Seymour Hersh's Believe It or Don't

Repetition is at the heart of the Assad-Putin propaganda method, what might also be called the RT method. It is widely supported by the "non-(NATO) interventionist" Left. You make up a lie and you keep repeating it. Lack of proof is not an obstacle, just keep repeating it. Anonymous sources won't impeach its credibility as long as you keep repeating it. Even after it has clearly been disproven, you pay that no nevermind and you keep repeating it. So given how thoroughly he has embraced this method, it should surprise no one that the latest offering from Seymour Hersh, The Red Line and the Rat Line, London Review of Books, 6 April 2014, is essentially a rehash of his earlier LRB piece, Whose Sarin?, in which he first marshalled out his collected conspiracy theories about how Assad's opposition gassed themselves and Obama knew it. I responded to that at the time with Whose Seymour Hersh?, and since I have already refuted Hersh's arguments in that and other pieces, it now seems that I too will have to repeat myself, so please bear with me. Seymour Hersh brings no new evidence to the table in his new piece, in fact the main thing new is his focus on Turkey as the "bad guy", a theme that is very topical with the Assad propaganda crowd these days, as can be seen from the #SaveKessab campaign. Seymour Herst's Question has been Answered The question he made the title of that earlier piece has since been answered definitively by the United Nation on 5 March 2014 in the 7th report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. On page 19, it says:

The evidence available concerning the nature, quality and quantity of the agents used on 21 August indicated that the perpetrators likely had access to the chemical weapons stockpile of the Syrian military, as well as the expertise and equipment necessary to manipulate safely large amount of chemical agents.

That is a very definitive answer to Hersh's question "Whose sarin?", and from a very authoritative body. That is an answer to which one would think that Sy Hersh must respond to in any subsequent attempt to push his thesis that Assad is innocent and the 21 August sarin attacks in Damascus were the result of rebels using home-made sarin and home-made rockets. So how does he deal with this UN declaration? Did I mention that ignoring inconvenient facts is another tenet of the Assad-Putin school of propaganda? So nevermind about that. Sy Hersh neither acknowledges nor responds to this UN report. He has his own source, "the [anonymous] former intelligence official."  In fact, practically everything in this article is based on the word of this anonymous ex-agent, "the former intelligence official", a phrase he uses an astounding 31 times in this 5858 word article. All of Hersh's other sources are just as anonymous and unverifiable, like "a US intelligence consultant", "an American foreign policy expert", "a former US official","a senior Turkish diplomat", etc. None of his sources have names. Almost none of Hersh's claims can be independently verified because they are secrets that reference unpublished secret papers that few have seen. For example, we are told to trust information from an anonymous Russian source because "the former intelligence official" tells us he is "a good source – someone with access, knowledge and a record of being trustworthy." This only works if you trust Sy Hersh about the trustworthiness of "the former intelligence official" and you trust "the former intelligence official's" judgement about the Russian chap. In short, this article rest entirely on your trust in Seymour Hersh. We are given no way to fact check what he is telling us. The Former Intelligence Official Since so much is this article depends on the word of "the former intelligence official," what do we know about him? Sy Hersh tell us a lot just from what he knows about a lot of matters generally kept secret.  "the former intelligence official":

• Knows what "many in the US national security establishment" are thinking
• Knows "White House rejected 35 target sets provided by the joint chiefs of staff"
• Knew "Every day the target list was getting longer,"
• Knew "the president had given the Joint Chiefs a fixed deadline for the launch"
• Knew what a "Russian military intelligence operative" was passing on to "British military intelligence"
• Knows what US Intel knows and doesn't know about "which batches [of Soviet-manufactured chemical weapons] the Assad government currently had in its arsenal"
• Knows that in "studies done by Western intelligence" in the spring, "The word “sarin” didn’t come up." -- this is a remarkable statement because it implies that "the former intelligence official" has a comprehensive knowledge of all such "studies done by Western intelligence" and since no such studies are cited or linked to, we have to assume most are secret or classified.
• Knows what "the Syrian opposition clearly had learned"
• Knew what "the consulate’s only mission was" in Benghazi
• Knew that "the joint chiefs had been sceptical of the administration’s argument" and opposed the attack because they thought it "would be an unjustified act of aggression" [Where was this 'moral' joint chiefs of Hersh's imagination from Vietnam through Iraq?]
• Knew how "The president’s decision to go to Congress was initially seen by senior aides in the White House"
• Knew what "The joint chiefs asked the White House"

In looking at the extraordinary range of closely-held material coming from Seymour Hersh's "former intelligence official" we have to conclude he is someone with extremely high level access. What could be more secret than the traffic between the president and his military command? And yet Hersh's "former intelligence official" is all up in their business. He knows what's going on inside the White House and he knows the technical details of a number of countries' chemical weapons facilities. Sy Hersh has himself a real master spy here. Imagine what his access would be worth to foreign governments? But what does it mean that he is a "former intelligence official"? We aren't talking "Burn Notice" here, are we? Because then he wouldn't have all that fabulous access. APAP Rule #1: Don't let facts get in the way Other Assad/Putin AgitProp questions are raised by Sy Hersh's other unnamed sources, for example Sy Hersh says:

A person with close knowledge of the UN’s activity in Syria told me that there was evidence linking the Syrian opposition to the first gas attack, on 19 March in Khan Al-Assal, a village near Aleppo. In its final report in December, the mission said that at least 19 civilians and one Syrian soldier were among the fatalities, along with scores of injured. It had no mandate to assign responsibility for the attack, but the person with knowledge of the UN’s activities said: ‘Investigators interviewed the people who were there, including the doctors who treated the victims. It was clear that the rebels used the gas. It did not come out in public because no one wanted to know.’

Could that "person with close knowledge of the UN’s activity in Syria" be Carla Del Ponte? If so, there are very good reasons why Hersh might want to keep her identity a secret. Carla Del Ponte has a long and chequered career as a UN functionary. As a member of the UN commission of inquiry in May 2013, she made the provocative accusation that the rebels were the ones using sarin in Syria. Just hours after she went on Swiss TV and said,

"Our investigators have been in neighbouring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals. "According to their report of last week, which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated." ... “This was use on the part of the opposition's fighters, not by the government authorities.”

her UN panel issued a statement "to clarify that it has not reached conclusive findings" and no such findings were included in their final report. But it doesn't matter that Carla Del Pointe spoke out-of-court and immediately had her statement rebuked, all the pro-Assad propagandists can ignore those details and continue to claim that a UN official said the rebels did it. If they make it known that they are referring to Del Pointe's statement, it has already been well exposed, but Hersh keeps his "person with close knowledge of the UN’s activity in Syria" a secret so we either believe Hersh or we don't. And again we see that Hersh simply ignores evidence he doesn't like, for while he uses an anonymous  "person with close knowledge of the UN’s activity in Syria" to put responsibility for the 19 March sarin attack in Khan Al-Assal on Assad's opposition, he ignores the official published UN findings, which says the Assad regime did this attack:

128. In Al-Ghouta, significant quantities of sarin were used in a well-planned indiscriminate attack targeting civilian-inhabited areas, causing mass casualties. The evidence available concerning the nature, quality and quantity of the agents used on 21 August indicated that the perpetrators likely had access to the chemical weapons stockpile of the Syrian military, as well as the expertise and equipment necessary to manipulate safely large amount of chemical agents. Concerning the incident in Khan Al-Assal on 19 March, the chemical agents used in that attack bore the same unique hallmarks as those used in Al-Ghouta.

So in both the 21 August attack in Ghouta and the 19 March attack in Khan Al-Assal, the official UN commission, using personnel and labs known to us, say that the sarin used was of a "professional" grade that came from Assad's arsenal and was delivered by a professional army with the expertise to handle large amounts of CW, and not the "home-made" sarin, delivered by "home-made" rockets of Sy Hersh's alternate reality. So how does Hersh deal with that gaping contradiction? Easy, in his world, that UN report doesn't exist and never gets mentioned. He has his mysterious alternate sources and he asks us to believe them instead. more madness to his method Frankly, I am also suspicious of this bit Sy Hersh gets from an unnamed "Defense Department consultant":

US intelligence has long known that al-Qaida experimented with chemical weapons, and has a video of one of its gas experiments with dogs.

This sounds suspiciously like the phony Syrian Rebel Gas Test on Rabbits Video posted on YouTube and promoted on Alex Jones' Infowars with the headline Shock Video Shows ‘Syrian Rebels’ Testing Chemical Weapons and on PressTV and many other pro-Assad outlets. It was clearly designed to frame the rebels for testing poison gas but was so fake that it was called out by comments like "this vid is total fake, and demonstrates an intent to use chemical agents and blame it on rebels" and "just a bunch of DESPERATE assad supporters staging a FAKE JIHADIST VIDEO" on YouTube and was exposed in my blog here and by Syrian Man in a video critique. Sy's guy has dogs dying in his video, not rabbits, so presumably it is a different video, and since it is not one that has been posted to YouTube, but is instead a secret US intelligence video, we are not in a position say whether it looks real or as fake as the rabbit video. At another point Sy Hersh show us how a technically truthful statement can communicate a lie. He does a lot of that, for example he writes:

Last May, more than ten members of the al-Nusra Front were arrested in southern Turkey with what local police told the press were two kilograms of sarin.

While no one can account for "what local police told the press", many published reports quoted Hüseyin Avni Cos, the governor of Adana, where the arrest were made, as saying:

"We cannot reveal any organisation names right now, but their links will be evident after the questioning, there is no gas or anything of that sort captured as claimed."

Of the twelve people originally arrested, six where released outright and six were charged with suspicion of producing sarin gas. Five of those charged had their charges dropped before trial and the last one was freed at trial. No evidence of sarin or sarin production was ever found in spite of what certain pro-Assad newspapers claimed they were told by local police. But none of this history will stop unprincipled Assad supporters from repeating over and over again with a straight face "than ten members of the al-Nusra Front were arrested in southern Turkey with what local police told the press were two kilograms of sarin." If you need more details on this incident and the propaganda around it check out my blog post, More False Reports of Sarin Usage by Assad's Opposition in Syria, 3 June 2013. Sy Hersh's theme, that the chemical attack was a false-flag attack stage by the rebels is not original and goes back to the very earliest gas attacks at the end of 2012, eight months before Obama's "red-line" was drawn.

According to Russia Today, Syrian rebels have obtained chemical weapons from Libya and are planning on using them on civilians, and then blaming it on Assad. This is an effort between the Syrian rebels and their allies in Turkey, alongside cooperation with Libyan rebels under Abdel Hakim bel Haj.

Does the name Michael Maloof ring a bell? While Hersh doesn't tell us who "the former intelligence officer" is, it does sound like it could very well be Michael Maloof, a former intelligence officer that writes on the neo-con website WND. With regards to the chemical attacks in Syria, he has been singing the same tune as Hersh. Or is it the other way round? For example, 6 months before Hersh's most recent offering, Maloof wrote in WND:

Former U.S. intelligence analysts claim current intelligence analysts have told them Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not responsible for the Aug. 21 poison gas attack on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, which killed 1,429 people, of whom more than 400 where children. They claim the “growing body of evidence” reveals the incident was a pre-planned provocation by the Syrian opposition and its Saudi and Turkish supporters. “The aim is reported to have been to create the kind of incident that would bring the United States into the war,” one former U.S. intelligence analysts said.

He also claims to have obtained classified documents that sound like the ones shown to Sy Hersh, saying:

in a classified document just obtained by WND, the U.S. military confirms that sarin was confiscated earlier this year from members of the Jabhat al-Nusra Front, the most influential of the rebel Islamists fighting in Syria. The document says sarin from al-Qaida in Iraq made its way into Turkey and that while some was seized, more could have been used in an attack last March on civilians and Syrian military soldiers in Aleppo.

If Michael Maloof is "the former intelligence officer" that has been informing him, Sy Hersh has good reason for keeping his identity a secret. Michael Maloof was a Pentagon intelligence officer and part of a two-man team created after 9/11 to find links between al-Qaeda and Iraq. He had his security clearance revoked [Burn Notice?] in 2003 amidst allegations that he was involved with a Lebanese-American businessman, Imad El Haje, in a gun-running scheme to supply a West African civil war. Imad El Haje also "approached Maloof on behalf of Syria to seek help in arranging a communications channel between Syria and the Defense Department" eleven years ago. According to Warren P. Strobel of Knight Ridder Newspapers, 6 Nov 2003:

Those close to him contend that his clearances were pulled in retaliation for challenging the official assessment that there were no operational terrorist links between al-Qaida and Iraq.

So we can see that Maloof's love of conspiracy theories goes way back. But it gets worst than that because Maloof tell us who his source is and he names none other than Ray McGovern, a former analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency, and his Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). I debunked their theories on how Assad didn't do it and the rebels gassed themselves in my blog post My dare to Ray McGovern & VIPS on Syria CW attack 7 Sept 2013, and in Secret Intel Source of Ray McGovern & VIPS Revealed!, 11 Sept 2013, I show that their theory was plagiarized from one Yossef Bodansky who, as it turns out, is an ally of Bashar al-Assad's uncle, Rifaat al-Assad. Is this the ultimate source of Sy Hersh's exclusive intel? Many others have critiqued Sy Hersh's latest piece, among the best are: From EA Worldview There is No Chemical Weapons Conspiracy — Dissecting Hersh’s “Exclusive” by Scott Lucas 8 April 2014 Dissecting Hersh’s “Insurgents Did Chemical Weapons Attacks” — A Sequel by Scott Lucas 8 April 2014 From Brown Moses Blog Seymour Hersh's Volcano Problem by Eliot Higgins 7 April 2014 What Does Seymour Hersh Knows About Volcano Rockets? by Eliot Higgins 7 April 2014 From War in Context Seymour Hersh’s alternate reality by Paul Woodward 6 April 2014 Does Seymour Hersh understand how hexamine fits into Syrian sarin? by Paul Woodward 7 April 2014 Seymour Hersh as Dorian Gray by Louis Proyect 9 April 2014 From Arms Control Wonk Turkey’s Syria Policy: Why Seymour Hersh Got it Wrong by Stein 8 April 2014 From NOW Hersh and the Red Herring by Dan Kaszeta 8 April 2014 My blogs on Assad's use of CW in Syria:

• Whose Seymour Hersh? 
• UN: Assad sarin used in attacks | The Left's response?
• How Obama has supported Assad's gas murder always
• Why the return of chemical weapons is a big deal
• The Courage of Ghouta in a Craven World
• Where Robert Fisk's defense of Assad falls down
• More on ex-journalist Robert Fisk's defense of Assad
• Mint Press exposed as Assad apologist, AntiWar.com apologizes
• UN hints Assad used Russian rockets in sarin gas attack
• BREAKING: New Chemical Attack reported in Syria
• Secret Intel Source of Ray McGovern & VIPS Revealed!
• Why did Assad Regime first Deny CW Attack if Blameless?
• Witness to CW Attack: When Paradise turned to Hell.
• Media Body Count Games: Less than 500 or 110,000?
• Dr. Zaher Sahloul on the CW Attacks in Syria
• Why would Assad use CW with UN Inspectors in Syria?
• My dare to Ray McGovern & VIPS on Syria CW attack
• Who Used Sarin in Syria?
• Assad Knows: Chemical Attacks Kill Children First! 
• 1300+ Dead after Obama "Green-lights" new CW attack in Syria 

Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria

How Noam Chomsky cleans up Mummar Qaddafi

شهداء وجرحي معركة اجدابيا اطفال وابرياء قتلهم القدافي

http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/04/04/top-5-reasons-we-keep-fighting-all-these-wars/ Steve Walt argued in FP

[Gaddafi’s] forces certainly harmed innocents while defeating rebels in urban areas, as U.S. forces have done in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he did threaten "no mercy" in Benghazi, but Gadhafi directed this threat only at rebels to persuade them to flee. Despite ubiquitous cellphone cameras, there are no images of genocidal violence, a claim that smacks of rebel propaganda.

On 15 March 2011, government forces advancing from Brega (which they had captured just a few hours earlier) hit Ajdabiya with a rolling artillery barrage. Air and naval strikes also hit the city. The city had been subjected to airstrikes for the previous three days. Rebels had stated on 13 March, that they would defend the city to the death. However, as soon as the attack started, all of the rebel forces that were not local (from Ajdabiya) were in full retreat, with some of the civilian population, toward Benghazi. Following the artillery strikes, loyalist ground troops attacked. The rebels had expected the loyalists to come in from the west, and they did. However, another separate government force had outflanked the rebels and attacked the city from the south. The loyalists quickly overran the western rebel defences and took the western gate into the city. Also, government soldiers had taken the eastern gate of the city, preventing any more rebels from retreating toward Benghazi. The city was surrounded and the junction at Ajdabiya was under government control, opening the way for them to Benghazi. After the encirclement was complete, government battle tanks went into Ajdabiya all the way to the city center. They encountered the rebel remnants and street fighting ensued. While the fighting was going on in the streets, two old rebel air-attack fighters, sent from Benghazi, attacked the government naval ships that had been pounding the city from the sea. According to independent news sources, only one ship was hit, while the rebels claimed they hit three warships, of which two sank. After a few hours, most of the city was under government control, however, in order to avoid surprise attacks by hidden rebels during the night, the tanks retreated to the outskirts of the city. The rebels thought they had won. However, just before midnight, a new round of artillery fire hit Ajdabiya, coming from the loyalist forces that were all around the town.^[11][22][23] On 16 March, fighting continued with neither side having the upper hand in the battle or in full control of the town.^[24] Government forces returning from the front said in interviews that rebel resistance was fierce. During the day, a force of rebel reinforcements, coming from Benghazi, came to within a few kilometers from the eastern entrance to the city before they were engaged by loyalist troops. They made a small corridor to link up Benghazi with Ajdabiya, but pro-Gaddafi troops still had a strong presence on the eastern outskirts of the city. Also, rebels had managed to retake the southern entrance to the city, while the western entrance was still under government control. Three rebel helicopters had attacked pro-Gaddafi forces on the highway at the west entrance where they were preparing for a final push into the city with more weapons, ammunition and troop reinforcements coming in from Sirte.^[10][25] Just after midnight on 17 March, government troops attacked the southern gate of the city. After three hours of fighting they had retaken it. Later during the morning loyalist forces closed the corridor on the eastern side of the city. With this, the city was once again firmly surrounded. While the fighting was going on in Ajdabiya, more government troops landed from the sea, in an amphibious attack, at the small oil port town of Zuwetina, that is to the north on the road between Ajdabiya and Benghazi. The town fell quickly to loyalist forces.^[26] However, rebel leaders claimed that they had surrounded the government landing force and were engaging them.^[27] The next day the rebels claimed, several of their fighters, along with a number of civilians, were killed and 20 government soldiers captured in fighting at the port.^[28]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-18/un-clears-way-for-libya-no-fly-zone/2652494

Updated 17 Mar 2011, 6:36pm The United Nations Security Council has cleared the way for air strikes to halt Moamar Gaddafi's offensive against embattled rebel forces in Libya, with the first bombing raids possible within hours. It approved a resolution permitting "all necessary measures" to impose a no-fly zone, protect civilian areas and impose a ceasefire on Mr Gaddafi's military. ... The vote comes as Mr Gaddafi told Libyan rebels that his armed forces were coming to their capital Benghazi tonight and would not show any mercy to fighters who resisted them. ... Residents in Benghazi said the Libyan air force had unleashed three air raids on the city of 670,000 and there had been fierce fighting along the Mediterranean coastal road. Mr Gaddafi had warned those who resisted would be shown no mercy. "We will come, zenga, zenga. House by house, room by room," Mr Gaddafi said in a radio address to the eastern city. He warned that only those who lay down their arms would be spared vengeance to be exacted on "rats and dogs".

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/africa/18libya.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

“We are coming tonight,” Colonel Qaddafi said. “You will come out from inside. Prepare yourselves from tonight. We will find you in your closets.” Speaking on a call-in radio show, he promised amnesty for those “who throw their weapons away” but “no mercy or compassion” for those who fight.

17 March 2011 Saif el-Islam Qaddafi in interview with French TV: “Military operations are over. Within 48 hours everything will be finished. Our forces are almost in Benghazi. Whatever the decision, it will be too late.” 27 March 2011, Human Rights Watch’s Tom Malinowski: Washington director of Human Rights Watch.

[W]e should acknowledge what could be happening in eastern Libya right now had Qaddafi’s forces continued their march. The dozens of burned out tanks, rocket launchers, and missiles bombed at the eleventh hour on the road to Benghazi would have devastated the rebel stronghold if Qaddafi’s forces had been able to unleash them indiscriminately, as they did in other, smaller rebel-held towns, like Zawiyah, Misrata, and Adjabiya. Qaddafi’s long track-record of arresting, torturing, disappearing, and killing his political opponents to maintain control suggests that had he recaptured the east, a similar fate would have awaited those who supported the opposition there. Over a hundred thousand Libyans already fled to Egypt fearing Qaddafi’s assault; hundreds of thousands more could have followed if the east had fallen. The remaining population, and those living in refugee camps abroad, would have felt betrayed by the West, which groups like Al Qaeda would undoubtedly have tried to exploit.

Libya: Cluster Munitions Strike Misrata   4/15/11 Human Rights Watch Witnesses Attack Into Residential Area (New York) - Government forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, have fired cluster munitions into residential areas in the western city of Misrata, posing a grave risk to civilians, Human Rights Watch said today.

I point out that the UN, the ICC, HRW as well as numerous eye witnesses and reporters say that cluster munitions have been used on the civilian population of Misrata. YT:Gaddafi's War Crimes in Ajdabiya, Libya. March 26, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlJxmoDpkRg&bpctr=1425486480 YT:Brave Libyans Face Gaddafi's Tank in Benghazi, Mar. 19, 2011. بنغازي https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sRqj8GwtW0 YT:Gaddafi's Forces Advance to Benghazi Before They Got Bombed, Mar. 19, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKv7lqjBAt4 Uploaded on Mar 24, 2011 This video was taken as Gaddafi's forces were advancing to take the city of Benghazi (Libya) on March 19, 2011. The convoy is shown in the area between Gmenis and Tika. The video was confiscated from a captured soldier who was with Gaddafi's military convoy. Later that evening, the French air force bombed Gaddafi's troops and saved the city from a total annihilation. YT:Gaddafi's Military Convoy After the French Attack Near Benghazi (Libya), March 20, 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1iHgz-f_10 YT:Precision Bombing by French Air Force of Gaddafi's Military Convoy, Gymenis (Libya), Mar. 19, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZoj7MzPZ40 "UN clears way for Libyan no-fly zone". 18 Mar 2011. "Nato takes control of enforcing Libya no-fly zone". 25 March 2011. 

YT:More Than 200 Executed by Gaddafi Mercenaries in Tripoli (Libya) Aug. 21, 2011 طرابلس https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGFD3Z8uw7U YT:Gaddafi's Mass Grave: 700 Dead Bodies Found in Gargerish, Tripoli, Oct. 5, 2011. طرابلس https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPlmjBTLlPY YT:A Libyan Freedom Fighter Burned Alive for Not Saying Gaddafi is King of Kings (June 2011) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiIuxYiGQlA

This is from Democracy Now on Tuesday:

AARON MATÉ: You spoke before about how the U.S. invasion set off the Sunni-Shia conflict in Iraq, and out of that came ISIS. I wonder if you see a parallel in Libya, where the U.S. and NATO had a mandate to stop a potential massacre in Benghazi, but then went much further than a no-fly zone and helped topple Gaddafi. And now, four years later, we have ISIS in Libya, and they’re beheading Coptic Christians, Egypt now bombing. And with the U.S. debating this expansive war measure, Libya could be next on the U.S. target list. NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, that’s a very important analogy. What happened is, as you say, there was a claim that there might be a massacre in Benghazi, and in response to that, there was a U.N. resolution, which had several elements. One, a call for a ceasefire and negotiations, which apparently Gaddafi accepted. Another was a no-fly zone, OK, to stop attacks on Benghazi. The three traditional imperial powers—Britain, France and the United States—immediately violated the resolution. No diplomacy, no ceasefire. They immediately became the air force of the rebel forces. And, in fact, the war itself had plenty of brutality—violent militias, attacks on Africans living in Libya, all sorts of things. The end result is just to tear Libya to shreds. By now, it’s torn between two major warring militias, many other small ones. It’s gotten to the point where they can’t even export their main export, oil. It’s just a disaster, total disaster. That’s what happens when you strike vulnerable systems, as I said, with a sledgehammer. All kind of horrible things can happen.

YT:Gaddafi's Ukrainian Snipers Caught in Abu-Salim Neighbourhood (Tripoli, Libya), Aug. 25, 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xC2k22absQ YT:Mercenaries from Chad, Niger, Mali, and Sudan Captured in Zliten, Libya, Aug. 9, 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3oBeCGCRlA YT:Gaddafi's African Mercenaries from Chad & Mali, (Nafusa Mountain, Libya), July 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOTJwz_W2s0 YT:Mass Grave: Gaddafi Hides Bodies From His War Crimes, Joudayam (Libya) May 10, 2011 الزاوية https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAyP_lXKLVE YT:Some Civilians Bombed By Gaddafi's Forces in Misurata (Libya), May 1, 2011. مصراته https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihyeW3F5Eik YT:Gaddafi & Sons' Forces Massacre in Jalu, Libya on April 30, 2011. جالو https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ml8HB5vsrQ http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2011/04/doha-summit-supports-libyan-rebels_7476.html YT:Gaddafi's Forces Use Banned Cluster Bombs in Misurata, Libya (Apr. 16, 2011) مصراتة https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnN47Ls48vg YT:Libyan Soldiers Loyal to Citizens Burnt by Gaddafi in February, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcX1W1bIFG0&bpctr=1425488070 Uploaded on Feb 21, 2011 Tyrant Gaddafi burnt soldiers in Benghazi, Libya who refused his orders to attack innocent citizens in Libya. About 60 were burnt with a military flame blower. The hysterical crying of men can be heard. http://observers.france24.com/content/20110222-charred-bodies-found-barracks-Benghazi-libya-Gaddafi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sPZA5E7DLY After Gaddafi's forces shelled and bombed the city of Ajdabiya killing hundreds and as he approached Benghazi with the stated intention to doing the same to this city of over a million, The rebels want NATO's help in building a free and independent Libya whereas NATO wants another North African regime that is in their pocket. Most likely this explains why they have been slow to respond to Gaddafi's merciless shelling of Misrata. They have been attacks on rebel forces or the shooting down by NATO of one of the few ancient MIGs the rebels have managed to make airworthy. Difference on just how to play the rebels was no doubt also behind the differences among NATO allies that came out at today's Doha conference. www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/26/libya-rebels-ajdabiya-gaddafi-loyalists  http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2011/04/doha-summit-supports-libyan-rebels_7476.html 4/13/2011  This was the view expressed at the conference by Qatar's Sheik Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani when he said "And what are the rebels except civilians who have taken up arms to defend themselves in a difficult situation and an uneven battle?"  Earlier this week an African Union delegation of five, led by South Africa's president Jacob Zuma, attempted to broker a ceasefire and a peace deal. Their 'road map' received Gaddafi's blessing because it allowed him to stay in power however it was nixed by the rebels for the same reason. Most in the opposition now see Gaddafi as a bad faith actor who can only be trusted to bring down a reign of terror on any opposition if he is allowed to remain in power and gain the upper hand. Even while he said that he was accepting the African Union peace plan, he continued his artillery and rocket attacks against Misrata on Monday, a city he has had under siege for six weeks "where conditions for civilians are said to be desperate."  http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/french-jets-destroy-tanks-vehicles-1.1044348#.VPgCwzVVKlM  http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/03/2011317645549498.html  17 Mar 2011 20:07 GMT

Air strikes have been reported from the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, and fierce clashes elsewhere, as forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi continued their offensive against opposition forces. In a radio address on Thursday, Gaddafi called pro-democracy fighters in Benghazi "armed gangsters" and urged residents to attack them. "You all go out and cleanse the city of Benghazi," he said. "We will track them down, and search for them, alley by alley, road by road ... Massive waves of people will be crawling out to rescue the people of Benghazi, who are calling out for help, asking us to rescue them. We should come to their rescue."

 http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2011/04/current-events-in-libya_3141.html  www.nbcnews.com/id/42164455/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa#.VPdg_TVVKlM President Barack Obama said from Brazil, where he is starting a five-day visit to Latin America. "We cannot stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people there will be no mercy." 

Earlier Saturday in Libya, Gadhafi's troops pushed into the outskirts of Benghazi after a unilateral cease-fire declared by his government failed to materialize, prompting western leaders meeting in Paris to announce the start of military intervention.

On Democracy Now today: Amy sends another Valentine to Bashar

This is what Amy Goodman had to say about yesterday's carnage in Syria on Democracy Now this morning:

Scores of people were killed in and around the Syrian capital of Damascus on Thursday when rebels fired a barrage of rockets into several neighborhoods and government warplanes bombed opposition-held areas.

Other than the fact that she has the rebels attacking neighborhoods and the regime attacking military positions, the report sounds pretty even handed. So why do I say this is pro-Assad propaganda? Because according to a more detailed report from EAWorldView, yesterday was one of Assad's bloodiest. 130 people were killed by the Assad regime while 6 may have been were killed by the rebel rockets Amy chose to highlight. This is typical of Democracy Now's shameful reporting on Syria and why I say "even-handed" Amy's reports on Syria are Valentines to Bashar. As Desmond Tutu famously said "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." This is how EAWorldView reported yesterday's deaths in Syria:

In one of the deadliest days in Syria in months, regime operations killed more than 130 people — most of them civilians — while insurgents launched more than 100 rockets into Damascus. The headline developments were in the capital, with the faction Jaish al-Islam firing the rockets towards military positions in southern Damascus and the regime using mortars in its own attacks, apparently seeking to discredit the insurgency. State media said at least six civilians died and scores were wounded, without giving further details of the locations. However, almost all the deaths were from regime operations elsewhere. Even as the insurgents said they were attacking Damascus in response to Syrian airstrikes on civilians in the East Ghouta area near the capital, the bombing continued. More than 40 airstrikes were carried out on Douma, northeast of Damascus, with other deadly aerial, artillery, and mortar assaults nearby. The Local Coordinating Committees said at least 76 people were killed and hundreds wounded in East Ghouta on Thursday. The Douma attacks left 29 dead, and another 29, mostly women and children, were killed by five airstrikes on a public market in Kafar Batna.

Of course, it would be highly embarrassing and quite out character for Amy to report on deaths from regime airstrikes in East Ghouta yesterday because at the time of Assad's sarin attack on East Ghouta on 21, August 2013, the only time such attacks made it to the mainstream media, Amy paraded one conspiracy theory after another on Democracy Now to explain how Assad was being framed for the chemical deaths and those alibis look like cover stories for mass murder once it is revealed that Assad was attacking East Ghouta for many months with conventional bombs before he turned to sarin, and is still bombing and killing in East Ghouta, with conventional bombs more than a year later. So of course, no comment from Amy. While Victoria has her Secrets, this bombardment of Douma is one of Amy's "unmentionables." Video Published on Feb 6, 2015 Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria

With Left support, Assad continues to kill in East Ghouta

Syrian Lives Don't Matter

This could be the sad assessment of world inaction while more that two hundred thousand Syrians have been massacred in less than four years. This has also been the silent banner of much of the Left and the so-called Peace and Just Us movement that has been quick to rush to the defense of Bashar and blame the carnage on NATO somehow. Over a year ago Assad got called out for killing with sarin after he used it on a massive scale just outside of Damascus. He then made a deal with NATO that saw him give up his chemical weapons but continue to kill with chlorine gas and everything else in his arsenal with impunity. Eight months ago, I sat in an audience at USC and listened to David Swanson ridicule the idea that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical deaths of over 1400 people in East Ghouta. He and others who took this pro-Assad stand, probably hadn't heard of East Ghouta before the sarin attack and haven't been following the struggle there since. They just popped up to throw smoke in the air after Assad's sarin attack because that attack made international headlines. Swanson didn't mention that Assad had been killing the people of East Ghouta with conventional bombardment for more than a year before that and he probably could care less that East Ghouta remains unconquered now and Assad is still killing there big time. Nevermind. On Saturday we received this report from the Syrian American Medical Society [SAMS]:

More than 30 people, including 6 children, were killed in airstrikes from Syrian government planes in the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus yesterday. At the same time, Eastern Ghouta continues to experience a deadly siege - food, water, heat, and electricity are rarely available. SAMS is proud to support critical field hospitals, ICUs, and birth centers inside Eastern Ghouta. These doctors are among 12 we support in one field hospital, performing lifesaving emergency surgeries. In December alone, the doctors in their field hospital saw 716 trauma cases and performed over 240 surgeries. Join these brave doctors, and help give the citizens of Eastern Ghouta and the citizens of Syria hope: http://bit.ly/1pmh8ZR

Assad's slaughter in Syria continues to be ignored today, even as US war planes join him in bombing his adversaries. The Media still spikes the stories and the Left all but ignores them, and for all the coverage of ISIS you might be forgiven for thinking that the jihadists are the biggest threat to civilian life and liberty in Syria, but that is far from the case, as this chart produced by The Syria Campaign too graphically illustrates:

The regime of Bashar al-Assad may still have its friends on the Left, and it may not be the main enemy of Obama and NATO in Syria but it remains the main enemy of the Syria people and the main obstacle to peace in Syria and Iraq. Ignoring this reality is precisely what has led to the sorry state of affairs we see in the region today. Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria

Yassin al-Haj Saleh: “The International left is suffering a major crisis”

Republished from Socialist Core, November 29, 2014


Interview with Yassin al-Haj Saleh, Syrian writer and activist. Bashar al-Assad’s political prisoner for 16 years between 1980 and 1996. He has been living in Istanbul this last year. Interview conducted by Lucha Internacionalista (Internationalist Fight – LI) from the Spanish State and İşçi Demokrasisi Partisi (Workers Democracy Party – IDP) from Turkey.

IDP/LI: Obama threatens to attack the ISIS in Syria … and the Assad regime greets him offering itself as an ally of the West against terror. Iran plays in the same way.

YH: I’ve always thought that the best way to act against the ISIS was helping Syrians against the Assad regime. Not only because the regime is tyrannical and sectarian, but because it actually is a terrorist regime, which uses the jihadists fascist groups and manipulated them in Iraq and Lebanon in the years before the Syrian revolution. I see the plans of Western attacks on ISIS — without helping the Syrians against Assad, without addressing the political and social roots of the struggle Syria — as another betrayal of our people, after three years asking for help against the criminal regime. We must not forget the shameful reaction of the West after the chemical slaughter a year ago. The ISIS, with their inhuman ways, has capitalized much on this way of treating such a heinous crime.

IDP/LI: How can you explain the rapid growth of ISIS? What role did it play in the 5th column of the Syrian revolution?

YH: There is no simple explanation for its growth. First, they have increased the nihilistic tendencies in the consciousness of many Syrians (and Iraqi). It’s the result of long injustices and lack of confidence in the global institution. Second, the ISIS has a project, a kind of “nation building”, applied with a ruthless determination.

Third, the Assad regime was glad of the rise of ISIS, an ultra-extremist entity that lends credibility to his discourse of fighting terrorism. It is a known fact that currently the regime avoidsthe ISIS, attacking only the resistance against the regime.

The ISIS, many of whose members were Iraqi Ba’athists, is beneficial to the regime because it is a killing machine, although less effective than the Assad regime, it matches and surpasses it in the brutality and in the spectacular nature of their crimes. It destroys the popular movements, abducts or murders activists against the regime, and this is the only thing in the world that one can justifiably say that it is worse than the regime itself.

IDP/LI: Three years after the start of the revolution, many political groups claim that the revolution turned into a sectarian civil war. Do you agree with this idea? How do you consider the current situation of the Syrian revolution?

YH: It is true that there isa large sectarian element in the Syrian struggle, which has increased its presence in the last two years. But the world of sects is not separate from world of classes. Sectarianism in my view is a class ideology, not an ideology of identity.

It is a tool to divide the popular movements and to protect the social and political system established on the basis of privilege and monopoly of power and wealth. This is true for the regime, but also for certain groups fighting against it. They use sectarianism as a method to mobilize people under their leadership.
The situation now is very difficult. The national structure of the fight collapsed in the past two years. We have Iranians, Lebanese, Iraqis and others fighting the regime, and jihadists of many countries fighting with ISIS. I think the role of the US is no less criminal than that of Russia in planning the destruction of our country, and the role of Israel is no less destructive than that of Iran. At the same time the traditional opposition failed miserably when it was time to convey our problems or at least to save the dignity of the people and the dignity of the revolution.

IDP/LI: It seems that resistance is concentrating in Aleppo. Is this true? What is the situation there?

YH: Aleppo is important because it is the place with the three factions of our struggle: the regime, ISIS, FSA and moderate Islamic groups.

It is also the country’s largest city. If the regime lost Aleppo completely it would lose the argument that represents the unity of Syria. It would seem that it would bring about a new era in Syria if ISIS or the regime dominate Aleppo definitely. There are other fronts of the fight in Deera, in the south. In eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, in the province of Idlib not far from Aleppo, but the latter is vital for the fate of the revolution and for any possible agreement in the future.

IDP/LI: Are still alive the self-organizations such as the committees of the Syrian people that emerged with the revolution?

YH: They suffered much in 2013 and 2014. Their golden age was in 2011 and 2012. There was room for creative activities in the levels of organization, protest, documentation, media coverage, logistics, medical services, comfort, etc. But the dynamics of the militarization led to a situation where these groups controlled military activities, limiting civilians to a minimum. This benefited the fight against the regime’s aggression, but they created power structures that are not revolutionary.

The fate of Razan Zeitoona, the famous and respected founder of the Local Coordination Committees is exemplary at this level. Razan was kidnapped by the Islamic Army in eastern Ghouta in December 2013. My wife Samira al Khalil, Wael Hammada, husband of Razan, and lawyer and activist Nazem Hammadi were abducted with Razan, without knowing anything of them for a long time.

IDP/LI: Comment on the role of the Syrian Kurds in the revolution.

YH: It’s a contradictory role. The Kurdish military power is worseenemy of Turkey than of the Syrian regime. They are related with the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] in Turkey, the country that myopically helped Islamic groups against the Kurds. Perhaps this policy of the AKP [Justice and Development Party] government in Turkey led to the arrival of thousands of jihadists to Syria.

I mean to say that the Kurdish struggle in Turkey, one of the biggest allies of the Syrian opposition, left a very bad image of the role of Syrian Kurds in the revolution. There was never any confrontation between the PYD [Democratic Union Party] and the regime. There are isolationist elements in the policy of the PYD during the revolution.

The right thing, in my opinion, is to make a broad alliance against the regime and ISIS, with Kurds, Arabs and all, oriented towards the liberation of Syria from both of them in order to build a new regime, in which Arabs and Kurds are equal, as individuals and as ethnic groups.

The greater the role of the Kurds in this struggle, the more they will share in the future Syria. The problem is that the Kurds have not sensitised themselveseitherto follow a pan-Kurd plan, that would keep them together with the Kurds of Turkey and Iraq, or their own plan for Syria, which could make common cause with other Syrians.

IDP/LI: During the three years of the revolution, the international left could not really build a solidarity network with the Syrian revolution. However, while the revolution continues this enormous task is pending. What are the tasks of the international left to advance the Syrian revolution, what kind of specific international campaigns can be built for the Syrian revolution?

YH: I think that the international political left suffers a great crisis that affects their vision of the world today, their role, their self-awareness, their organization… The general thinking of the left is conservative, outdated, if not reactionary. The majority are satisfied with the positions against the US, with monsters like Putin in Russia, Assad in Syria, the regime of the ayatollahs in Tehran.

They talk a lot against imperialism, but to my knowledge they practically do nothing to help or even understand the persecuted struggle against local oppressors or against imperialism and its clients. What I find most despicable of the international left is that they know nothing about Syria, about its history, about our struggle for justice and freedom in the past.

They always identified our country with the fascist regime of Assad, and know very little about the regime. Do they know, for example, that Bashar inherited his position as head of the ”Republic” from his brutal father who ruled the country for 30 years? If this seems good, why don’t they come to live under this cruel regime? In August 2013 they thought their duty dictated they should be against America’s intentions to punish the fascist regime that killed 1,466 people in one night. They reassured the Obama administration at this time, in coordination with “imperialist” Russia, agreeing that the criminal regime would be disarmed of its chemical weapons, but would have international license to kill Syrians with any other weapon. Their problem was not the war, because this served to contain the revolution from day one, their problem was with the punishment of the criminal.

They didn’t see that the task was progressive and that the Americans were looking for any excuse not to do so. As Syrian I find this position as sordid and inhuman as the Obama administration position.
Nor are they different from this administration. The latter eliminated chemical weapons and allowed the regime to continue with its murderous work, these leftists protested against an imaginary war, against the criminal, and they never saw anything wrong with the murderous regime! There are however some individuals and groups who saved the dignity of the international left and represent the dignity of the left. As Syrian and actor in this terrible struggle, I wanted to express my deepest respect for them, in Turkey, Spain and other countries.

Interview by IDP and LI, Turkish and Spanish State sections of the IWU–FI

The role of US Imperialism in Syria and the Left's Dilemma

US President Barack Obama's air war in Syria has been a long time in the making. I wrote about it more than 18 months ago in a blog post titled Obama planning drone strikes against Assad's opposition in Syria, 16 March 2013. I reported then:

From the LA Times today we have breaking news that the Obama Administration is presently in the planning stages for direct US armed intervention into the Syrian civil war. The plan will be to intervene on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with a series of armed drone strikes against his opposition. ... While drone strikes against Islamist militants fighting Assad may be taken in the name of saving US lives in some hypothetical future, they won't save any Syrian lives now or hinder Assad's massive "Death from Above" campaign against Syrian civilians. Actually, since al-Nustra has been most effective in relieving Assad of bases for his air operations and is attempting to implement a "no-fly zone" over Syria, any Obama attack against al-Nusra would certainly be most welcomed by the embattled Assad regime.

Now those strikes have come, the danger to US lives has been declared "imminent," and not just drones are being used, but the whole range of the US air arsenal is being employed. I was banned from blogging at the Daily Kos for talk like that, but as I predicted, these strikes are against Assad's opposition, have not interfered with his own air campaign of bombing hospitals, schools and breadlines, and have been most heartily welcomed by the regime. The same day Obama killed 50 al Nusra militants and 27 civilians, including at least 6 children and 4 women, Assad continued his own devastating air campaign against those seeking to end his 42 year old dictatorship, and this US intervention was most welcomed by the Assad regime. The New York Times reported:

A Syrian diplomat crowed to a pro-government newspaper that “the U.S. military leadership is now fighting in the same trenches with the Syrian generals, in a war on terrorism inside Syria.” And in New York, the new Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said in an interview that he had delivered a private message to Mr. Assad on behalf of Washington, reassuring him that the Syrian government was not the target of American-led air strikes. ... “Of course coordination exists,” said a pro-government Syrian journalist speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, who had criticized the prospect of the strikes but turned practically jubilant once they began. “How else do you explain the strikes on Nusra?”

Ali Haidar, Assad's minister for national reconciliation, told Reuters on Wednesday:

"As for the raids in Syria, I say that what has happened so far is proceeding in the right direction in terms of informing the Syrian government and by not targeting Syrian military installations and not targeting civilians," he said. "Notification of the Syrian government happened," he said. "Confirmation that they would not target Syrian military installations, and confirmation they would not target civilians happened."

Targeting civilians is what the Assad regime does best, and having been assured by Obama that US warplanes were not entering Syrian air space to interference with that, Assad has felt free to continue his own campaign of "Death from Above." Reuters reported on Friday

Assad steps up bombing as West strikes militants in Syria U.S.-led forces hit Islamic State bases in eastern Syria on Friday and a monitoring group said the Syrian army had intensified its bombing campaign in the west. More...

From Syrian Observatory for Human Rights we get a more detailed look at what Assad's air force has been free to do as it shares its air space with the US allies. By the numbers: Tuesday 23 September 2014 On the day the US strikes started, this is what Assad's air force did: [1]: Aleppo Province: Helicopters dropped 2 barrel bombs onto areas near al Imam al Nawawi mosque in the neighborhood of Tariq al Bab leading to the injury of some people. Two other barrels were dropped onto the neighborhoods of Masaken Hanano and Jabal Badro in the east of Aleppo. [2]: Idleb Province: Some surface-to-surface missiles struck areas in the city of Khan Sheikhon followed by the dropping of barrel bombs onto the city killing a man, his daughter and a woman while others were injured. Helicopters dropped barrel bombs onto areas in the town of Saraqeb with no information about casualties. [3]: Helicopters dropped 5 barrel bombs onto areas in the west of Khan al Shih Camp and 5 barrels onto places in Bet Sayer in the Western Ghouta,  casualties were reported in Bet Sayer. [4]: Idleb Province: Warplanes carried out a raid on the town of Ma’er Zayta in the southern countryside of Idleb. [5]: Warplanes carried out a raid on al Dokhaneyyi area and 9 raids on the Wastelands of al Qalamun. [6]: Idleb Province: Warplanes carried out 3 raids on areas in the town of Khan al Sobol, 2 raids on the town of Madaya in the southern countryside, a raid on the outskirts of al Hbet town, a raid on the southern outskirts of Ma’arret al Nu’man, a raid on the town of al Rkaya and a raid on the town of Deir Sonbol leading to the killing of 2 children from the same family in Khan al Sobol. They also attacked areas in the town of al Taman’a. [7]: Daraa Province: Warplanes carried out a raid on an area in the town of Kafar Nasej. Wednesday 24 September 2014 [8]: Helicopters dropped barrel bombs onto areas in Handarat Camp. Two barrel bombs dropped near the Central Prison of Aleppo. A woman died while other were injured due to air raids launched on the town of Qbasin near the city of al Bab. Most telling about the unity that has developed between the US air force and Assad's is that in one case the SOHR had to report: "It is unknown till the moment whether the aircrafts that attacked the area are affiliated to the Syrian regime or to the International-Arab Coalition." [9]: Deir Ezzor Province: Warplanes attacked areas in the village of al Shola with no information about casualties. They also carried out a raid in the vicinity of Deir Ezzor airbase. [10]: Helicopters dropped 7 barrel bombs onto the city of al Rastan with no information about casualties. [11]: Helicopters dropped 2 barrel bombs onto areas in the town of Allatamneh. [12]: Helicopters dropped 4 explosive barrels on al-Zabdani, no reports of losses. Thursday 25 September 2014 [13]: 8 civilians ( 3 children and a woman ), killed by aerial bombardment on Duma, a man killed by regime's bombardment on Duma, a woman killed by air strikes on Arbin, and a man from al-Abada town. Apparently, in the first days of US air strikes, Assad didn't entirely trust the US promise that he could carry on with his usual routine. The SOHR reported: "The provinces of Deir Ezzor, al Raqqa, al Hasaka, Homs, Aleppo and Idleb have witnessed a significant reduction in the regime’s aerial bombardment, where the rate of strikes has declined since the beginning of the International- Arab Coalition aerial strikes 2 days ago. There have been only few sorties during the last two days while aerial bombardment stopped completely in some provinces." That changed as his confidence built that the US was not going to interfere with his carnage. Friday 26 September 2014 [14]: Homs Province: Helicopters dropped 4 barrel bombs onto the city of al Rastan causing the death of 7 people while others were injured. [15]: A man was killed by aerial bombardment on Ein Terma in eastern Ghouta. [16]: Homs Province: Helicopters dropped 4 barrel bombs onto the city of al Rastan causing the death of 5 men while 5 others at least were injured. [17]: Al Qunaytera Province: Warplanes carried out a raid on the town of Swisah in the southern countryside causing material damages to people’s properties. They also attacked areas in the villages and town of the countryside of al Qunaytera. [18]: Daraa Province: Helicopters dropped several barrel bombs onto areas in the town of Alma causing material damages to people’s properties, while 2 other barrels fell onto the town of Tafas and a barrel onto the town of Bosra al Harir killing a man and a woman in Tafas. Warplanes carried out a raid on Daraa al Balad in the city of Daraa and a raid on the town of Syada.

The regime achievement in Daraya - Damascus Rif #Syria pic.twitter.com/zPV2RQJfMh — yalla souriya (@YallaSouriya) September 26, 2014

[19]: Lattakia Province: Warplanes carried out 2 raids onto areas on the outskirts of Salma town and other areas in the villages of al Akrad Mountain. [20]: Rif Dimashq Province: Helicopters dropped 2 barrel bombs onto the city of al Zabadani yesterday night. [21]: Helicopters dropped yesterday night 2 barrel bombs onto the city of Ankhel and a barrel onto the town of Otman. Saturday 27 September 2014 [22]: Hama Province: Warplanes carried out raids onto the towns of Kafar Zayta and Allatamneh with no information about victims. [23]: Idleb Province: Warplanes carried out a raid on places near the town of Abo al Dohur and a raid on places on the road of al Debsheyyi- Abo al Dohur, amid bombardment on al Debsheyyi area by the regime forces. They also carried out a raid on the northern outskirts of the city of Khan Sheikhon. [24]: Helicopters dropped 2 barrel bombs onto areas in the town of Otman followed by launching shells on the town by the regime forces. [25]: Rif Dimashq Province: Warplanes carried out several raids on the Wasteland of the town of Qara. [26]: Deir Ezzor Province: Warplanes carried out 2 raids on the vicinity of the airbase of Deir Ezzor. [27]: Hama Province: Helicopters dropped barrel bombs onto areas in the village of al Masasnah in the northern countryside. [28]: Warplanes carried out a raid on an area in the city of al Bab in the east of Aleppo, initial information reported the injury of some people. [29]: Idleb Province: Aircrafts carried out 3 raids on the villages of al Taman’ah, al Hbet and Hafsarjeh as well as a raid on the northern neighborhood of the city of Ma’arret al N’man causing material damages to people’s properties. [30]: Deir Ezzor Province: Warplanes carried out 2 raids on the Granaries Area on the outskirts of al Husayneyyi as well as 2 raids on areas near the School and the Club in the city of Mo Hasan. They also strafed areas in the village of al Jnayneh. [31]: Hama Province: Warplanes carried out raids onto the towns of Kafar Zayta and Allatamneh with no information about victims. [32]: Daraa Province: Warplanes carried out a raid on an area on the town of Aqraba with no information about casualties. Helicopters dropped a barrel bomb onto the northern neighborhood of the city of Nawa, 2 barrels onto areas in the town of Deir al Adas, 2 barrel onto the northern neighborhood of the city of Bosra al Sham and 2 barrels onto the city of Ankel. [33]: Helicopters dropped 4 barrel bombs onto the city of Darayya and 2 barrels onto the eastern mountain of the city of al Zabadani causing material damages. A woman died of wounds due to the regime’s bombardment on the city of Doma. Sunday 28 September 2014 [34]: Helicopters dropped 2 barrel bombs yesterday night onto the eastern mountain of al Zabadani city. This happened before the first US bombs fell on Syria.

#Syria A bloody Sunday yesterday for Syrian children,SNHR has documented Sunday 21 September, 26 children get killed pic.twitter.com/DYz4DMjhWz — Mahmoud Albasha (@Mahmoud_Bashaa) September 22, 2014

This is the daily slaughter that the US Media and the US Left have been ignoring for years. Assad could be finding it increasingly difficult to get his pilots to bomb their own people. Last month, he executed three military pilots, two of them Alawites, for refusing orders. This may be another reason he welcomes the intervention of US pilots who historically have shown few qualms about bombing foreigners. The Obama may have intervened in Syria to fight "terrorism" but as we have seen from its assaults in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the US has never considered aerial bombardment of civilians terrorism.

ANSWER & Code Pink Protest Syria Bombing at the White House | 9/24/2014

Of course, these weren't the air strikes they were protesting. In more than three years, and two hundred thousand Syrian lives later, they have never seen the need to protest Assad's air strikes. In fact ANSWER Coalition has long been outspoken in its support for the Assad regime, and now Code Pink is standing with them. With their pro-Qaddafi, pro-Assad, pro-Putin interpretation of anti-imperialism in the 21st century, and their demonization of all those who disagree with them, they have succeeded in reducing the anti-war movement to a shadow if its former self.

Washington, DC March against the Iraq War - 15 September 2007

The Free Syrian Army and other opposition forces that have been under Assad's daily aerial bombardment for years have long pleaded with the NATO powers to provide them with modern air defense weapons so that they could put an end to Assad indiscriminate bombing campaigns. No such weapons have been forth coming. They were also terribly disappointed when Obama reneged on his promise to strike Assad if he used banned chemical weapons to increase his kill rate. Now that Obama has intervened in Syria on the side of the regime, they are speaking out against it. Zaman al Wasl, founder of the FSA sees in Obama's intervention an attempt to crush the Syrian opposition and Syrian Arab Army defector, Colonel Raid al-Asaad, was downright pessimistic about Obama's "War on Terror" in Syria, telling Zamam al-Wasl the "Syrian revolution will be eliminated under this pretext." He should learn from the Vietnamese experience; that is more easily said than done.   The fact that Assad's supporters back Obama's intervention while his opposition opposes it, gives you the real skinny. SYRIA:direct said 24 September 2014:

Harakat Hazm, a moderate-leaning rebel coalition that has received aid from the United States, called the strikes an act of “aggression towards national sovereignty” in a press release widely circulated Tuesday on social media websites. Foreign intervention “will harm the revolution, especially seeing as the international community continues to ignore revolutionary forces' calls for weapons,” the group said, adding that “the only side to benefit... is the Assad regime, without any real strategy to bring about its downfall.”

Even as the pro-government news network Damascus Now cheered on the US air strikes, calling this a historic moment, in which “happiness was etched on the faces of the majority of Syrians, because they found international support towards eradicating a cancer which has been rooted in the diseased Syrian body,” referring to the rebels. Michael Karadjis writes in his well researched and very informative:

Syrian rebels overwhelmingly condemn US bombing as an attack on revolution 25 September 2014 ... In particular, given the grave situation in Aleppo, where the revolutionary forces are being jointly besieged from the south and the north-east by Assad and ISIS, the fact that the first US attacks were on JaN inside Aleppo – where JaN is playing an important role in the epic defense of the rebel-held, working-class, half of that city, alongside the FSA and other Islamist groups – is perhaps the most blatant attack on the revolution possible. ... The Assad regime must be very pleased with having acquired for itself a new air force. More...

These developments pose a serious dilemma for the US "anti-imperialist" Left that has long maintained that the Syrian rebels were a "US backed" attempt to overthrow one of the essential partners in the "axis of resistance" to US imperialism. Is the US Left going the way of the 9/11 Truth movement - increasingly irrelevant to anyone? For years now it has largely ignored the growing conflict in Syria and when it has spoken out, it has been to oppose what it believed was US support of opposition to the Syrian government and military support for the rebels, but now, after three and a half years of conflict, when that military intervention comes in the familiar form of air strikes, and it is being welcomed by the regime and condemned by its opposition, there can be little doubt which side Obama is on. A year ago they took to the streets, wrote their congresspeople and made as much noise as they could to oppose air strikes threaten against the Assad government for killing more than 1400 Syrians with sarin. Really they were demanding that Obama do what he intended to do all along, which was nothing. They spread 9/11 like conspiracy theories, but this time about how the government didn't do it. And when Qbama sent the matter to congress for a vote he knew he was going to lose, they hailed it as a great victory and a testimony to their growing strength. 18 months ago when I was blogging at the Daily Kos and saying that in spite of his fine words, Obama supported the Assad regime and was working to undermine the Syrian revolutionaries, that he was playing "good cop" to Putin's "bad cop", I was roundly criticized. Now it must be becoming increasingly obvious, even to them, that by opposing the Syrian insurgency, the "anti-imperialists" have been supporting the imperialist game all along.

Why Now? US Airstrikes on Syria http://t.co/dmPhRSksgr pic.twitter.com/jIgKkkTwvN — Global Revolution TV (@GlobalRevLive) September 27, 2014

Like I've been saying for a couple of years now: Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad Exposed! Obama "green lights" Assad's slaughter in Syria How Obama helps Assad: US tried to start war between FSA & al Nusra Front How Obama has supported Assad's gas murder always Obama's Real Syria Policy: Endless War The Courtship Continues: Obama stopped French strike on Assad The Courtship Continues: Obama's New Gift to Assad How Obama Helped Assad Kill with Poison Gas in Syria Win-Win for Assad as Obama Response to CW Mass Murder Put on Hold Obama Denied Gas Masks to Assad's Victims Obama's Dilemma and Assad's Opportunity Assad's Redline and Obama's Greenlight! Chemical weapons use in Syria, Has Obama's red-line has been crossed? AP weighs in on Obama's Green Light for Assad's slaughter in Syria Syria: Obama's moves Assad's "red line" back as SOHR reports 42,000 dead! SecState John Kerry and his "dear friend" Bashar al-Assad How Obama's 'No MANPADS for you' policy in Syria is backfiring More thoughts on Obama's 'No MANPADS for you!' policy Obama: Did the CIA betray Assad's opposition in Syria? Obama planning drone strikes against Assad's opposition in Syria Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria  

PS: The Lockheed Martin F-22 saw its first combat flights this week over Syria. It is a very expensive aircraft, costing $178 million each, but that pales in comparison to the next generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at $337 million a piece. The electronics design magazine ECN writes "according to one estimate, the money spent on the program could buy every homeless person in the U.S. a $600,00 mansion."

Phyllis Bennis twists reality to fit politics on DN

Phyllis Bennis actually said this on Democracy Now Tuesday:

In Syria, both countries [Iran and the United States] have an interest in tamping down the violence, even though they have differences over what the real threat might be. Iran, in Syria, is still supporting the Syrian regime; the U.S., of course, opposes the Syrian regime. But both Iran and the United States say that they are against ISIS, I-S-I-S, the leading force in Syria that is opposed to the Syrian regime. So, the U.S. and Iran, in that context, are on the same side.

This is another good example of how those in the "anti-imperialist" camp twist reality to fit their twisted politics. Phyllis Bennis makes two, shall we say, dubious claims in the above statement 1) Iran is interested in tamping down the violence in Syria, and 2) ISIS is the leading force that is opposes the Syrian regime. These two statements represent a break from reality that is so serve that I really don't know where to begin except to say they illustrate why it is so hard to build unity or even carry on a rational conversation with these "anti-imperialist" neighbors, but let me at least try. If "tamping down the violence" means to Phyllis Bennis destroying any movement for democracy in Syria, slaughtering anyone who opposed the Assad regime so that there is no longer any armed resistance, and bringing the violence back to were it was for most of 40 years, through arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and murder in Assad's detention centers, then she may be able to make the argument that both the Assad regime and its Iranian backers are interested in "tamping down the violence," because after three years and 160,000 of his people's lives it should be clear to even a moron that Bashar al-Assad would rather take that road to "peace" than give up his "presidency." If on the other hand, one wishes for the Syrian people and the whole region, the peace that comes with justice, then we must acknowledge that Iran is one of the greatest purveyor of violence in this conflict. Second only to Russia, it has enabled Assad's carnage with political, economic and military support. It is first in putting foreign "boots on the ground" in Syria. It has its own Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps fighting for Assad in Syria, and it has, let us say, "encouraged" both Hezbullah and Iraqi Shiite militias to be Assad's shock troops. Those forces don't exactly have a reputation for "tamping down the violence." As a matter of fact, it has been widely reported for over a year now that Iranians are pretty much peopling and running the Syrian state. Phyllis Bennis suggests that Iran has an interest in "tamping down the violence" in Syria, but that's not what the Iranians say. They say their future is joined at the hip with the continuation of the Assad regime. In other words they say what the other regime supporters say "Bashar al-Assad or we burn the country." I'm sure Phyllis Bennis knows that. Why else the "tamping down" metaphor? So much for her not so veiled support for Bashar al-Assad and the Iranians. Shall we now turn to her attack on the Syrian Revolution? The view that all of Assad's armed opposition are Islamic jihadists is also an Assad regime talking point but ISIS is definitely not "the leading force" in Syria. I know there is a peculiar definition of "the leading force" among some on the Left that allows them to think a small group can be "the leading force" regardless of its size or disconnect from the mass struggle because they have the "right" ideology. If Phyllis Bennis thinks ISIS is leading this struggle ideologically, she must also see the struggle to overthrow the Assad dictatorship as a reactionary counterrevolution. But as a practical matter there is no way ISIS has been leading this revolution. First it is formally only about a year old, it has a relatively small number of fighters and they haven't been fighting the Assad regime. They have been fighting the Free Syrian Army, the Islamic Front, even Jabhat al Nusra, in fact every rebel group that the mind of Phyllis Bennis has them leading. Also the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces issued a memo on 10 February 2014 titled "ISIS & the Assad Regime: From Marriage of Convenience to Partnership" in which they said:

Since the FSA declared war on this group on 3rd January 2014 and took over many of their bases, significant evidence has been uncovered which has confirmed circulating testimony and rumors about the links between the regime and ISIS. This memo is just a small sample of testimony from FSA fighters that describe events on the ground where regime forces have been protecting and assisting this group. Accounts go further, saying that regime forces are intimately intertwined with this group, whose objectives are one and the same: to destroy moderate Opposition forces and establish control over as much of Syria as possible.

So there's that. As for her assertion that "the U.S., of course, opposes the Syrian regime," I have already dealt with that at length: How Obama has supported Assad's gas murder always Obama's Real Syria Policy: Endless War The Courtship Continues: Obama stopped French strike on Assad The Courtship Continues: Obama's New Gift to Assad How Obama Helped Assad Kill with Poison Gas in Syria Win-Win for Assad as Obama Response to CW Mass Murder Put on Hold Obama Denied Gas Masks to Assad's Victims Obama's Dilemma and Assad's Opportunity Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad Exposed! Obama "green lights" Assad's slaughter in Syria Assad's Redline and Obama's Greenlight! Chemical weapons use in Syria, Has Obama's red-line has been crossed? AP weighs in on Obama's Green Light for Assad's slaughter in Syria Syria: Obama's moves Assad's "red line" back as SOHR reports 42,000 dead! SecState John Kerry and his "dear friend" Bashar al-Assad How Obama's 'No MANPADS for you' policy in Syria is backfiring More thoughts on Obama's 'No MANPADS for you!' policy Obama: Did the CIA betray Assad's opposition in Syria? Obama planning drone strikes against Assad's opposition in Syria How Obama helps Assad: US tried to start war between FSA & al Nusra Front Click here for a list of my other blogs on Syria