Al-Bushra Updates: Syria Crisis: Caritas Lebanon Shelters Families Fl...

Al-Bushra Updates: Syria Crisis: Caritas Lebanon Shelters Families Fl...

We seek to keep you literally "updated" on movement in terms of truth and justice in the Middle East in general with a particular eye on Palestine. The links below will take you to various articles and websites that offer the perspective of leaders in the religious, NGO, and human rights communities. Additionally, Al-Bushra, ever vigilant, provides links to regular reporting as well as opinion pieces by journalists. The dates given here indicate when the link was posted; the most recent posting is at the top. Check the article itself for the date of publication.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Syria Crisis: Caritas Lebanon Shelters Families Fleeing Violence

From CNS, staff and others | MARCH 26, 2012



Even as former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan rushed to Damascus to meet Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on March 10 in a futile effort to achieve a ceasefire, church aid workers were scrambling to find housing for hundreds of Syrian refugees fleeing the increasing violence. About 200 families made their way to the border town of Qaa in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon on March 5 and were struggling in the region’s near-freezing temperatures.

The Rev. Simon Faddoul, president of Caritas Lebanon, said that “women and children and the elderly are coming out in the cold with nothing but the clothes on their backs.” The United Nations reported that as many as 2,000 Syrians crossed into Lebanon on March 5 and 6 to escape violence that has claimed hundreds of lives as President al-Assad continues a brutal crackdown on resistance to his regime.

Father Faddoul said most of the refugees arrived on foot from areas near the besieged city of Homs. “They are leaving the young men behind in Syria to guard their houses” from attack, Father Faddoul said. “These are people fleeing from war, their homes under bombardment.” Before the latest surge, about 100 families had fled to Lebanon and were receiving assistance from Caritas, the priest said. Father Faddoul estimated that about 40 of the newly arrived families were Christian; the rest were Muslim.

“This has nothing to do with religion. Whenever there is suffering, we have to be there with them and to help them,” he said. Father Faddoul said the availability of adequate housing in the poverty-stricken town of Qaa is limited. About 35 refugees are currently crammed into small rooms, but Caritas is collaborating with municipal officials to locate homes that three or four families could share.

Caritas Lebanon has had a regular presence in the Bekaa Valley, coordinating programs in agriculture to address the region’s poverty. “Now we have so many [new] concerns—how to find shelters, especially if the situation [in Syria] drags on,” Faddoul said. “We hope the situation doesn’t deteriorate further,” he added.

In Ottawa, Ontario, Carl Hetu, national director of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, said his agency was monitoring the situation of Christians in Syria. “Right now,” he said, “there are thousands of people who are displaced. Among them are Christians, but that has been because of the conflict, not because of direct attacks on them.” Many fear that as the uprising among Syria’s primarily Sunni majority persists, minority groups, like the politically powerful Alawites and the nation’s Christian communities, could become targets for sectarian reprisals.

“Christians are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Hetu said. “They cannot show approval of the Assad government, but they have to be careful, because they can’t be seen to be supporting the rebels, either.”

Mr. Hetu said his agency was preparing for a possible massive influx of Syrian refugees to neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, should the already tense situation grow worse. “Our offices in Jordan and Beirut are expecting the worst if the country goes into wide civil war or the Assad government falls,” he said.

Source: http://www.americamagazine.org/content/signs.cfm?signid=961

Syria: Syria and Cyprus in the New World Order Expansionist Plan

Syria: Syria and Cyprus in the New World Order Expansionist Plan

The predictable reaction and hypocritical contradictions in that is expressed excellently by James Petras below.

The bloody genocidal crimes of the "Triple Alliance," the "Western, Israeli and Gulf State-funded power grab" by the "Washington-EU-Riyadh-Tel Aviv axes" of "Washington, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Ankara and London," are exposed for what they are.

The Official James Petras website » The Bloody Road to Damascus: The Triple Alliance’s War on a Sovereign State

The Bloody Road to Damascus: The Triple Alliance’s War on a Sovereign State

03.09.2012 :: Middle East

Introduction: There is clear and overwhelming evidence that the uprising to overthrow President Assad of Syria is a violent, power grab led by foreign-supported fighters who have killed and wounded thousands of Syrian soldiers, police and civilians, partisans of the government and its peaceful opposition.

The outrage expressed by politicians in the West and Gulf State and in the mass media, about the ‘killing of peaceful Syrian citizens protesting injustice’ is cynically designed to cover up the documented reports of violent seizure of neighborhoods, villages and towns by armed bands, brandishing machine guns and planting road-side bombs.

The assault on Syria is backed by foreign funds, arms and training.Due to a lack of domestic support ,however, to be successful, direct foreign military intervention will be necessary. For this reason a huge propaganda and diplomatic campaign has been mounted to demonize the legitimate Syrian government. The goal is to impose a puppet regime and strengthen Western imperial control in the Middle East. In the short run, this will further isolate Iran in preparation for a military attack by Israel and the US and, in the long run, it eliminates another independent secular regime friendly to China and Russia.

In order to mobilize world support behind this Western, Israeli and Gulf State-funded power grab, several propaganda ploys have been used to justify another blatant violation of a country’s sovereignty after their successful destruction of the secular governments of Iraq and Libya.

The Larger Context: Serial Aggression

The current Western campaign against the independent Assad regime in Syria is part of a series of attacks against pro-democracy movements and independent regimes from North Africa to the Persian Gulf. The imperial-militarist response to the Egyptian democracy movement that overthrew the Mubarak dictatorship was to back the military junta’s seizure of power and murderous campaign to jail, torture and assassinate over 10,000 pro-democracy protestors.

Faced with similar mass democratic movements in the Arab world, the Western-backed Gulf autocratic dictators crushed their respective uprisings in Bahrain, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The assaults extended to the secular government in Libya where NATO powers launched a massive air and sea bombardment in support of armed bands of mercenaries thereby destroying Libya’s economy and civil society. The unleashing of armed gangster-mercenaries led to the savaging of urban life in Libya and devastation in the countryside. The NATO powers eliminated the secular regime of Colonel Gadhafi and along with having him murdered and mutilated by its mercenaries.Nato oversaw the wounding, imprisonment, torture and elimination of tens of thousands of civilian Gadhafi supporters and government workers.NATO backed the puppet regime as it embarked on a bloody pogrom against Libyan citizens of sub-Saharan African ancestry as well a sub-Sahara African immigrant workers – groups who had benefited from Gadhafi’s generous social programs. The imperial policy of ruin and rule in Libya serves as “the model” for Syria: Creating the conditions for a mass uprising led by Muslim fundamentalists, funded and trained by Western and Gulf State mercenaries.

The Bloody Road From Damascus to Teheran

According to the State Department ‘The road to Teheran passes through Damascus’: The strategic goal of NATO is to destroy Iran’s principal ally in the Middle East; for the Gulf absolutist monarchies the purpose is to replace a secular republic with a vassal theocratic dictatorship; for the Turkish government the purpose is to foster a regime amenable to the dictates of Ankara’s version of Islamic capitalism; for Al Qaeda and allied Salafi and Wahabi fundamentalists a theocratic Sunni regime, cleansed of secular Syrians, Alevis and Christians, will serve as a trampoline for projecting power in the Islamic world; and for Israel a blood-drenched divided Syria will further ensure its regional hegemony. It was not without prophetic foresight that the uber-Zionist US Senator Joseph Lieberman demanded days after the ‘Al Queda’ attack of September 11, 2001: “First we must go after Iran, Iraq and Syria” before considering the actual authors of the deed.

The armed anti-Syrian forces reflect a variety of conflicting political perspectives united only by their common hatred of the independent secular, nationalist regime which has governed the complex, multi-ethnic Syrian society for decades. The war against Syria is the principle launching pad for a further resurgence of Western militarism extending from North Africa to the Persian Gulf, buttressed by a systematic propaganda campaign proclaiming NATO’s democratic, humanitarian and ‘civilizing’ mission on behalf of the Syrian people.

The Road to Damascus is Paved with Lies

An objective analysis of the political and social composition of the principle armed combatants in Syria refutes any claim that the uprising is in pursuit of democracy for the people of that country. Authoritarian fundamentalist fighters form the backbone of the uprising. The Gulf States financing these brutal thugs are themselves absolutist monarchies. The West, after having foisted a brutal gangster regime on the people of Libya, can make no claim of ‘humanitarian intervention’.

The armed groups infiltrate towns and use population centers as shields from which they launch their attacks on government forces. In the process they force thousands of citizens from their homes, stores and offices which they use as military outposts. The destruction of the neighborhood of Baba Amr in Homs is a classic case of armed gangs using civilians as shields and as propaganda fodder in demonizing the government.

These armed mercenaries have no national credibility with the mass of Syrian people. One of their main propaganda mills is located in the heart of London, the so-called “Syrian Human Rights Observatory” where it coordinates closely with British intelligence turning out lurid atrocity stories to whip up sentiment in favor of a NATO intervention. The kings and emirs of the Gulf States bankroll these fighters. Turkey provides military bases and controls the cross-border flow of arms and the movement of the leaders of the so-called “Free Syrian Army”. The US, France and England provide the arms, training and diplomatic cover. Foreign jihadist-fundamentalists, including Al Qaeda fighters from Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan, have entered the conflict. This is no “civil war”. This is an international conflict pitting an unholy triple alliance of NATO imperialists, Gulf State despots and Muslim fundamentalists against an independent secular nationalist regime. The foreign origin of the weapons, propaganda machinery and mercenary fighters reveals the sinister imperial, ‘multi-national’ character of the conflict. Ultimately the violent uprising against the Syrian state represents a systematic imperialist campaign to overthrow an ally of Iran, Russia and China, even at the cost of destroying Syria’s economy and civil society, fragmenting the country and unleashing enduring sectarian wars of extermination against the Alevi and Christian minorities, as well as secular government supporters.

The killings and mass flight of refugees is not the result of gratuitous violence committed by a blood thirsty Syrian state. The Western backed militias have seized neighborhoods by force of arms, destroyed oil pipelines, sabotaged transportation and bombed government buildings. In the course of their attacks they have disrupted basic services critical to the Syrian people including education, access to medical care, security, water, electricity and transportation. As such, they bear most of the responsibility for this “humanitarian disaster”, (which their imperial allies and UN officials blame on Syrian security and armed forces). The Syrian security forces are fighting to preserve the national independence of a secular state, while the armed opposition commits violence on behalf of their foreign pay-masters – in Washington, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Ankara and London.

Conclusions

The Assad regime’s referendum last month drew millions of Syrian voters in defiance of Western imperialist threats and terrorist calls for a boycott. This clearly indicated that a majority of Syrians prefer a peaceful, negotiated settlement and reject mercenary violence. The Western-backed Syrian National Council and the Turkish and Gulf States-armed “Free Syrian Army” flatly rejected Russian and Chinese calls for an open dialogue and negotiations which the Assad regime has accepted. NATO and Gulf State dictatorships are pushing their proxies to pursue violent “regime change”, a policy which already has caused the death of thousands of Syrians. US and European economic sanctions are designed to wreck the Syrian economy, in the expectation that acute deprivation will drive an impoverished population into the arms of their violent proxies. In a repeat of the Libya scenario, NATO proposes to “liberate” the Syrian people by destroying their economy, civil society and secular state.

A Western military victory in Syria will merely feed the rising frenzy of militarism. It will encourage the West, Riyadh and Israel to provoke a new civil war in Lebanon. After demolishing Syria, the Washington-EU-Riyadh-Tel Aviv axes will move on to a far bloodier confrontation with Iran.

The horrific destruction of Iraq, followed by Libya’s post-war collapse provides a terrifying template of what is in store for the people of Syria: A precipitous collapse of their living standards, the fragmentation of their country, ethnic cleansing, rule by sectarian and fundamentalist gangs, and total insecurity of life and property.

Just as the “left” and “progressives” declared the brutal savaging of Libya to be the “revolutionary struggle of insurgent democrats” and then walked away, washing their hands of the bloody aftermath of ethnic violence against black Libyans, they repeat the same calls for military intervention against Syria. The same liberals, progressives, socialists and Marxists who are calling on the West to intervene in Syria’s “humanitarian crises” from their cafes and offices in Manhattan and Paris, will lose all interest in the bloody orgy of their victorious mercenaries after Damascus, Aleppo and other Syrian cities have been bombed by NATO into submission.

James Petras latest book, The Arab Revolt and the Imperialist Counterattack (Clarity Press:Atlanta2012) 2ND EDITION

Syria and Cyprus in the New World Order Expansionist Plan

See the complete articles in each link.

See this for the strife created by and for "Israel" in the Mediterranean and the Levant by the Intelligence-Industrial Complex.

God and His Messiah Jesus Christ our Lord - our right and duty to witness to Him: Third World Traveler: Irangate: The Israel Connection excerpted from the book The Iran Contra Connection Secret Teams and Covert Operations in the Reagan Era by Johnathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott, and Jane Hunter South End Press, 1987, paper

The base of operating capability is the Triad, as it is the base of power for the Illuminati and the base for the Military-Industrial Complex and the base for the Intelligence-Industrial Complex as well.

Triad Revisited – A Brief Look « BellesHeures's Weblog

God and His Messiah Jesus Christ our Lord - our right and duty to witness to Him: POLITICAL DYNAMICS: Syria is integral to the expansionist plans: "The SSNP called for the creation of a "Greater Syria" encompassing Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus." - see whole article.

The Justice of God: CIA, CSI: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature Herein is referred to the special importance to Cyprus in the New World Order Expansionist Plan. The twentieth century attacks on Greece and Cyprus via Communist/Western Dialectic has paved the way for the Greater Syria Plan above (which is now being carried out).

Cyprus

Military Intelligence in Cyprus: From the Great War to the Middle East Crises by Panagiotis Dimitrakis. New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2010, 223 pp., endnotes, bibliography, photos, index.
For more than 3,000 years, the strategic location of the isle of Cyprus made it the target of conquests by Greeks, Persians, Romans, and Turks. In 1878, the British, with a view toward protecting its interests in the Suez Canal, signed an agreement with Turkey that allowed Britain to occupy and administer the island. The importance of Cyprus increased in 1888, when the canal was placed under British protection, and island became part of the British Empire in 1914. After a brief summary of Cyprus’s role during WW I, when it served as a staging area and the location for intelligence and communications units, Panagiotis Dimitrakis, a British-educated Greek historian, reviews the island’s military intelligence role and its many controversial players after it became a crown colony in 1925.
Dimitrakis explains that early in WW II, under constant German threat, Cyprus was spared German occupation in part because of a successful British deception operation and in part because of SOE covert operations. These depended on Cypriot informers who also kept tabs on the Greek, Cypriot, and communist factions then seeking power.
After WW II, the British negotiated a military base and intelligence agreement with the Greeks, who were pressing for independence but were hobbled by their civil war. In 1955, the British were surprised by a Greek revolt that their spies failed to detect. (76ff) A long insurgency followed, ending in 1960 with the creation of the Sovereign State of the Republic of Cyprus. (104) Dimitrakis provides a vivid account of how the British managed to retain their bases and communications units.
Dimitrakis also presents a detailed description of the events before and after the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. By then the island was a base for U-2s as well as British agents and COMINT sites that had to be protected. Although a cease-fire was quickly reached, the Cypriot government was soon the victim of a sequence of terrorist attacks following the 1979 Iranian revolution. This resulted in the strengthening of British and US bases. By the mid-1990s, Dimitrakis concludes, “Cyprus was deemed the most militarized island in the world.” But by 2007, the situation had calmed and Cyprus became a member of the Euro-zone. Throughout these years of turmoil, however, its intelligence role has functioned well.

Military Intelligence in Cyprus is a scholarly reference work based mainly on primary sources and is not light reading. But it is a sound history of a topic not covered elsewhere and thus a most welcome and valuable contribution to the literature.

SNIPPITS AND SNAPPITS: MOSSAD, CIA AND BLACKWATER OPERATE IN SYRIA ~ REPORT

SNIPPITS AND SNAPPITS: MOSSAD, CIA AND BLACKWATER OPERATE IN SYRIA ~ REPORT

Wednesday, 7 March, 2012

MOSSAD, CIA AND BLACKWATER OPERATE IN SYRIA ~ REPORT

By Israa Al-Fass
Al-Manar
March 07, 2012

“The crisis is at its end” is no longer a relieving statement made by some political analysts, as the crisis is really close to its end. Baba Amro is now under the control of the Syrian army… and so are the armed groups of which a big number escaped to the Lebanese borders dubbing their retreat “tactical”.

Around 700 Arab and Western gunmen surrendered in Baba Amro, well-informed sources told Al-Manar website, adding that “huge and critical surprises will be uncovered in the coming few days… such as the kinds of arms seized, as well as the military tactics the armed groups followed, and the sides that supervised the operations.”

The sources further assured to the news website that the security operation in Homs will be over in a maximum of five to eight days.

WEAPONS FROM ISRAEL USED FOR FIRST TIME IN BABA AMRO

For his part, Syrian expert in strategic affairs Salim Harba pointed out that Baba Amro neighborhood and the areas surrounding it were emptied from the armed groups’ organizational as well as command structures with minimum army and civilian casualties, as the area was mainly concentrated by gunmen.

Speaking to Al-Manar website, Harba said that “the captured gunmen held Arab nationalities; including Gulf, Iraqi, and Lebanese… among them were also Qatari intelligence agents and non-Arab fighters from Afghanistan, Turkey, and some European countries like France.

“The Syrian army also uncovered tunnels and equipments there,” he added, pointing out that “advanced Israeli, European, and American arms that have not yet been tested in the countries of manufacture, in addition to Israeli grenades, night binoculars, and communication systems were confiscated by the security forces.”

Harba went on saying that “communication stations where established on the Lebanese borders to oversee the military operations in Baba Amro, and to ensure contact between field commanders and a coordination office led by members of information in the Qatari capital Doha.”

He clarified that “the escape of British journalists from Homs through the Lebanese-Syrian borders was the result of this coordination.”

In parallel, the Syrian strategic expert revealed that “the communication stations were being operated by Lebanese figures; some of them were members of the Future parliamentary bloc,” and considered that “these figures worked on transforming Wadi Khaled region into a strategic depth for Baba Amro.”

MOSSAD, BLACKWATER DIRECTED FROM QATAR OPERATIONS IN HOMS

Additionally, Salim Harba revealed to Al-Manar website that “a coordination office was established in Qatar under American-Gulf sponsorship. The office includes American, French, and Gulf ~ specifically from Qatar and Saudi Arabia ~ intelligence agents, as well as CIA, Mossad, and Blackwater agents and members of the Syrian Transitional Council.”

“Qatar has also made deals with Israeli and American companies to arm the armed groups, and Gulf countries have been financing the agreements,” he added.

The Syrian expert pointed out that “the significance of the security operation in Homs is due to the high expectations that regional and international sides had from the armed gangs in Baba Amro … they wanted Homs to be turned into a new Benghazi.”

Indicating that the operation was implemented with high professionalism and accuracy, Harba reassured that documents will be exposed at the right time.

“The authority will not reveal everything it has now… the Syrian security forces have documents and confessions that could harm everyone who conspired against Syria, and could make a security and political change, not just on the internal Syrian level, but also on the regional level,” he assured.

In the same context, Harba considered that all the conferences and meetings by what he referred to as the “enemies of Syria” were aimed at paving the way for an American initiative under a “humanitarian” title.

He concluded:

“At the end, the US will submit to the Russian initiative after it realized that confrontations will only result in its defeat, and that the Syrian regime is still strong enough to deal with any conspiracy.”

Pentagon leaders reject military intervention in Syria | pennlive.com

This

Syria: SNIPPITS AND SNAPPITS: SYRIA: HOMS IN THE HELL OF ARMED GROUPS

Is the result of such nonsense as this:

Syria: France pulls out her agents ensconced in Syria [Voltaire Network]

And this:

Syria: "Journalist" Paul Conroy, an MI6 operative [Voltaire Network]

Leading to the set up between Iran and Israel to create a way for Obama to attack Syria, which even the Pentagon knows is a vile stupid thing to do.

Syria: Pentagon leaders reject military intervention in Syria | pennlive.com

Pentagon leaders reject military intervention in Syria | pennlive.com

Pentagon leaders reject military intervention in Syria

March 7, 2012, 5:25 p.m. EST

McClatchy/Tribune - MCT Information Services

WASHINGTON _ Any U.S. military effort to protect civilians in Syria would take weeks to implement, the top Pentagon civilian and military officials said Wednesday, underscoring the limited U.S. options for ending President Bashar Assad's violent campaign against Syrian rebels.

Another option _ a full-fledged military campaign against Assad _ would take even longer and would have to begin unilaterally as the United States is the only nation whose military could weaken Syria's vast air defense systems, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services committee.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta added that Assad's air defense systems are located within population centers, which would likely lead to civilian casualties.

There would be "severe collateral damage," Panetta said.

Panetta and Dempsey offered the first outlines of what a military campaign would look like even as they cautioned increasingly frustrated members of Congress against unilateral U.S. military action against the Assad regime. The Obama administration has called for Assad to step down but can do little on its own to make that happen _ exposing its limited options for alleviating a crisis that President Barack Obama called "heartbreaking and outrageous" at a White House news conference on Tuesday.

At least 7,500 civilians have been killed as parts of Syria have endured weeks-long barrages by Assad's forces, according to the United Nations. The U.N. humanitarian chief, Valerie Amos, visited the besieged city of Homs on Wednesday and said that it was "completely devastated," the BBC reported.

Panetta told the Senate panel that the Obama administration was trying to build an international consensus, adding that without international legal justification, intervening would be a mistake. However, Russia and China have blocked action by the U.N. Security Council, effectively killing chances for a multilateral military intervention like the one NATO mounted in Libya.

Meanwhile, the United States has allotted $10 million in humanitarian aid, which so far has reached 4,000 families in Homs, Panetta said.

"This terrible situation has no simple answers," Panetta said.

Panetta also said the administration was seeking to deliver radios and other "non-lethal aid" to the rebels, but it was unclear what segments of the fragmented opposition _ which includes Syrian exiles in Europe and the patchwork fighting force known as the Free Syrian Army _ would receive that aid. Dempsey said the opposition was composed of as many as 100 different groups.

Earlier this week, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Marine Gen. James Mattis, told the same Senate panel that the makeup of the Free Syrian Army was murky, adding, "It's good to know who you're dealing with" before providing direct U.S. assistance.

At the same time, Mattis conceded that Assad's forces "are gaining momentum on the battlefield."

Republicans, led by Arizona Sen. John McCain, have demanded the United States do more to dislodge Assad. McCain noted Assad's ties to Iran, which is locked in a confrontation with the United States, Western powers and Israel over its nuclear program.

"In past situations, America has led. We're not leading, Mr. Secretary," McCain told Panetta.

Dempsey said that Syria's military, the world's 13th largest, has five times the air defenses of Libya and a large supply of chemical weapons.

His and Panetta's comments signaled that Obama appeared no closer to ordering a military intervention. Dempsey said that the president had asked for a commander's assessment of the U.S. military options. But Obama hasn't asked for a contingency plan, Panetta said, which would involve identifying the U.S. forces that would be deployed to carry out the mission.

___

(c)2012 the McClatchy Washington Bureau

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau at www.mcclatchydc.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services

_____

Topics: g000362661,g000066164

"Journalist" Paul Conroy, an MI6 operative [Voltaire Network]

"Journalist" Paul Conroy, an MI6 operative [Voltaire Network]

"Journalist" Paul Conroy, an MI6 operative

Voltaire, international edition

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VOLTAIRE NETWORK | 7 MARCH 2012

FRANÇAIS ESPAÑOL

Portrayed as a photojournalist for The Sunday Times, Paul Conroy, who has recently escaped from the Islamic Emirate of Baba Amr, is a British MI6 agent.

In this photo, he can be seen in Libya (in blue bulletproof vest) with, on the right, Al-Qaeda leaders Mahdi al-Harati (in black body armor) and Abdelhakim Belhaj (in camouflaged jacket).

• Mahdi al-Harati married an Irish woman and lived in Dublin. Paul Conroy is from Northern Ireland and was raised in Liverpool.

According to former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, Mahdi al-Harati is still wanted in Spain for his involvement in the Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004.

In 2010, with a well-groomed beard and an NGO cover, Mahdi al-Harati was planted by MI6 in the "Freedom Flotilla," which was on a mission to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Mahdi al-Harati led the Al Qaeda brigade who besieged the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli in August 2011. According to Khamis Gaddafi, he was overseen by French instructors. According to a high-level foreign military source, NATO had given al-Harati the assignment of capturing the Libyan leaders who sheltered in a secret facility of the hotel, and of murdering former congressman and Martin Luther King assistant, Walter Fauntroy, who was staying in the hotel. He was also to eliminate two Voltaire Networkcollaborators, Thierry Meyssan and Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, who were based at the Radisson Hotel, whence al-Harati operated his torture center. This decision had been made at a meeting restricted to the NATO command in Naples a few days earlier. The meeting minutes mentioned the presence of Alain Juppé. When questioned, his secretariat denied any involvement by the French Foreign Minister, saying that he was on vacation at that time.

In October 2011, Mahdi al-Harati organized a model village in Syria located in the mountains on the Turkish border. For two months, he hosted Western reporters singing them the praises of the Syrian "revolution." The village is inhabited by a tribe that was paid to stage demonstrations and pose for the press. Al-Harati was visited in particular by Paul Moreira of Canal Plus and Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro.

• Abdel Hakim Belhaj is Ayman al-Zawahiri’s right-hand man, and currently Al Qaeda’s number two commander. Although officially still one of most wanted criminals in the world, NATO named him military governor of Tripoli.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj holds a Qatar residence permit.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj has recently made ​​several trips to Turkey, where he was given an office on the NATO base at Incirlik, and to Syria where he built up several groups comprising up to 1,500 combatants. According to Ayman al-Zawahiri, it was his men who perpetrated the attacks in Damascus and Aleppo.

His organization, the Islamic Fighting Group in Libya, has merged with Al-Qaeda but still figures on the terrorist list of the U.S. State Department and the British Home Office.

By associating with renowned terrorists, Conroy falls within the scope of the law of both in United States and Great Britain for complicity or association with a terrorist group. He faces 15 years in prison, unless he pleads immunity as an agent of the Crown.

France pulls out her agents ensconced in Syria [Voltaire Network]

France pulls out her agents ensconced in Syria [Voltaire Network]

France pulls out her agents ensconced in Syria

Voltaire, international edition

Focus

News in Brief

Controversies

Diplomatic Wire

Documentary Watch

VOLTAIRE NETWORK | 1 MARCH 2012

FRANÇAIS DEUTSCH ESPAÑOL

The Ambassador of France in Beirut, Denis Pietton, officially visited last week the region of Baalbeck in eastern Lebanon. In fact, he traveled with a French security team to northern Bekaa, a region bordering the Syrian province of Homs.

On the Syrian side of the border, officers and experts from the French military intelligence services, some posing as journalists, were training Free "Syrian" Army fighters. They had all entered Syria surreptitiously.

At an illegal crossing point, Ambassador Denis Pietton and his companions retrieved the French intelligence officers leaving the Islamic Emirate of Baba Amr where they had been teaching their techniques in urban combat.

Under the Vienna Convention, diplomatic cars can not be searched. The convoy was therefore able to drop off the French agents at the embassy’s doorstep under the nose of the Lebanese police.

With all the arrogance of the former mandatory power, the French ambassador, once again, interfered publicly in Lebanese affairs by declaring on 23 February to our colleagues from the Daily Star: "Lebanon should keep out of the turmoil in Syria."

SNIPPITS AND SNAPPITS: SYRIA: HOMS IN THE HELL OF ARMED GROUPS

SNIPPITS AND SNAPPITS: SYRIA: HOMS IN THE HELL OF ARMED GROUPS

Friday, 2 March, 2012

SYRIA: HOMS IN THE HELL OF ARMED GROUPS

© 2012 DigitalGlobe, Analysis provided by Human Rights Watch. Please enlarge.

The above is from Human Rights Watch. Analysts have overlaid the large-scale image of Baba Amr with symbols to highlight certain features. Red circles represent destroyed or damaged buildings. Yellow circles are impact craters in open areas like fields, or roads.

The accompanying article blames everyone but the real villains in this situation. The wording is sly and misleading as well. Top level hasbara from Human Rights Watch. AS ALWAYS.

IE:

“These new satellite photos and witness accounts show the extent of the brutality unleashed on Baba Amr. Despite the killing, Russia and China continue to block any international action.” ~ Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch

Here you have a direct testimony from the Syrian city of Homs collected by the Swiss journalist Silvia Cattori, who paints a very different picture than that spread by a majority of western media. Since 6 February Cattori has lost contact with her local informants, terrorized by armed groups "wildly shelling, killing to kill”, as reported in an interview with an inhabitant of Homs [*].

By Silvia Cattori | February 29, 2012

Silvia Cattori

Homs, now, is nothing but a sinister battlefield where government soldiers face armed groups which, according to independent witnesses about the true nature of the rebellion, are blindly firing cannon shots to sow terror and death, then pretending that only government forces are bombarding the city.

The Western media, for its part, continues to adduce as evidence the statements of local committees which spread propaganda of the armed “opponents”, in coordination with the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a London-based body created and funded by the rebellion-allied forces The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights ~ which collects the statements of various local committees in Syria ~ has been repeatedly denounced as nothing but a vulgar instrument of disinformation in the service of the revolt.

Despite ample evidence of that, it remains the principal source of information from Syria ~ together with the famous “great reporters” ~ and the entire Western media are referring to it, spreading day after day the reports by this observatory.¹

To understand what happens in Syria, it is therefore not possible to rely on the Syrian Observatory or on bloggers who are part of this rebellion.

We also cannot rely on foreign correspondents who are, as we can see, systematically and from the heart and soul on the side of the armed “opponents”, qualifying them as “heroes” and presenting the battle that divides the Syrian people in an entirely Manichaean way:

On one side the opposition which “struggles for democracy”, and on the other the terrible dictator.

Things are not like that.

As demonstrated by a recent poll, as well as by the massive demonstrations in support of the Russian and Chinese veto at the UN, the vast majority of the Syrian people do not want this armed revolt, which seeks solely to legitimize NATO powers and several Arab states ~ notoriously known as champions of democracy, such as Qatar.

If you want to speak of “heroes” in Syria, then you should refer to all parties who are suffering, not only to the “heroes” recognized by the West

Suppressed by the PTB or not reported upon at all, women like this, who now live in Gaza type shells of their former homes, is the fact hundreds of thousands have been petitioning Assad for months to free their city from the "rebels" of NATO.

HOW MANY MILAN MISSILES WERE HANDED OVER TO THE REBELS?

The number of Syrian citizens appealing to their president for intervention of government forces is very high.

This is especially true in Homs, where the situation is alarming because large sections of the population are held hostage by these groups occupying entire areas of the city ~ the neighborhoods of Baba Amr, Khaldiyeh, Karm el-Zeytoun ~ where the people have been calling for months for Damascus to rescue them.²

Their fate has become even more a source of anxiety since the same Milan anti-tank missile launchers delivered to the Libyan rebels during the Libyan campaign, less than a year ago, by France and Qatar, began to be used.

We can remember how at the time Sarkozy and Bernard Henry Levy misled public opinion by putting the blame on forces loyal to Gaddafi for the use of these Milan missiles, which were taking a heavy toll on the people.

This is the same disturbing scenario repeating itself in Syria.

Politicians, journalists and NGOs are once again taking a firm stand concerning the war, provoked by groups exploited by foreign powers.

They attribute to the government forces, as was done in Libya and without proper inspection, the acts of barbarism perpetrated by the armed ‘opponents’ who are terrorizing the majority of the population.

For three weeks correspondents have been repeating that Homs has been unilaterally shelled by the Syrian army.

On the contrary, the loyalist contingents attacked by the Milan missiles have suffered heavy losses since the beginning of their intervention. It is not clear whether the authorities in Damascus will be able to dislodge these groups with heavy weaponry from all quarters of the city.

COULD THE SYRIAN GOVERNMENT NOT RESPOND?

From the beginning of these battles it has been repeatedly demonstrated that the armed ‘rebels’ are trained, drilled and formed by foreign special forces and that among their ranks the opponents have elements acting on behalf of foreign powers whose presence in Syria is self-evident.

Syrian television has recently disseminated pictures of Homs taken by a foreign “war photographer” who followed and filmed these armed “opponents” ~ the same ones glorified by the “great reporters” ~ who wildly launch rockets and missiles.

An image has attracted attention: In a building, whose stairs are dirty with blood and destroyed furniture, a surprising graffiti with heavy meaning stood out on a wall:

“From Misurata, after we have freed Lybia,

we came to free Syria!”

Who is responsible for the massacres of Homs, and which objectives does he pursue?

These armed groups, whose most violent actions are attributed to Al Assad soldiers facing them, are systematically presented by the Western press as “foes” fighting for “democracy.”

Why do “great reporters” not bring evidence of Syrian victims of abductions, tortures and murders by these armed “opponents”?

Why has the President of Doctors without Borders recently contributed to this process of intoxication, showing as credible the testimonies of anonymous Syrians with covered faces ~ standing side by side with the rebels, and attributing to Al-Assad forces and to the hospitals’ doctors unspeakable acts of torture and injury of children?³

Who would believe in Bashar Al Assad’s interest in torturing his people, in raping children and girls?

Who would believe that the majority of the Syrian people would continue supporting Bashar Al Assad if he was really such a bloody torturer as painted in the West for the purpose of war propaganda?

These incessant campaigns which defend the violent opposition and not the people terrorized and oppressed by these rebels, are dangerous.

They aim to bring grist to the foreign power’s mill ~ France, Great Britain, the United States, backed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia ~ which have been preparing for months the ground for a military intervention in Syria, and are just waiting for the green light by Obama.

Civilians of Homs queuing for bread.

NOTES:

[1] The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights – which collects the statements of various local committees in Syria – has been repeatedly denounced as nothing but a vulgar instrument of disinformation in the service of the revolt. Despite ample evidence of that, it remains the principal source of information from Syria – together with the famous “great reporters” – and the entire Western media are referring to it, spreading day after day the reports by this rip-of observatory.

[2] See: “Une Syrienne, dont le frère a été tué à Homs par des “opposants”, témoigne” (“A Syrian who had killed his brother in Homs by ’opponents’ witnesses”), story picked up by Nadia Khost, February 8, 2012.
(http://www.silviacattori.net/article2790.html)

[3] The role of NGOs that have contributed to the misinformation affecting Syria and thus increasing the risk of foreign intervention, and in particular Amnesty International and Medecins Sans Frontières will be the subject of further investigations.