Protests in Syria

[mememe]

NOT BBC source:

1. In Djamiliya there is no fighting; in an old city there are sporadic shootings.
2. In New Aleppo everything is quiet; Salyahdin is quiet in most regions;
3. Seifetdoulya. After a heroic revolutionary night attack on the post office, the town was cleared off terrorist groups a couple of days ago.
4. Between Sikkari and Salyahdin there are groups of terrorists.
5. In Bustan Qasr terrorists burned down the police building.
6. Sahour, Hanano, Heydari are hot spots. Civilians left them three days ago.

 

[Katzndogz]

The US is determined to help Al Quaeda and the muslim brotherhood replace the Syrian government with a fundamentalist muslim theocracy. Just as was done in Egypt and Libya.

The arab states know that the US government is helping terrorists.
'Muslim Brothers plotting overthrow of Gul... JPost - Middle East

I would hope that Russia would do something to stop the US, militarily if not diplomatically.

UAE Interior Ministry officials have not been available to comment on the arrests. Last week, UAE officials announced that authorities were investigating a foreign-linked group planning "crimes against the security of the state".

"I had no idea that there is this large number of Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf states. We have to be alert and on guard because the wider these groups become, the higher probability there is for trouble," Khalfan said on Wednesday.

"We are aware that there are groups plotting to overthrow Gulf governments in the long term."

 

[High_Gravity]

Russia isn't going to do jack shit.

 

[High_Gravity]

U.S. hasn’t won the trust of Syrian rebels

After the fighting, after the war, comes the "day after." In any conflict in which the United States is involved, the planning for the day after begins well before the guns stop firing. But a former ambassador who also served in a senior position at the CIA says the U.S. is failing in that mission.

Hank Crumpton, former Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the State Department, tells me he thinks the Department should be doing more right now to prepare for a post-Assad future in Syria.

Crumpton points to the Syrian opposition. "How do we understand them? How do we work with them?" he asks. "Because they are the future of Syria; because they represent the Syrian people. And that should be more of a diplomatic initiative than we've done to date."

This is, he agrees, first and foremost an intelligence issue: to find out who are these various non-state actors that make up the Syrian opposition. But Crumpton says that's just part of it. Building trust is key, he says, adding that "the best way to build trust is through shared risk."

"When you're on the battlefield and you're communicating from the country next door or from Washington, D.C. it's a big difference between being on the ground with these opposition forces. We saw this in Afghanistan, we saw this in Iraq. It is essential. And I don't think we're there yet."

"The U.S. is doing a good job working with Turkey, other allies in the region in a traditional nation-to-nation diplomatic approach. But when non-state actors are in the mix, we fall short," he says, "in understanding these non-state actors and then folding them into our strategic thinking and then into our policies."

When Crumpton looks at Syria he sees another example of the U.S. government's need to understand and project non-military, non-covert action.

"Look at Iraq. The rising violence in Iraq," he says. "We did a great job militarily before and after the surge but then what? Look at Libya, look at Mali, at the Horn of Africa. These are all examples of expeditionary environments in some cases that are dominated increasingly by non-state actors. How do we basically design the right policy and then project the non-military power after we've had some military success working with local partners? It's a big issue and we don't have the answer yet."

It's not just a question of diplomacy," Crumpton says.

"It's how do you understand and help those locals, those indigenous non-state actors, begin to build liberal institutions? It doesn't have to be a massive deal to build a nation-state. How do we help them to understand and project the rule of law? How do we bring basic health care, education, telecommunications?

"Afghanistan is a good example. Here we are more than 10 years after 9/11 and still today most villages in Afghanistan have no electricity. Yet you've got abundant solar energy, bio-mass, wind power. If we have the technologies, then why haven't we married that over the last 10 years? Basically we've failed."

Another crucial factor, Crumpton says, is the role of the U.S. ambassador and the State Department needs to re-think their role. The ambassador, he says "is not just an employee of the Department of State, not just the top diplomat, the ambassador is the president's representative overseas. And he is uniquely placed to bring together and orchestrate all these instruments of statecraft that are necessary in these conflict and post-conflict zones."

But Crumption says ambassadors are still selected in a "very archaic way," based on campaign contributions or their success in traditional diplomacy.

"Increasingly, there are different tasks, requirements and expectations being placed on these ambassadors."

"So I think we should look at how we select them, how we train them, how we provide the resources they need and right now they don't have those resources. Their discretionary spending is pathetic. And then how do we provide them the right incentives so they are, indeed, the president's representative and can take a greater leadership role.

U.S. hasn

 

[High_Gravity]

Defector: 'The battle for Damascus is coming'

(CNN) -- Increasing violence in the Syrian capital is pointing toward a major fight ahead, a rebel spokesman told CNN Monday.

"The battle for Damascus is coming," said Abdulhameed Zakaria, a Syrian army colonel and doctor who defected and joined the opposition Free Syrian Army in Istanbul.

Video from the capital on Monday showed regime tanks in some streets and clashes with members of the opposition.

Video from activists in the central Damascus neighborhood of Medan showed people running and screaming amid loud sounds. It was unclear whether the blasts were gunshots or mortar fire.

Another video shows rebel fighters facing off against what appears to be a tank in the southern Damascus neighborhood of Tadamon, firing rifles, a heavy machine gun and a rocket-propelled grenade. They shoot at it repeatedly from behind a barricade down a rubble-strewn street, only to have a man tell them to stop wasting ammunition.

'Syria has become a schizophrenic place' CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the videos. Meanwhile, state-run TV showed a woman driving a car in Medan saying there was "nothing going on right now."

Asked about reports that there was shelling in Medan, she responded, "No, nothing is happening, thank God." But apparent gunfire could be heard in the background as she spoke.

With violence spreading throughout the country, the Red Cross announced that the conflict is a civil war throughout the country.

The declaration officially applies the Geneva Conventions to violence throughout the country. International humanitarian law now applies "wherever hostilities take place," the organization said Monday.

The Red Cross does not use the general term "civil war," and instead declares a "noninternational armed conflict." In April, the organization declared such a conflict in Homs, Hama and Idlib, but hostilities have spread enough that the conflict exists throughout the country, ICRC spokesman Sean Maguire said.

"Part of its legal mandate is to determine when international humanitarian law applies," Maguire told CNN. "We make a determination as to whether a conflict exists."

"In theory," he said, the Red Cross announcement could affect prosecutions by the International Criminal Court in the future. If a prosecuting authority is established for Syria, it could point to the announcement that the Geneva Conventions applied and to ways that they were violated. However, for the court to look at the situation in Syria, a referral from the U.N. Security Council would be required, Maguire noted.

At least 97 people were killed Monday, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria (LCC). There were 30 deaths in Hama, 21 in Homs, 13 in Aleppo, 11 in Damascus, eight in Daraa, seven in Deir Ezzor, four in the Damascus suburbs and three in Idlib, the LCC said.

Monday's fighting in Damascus follows what opposition activists called a massacre of more than 200 people in the town of Tremseh, near Hama, last week. But a top Syrian official disputed the death toll and the massacre allegation, telling reporters over the weekend that government troops were fighting armed opposition.

U.N. monitors reported Sunday that the attack appeared to target "army defectors and activists," citing accounts by more than two dozen villagers.

The monitors said Syrian forces began shelling the town on Thursday morning. Soldiers entered after the bombardment, conducting house-to-house searches and demanding identification from the men they found. "Numerous" people were then killed after their identification was checked, and some other men were taken from the village, the monitors said.

The monitors found more than 50 homes that had been burned or destroyed, with "pools of blood and brain matter" seen in several homes. The dead included a Free Syrian Army leader who was shot and doctor and his children who died when their home was struck by a mortar shell, the monitors said in a statement issued Sunday. However, the monitors said the number of dead and wounded in Tremseh remained unclear.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told reporters Sunday that opposition fighters had used the village as a base for attacks on government forces. He said only 37 "gunmen" and two civilians were killed in the operation in Tremseh and that no heavy weapons or aircraft were used, according to comments carried by the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

U.N. sets deadline for Syria CNN cannot confirm details of reported violence because Syria has restricted access to the country by international journalists.

Amid the ongoing fighting, U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan headed to Moscow for talks with the Syrian government's leading ally. Annan met Monday with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and is set to hold talks on Tuesday with President Vladimir Putin, Annan spokesman Ahmed Fawzi told CNN.

No details of the talks were immediately available. But Lavrov complained Monday that Western diplomats are trying to "blackmail" Russia into signing onto a tough new U.N. Security Council resolution targeting Damascus. Britain has proposed new steps to press Syria's government to end the conflict under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which carries the threat of additional sanctions or even military force.

Defector: 'The battle for Damascus is coming' - CNN.com

 

[mememe]

The US is determined to help Al Quaeda and the muslim brotherhood replace the Syrian government with a fundamentalist muslim theocracy. Just as was done in Egypt and Libya.

The arab states know that the US government is helping terrorists.
'Muslim Brothers plotting overthrow of Gul... JPost - Middle East

I would hope that Russia would do something to stop the US, militarily if not diplomatically.

Unfortunately, the battle for Syria was lost in Libya.

All Russia and China are now doing:
1. delaying an attack on Iran and a following major humanitarian crisis throughout the ME, Central Asia and Caucasus;
2. helping Assad and the Syrian government to bleed the attackers into a compromise over future of what will be left of Syria...

The most terrible is that so many in the West do not realise that the next target after Syria/Iran will be Russia/China. And the outcome of THAT would be too horrible to contemplate...

 

[mememe]

Very interesting turn:

Former Syrian general Manaf Tlas would like to discuss with RUSSIA the prospects of overcoming a crisis in Syria. He is planning to lead the government after the ousting of Assad.

Turkey will help him to establish contacts with Moscow.

 

[hortysir]

“I have been receiving as yet unconfirmed reports of atrocities, including extra-judicial killings and shooting of civilians by snipers, that took place during the recent fighting in various suburbs of Damascus,” she said. “It goes without saying that the increasing use of heavy weapons, tanks, attack helicopters and – reportedly – even jet fighters in urban areas has already caused many civilian casualties and is putting many more at grave risk.”

She noted that the consequences for civilians have been devastating, with between one million and 1.5 million people reported to have fled their homes, in addition to those killed and injured.

Syria: as violence escalates, UN human rights chief warns of consequences

 

[mememe]

“I have been receiving as yet unconfirmed reports of atrocities, including extra-judicial killings and shooting of civilians by snipers, that took place during the recent fighting in various suburbs of Damascus,” she said. “It goes without saying that the increasing use of heavy weapons, tanks, attack helicopters and – reportedly – even jet fighters in urban areas has already caused many civilian casualties and is putting many more at grave risk.”

She noted that the consequences for civilians have been devastating, with between one million and 1.5 million people reported to have fled their homes, in addition to those killed and injured.

Syria: as violence escalates, UN human rights chief warns of consequences

Well, if "human rights" hypocrites are really concerned for civilians, why don't they petition US/civilisedcommunity demanding of them to stop arming, financing, training and sending gangs of mercenaries and terrorists to wage war in Syria?
Where were "human rights" hypocrites when US/civilisedcommunity were slaughtering civilians in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia?!

 

[hortysir]

“I have been receiving as yet unconfirmed reports of atrocities, including extra-judicial killings and shooting of civilians by snipers, that took place during the recent fighting in various suburbs of Damascus,” she said. “It goes without saying that the increasing use of heavy weapons, tanks, attack helicopters and – reportedly – even jet fighters in urban areas has already caused many civilian casualties and is putting many more at grave risk.”

She noted that the consequences for civilians have been devastating, with between one million and 1.5 million people reported to have fled their homes, in addition to those killed and injured.

Syria: as violence escalates, UN human rights chief warns of consequences

Well, if "human rights" hypocrites are really concerned for civilians, why don't they petition US/civilisedcommunity demanding of them to stop arming, financing, training and sending gangs of mercenaries and terrorists to wage war in Syria?
Where were "human rights" hypocrites when US/civilisedcommunity were slaughtering civilians in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia?!

See most recent small arms treaty

 

[mememe]

See most recent small arms treaty

No "treaty" can cover the fact that the "human rights" brigade is financed by the US State Department through various "funds"; and it peddles what it is paid for.

 

[mememe]

According to NOT Western media sources:

alongside Syrian regular army Kurds and Arab tribes (Bedouins) are now fighting against "freedom fighters" in Syria.

Assads wise position on Kurds is now paying off: "freedom fighters" have been expelled from some Kurds' controlled regions of Syria.

 

[High_Gravity]

Syria Lashes Out at Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey

(BEIRUT) — The Syrian regime accused regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of trying to destroy the country and vowed Sunday that it would defeat rebels who have captured large swathes of the commercial hub Aleppo.

Military forces in Aleppo fired tank and artillery shells at neighborhoods as rebels tried to repel the government air and ground assault. According to activists, rebels who launched an operation to take over Syria’s largest city a week ago are estimated to control between a third and a half of Aleppo’s neighborhoods.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, on a visit to Iran, leveled some rare public criticism of Sunni powers in the Middle East, saying Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are supporting a plot hatched by Israel to destroy Syria. The three countries have all been backing rebels trying to overthrow authoritarian President Bashar Assad.

“Israel is the mastermind of all in this crisis,” Moallem told a joint news conference in Tehran with his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi . “They (Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey) are fighting in the same front.”

The battle for Aleppo, once a bastion of support for Assad’s regime, is critical for both the regime and the opposition. Its fall would be a major blow to Assad, giving the opposition a major strategic victory with a new stronghold in the north.

“They mobilized all their armed terrorists and tried to capture Damascus in less than a week,” Moallem said. “They were defeated. Today, they’ve gone to Aleppo and definitely they will be defeated in Aleppo,” he added. The rebels mounted a challenge to the regime in Damascus before the assault on Aleppo, but after a week of intense clashes, they were defeated.

Iran, Syria’s only remaining ally in the Middle East, has provided Assad’s government with military and political backing for years, and has kept up its strong support for the regime since the uprising began in March 2011.

Sunday’s bombardment was part of a government counter-offensive to retake control of districts that had fallen into rebel hands last week at the beginning of their bid to capture Aleppo.

Activists said the shelling was most intense in the southwestern neighborhoods of Salaheddine, Bustan al-Qasr and parts of Saif al-Dawla, some of the first areas seized by the rebels when they started the push last week after being routed in a similar attack against the capital Damascus.

“Life in Aleppo has become unbearable. I’m in my car and I’m leaving right now,” said a Syrian opposition writer who was fleeing the city Sunday. “There’s shelling night and day, every day,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The writer and other activists from Aleppo said economic conditions had become dire in the city.

“Bread, gasoline and gas are being sold on the black market at very high prices,” he said. “Many things are in shortage.”

Read more: Syria Lashes Out at Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey | World | TIME.com

 

[High_Gravity]

Syrian rebels seize military base outside Aleppo

Northern Syria (CNN) -- Rebels captured a government military base Monday on the outskirts of Aleppo, the hotly contested Syrian metropolis that has seen more than a week of bloody clashes.

The base had about 200 Syrian troops and appeared to be under attack by rebels from three sides overnight.

"The battle lasted around nine hours," said Fazad Abdel Nasr, a rebel commander working in the northern Aleppo suburbs. Nasr said six regime soldiers and four rebel fighters were killed.

The rebels also gained heavy equipment to supplement the lesser weapons they had been fighting with.

"We captured four tanks in good condition, and they are now in the hands of the Free Syrian Army. Two were destroyed," Nasr added.

Despite the boost for the rebels, the relentless battle for Syria's largest city raged on Monday.

Al Jazeera correspondent Omar Khashram was wounded during heavy fighting in a central Aleppo neighborhood. A cameraman and driver working with Khashram, who was being treated in a hospital in Turkey, told CNN that shrapnel from a shell penetrated gaps in the correspondent's flak jacket in Aleppo's Salahuddin neighborhood.

U.N. observers have reported a surge in violence in Aleppo, with helicopters, tanks and artillery being used, mission head Lt. Gen. Babacar Gaye said Monday.

Regime forces launched missiles and shelled from attack helicopters, opposition activists said.

Aleppo, Syria's commercial and cultural hub, has seen a mass exodus amid the violence. About 200,000 people in and around the city have fled shelling and heavy weapon fire in the past two days, Valerie Amos, the U.N.'s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said Sunday.

There were conflicting reports Monday on who controlled the major Aleppo neighborhood of Salahuddin, which rebels had claimed days earlier. Both opposition fighters and the regime said Monday they had taken over Salahuddin.

At least 17 people were killed across Syria on Monday, including eight in Aleppo, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria.

With no end to the country's 16-month crisis in sight, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said his country will take more action to try to stop the bloodshed.

"As France is taking over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council on August 1, we are going to ask -- before the end of the week -- for a meeting of the Security Council, probably at a ministerial level ... to try and stop the massacres and prepare for the political transition," Fabius told French RTL radio on Monday.

Syrian rebels seize military base outside Aleppo - CNN.com

 

[Katzndogz]

The only hope of ending the civil war and restoring some kind of peace has to come from Russia. I hope they act.

 

[High_Gravity]

The only hope of ending the civil war and restoring some kind of peace has to come from Russia. I hope they act.

What do you want them to do?

 

[mememe]

The only hope of ending the civil war and restoring some kind of peace has to come from Russia. I hope they act.

They do. But the battle for Syria was lost in Libya, when Russia had Medvedev (and standing behind him pro-US elites) as president.

The situation is as follows:
1. Syrian government is making a good progress in fighting off what is effectively a foreign intervention.
2. The US is reluctant to get stuck in Syria BEFORE the elections because Syria already proved it is going to be even tougher then Libya; and no politician wants to go to elections with a fresh protracted war on his hands; but it became a matter of "saving face" to get rid of Assad at the very least. Therefore:
3. US/"civilised community" will not leave Syria alone for as long as Assad is at the head of the state. That much is understood by the ruling Syrian clans.
4. On the other hand, Syrian ruling clans are not ecstatic at a prospect of surrendering (or sharing) their power and wealth with some foreign nonentities who present themselves as "Syrian opposition".
5. In light of this, compromise has to be found.
6. This compromise is more likely to be one of Tlass clan who will assume a place of Assad, but will not disturb much the internal Syrian equilibrium.
7. According to US plans, Turkey was suppose to spearhead an invasion of Syria. But a wise position of Assad regarding Kurds, put Turkey in a very delicate position where it became vulnerable to a territorial loss and increased internal unrest that has a potential of sending a country into a chaos of a coloured revolution/"Turkey Autumn". Under the circumstances, Turkish government scaled down its participation in US adventure in Syria and run to Moscow for negotiations.
8. Two days ago a member of Tlass clan more likely to take up Assad's position, also indicated a possibility of negotiating the outcome of Syrian situation with Moscow with the aid of Turkey.

But, right now, Assad is doing rather well in fighting off international gangs of "freedom fighters", so his card has not been trumped yet.

 

[mememe]

Fresh from Aleppo:

Aleppo businessmen are taking upon themselves to restore and clean up the damaged parts of the city but are asking Syrian Army to finish off clearing Aleppo from "freedom fighters" without mercy, and restored peace and order...

 

[ERGO]

US Treasury Confirms that Al Qaeda Runs Syrian "Rebellion"


US fails to sell militants in Syria as "freedom fighters," tells truth for pretext to liquidate monsters of their own creation.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in its article, "Al Qaeda's War for Syria," cited officials from the US Treasury Department stating, "Al Qaeda in Syria (often operating as the "Al Nusra Front for the People of the Levant") is using traffickers—some ideologically aligned, some motivated by money—to secure routes through Turkey and Iraq for foreign fighters, most of whom are from the Middle East and North Africa. A growing number of donors from the Persian Gulf and Levant appear to be sending financial support."

Seth Jones: Al Qaeda's War for Syria - WSJ.com

Photo: The "Free Syrian Army," whose composition consists of not only Syrian sectarian extremists, but Libyan terrorists from the US State Department listed "Libyan Islamic Fighting Group" led by Abdul Hakim Belhaj, is the manifestation of years of US, Saudi, and Israeli aid since at least 2007.

This undercuts the West's year and a half-long narrative that Syria's violence was the result of a so-called "uprising" by the people of Syria. While the WJS attempts to downplay this admission by claiming, "al Qaeda makes up a small part of the resistance movement," it concedes that, "its strength appears to be rising." In reality, it was Al Qaeda militants from the very beginning, and the only aspect of the conflict "rising" is public awareness of this fact.

Since 2007, US Aided and Abetted Al Qaeda Affiliates Against Syria

As early as 2007, veteran journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in his New Yorker article "The Redirection," that:

"To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. 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." -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

Hersh's report would also include:

"the Saudi government, with Washington’s approval, would provide funds and logistical aid to weaken the government of President Bashir Assad, of Syria. The Israelis believe that putting such pressure on the Assad government will make it more conciliatory and open to negotiations." -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

The 2007 article also warned about the inevitable consequences of arming radical sectarian extremists, with CIA operators in Lebanon warning of mass murder, sectarian violence, and specifically the targeting of Christian minorities across the Levant (the region along the Mediterranean Sea including Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria):

"Robert Baer, a former longtime C.I.A. agent in Lebanon, has been a severe critic of Hezbollah and has warned of its links to Iranian-sponsored terrorism. But now, he told me, “we’ve got Sunni Arabs preparing for cataclysmic conflict, and we will need somebody to protect the Christians in Lebanon. It used to be the French and the United States who would do it, and now it’s going to be Nasrallah and the Shiites" -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh (2007)

Now, demonstratively, we see exactly this feared onslaught manifesting itself in Syria, in particular against Christians as indicated in LA Times' "Church fears 'ethnic cleansing' of Christians in Homs, Syria," and more recently in USA Today's distorted, but still telling, "Christians in Syria live in uneasy alliance with Assad, Alawites." Even the massacre in Houla, seems to echo of this 2007 warning, bearing all the hallmarks of sectarian extremists like Al Qaeda.

Not only did the United States government, with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Israel's aid, knowingly assemble a sectarian extremist front affiliated with Al Qaeda, not from within Syria, but from beyond its borders, it knew well in advance the destructive consequences such a foreign policy would yield.

The US government has since willfully lied to the both the American people and the world regarding the true nature of the violence unfolding in Syria, and with the help of the corporate-media, is attempting to spin the forewarned consequences of their long-planned conspiracy as merely an unfortunate by-product of a spontaneous conflict.
Annals of National Security: The Redirection : The New Yorker

A Foreign Invasion, not a Rebellion

The WSJ's article begins with the sentence, "the United States and its allies should consider opening a second front in the Syrian war. In addition to helping end Bashar Assad's rule, there is a growing need to conduct a covert campaign against al Qaeda and other extremist groups gaining a presence in the country."

In essence, we are being told that the militant extremists the US assembled against Syria have failed to overthrow the government, so the US should intervene on the pretext of liquidating the very terrorists they conspired to send, funded and armed, and have been supporting since the very beginning.

The very logistical "routes" through Turkey the WSJ claims Al Qaeda is using to flood into Syria with militants and weapons, are admittedly organized by the US through its CIA intelligence apparatus. The New York Times article, "C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition," states clearly that:

A small number of C.I.A. officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to American officials and Arab intelligence officers.

The NYT continues:

The weapons, including automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and some antitank weapons, are being funneled mostly across the Turkish border by way of a shadowy network of intermediaries including Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the officials said.
C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/world/middleeast/cia-said-to-aid-in-steering-arms-to-syrian-rebels.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Likewise, in the Washington Post's article, "Syrian rebels get influx of arms with gulf neighbors’ money, U.S. coordination," it is reported:
Syrian rebels get influx of arms with gulf neighbors’ money, U.S. coordination - The Washington Post


Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials.

We are now expected to forget these admissions, or believe that Al Qaeda is slipping past CIA officers "operating secretly in southern Turkey," and that only by coincidence they are armed with the very weapons and resources the US, Saudis, and Qataris have pledged to supply the so-called "Free Syrian Army" with. Turkey, it should be remembered, is a NATO member - that Al Qaeda is swarming within and along its borders belies 10 years of "War on Terror" mythology.

The "Free Syrian Army" does include sectarian extremists from within Syria, mostly drawn from the banned, sectarian Muslim Brotherhood movement which has sought to destroy secular society across the Arab World for decades. But the vast majority of the fighters flowing into Aleppo in the north, and who had recently attempted to overrun Damascus in the south, are foreign fighters, armed by foreign sponsors, invading and conducting armed attacks on populated Syrian cities.

source link: US Treasury Confirms that Al Qaeda Runs Syrian "Rebellion"

'Panetta has blood on his hands for supporting Syria rebels'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5ERT9gULiC8

 

[mememe]

... when will we be treated to "civilised" media-whores admitting NATO was fighting alongside Al-Q in Libya?..