It appears the Obama administration and their Turkish, Saudi and Qatari allies are losing the covert war in Syria. If so, this explains why the President and US and British media are once again trying to ramp up momentum for military intervention against the Assad regime.

The following video from AMTV examines the evidence that Assad loyalists are gaining ground against widely disunited Syrian opposition.

Anchor Topher Morrison summarizes evidence that government forces have successfully cut the rebels’ weapons supply line from Turkey. This, in turn, has forced them to fall on more primitive terrorist tactics, such as recent bombings in Damascus.

For awhile there was speculation that Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Moscow signaled a possible relaxation in Russia’s opposition to military intervention. This ceased after the Russian government arrested (during Kerry’s visit) a US State Department official for spying for the CIA.

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Breaking News: According to the Daily Mail, it now appears Russia’s CIA spy bust was linked to Boston Bombing. Click here:

Russia’s CIA spy bust ‘linked to Boston bombing’

Ambassador Stevens

What Really Happened in Benghazi?

Americans (at least the ones who know where Libya is) are understandably confused and angry about the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack that killed US ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi. If they are looking to the current congressional hearings to clarify what really happened, they will be greatly disappointed.

Despite accusations by Republican leaders that Obama committed has treason and is trying to cover it up, they have no more interest than Democrats in bringing out the truth. No one wants the dirty little secret coming out that Stevens was involved in a covert CIA operation to funnel Libyan weapons and jihadists to Syria to fight the Assad regime.

The funding, arming and training of Al Qaeda terrorists for geopolitical ends is a well-established pillar of US foreign policy. (National Counterterrorism Center Report on Terrorism 2011). This isn’t a partisan issue, as CIA support for jihad has received equal levels of support from both Obama and his predecessor George W Bush.

The Road to Damascus Starts in Benghazi

The May 9^th Washington’s Blog provides a comprehensive summary of the factual details about September 2012 that have come out over the past eight months. Numerous official and mainstream sources confirm that Benghazi is a long time stronghold of Al Qaeda terrorists, who transferred their focus to Syria and the Assad regime after Gaddafi was overthrown. For example (specific sources shown in parentheses):

• The US-supported opposition which overthrew Libyan president Muammar Gadaffi was largely comprised of Al Qaeda terrorists (Telegraph interview with Libyan rebel commander).
• According to a 2007 report by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center’s center, the Libyan city of Benghazi was one of Al Qaeda’s main headquarters and sent Al Qaeda fighters into Iraq prior to Gaddafi’s overthrow (West Point military academy).
• Al Qaeda is now largely in control of Libya, and the Libyan Provisional Government immediately ran up Al Qaeda flags at the Benghazi courthouse (the seat of their new government) after Gaddafi was overthrown (Daily Mail).
• Gaddafi, who always maintained Benghazi was an Al Qaeda stronghold, was on the verge of invading the city in 2011. However NATO planes stopped him, and protected Benghazi (Telegraph correspondent in Benghazi).
• CNN, the Telegraph, the Washington Times and many other mainstream sources confirm that since Gaddafi’s overthrow, Al Qaeda terrorists from Libya have been flooding into Syria to fight the Assad regime.
• Mainstream sources, such as the New York Times also confirm the Syrian opposition is largely comprised of Al Qaeda terrorists.
• Despite claims to the contrary, The U.S. has been arming the Syrian opposition since 2006. (Reuters, New York Times, Washington Post, CBC News).
• The post-Gaddafi Libyan government is also a top funder and arms supplier of the Syrian opposition. (Washington Post, Telegraph correspondent in Istanbul).

Was Stevens Running the Operation?

Mounting evidence suggests Stevens was assigned to run the covert CIA operation to funnel Libyan arms and jihadists to Syria via Turkey:

•  In 2011, Stevens was appointed to be the Obama administration’s liaison with the “budding Libyan opposition” (ABC News).

• Stevens and the State Department worked directly with Abdelhakim Belhadj of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, who has direct connections with Al Qaeda (Russia Today).
• The Wall Street Journal, Telegraph and other sources confirm that the US consulate (which wasn’t really a consulate but a “State Department Special Mission Compound”) in Benghazi was mainly being used for a secret CIA operation.
• Retired Lt. General William Boykin, former US Special Forces Commander and deputy defense undersecretary for intelligence (who worked with the CIA in the 1990s), stated in a January interview that it’s a “reasonable supposition” that Stevens was in Benghazi as part of an effort to arm the Syrian opposition. He draws this conclusion based on 1) the directive Stevens was given to support the Syrian rebels, 2) the logical assumption the Special Mission Compound would be the hub of that activity and 3) the absence lack of any other logical explanation for Stevens’ sudden reappearance in Benghazi on September 10, 2012 after a year’s absence. (CNS News)
• Egyptian security officials and US intelligence sources have confirmed Boykin’s hypothesis (WND Politics, CNBC)

Why Was Stevens Murdered?

 I have yet to see a plausible explanation anywhere for the terrorist attack on the Special Mission Compound or Stevens’ murder. Perhaps a genuine congressional investigation – in place of the soap operate we saw last week – could come up with some genuine leads. However so long as Congress refuses to examine the covert operation angle, they are unlikely to add much to what we already know.

I agree with Boykin that the Obama administration and Congress need to come clean, without necessarily revealing details, that Stevens was involved in a covert operation. The main problem (besides being illegal and morally bankrupt and undermining US standing internationally) with the existing US policy of covertly funding and arming jihadists is that it isn’t secret any more. This continuing duplicity on the part of the Obama administration and Congress only further undermines Americans’ confidence in government, as well as the major respect the United States used to enjoy abroad.

photo credit: Steve Rhodes via photopin cc

Reposted from Veterans Today

Below is a fascinating excerpt from Part 8 of Louis Farrakhan’s lecture series The Time and What Must Be Done. Farrahkan is the present leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI), best known for its most famous member Malcolm X.

It’s been more than ten years since I heard Farrakhan speak. He has made remarkable progress from his overt antisemitism and talk of white people as blue-eyed devils. I still have a slight problem with the “666” symbolism of the year 2013, which he links with the “beasts” (America, England, Germany and France).

Otherwise his analysis is remarkably similar to that of white economist, journalist and former Reagan official Paul Craig Roberts. The NOI leader is highly critical of Obama’s murderous policies in Libya and Syria and his use of drones for targeted assassinations, as well as his apparent willingness to support an Israeli-inspired war with Iran. He also condemns the President’s destruction of American democracy. He describes the US as an oligarchy leading the American people into fascism.

More information about the full 52 week series at Farrakhan promises god has execution planned for america

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Cross posted at Daily Censored

Below is a mind boggling half hour Press TV documentary about former White House adviser Gwynneth Todd. In it she briefly describes the battle she, and others in the Pentagon establishment, waged to fight efforts by AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) to provoke a US attack on Iran.

Todd strongly implicates AIPAC in the US decision to invade Iraq. As she tells it, the disastrous ten year occupation of Iraq was less about securing its oil for US oil companies – than about securing a NATO foothold in the Middle East to invade Iran.

It’s clear AIPAC has their own powerful allies in the Pentagon, who have gone a lot further than manufacturing phony propaganda about Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons industry (which, according to the CIA, is non-existent). These people play really dirty, and their efforts to shut Todd up included the murder of one of her Turkish clients.

Todd escaped to Australia in 2007 to afford prosecution on trumped up charges – or worse.

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Crossposted at Daily Censored

Less than a week after the Obama administration pledged to supply non-lethal aid to the Syrian resistance, Syrian rebels have taken twenty UN peacekeeper hostage in the Golan Heights. The latter is disputed territory claimed by both Israel and Syria, following Isreal’s occupation of the territory during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Based on a video they posted on YouTube, the rebels are threatening to hold the peacekeepers prisoner until the US, UN and Security Council meet their demands for the forcible withdrawal of Syrian troops from their village.

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Crossposted at Daily Censored

The Obama administration seems baffled by growing popular support for the Taliban in Afghanistan. While they grudgingly acknowledge anger over the continued bombing of innocent civilians by NATO drones and war planes, they are less forthcoming about the real reason – the criminals who run the Afghan police. This was the subject of a recent Panorama documentary broadcast by the BBC. Despite their other faults, it seems the Taliban draws the line at kidnapping, child rape, murder and drug trafficking and abuse. Afghan security forces have become notorious for such activities, particularly in Sanguin in Helmund province.

BBC Panorama reporter Ben Anderson recently embedded for five weeks with US Marines who are training and advising the Afghan security forces who will replace them in 2014. The marines took over the region from British troops in 2010. During his time in Sangin, just two teams of eighteen marines went out every few days to advise the Afghan army and police across the district.

He says it was typical to find police at checkpoints openly smoking marijuana and/or high on opium or heroin. Corruption is an even worse problem, with security forces routinely skimming off ammunition, fuel and metal from security fences to sell in the local bazaar (which means the Taliban are likely ending up with it). Then there’s the false imprisonment scam, where they detain civilians at random and wait for the families to come and pay them money to release them.”

The most sickening portion of the documentary relates to the young boys, known as “chai boys,” who are routinely sodomized by Afghan security officers. During Anderson’s stay in Sangin, four boys were shot while trying to escape police commanders, three of them fatally. None of the commanders responsible were arrested.

He notes that it was exactly this type of criminality and corruption on the part of Northern Alliance (who staffed the puppet government the US government installed following their 2001 invasion and occupation) that led many Afghans to welcome the Taliban when they swept to power in 1996.

For this inane and unspeakable outcome, the Obama and Bush administrations have committed countless war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as indebting US taxpayers to the tune of trillions of dollars. It’s high time for Obama to be impeached (click here) and for both men to face charges in the International Criminal Court.

photo credit: Defence Images via photopin cc

Crossposted at Daily Censored

General Carter Ham, the AFRICOM commander for the Pentagon, admitted last week that the US had helped trained the Mali rebels, including Captain Amadou Sanogo, who led the military coup which overthrew Mali’s constitutionally-elected government.

In describing the statement Ham made at the Ralph Bunche center, Veterans Today editor Gordon Duff is highly critical of Ham’s support for widening US military involvement in the region, including the recent establishment of drone bases in Niger.

Duff is extremely concerned that the US lacks the intelligence resources in Africa to prevent the horrendous “collateral damage” nightmares drones have caused in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

He goes on to describe Mali as a “domino” in a misguided and poorly thought out destabilization effort aimed at creating a generation of warfare.

Read more here here

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Cross posted at Daily Censored

Retired General William G Boykin believes when he was assassinated in Benghazi, former ambassador Chris Stevens was working for the CIA running guns (or preparing to run them), via Turkey, to the  Syrian rebels. He explains his reasoning in an interview with CNSNews.com.

Boykin is the former commander of the U.S. Special Forces Command and the former deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, In the 1990s worked directly with the CIA.

As he reveals in the interview, he’s highly critical of Obama’s decision to support the Islamist groups fighting to overthrow the Assad regime

photo credit: Steve Rhodes via photopin cc

Crossposted at Daily Censored

The Guardian reports that the UN is launching an investigation into US drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia. This comes at the request of Pakistan and two permanent members of the Security Council. British lawyer Ben Emmerson, the UN special rapporteur leading the investigation, will also review drone strikes Israel has carried out in Palestine.

Emmerson will study twenty to thirty strikes to assess the extent of any civilian casualties, the identity of militants targeted and the legality of strikes in countries where the UN has not formally recognized there is a conflict.

Read more here

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Crossposted at Daily Censored

Sakine Cansiz

Somehow I find myself on the mailing list of the PKK (the Kurdish Workers Party), which is engaged in armed struggle against Turkey for an autonomous Kurdistan and cultural and political rights for all Turkish Kurds. According to Wikipedia, international human rights groups document decades of human rights abuses against the Kurds. In addition to criminalizing the Kurdish language, the Turkish government has deliberated destroyed 4,000 Kurdish villages and forcibly evacuated a million Kurdish civilians from their homes. This is in addition to the execution of 18,000 Kurds and the imprisonment of more than 119,000. Because Turkey is an ally, the US and the EU oppose the Kurds having an independent or semi-autonomous state and brand the PKK as a terrorist organization.

The newsletter is called Koma Civiken Kurdistan Info (in English Peoples’ Confederation of Kurdistan-Info). Founded in the early seventies, the PKK has backed away from its original Marxist-Leninist orientation (at least according to Wikipedia). However it’s the first newsletter I have read in more than two decades that still refers to it members as “comrade.” This makes me nostalgic for the old days. I suspect this is why I continue to subscribe.

I confess I don’t even open the newsletters most weeks. Following the assassination of three (female) PKK leaders in Paris last week, I read every single word of one I got on Sunday. For people who may have missed this story in the corporate media, this was a classic Mossad-style execution in which the killers got through an electronic lock system (requiring a code to get in) at the Kurdish Information Center. All three women died of three or four gunshot wounds to the head. The executions have occurred in the context of secret peace negotiations between the PKK leadership and the Turkish government. The day before the killing, rumors began to circulate that the PKK and the Erdogan government had agreed on a peace plan. The PKK has massive groups of followers in Europe, primarily in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. However according to the AL Monitor, this was the first PKK assassination carried out on French soil.

The Kurdish Rosa Luxemburg

Sakine Cansiz, one of the co-founders of the PKK, was the most prominent of the three. She organized the prison resistance movement during the decade she spent in prison in the 1980s. The fact that half of the PKK armed resistance are women is credited to Cansiz, often referred to as the Kurdish Rosa Luxemburg.

Is the Mossad Responsible for the PKK Executions?

Here in New Zealand we know all about the Mossad’s ruthless international assassinations (they will go anywhere and kill anyone to further Israeli Zionism). The Mossad was front page new in 2010 after our government discovered Israeli spies had used forged New Zealand passports to assassinate a Hamas leader in Dubai. Six months later, another suspected Mossad agent was discovered to have five passports on his person when he was killed in the Christchurch earthquake.

C. Tuttle, writing in Firedoglake also puts the Mossad high on the list of likely culprits. He refers to a November AL Monitor article by Sedat Laciner revealing that Israeli intelligence monitors PKK training camps continuously via drones, satellites and other electronic. John Robles, writing in The Voice of Russia, believes that Israeli or US intelligence, both eager for a pretext to invade Syria and/or Iran, would have an equally strong incentive to derail a PKK-Turkish peace settlement. Like Iraq, Syria and Iran have large semi-autonomous Kurdish regions, which the PKK uses as a base for military operations against Turkey. Robles reminds us that Turkey recently authorized military incursions into Iran, supposedly to seek out and attack PKK militants. It’s easy to see the US or Israel using the threat posed by Kurdish “terrorism” as an excuse to put boots on the ground in either or both countries.

The PKK Blames Turkish Gladio

In their most recent newsletter, the PKK agrees that the assassinations were an effort to derail the peace negations. However they hold the Turkish Gladio responsible. This is a shorthand reference to Counter-Guerrilla, the Turkish branch of the CIA’s infamous Gladio program. This is a clandestine US-backed force formed in France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and other countries with strong communist sympathies after World War II.

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Cross posted at Daily Censored