Home » Posts tagged 'Assad' (Page 4)
Tag Archives: Assad
Here We Go Again: YouTube Clips Of Syrian “Chemical Attacks” Are Back – Meet The Man Behind The Propaganda
Here We Go Again: YouTube Clips Of Syrian “Chemical Attacks” Are Back – Meet The Man Behind The Propaganda
US foreign policy is becoming so easy and predictable, even Derek Zoolander can do it.
Two weeks ago, when discussing the relentless attempts to provoke, or at least greenlight another quasi war with Syria’s president Assad, we wrote “one can be confident that the ISIS “campaign” will continue and get ever
closer to Damascus until yet another appropriately-framed YouTube clip appears and leads to another war with Assad.”
Fast forward to today, when precisely this script which by now everyone could predict, is being rerun.
According to Reuters, “a group monitoring the Syrian civil war said on Tuesday government forces carried out a poison gas attack that killed six people in the northwest, and medics posted videos of children suffering what they said was suffocation.” Of course it could be just a bunch of actors like in the summer of 2013, but that’s irrelevant – there is a YouTube clip out there and it is only a matter of time before John Kerry latches on to it as this year’s pretext to declare war on Syria.
Syria would laugh if it could, however it can’t: “a Syrian military source described the report of an attack in the village of Sarmin in Idlib province as propaganda. “We confirm that we would not use this type of weapon, and we don’t need to use it,” the source said.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Oil Producers Could See “Regime Change”: Bloomberg
Oil Producers Could See “Regime Change”: Bloomberg
As we’ve noted previously, the US-Saudi joint effort to force the Kremlin into cutting Assad loose (the end goal of course being to install a government that will acquiesce to mainlining Qatari natural gas through Syria straight into Europe thus breaking Gazprom’s stranglehold), has resulted in a bit of collateral damage for the world’s less geopolitically important oil producing countries (take Venezuela for instance, where collapsing crude prices have exacerbated an already abysmal scenario, leading to, among other tragic outcomes, a shortage of soap and condoms).
Bloomberg suggests that the destabilization of already fragile political and economic situations could lead, in short order, to “regime change” across oil producers:
The large petrostates are varying degrees away from the Weberian ideal of the rule of law. That could spell trouble. Low oil prices threaten the ability of these inefficient, sometimes corrupt states to service their debts and may curtail the government spending that keeps the masses content. This may in turn ignite demands for a fairer distribution of these dwindling oil proceeds and, possibly, regime change.
From Bloomberg, utilizing Worldwide Governance Indicators’ measures of corruption and rule of law:
…and an update on oil producers’ currencies since peak oil…
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
US Considering Openly Arming Syrian al-Qaeda Faction, al-Nusra
US Considering Openly Arming Syrian al-Qaeda Faction, al-Nusra
As reported at Antiwar.com, the US and some of its regional client dictatorships are prodding the major al-Qaeda faction operating in Syria, a brutal terrorist group called al-Nusra, to “re-brand” so the US can openly arm it.
Wikipedia notes that al-Nusra:
…is a branch of al-Qaeda operating in Syria…
…has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Turkey.
…is generally made up of native Syrian mujahideen who adhere to Sunni Islam. Its goal is to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria and create an Islamic Emirate under Sharia law.
Members of the group have referred to the United States and Israel as enemies of Islam, and warned against Western intervention in Syria.
al-Nusra is also, according to both the United States government and ISIS itself, affiliated with ISIS, formerly known as AQI – al Qaeda in Iraq.
The Council on Foreign Relations notes:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Obama Prioritizes Weakening Russia, Over Weakening ISIS
Obama Prioritizes Weakening Russia, Over Weakening ISIS
Michael Snyder noted at Global Research on March 1st, that the U.S. is now air-dropping weapons into ISIS territory inside Syria. The U.S. is arming ISIS against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, whom Obama wants to remove. Snyder asks rhetorically: “We have the most sophisticated military on the entire planet and yet we drop weapons into the hands of the enemy by mistake? Come on.” Can it be that the U.S. Air Force doesn’t have maps showing the half of Syria that’s controlled by ISIS? Of course not. ISIS’s chunk of the country constitutes almost the entire northeastern half of Syria.
Snyder further notes: “When it comes to airstrikes [against ISIS], the Obama administration has had an ‘Iraq first’ policy. This has put ISIS on a defensive posture in Iraq, but this has actually encouraged expansion of ISIS in Syria. ISIS is just following the path of least resistance. Is Obama trying to discourage ISIS from committing troops and resources in Iraq because he actually wants them to focus on taking down the Assad regime in Syria?”
Well, it’s certainly working. Snyder also notes that, “ISIS has almost doubled the land it controls in Syria since the US-led coalition began airstrikes against the extremist group in the summer, a new map has revealed.” He points out the obvious conclusion: “Obama knows all of this. He just wants to take down Assad.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
Global Conflict Intensity Spikes To 7-Year High
Global Conflict Intensity Spikes To 7-Year High
If it’s not one geopolitical concern these days it’s invariably another. If today’s story isn’t weak-handed Greece escalating the rhetoric in its hopeless game of chicken with eurozone creditors, it’s ISIS ratcheting up the shock factor in a campaign to scare U.S. coalition partners away from an increasingly ineffectual bombing campaign in Syria and Iraq. If it’s not an escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine, it’s logrollingbetween the U.S. and Saudi Arabia with the fate of the Assad regime, Gazprom, and the Russian economy at stake. As we’ve seen over the past several months (e.g. crude in a veritable tailspin) and over the past several days (e.g. hourly news out of Greece raining on the BLS’s non-farm revision parade), markets are becoming increasingly tethered to the vagaries of geopolitics — and don’t expect that trend to abate any time soon.
Fortunately, BBVA is on the case, noting that “geopolitical analysis is becoming a key element on the agenda for 2015.” Indeed. That’s why the bank has just launched their first ever “BBVA Research conflict & social unrest monthly update.”
From BBVA, on conflict:
During January, the presence of ISIS in the Middle East continued to be a threat while the Russian-Ukrainian crisis escalated, increasing geopolitical worries in the region. In contrast, territorial disputes and geopolitical tensions eased in South-Eastern Asia. Social unrest related to demands for democracy (North Africa), together with terrorism and economic demands (Europe), have also increased……key hot spots continued to be the Russia-Ukraine and ISIS conflict. The Russian-Ukraine crisis escalated again in January (see our previous hot topic) after a relatively calmer period during October-November. This triggered a new meeting in the EU level to discuss new sanctions. The situation in neighbouring countries (Armenia, Belarus, Georgia…) also remained tense. In the Middle East, the International coalition forces regained some ground in Northern Syria (Kobane) and were able to stop the advance of ISIS in Iraq. However, it will take more time to secure peace in the region. Tensions also increased in Western Europe after the attacks in Paris and in Belgium.
And on protests:
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
EITHER YOU’RE THE BUTCHER OR YOU’RE THE CATTLE « The Burning Platform
EITHER YOU’RE THE BUTCHER OR YOU’RE THE CATTLE « The Burning Platform.
I know many people have no interest in watching the boob tube because 99% of the programming is either mindless drivel or government sanctioned propaganda. It’s the 1% that reflects the deeper themes and moods engulfing our society. Television shows like Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and The Walking Dead reflect the darkening mood of this intensifying Fourth Turning. I wrote one of my more pessimistic articles called Welcome to Terminus in April regarding the season four finale of the Walking Dead series. I essentially argued we are approaching the end of the line and the world is going to get real nasty.
In the six short months since I wrote that depressing article, we’ve seen men beheaded on Youtube videos by terrorists no one had ever heard of at the beginning of this year. Somehow a ragtag band of 30,000 Muslim terrorists, using American military equipment supplied to fight Assad in Syria and taken from the Iraqi Army when they turned tail and ran away, have been able to defeat 600,000 Iraqi and Kurd fighters with air support from the vaunted U.S. Air Force. Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan descend into never ending religious based warfare. We’ve even had passenger planes mysteriously disappear in Asia with no trace.
…click on the above link for the rest of the article…
