IT IS REPEATED ONCE MORE OUR STANCE FOR SYRIAN CONFLICT

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Dangerous Crossroads: NATO Missiles in Turkey Pointing at Syria

NATO has approved of stationing US-made Patriot missiles along Turkey’s border, for what it claims is “defense.” Over the past two years Syria has been fighting terrorists armed, funded, and equipped by NATO, of which Turkey is a member. Turkey has admitted its role in harboring and providing logistics for foreign fighters flooding across the border into Syria, many of whom are confirmed members of Al Qaeda. Despite this, Syria has gone through extraordinary lengths to avoid a confrontation with Turkey.

Conversely, Turkey, over the years, has not only flown sorties into neighboring countries to strafe villages suspected of harboring Kurdish militants, they have also conducted land invasions in what the Western media calls “hot pursuits.” Despite NATO-member Turkey’s repeated violations of neighboring nations’ borders, and despite repeated protests from nations whose borders are regularly violated, the United Nations has taken no action, nor has the self-appointed “international community.”

In October of 2011, it was reported by McClatchy Newspapers in their article, “Turkey invades Iraq after Kurdish rebels kill 26 Turkish soldiers,” that:

Turkey sent troops and fighter jets into Iraq Wednesday in “hot pursuit” of Kurdish rebels who killed more than 25 Turkish soldiers in multiple attacks in the southern Turkish province of Hakkari. It was the first cross-border violence in five years between Turkish troops and Kurdish guerrillas who Turkey says shelter in northern Iraq. Read more here:

A month earlier, Turkey was strafing villages in northern Iraq. In June 2012, the BBC reported in their article, “Turkey in new air strikes on Kurdish rebels in Iraq,” that:

Turkey’s military has confirmed further air strikes against Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq.
It said nine attacks were carried out by Turkish aircraft on hideouts of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), mostly in the Qandil region.
Last Wednesday the military said it had carried out similar strikes, a day after eight Turkish soldiers and 26 PKK rebels were killed in clashes.

Conversely, this same silent and complicit “international community” has warned that any mirroring strategy by Syria to likewise follow militants, harbored by Turkey, over its borders in “hot pursuit” will result in military intervention. CNN’s article titled, “NATO OKs Patriots and delivers warning: ‘Don’t even think about attacking Turkey’” reported:

“Today NATO agreed to augment Turkey’s air defense by deploying Patriot missiles to Turkey. Turkey has asked for NATO’s support and we stand with Turkey in the spirit of strong solidarity,” said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

“To Turkish people we say, we are determined to defend you and your territory. To anyone who would want to attack Turkey, we say, don’t even think about it. “

It appears then that the stationing of Patriot missiles along the Turkish-Syrian border is, in part, a means to give Turkey assurances of impunity as it continues facilitating increased, overt NATO aggression against Syria.

This is stated explicitly in the corporate-financier funded Brookings Institution document, “Middle East Memo #21 Assessing Options for Regime Change (.pdf),” which reads:

However, securing Turkey’s and Jordan’s participation may be challenging because both Amman and Ankara appear reluctant to host a Syrian opposition army involved  in  large-scale  operations.  They  fear Syrian vengeance  in  the  form  of  terrorism  or  support  for unrest on their own soil, and would have to be convinced that the risk was worth the effort; they may even need to be provided with security guarantees and assistance. In addition, Jordan and Turkey would fear that arming the opposition and escalating the fighting could lead to spillover into their own countries or into Iraq and Lebanon, inflaming strife throughout the region. Given the fragility of all of Syria’s Arab neighbors,  stoking  the  flames  of  Syria’s  civil  war  should not be undertaken lightly, and arming the opposition might require Western support to all of Syria’s neighbors to help them cope with spillover. (page 6)

The move to station the anti-aircraft systems on the Turkish-Syrian border also involves NATO attempting to incrementally deploy a no-fly zone over northern Syria. This is intended for carving out long-ago prescribed “safe havens” within which NATO-backed terrorists can operate while the US handpicked proxy regime can safely pose as administrators. This is also mentioned in the Brookings report:

 An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annan’s leadership. This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power. This would, of course, fall short of U.S. goals for Syria and could preserve Asad in power. From that starting point, however, it is possible that a broad coalition with the appropriate international mandate could add further coercive action to its efforts.” (page 4)

The West’s diplomatic manipulation has failed. And because the Brookings report found considerable complications with conducting a Libya-style air campaign over Syria, (because Syrian forces are not isolated and exposed in the same manner as Libyan government forces were) it was determined that while significant damage could be accomplished versus the Syrian military from the air, it would not guarantee regime change and may lead to the necessity for the West to either “fold” or “double down with a ground invasion” (page 11).

It appears then, with the deployment of Patriot missiles, the West will try to salvage the best of both options – creating a safe haven in the north of Syria by creating a no-fly zone, but without flying sorties over Syrian territory.

While NATO currently denies the missiles are intended for the creation of a no-fly zone, US Senator John McCain has openly admitted the missiles are to shoot down a Syrian jet, thus creating a psychological deterrence against the government’s further use of air power where safe havens are to be carved out. During the Neo-Conservative Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) “The Consequences of Inaction in Syria” talk, uploaded on November 28, 2012, McCain would state after being asked what should be done in Syria (shortly after 17:00):

“The no-fly zone. Which by the way, does not mean that we go after Bashar’s air defenses. It means that we emplace anti-air missiles in place and I guarantee you, first Syrian aircraft we shot down that would be the last one to fly over a no-fly zone. A place where they – a Benghazi. A Benghazi where they can organize, where they can train where they can equip where we can find out who the good guys and the bad guys are in this effort to form a revolutionary council that will be effective. and also frankly to counter what is the increasing influence of Al Qaeda and extremists who are pouring in from all over the Middle East.”

Of course McCain fails to disclose that the extremists he “fears” pouring into Syria, are primarily from the very city of Benghazi he cited, a city he and the late US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens personally helped establish as a region-wide terror-hub.

McCain would continue, identifying the Patriot missiles specifically as the weapon system of choice for establishing the no-fly zone he advocates:

I think Patriot missiles – now the Germans are moving some patriot missiles under some kind of weird circumstances but at least they are coming into Turkey. Or we could give them a limited number, a controlled number of MANPADS. But primarily I think it would just be a Patriot installation. Pilots are not going to fly into certain death. I don’t care how brave they are. And you shoot down one or two of them, they’re not going to fly there again. They may like Bashar al-Assad, but they like to live a little more.

McCain would continue by admitting the Turkish government does not have the support of its people in supporting NATO’s attempt to implement regime change in neighboring Syria.

The conspiracy has been documented, a US Senator has all but admitted why the missiles are going into Turkey – not to “defend” the NATO member as stated, but to impose a defacto no-fly zone over Syria. It remains to be seen what pretense NATO uses to finally execute this already decided-upon plan. Whatever it may be, a chemical weapons false-flag or another fabricated “atrocity,” it is documented clearly that expanded aggression against Syria is premeditated, merely couched in superficial justification and the illusion that NATO is fighting Syria reluctantly after being “provoked.”

SOURCE  http://www.globalresearch.ca

Syrian opposition leaders report an alarming growth within their ranks of fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra, an extremist group linked to al-Qaeda.

The Jabhat group now has somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters, according to officials of an non-governmental organization that represents the more moderate wing of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). They say that the al-Qaeda affiliate now accounts for 7.5 percent to 9 percent of the Free Syrian Army’s total fighters, up sharply from an estimated 3 percent three months ago and 1 percent at the beginning of the year.

The extremist group is growing in part because it has been the most aggressive and successful arm of the rebel force. “From the reports we get from the doctors, most of the injured and dead FSA are Jabhat al-Nusra, due to their courage and [the fact they are] always at the front line,” said a message sent today to the State Department by the moderate Free Syrian Army representatives, warning of the extremists’ rise.

These estimates are very rough, given the scattered and disorganized nature of the opposition. But they are based on detailed reporting from the field by the members’ military councils, which are the closest thing to an organized command structure among the rebels. In reports sent this week to the State Department, the NGO representing the Syrian moderates offered a detailed breakdown of the extremists’ growth:

* In Aleppo, the Jabhat force is reckoned at around 2,000, mostly in the Al-Bab area northeast of the city. This estimate is based partly on reports from a doctor in the area who has treated injured fighters. The total FSA presence in the Aleppo area is about 15,000.

* In Idlib province, west of Aleppo, Jabhat’s ranks number 2,500 to 3,000, or about 10 percent of the total number of FSA fighters there.

* In Deir al-Zor, to the northeast, the extremist group has about 2,000 of the FSA’s total force of 17,000, according to the reports. Among Jabhat al-Nusra’s most spectacular operations were recent seizures of the Al-Ward oil field and a Conoco gas field, the reports said.

* In Damascus, the Jabhat al-Nusra force is somewhere between 750 and 1,000. Another 1,000 fighters are spread around the country in Latakia, in northwest Syria, Homs in the center and Daraa in the south.

The Syrian reports paint a picture of a disorganized rebel force in which the extremists are filling the vacuum caused by the lack of clearly established command and control.

“In some areas, other extreme groups are merging with [Jabhat] al-Nusra, in others many are leaving it because they did not fulfill promises of support,” notes one report sent to the State Department.

In the chaos of the Syrian battlefield, smaller battalions drawn from neighborhoods or small towns are combining forces with larger groups to form brigades, many of them led by extremists. “This means more [mergers] of extreme groups within Jabhat al-Nusra as it becomes more and more franchised,” the report explains. “Their risk is paying off. They are on a high [rate] of growth.”

A message sent earlier this week from the Free Syrian Army representatives touted the new use of anti-aircraft missiles to down a Syrian helicopter: “It’s thrilling to see it [the anti-aircraft weapon] in action finally. The bad news is that it was not through the U.S. but from the regime bases fallen into the hands of the [FSA] battalions. The other bad news is that it’s not under the control or the supervision of the MC [Military Council] commanders.”

“We are feeling the heat, time is closing up, the fall of Assad appears to be in the very near future,” continued this message, sent last Tuesday.

As the rebels gain momentum, the spoils of war apparently are going to the rebel group that captures a particular Syrian army base. This is one factor boosting the rapid growth of Jabhat al-Nusra. Its fighters provide the muscle and weapons and, as a result, explained an official of the NGO that represents the moderate FSA fighters: “They will get all the goodies, reputation and recognition.”

 

SOURCE  http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/