August 14th, 2015.
The Division 30 Fiasco and the Plot against Syria.
It was a totemic moment for the fading Empire.
After four years, an avalanche of media lies, numerous false flag chemical weapons attacks and finally the US trained some fighters and sent them into Northern Syria and … the local al Qaeda franchise eliminated them within days.
Nusra Front posts video of ‘capture’ of US-trained rebels | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR
Nusra Front attacks Western-backed rebels in northern Syria | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR
The US has tried to use the combination of airstrikes and weapons distribution to leverage influence within the Syrian insurgency. According to the Brookings Institute the US military has twin command centres in Jordan and Turkey from which US commanders are seeking to direct the insurgency.
Why Assad is losing | Brookings Institution
” Several commanders involved in leading recent Idlib operations confirmed to this author that the U.S.-led operations room in southern Turkey, which coordinates the provision of lethal and non-lethal support to vetted opposition groups, was instrumental in facilitating their involvement in the operation from early April onwards. That operations room — along with another in Jordan, which covers Syria’s south — also appears to have dramatically increased its level of assistance and provision of intelligence to vetted groups in recent weeks.”
The fact that the al Nusra Front remain the primary fighting group in Northern Syria whilst the only US ally in Northern Syria, the Kurds are under Turkish attack along with the Division 30 fiasco show that these attempts to direct the insurgency have failed dismally. Engineered chaos is one thing but the US policy at this point is an utterly incoherent mess.
What else could be the explanation for such a half-hearted effort in so many different areas?
A training program that boasts of 54 graduates?
They cannot be serious.
The Division 30 Fiasco.
The United States trained and supplied a supposedly “pro-Western” group of Syrian rebel fighters named Division 30 who were tasked we are told with fighting ISIL. The group were inserted into Northern Syria from Turkey where they were trained. According to the Washington Post the fighters were supplied with equipment that would enable them to send the co-ordinates for US airstrikes via US personnel operating across the border in Turkey.
This was the new “streamlined” system the US was trying to implement according to the Washington Post’s Karen de Young who wrote
” a U.S. official familiar with the training program, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue, said that the capture was “definitely a setback” for U.S. and Turkish plans to use Division 30 fighters to help direct airstrikes against Islamic State forces and establish a rebel-controlled safe zone in the area.”
“The Assad government, which uses aircraft to attack opposition forces located relatively nearby, was warned by the administration — through a previously used conduit at the Syrian U.N. mission in New York — to stay away from where the trained fighters were inserted, another U.S. official said.”
“Although the trainees are not officially designated as spotters for the upcoming U.S. air attacks, they were given equipment that would allow them to send Islamic State coordinates to U.S. personnel on the Turkish side of the border. Those personnel would then transmit the information to surveillance aircraft and strike controllers, making strikes faster and more precise than using overhead surveillance alone.”
“The New Syrian Force fighters crossed the border at Kilis, on the Turkish side, to the Syrian border town of Azaz. At least some of them, the U.S. military official said, are believed to have taken leave after their return to Syria.
Hassan, along with his deputy, was said to have been captured while leaving a commanders meeting in Azaz.”
Delusions of Grandeur Persist in Washington DC.
In a display of stunning arrogance and awesome imperial hubris, the United States had the temerity to inform the Syrian Government of the location of this force and tell the Syrian Government that the group were not to be attacked.
Imagine that, imagine the response from the United States if Russia inserted a group of armed men onto the territory of the United States, whose long term goal was the overthrow of the US Government and tried to claim the US did not have the right to attack illegal armed groups operating on their territory with the goal of overthrowing the Government!!
The United States after all has no legal right to operate in Syria whatsoever. There is no UN resolution authorising any use of force by the US or any other nation in Syria.
Because the US attacks in Syria to this point have been directed against the destructive and foul jihadist fighters of ISIL and the al Nusra Front, entities with no legal or international standing, few have chosen to quibble but any and all attacks by the US on the forces of the Syrian Government would be unambiguous breaches of International Law.
The US Should Decide Whether or Not it wants to be a Rogue State.
There is an international system of rules, laws and norms. The United States is a signatory and a participant in the United Nations. The United Nations Security Council has the legal authority under international law to authorise the use of force, as they did in the Libya case four years ago with disastrous results.
If the United States does not believe in the UN system and in international law. They should leave the United Nations and end the ridiculous pretense.
The al Nusra initially attacked a leadership meeting of the Division 30 group capturing the leader.
The Al Nusra front have been attacked on several occasions by US aircraft.
Their perception of the Division 30 spotters as a potential threat was not an unreasonable one in light of this history.
US Trained Rebels Captured by al Qaeda
Several days later another more concerted attack on the group followed and that was essentially the last that was heard of Division 30. They fled to a Kurdish controlled area and appear to have simply disappeared.
In the aftermath of the fiasco US aircraft attacked the Al Nusra headquarters in Azaz, in what seemed like the classic gesture of futility from the enraged but impotent giant.
Coalition strikes Nusra Front positions near Aleppo – amateur video
The sensitivity of the matter was underlined by the fact that for several days the US DoD offered blanket denials that these events had even happened.
“I can tell you that the New Syrian Force personnel that are a part of our training program are all present and accounted for and none have been detained or captured,” said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Defense Department spokesman.
This was despite the videos showing the fighters in custody released by the al Nusra Front fighters who had annihilated the tiny group of men the US trained and sent into Northern Syria with instructions to supposedly spot IS fighters and send their co-ordinates to US personnel across the border in Turkey who would then direct US aircraft towards these targets.,
It has been claimed that it was “assumed” the al Nusra Front would see the group as an ally.This hope was probably based on the fact that the al Nusra front have recently benefited greatly from the supply of US made TOW anti-tank missiles. al Nusra front were given the extremely effective weapons by the fake cut out group named Harakat Hazm in May.
“A video posted by Al Nusra shows the weapons being used to take over Syrian military bases, Wadi Deif and Hamidiyeh in Idlib province“
http://journal-neo.org/2014/12/27/us-armed-rebels-gave-tow-missiles-to-al-qaeda/
Jabhat al Nusra Using American Made BGM-71 TOW Anti-tank Missiles
The US has been bombing al Nusra related fighters extremely sporadically. The Khorasan group, claimed by many to be a work of fiction, was the claimed target.
Khorosan plot to ‘blow up airliners with toothpaste bombs’ was being planned | Daily Mail Online
Whether the Khorasan group is real or not, and the Daily Mail headline provides a hint, the US has conducted an extremely intermittent campaign of airstrikes against al Nusra Front positions since the US began bombing Syria in late September, 2014.
The Syrian war.
Since the year 2011 the nation of Syria has been under attack from foreign backed extremist jihadist fighters, who continue to be supported by the West and the allies of the West including NATO member Turkey.
The extremist fighters of ISIL and the al Nusra front receive supplies, training, weaponry and other assistance from Turkey, the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the other Gulf states.
For four years the Western media have overwhelmingly supported the efforts of the al Qaeda affiliate the al Nusra front and the other Islamist fighting groups and have openly sought to suppress evidence of their war crimes even when the evidence was provided by their own journalists.
The Plotters Failed.
The regime change operation in Syria has failed. It has failed for two key reasons. Syria has allies and the al Ghouta false flag failed to deliver Western air strikes required for the operation to succeed after a truly bizarre series of events involving the British Labor party, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and even the journalist who asked John Kerry the question that opened the gate for the Russian diplomatic intervention that saw Syrian Chemical weapons stocks removed.
The Failed False Flag of August 2013 Ended the dream.
The regime change bid went off the rails in August/September 2013 after the failure of the al Ghouta chemical false flag to achieve the desired, by now routine Western bombardment followed by the violent overthrow of the Government and the state by Western backed mercenaries.
EXCLUSIVE: Syrians In Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack
This was the moment for the War party, this was the opportunity but the seemingly inevitable attack never happened.
Syria’s Government had maintained strong ties with the Russian Federation and Russia has a naval base in Syria, it’s only Mediterranean base. So whereas Russia voted in favour of the Libya bombardment, they were very actively opposed to any attack on Syria. Iran threatened the US with regional war.
At this point the goal of Regime change had to be re-badged. Suddenly the ISIL group went on a massive rampage and someone started producing seemingly fake Westerner beheading videos to seal the deal with the TV people of the West.
Less than a year later the US was bombing Iraq, with the approval of the Iraq Government and soon they informed the Syrian Government that they will be bombing the ISIL group in Syria also.
It was only a matter of time before the US would make some sneaky move to enable them to attack Syria. The hope of a more rational course remained, but it was empty optimism.
The Motive is Clear.
The motivation for these operations appears to have been Western, Israeli and Saudi concern about the growing influence of Iran in the middle East that are due largely to the criminal invasion of Iraq by several Western nations in 2003 and before that the equally criminal Israeli attack on Lebanon of 1982.
These adventures led to Iran being able to build a vast land bridge of allies, reaching from the Western border of Afghanistan through to the Mediterranean in the West.Comprising Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, although neither side was fully in power in Lebanon or in Iraq, the parties allied with Iran had the upper hand, militarily and politically.
Syria with its strangely effete leader, its well beyond it’s use by date, Soviet style police state, it’s corruption , an antiquated military and it’s largely Sunni population was a natural target.
No less an authority than the US Defense Intelligence Agency noted back in 2012 that the Syrian conflict was a proxy war.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/pgs-287-293-291-jw-v-dod-and-state-14-812-2/
“The West, Gulf countries and Turkey support the opposition, Russia, China and Iran support the (Syrian) regime.”
The estimate of the death toll, the consensus Western estimate, is now 240,000 people, millions of people have fled for their lives. Large parts of Northern and Eastern Syria have fallen from Government control.
The Safe Zone.
Turkey has long been a proponent of the idea of a supposed “safe zone” in the Northern Syria border region. This plan generally meets with enthusiastic approval from the press organs of the War party as an important step on the way to regime change.
According to the Guardian, the safe zone is supposed to “stretch for 68 miles along the Turkey-Syria border, from the town of Jarabulus to Marea, and will be about 40 miles deep, reaching to the outskirts of Aleppo”
Many sources have been pouring cold water on the idea. The reason for this is obvious, there is a simple conflict in interest between the US and Turkey and their views of the situation.
Turkey is opposed to any form of Kurdish sovereignty at their southern border whilst the US sees the Kurdish fighters in both Iraq and Syria as a key ally. This is exemplified by the fact that the Kurdish fighters in Northern Syria have Western special forces embedded within them, something that emerged in this story
Turkey’s strikes on Kurds could drag US into new front, military sources fear | Fox News.
which states: “We had U.S. Special Forces not far from where the Turks were bombing, training Kurdish Peshmerga”
Rhetoric and Reality.
Turkey frequently engages in florid rhetoric but the actions rarely live up to the words. The anti Kurd operation in Northern Syria was a non starter because the US would not allow Turkey to bomb the Kurdish fighters and their Western special forces “trainers.” Turkey dropped some bombs in Northern Iraq, mouthed off and that was it. A joke.
There is no security force available to enforce or police the supposed safe zone on the ground. Turkey is not going to send sufficient forces to secure an area 60 by 40 miles. The only viable security force in the region are the Kurdish fighting groups the Turks virulently oppose and the whole thing has collapsed under the weight of these contradictions.
Even the US controlled media were deployed to pour cold water on the safe zone fantasy.
U.S. Shoots Down Idea of Syria Safe Zone – Bloomberg View
Why Turkey’s Proposed ‘Safe Zone’ Against ISIS in Syria May Not Be So Safe – US News
U.S. denies reaching agreement with Turkey on Syria ‘safe zone’ – Yahoo News
U.S., Turkey aim to create buffer zone on Syrian border. Nobody knows how. – The Washington Post
The safe zone is just another stupid idea that failed to achieve anything. One of many. Others will presumably follow in it’s wake and they will presumably fail for the reason that the plotters are seemingly infantile dullards whose ambitions and abilityalmost never match.
Conclusion.
The plot seemed to reveal itself in Northern Syria last week. but the catastrophic results and the half hearted nature of the whole Division 30 operation speaks of a US administration that seems to be radically divided and engaged in high political warfare day in day out as the Hawks, the men and women of the Banker’s Empire desperately try to stymie the “US firsters” attempt to “change mission” from being Israel’s spearhead acting on Israel’s interests and against the interests of the United States and the broader international community.
A rational view of the US interesting the Middle East would emphasise stability and reform and seek to end the madness of sectarianism and proxy wars.This is unfortunately a pipe dream.
Anyone who thinks that the US or any Western nation is going to “impart Democratic values” upon the people of the Middle East or any other region by bombing their nation and destroying the state is in denial of the known reality.
It is no longer a matter of theory. We know the results of the Empire’s wars of enlightenment and democracy.
They are seen everyday in Iraq, Libya and all the other places the Western Militaries were tasked with destroying on behalf of the Bankers Empire.
Al Nusra Front Capture of US backed Rebels and Aftermath
Syria – the rhetoric and the truth, by Thierry Meyssan
Post script.
The al Nusra Front released the Division 30 fighters they had captured several weeks later. It was also rumoured that Turkey had tipped the group off about the presence of the fighters. Later disgraced former CIA and Military Chief David Petraeus called for the US to bomb al Nusra Front to victory in Syria.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/31/petraeus-use-al-qaeda-fighters-to-beat-isis.html
It is pretty rich considering these evil bastards also try to maintain that al Qaeda did 911.
It will be a long wait for any in the US media to ask Petraeus why he wants to help the group who “massacred thousands in New York” come to power in Syria. It would be a pretty good question.
I want to write about Syria but need to increase my knowledge to sift the contrary analysis and stake a pitch.
This upsetter has been a one-step forward/two-back battle, consistently surging in hope to despair, to confidence, anguish… anger, on to signs they’re a winner.
I can’t shake off: Syria stands or we all fall. I hate reading the ‘inevitably collapse-ers’. Makes me wanna cry and prophecy – “this land is their land and will be”.
I’ve always thought it’s the front-front-line. ‘Syrian Girl’ has particularly guided me along from her first anonymous-ish broadcasts. Although five years of living with asylum seekers some years before I was used to the proud boasts of those from their now blasted to smithereens Middle East (Iran aside). I’d never met anyone from Syria but later-on had a couple or so years adopted in the family, a fancy Lebanese take-away (discovering surprisingly in London, are in the main run by Syrian’s). I was now led to believe, eye of the beholder aside, this lush tropicana, has significant and unique levels of natural beauty and – like the other bits – super-hospitable.
Then came the onslaught, a manufactured descent of this veritable Eden, more or less compounded by tribal complexity. I know the silent majority are bigotry-blind, I know God so loved the world, not one bit more, nor one people more. And, whilst I’m on the Christian tip, I should put to bed all this grab a verse in Isaiah to suggest he predicts contemporary dismay today twaddle. Theology from the pit.
This piece stirs me, and m’prayer up, warranting a typing shout to add a voice.
I’ll get back you you James, thanks as….
Mark
Thanks for a great comment Mark. This is a quote I picked out from a recent speech Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave that shows that the Syria/Hezbollah faction are on the right track.
“The Christians are your brothers in religion and in the nation and in fate. So love them and preserve their lives and their property as if it was your own. If you do such you will topple the conspiracy and prevent sedition and you will be behaving according to the teachings of your Prophet.”
There are a couple of photos here along the same lines.
A very telling picture of a Hezbollah fighter (updated) | The Vineyard of the Saker
http://thesaker.is/a-very-telling-picture-of-a-hezbollah-fighter/
[…] Robertson Crimes of Empire 14 agosto […]
Molte grazie, io dire a mia madre come lei parla italiano.
Fabulous analysis, Mr Robertson. I’d be astonished if there’s anyone left in the world, after 4 years, who still believes the official Western/MSM narrative concerning Syria. Also, I’m given to believe, this ‘New Syrian Force’ only consists of around 60 jihadists? Which is just insanity.
I’m also highly concenred that this situation now developing in Lebanon is another externally-orchestrated regime-change operation than might blow up into another Civil War – literally next-door to Syria.
Many thanks Burning Blogger of Bedlam, calling me Mr. is very kind but probably not called for. Your Lebanon hypothesis is extremely interesting, I have not been following those protests closely but your assessment rings very true. They tried war and terrorism in Lebanon and they failed.The recent arrest of Ahmed Assir was a death blow to the takfiri movement in Lebanon.http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/17/fugitive-lebanese-cleric-ahmad-al-assir-arrest-70s-makeover-beirut
In my opinion you are probably right about the protests but they will probably remain peaceful because Hezbollah are simply too militarily powerful and too closely aligned with the Lebanon Army to be a viable target. Many thanks for comment.