pMs6T0G0WAPO/s320/Chris+Kanthan+book.JPG" /></a></div><div><br />Historians in the future may view the Syrian war as the globalists’ Waterloo that heralded a multi-polar world. However, the significance of this war is not widely appreciated, because the mainstream narrative has been an embarrassing mix of propaganda, half-truths and lies. <br /><br />The Syrian war is harrowing, fascinating and deceptive. The wanton destruction of a nation was heartbreaking. Millions of people lost their homes and became refugees; and a stable, secular nation got engulfed in violent, sectarian conflicts. <br /><br />The war is also fascinating because it offers profound insights into history, geopolitics, competition over oil/gas pipelines, Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism. It is also undoubtedly the most consequential war in decades, and has resulted in tectonic shifts in global alliances. <br /><br />Finally, the conflict was a ruthless and an illegal <b>proxy war</b> that was sold to the world as a <b>civil war</b>. The conspirators in the proxy war included <b>Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Israel, USA and more</b>. America’s efforts also included the largest CIA operation since the Mujahideen project in the 1980's. <br /><br />Sadly, journalism failed miserably in the last six years, as corporate media morphed into an Orwellian tool for disinformation. <br /><br />Syria’s civilization spans 10,000 years, which include triumphant empires and calamitous invasions. It’s likely that Syria will recover from this war, only to be stronger and more prosperous than before.</div><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV2VR02vt_FPAhzfd6nW6R4MNdudvPPD_EQd4BptdmOTWygVta1XcB-nHQoyhayrJmVf1jBFgDo3Fn8Jj2He0m0wa2UsfA3SqT_C-OvFOwHafZbCpFmp1ir9MK8DJ6wjsAWYKn6y7svxmW/s750/Chris+kanthan+book+-+back.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="486" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV2VR02vt_FPAhzfd6nW6R4MNdudvPPD_EQd4BptdmOTWygVta1XcB-nHQoyhayrJmVf1jBFgDo3Fn8Jj2He0m0wa2UsfA3SqT_C-OvFOwHafZbCpFmp1ir9MK8DJ6wjsAWYKn6y7svxmW/s320/Chris+kanthan+book+-+back.JPG" /></a></div><br />This book is backed by exhaustive research and analysis. Inside the book, you will find 200 photos, dozens of links to slideshows and videos, and 450 links to articles that will help you truly comprehend the war and the numerous related topics. <br /><br />By also connecting the dots to various events – historical and current – this book will help the reader see the bigger picture and discern the patterns in global events. <br /><br />For example, the crises in Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Philippines and even Myanmar all have the same underpinning geopolitical playbook. This book also has startling revelations and conclusions about geopolitics and <b>ISIS</b> that will help the reader understand world affairs through a unique prism. <br /><br />To know the Syrian war, is to know how the world works!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Buy the book: <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deconstructing-Syrian-War-Chris-Kanthan/dp/1980646201" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amazon</a> (maybe available elsewhere)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-64568564393333044302021-02-27T11:06:00.010+11:002021-02-27T13:51:02.154+11:00US bid to destroy Syria is a recipe for disaster<div>By <a href="https://www.gulftoday.ae/opinion/2020/06/14/us-bid-to-destroy-syria-is-a-recipe-for-disaster" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Michael Jansen</a> | 14 June 2020</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8t9E1dMjVMnh0Sl53dRjX3_cQs8HEHQL9nYSKP9GhXtGYQGKH6uWcxTkJ7icn57S_ZP3uSDTZf94ryGqOUZr6lRvFYmJUPnFzhUswFtL9weoOZyNf6kopsAjIj9HatFp50Iq6yIWb_lNt/s1200/4020389072.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8t9E1dMjVMnh0Sl53dRjX3_cQs8HEHQL9nYSKP9GhXtGYQGKH6uWcxTkJ7icn57S_ZP3uSDTZf94ryGqOUZr6lRvFYmJUPnFzhUswFtL9weoOZyNf6kopsAjIj9HatFp50Iq6yIWb_lNt/w640-h336/4020389072.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Decision-makers in Washington design policies for the Eastern Arab World on a country-by-country basis and all too clearly do not take into consideration the consequences for neighbours and the wider region of destructive unilateral interventions. The latest example of is the coming into force on the 17th of the so-called “<b>Caesar Act”</b> which targets with sanctions any government, agency or person outside Syria who does business with Syria.<br /><br />Violators of the Act could suffer travel bans, refused access to capital, and risk prosecution. The US has been warned about the impact of this law on Lebanon’s devastated economy as well as Syria’s economic crisis but cares nothing about loss of livelihood and hunger among Lebanese and Syrians due to the rapid plunge in the value of their currencies.<br /><br />While the legislation is said to focus on Iran and Hezbollah, US envoy James Jeffrey revealed its much larger objective, “The Syrian pound’s collapse proves that Russia and Iran are no longer able to float the Assad regime while the regime itself is no longer able to manage an effective economic policy, or launder money in Lebanese banks.”<br /><br />The Caesar law is, therefore, a new tool in the US policy of undermining the regional reach of Iran and Russia and ousting the Syrian government by economic means since the US and its allies have failed to accomplish this aim by military means.<br /><br />The US has learned nothing from its disastrous 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq which has hollowed out the heart of the Eastern Arab World, destroyed the country, forced the Iraqi professional and middle class to flee, and created never-ending problems for Iraq’s neighbours. Syria and Jordan were swamped with more than two million Iraqi refugees. Trade in the Arab hinterland was disrupted. US destabilisation of Iraq led to the rise of al-Qaeda’s demon twins, Jabhat al-Nusra (now Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham) and Daesh.<br /><br />The US conquest of Iraq was a goal set by influential neo-conservative members of a lobby group called the <b>Project for the New American Century</b>. They persuaded a biddable George W. Bush to wage a “war on terror” following the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington and to invade and occupy Iraq, which was innocent of involvement, as well as Afghanistan, al-Qaeda’s host country. <b>Iraq’s secular Arab nationalist government had to be taken down because of its opposition to Israel</b>, although Iraq had been seriously weakened by the 1991 US-led war on that country.<br /><br />While the neo-conservatives do not enjoy as much influence in Washington as they did before and during the Iraq war, their ideas linger and are promoted by multiple think tanks, including the <b>Washington Institute for Near East Policy</b>, the research arm of the <b>American Israel Pubic Affairs Committee</b> with which Jeffrey has been associated as a research fellow. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Vice President Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and other members of the administration are all <b>deeply committed to Israel no matter what it does</b>.<br /><br /><b>Syria is in double jeopardy </b>because of its longstanding <b>anti-Israel stand </b>and its four decade-old <b>alliance with Iran.</b> Having deleted Iraq as a regional power, the US is keen in following through by seeking to do the same to Syria.<br /><br />This would be a greater catastrophe than the Iraq debacle. Even though France, the post-World War I colonial power, divided Greater Syria into modern Syria and Lebanon the political, economic, social, and familial ties between the two countries are very strong. Lebanon and Syria cannot live or prosper without the other. <b>The nine-year war in Syria has contributed greatly to Lebanon’s economic decline and stirred its political troubles while Lebanon’s economic meltdown over the past year has led to the economic and financial collapse of Syria</b>. If Syria’s government falls and is not replaced by a strong central authority, that country will dissolve into provincial and local warlordism, destabilising not only Lebanon but also Jordan and deepening existing instability in Iraq.<br /><br /><b>As Trump administration regional policy makers are closely tied with Israel they, wittingly or ignorantly, follow a long-term Israeli effort to undermine and fracture neighbouring Arab states into ethnic and sectarian statelets</b>. Israel’s first prime minister David Ben Gurion argued in favour of such a campaign as Israel, a sectarian Jewish entity, would not be an outlier in a region dominated by secular, pluralist, nationalist states. As a result of the 1991 and 2003 US wars on Iraq, that country has already been divided into ethnic Kurdish and ethnic Arab regions. Further division may not be off Washington’s agenda if former Vice President <b>Joe Biden</b> moves into the White House next January as he formerly favoured partitioning Iraq into ethnic and sectarian statelets. One can only ask: <b>why do US and other Western politicians think they can determine the very existence of countries in this region and elsewhere even though their borders were delineated by colonial powers decades ago? Division always means death, dislocation, and disaster for the peoples who live in targeted countries. And, when desperate refugees flock to US and European shores these days, they are rebuffed</b>.<br /><br />Why now the Caesar law? At the end of last August, it seemed Syria was on the road to recovery. The Syrian army had recaptured a wedge of territory in al-Qaeda controlled Hama and Idlib provinces and appeared ready to advance against al-Qaeda affiliates based there. The Damascus International Fair had attracted the participation of businessmen from the United Arab Emirates and Oman as well as a host of other countries seeking to invest in Syrian revival and reconstruction.<br /><br /><b>The Caesar law is designed to prevent Syria from regaining lost territory and at least partially repair the harm inflicted by years of war and devastation.</b> Today the government controls 70 per cent of Syria, the US-backed Kurds about 25 per cent in the north and east, and Turkey — via Syrian surrogates and al-Qaeda — about five per cent consisting of Idlib and tracts of territory along the Turkish border. This is hardly a recipe for the stability and economic wellbeing of the countries of the Levant and the Eastern Arab World as a whole.<div><br /></div><div>First published at <a href="https://www.gulftoday.ae/opinion/2020/06/14/us-bid-to-destroy-syria-is-a-recipe-for-disaster" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GulfToday</a> on 14 June 2020</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-48638566321808368562021-02-26T18:05:00.006+11:002021-02-27T13:03:54.136+11:00US Bombs Syria And Ridiculously Claims Self Defense<p><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: medium;">by <a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/02/26/us-bombs-syria-and-ridiculously-claims-self-defense/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Caitlin Johnstone</a> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjftKBmD4U98FuBBveagU6XzO-V5eUMpADzsLKPYIoBt9W_5Ih3QCkql-G77JAFhMZCGp0w079IXQmOCKIMevJTYYH6ZBIuvVMgWvKdFfQ5-d06V2_O9fCzIRpAm3VzBE3XYH52qPkwodv8/s1000/us+airstrikes.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="1000" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjftKBmD4U98FuBBveagU6XzO-V5eUMpADzsLKPYIoBt9W_5Ih3QCkql-G77JAFhMZCGp0w079IXQmOCKIMevJTYYH6ZBIuvVMgWvKdFfQ5-d06V2_O9fCzIRpAm3VzBE3XYH52qPkwodv8/w640-h346/us+airstrikes.webp" width="640" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><span style="font-family: Roboto;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Roboto;">On orders of President Biden, the United States has launched an airstrike on a facility in Syria. As of this writing the exact number of killed and injured is unknown, with early reports claiming “</span><a href="https://archive.is/D5rlK#selection-547.180-547.199" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; color: #ff3a00; cursor: pointer; font-family: Roboto; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.165, 0.84, 0.44, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">a handful</a><span style="font-family: Roboto;">” of people were killed.</span></span></p><article class="post-9555 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-article category-news tag-airstrike tag-biden tag-bombing tag-imperialism tag-iran tag-iraq tag-syria tag-war" id="post-9555" style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto;"><div class="eltd-post-content" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="eltd-post-text" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="eltd-post-text-inner clearfix" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rather than doing anything remotely resembling journalism, the western mass media have opted instead to uncritically repeat what they’ve been told about the airstrike by US officials, which is the same as just publishing Pentagon press releases.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Here’s this from <a href="https://archive.is/D5rlK" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #ff3a00; cursor: pointer; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.165, 0.84, 0.44, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Washington Post</em></a>:</span></p><blockquote style="background: 0px 0px; border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(14, 14, 14); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 4px 0px 1px; color: #151515; font-family: "Ek Mukta", serif; line-height: 25px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 25px 0px 29px 77px; position: relative; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Roboto; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Biden administration conducted an airstrike against alleged Iranian-linked fighters in Syria on Thursday, signaling its intent to push back against violence believed to be sponsored by Tehran.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Roboto; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span style="background-color: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; text-transform: inherit;">Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the attack, the first action ordered by the Biden administration to push back against alleged Iranian-linked violence in Iraq and Syria, on a border control point in eastern Syria was “authorized in response to recent attacks against American and coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats.”</span></span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Roboto; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: initial; font-size: medium; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; text-transform: inherit;">He said the facilities were used by Iranian-linked militias including Kaitib Hezbollah and Kaitib Sayyid al-Shuhada.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Roboto; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: initial; font-size: medium; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; text-transform: inherit;">The operation follows the latest serious attack on U.S. locations in Iraq that American officials have attributed to Iranian-linked groups operating in Iraq and Syria. Earlier this month, a rocket attack in northern Iraq killed a contractor working with the U.S. military and injured a U.S. service member there.</span></p></blockquote><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So we are being told that the United States launched an airstrike on Syria, a nation it <a href="https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/end-americas-illegal-occupation-of-syria-now/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #ff3a00; cursor: pointer; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.165, 0.84, 0.44, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">invaded and is illegally occupying</a>, because of attacks on “US locations” in Iraq, another nation the US <a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/01/11/so-the-us-is-invading-iraq-again/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #ff3a00; cursor: pointer; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.165, 0.84, 0.44, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">invaded and is illegally occupying</a>. This attack is justified on the basis that the Iraqi fighters were “Iranian-linked”, a claim that is both entirely without evidence and irrelevant to the justification of deadly military force. And this is somehow being framed in mainstream news publications as a <em style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">defensive</em> operation.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is Defense Department stenography. The US military is an invading force in both Syria and Iraq; it is impossible for its actions in either of those countries to be defensive. It is always necessarily the aggressor. It’s the people trying to eject them who are acting defensively. The deaths of US troops and contractors in those countries can only be blamed on the powerful people who sent them there.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The US is just taking it as a given that it has de facto jurisdiction over the nations of Syria, Iraq, <em style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">and</em> Iran, and that any attempt to interfere in its authority in the region is an unprovoked attack which must be defended against. This is completely backwards and illegitimate. Only through the most perversely warped American supremacist reality tunnels can it look valid to dictate the affairs of sovereign nations on the other side of the planet and respond with violence if anyone in those nations tries to eject them.</span></p><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; display: flex; margin: 10px 0px; max-width: 550px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 550px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="" data-tweet-id="1365117320671150085" frameborder="0" id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1365117320671150085&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fcaitlinjohnstone.com%2F2021%2F02%2F26%2Fus-bombs-syria-and-ridiculously-claims-self-defense%2F&theme=light&widgetsVersion=889aa01%3A1612811843556&width=550px" style="background: 0px 0px; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1; height: 352px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible; width: 550px;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe></div><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It’s illegitimate for the US to be in the Middle East at all. It’s illegitimate for the US to claim to be acting defensively in nations it invaded. It’s illegitimate for the US to act like Iranian-backed fighters aren’t allowed to be in Syria, where they are fighting alongside the Syrian government against ISIS and other extremist militias with the permission of Damascus. It is illegitimate for the US to claim the fighters attacking US personnel in Iraq are controlled by Iran when Iraqis have every reason to want the US out of their country themselves.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Even the official narrative reveals itself as illegitimate from within its own worldview. <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/25/politics/us-iraq-iran/index.html" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #ff3a00; cursor: pointer; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.165, 0.84, 0.44, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">CNN reports</a> that the site of the airstrike “was not specifically tied to the rocket attacks” in Iraq, and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-26/us-carries-out-airstrike-against-iranian-backed-militia-target/13196358" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #ff3a00; cursor: pointer; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.165, 0.84, 0.44, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">a Reuters/AP report</a> says “Biden administration officials condemned the February 15 rocket attack near the city of Irbil in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish-run region, but as recently as this week officials indicated they had not determined for certain who carried it out.”</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is all so very typical of the American supremacist worldview that is being aggressively shoved down our throats by all western mainstream news media. The US can bomb who it likes, whenever it likes, and when it does it is only ever doing so in self defense, because the entire planet is the property of Washington, DC. It can seize control of entire clusters of nations, and if any of those nations resist in any way they are invading America’s sovereignty.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It’s like if you broke into your neighbor’s house to rob him, killed him when he tried to stop you, and then claimed self defense because you consider his home your property. Only in the American exceptionalist alternate universe is this considered normal and acceptable.</span></p><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; display: flex; margin: 10px 0px; max-width: 550px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 550px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="" data-tweet-id="1365105935690072065" frameborder="0" id="twitter-widget-1" scrolling="no" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1365105935690072065&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fcaitlinjohnstone.com%2F2021%2F02%2F26%2Fus-bombs-syria-and-ridiculously-claims-self-defense%2F&theme=light&widgetsVersion=889aa01%3A1612811843556&width=550px" style="background: 0px 0px; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1; height: 269px; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: static; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible; width: 550px;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe></div><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: initial;">This sort of nonsense is why it’s so important to prioritize opposition to western imperialism. World warmongering and domination is the front upon which all the most egregious evils inflicted by the powerful take place, and it plays such a crucial role in upholding the power structures we are up against. Without endless war, the oligarchic empire which is the cause of so much of our suffering cannot function, and must give way to something else. If you’re looking to </span><a href="https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/throw-sand-in-the-gears-of-the-machine-d007ee698e6f" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #ff3a00; cursor: pointer; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.165, 0.84, 0.44, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">throw sand in the gears of the machine</a><span style="background-color: initial;">, anti-imperialism is your most efficacious path toward that end, and should therefore be your priority.</span></span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In America especially it is important to oppose war and imperialism, because an entire empire depends on keeping the locals too poor and propagandized to force their nation’s resources to go to their own wellbeing. As long as the United States functions as the hub of a globe-spanning power structure, all the progressive agendas that are being sought by what passes for the US left these days will be denied them. Opposing warmongering must come <em style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">first</em>.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Standing against imperialism and American supremacism cuts directly to the heart of our difficulties in this world, which is why so much energy goes into keeping us focused on identity politics and vapid energy sucks which inconvenience the powerful in no way whatsoever. If you want to out-wrestle a crocodile, you must bind shut its mouth. If you want to take down a globe-spanning empire, you must take out its weapons. Opposing warmongering and <a href="https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/09/10/how-to-defeat-the-empire/" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #ff3a00; cursor: pointer; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.165, 0.84, 0.44, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">killing public trust</a> in the propaganda used to justify it is the best way to do this.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">_____________________________</span></p><div class="cb_p6_patreon_button" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="cb_p6_message_over_post_button" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 10px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Liked it? Take a second to support Caitlin Johnstone on Patreon!</span></div><a href="https://www.patreon.com/caitlinjohnstone?utm_content=post_button&utm_medium=patron_button_and_widgets_plugin&utm_campaign=&utm_term=&utm_source=https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/02/26/us-bombs-syria-and-ridiculously-claims-self-defense/" rel="nofollow" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; color: #ff3a00; cursor: pointer; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.4s cubic-bezier(0.165, 0.84, 0.44, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img height="47" scale="0.8999999761581421" src-orig="https://i2.wp.com/caitlinjohnstone.com/wp-content/plugins/patron-button-and-widgets-by-codebard/images/become_a_patron_button.png?w=1060&ssl=1" src="https://i2.wp.com/caitlinjohnstone.com/wp-content/plugins/patron-button-and-widgets-by-codebard/images/become_a_patron_button.png?zoom=0.8999999761581421&w=1060&ssl=1" style="border: none; height: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 200px; width: 200px;" width="200" /></span></a></div></div></div></div></article><div><div class="eltd-single-tags-share-holder" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 42px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 721.25px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span><a name='more'></a></span></b><br /><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghb7S7jf5kotxQhpQ4g9WLLM4doC28MBeu2heIamFFTu7fcYu3fixneghmrXN-c7rn0_OkydhXhogCTKMv9OCP59sTZ2x4004S947_Goh2gF2gCz8oN_FrSeOiFouXdUBAg3YKcA9IH1rn/s730/Brian+Becker.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="123" data-original-width="730" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghb7S7jf5kotxQhpQ4g9WLLM4doC28MBeu2heIamFFTu7fcYu3fixneghmrXN-c7rn0_OkydhXhogCTKMv9OCP59sTZ2x4004S947_Goh2gF2gCz8oN_FrSeOiFouXdUBAg3YKcA9IH1rn/w640-h108/Brian+Becker.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-38564587934246824462021-02-25T23:48:00.006+11:002021-02-27T13:58:09.002+11:00Reuters, BBC, and Bellingcat participated in covert UK Foreign Office-funded programs to “weaken Russia,” leaked docs reveal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeZtvV6SnrKfHe0iJ6BRgpXFxohbOPAZO9RXBAu_oE_wku0ykWK6KWzkMUO2FSs58Y-g2135XmENpZpIwsblVhzHLD-yFQVI4CYWPnPNMrPhfl3B6W9mqv4dQlmwSu8XYNcJOpnrfLdSvm/s1920/UK-Foreign-Office-Russia-propaganda-Reuters-BBC-Bellingcat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeZtvV6SnrKfHe0iJ6BRgpXFxohbOPAZO9RXBAu_oE_wku0ykWK6KWzkMUO2FSs58Y-g2135XmENpZpIwsblVhzHLD-yFQVI4CYWPnPNMrPhfl3B6W9mqv4dQlmwSu8XYNcJOpnrfLdSvm/w400-h225/UK-Foreign-Office-Russia-propaganda-Reuters-BBC-Bellingcat.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;">New leaked documents show Reuters’ and the BBC’s involvement in covert UK FCO programs to effect “attitudinal change” and “weaken the Russian state’s influence,” alongside intel contractors and Bellingcat.</h3><div><br /></div><div>by Max Blumenthal</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Visit the <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters-bbc-uk-foreign-office-russian-media/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Grayzone</a> to read the full article. <br /><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-42764521454954341022021-02-25T23:03:00.004+11:002021-02-27T15:30:56.589+11:00Subverting Syria: How CIA Contra Gangs and Ngo's Manufacture, Mislabel and Market Mass Murder <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Book by Tony Cartalucci and Nile Bowie | Published - 11 September 2012 </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRCvb61967nn0SzEQFEOhz9zYy_GLKE9zxiRcBsWaoK6vgGjJ1FVmTyuw-XD90BBBMgfR21Vg1VHJbj_1zTd_via0hAQmOcDRvD0vXYDVRIIddoN0iUMwMyobGLo6vapmyIo3c9NF_Ii9L/s805/subverting+Syria+-+book+by+Tony+Cartalucci+and+Nile+Bowie.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="578" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRCvb61967nn0SzEQFEOhz9zYy_GLKE9zxiRcBsWaoK6vgGjJ1FVmTyuw-XD90BBBMgfR21Vg1VHJbj_1zTd_via0hAQmOcDRvD0vXYDVRIIddoN0iUMwMyobGLo6vapmyIo3c9NF_Ii9L/w288-h400/subverting+Syria+-+book+by+Tony+Cartalucci+and+Nile+Bowie.JPG" width="288" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><b>Description: </b><div><br /></div><div>The Syrian "uprising" is a cynical US-engineered plot using provocateurs, mercenaries, Wahhabi fanatics, corrupt NGO's and the global media. </div><div><br /></div><div>The US, NATO and the feudal emirates are out to smash this independent Arab state that spends on human welfare and refuses to surrender to Israel. The US and Saudi-financed plot turns on the tactic of "Countergangs." Terrorists - mercenaries and irregulars, the "CIA foreign legion" - shoot both demonstrators and police, blow up buildings, massacre innocent villagers - and then blame the carnage on the targeted government. NGO's like NED, the "National Endowment for Democracy" (funded by US State Dept, Geo. Soros, Ford Foundation etc) promote "activists," whose leaders are ambitious sociopaths, eagerly carving out a piece of the carcass for the moment the state is brought down. </div><div><br /></div><div>The corporate lapdog media, cogs in the military-industrial complex, lap up and magnify the Big Lie, creating a fake "reality" that the average person has little chance of seeing through. </div><div><br /></div><div>Subverting Syria reveals how the crusade to destroy Syria follows tactics explicitly set out in the Pentagon's Unconventional Warfare Manual. - fund NGO's to create a climate of protest in the target country - provocateurs organize demonstrations, then fire on protesters and security forces alike to stoke violence - staged and mislabelled video footage creates the illusion of repression - mass media endlessly repeat the Big Lie that the nation's leader is a brutal dictator killing his own people. "Give a dog a bad name and hang him." - invade border towns with special forces death squads, the CIA Foreign Legion of Al Qaeda psychopaths, fanatics and guns for hire - fabricate pretexts for military intervention by the UN, or NATO - bomb the country into the stone age, to be conquered by NATO's Islamic terrorist puppets - eradicate Arab socialism and government for the people, replacing it with a corrupt clique beholden to Wall Street and London bankers - isolate Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Iran, giving free rein for Greater Israel to dominate the Middle East - US corporations write multi-billion-dollar contracts for "reconstruction" and "security" </div><div><br /></div><div>Subverting Syria shows how wars are engineered by manipulation of the kinder instincts of mankind, hoodwinking and harnessing pacifist and leftist forces - entrapping them in the service of mass murder and the global dictatorship of the money power.<br /><div><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div><div><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px;">-----------------------------------------------------</span></div><div><span face=""Amazon Ember", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px;">Buy from <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Subverting-Syria-Tony-Cartalucci/dp/1615775579" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amazon</a> (available elsewhere)</span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-39126126020557016742021-02-23T12:19:00.010+11:002021-02-23T13:25:25.871+11:00The Killing Field<div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZzhAqECqwN9PnCzp1ynJ8N_ha4bkzaHdxDgE71exh0-Zh3HnixkBrkmpU_-i7A7oLFIfg96tbvJ598U7mDwa-zIndLqMyTKGCIMtPoq5bNL4t5Mvxo7D5Fivb87yKYFb-zvpVwfq89wn/s909/Au+soldier+in+Afghanistan.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="909" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZzhAqECqwN9PnCzp1ynJ8N_ha4bkzaHdxDgE71exh0-Zh3HnixkBrkmpU_-i7A7oLFIfg96tbvJ598U7mDwa-zIndLqMyTKGCIMtPoq5bNL4t5Mvxo7D5Fivb87yKYFb-zvpVwfq89wn/w400-h278/Au+soldier+in+Afghanistan.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Australian Special Forces soldier & whistleblower Braden Chapman </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /><div><br /></div><div><b>Video Description:</b> <br /><br /><i> They are Australia's elite special forces. For more than 10 years, they were on the front lines of the war in Afghanistan. But explosive revelations expose a series of killings by some of these highly trained soldiers. In this revealing programme, a special forces operative who was on these covert missions speaks out about what he saw. What he has to say will shock and appal. In an investigation that was months in the making, drawing upon sources in Australia and Afghanistan, 101 East exposes a culture of impunity and cover-up among members of Australia's special forces. </i><br /></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="420" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/lLKmvpYAqx8" width="680"></iframe></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><b>Video Link > </b> https://youtu.be/lLKmvpYAqx8</div></div><div><b>Original Video Date ></b>Feb 12, 2021 </div><div><b>Video by ></b> Al Jazeera English | 101 East</div><div><br /></div><div>--------------------------------</div><div><br /></div><div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">~The Killing Field~<br />by the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Australia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Australia</a>'s elite special forces. For more than 10 years, they were on the front lines of the war on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Afghanistan?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Afghanistan</a>. Explosive revelations expose a series of war crimes by some of these highly trained soldiers.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Braden_Chapman?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Braden_Chapman</a><a href="https://t.co/sZAmCpnU3l">https://t.co/sZAmCpnU3l</a></p>— Hands OFF Syria (@handsoffsyria) <a href="https://twitter.com/handsoffsyria/status/1364019374680469507?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-17618851380690035202021-02-23T10:53:00.003+11:002021-02-23T12:59:59.465+11:00Mikdad: Human Rights Council should put grave violations, resulted by sanctions, on top of its priorities<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKCwD4Jo1cpzZTFHWh55j8Qd_drFyw4d1w1U8zBMWQlwsgxwAxmUmpwvmoSl6YWf8cgvIEdTh3UXRqxXxtf1R01cCw8vv9CeqHxqRuQ2OYZzWMR2yI6veKkIHQHPZ5grrsGoxakEg8Vvr/s660/mikdat.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="660" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxKCwD4Jo1cpzZTFHWh55j8Qd_drFyw4d1w1U8zBMWQlwsgxwAxmUmpwvmoSl6YWf8cgvIEdTh3UXRqxXxtf1R01cCw8vv9CeqHxqRuQ2OYZzWMR2yI6veKkIHQHPZ5grrsGoxakEg8Vvr/w400-h200/mikdat.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Syria's FM Faysal Mikdad</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><div>Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Faysal Mikdad, called on Human Rights Council to put grave violations, resulted by US and EU coercive unilateral measures [sanctions] against Syrian people, on the top of its priorities.</div><div><br />Mikdad, in a speech via video to the 46th session of Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, said that those who claim that the coercive measures don’t target the Syrian people lie because they really target the Syrians in their livelihood.<br /><br />He reiterated Syria’s determination to combat terrorism and practice its legal right to end any illegitimate presence on its territory.<br /><br />“After 15 years of the establishment of the council, we regret that a number of Western states still use the platform of the council to impose an approach which is based on double standard policy and selectivity in dealing with human rights,” Mikdad said.<br /><br />He added that the initiatives which have been addressed against Syria by some states inside this council during the past ten years represent the most obvious example about the way of investing decisions to find politicized mechanisms and organize sessions prevailed by various forms of disinformation, incitement and double standard policies.<br /><br />Mikdad indicated that the crisis to which Syria was exposed, implied security, economic, educational, humanitarian and food suffering, adding that some of its chapters are still going on in light of relentless efforts by some countries to exploit the suffering of Syrians through circulating misleading information, issuing reports and decisions, and holding sessions aimed at exerting political pressure on the Syrian government.<br /><br />“ Syria is determined to continue fighting terrorism and exercise its legal right to end any illegitimate presence on its territory,” Mikdad affirmed.<br /><br />He added that in light of the Turkish, US and Israeli occupation, terrorist groups and separatist QSD militia perpetrate gross and systematized violations of human rights in the interests of their operators and supporters.<br /><br />“Cutting off water as a collective punishment to one million citizen in Hasaka province is one of the examples about the grave and organized violations committed by the Turkish occupation forces and terrorist groups on the Syrian territory,” Mikdad said.<br /><br />He added that after the liberation of most of the Syrian territory from terrorism, state institutions are working to rebuild what has been destroyed by terrorism and provide a suitable environment for the return of all Syrians with dignity.<br /><br />Mikdad affirmed that those who claim that the unilateral, coercive measures do not target the Syrian people lie because the measures are really targeting the Syrians in their basic needs and livelihood.<br /><br />He went on to say that lifting those measures is considered as an essential guarantor to remove big challenges in front of full application of human rights, so, the Syrian Arab Republic calls on Human Rights Council to put serious, systematized and widespread violations, resulted by those measures, on the top of its priorities.<br /><br />“ With the conclusion of the meetings of the fifth round of the committee of discussing the constitution which was recently held with a facilitation by the United Nations in Geneva , I would like to reiterate that the committee is the exclusive owner to decide the track of its work and the outcomes that can be reached, and its success requires non-intervention in its affairs by any party,” Mikdad added.<br /><br />Mikdad stressed that the inalienable right of the Syrian Arab Republic in the occupied Syrian Golan is a right guaranteed by international references, firm and agreed upon principles by international law, adding that the unilateral actions that try to exploit the exceptional circumstances in the region, to go in contrary to this reality, are null and void procedures that have no legal value.<br /><br />“ Syria renews its firm support for the right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital on the borders of June 4, 1967, with guaranteeing the right of refugees to return home in implementation of the United Nations relevant resolutions,” Mikdad added.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>First published by <a href="http://sana.sy/en/?p=223523" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SANA</a> | 22 Feb 2021<br /><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3764072529653763415.post-12532658768568110732021-02-19T02:37:00.009+11:002021-02-19T02:54:19.042+11:00Syrian rebels testing Tekkim chemicals on rabbits to use as chemical weaponsDecember 7, 2012 <div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmj_ivke8B5koqQTrwccVaDC3SnsLicytMhiwp0tMX6GnP9dOSsXVJ8JZAiGEWRKLNsnvRJdHOQaSirdPXnWrv7VaJOrECkhqag00EplEB1UGvPRtae3DOFhFJUl9VRvehMTFBbnGwffc-/s485/Tekkim+Chemicals.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="485" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmj_ivke8B5koqQTrwccVaDC3SnsLicytMhiwp0tMX6GnP9dOSsXVJ8JZAiGEWRKLNsnvRJdHOQaSirdPXnWrv7VaJOrECkhqag00EplEB1UGvPRtae3DOFhFJUl9VRvehMTFBbnGwffc-/w640-h366/Tekkim+Chemicals.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>A troubling video appears on YouTube yesterday showing what appears to be a rebel group testing chemical weapons on lab rabbits, and threatening to use them against Syrian civilians on a sectarian basis.<br /><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" height="360" src="https://www.mrctv.org/embed/118938" title="MRC TV video player" width="640"></iframe> <p><br /></p><p>The video starts with several scenes showing chemical containers with Tekkim labels (<a href="https://www.tekkim.com.tr" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tekkim</a> is a Turkish chemicals company) and some lab equipment, while playing Jihadists chants in the background. </p><div><br /><div>A glass box then appears with two rabbits inside, with a poster on the wall behind it reading The Almighty Wind Brigade (Kateebat A Reeh Al Sarsar). </div><div><br /></div><div>A person wearing a lab mask then mixes chemicals in a beaker in the glass box, and we see some gas emitting from the beaker. About a minute later, the rabbits start to have random convulsions and then die. The person says: "You saw what happened? This will be your fate, you infidel Alawites, I swear by ALLAH to make you die like these rabbits, one minute only after you inhale the gas."<br /><br />Judging from the rabbits’ reaction, the gas must be a nerve agent. The number of containers, if not a bluff, indicates ability to produce a considerable amount of this gas. Deployment could be by means of a smoke generator placed in the target area, an explosion, possibly a suicide one, of a ”chemmed” car, or simply by using a humidifier.<p style="color: #14455a; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /><a></a></p><a href="https://www.mrctv.org/videos/syrian-rebels-testing-tekkim-chemicals-rabbits-use-chemical-weapons" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SOURCE</a></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Video also can be found <a href="https://youtu.be/H-6O-gApVrU" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0