Uncle to pull all US troops from Syria

[midnight rambler]

Wow, this is a huge change after the recent announcement about keeping US troops in Syria indefinitely, wonder what changed the situation so radically.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-military-preparing-for-a-full-withdrawal-of-its-forces-from-northeastern-syria-11545225641

[midnight rambler]

In contrast to this from just five days ago?? ???

Note the source -

https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/in-america-s-hidden-war-in-syria-troops-face-peril-on-many-fronts-1.560780

[Jewboo]

https://i.4pcdn.org/pol/1545237824422s.jpg

This is a huge event. Turkey, Russia, Iran, and everyone else are gonna first payback-sodomize the Kurds now. Netenyahu just posted that this surprises him.

:D

Even after the withdrawal, however, the US would still maintain a sizeable presence in the neighboring Iraq, with some 5,200 troops stationed just across the Syrian border. The aircraft of the US-led coalition – the primary tool of Washington and its allies in the Syrian conflict – will also still be able to continue their air raids flying out of Qatar and other bases in the Middle East. (https://www.rt.com/usa/446863-complete-military-withdrawal-syria/)

[monty]

More here. Sounds like the author might be a kike, with allegiance to Israhell

https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2018/12/19/erdogan-just-roll-president-trump-syria/

Did Erdogan Just Roll President Trump In Syria

streiff (http://gold-silver.us/forum/safari-reader://www.redstate.com/streiff)
https://www.redstate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/soldier-desert-620x413.jpgCREDIT: 130401-A-MX357-061 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/peosoldier/15873901013) by US Army Program Executive Officer Soldier (https://www.flickr.com/photos/peosoldier/), licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)/Original.
Sgt. Joshua J. Clark, from Elkhart, Ind., with the 591st Engineer Company (Sappers), provides over watch security for Air Force Explosive Ordinance Disposal personnel outside an Afghan Border Police checkpoint near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border April 1 in Spin Boldak district, Kandahar province, Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Shane Hamann, 102nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.)

One of the hallmark successes of the Trump Administration is the eradication of ISIS in much of Iraq and Syria, where it had been on the move in the power vacuum created by the Obama administration, and the stabilization of eastern Syria under the control of a military force that not only seems moderately competent, fairly humane, and opposed to the control of the area by Syria’s Assad and the ethnic cleansing and colonization project of Turkey’s Erdogan. In fact, the Administration has hit a sweet spot that is not only bleeding Russia (or at least the couple of hundred Russian mercenaries we mauled), Russia, and Iran, while increasing US prestige and influence and with fewer annual casualties than are generated by a typical Chicago Saturday night. That seems to be over:

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1075389548690108416/photo/1
(Sort of laughed at this. The military doesn’t do anything like this where the words “full” or “rapid” can be used.)

https://twitter.com/WSJ/status/1075381410691776512? (https://mobile.twitter.com/WSJ/status/1075381410691776512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5 Etweetembed&ref_url=safari-reader%3A%2F%2Fwww.redstate.com%2Fstreiff%2F2018%2 F12%2F19%2Ferdogan-just-roll-president-trump-syria%2F)

https://twitter.com/ReutersWorld/status/1075383052937949184? (https://mobile.twitter.com/ReutersWorld/status/1075383052937949184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5 Etweetembed&ref_url=safari-reader%3A%2F%2Fwww.redstate.com%2Fstreiff%2F2018%2 F12%2F19%2Ferdogan-just-roll-president-trump-syria%2F)

https://twitter.com/AlexHortonTX/status/1075387974181892098? (https://mobile.twitter.com/AlexHortonTX/status/1075387974181892098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5 Etweetembed&ref_url=safari-reader%3A%2F%2Fwww.redstate.com%2Fstreiff%2F2018%2 F12%2F19%2Ferdogan-just-roll-president-trump-syria%2F)

If true, this does not look good. At all.

First, it looks like Erdogan’s information operation on the killed Muslim Brotherhood apostle and WaPo opinion writer, Jamal Khashoggi, had its desired effect. You’ll note that no one is talking about this beacon of press freedom in the past week.

Second, this is a huge win for Iran, for Bashar Assad, and for Vladimir Putin. They have gone from being on their heels strategically to having turfed us out of Syria without lifting a finger.

Iran, now effectively allied with both Turkey and Russia, will be unhindered in its quest to create the so-called Shia Crescent that terminates on the Mediterranean.

Regional partners will see that we are not a reliable ally, particularly when their every existence is at stake. Not only will Erdogan be free to continue with the Turkish policy of ethnic cleansing and re-peopling the area with Turks, it will put Erdogan’s boot on the throat of the cause of Kurdish self-determination. Other people are going to notice.

Russia goes from participating in a conflict that generates enough dead Russians that the Russian government has to hid the funerals to being seen as the regional kingmaker.

https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1075407801327984641?ref (https://mobile.twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1075407801327984641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5 Etweetembed&ref_url=safari-reader%3A%2F%2Fwww.redstate.com%2Fstreiff%2F2018%2 F12%2F19%2Ferdogan-just-roll-president-trump-syria%2F)

The only saving grace is that this has the marks of a leak designed to stop the action from taking place. My guess would be the source of this leak is someone who lost the policy battle and now is trying to generate public debate over the decision before the policy can be implemented.

UPDATE: It looks real.


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[Jewboo]

More here. Sounds like the author might be a kike, with allegiance to Israhell

https://www.redstate.com/streiff/2018/12/19/erdogan-just-roll-president-trump-syria/


(((He))) does a fine job concealing his actual real-world identity. I couldn't find anything. Obvious zionist...probably is a kike.

:(??



streiff (https://twitter.com/streiffredstate)

@streiffredstate (https://twitter.com/streiffredstate)

Senior Contributing Editor at http://RedState.com (https://t.co/3iVsWhN9pj)
redstate.com/streiff (https://t.co/4HRczcwpSF)
Joined October 2009




In April 2018, there were mass firings of staff at RedState, including the managing editor, Caleb Howe.[3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RedState#cite_note-:5-3) CNN reported that multiple sources claimed that those who were fired were targeted for removal because they were insufficiently supportive of President Trump.[3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RedState#cite_note-:5-3)

[End Times]

LOL, people are taking this as serious news.

"...and Mexico will pay for it..."

[osoab]

Are they heading to Yemen?

[monty]

Are they heading to Yemen?

Iran?

Royston Potter says Iraq, but doesn’t indicate where he is getting his information

https://twitter.com/roystonpotter/status/1075526450525040640?s=21

https://www.mintpressnews.com/trump-admits-his-mideast-policy-guided-by-israel-not-american-interests/253170 (https://www.mintpressnews.com/trump-admits-his-mideast-policy-guided-by-israel-not-american-interests/253170/?fbclid=IwAR1ft1oKpIkJr6LQv9RU0M1zA9Xv88LwXBUs69FP RIMm2T6rww-w8JiqmqI#.XBqIF6gioos.twitter)

Trump Admits His Mideast Policy Guided by Israeli, not American, Interests

Trump has now publicly admitted that – when it comes to U.S. military involvement and covert intervention in the Middle East – he is putting Israel, not America, first.


https://i.postimg.cc/SNF0QVGM/C5-E00-F2-A-29-F8-48-EC-AD31-C3-CA3-CDDABB6.jpg

December 19th, 2018


WASHINGTON — In a recent interview (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/27/president-trumps-full-washington-post-interview-transcript-annotated/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5ee05506e67a) with the Washington Post, U.S. President Donald Trump publicly stated that his administration’s Middle East policy – including the illegal U.S. military occupation (https://www.mintpressnews.com/how-the-us-occupied-the-30-of-syria-containing-most-of-its-oil-water-and-gas/240601/) of nearly a third of Syria, the administration’s adoption of aggressive Iranian sanctions, and Trump’s response to murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (https://nypost.com/2018/11/02/netanyahu-saudi-arabia-deserves-a-pass-for-khashoggi-murder/) — is not driven by his country’s interest in oil but instead to benefit the interests of the state of Israel.

Trump made the comment when asked by Post reporter Josh Dawsey about whether or not he supports tougher sanctions against the Saudi government for allegedly being responsible for the death of Khashoggi in early October. Trump responded (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/27/president-trumps-full-washington-post-interview-transcript-annotated/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5ee05506e67a) by stating that he would “listen” to those calling for increased sanctions and then adding that the Middle East is a “dangerous, rough part of the world.” Trump continued, stating that Saudi Arabia has been a “great ally,” adding that “without them, Israel would be in a lot more trouble. We need to have a counterbalance to Iran.”

Trump’s statements here seem to support the claims made in recent reports (https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/netanyahu-asked-trump-to-stick-with-saudi-crown-prince-after-khashoggi-murder-1.6615049) that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was responsible for Trump’s decision to stand by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) during the fall-out from Khashoggi’s death, which several governments and U.S. intelligence have claimed was planned in advance with MBS’ approval. Netanyahu told the White House that MBS was a “strategic ally” and should be supported regardless of his alleged involvement in the death of the former Post columnist at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Fundraiser-Icon-400x2.jpg (https://www.gofundme.com/fighting-social-media-censorship)

However, as Trump continued to discuss the region, he revealed that Israel is not just the
reason for his continued support for the Saudi government despite the fallout from Khashoggi’s death but also the reason why the U.S. continues to be so heavily involved in the region. He stated:
It’s very important to have Saudi Arabia as an ally, if we’re going to stay in that part of the world. Now, are we going to stay in that part of the world? One reason to is Israel. Oil is becoming less and less of a reason because we’re producing more oil now than we’ve ever produced. So, you know, all of a sudden it gets to a point where you don’t have to stay there.”

In this statement, Trump makes the case that the U.S. national interest in Middle Eastern affairs is weakening, as oil – traditionally cited for the U.S.’ long history of intervention throughout the region – is no longer a major factor in guiding his administration’s policy in this geostrategic area of the world. As Trump notes, the U.S. is currently producing a record amount of oil domestically and is likely to continue itsrapid increase (https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/US-Shale-Oil-Production-Rises-At-Record-Breaking-Rate.html) until production is estimated to peak (https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/07/us-shale-oil-will-dominate-opec-forecasts.html) in 2025.


Israel driving the U.S. bus

Instead, Trump states that the driving reason for the U.S. continuing intervention in the region is the state of Israel. Though Trump’s actions since he came into office have been markedly pro-Israel, this statement is the first public admission that his administration’s Middle East policy – such as the continuing military occupation of Syria, its aggressive stance towards Iran, and preservation of ties with Saudi Arabia at all costs, among others – is guided by the interests not of the United States but a foreign nation. Given that Trump was elected in large part due to his promise to put “America First,” his claim that the U.S.’ entire Middle East policy is guided by the national interests of another country is telling.

Yet, for those that have closely followed the actions of the Trump administration in the Middle East, it has been clear for some time that most, if not all, of the administration’s policies have been carried out with Israel in mind.

For instance, the U.S.’ continued occupation (https://www.mintpressnews.com/how-the-us-occupied-the-30-of-syria-containing-most-of-its-oil-water-and-gas/240601/) of Syria is of great benefit to Israel, as Israel — which helped plan and execute (https://www.mintpressnews.com/why-conflict-syria-was-always-israels-war/231532/) the now winding-down Syrian conflict — had hoped to use the resulting instability in Syria to push for the country’s partition (https://www.mintpressnews.com/geopolitics-corporate-profits-push-iraq-syria-towards-partition/230830/). Israel’s push for the partition of Syria is aimed at a broader, regional plan that would see Israel expand well beyond that territory in order to more widely exert its influence and become the region’s “superpower.”

This ambition is described in the Yinon Plan, a strategy (https://www.mintpressnews.com/israels-yinon-plan-saudi-wahhabism-us-wars-arab-christians-pushed-mass-exodus/228409/) intended to ensure Israel’s regional superiority in the Middle East that chiefly involves reconfiguring the entire Arab world into smaller and weaker sectarian states. This has manifested in Israel’s support for the partition (https://www.mintpressnews.com/geopolitics-corporate-profits-push-iraq-syria-towards-partition/230830/) of Iraq as well as Syria, particularly its support for (http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/netanyahu-endorses-kurdish-independence-2014629174546263489.html) the establishment of a separatist Kurdish state within these two nations. Currently, the U.S. is occupying the area for this potential future state and supports the Kurdish separatist militia group known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Though some reports released on Wednesday have now claimed that the U.S. troops in Syria will soon be withdrawn due to the end of Washington’s bombing campaign against ISIS, the Trump administration shifted (https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-troops-in-syria/245930/) its Syria policy away from combating ISIS to containing Iran — a move promoted (https://ejmagnier.com/2018/07/13/us-message-to-assad-we-will-pull-out-of-al-tanf-and-the-north-if-iran-withdraws-from-syria/) first by the Israeli government (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/world/middleeast/iran-syria-israel.html), which has long used alleged “Iranian influence” to justify (https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-strikes-meant-to-thwart-irans-influence-in-syria-1525963926) hundreds of unilateral airstrikes within Syrian territory.

If U.S. troops do leave northeastern Syria, the U.S. military occupation of northeastern Syria may end, but the administration’s policy on containing Iran in Syria through other means would still be operational.

Indeed, NBC News reported (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/trump-administration-has-new-plan-drive-iran-out-syria-n919596) in October that the administration was developing a “new” Syria policy that would forgo a U.S. military presence in the country and would instead “emphasize political and diplomatic efforts to force Iran out of Syria by squeezing it financially,” and would “withhold reconstruction aid from areas where Iranian and Russian forces are present” in addition to imposing “sanctions on Russian and Iranian companies working on reconstruction in Syria.”

In addition, the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and its unilateral reimposition of sanctions on Iran were also carried out with Israel’s interests in mind, given that the move was pushed by both Netanyahu (https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-News/Israel-to-help-US-enforce-Iran-sanctions-as-Tehran-EU-China-oppose-them-571109) and Trump’s most influential donor (https://www.mintpressnews.com/now-biggest-donor-in-all-of-us-politics-sheldon-adelson-brings-an-israel-first-agenda-to-washington/249996/), Zionist billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who is also the owner of Israel’s largest newspaper and Netanyahu’s largest financier.

Past reports (https://www.mintpressnews.com/now-biggest-donor-in-all-of-us-politics-sheldon-adelson-brings-an-israel-first-agenda-to-washington/249996/) have shown that Adelson’s influence also pushed Trump to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and to replace former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster with John Bolton, a pro-Israel Iran hawk (https://www.mintpressnews.com/john-bolton-has-a-history-of-advocating-for-israel-at-expense-of-the-us/239592/) with a well-known penchant for war (https://www.mintpressnews.com/regime-change-partition-and-sunnistan-john-boltons-vision-for-a-new-middle-east/239714/).

After his recent statements, Trump has now publicly admitted that – when it comes to U.S. military involvement and covert intervention in the Middle East – he is putting Israel, not America, first. This should serve as a stark warning to all Americans, particularly given that just last year a top U.S. commander stated that U.S. troops were “ready to die (https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-us-operation-juniper-cobra-a-harbinger-of-war-on-syria-hezbollah/238768/)” to defend Israel for whatever reason, and that the deployment of U.S. troops to Israel would be made not by the American military but by the Israel Defense Forces.

Top Photo | US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embrace at the Israel museum in Jerusalem, May 23, 2017. Sebastian Scheiner | AP

Whitney Webb is a staff writer for MintPress News and a contributor to Ben Swann’s Truth in Media. Her work has appeared on Global Research, the Ron Paul Institute and 21st Century Wire, among others. She has also made radio and TV appearances on RT and Sputnik. She currently lives with her family in southern Chile.

[vacuum]

As Expected, UniParty Moves: McConnell, Schumer and Pelosi Construct Short-Term Budget Continuing Resolution… (https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/12/19/as-expected-uniparty-moves-mcconnell-schumer-and-pelosi-construct-short-term-budget-continuing-resolution/)

Posted on December 19, 2018 (https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/12/19/as-expected-uniparty-moves-mcconnell-schumer-and-pelosi-construct-short-term-budget-continuing-resolution/) by sundance (https://theconservativetreehouse.com/author/sundancecracker/)
As expected the UniParty legislature in Washington DC; bought and paid for by lobbyists with specific intention to oppose President Trump; have constructed a short-term funding mechanism that kicks-the-can to February 2019.

Mitch McConnell announced on the Senate floor the stopgap funding mechanism, for departments and agencies not already funded for fiscal year 2019, would run through Feb. 8th, 2019. The Big Club lobbyists control the UniParty. President Trump pushes back by announcing a U.S. military withdrawal from Syria…

[End Times]

Shaking me head...

People still believe in Donald Trump.

[JDRock]

IF and i do mean If, we ever leave shitolia, prepare for the mother of all false flag jewish retribution! How DARE their bitch , the usa start making their own decisions! It will be just like when spain announced it was LEAVING the coalition during the iraq war, IMMEDIATELY, the "arabs" bombed the train in madrid! Really? You announce that your ceasing hostilities and THEN they thank you by goading you into killing them again?? Unless... theres another force behind it.... hmmm

[monty]

IF and i do mean If, we ever leave shitolia, prepare for the mother of all false flag jewish retribution! How DARE their bitch , the usa start making their own decisions! It will be just like when spain announced it was LEAVING the coalition during the iraq war, IMMEDIATELY, the "arabs" bombed the train in madrid! Really? You announce that your ceasing hostilities and THEN they thank you by goading you into killing them again?? Unless... theres another force behind it.... hmmm

Whatever Trump does over there Is dictated by Sheldon Adelson & Nuttinyahoo. I believe this moving the troops out of Syria is a smoke screen . . .


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/08/sheldon-adelson-trump-middle-east-policy


https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/adelson-furious-at-tillerson-over-embassy-move-delay-1.5472180


https://www.mintpressnews.com/sheldon-adelson-and-the-zionist-lobby-push-for-hr-mcmasters-ouster/238513/

[Jewboo]

Whatever Trump does over there Is dictated by Sheldon Adelson & Nuttinyahoo. I believe this moving the troops out of Syria is a smoke screen . . .

Closer than that:

https://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/GettyImages-686862074-714x464.jpg https://images.haarets.co.il/image/fetch/w_2196,h_1270,x_4,y_8,c_crop,g_north_west/w_609,h_343,q_auto,c_fill,f_auto/fl_any_format.preserve_transparency.progressive:no ne/https://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.5721062.1515532818!/image/1018316866.jpg

https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2018-01/trump-kushner-netanyahu.jpg?itok=qQ1JEkj4&timestamp=1515172672 https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/11/18/fashion/18JAVANKA-2/18JAVANKA-2-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

[vacuum]

https://i.redd.it/nq3n658tyg521.jpg

[monty]

I think Sibel Edmonds wrote about this a new plan for Syria 6 or 8 months ago. I haven’t tried to find the article, but all that is happening is exactly like she wrote. One thing she mentioned was Turkey, Israhell and Russia have a new plan for Syria and a new constitution will be written.





Israel Eyes Iraq, Where Iran Is Deploying Missiles Capable of Striking Israel

(https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-israel-eyes-set-on-iraq-where-iran-is-deploying-missiles-capable-of-striking-israel-1.6744552)Noa Landau (http://gold-silver.us/forum/safari-reader://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/WRITER-1.4969059)13:52

https://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.6765066.1545304573!/image/2354527961.jpg_gen/derivatives/size320x180/2354527961.jpg
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attending the weekly cabinet meeting in his office in Jerusalem, December 2018. ABIR SULTAN,AP

After U.S. Announces Syria Pullout, Netanyahu Says Israel Will Increase Actions Against Iran With Full U.S. Support

Putin says he agrees with Trump that ISIS has been defeated in Syria but that he doesn't know what a U.S. withdrawal really means, as he has not seen signs of it yet

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel will "continue to act aggresively against Iran's attempt to entrench itself in Syria."

Speaking alongside Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades at the fifth Israel-Greece-Cyprus summit in Be'er Sheva, Netanyahu added that Israel "continues its efforts to thwart the terror tunnels on the Israel-Lebanon border (http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/netanyahu-lebanon-wasn-t-aware-of-hezbollah-tunnels-but-should-neutralize-them-1.6762661)."

"At this moment, we are employing special means to...neutralize these tunnels," Netanyahu said, adding that "we do not intend to reduce our efforts on either of these fronts, we will escalate them, and I know that we do so with the full support and backing of the U.S."

Get breaking news and analyses straight to your inbox
Sign up>>Trump's pullout leaves Russia holding the cards in Syria, to Israel's bitter disappointment (https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/.premium-and-then-there-were-two-iran-and-russia-1.6763897)
■ Despite the blow to its national security, Israel will bow to Trump’s Syria withdrawal (https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-despite-blow-to-its-national-security-israel-will-bow-to-trump-s-syria-withdrawal-1.6763699)
■ How Assad helped create ISIS to win in Syria and got away with the crime of the century (https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/.premium.MAGAZINE-iran-russia-and-isis-how-assad-won-in-syria-1.6462751)

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he largely agrees with Trump that ISIS has been defeated in Syria, adding that there is a risk that ISIS militants could regroup. Putin also called the U.S. military presence in Syria illegitimate.

Putin noted that he doesn't know what a U.S. withdrawal from Syria really means, adding that Russia hasn't seen any signs of withdrawal yet. Putin said that the U.S. has said many times before that it is leaving Afghanistan, but it is still there.

https://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.6765075.1545304879!/image/1202456439.jpg_gen/derivatives/size_320xAuto/1202456439.jpg
U.S. soldiers gather for a brief during a combined joint patrol rehearsal in Manbij, Syria, November 2018. Spc. Zoe Garbarino,AP

The White House said on Wednesday that the United States has started sending troops back from Syria (https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/u-s-military-preparing-for-full-withdrawal-from-northeastern-syria-report-1.6762877) but that the move does not signify the end of the campaign or a halt to the work of the global coalition in the war-torn country.

All U.S. State Department personnel are being evacuated from Syria within 24 hours, a U.S. official told Reuters.

The decision came after a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan on Friday. "Everything that has followed is implementing the agreement that was made in that call," the official said.

Israel was aware of Trump's intentions, and has been trying to postpone the decision over the last year. However, it was the timing of the move which caught the political echelon off-guard and came at a moment when Israel is facing the repercussions of the September downing a Russian spy plane in Syria.

Since the incident, Netanyahu has yet to be invited to Moscow, and Israel was hoping this would happen before the U.S. withdrawal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump and with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "The U.S. administration has told me that it was the president's intention to pull out their troops from Syria. They clarified that they have other ways to wield their influence in that arena," the premier stated.

Netanyahu added that Israel will closely follow the time table of the American troops' withdrawl and what repercussions this move will have on Jerusalem. "In any case we will make sure to ensure the safety of Israel and protect ourselves from this arena."

Israel's envoy at the UN, Danny Danon, voiced concern over the American move later Wednesday. (https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-un-security-council-to-discuss-wednesday-hezbollah-s-cross-border-tunnels-1.6761444) Speaking at a UN Security Council session on Hezbollah's cross-border tunnels, the Israeli ambassador said that while Israel respected its ally's decision it still had its own concerns about the situation in Syria.

[monty]

Is the troop withdrawal part of the plan? Undoubtedly it has something to do with Netanyayu’s desire to destroy Iran.

https://thedefensepost.com/2018/08/28/un-syria-constitution-meeting-september/

UN plans second Syria constitution meeting for September

Russia, Turkey, Iran to meet next week to discuss Idlib

Staff Writer (https://thedefensepost.com/author/defensepost/)
The United Nations peace envoy for Syria will host senior officials from a range of Western and Middle-Eastern countries next month for talks on drafting a new Syrian constitution, the U.N. said on Tuesday, August 28.


Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura has been tasked with setting up a committee to write a new constitution for the war-ravaged country.


He is already set to host a meeting on September 11-12 at the U.N.’s European headquarters in Geneva of senior officials from the main foreign powers backing the project; Syrian government allies Russia and Iran; as well as Turkey, which supports some opposition groups.


On Tuesday, U.N. spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said de Mistura had convened a one-day meeting on September 14 with senior representatives from Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States.


The meeting, Vellucci said, was to focus on “the way ahead on the political process” for Syria, “including the U.N. effort to facilitate the establishment of a constitutional committee.”


De Mistura has said he wants to have the constitutional committee in place before world leaders meet at the General Assembly in New York in late September.


De Mistura’s previous efforts to negotiate an end to the Syrian conflict (https://thedefensepost.com/2018/01/27/un-syria-envoy-attend-sochi-congress/) have achieved no breakthroughs.


More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria’s war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
Syria signs reconstruction deal with Iran

On Monday, Iran’s Defense Minister Amir Hatami said Tehran and Damascus had signed an agreement on military cooperation and reconstruction.


Hatami was on the second day of a two-day visit to Damascus, during which he held “detailed negotiations” with his counterpart Ali Abdullah Ayoub and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to Tasnim news agency.


The “defence and technical agreement” provides for the continued “presence and participation” of Iran in Syria, added Hatami.


Tehran has provided steady political, financial, and military backing to Assad as he has fought back a seven-year uprising.


In an interview Monday night with the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen television channel, Hatami said the agreement included the rehabilitation of Syria’s defence industry and assured Iran would provide “good service”.


“With this accord, we have paved the way for a reconstruction of the Syrian military industries,” he said.


“The most important element of the deal is the rebuilding of the Syrian armed forces and defence industries so that they can regain their full capacity.”
Russia sets sights on Idlib

The announcement comes as Russian media reported that Moscow was reinforcing its military presence in the Mediterranean near Syria.


Moscow has accused rebels of planning to stage a chemical attack in the northwestern province that would “provoke” Western strikes on its ally Damascus.


Quoting anonymous sources, the Kommersant daily reported that Russia sent two warships and an additional anti-aircraft missile system to the Mediterranean in August.


Pro-Kremlin paper Izvestia said Russia currently has 10 warships and two submarines in Syrian waters, saying this amounted to Moscow’s biggest military presence there since it became involved in the conflict in 2015.


According to Izvestia, Russia plans to send “several more” warships to Syria.


Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov charged that the jihadist group Tahrir al-Sham “is close to committing a very serious provocation in Idlib using chemical weapons.”


At the weekend, Russia repeatedly accused Syrian militants of planning the attack in the rebel-held province.
Since Russia military intervened on Assad’s behalf in 2015, the Syrian regime has regained much of the territory lost to rebels (https://thedefensepost.com/2018/04/12/syria-military-takes-control-over-eastern-ghouta/) and jihadists in the early years of the war.


A cooperation deal between Russia and Turkey in Idlib (https://thedefensepost.com/tag/idlib/), which Assad wants to recapture to complete a string of military successes.


Idlib has over the last years become an increasingly densely-populated region where problems in resolving the seven-year civil war were effectively dumped to be resolved at a later date.


That moment is now drawing closer with expectations of a government offensive and fears over the combustible mix in the province of displaced people from other Syrian regions, moderate rebels and Islamist radicals.


Erdogan has been a champion of the anti-Assad rebels and bitterly denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin in the crisis that followed the shooting down of a Russian war plane by Turkey in November 2015.


But the burgeoning alliance with Moscow, which also includes cooperation in trade, energy and defense, is now of critical importance to Ankara at a time when a crisis in relations with the U.S. has caused the Turkish lira to bleed value.


Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday led a delegation including Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and intelligence chief Hakan Fidan to Moscow to discuss the Idlib situation and Moscow’s planned delivery of S-400 missile systems to Turkey (https://thedefensepost.com/2018/04/04/turkey-russia-s-400-delivery-2019/).


Cavusoglu warned that a “military solution” in Idlib, which he said is now home to 3.5 million people, would be a “catastrophe” and provoke a new refugee influx into Turkey where three million Syrians already live.


But he also said “radical groups and terrorists” in Idlib should be “neutralized,” in comments seen as indicating Ankara could support a limited intervention.
Iran, Russia and Turkey to meet on Syria next week

The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will also meet next week for their third tripartite summit seeking an end to the Syrian conflict, Turkish state television said Monday.


Erdogan will travel to Iran to meet his Russian and Iranian counterparts Putin and Hassan Rouhani on September 7, state-run TRT Haber television said.
Private NTV television added the summit would be held in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz.


A Turkish presidential official contacted by AFP could not immediately confirm the reports. However, the presidency has invited Turkish journalists to cover a trip by Erdogan to Iran on September 7.


Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the tripartite summit was being prepared but did not confirm the date or venue.


“It could take place in Tehran. This option is being examined. We will make the appropriate announcement once all the nuances have been harmonized through diplomatic channels and when everything is ready,” he added.


Erdogan had previously indicated that he planned to host a summit on Syria on September 7 in Istanbul with Putin and also French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.


But press reports over the last few weeks have suggested that such a meeting was increasingly unlikely and was set to be replaced by the latest three-way summit between Iran, Russia and Turkey.


The three leaders have previously met in the Russian resort city of Sochi and the Turkish capital Ankara.


Ankara, Moscow and Tehran are backing peace talks based in the Kazakh capital Astana which they insist are aimed at reinforcing, rather than undermining, the U.N. peace process in Geneva.
With reporting from AFP

[Horn]

Have to wonder if it is in response to or alongside this, dontchya?
.
.


Is The Fed Actually Trying To Cause A Stock Market Crash?


The Federal Reserve has decided not to come to the rescue this time.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-20/fed-actually-trying-cause-stock-market-crash
https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/One-Public-Domain.jpg

[old steel]

Going to need those troops home to keep the peace on the streets once the arrests begin.

Remember how far along Barry Soetero was with purging the military.

HRC was supposed to finish the purge and start a war with Russia but she lost a rigged election.

Even under martial law the arrests will continue.

Potus Trump is currently in a war with the Fed as well.

They will be gone too.


Q !!mG7VJxZNCI ID: 089200 No.4281049 (https://8ch.net/qresearch/res/4280570.html#4281049) https://qanon.pub/styles/img/fold.png (https://archive.today/newest/https://8ch.net/qresearch/res/4280570.html#4281049)
Dec 12 2018 19:01:15 (EST) (https://qanon.pub/#t1544659275)
Anonymous ID: 376ff2 No.4280876 (https://8ch.net/qresearch/res/4280570.html#4280876) https://qanon.pub/styles/img/fold.png (https://archive.today/newest/https://8ch.net/qresearch/res/4280570.html#4280876)
Dec 12 2018 18:57:57 (EST) (https://qanon.pub/#t1544659077) >>4280189
Q: Do we have the gold?


>>4280876
Yes.
Gold shall destroy FED.
Q

New Q posts refer to [D] Day coming soon.


Q !!mG7VJxZNCI ID: 0365ff No.4381420 (https://8ch.net/qresearch/res/4380748.html#4381420) https://qanon.pub/styles/img/fold.png (https://archive.today/newest/https://8ch.net/qresearch/res/4380748.html#4381420)
Dec 19 2018 18:23:03 (EST) (https://qanon.pub/#t1545261783)

[D] Day, Patriots.
We will have our Country back!
Q+

Look at the Gold price.

Somebody knows something.

[vacuum]

Trump Administration Is Considering Substantial Afghan Troop Drawdown

Drawdown could begin in several weeks, officials say

85 Comments (https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-is-considering-substantial-afghan-troop-drawdown-11545341452?emailToken=1ec40fe2df574a55d0596f46c39 7c536rqshF3ZytVObDrsrxR4dG0tYG92SFo8hBv4KLPW4EOeSv PhJeN3x3GvdTuBQEJQ+2JDlz1snI2Oud0oak4o3l+wF3b0r5vP t9iBx2xr3onDREv/9AG8JyptQSgESz7+fNkkHN3ZNWIguPS7qAkHu5w%3D%3D&reflink=article_copyURL_share#comments_sector)
By Gordon Lubold and
Jessica Donati
Updated Dec. 20, 2018 4:48 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is actively considering plans for a significant drawdown of American troops in Afghanistan that could begin in as soon as several weeks, multiple officials said, in the start of the conclusion of the 17-year U.S. war effort.

Word of the plans came a day after President Trump ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, an unexpected announcement that surprised many at the Pentagon.

Under the plans being considered, troops could begin to return home from Afghanistan as early as January, officials said.

Officials at the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command declined to comment. There are currently more than 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Mr. Trump announced Wednesday that he would pull all of the more than 2,000 American troops from Syria, a decision that wasn’t supported by the Pentagon or the State Department.

“I think it shows how serious the president is about wanting to come out of conflicts,” a senior U.S. official said of how the Syria decision has affected his thinking on Afghanistan. “I think he wants to see viable options about how to bring conflicts to a close.”

—Nancy A. Youssef in Washington and Craig Nelson in Kabul contributed to this article.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-is-considering-substantial-afghan-troop-drawdown-11545341452

[Horn]

I remember back to my early 20's when I was watching talking heads on television and trying to understand all of what they were referring to.

Now that I know what they're referring to, its obvious that they were full of shit the entire time.

Good chance the troops will be redeployed just as hastily.

[steyr_m]

Wow, this is a huge change after the recent announcement about keeping US troops in Syria indefinitely, wonder what changed the situation so radically.


We'll see. Still waiting on Brexit. We may be waiting on this for awhile too.

[End Times]

US Troops Aren’t Coming Home…Soon

http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=1333

[vacuum]

http://magaimg.net/img/6wyb.png

[End Times]

If Trump is not "authorized" to do any of this, it will be canceled. If he does try it anyway, the Jews will ventilate his head, like they did with Kennedy.

[Horn]

Nutnyahoo just dissolved his parliament went surfing from a larger into orthodox jew military draft. Both he and Trump appear to be working from some bold newworld playbook.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-24/netanyahu-dissolves-israeli-parliament-calls-new-elections-risky-political-gambit

[Neuro]

Drawdown in Syria and Afghanistan= battle ready troops for use in Iranian campaign.

[Neuro]

Trump says that Israel will still be good after middle eastern troops drawdown “We give them $4.5
Billions/year”...

https://www.rt.com/news/447484-trump-billions-israel-aid-syria/

Netanyahu says that he will continue to poke Syria/Iran. I guess a response in kind from Syria/Iran is all the pretext that is needed for all out war.

[Jewboo]

Netanyahu says that he will continue to poke Syria/Iran. I guess a response in kind from Syria/Iran is all the pretext that is needed for all out war.



https://thesinosaudiblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/s-300.jpg

Russia keeps looking the other way during these Israeli bombings. Time for Putin to be an actual ally...

:rolleyes:

[monty]

I think Sibel Edmonds wrote about a new plan for Syria 6 or 8 months ago. I haven’t tried to find the article, but all that is happening is exactly like she wrote. One thing she mentioned was Turkey, Israhell and Russia have a new plan for Syria and a new constitution will be written.


This is from Sibel Edmonds last November in her investigation into the Kashoggi “murder”.

This could be the reason for pulling troops out o Syria.

https://www.newsbud.com/2018/11/24/breaking-news-khashoggi-case-a-massive-psyop-concocted-by-cia-mi6-mossad/




For the first 53 days of my investigation of this case, while posting reports and analyses via Twitter posts (https://twitter.com/sibeledmonds/status/1048942201789722625) on an almost hourly-basis, I had refrained from a definitive conclusion, partly to protect my sources, but also due to fulfilling the requirement of having documents and at least two direct named (and vetted/legitimate sources).Yesterday I broke (https://twitter.com/sibeledmonds/status/1065570090987474944) the news on the bombshell revelations (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=ftTx1saPF2I) by Former Director of the Turkish Military Intelligence Services, General Ismail Hakki Pekin, via Oda TV Live Coverage on Nov 21. See the 6-min video clip below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=ftTx1saPF2I
General Pekin, an insider with a long career in Intelligence who has high-level contacts and sources within MI6, CIA and Mossad, made the following statements (Summary Translation) while risking severe backlash from the government here in Turkey:


There has been intense behind the scenes competition between the UK and US over ARAMCO and it’s coming IPO, scheduled for 2020, via either the London or New York Stock Exchange (Many billions of dollars’ worth)
Jamal Khashoggi was/is very close to certain ARAMCO Board Members, and has been a prize sought by both US and UK players due to his connections
UK (MI6) concocted the plans (or fakery) to kidnap Khashoggi
The CIA and Mossad got involved in this UK plot
The Fiancé was some sort of honeytrap most likely connected to MI6, or possibly the CIA, and is not who “they” claim she is- not genuine
They may have selected Turkey as a secondary target to damage its reputation- With the US aiming to set up a Kurdish State in Northern Syria and the possibility of ending its alliance with Turkey

[Neuro]

They may have selected Turkey as a secondary target to damage its reputation- With the US aiming to set up a Kurdish State in Northern Syria and the possibility of ending its alliance with Turkey

It seems president Trump together with Erdogan thwarted these plans. Trump practically gave Turkey Northern Syria. Not that this will improve anything in Turkey, as they have enough issues with the Kurds within its territory. So far the Kurds, spread out in 4 countries, had to divide their attention against at least 4 different enemies, the Turks, the Syrians, the Sunni and Shiite Iraqi’s at different times and the Iranians, plus ISIS and Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria. US may even give the Turks the North Kurdish Iraq and perhaps the Kurdish western part of Iran after that war. And then Turkey has to deal with for the first time in history a united Kurdistan against a single common enemy.

[Horn]

A Turko-Arab Caliphate sounds managable for jews and also puts dampers on many other parts further East - BRICS

[End Times]

President Trump to slow down troop pullout from Syria, Sen. Lindsey Graham says

https://www.al.com/news/2018/12/president-trump-to-slow-down-troop-pullout-from-syria-sen-lindsey-graham-says.html

[monty]

Israel First!

[monty]

Is John Bolt-On planning on attacking Iran?



http://youtu.be/ktC2d9R88uk

https://youtu.be/ktC2d9R88uk




‘They can do what they want’: Trump’s Iran comments defy the position of his top aides

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/national-security/they-can-do-what-they-want-trumps-iran-comments-defy-the-position-of-his-top-aides/2019/01/03/86a69d56-0f71-11e9-84fc-d58c33d6c8c7_story.html?noredirect=on

By Missy Ryan (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/missy-ryan/), John Hudson (https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/john-hudson/)
January 3, 2019 at 7:09 PM

(Embeded video, can’t embed here)
During a Jan. 2 Cabinet meeting, President Trump said his decision to pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal had significantly weakened Iran. (The Washington Post)


During a Jan. 2 Cabinet meeting, President Trump said his decision to pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal had significantly weakened Iran. (The Washington Post)In his first Cabinet meeting of the year, President Trump stuck a dagger in a major initiative advanced by his foreign policy team: Iran’s leaders, the president said, “can do what they want” in Syria.

With a stray remark, Trump snuffed out a plan from his national security adviser, John Bolton, who this fall vowed that the United States would not leave Syria (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/bolton-us-forces-will-stay-in-syria-until-iran-and-its-proxies-depart/2018/09/24/be389eb8-c020-11e8-92f2-ac26fda68341_story.html?utm_term=.22a6893f4504)“as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders.”

The president’s statement offered the latest illustration of the dramatic gyrations that have characterized his foreign policy and fueled questions about whether his senior advisers are implementing his policies or pursuing their own agendas.

The president’s order last month to withdraw troops from Syria, which prompted the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, had already exposed a stark gap between Bolton’s plan to use the country as a theater to push back against Iran and the president’s eagerness to wash his hands of the war.

Critics say the shifting plan, which has rattled key U.S. allies, will embolden Russia and Iran, the Syrian government’s main foreign supporters. It also sets the stage for a confrontation between NATO ally Turkey and Kurdish-dominated Syrian forces that have been the chief U.S. partner against the Islamic State.

Related: [In Syria, Trump administration takes on new goal: Iranian retreat] (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-syria-us-takes-on-new-goal-iranian-retreat/2018/09/30/625c182a-c27f-11e8-97a5-ab1e46bb3bc7_story.html?tid=a_inl-amp)

Trump, during wide-ranging comments (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-defensive-trump-calls-a-cabinet-meeting-and-uses-it-to-boast-deflect-and-distract/2019/01/02/21600a3a-0ec3-11e9-8938-5898adc28fa2_story.html?utm_term=.f0081b32d56a) alongside Cabinet officials Wednesday, reiterated his intent to exit Syria as military officials scrambled to arrange a departure for the more than 2,000 troops there.

On Thursday, Bolton discussed plans to hand the Islamic State mission over to Turkish forces with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a meeting at the Pentagon.

Military officials have voiced deep reservations about the speedy departure at a moment when the extremists, though severely weakened, remain a potent threat and Turkey continues to prioritize its fight against the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which it considers part of a Kurdish terrorist group, over the battle against the Islamic State.

Senior officials are expected to gather at the White House in coming days to decide what support the United States might provide to Turkish forces and to the SDF. Early next week, Bolton and Dunford will visit Turkey to discuss the transition plans with leaders there.

Absent from the discussions in Washington, U.S. officials familiar with Syria policy said, is the Iran-centric plan that Bolton and Pompeo unveiled in the fall. Officials attributed that to the fact the president never signed off on an expanded U.S. mission in Syria to counter Iran in the first place.
“That Iran strategy was never endorsed by the president,” said a U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive policy details.

While Trump shares his advisers’ combative views on Iran, he has focused mainly on the 2015 nuclear deal, which he pulled out of earlier this year. Pompeo and Bolton, meanwhile, have taken a broader view and advocated new actions to rein in Iran’s support for proxy groups.

Late last year, some of the president’s hawkish advisers drafted a memo committing the United States to a longer-term presence in Syria that included goals of an enduring defeat of the Islamic State, a political transition and the expulsion of Iran, officials said. The president has not signed the memo, which was presented to him weeks ago.

In fact, Trump had warned his aides for months that he wanted out of Syria in short order. But Bolton and Pompeo, apparently believing like other officials across the government that the president had softened that demand, continued to relay bold plans for the country ahead of the surprise withdrawal announcement.

“Defeating ISIS, which was once our primary focus, continues to be a top priority, but it will now be joined by two other mutually reinforcing objectives,” Pompeo said in October. “These include a peaceful and political resolution to the Syrian conflict and the removal of all Iranian and Iranian-backed forces from Syria.”

On Thursday, Pompeo acknowledged that American forces were leaving but insisted that the United States would continue its mission of countering the Islamic State and Iran. “The counter-Iran campaign continues,” Pompeo told news outlet Newsmax. “We’ll do all of those things. . . . We will simply do it at a time when the American forces have departed Syria.”

Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria, said a well-functioning National Security Council would typically straighten out the dissonance between the president’s wishes and those of the Pentagon and State Department. In this case, Bolton continued to push forward despite the conflicting views.

“Bolton got way out ahead of the policy, and it’s his job to understand what the president wants,” said Ford, now a fellow at the Middle East Institute. “When the president is nervous or cautious about something, it’s the NSC’s job to relay that back to State and the Pentagon, and warn them not to go too far. Apparently they didn’t get the message.”

Bolton, Trump’s third national security adviser, has advanced steps in keeping with the two men’s shared hostility to multilateral institutions like the United Nations, but his expansive view on the use of U.S. military power has appeared to conflict with the president’s instincts.

A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the United States would use “a range of tools of national power,” including sanctions and diplomatic pressure, to continue pressing Tehran to pull its forces out of Syria.

“Iran knows the U.S. stands ready to re-engage at all levels to defend American interests,” the official said.

Related: [U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria is ‘a dream come true for the Iranians’] (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-troop-withdrawal-from-syria-is-a-dream-come-true-for-the-iranians/2018/12/21/472b316a-04b2-11e9-958c-0a601226ff6b_story.html?tid=a_inl-amp)

Bolton’s Iran plan never really took effect at the Pentagon, where officials were not officially tasked with any new mission in addition to the operation against the Islamic State. Military officials likewise viewed Iran’s expansion into Syria as problematic, but they were skeptical about the lack of a clear legal justification that would be required for offensive military action against Iranian-backed forces.

Military officials remain focused on executing an orderly withdrawal of forces from a constellation of small facilities across Syria. While Trump had previously said troops would come home within 30 days, officials said they expect the drawdown to occur within four months, giving the military time to break down its positions and remove sensitive equipment that might have to be destroyed in a more hurried withdrawal.

Although Trump has declared victory against the Islamic State, airstrikes continue against militant forces in eastern Syria, where several hundred extremists were killed in the final weeks of December alone, according to the Pentagon.

“We are continuing the fight against ISIS with our partners in Syria,” a defense official said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

But officials noted that preparing for a departure will become the troops’ top priority, meaning they will be able to provide less support to the SDF even as it continues to battle the Islamic State.

Officials at the Pentagon and State Department are also intensely skeptical that Turkey will deliver on what the White House has said is a promise to hunt down what remains of the Islamic State.
Doing so would require moving Turkish military forces into areas now dominated by the Kurdish SDF, its sworn enemy.

The SDF, meanwhile, might seek to forge an alliance with the Syrian government, potentially strengthening Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The U.S. departure could also undermine the long-standing goal of forcing a political transition in Syria — let alone seeking to extinguish the Islamic State and reining in Iran at the same time.

“Doing all that with 2,000 U.S. forces was already far-fetched,” another official said. “This is just fantasyland.”


Missy Ryan writes about the Pentagon, military issues and national security for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2014 from Reuters, where she reported on U.S. national security and foreign policy issues. She has reported from Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Chile.

John Hudson is a national security reporter at The Washington Post covering the State Department and diplomacy. He has reported from a mix of countries including Ukraine, Pakistan, Malaysia, China, and Georgia.

[End Times]

Bolton Says U.S. Withdrawal From Syria Is Conditional

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bolton-says-u-s-withdrawal-from-syria-is-conditional-11546777230

JERUSALEM—The Trump administration won’t withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria unless Turkey offers a firm commitment not to target America’s Kurdish allies, White House national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday, underscoring the challenges in executing the president’s wishes to put an end to the military campaign.

Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Mr. Bolton said that Mr. Trump’s order to withdraw U.S. troops is a “cause and effect mission” that requires certain assurances from various players in the region before it can be executed.

[JDRock]

Bolton Says U.S. Withdrawal From Syria Is Conditional

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bolton-says-u-s-withdrawal-from-syria-is-conditional-11546777230

JERUSALEM—The Trump administration won’t withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria unless Turkey offers a firm commitment not to target America’s Kurdish allies, White House national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday, underscoring the challenges in executing the president’s wishes to put an end to the military campaign.

Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Mr. Bolton said that Mr. Trump’s order to withdraw U.S. troops is a “cause and effect mission” that requires certain assurances from various players in the region before it can be executed.
If we would have given HALF the arms to the kurds that we gave to isis and alquida we wouldnt be having this conversation.

[midnight rambler]

If we would have given HALF the arms to the kurds that we gave to isis and alquida we wouldnt be having this conversation.

Right, arm the Communist Kurds with more arms than were gifted to ISIS et al. Great deal for everyone.

[JDRock]

Right, arm the Communist Kurds with more arms than were gifted to ISIS et al. Great deal for everyone.
Yes, thats correct. Because the EXCUSE for staying in the shithole it to protect the kurds. Fvk em. Arm both sides and watch them kill each other- its worked for the zionists for 100 years.

[monty]

Yes, thats correct. Because the EXCUSE for staying in the shithole it to protect the kurds. Fvk em. Arm both sides and watch them kill each other- its worked for the zionists for 100 years.

Sixty years ago my father said that we had no business over there and we should let them kill each other like they have been doing for the last thousand years.

[monty]

Traitor John Bolton sold out the U.S.A. to Israhell ~ Blackstone Intelligence



http://youtu.be/2amYcQI8vMI

https://youtu.be/2amYcQI8vMI

[Neuro]

Yes, thats correct. Because the EXCUSE for staying in the shithole it to protect the kurds. Fvk em. Arm both sides and watch them kill each other- its worked for the zionists for 100 years.

Of course arming the Kurds now would mean they would use them against NATO ally Turkey. The thing is that it is really complex, too complex, and when it gets too complex Americans have this way of opting out by saying: Fuck it, let’s just bomb the fuck out of the fuckers and make a fucking parking lot out of it. Which is what you unsuccessfully attempted with Vietnam and Iraq, and it didn’t work. Bolton is consistently offering this solution to simple minds while his Zionist friends work hard to complicate things sometimes by appearance oftentimes in reality, like supporting both sides in a conflict by providing them arms.

Bolton often claims that the purpose of the Middle East wars has been to secure the oil supply for the economy. This is of course total bullshit. All the countries that US has attacked has for many years supplied way less oil to the West, than they provided prior to the war, thus the wars has been bad for US economy, apart from the direct cost for the military operation and occupation.

[JDRock]

^ did u just use the words "nato & ally in the SAME sentence?

[Neuro]

^ did u just use the words "nato & ally in the SAME sentence?

Lemme see... yes “NATO ally” came consecutively after each other even... I think you may have done that as well... Sometimes I just spew out these popularized legal fictions without denying there existence doesn’t mean I think they are valid even though in public consciousness they are accepted.

[monty]

^ John Bolton and envoy didn’t look very happy and after Erdogan refused to meet with him. In fact the others don’t appear to want to be seen with Bolton.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/images8/boltonturkey.jpg

[Jewboo]

^ John Bolton and envoy didn’t look very happy and after Erdogan refused to meet with him. In fact the others don’t appear to want to be seen with Bolton.



https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Special-Features-Bolton-Declares-article-picture-6-INSTRUCTIONS-CROP-OUT-THE-PIC-OF-THE-MAN-ON-THE-FAR-RIGHT-IN-PHOTO_edited.jpg

https://il.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/DSC1536NSC-002.jpg https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2018/08/F180821MSURJ01.jpg

[End Times]

Traitor John Bolton

You assume (((John Bolton))) ever pledged loyalty to Goyish America.

Pure Sayan from birth to now.

[End Times]

Bolton often claims that the purpose of the Middle East wars has been to secure the oil supply for the economy. This is of course total bullshit. All the countries that US has attacked has for many years supplied way less oil to the West, than they provided prior to the war, thus the wars has been bad for US economy, apart from the direct cost for the military operation and occupation.

Shitti Arabia is a shield for "Israel," and, hence, the wars waged have not only been directly for "Israel," but also for Shitti Arabia. Against Iraq...twice...and against Iran, lukewarm. Of course, Shitti Arabia has been the most egregious dictatorship in the Middle East, a key supplier of funding and training for terrorists who have attacked America & Europe, as well as the largest oil supplier in the Middle East. So, if (((Bolton))) was honest, Shitti Arabia, not Iraq, should have been attacked and conquered. Or we could have let Saddam Hussein simply recover his 19th Province (Kuwait), then deal with the Kosher Shitti regime after (which he planned to do - Iraqi intelligence knew the Shitti dynasty is Kike in origin).

[End Times]

^ did u just use the words "nato & ally in the SAME sentence?

I don't he meant that the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization is actually something respectable, just that it was an absurd foreign policy move within the theater we Goyim are given.

[End Times]

^ John Bolton and envoy didn’t look very happy and after Erdogan refused to meet with him. In fact the others don’t appear to want to be seen with Bolton.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/images8/boltonturkey.jpg

Who's the creep with the brass?

Erdogan better watch out...NATO might need to "liberate" his country.

[Neuro]

Shitti Arabia is a shield for "Israel," and, hence, the wars waged have not only been directly for "Israel," but also for Shitti Arabia. Against Iraq...twice...and against Iran, lukewarm. Of course, Shitti Arabia has been the most egregious dictatorship in the Middle East, a key supplier of funding and training for terrorists who have attacked America & Europe, as well as the largest oil supplier in the Middle East. So, if (((Bolton))) was honest, Shitti Arabia, not Iraq, should have been attacked and conquered. Or we could have let Saddam Hussein simply recover his 19th Province (Kuwait), then deal with the Kosher Shitti regime after (which he planned to do - Iraqi intelligence knew the Shitti dynasty is Kike in origin).

Yes the Middle East would have been stable, Europe without hordes of muslims and the world more secure.

[woodman]

Yes the Middle East would have been stable, Europe without hordes of muslims and the world more secure.


Doesn't it always seem they are 'killing two birds with one stone' or in most cases 'many'? Their actions tend to promote many of their designs at once. By destabilizing the Middle East, they are clearing the way for 'Greater Israel' by weakening the Muslim states and they are weakening Euope with the attendant migration caused by this instability. A win/win for the Zionists. I think we here realize that the whole Earth is probably 'Eretz Israel'. Nile to the Euphrates? Naw, the Nile to the Nile.

[midnight rambler]

Doesn't it always seem they are 'killing two birds with one stone' or in most cases 'many'? Their actions tend to promote many of their designs at once. By destabilizing the Middle East, they are clearing the way for 'Greater Israel' by weakening the Muslim states and they are weakening Euope with the attendant migration caused by this instability. A win/win for the Zionists. I think we here realize that the whole Earth is probably 'Eretz Israel'. Nile to the Euphrates? Naw, the Nile to the Nile.

Everything (((the))) do is planned to accomplish multiple goals, S-11 being one of the best examples.

[Neuro]

Doesn't it always seem they are 'killing two birds with one stone' or in most cases 'many'? Their actions tend to promote many of their designs at once. By destabilizing the Middle East, they are clearing the way for 'Greater Israel' by weakening the Muslim states and they are weakening Euope with the attendant migration caused by this instability. A win/win for the Zionists. I think we here realize that the whole Earth is probably 'Eretz Israel'. Nile to the Euphrates? Naw, the Nile to the Nile.
“No matter which side of the aisle you sit on you stand with Israel” [standing ovation]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KMVhb57RqI&feature=share

[monty]

Who's the creep with the brass?

Erdogan better watch out...NATO might need to "liberate" his country.

my guess is he is General Dunford USMC Chairman Joint Cheifs of Staff

[monty]

You assume (((John Bolton))) ever pledged loyalty to Goyish America.

Pure Sayan from birth to now.

No, I don’t assume that. I know he is a dual citizen and his loyalty is to Israhell

[monty]

Ankara Suggests That Astana Trio Should Manage US Pullout After Bolton Insults Turkey

Written by Adam Garrie (https://eurasiafuture.com/author/adam-garrie/) on 2019-01-09
https://eurasiafuture.com/2019/01/09/ankara-suggests-that-astana-trio-should-manage-us-pullout-after-bolton-insults-turkey/

When the Astana trio first initiated their peace process for Syria in late 2016, many felt that the allegedly competing interests of Russia, Turkey and Iran would lead to the failure of the group in respect of achieving positive results for Syria. Instead, it is the Astana trio whose de-escalation zones have preserved an otherwise fragile peace throughout all parts of Syria except for those under the control of the United States and the YPG/PKK terror group. Beyond this, it has been the Astana trio’s diligent work to bring the appropriate parties to the table in order to draft a new constitution for Syria which will serve as the basis for fresh elections. This trilateral effort will help to at long last draw the military phase of the Syria conflict to an end.

With this in mind, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has commented on how the Astana trio can help to coordinate a unified response to the presumed US withdrawal from north-eastern Syria so as to not allow terrorist groups such as the YPG/PKK to fill a power void. According to the Foreign Minister:
“We see that the U.S. has some difficulties while withdrawing [from Syria]. After being so intertwined and engaged with a terrorist organisation[the YPG/PKK], it is not that easy to leave that terrorist organisation”.


Çavuşoğlu then proposed a workable way to move forward in spite of the US partnership with the YPG/PKK. He said:
“We want to coordinate this process [the US withdrawal] jointly with Russia and Iran, with which we had arranged work in the framework of the Astana process. [It is needed] in order for terrorist organisations not to fill in the void [following the US pullout]”.



Turkey retains close and meaningful partnerships with Iran and Russia both within and in the long term more importantly outside of the scope of the Astana format. In respect of Turkey’s proposal for an Astana trio led process to meet the challenges of a possible terrorist power vacuum being created upon a poorly coordinated US withdrawal from north-eastern Syria – this is clearly indicative of Turkey-US bilateral cooperation on the matter breaking down in the aftermath of US National Security Advisor John Bolton’s recent reckless statements (https://eurasiafuture.com/2019/01/08/erdogan-denies-john-bolton-meeting-after-us-national-security-advisors-tantrum-in-israel/).

Prior to his visit to Ankara which was cut short after Turkey’s President refused to meet him, Bolton spoke from Israel and stated that the US would not withdraw from Syria unless Turkey vowed not to neutralise the YPG/PKK terror group which continues to operate in eastern Syria. Turkish authorities were furious that after Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had reached an agreement for an orderly US withdrawal to be supplanted by a Turkish zone of anti-terror operations in Syria, Bolton acted to unilaterally change US policies towards its Turkish NATO partner – seemingly as a result of Israel’s leader telling Bolton to do so.

In respect of Israel’s meddling in the wider Middle East, the Middle East Eye has confirmed a secret meeting between Mossad head Yossi Cohen and the intelligence heads of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt. At the meeting, it was agreed that Turkey presents an even bigger challenge to the de-facto Israeli-GCC(minus Qatar)-Egypt alliance than does Iran. According (https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-uae-egypt-israel-syria-khashoggi-1467976694?fbclid=IwAR1LLBnRksU3w7u3cGORuyQLFowVqJ Bix2SzKS4DwZmTWa1KKbeOGHjcSGU) to Middle East Eye

“The officials also agreed at the meeting that they considered Turkey, rather than Iran, to be their major military rival in the region, and discussed plans to counter Ankara’s influence.

The Israelis told the meeting that Iran could be contained militarily, but that Turkey had a far greater capability. In the meeting Cohen is reported to have said: ‘Iranian power is fragile. The real threat comes from Turkey.”

The report further states,
“The fourth measure agreed on at the meeting was to support Syria’s Kurds against Turkey’s attempts to expel the YPG and its political counterpart, the PYD, from the Turkish border right up to the Iraqi border”.

The intelligence meeting between Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt therefore confirms three important factors, all of which were accurately predicted in previous analysis from Eurasia Future:
1. Israel’s rivalry with Turkey goes far beyond rhetoric over Palestine but is instead the result of a systematic military, economic and petro-political rivalry in the Eastern Mediterranean region in which Israel has conspicuously aligned itself with traditional rivals/enemies of Turkey. (https://eurasiafuture.com/2018/11/07/the-israeli-led-anti-turkish-alliance-in-the-eastern-mediterranean-is-now-official/)

2. Israel’s support for radical YPG/PKK terrorism and other forms of politically extreme ethno-nationalist Kurdish separatism movements is part of a wider attempt to threaten Turkey’s long term regional security. At the same time, the US based Israel lobby has formed an anti-Turkish alliance of convenience with the US based Kurdish, Armenian and Hellenic lobbies – all of whom are traditionally anti-Turkish. (https://eurasiafuture.com/2018/12/23/would-israel-attack-turkish-troops-in-syria-in-order-to-drag-america-back-into-the-war/)

3. Israel has conspired to influence US policy makers in a clear anti-Turkish direction. (https://eurasiafuture.com/2018/05/28/israel-conspires-to-sabotage-the-us-turkey-f-35-deal-as-ankaras-relations-with-tel-aviv-plunge-to-new-low/)

Just how much Israel has influenced John Bolton’s pro-YPG/PKK stance becomes even more obvious when one views an interview he conducted with Fox News during the Obama era in which he correctly stated that the US YPG/PKK alliance is very alarming and symptomatic of poor leadership:

http://gold-silver.us/forum/blob:http://gold-silver.us/43bb6f7c-a7fa-4c6c-801f-e604174960b5https://twitter.com/ozkok_/status/1082729744343449600?s=21 (links to John Bolton video)


https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/932193997963046912/dzYhQugb_bigger.jpg (https://twitter.com/Ozkok_)
HYPOCRASY
John Bolton is probably forgetful. While calling these days for the protection of the #YPG (https://twitter.com/hashtag/YPG?src=hash) militia, he has attacked the support of the Kurdish militia last year as a remnant of Obama's "inadequate" foreign policy. In addition, the YPG is linked to the PKK, he said.
199 (https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1082729744343449600)
1:04 PM - Jan 8, 2019 (https://twitter.com/Ozkok_/status/1082729744343449600)

130 people are talking about this

[End Times]

No, I don’t assume that. I know he is a dual citizen and his loyalty is to Israhell

I didn't mean any offense, BTW.

[JDRock]

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-11/we-dont-take-orders-bolton-us-withdrawal-syria-begins

[Neuro]

HYPOCRASY
John Bolton is probably forgetful. While calling these days for the protection of the #YPG militia, he has attacked the support of the Kurdish militia last year as a remnant of Obama's "inadequate" foreign policy. In addition, the YPG is linked to the PKK, he said.
199
1:04 PM - Jan 8, 2019
He had to invent some reason as to why US troops couldn’t be pulled out immediatelly. Bolton no doubt is there to keep Trump in the zionist reign. It is one of Trumps redeeming qualities I think, his utter unreliability, he prefers to act on his instincts at the moment, and I think his instincts gives him good advice...

Right now John Bolton should feel like he is being squeezed between that Roman wall and a very hard place. I like it...

[JDRock]

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-11/we-dont-take-orders-bolton-us-withdrawal-syria-begins
Bolton visits israel 2x per month. Presumably hes there to get orders, not sight see. Prepare for the MOTHER of all false flag attacks on US soil. IF trump follows through. Assasination is not off the table with these fanatics!

[Horn]

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-11/we-dont-take-orders-bolton-us-withdrawal-syria-begins

Change bait shiny lure for squid.

All i see is a U.S. troop has been replaced with a Kurdish one as a bait target for TurkisIran

That the entire planet including the middle east isn't 24 hour surveilled and completely capitualted by robotic drone strike from Nevada only adds to the troop as bait only fact.

Lindsey and Company are only running interferance patterns to draw away any notions from others... that Trump is some sort of Caesar.

Mitt probably got retirement time shares at Merlago or whatever that golfcourse in Florida is named.

[JDRock]

Whatever israel DOESNT want should be the goal.

[osoab]

Whatever vaccuum the removal of 2,000 meat bags from Syria causes will be filled by our good friend Recep.

[Horn]

Pretty good Syria summary, plus her shirt looks cool in HD


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ3aatCJK0w

[JDRock]

IF and i do mean If, we ever leave shitolia, prepare for the mother of all false flag jewish retribution! How DARE their bitch , the usa start making their own decisions! It will be just like when spain announced it was LEAVING the coalition during the iraq war, IMMEDIATELY, the "arabs" bombed the train in madrid! Really? You announce that your ceasing hostilities and THEN they thank you by goading you into killing them again?? Unless... theres another force behind it.... hmmm
Aaaand right on schedule, AFTER we threaten to leave syria, "isis" attacks and the talking heads call for stopping the withdrawl. Yawn.

[monty]

Seventy Five Years and Counting


Oct 25, 2021
59 (https://off-guardian.org/2021/10/25/75-years-counting-a-history-of-western-regime-change-in-syria-part-i/#comments)

75 Years & Counting: A History of Western Regime Change in Syria Part I (https://off-guardian.org/2021/10/25/75-years-counting-a-history-of-western-regime-change-in-syria-part-i/)


Vanessa Beeley


Washington and London’s latest war against Syria was incubated in CIA and MI6 offices long before the manufactured “uprising” erupted in 2011.

This was not the first time that the US neocolonialist alliance had attempted regime change in Syria. Historian Stephen Gowans writes about Washington’s Long War on Syria (https://www.amazon.fr/Washingtons-Long-Syria-Stephen-Gowans-ebook/dp/B06XY81LZP/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3 %91&dchild=1&keywords=washington+long+war+on+Syria&qid=1633503311&qsid=259-0852401-0057648&sr=8-1&sres=1771861088%2C2816170632&srpt=ABIS_BOOK) in his comprehensive book on the US-led interference in Syrian state affairs for decades.

Gowans describes American opposition to the “fiercely independent” Arab nationalist movement that came to power in Syria in 1963. In 1971 Hafez Al Assad was elected President, the father of Bashar Al Assad both of whom uphold the principles of Arab unity and independence.

Washington sought to purge Arab nationalist influence from the Syrian state and the Arab world more broadly because it was a threat to its agenda of establishing global primacy and promoting business-friendly investment climates for US banks, investors and corporations throughout the world.

Arab nationalists aspired to unify the world’s 400 million Arabs into a single super-state capable of challenging United States hegemony in West Asia and North Africa and becoming a major player on the world stage free from the domination of the former colonial powers and the US.

Washington had waged long wars on the leaders of the Arab nationalist movement—Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, Iraq’s Saddam, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, and Syria’s Assads, often allying with particularly violent forms of political Islam to undermine its Arab nationalist foes.
– from the introduction to Gowans’ book

By 2011, only one pan-Arabist state remained standing in the region – Syria – and it was targeted for subjugation to US supremacy which led to the ten years of bloodshed and misery in a progressive, prosperous and stable sovereign nation.

The reformist President Assad (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/331992-geneva-talks-syria-assad/) was criminalised by colonial media outlets in the West and aligned Gulf State channels as consent was manufactured for yet another interventionist campaign by the UK and US to bring Syria to heel.

Ten years later and Syria is bloody but unbowed and is emerging the military victor of the externally fomented conflict with the support of allies in Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, Iraqi resistance forces and diplomatic support from China.

However, despite this pyrrhic victory there remains a media complex, including so-called anti-imperialist outlets that are maintaining the various narratives that manufactured consent for the 2011 regime-change war in the first place.

These include narratives like “police state” “Assad the tyrant” and “authoritarian state” among others. It is rare that these claims are given any historical context or evidence that demonstrates in-depth research beyond the corporate media claims.

Peter Ford, former UK Ambassador (https://thewallwillfall.org/2021/10/16/debunking-cia-and-mi6-syria-narratives-one-by-one/) to Syria, told me:
I always like to say that maybe Syria is a police state because in states which the West tries to subvert there is a lot of policing to be done!”

What follows is a list of the CIA and MI6 interventions in Syrian affairs since the 1940s. It should clearly demonstrate why Syria has needed to shore up its security apparatus to protect itself from the US, Israel and UK-led black ops that have targeted the country for decades.

Part one of this series will go from 1946 to 2012 although the US, UK, EU interference in Syria began long before (https://whtt.org/destroying-syria-a-century-in-the-making/) that. Part two will cover events from 2012 onwards demonstrating the manipulation of events and biased media coverage of the US Coalition proxy war against Syria leading to a ten year war, barbaric economic sanctions and horrifying bloodshed to remove the Syrian government from power and to secure US/UK/Israeli/Turkish/Gulf State interests in the region.

Note: I have included declassified intelligence documents in the year they were published, not the year they were released.
1946

Syria is finally declared independent from the French mandate which was imposed upon the country by the 1916 Sykes-Picot (https://www.globalresearch.ca/history-the-zionist-origins-of-saudi-arabia-and-its-royals/5724447?print=1)agreement that ‘gave’ Syria to France.

France fought to prevent Syrian independence culminating in a direct attack (https://whtt.org/destroying-syria-a-century-in-the-making/) against Damascus in 1945 killing an estimated 400 Syrian civilians and military in the process.

1947

The CIA was created (https://www.cia.gov/legacy/cia-history/) as a rebrand of previous Intelligence agencies.
1949

The CIA coup of 1949 after Syria had declared war on the Nazis and ended the colonial Vichy French occupation ousted an elected, secular President Shukri Al Quwatli who supported the Palestinian cause (https://macleodpost.com/2020/07/22/post-2-syria-first-of-cia-coups-against-democratic-governments/), was anti-Zionist and did not recognise the (US President) Truman-incubated state of Israel.

Al Quwatli rejected the Trans Arabian Pipeline (TAPLINE) a joint venture of Standard Oil of New Jersey (today ExxonMobil), Standard Oil of California and Texaco (now Chevron) because he believed it would afford the US undue influence in Syria:

Syria’s democratically elected president, Shukri-al-Quwatli, hesitated to approve the Trans Arabian Pipeline, an American project intended to connect the oil fields of Saudi Arabia to the ports of Lebanon via Syria. (so)… the CIA engineered a coup, replacing al-Kuwaiti with the CIA’s handpicked dictator, a convicted swindler named Husni al-Za’im. Al-Za’im barely had time to dissolve parliament and approve the American pipeline before his countrymen deposed him, 14 weeks into his regime.Robert F Kennedy Jr (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/rfk-jr-why-arabs-dont-trust-america-213601/)



Dean Hinton (https://macleodpost.com/2020/07/22/post-2-syria-first-of-cia-coups-against-democratic-governments/), US State Department official made a prescient statement in relation to the planned CIA coup against Syria in 1949 [emphasis added]:
I want to go on record as saying that this is the stupidest, most irresponsible action a diplomatic mission like ours could get itself involved in, and that we’ve started a series of these things that will never end.“



The CIA man in Damascus (https://popularresistance.org/us-coup-in-syria-1949/) who replaced Al-Quwatli turned out to be a murderous tyrant. The CIA had recruited General Husni al-Za’im, the Syrian army chief of staff, under direction of President Harry Truman – the advocate of the State of Israel and the 1948 Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
After only 5 months in power, Al-Za’im was also toppled in another coup (https://whtt.org/destroying-syria-a-century-in-the-making/).

https://off-guardian.org/wp-content/medialibrary/beeley-syria-timelines-1956-deal-egypt-nasser-650x531.jpg?x73884 (https://off-guardian.org/wp-content/medialibrary/beeley-syria-timelines-1956-deal-egypt-nasser.jpg?x73884)

Shukri Al-Quwaiti in Egypt with President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Ibn Saud signing a defence agreement in March 1956 to defend Arab nations against Zionist aggression.
1954

Fourth coup, CIA-supported Adib Shiskali (https://nationalinterest.org/commentary/washingtons-long-history-syria-8717) overthrown.
1955

Syrian people re-elected Al Quwatli who pivoted towards the Soviet Union against US interference and supremacy. The West perceived this policy as non-compliant with US/UK anti-communism.


CIA Director Dulles declared that “Syria is ripe for a coup” and sent his two coup wizards, Kim Roosevelt and Rocky Stone, to Damascus.”Robert F Kennedy Jr (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/rfk-jr-why-arabs-dont-trust-america-213601/)

1956

Operation Straggle – CIA plan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Syria#cite_note-14) to replace the recalcitrant Al-Quwatli Syrian government with an anti-communist regime.

National Security Council member Wilbur Crane Eveland, CIA official Archibald Roosevelt, and Michail Bey Ilyan, former Syrian minister, met in Damascus on 1 July 1956 to discuss a US-backed ‘anti-communist’ takeover of the country. As William Blum wrote in his book ‘Killing Hope (https://williamblum.org/books/killing-hope)’, the plan was for the Syrian military to:
…take control of Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, and Hamah. The frontier posts with Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon would also be captured in order to seal Syria’s borders until the radio stations announced that a new government had taken over under Colonel Kabbani, who would place armored units at key positions throughout Damascus.



The plan was postponed for five days, during which time the Suez Crisis (https://www.globalresearch.ca/british-troops-returning-to-iraq/5420421)happened. Ilyan told Eveland he could not succeed in overthrowing the Syrian government during a war of Israeli aggression. On 31 October, John Foster Dulles informed his brother Allen Dulles, the Director of the CIA:
Re Straggle our people feel that conditions are such that it would be a mistake to try to pull it off”

1957

Operation Wappen – Another CIA coup attempt (https://nationalinterest.org/commentary/washingtons-long-history-syria-8717) to oust Quwatli. $3 million was invested in paying off of Syrian military officers to enable the coup.
The plan failed when some of the officers revealed the project to Syrian Intelligence agencies and turned in the CIA bribe money. This failed coup led to Syria being labelled a “Soviet satellite state”.

August 12th – Syrian Army surrounded US Embassy in Damascus to avert a CIA plot to overthrow President Al Quwatli. Syrian Chief of Counter Intelligence Abdul Hamid Sarraj expelled three US diplomats and jailed dozens of Syrian officers involved in the attempted coup.

US President Eisenhower and UK Prime Minister Harold MacMillan conjured up a ‘Suez-in-reverse’’ plot that might have precipitated an all-out war (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4328056) between the Soviet Union and the US.

The US deployed a fleet to the Mediterranean, armed several of Syria’s neighbors, and incited Turkey to deploy 50,000 troops to its border. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles suggested that the US sought to invoke the “Eisenhower Doctrine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower_Doctrine)” of retaliating against provocations, and this intention was later confirmed in a military report. No Arab state would describe Syria as a provocateur, and these military deployments were withdrawn.

The MacMillan involvement – Documents released in 2003 revealed that British Prime Minister, Harold MacMillan (https://off-guardian.org/2018/05/15/guardian-archive-2003-macmillan-backed-syria-assassination-plot/) and US President Dwight Eisenhower conspired to plunder Syria’s oil resources and to assassinate three Syrian influencers, to force a regime change – Abd al-Hamid Sarraj, head of Syrian military intelligence; Afif al-Bizri, chief of the Syrian general staff; and Khalid Bakdash, leader of the Syrian Communist party.

The Muslim Brotherhood (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/rfk-jr-why-arabs-dont-trust-america-213601/) was financed and weaponised to topple the secular Syrian government and to assassinate the key figures.
1960 – 1971

A series of coups and counter-coups (http://countrystudies.us/syria/15.htm). According to Laith Marouf, journalist and lifelong Palestinian cause activist, every single Syrian President post WW2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_Syria) was overthrown by a US-orchestrated coup d’etat.
1967

Israel illegally occupied the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War, a war that was much misrepresented (https://mondoweiss.net/2017/06/provoked-fighting-survival/) in mainstream media, of course in favour of the Zionist aggressor.

A later 1986 declassified CIA document would outline the potential for military insurgence if Assad were to suffer a major defeat by Israel if an attempt were made to liberate the Golan territories.

Israel says 1967 land conquests weren’t planned. 2021 Declassified documents tell a more complicated story.

The documents describe detailed preparations that were made in the military in the years before 1967, with the intention of organizing in advance the control of territories that the defense establishment assessed – with high certainty — would be conquered in the next war.

A perusal of the information indicates that the takeover and retention of these areas — the West Bank from Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria — were not a by-product of the fighting, but the manifestation of a strategic approach and prior preparations.

– Adam Raz, Forward (https://forward.com/news/470923/israel-land-conquest-1967-occupation-six-day-war-plans/), June 4th 2021

1969

The failed CIA-manufactured coup d’etat (1949 in Syria) – BBC interview with CIA officer, Miles Copeland:


1971

Hafez Al Assad (https://www.amazon.com/Asad-Struggle-Middle-Patrick-Seale/dp/0520069765/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8) came to power. Author and historian Patrick Seale wrote this about the former President, father of President Bashar Al Assad:
A small country like Syria to stand up against the mighty U.S. and say: NO you will not prevail. This is Al-Assad’s historical legacy. He was the only Arab leader who refused to bend a knee for Washington and Israel and refused to accept dictates from them”.

1973

“Yom Kippur War” – Syrian military campaign to liberate the Golan territories from illegal Zionist occupation.

According to the Vinogradov memo, Anwar al-Sadat, holder of the titles of President, Prime Minister, ASU Chairman, Chief Commander, Supreme Military Ruler, entered into conspiracy with the Israelis, betrayed his ally Syria, condemned the Syrian army to destruction and Damascus to bombardment, allowed General Sharon’s tanks to cross without hindrance to the western bank of the Suez Canal, and actually planned a defeat of the Egyptian troops in the October War […] in order to allow for the US come-back to the Middle East.

– Israel Shamir, “What Really Happened in the “Yom Kippur” War?” (https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/22/what-really-happened-in-the-yom-kippur-war/), Counterpunch February 2012

1979

Syria further alienates itself from US neocolonialist policy by supporting the Iranian Revolution (https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-nam-summit-iran-and-syria-a-coup-against-the-west/32501). The revolution overthrew the CIA imposed Shah of Iran who had been CIA-assisted to topple the government of Mohammed Mosaddeq (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cia-assisted-coup-overthrows-government-of-iran), a hardline nationalist who had campaigned against British oil companies in Iran, threatening to nationalise Iranian resources.

1980 – 1982

Brzezinski Cable – A cable from the National Security Council to Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski sought collaboration between European and Gulf State monarchies to “identify possible alternative regimes” to the [Syrian] government led by Hafez Al Assad. (‘Syria July 16, 1980’, National Security Council, 4203XX, Memorandum for Zbigniew Brzezinski, declassified document (https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/18120-document-8-georgy-kornienko-was-top-deputy))

The start of the US coalition (https://books.google.ro/books/about/Asad.html?id=6D9EiJKRTHcC&redir_esc=y), Saudi Arabia, Saddam Hussein and Jordan-backed Muslim Brotherhood insurrection which led a series of savage attacks against Syrian civilians and military (Aleppo cadet massacre (https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Aleppo_Artillery_School_massacre)) until the CIA coup was crushed by Hafez Al Assad in Hama in 1982.

The Muslim Brotherhood US-backed campaign of violence (https://gowans.blog/2016/10/22/the-revolutionary-distemper-in-syria-that-wasnt/) was hugely downplayed in Western media whose focus was on the “totalitarian regime” crack-down by Al Assad in order to support their regime change policy.

The CIA, at the time, observed (https://syria360.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/dia-syria-muslimbrotherhoodpressureintensifies-2.pdf) that “Syrians are pragmatists who do not want a Muslim Brotherhood government”. (Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) – Syria: Muslim Brotherhood Pressure Intensifies 1982 (https://syria360.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/dia-syria-muslimbrotherhoodpressureintensifies-2.pdf))
1982

The Yinon Plan (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1025.htm)
Israel must become an imperial regional power, and must effect the division of the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab states.”

1984

Rifaat Al Assad failed in a suspected coup (https://www.mintpressnews.com/declassified-cia-report-exposes-25-years-u-s-plans-destabilize-syria/225553/) to overthrow his brother’s government (Hafez Al Assad).

Rifaat al-Assad, brother of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, was reportedly in charge of an elite military force called Saraya al-Difaa’ (“al-difa”), or “Defense Companies,” until 1984 (al-Wasat 16 Feb. 1998).

The deployment of the Defense Companies in 1983 and 1984 while President Hafez al-Assad was seriously ill and unable to attend to government matters led some members of the Syrian government to fear that Rifaat was becoming too powerful at the expense of other potential successors to Hafez al-Assad.

– refworld report 1998 (https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ad0822.html)
In addition, (in a 1986 document) the CIA notes the potential for in-fighting among the Alawi elite, particularly over Hafez al-Assad’s brother Rifaat – a controversial figure in Syrian politics.
– Whitney Webb (https://www.mintpressnews.com/declassified-cia-report-exposes-25-years-u-s-plans-destabilize-syria/225553/)

1986

CIA Report (https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP86T01017R000100770001-5.pdf) “Syria: Scenarios of Dramatic Political Change” written by the Foreign Subversion and Instability Center, a part of the CIA’s Mission Center for Global Issues (https://www.cia.gov/offices-of-cia/mission-centers):
This memorandum explores alternative scenarios that could lead to the ouster of President Hafez Al Assad. Specifically, it seeks to clarify the individuals and groups that might impel or impede takeover attempts…”



The CIA favoured a (majority) Sunni Islam (https://www.mintpressnews.com/declassified-cia-report-exposes-25-years-u-s-plans-destabilize-syria/225553/) regime in Syria – “U.S. interests in Syria probably would be best served by a Sunni regime,” – particularly one led by Sunni “business-moderates” who would “see a strong need for Western aid and investment.”

The document states clearly that “a renewal of communal violence between Alawis and Sunnis could inspire Sunnis in the military to turn against the regime.”

It is noted that if the Syrian government cracks down hard on “minor outbreaks of Sunni dissidence” – the minor outbreaks being suicide bombings, assassinations, kidnappings,massacres of religious minority groups just as from 2011 onwards – large scale unrest would be triggered “setting the stage for civil war”. Remember this is in 1986.

1991

First Gulf War – Iraq’s ruler Saddam Hussein (https://wakeup-world.com/2016/01/04/the-dirty-war-on-syria-middle-east/) was recognised by Hafez Al Assad as a collaborator with the US in the devastating and protracted war with Iran, using chemical weapons (https://uk.news.yahoo.com/saddams-chemical-attacks-iran-aided-us-164621550.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kdWNrZHVja2dvLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJWLcgquQQTnOBegjfAT5EWlELkS _P58XnXdmQLPDN5XWGeex-dd7Ngj8OvHIhC3nRvwmw2db-kpiG_o1hGyNJQcSCw_ljdxZc4LGfz-NdgGChtGCpVmWjim05wQQbmgUJCigm7iq0Ki4p2czyAXSjph_M MC59B2rpbHszWOf5Jm) approved by the US, and as an opportunistic backer (https://dissidentvoice.org/2013/07/the-imperial-left-and-the-syrian-conflict/) of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood.

Hafez Al Assad supported the expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait, in line with International Law, in the First Gulf War but both Syria and Iran later opposed the 2003 US invasion of Iraq even though it would effectively rid them of a mutual enemy, Saddam Hussein.
1996

“Clean Break Doctrine” – Israeli policy document (https://web.archive.org/web/20140125123844/http:/www.iasps.org/strat1.htm) proposed regime change in Iraq primarily as a “means” of “weakening, containing, and rolling back Syria (https://whtt.org/destroying-syria-a-century-in-the-making/).

As special consultant to US Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan, Pat Buchanan (https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/whose-war/), put it:
In the Perle-Feith-Wurmser strategy, Israel ’s enemy remains Syria , but the road to Damascus runs through Baghdad.”

Continued -->

[monty]

75 Years and Counting Cont. from above



2000

President Hafez Al Assad died and he was succeeded by his son, Bashar Al Assad (https://www.amazon.com/New-Lion-Damascus-Bashar-al-Asad/dp/0300109911).

Qatar Pipeline proposal – Qatar proposes construction of a $10 billion, 1,500 kilometer pipeline through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. Robert F Kennedy Jr wrote in his article ‘Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/rfk-jr-why-arabs-dont-trust-america-213601/)’:

Qatar shares with Iran the South Pars/North Dome gas field, the world’s richest natural gas repository. The international trade embargo until recently prohibited Iran from selling gas abroad.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s gas can reach European markets only if it is liquefied and shipped by sea, a route that restricts volume and dramatically raises costs. The proposed pipeline would have linked Qatar directly to European energy markets via distribution terminals in Turkey, which would pocket rich transit fees.

The Qatar/Turkey pipeline would give the Sunni kingdoms of the Persian Gulf decisive domination of world natural gas markets and strengthen Qatar, America’s closest ally in the Arab world. Qatar hosts two massive American military bases and the U.S. Central Command’s Mideast headquarters.

2001

9/11 triggers US President Bush’s “war on terror”. An overall agenda for the Middle East was set in motion. Former US General Wesley Clark (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUCwCgthp_E) said in his memoirs – two weeks after the World Trade Centre attacks, he was told by a senior Pentagon official that the 2003 invasion of Iraq had already been approved.

Six weeks later he says that same official told him, ‘It’s worse than that’, before indicating a memo ‘from the Office of the Secretary of Defence … [saying] we’re going to take out seven countries in five years’. Those countries were Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan and finally Iran. [ Off-Guardian 9/11 archives here (https://off-guardian.org/2021/10/25/75-years-counting-a-history-of-western-regime-change-in-syria-part-i/%22https://off-guardian.org/category/911)].

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair (https://syria-report.com/news/blair-wants-new-relationship-with-syria-iran/) speaking in November 2011 2 months after 9/11 [emphasis added]
The events of September 11 have opened opportunities that must be grasped to forge better relations with countries such as Iran and Syria.”



CIA Extraordinary Rendition program in Syria 2001 – 2003. The CIA used Syria as an illicit base of operations to torture so-called “ghost detainees (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_detainee)“, as part of a program known as extraordinary rendition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition).

This program was established in the mid-1990s and expanded in the 2000s (Wikipedia). It is believed by some analysts that Syria went along with this program to try to soften US sanctions and to create better relations with the West which was courting President Assad at this time for the “different relationship” which translates as compliant with US/UK neocolonialism and the ‘security’ of Israel.
2002


“Smoking gun emails reveal Tony Blair’s ‘deal in blood’ with George Bush over Iraq war was forged a YEAR before the invasion had even started.”

Daily Mail headline (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3277402/Smoking-gun-emails-reveal-Blair-s-deal-blood-George-Bush-Iraq-war-forged-YEAR-invasion-started.html)

President Bashar al Assad visited Britain, met the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and dined with Tony Blair at Downing Street. Blair recommended bestowing an honour (https://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Jul-01/178928-britain-considered-knighthood-for-syrias-assad-in-2002-report.ashx#axzz2X5bAfKEJ) on the President.

Blair went on to cheerlead the destruction of Syria in 2011, an act of supreme hypocrisy that was excused by a Blair mouthpiece (https://dissidentvoice.org/2013/06/libya-syria-lies-perfidies-and-tony-blair/):
Engagement with Syria and Assad in 2002 was absolutely right…Mr. Blair has said many times since that the situation has changed and Assad now has to go.”

2003

Pre-planned invasion of Iraq on “war on terror” pretext and Israel launched the first missile attack (https://www.un.org/press/en/2003/sc7887.doc.htm) on Syria for thirty years. President Bush immediately condoned the attack.

A memo from Blair to Bush (https://www.businessinsider.com/chilcot-inquiry-blair-2003-memo-george-w-bush-fundamental-goals-iraq-war-on-terror-2016-7#co-operate-on-wmd-or-face-isolation-and-in-time-worse-9) discussed creating a ‘post-cold-war world order’. These memos were revealed by the Chilcot report (https://thememoryhole2.org/blog/chilcot-report) into the WMD hoax that manufactured consent for the criminal invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Blair mentions Syria, Libya and Iran in the context of ‘anti-terrorism’ and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). These countries should be given a ‘choice’:
“co-operate on WMD or face isolation and in time, worse.”

2004

BBC Media Action launches project to identify (https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/bbc-fake-news-reality-check) opposition to Syrian government inside Syria:
We worked in 2004 with individuals within the ministry who wanted change and tried to get them to be the drivers of that. All media development work that has been done in Syria has, in my opinion, been predicated upon this idea that there can be change from within – you have an authoritarian regime and you find who the reformers are within that (individuals) and you work with them.

Juliette Harkin former BBC Media Action Project Manager

Syria is labelled an “unusual and extraordinary threat” by President Bush – Severe sanctions (https://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/11/us.syria/) were imposed on Syria on the pretext that Damascus was ‘supporting terrorism’ which included the biggest perceived threat to Israel in the region, Hamas and Hezbollah.

In reality the sanctions were punishment (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/feb/17/syria-president-bashar-al-assad) for Syria’s opposition to Bush’s Iraq policy and to attempt to bring Assad to the table to discuss weakening his alliance with Iran and Hezbollah. Those sanctions did not include any restriction on future investments by US energy companies.
2005

Christiane Armanpour of CNN interviews President Bashar Al Assad and informs him that the West is planning a regime change (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GcP1Gb_1Jc). (Note: CNN appear to have removed the video report).

In February of the same year, the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafiq Hariri was assassinated. Hezbollah and Syria would be held responsible for the murder while the covert operations (https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-hariri-assassination-israel-s-fingerprints/20233?print=1) of Israeli Intelligence were overlooked by the UN investigation. This report served only Israel’s interests. It was released 8 months before Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in July 2006.
2006

TIME Article – An article appears in TIME magazine headlined “Syria in Bush’s Crosshairs” (http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1571751,00.html). It claims, leading up to the 2007 Syrian elections:
The Bush Administration has been quietly nurturing individuals and parties opposed to the Syrian government in an effort to undermine the regime of President Bashar Assad.”



US State Department Cable – Wikileaks releases a 2006 State Department cable (https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06DAMASCUS5399_a.html) showing that destabilizing the Syrian government was a primary goal of U.S. policy (http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/33180-wikileaks-reveals-how-the-us-aggressively-pursued-regime-change-in-syria-igniting-a-bloodbath) in the Middle East. The ultimate intention was to topple Iran, one of Syria’s closest allies. The cable revealed (https://www.mintpressnews.com/declassified-cia-report-exposes-25-years-u-s-plans-destabilize-syria/225553/) that the US’ goal at the time was to undermine the Syrian government by any means available.

The ‘New Middle East’ Project – The term “New Middle East (https://www.globalresearch.ca/plans-for-redrawing-the-middle-east-the-project-for-a-new-middle-east/3882)” was introduced to the world in June 2006 in Tel Aviv by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in replacement of the older and more imposing term, the “Greater Middle East.”

The redrawing and partition of the Middle East from the Eastern Mediterranean shores of Lebanon and Syria to Anatolia (Asia Minor), Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and the Iranian Plateau responds to broad economic, strategic and military objectives, which are part of a longstanding Anglo-American and Israeli agenda in the region.
– Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya (https://www.globalresearch.ca/plans-for-redrawing-the-middle-east-the-project-for-a-new-middle-east/3882)

Christian Zionist Pierre Gemayel assassinated in Beirut – Gemayel was gunned down (https://www.executive-magazine.com/business-all/society/obituary-pierre-gemayel-1972-2006) in broad daylight in Jedideh, East Beirut on November 21st. He was a member of one of Lebanon’s most prominent Maronite dynasties.

Gemayel won a parliamentary seat in 2000 as representative for the Christian Phalange Party allied with Israel which led to Syria again being blamed (https://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-is-a-convenient-fall-guy-for-gemayel-s-death/3957) for the attack and brought attention back to the Hariri assassination one year prior. President Bush endorsed the claim that Syria was responsible.
2007

Seymour Hersh reports US is “bolstering” extremist groups “sympathetic to al Qaeda [emphasis added]:
A strategic shift – The US has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

– Seymour M Hirsh, “The Redirection” (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/03/05/the-redirection) (New Yorker, Feb. 25 2007)

Cheney’s Middle-East advisor calls for regime change in Syria. David Wurmser, author of the “Clean Break” memo and Dick Cheney’s Middle East advisor, is quoted in a Telegraph article headlined “US ‘must break Iran and Syria regimes'” (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1565235/US-must-break-Iran-and-Syria-regimes.html):
We need to do everything possible to destabilise the Syrian regime and exploit every single moment they strategically overstep […] That would include the willingness to escalate as far as we need to go to topple the regime if necessary. […] an end to Baathist rule in Damascus could trigger a domino effect that would then bring down the Tehran regime.

2008

CIA paramilitary raids in Eastern Syria 2004 – 2008 In October 2008 the CIA conducted the ‘Abu Kamal’ paramilitary raid on the town of Sukkariyeh in Eastern Syria on the pretext of targeting an Iraqi (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/world/middleeast/28syria.html?pagewanted=all) who was supplying insurgents via the Syrian border.

Syria accused the US of terrorist aggression and claimed that 8 civilians had died in the raid, not militants as reported by the US. Angry protests against America erupted in Damascus and the Syrian government deployed riot police (https://www.haaretz.com/1.5052643) to protect the US embassy and buildings from the protestors.

The New York Times later revealed the existence of a secret 2004 military order (https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/washington/10military.html?pagewanted=all)authorising the CIA and Special Forces to conduct operations in 15-20 countries, including Syria. The order was approved by the Bush administration Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld . US officials acknowledged (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/11/cia-rendition-raids-al-qaida) they had conducted other raids in Syria since 2004 but refused to provide details.
2009

Media industrial complex – US and UK invest millions into Satellite TV Channel – Barada TV (https://www.mintpressnews.com/declassified-cia-report-exposes-25-years-u-s-plans-destabilize-syria/225553/) – to broadcast anti-Syrian Government propaganda throughout Syria before and after the orchestrated ‘uprising’ of 2011.

Wikileaks released cables (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wikileaks-us-secretly-backed-syria-opposition/) showing that US Embassy officials in Damascus were concerned that Syrian intelligence were questioning US programs.
Saudi Arabia expresses an oblique desire to remove Assad – Wikileaks releases State Department email (https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09RIYADH445_a.html), “Saudi Intelligence Chief talks regional security with Brennan delegation (CIA)”, in which Iran was described as being “all over the place [..] the Shiite crescent is becoming a full moon” encompassing Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and Yemen.

US embassy cables (https://www.theguardian.com/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/242073): Hillary Clinton says Saudi Arabia is a “critical source of terrorist funding”.

Evidence Britain making regime change plans two years before the ‘uprising’ – French Foreign Minister (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeyRwFHR8WY) Roland Dumas was approached by British officials who informed him that plans to topple the Syrian government were already in place which included support for an armed ‘opposition’.

US blocks Syrian efforts to join the World Trade Organization – A deliberate attempt (https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2010/07/syri-j13.html)to negatively impact further the Syrian economy combined with harsh sanctions.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy tries to orchestrate Israeli/Syrian meeting on French soil. – Sarkozy wanted to put (https://uprootedpalestinian.blogspot.com/2009/11/sarkozy-was-planning-on-assad-netanyahu.html) France centre stage in a failed peace process between Israel and Syria so he attempted to bring the two leaders together in Paris but Assad refused to land in Paris until Netanyahu’s plane had departed.

https://off-guardian.org/wp-content/medialibrary/assad-sarkozy-paris-2009-650x428.jpg?x73884 (https://off-guardian.org/wp-content/medialibrary/assad-sarkozy-paris-2009.jpg?x73884)
Bashar Al Assad and Nicolas Sarkozy in [U]Paris 2009 (http://www1.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/119/article_5842.asp).

At this point EU and UK regimes were still in courting mode (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/feb/17/syria-president-bashar-al-assad) with Assad. Oil and energy interests were at the forefront of their negotiations.

Assad opposes the Qatar-Turkey oil pipeline – All the hard work of the EU, UK and US to secure their oil interests in Syria were suddenly destroyed when President Assad declared that he would refuse to sign the agreement to allow the pipeline to run through Syria “to protect the interests of our Russian ally.”
Robert F Kennedy Jr described this blow to US Coalition hegemony in his article ‘Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria’ (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/rfk-jr-why-arabs-dont-trust-america-213601/):
Assad further enraged the Gulf’s Sunni monarchs by endorsing a Russian-approved “Islamic pipeline” running from Iran’s side of the gas field through Syria and to the ports of Lebanon. The Islamic pipeline would make Shiite Iran, not Sunni Qatar, the principal supplier to the European energy market and dramatically increase Tehran’s influence in the Middke East and the world.

Israel also was understandably determined to derail the Islamic pipeline, which would enrich Iran and Syria and presumably strengthen their proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Secret cables and reports by the U.S., Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link.

In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA [U]began funding (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/us-secretly-backed-syrian-opposition-groups-cables-released-by-wikileaks-show/2011/04/14/AF1p9hwD_story.html) opposition groups in Syria.

2011

The onslaught of terror attacks begin in the Jordan/Syria border town of Daraa (https://frontieresblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/05/the-day-before-deraa-how-the-war-broke-out-in-syria/).

US Military Intelligence assessment (https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2018/09/28/leaked-us-documents-reveal-a-warped-vision-of-regime-change-in-syria-2/)on Bashar Al Assad’s chances of survival – The US Marine Corps (USMC) Intelligence Department and Stratfor jointly produced this August 2011 report:
The Alawite-Baathist regime of Syria led by the al Assad clan will significantly weaken over the next three years. The potential for the regime to collapse cannot be ruled out, but the road to regime change will be a long and bloody one.

Fortunately for the regime, the opposition in Syria does not yet have the numbers, organization or capabilities overall to overwhelm the regime forces. Syria’s opposition is extremely fractured [..]The exiled opposition has been quite effecting in developing a narrative on the Syrian opposition to disseminate to major media agencies, but reports of protests are overblown [..]

[B]Without foreign backing, the opposition movement is unlikely to acquire enough money or gain enough traction to acquire large quantities of weaponry, let alone achieve regime change.
– Stratfor (https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/syrian-opposition-perception-and-reality)

Special Ops from US/UK/Turkey were inside Syria, training the extremist armed groups. Wikileaks cable INSIGHT military intervention in Syria (https://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/16/1671459_insight-military-intervention-in-syria-post-withdrawal.html):
One Air Force intel guy (US) said very carefully that there isn’t much of a Free Syrian Army to train right now anyway [..] I kept pressing on the question of what these SOF teams would be working toward, and whether this would lead to an eventual air campaign to give a Syrian rebel group cover.

They pretty quickly distanced themselves from that idea, saying that the idea ‘hypothetically’ is to commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, elicit collapse from within. There wouldn’t be a need for air cover, and they wouldn’t expect these Syrian rebels to be marching in columns anyway.

Weapons shipped from Libya to Syria (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/world/africa/in-a-turnabout-syria-rebels-get-libyan-weapons.html) after the murder of Muammar Gaddafi.

This week it was reported (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2342917/Dont-turn-Syria-Tesco-terrorists-like-Libya-generals-tell-Cameron.html?ito=feeds-newsxml) that weapons are flooding in to Syria from a Libya awash with weapons (https://english.al-akhbar.com/node/16164), “with spy chiefs saying” that the country has become a supermarket “of the world’s illegal arms trade.”

“Up to 3,000 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) have gone missing since the conflict” with more than “one million tonnes of weapons belonging to Colonel Quaddaffi” looted after his terrible death at the hands of NATO’s “allies”.

Potentially that is enough SAMs to down 3,000 airliners. The Daily Mail understands that, “…there are now more weapons in Libya than in the entire arsenal of the British Army” according to MI6 estimates.”
– Felicity Arbuthnot (https://dissidentvoice.org/2013/06/libya-syria-lies-perfidies-and-tony-blair/), Dissident Voice
Continued -->

[monty]

75 Years and Counting Continued

British survey firm YouGov published a poll in late 2011 showing support for Assad. The poll revealed (https://gowans.blog/2016/10/22/the-revolutionary-distemper-in-syria-that-wasnt/) that 55% of Syrians maintained support for President Assad.

Time’s correspondent Rania Abouzeid attributed the failure of the protest organizers to draw significant support to the fact that most Syrians were not opposed to their government.
Stephen Gowans (https://gowans.blog/2016/10/22/the-revolutionary-distemper-in-syria-that-wasnt/), October 2016



NATO and regional allies form the “Friends of Syria Coalition”. According to Robert F Kennedy Jr in his article “Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria” (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/rfk-jr-why-arabs-dont-trust-america-213601/):
In 2011, the U.S. joined France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UK to form the Friends of Syria Coalition, which formally demanded the removal of Assad.

The CIA provided $6 million to Barada (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wikileaks-us-secretly-backed-syria-opposition/), a British TV channel, to produce pieces entreating Assad’s ouster.

Saudi intelligence documents, published by WikiLeaks, show that by 2012, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were arming, training and funding radical jihadist Sunni fighters from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere to overthrow the Assad’s Shiite-allied regime.

Qatar, which had the most to gain, invested $3 billion (https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics-live/liveblog/the-houses-syria-hearing-live-updates) in building the insurgency and invited the Pentagon to train insurgents at U.S. bases in Qatar. According to an April 2014 article by Seymour Hersh, the CIA weapons ratlines were financed (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line) by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

2012

Al Jazeera foreign correspondent in Beirut Ali Hashem resigns – Hashem cited the channel bias (https://www.rt.com/news/hashem-al-jazeera-resignation-523/) against the Syrian government as the reason for his departure –
“Television channels have turned into political parties, pushing the agenda for some outside forces.”



The Syrian Opposition: who’s doing the talking? – An excellent investigative report (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/12/syrian-opposition-doing-the-talking) by journalist Charlie Skelton for The Guardian when decent and objective journalists were still on the payroll:
They’re selling the idea of military intervention and regime change, and the mainstream news is hungry to buy. Many of the “activists” and spokespeople representing the Syrian opposition are closely (and in many cases financially) interlinked with the US and London – the very people who would be doing the intervening. Which means information and statistics from these sources isn’t necessarily pure news – it’s a sales pitch, a PR campaign.

But it’s never too late to ask questions, to scrutinise sources. Asking questions doesn’t make you a cheerleader for Assad – that’s a false argument. It just makes you less susceptible to spin. The good news is, there’s a sceptic born every minute.

Jonathan Steele in The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/17/syrians-support-assad-western-propaganda) – ‘Most Syrians back President Assad, but you’d never know from western media’
As for foreign military intervention, it has already started. It is not following the Libyan pattern since Russia and China are furious at the west’s deception in the security council last year (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045442/US-envoy-Susan-Rice-storms-Russia-China-veto-UN-resolution.html). They will not accept a new United Nations resolution that allows any use of force.

The model is an older one, going back to the era of the cold war, before “humanitarian intervention” and the “responsibility to protect” were developed and often misused. Remember Ronald Reagan’s support for the Contras, whom he armed and trained to try to topple Nicaragua’s Sandinistas from bases in Honduras? For Honduras read Turkey, the safe haven where the so-called Free Syrian Army has set up.

CIA spending $100,000 per ‘moderate rebel’ – President Obama’s ‘train and equip’ program (https://thehill.com/policy/defense/217958-obamas-plan-to-train-syrians-costs-100k-per-rebel-says-dem-sen) was effectively financing death squads in Syria.

It was calculated that it would cost $500 million to train 5,000 “moderates” for one year hence $100,000 per Muslim Brotherhood extremist thug allied with Al Qaeda and ISIS (https://williamvanwagenen.wordpress.com/2018/04/15/708/) and supported on the ground by US Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford (https://thewallwillfall.org/2016/01/06/my-conversations-with-robert-ford-on-anti-syria-propaganda/)who was later expelled for his role in fomenting insurgence.
Hillary Clinton US State Department email – From the Wikileaks archives of Hillary Clinton email (https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/18328) [emphasis added]:
The best way to help Israel deal with Iran’s growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad […] Speaking on CNN’s Amanpour show last week, Defense Minister Ehud Barak argued that “the toppling down of Assad will be a major blow to the radical axis, major blow to Iran…It’s the only kind of outpost of the Iranian influence in the Arab world…and it will weaken dramatically both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Bringing down Assad would not only be a massive boon to Israel’s security, it would also ease Israel’s understandable fear of losing its nuclear monopoly. Washington should start by expressing its willingness to work with regional allies like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar to organize, train and arm Syrian rebel forces.

The announcement of such a decision would, by itself, likely cause substantial defections from the Syrian military. Then, using territory in Turkey and possibly Jordan, U.S. diplomats and Pentagon officials can start strengthening the opposition.

Saudi Arabia demands that President Assad be overthrown using “all means available” – Wikileaks cable released in 2015 (https://levantreport.com/2016/02/25/newly-translated-wikileaks-saudi-cable-overthrow-the-syrian-regime-but-play-nice-with-russia/):
The fact must be stressed that in the case where the Syrian regime is able to pass through its current crisis in any shape or form, the primary goal that it will pursue is taking revenge on the countries that stood against it, with the Kingdom and some of the countries of the Gulf coming at the top of the list.

If we take into account the extent of this regime’s brutality and viciousness and its lack of hesitancy to resort to any means to realize its aims, then the situation will reach a high degree of danger for the Kingdom, which must seek by all means available and all possible ways to overthrow the current regime in Syria.

As regards the international position, it is clear that there is a lack of “desire” and not a lack of “capability” on the part of Western countries, chief among them the United States, to take firm step…

Hillary Clinton receives an email stating “Al Qaeda is on our side ” – Clinton received an email from Jake Sullivan, her deputy Chief of Staff (Sullivan is now National Security Advisor to the Joe Biden administration). Sullivan introduces the email (https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/23225) with “see last item – AQ is on our side in Syria”
New York Times: “most US weapons sent to Syria were ending up in hands of terrorist groups”. Rebel Arms Flow is Said to Benefit Jihadists in Syria (https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/world/middleeast/jihadists-receiving-most-arms-sent-to-syrian-rebels.html):
[I]American officials have been trying to understand why hard-line Islamists have received the lion’s share of the arms shipped to the Syrian opposition through the shadowy pipeline with roots in Qatar, and, to a lesser degree, Saudi Arabia.”



Al Qaeda global leaders (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/16/world/middleeast/al-qaeda-turns-to-syria-with-a-plan-to-challenge-isis.html) arrive in Syria to topple the Syrian government.

2011 – 2013 160 US military cargo planes full of US weapons sent to Syria – US weapons sent from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to Turkey and then imported into Syria via the Turkey rat runs on Syria/Turkey borders enabled by the CIA (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/world/middleeast/arms-airlift-to-syrian-rebels-expands-with-cia-aid.html).

Collaboration between “moderate rebels” aka the Free Syrian Army and Al Qaeda or ISIS – World Affairs blog has collated ten articles (https://worldaffairs.blog/2017/06/24/proof-that-moderate-rebels-al-qaeda-and-isis/)demonstrating that the ‘moderate rebel” concept was concocted in the CIA and MI6 intelligence rooms and never really existed from the beginning of the US-dominated war against Syria.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (https://www.voltairenet.org/article195690.html) announces that “Al Qaeda are doing a good job” in Syria:
Relations of victims (https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20150907-syrians-take-french-fm-fabius-court-encouraging-al-nusra) of jihadist groups in Syria took the French government to court in 2015, accusing Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius of encouraging violence in their country by praising the al-Qaida affiliate, the al-Nusra Front.


* * *
This list of CIA and MI6 meddling in Syrian affairs is not exhaustive but it is designed to enable readers to research historic events that are being deliberately obfuscated by the BBC, The Guardian, (https://21stcenturywire.com/2018/02/01/white-helmets-channel-4-bbc-guardian-architects-war/) Channel 4, CNN (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VMTfkP0jSQ) etc in favour of distorted facts that will confuse voters and manufacture consent for perpetual British and US criminal military adventurism.

Part Two will cover events from 2012 until the present day and will expose the major media fabrications, billionaire-funded NGO complex and intelligence agency involvement in the bloodshed, displacement and ethnic cleansing of Syrians by the various extremist Contra groups described by corporate media as “moderate rebels”.

Vanessa Beeley is an independent journalist and photographer who has worked extensively in the Middle East – on the ground in Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Palestine, while also covering the conflict in Yemen since 2015.

Follow her on Twitter @VanessaBeeley, or read her blog at The Wall Will Fall (https://thewallwillfall.org/).