U.S. WEIGHS OPTIONS FOR MILATARY RESPONSE IN SYRIA

[zone]

U.S. should 'expect everything' in response to any Syria strikes: Assad

Reuters – 1 hour 5 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned of possible reprisal attacks if the United States uses military force against Syria, saying that if there were strikes, Americans could "expect every action."

Assad, in an interview with CBS television that aired on Monday, denied involvement in a suspected chemical weapons attack near Damascus on August 21.

The United States says more than 1,400 people were killed in the attack, which it blames on Assad's forces. President Barack Obama has threatened military strikes against Syria as punishment.

Assad, who has accused the rebels of the poison gas attack, said that if there were U.S. strikes on Syria, the United States "should expect everything."

Repercussions "may take different forms," including "direct and indirect" effects, Assad told CBS in the interview, which was conducted in Damascus.

Indirect impacts could include "instability and the spread of terrorism all over the region that will influence the West directly," Assad said.

He said there could be repercussions against the United States from other countries or groups such as Iran or Lebanon's Hezbollah.

His comments come as Obama prepares to press his case for military action before the American public and U.S. lawmakers this week. Obama has asked the U.S. Congress to authorize a military strike, and votes could come as early as this week.

In the meantime, Assad said: "We have to expect the worst."

Assad repeatedly rejected the idea that there is any evidence linking his government to the August 21 attack, and he blasted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to round up international support for military strikes.

He also told CBS the Syrian government opposes the use of chemical weapons. "We are against any WMD, any weapons of mass destruction whether chemical or nuclear." Asked if he considers chemical warfare equivalent to nuclear warfare, Assad said: "I don't know. We haven't tried either."

To Obama, Assad said: "I will tell him very simply, "Present what you have as evidence ... to the public. Be transparent."

Kerry dismissed Assad's denial of involvement in the attack.

"We know that his regime gave orders to prepare for a chemical attack," Kerry said at a news conference in London, one of several European stops in recent days to make the U.S. case for military action.

 

[zone]

Lingering doubts remain over Syria chemical attack evidence

...What's missing from the public record is direct proof, rather than circumstantial evidence, tying this to the regime.

The Obama administration, searching for support from a divided Congress and skeptical world leaders, says its own assessment is based mainly on satellite and signals intelligence, including intercepted communications and satellite images indicating that in the three days prior to the attack that the regime was preparing to use poisonous gas.

But multiple requests to view that satellite imagery have been denied, though the administration produced copious amounts of satellite imagery earlier in the war to show the results of the Syrian regime's military onslaught. When asked Friday whether such imagery would be made available showing the Aug. 21 incident, a spokesman referred The Associated Press to a map produced by the White House last week that shows what officials say are the unconfirmed areas that were attacked.

The Obama administration maintains it intercepted communications from a senior Syrian official on the use of chemical weapons, but requests to see that transcript have been denied. So has a request by the AP to see a transcript of communications allegedly ordering Syrian military personnel to prepare for a chemical weapons attack by readying gas masks.

The U.S. administration says its evidence is classified and is only sharing details in closed-door briefings with members of Congress and key allies.

Yet the assessment, also based on accounts by Syrian activists and hundreds of YouTube videos of the attack's aftermath, has confounded many experts who cannot fathom what might have motivated Assad to unleash weapons of mass destruction on his own people -- especially while UN experts were nearby and at a time when his troops had the upper hand on the ground.


Read more: Lingering doubts remain over Syria chemical attack evidence | CTV News

"The U.S. administration says its evidence is classified and is only sharing details in closed-door briefings with members of Congress and key allies."

so congress and key allies get to know.
thought the govt was of the people by the people for the people - are the people not "key allies"?

 

[zone]

Israeli intelligence 'intercepted Syrian regime talk about chemical attack'

Information passed to US by Israeli Defence Forces' 8200 unit, former official tells magazine

theguardian.com, Wednesday 28 August 2013 09.25 BST

A team of United Nations inspectors have resumed their second day of investigations at the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack outside Damascus, as western leaders moved towards military action in response to the Syrian regime's reported use of chemical weapons against civilians.

The UN team left their Damascus hotel early on Wednesday after the operation was suspended on Tuesday following a sniper attack on its convoy on Monday.

The bulk of evidence proving the Assad regime's deployment of chemical weapons – which would provide legal grounds essential to justify any western military action – has been provided by Israeli military intelligence, the German magazine Focus has reported.

The 8200 unit of the Israeli Defence Forces, which specialises in electronic surveillance, intercepted a conversation between Syrian officials regarding the use of chemical weapons, an unnamed former Mossad official told Focus. The content of the conversation was relayed to the US, the ex-official said.

The 8200 unit collects and analyses electronic data, including wiretapped telephone calls and emails. It is the largest unit in the IDF.

Israel has invested in intelligence assets in Syria for decades, according to a senior government official. "We have an historic intelligence effort in the field, for obvious reasons," he said.

Israel and the US had a "close and co-operative relationship in the intelligence field", he added, but declined to comment specifically on the Focus report.

Senior Israeli security officials arrived in Washington on Monday to share the latest results of intelligence-gathering, and to review the Syrian crisis with national security adviser Susan Rice.

Israeli intelligence 'intercepted Syrian regime talk about chemical attack' | World news | theguardian.com < click


oh....no possible conflict of interest?

 

[zone]

Even if Assad used chemical weapons, the west has no mandate to act as a global policeman

By ordering air strikes against Syria without UN security council support, Obama will be doing the same as Bush in 2003

Hans Blix
The Guardian, Wednesday 28 August 2013 19.43 BST

We may agree with John Kerry, the US secretary of state, that the use of gas is a "moral obscenity", but would we not feel that "a measured and proportionate punishment", like striking at some missile sites or helicopter bases, is like telling the regime that "you can go on with your war but do stay away from the chemical weapons"? And what is the moral weight of the condemnation by nuclear weapons states of the use of gas as a serious war crime when they themselves will not accept a norm that would criminalise any first use of their own nuclear weapons?

...

In 2003 the US and the UK and an alliance of "friendly states" invaded Iraq without the authorisation of the security council. A strong body of world opinion felt that this constituted a violation and an undermining of the UN charter. A quick punitive action in Syria today without UN authorisation would be another precedent, suggesting that great military powers can intervene militarily when they feel politically impelled to do so. (They did not intervene when Iraq used chemical weapons on a large scale in the war with Iran in the 1980s.)

Even if Assad used chemical weapons, the west has no mandate to act as a global policeman | Hans Blix | Comment is free | The Guardian < click



if it turns out 'the rebels' (cough) used the chemical weapons, will they be bombed or even brought to justice?
or will the moral obscenity become something else?

eh.

 

[zone]

Chemical weapons and Syria: we need evidence-based, international justice

The history of chemical and biological warfare is riddled with false allegations, misinformation and propaganda

Posted by
James Revill
Wednesday 28 August

According to the emerging western narrative, on 21 August a large scale attack using neurotoxic chemical weapons was launched on targets in Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, by forces of the Assad regime. There is little doubt that something horrific has happened. However, we do not have a credible "chain of custody" from sampling to analysis (as could be provided by UN inspectors working with the WHO and OPCW), and it is difficult to determine the exact nature of the agent or agents used or what exactly transpired.

Adding to the complexity, acquiring such information is not easy. As Meselson has stated, "obtaining reliable chemical analyses is not nearly as simple as non-specialists might think" (pdf). Yet without either "some kind of smoking gun" or details on the circumstances of the chemicals' release, the truth about what happened is highly uncertain.

It is certainly possible that the Assad regime has employed chemical weapons, but the timing of the attack, occurring so shortly after the arrival of inspectors, so close to where they are currently operating and when the regime is winning in the two-year conflict, raises questions. As such, is it entirely reasonable to discount the possibility, raised by Carla Del Ponte of the UNHCR in relation to earlier allegations, that "the rebels have used chemical weapons"?

While this possibility sits uncomfortably with the western narrative on the Syrian conflict, and may well turn out to be mistaken, uncritically accepting the prevailing account of events in Ghouta ignores the extent to which the history of chemical (and biological) warfare is riddled with false allegations, misinformation and propaganda which, as Robinson has pointed out, have often been deftly exploited by "well-intentioned as well as unscrupulous people to vilify enemies and to calumniate rivals" (pdf).

Chemical weapons and Syria: we need evidence-based, international justice | James Revill | Science | theguardian.com < click

(pdf)

Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria, Julian Perry Robinson, 26 June 2013
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/spru/hsp/occasional papers/HSPOP_4.pdf

 

[zone]

O reptile talk, why you so funny

LOLOLOL




[video=youtube;cE8uBGlkn5k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE8uBGlkn5k[/video]

Meet John Kerry, Skull and Bones Ambassador

Published on May 24, 2013

SHOW NOTES AND MP3: The Corbett Report | Episode 268 &#8211; Meet John Kerry, Skull and Bones Ambassador

This week on The Corbett Report we look beyond the mainstream narrative of John Kerry and his background to find the real connections that have catapulted him into the corridors of power. From his billionaire wife to his Ivy League education to his Skull and Bones membership, we examine the real agenda of the new Secretary of State.

 

[RickShafer]

Such things are not decided by pitiful, pettianti rulers.
Such movements in the currents of civilizations are well above their paygrade.
- Called powers and principalities.
This is why the prayers of the saints are so important.

 

[vic1980]

[h=1]Syria positive about giving up chemical weapons[/h]

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV | Associated Press – 46 mins ago

MOSCOW (AP) — Syria on Monday quickly welcomed a call from Russia, its close ally, to place Syrian chemical arsenals under international control, then destroy them to avert a U.S. strike, but did not offer a time frame or any other specifics.
The statement by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem appeared to mark the first official acknowledgement by Damascus that it possesses chemical weapons and reflected what appeared to be an attempt by Syrian President Bashar Assad to avoid the U.S. military attack.
But it remained to be seen whether the statement represented a genuine goodwill gesture by Syria or simply an attempt to buy time.
"Syria welcomes the Russian proposal out of concern for the lives of the Syrian people, the security of our country and because it believes in the wisdom of the Russian leadership that seeks to avert American aggression against our people," al-Moallem said during a visit to Moscow, where he held talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.
However, al-Moallem, would not give any further details in his brief statement and didn't take any questions from reporters.
Moallem's statement came a few hours after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Assad could resolve the crisis surrounding the alleged use of chemical weapons by his forces by surrendering control of "every single bit" of his arsenal to the international community by the end of the week.
Also Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Syria to immediately agree to transfer chemical weapons and chemical precursors to a safe place within the country for international destruction.
Ban said he will also propose to the Security Council that it unite and demand an immediate chemical weapons transfer should U.N. inspectors conclude that such weapons were used in an attack Aug. 21 in a suburb of Damascus.
Al-Moallem and Lavrov didn't make any immediate reference to Kerry's statement when they spoke to the media after their talks, but a few hours later Lavrov went before cameras to say that Moscow would urge Syria to quickly place its chemical weapons under international control and then dismantle it.
Lavrov, who held talks with al-Moallem in Moscow earlier in the day, said he expected a quick positive answer from Damascus.
"If the establishment of international control over chemical weapons in that country would allow avoiding strikes, we will immediately start working with Damascus," Lavrov said.
"We are calling on the Syrian leadership to not only agree on placing chemical weapons storage sites under international control, but also on its subsequent destruction and fully joining the treaty on prohibition of chemical weapons," he said.
The surprise series of statements from top U.S., Russian and Syrian diplomats followed media reports alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who discussed Syria with President Barack Obama during the Group of 20 summit in St. Petersburg last week, had sought to negotiate a deal that would have Assad hand over control of chemical weapons.
Putin himself said Friday at a news conference marking the summit's end that he and Obama discussed some new ideas regarding a peaceful settlement of the crisis and instructed Kerry and Lavrov to work out details.
Speaking Monday, Lavrov denied that Russia was trying to sponsor any deal "behind the back of the Syrian people."
The Russian move comes as Obama, who has blamed Assad for killing hundreds of his own people in a chemical attack outside Damascus last month, is pressing for a limited military strike against the Syrian government. The Syrian regime has denied launching the attack, insisting along with Russia that the attack was launched by the rebels to drag the U.S. into the civil war.
Lavrov and al-Moallem said after their talks that U.N. chemical weapons experts should complete their probe and present their findings to the U.N. Security Council.
Al-Moallem said his government was ready to host the U.N. team, and insisted that Syria is ready to use all channels to persuade the Americans that it wasn't behind the attack. He added that Syria was ready for "full cooperation with Russia to remove any pretext for aggression."
Neither minister, however, offered any evidence to back their claim of rebel involvement in the chemical attack.
Lavrov said Russia will continue to promote a peaceful settlement and may try to convene a gathering of all Syrian opposition figures to join in negotiations. He added that a U.S. attack on Syria would deal a fatal blow to peace efforts.
Lavrov wouldn't say how Russia could respond to a possible U.S. attack on Syria, saying: "We wouldn't like to proceed from a negative scenario and would primarily take efforts to prevent a military intervention."
Putin said Moscow would keep providing assistance to Syria in case of U.S. attack, but he and other Russian officials have made clear that Russia has no intention of engaging in hostilities.
___
AP correspondents Zeina Karam in Beirut and Edith Lederer at the U.N. contributed to this report.

Good! This is welcoming news, indeed

Syria positive about giving up chemical weapons

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

The powers in Ephesians have been understood as the general spirit or attitude of nations or localities, as revealed in their institutions (H. Schlier, Principalities and Powers [London, 1961]), as both the state and spiritual powers (O. Cullman, The State in the NT [London, 1957]), as a hierarchy of supernatural cosmic forces (P. T. O’Brien, in Biblical Interpretation and the Church), as the angelic host surrounding the throne of God (W. Carr, Angels and Principalities), and as both heavenly and earthly, divine and human, good and evil powers (Wink, Naming) depending on context.

Archeological evidence suggests that the language of Ephesians was commonly used in Jewish and Hellenistic circles to refer to evil spiritual beings that can be identified with heathen gods and that work in conjunction with the flesh and with sin to control human life (C. E. Arnold, Ephesians).

BUT, the powers listed in Ephesians 1:21 are certainly spiritual and subordinate to Christ in his exaltation and can be used for either good or evil depending on the choices free will human beings make.

So while the powers mentioned in Ephesians 6:12 and 16 are clearly depicted as evil and as still retaining some power, for the believer is said to struggle against them (Eph. 2:2; 4:8–10). This notion of warfare with the spiritual powers is the distinctive element in Ephesians’ treatment of the subject. But the spiritual powers are not to be feared; the readers are assured that they have access to armor supplied (or used, cf. Ps. 35:1–3) by God (Eph. 6:10–20) and that ‘the “powers” can see that they have been devastatingly foiled by the emergence of the body of Christ, the church’ (Eph. 3:10; Arnold, Ephesians, p. 64).

The point is that good and evil spiritual forces war against each other and seek to influence humanity and the governments which humans create through the humans that populate them; however, humans aren't mindless robots but free will agents that choose and whose actions ultimately matter.

It looks like you're making a false assertion that all government and every civilization, which is populated and directed by free will human beings, are powerless puppets of spiritual forces.

That's not what the Bible is saying.

Such things are not decided by pitiful, pettianti rulers.
Such movements in the currents of civilizations are well above their paygrade.
- Called powers and principalities.
This is why the prayers of the saints are so important.

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

We knew it was coming and now it's here. U.S. backed Syrian Jihadist rebels are forcing Christians in Christian villages in Syria to convert to Islam or be murdered.

Syrian rebels attack historic Christian village where residents still speak the language of Jesus | Mail Online

Most of the Christian residents chose death. Even the children said no to the Muslim terror campaign of forced conversion.

Syrian rebels seize control of Christian village | www.ktvu.com

Democrats give U.S. tax dollars to Syrian rebels to accomplish this:

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

While the Democrats fund Syrian rebels who murder men, women, and children that refuse to convert to Islam, Russia is calling for the protection of Christian holy places in Syria.

Where are the church leaders in America on this? They are silent.

Syrian rebels seize historic Christian village; Russia calls for protection of Christians : News Headlines - Catholic Culture

 

[RickShafer]

Pray for the peace of Syria please.

Please pray for the peace of Syria.

 

[zone]

We knew it was coming and now it's here. U.S. backed Syrian Jihadist rebels are forcing Christians in Christian villages in Syria to convert to Islam or be murdered.

Syrian rebels attack historic Christian village where residents still speak the language of Jesus | Mail Online

Most of the Christian residents chose death. Even the children said no to the Muslim terror campaign of forced conversion.

Syrian rebels seize control of Christian village | www.ktvu.com

Democrats give U.S. tax dollars to Syrian rebels to accomplish this:

have we stopped to ask why? why it's being funded?
why are christians being murdered by western trained and funded terrorists?

this should be becoming obvious.

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

A top secret memo sent by the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia reveals the Saudi Kingdom sent death-row inmates, sentenced to execution by decapitation, to Syria to fight Jihad against the Syrian government in exchange for commuting their sentences.According to the memo, dated April 17, 2012, the Saudi Kingdom negotiated with a total of 1239 inmates, offering them a full pardon and a monthly salary for their families, who were to remain in the Kingdom, in exchange for "...their training in order to send them to Jihad in Syria."

Saudi Arabia Sent Death Row Inmates to Fight in Syria in Lieu of Execution

Umm.. yes, so loosing convicted murderers upon civilians in Syria is so much better says the Democrat's allies. I'm sure Senator Feinstein agrees:

Feinstein, Boxer buck constituents on Syria strike - SFGate

If you're ever wondering what the right thing to do is, just do the opposite of whatever Senator Feinstein does.

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a Tuesday statement that international experts as well as Syrian public and religious leaders presented their evidence to the 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 9.

It also said evidence provided by numerous witnesses confirms that militants fighting against the Syrian government used chemical weapons in the Damascus suburb of western Ghouta last month.

The participants in the UN Human Rights Council session warned of the consequences of a military strike against Syria, noting that such an attack would constitute a crude violation of international law.

The US administration has been using the footage and the photos in question to lobby for a military strike on Syria.

PressTV - UN rights council says Syria gas attack videos, photos fake: Russia

 

[crossnote]

For a guy that likes to ''lead from behind'', I expect he will wait for some other country to jump in first.
But I agree, stay out of this one.

"I think Rush-ya is a good one to lead...from behind"

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

It's still newsworthy that the UN Human Rights Council is stating the evidence used by the Democrats in the UN to agitate for war has been falsified.

"I think Rush-ya is a good one to lead...from behind"

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

Syrian President Bashar Assad has repeatedly rejected requests from his field commanders for approval to use chemical weapons, according to a report this weekend in a German newspaper.

The report in Bild am Sonntag, which is a widely read and influential national Sunday newspaper, reported that the head of the German Foreign Intelligence agency, Gerhard Schindler, last week told a select group of German lawmakers that intercepted communications had convinced German intelligence officials that Assad did not order or approve what is believed to be a sarin gas attack on Aug. 21 that killed hundreds of people in Damascus’ eastern suburbs.

The Obama administration has blamed the attack on Assad. The evidence against Assad was described over the weekend as common sense by White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough on CNN’s "State of the Union."

Intercepts caught Assad rejecting requests to use chemical weapons, German paper says | McClatchy​

 

[zone]

It's still newsworthy that the UN Human Rights Council is stating the evidence used by the Democrats in the UN to agitate for war has been falsified.

LOL AoK!
quit blaming it all on da Dems.
it's one bird wit 2 wings, bud.

 

[AgeofKnowledge]

Maaloula is now a “ghost town.” Christians left behind were told, “Either you convert to Islam or you will be beheaded.”
“Where is President Obama?” wailed a refugee. And, indeed, where is Obama?

He is out lobbying Congress for authority to attack the Syrian army that defended Maaloula as John McCain beats the drums for a Senate resolution to have the U.S. military “change the momentum” of the war to the rebels who terrorized the convent nuns of Maaloula.

If we strike Syria and break its army, what happens to 2 million Syrian Christians? Does anyone care?

America Says ‘No!' to a Beltway War - Patrick J. Buchanan - Official Website