http://www.blacklistednews.com/Surreal%3A_Clinton_Pledges_%2445_Million_in_Aid_to_Al_Qaeda_in_Syria/21748/0/38/38/Y/M.html
Another Telegraph article, "Libya’s new rulers offer weapons to Syrian rebels," would admit
The report titled, "Al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq" stated specifically:
West Point's Combating Terrorism Center 2007 report specifically mentions the city of Benghazi and nearby Darnah as the LIFG terror epicenter , stating specifically :
and.....
http://www.debka.com/article/22394/Fordo-sabotage-enabled-Netanyahu-to-move-Iran-red-line-to-spring-2012
and....
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/09/201292891319528669.html
Surreal: Clinton Pledges $45 Million in Aid to Al Qaeda in Syria
September 28, 2012
US inundates terrorist legions with cash & support after regional embassy attacks and death of own ambassador.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the US would be providing an additional $45 million in "non-lethal aid" to the "opposition" in Syria, reported the Associated Press. The Western press chose their words carefully, ensuring that the term "civilian opposition" was repeatedly used to describe the armed terrorist forces attempting to violently overthrow the Syrian government.
Image: Libyan Mahdi al-Harati of the US State Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf)-listed terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), addressing fellow terrorists in Syria. Harati is now commanding a Libyan brigade operating inside of Syria attempting to destroy the Syrian government and subjugate the Syrian population. Traditionally, this is known as "foreign invasion." US aid is going to foreign terrorists, not a "civilian opposition."
In reality, the "opposition" in Syria constitutes foreign terrorist legions flowing across Syria's borders, and in particular, staging and crossing over from NATO-member Turkey. In fact, it was recently admitted by the terrorist legions themselves that their headquarters has been located within Turkish territory for the duration of the conflict. In a recent France 24 article titled, "Free Syrian Army move HQ from Turkey to Syria," armed militants claimed they had only just recently "moved from Turkey to within Syria."
Clinton's Aid is Going to Al Qaeda, Not a "Civilian Opposition."
While the Western media attempts to portray heavily armed foreign terrorists as "Syria's civilian opposition," it has been revealed that entire brigades are led by Libyan terrorists drawn from the ranks of the US State Department (#29), UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf), andUN-listed terror organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).
The presence of LIFG in Syria was first announced by the Western press in November of 2011 when the Telegraph in their article, "Leading Libyan Islamist met Free Syrian Army opposition group," would report:
Clinton's Aid is Going to Al Qaeda, Not a "Civilian Opposition."
While the Western media attempts to portray heavily armed foreign terrorists as "Syria's civilian opposition," it has been revealed that entire brigades are led by Libyan terrorists drawn from the ranks of the US State Department (#29), UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf), andUN-listed terror organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG).
The presence of LIFG in Syria was first announced by the Western press in November of 2011 when the Telegraph in their article, "Leading Libyan Islamist met Free Syrian Army opposition group," would report:
Abdulhakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, "met with Free Syrian Army leaders in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey," said a military official working with Mr Belhadj. "Mustafa Abdul Jalil (the interim Libyan president) sent him there."
Photo: The face of Libya's "revolution" was literally Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda's LIFG commander, Abdul Hakim Belhadj, was NATO's point man in Libya and has now redirected his terrorist forces against Syria. LIFG commanders are now literally running entire brigades in Syria with Western diplomatic, logistic, and military support.
....
Another Telegraph article, "Libya’s new rulers offer weapons to Syrian rebels," would admit
Syrian rebels held secret talks with Libya's new authorities on Friday, aiming to secure weapons and money for their insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
At the meeting, which was held in Istanbul and included Turkish officials, the Syrians requested "assistance" from the Libyan representatives and were offered arms, and potentially volunteers.
"There is something being planned to send weapons and even Libyan fighters to Syria," said a Libyan source, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There is a military intervention on the way. Within a few weeks you will see."
Later that month, some 600 Libyan terrorists would be reported to have entered Syria to begin combat operations and more recently, CNN, whose Ivan Watson accompanied terrorists over the Turkish-Syrian border and into Aleppo, revealed that indeed foreign fighters were amongst the militants, particularly Libyans. It was admitted that:
Meanwhile, residents of the village where the Syrian Falcons were headquartered said there were fighters of several North African nationalities also serving with the brigade's ranks.
A volunteer Libyan fighter has also told CNN he intends to travel from Turkey to Syria within days to add a "platoon" of Libyan fighters to armed movement.
On Wednesday, CNN’s crew met a Libyan fighter who had crossed into Syria from Turkey with four other Libyans. The fighter wore full camouflage and was carrying a Kalashnikov rifle. He said more Libyan fighters were on the way.
The foreign fighters, some of them are clearly drawn because they see this as … a jihad. So this is a magnet for jihadists who see this as a fight for Sunni Muslims.
CNN's reports provide bookends to 2011's admissions that large numbers of Libyan terroristsflush with NATO cash and weapons had headed to Syria, with notorious terrorist LIFG commanders making the arrangements.
LIFG officially merged with Al Qaeda in 2007, but has fought along Al Qaeda since its inception by the US and Saudis in the mountains of Afghanistan in the 1980's. This includes fighting alongside Al Qaeda most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq against US troops while sowing sectarian violence, as covered by the US Army's West Point Combating Terrorism Center in a 2007 report.
The report titled, "Al-Qa'ida's Foreign Fighters in Iraq" stated specifically:
The apparent surge in Libyan recruits traveling to Iraq may be linked the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group’s (LIFG) increasingly cooperative relationship with al‐Qa’ida, which culminated in the LIFG officially joining al‐Qa’ida on November 3, 2007.
The vast majority (84.2%) of Libyans that recorded their route to Iraq arrived via the same pathway running through Egypt and then by air to Syria. This recruiting and logistics network is likely tied to LIFG, which has long ties (not all positive) with Egyptian and Algerian Islamist groups.
The announcement that LIFG had officially sworn allegiance to al‐Qa’ida was long‐expected by observers of the group. Both the ideologue Abu Yahya al‐Libi and the military leader Abu Layth al‐Libi have long histories with the LIFG, and are increasingly prominent figures along the Afghanistan‐Pakistan border and in al‐Qa’ida’s propaganda. Abu Layth is now an operational commander in Afghanistan; and in 2007, Abu Yahya is second only to Ayman al‐Zawahiri as the most visible figure in al‐Qa’ida’s propaganda. The increasing prominence of LIFG figures in al‐Qa’ida’s high command may be a function of the group’s logistics capacity, including its now demonstrated ability to move people effectively around the Middle East, including to Iraq. (begins on page 9, .pdf)
It would now appear that LIFG's logistics capacity aimed at Iraq which was previously routed through Syria and Egypt in cooperation with sectarian extremists, most notably the Muslim Brotherhood based in both nations, is now being directed exclusively at Syria. LIFG is doing this with Qatari, Saudi, US, French, British, and NATO support (predominantly Turkey) after receiving similar support in overthrowing the Libyan government in 2011.
US Support of Al Qaeda Announced on Heels of US Ambassador's Death.
Ironically, the recent infusion of cash and support for Al Qaeda terrorists by the US comes on the heels of assaults staged by the group against US diplomatic missions across the region. One in particular, emanating within LIFG's own terror emirate in Benghazi, Libya, would claim the life of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens. While Stevens' death was most likely accidental, (he succumbed to smoke inhalation, and was not killed directly by militants), it was most certainly the LIFG militias who dominate Benghazi that staged the attacks.
The purpose of the attacks was to reestablish an adversarial narrative between the US and regional sectarian extremists after a surge in public awareness that the two have been working in tandem against the enemies of the West for years. The US itself would implicate "Al Qaeda" as being behind the regional attacks for this very purpose, before continuing their support of the terror organization in its efforts to overrun Syria.
US Support of Al Qaeda Announced on Heels of US Ambassador's Death.
Ironically, the recent infusion of cash and support for Al Qaeda terrorists by the US comes on the heels of assaults staged by the group against US diplomatic missions across the region. One in particular, emanating within LIFG's own terror emirate in Benghazi, Libya, would claim the life of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens. While Stevens' death was most likely accidental, (he succumbed to smoke inhalation, and was not killed directly by militants), it was most certainly the LIFG militias who dominate Benghazi that staged the attacks.
The purpose of the attacks was to reestablish an adversarial narrative between the US and regional sectarian extremists after a surge in public awareness that the two have been working in tandem against the enemies of the West for years. The US itself would implicate "Al Qaeda" as being behind the regional attacks for this very purpose, before continuing their support of the terror organization in its efforts to overrun Syria.
Image: Bi-partisan treason. Senator John McCain pictured alongside the now deceased Ambassador Stevens (right, wearing a blue tie) had been in Benghazi, Libya supporting Al Qaeda militants since 2011 and highlight that the US' current support of global terrorism is bi-partisan in nature. It does not stem from a "secret plot" hatched by current US President Barack Obama, but is merely the latest leg of a singular agenda dictated by corporate-financier interests that transcend presidencies. The violent destabilization of Syria in factbegan in 2007 under US President George Bush.
....
West Point's Combating Terrorism Center 2007 report specifically mentions the city of Benghazi and nearby Darnah as the LIFG terror epicenter , stating specifically :
Both Darnah and Benghazi have long been associated with Islamic militancy in Libya, in particular for an uprising by Islamist organizations in the mid‐1990s. The Libyan government blamed the uprising on “infiltrators from the Sudan and Egypt” and one group—the Libyan Fighting Group (jamaŹ¹ah al‐libiyah al‐ muqatilah)—claimed to have Afghan veterans in its ranks. The Libyan uprisings became extraordinarily violent. Qadhafi used helicopter gunships in Benghazi, cut telephone, electricity, and water supplies to Darnah and famously claimed that the militants “deserve to die without trial, like dogs.”
Abu Layth al‐Libi, LIFG’s Emir, reinforced Benghazi and Darnah’s importance to Libyan jihadis in his announcement that LIFG had joined al‐Qa’ida, saying:
"It is with the grace of God that we were hoisting the banner of jihad against this apostate regime under the leadership of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which sacrificed the elite of its sons and commanders in combating this regime whose blood was spilled on the mountains of Darnah, the streets of Benghazi, the outskirts of Tripoli, the desert of Sabha, and the sands of the beach." (begins on page 12, .pdf)
It is quite clear then, that the NATO-backed 2011 "revolution" in Libya was merely the continuation of Al Qaeda's campaign against Qaddafi, this time assisted by US, French, and British jets and special forces, with an infusion of Western, Qatari and Saudi cash, "non-lethal" aid, and weapons. The West, with a sound understanding of LIFG long predating their support for Al Qaeda in Libya in 2011, knowingly aided and abetted terrorists with Western blood on their hands who were long-listed on various Western foreign terrorist organization lists.
Deceitfully, European foreign ministries and the US State Department had portrayed these terrorists as "Libya's civilian opposition," in order to justify military intervention and regime change just as they are portraying these very same terrorists as "Syria's civilian opposition."
Hillary Clinton is handing millions in cash to known Al Qaeda terrorists, on the heels of these terrorists claiming one of her own ambassadors in the middle of LIFG's terror emirate - this while the West berates Iran for supporting the government of Syria as it attempts to defend itself against what is clearly a foreign invasion, not a popular uprising.
While it may seem an act of unhinged insanity - it is not. It only seems "insane" if one believes the narratives spun by Western politicians who are attempting to sell their agenda from various, not always mutually conducive angles. If one however understands that the corporate-financier interests of Wall Street and London are pursuing global hegemony at any cost, the use of Al Qaeda terrorists who have just led mobs attacking Western consulates across the region that claimed the life of one of America's own ambassadors makes perfect sense.
Deceitfully, European foreign ministries and the US State Department had portrayed these terrorists as "Libya's civilian opposition," in order to justify military intervention and regime change just as they are portraying these very same terrorists as "Syria's civilian opposition."
Hillary Clinton is handing millions in cash to known Al Qaeda terrorists, on the heels of these terrorists claiming one of her own ambassadors in the middle of LIFG's terror emirate - this while the West berates Iran for supporting the government of Syria as it attempts to defend itself against what is clearly a foreign invasion, not a popular uprising.
While it may seem an act of unhinged insanity - it is not. It only seems "insane" if one believes the narratives spun by Western politicians who are attempting to sell their agenda from various, not always mutually conducive angles. If one however understands that the corporate-financier interests of Wall Street and London are pursuing global hegemony at any cost, the use of Al Qaeda terrorists who have just led mobs attacking Western consulates across the region that claimed the life of one of America's own ambassadors makes perfect sense.
and.....
http://www.debka.com/article/22394/Fordo-sabotage-enabled-Netanyahu-to-move-Iran-red-line-to-spring-2012
Fordo sabotage enabled Netanyahu to move Iran red line to spring 2012
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 29, 2012, 9:24 AM (GMT+02:00)
Syrian chemical weapons store
The sabotage of the Fordo uranium enrichment facility’s power lines on Aug. 17 gave Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu extra leeway to move his original red line for Iran from late September 2012 – now – to the spring or early summer of 2013. The disruption of the underground enrichment plant's power supply caused several of the advanced IR-1 and IR-4 centrifuges producing the 20-percent grade uranium to burst into flames. Work was temporarily halted and the accumulation of 240 kilos for Iran’s first nuclear bomb slowed down by at least six months, DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report.
Hence Netanyahu’s new red line timeline of “late spring, early summer” - before which preventive action is imperative - in his speech to the UN General Assembly Thursday, Sept. 27.
Our military sources report that the advantage gained is already proving short-lived. Iran has pounced back fast with two aggressive counter-moves on Israel’s doorstep:
1. Thousands of elite Al Qods Brigades officers and men are being airlifted into Lebanon and Syria and deployed opposite Israeli borders (as DEBKAfile has reported);
Hence Netanyahu’s new red line timeline of “late spring, early summer” - before which preventive action is imperative - in his speech to the UN General Assembly Thursday, Sept. 27.
Our military sources report that the advantage gained is already proving short-lived. Iran has pounced back fast with two aggressive counter-moves on Israel’s doorstep:
1. Thousands of elite Al Qods Brigades officers and men are being airlifted into Lebanon and Syria and deployed opposite Israeli borders (as DEBKAfile has reported);
2. Shortly before the Israeli Prime Minister rose to speak in New York, Syrian President Bashar Assad again removed chemical weapons out of storage. Some were almost certainly passed to the incoming Iranian units. The weapons’ movements were accounted for as a precaution for “greater security,” but in practice they will be ready for use against Israel when the order is handed down from Tehran.
Friday, Sept. 28, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was specifically asked by a reporter if it was believed that “Iran’s Revolutionary Guards or Syrian rebels had been able to get possession of any of the chemical weapons” which the secretary had just disclosed were on the move. He left the door open, saying only that he had “no firm information to confirm this.” That sort of question never comes out of thin air.
It was also the second time in three weeks that the defense secretary mentioned the movements of Syrian chemical weapons out of storage. This time, he said, ‘‘There has been intelligence that there have been some moves that have taken place. Where exactly that’s taken place, we don’t know.” But he did not rule out the possibility that they were being made ready for use.
This non-denial tied in closely with the words heard that day from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “Iran has left no doubt that it will do whatever it takes to protect the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Tehran’s staunch ally,” she said.
Syrian chemical weapons movements out of storage, the presence of crack Iranian fighting units on Israel’s borders and Tehran’s determination to keep Assad in power “whatever it takes” hung in menacing silence over Netanyahu’s powerful cartoon presentation of the Iranian nuclear peril.
Already on Sept. 16, the Revolutionary Guards chief Gen. Ali Jafary announced publicly that al Qods Brigades personnel had landed not only in Syria but also Lebanon. The chemical weapons may therefore have already reached Hizballah or be on their way there unbeknownst to US intelligence.
Both Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have repeatedly stated that the transfer of chemical weapons to Hizballah would necessitate Israeli military action.
The IDF’s large-scale military call-up and firing exercise on the Golan of Sept. 19 failed to deter the Iranian military buildup opposite Israeli northern borders in Syria and Lebanon. The Iranian airlift continues and US intelligence has not denied that some al Qods arrivals may now be armed with chemical weapons.
The Iranian threat to Israel is therefore far from static; it is gaining substance and menace, keeping two IDF divisions on call in northern Israel after the exercise was over.
Netanyahu’s red line for preventing Iran achieving a 240-kilo enriched uranium stockpile does not cover an Iranian preemptive attack on the Jewish state before then – as threatened explicitly by the Iranian missiles Corps chief Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizade on Sept. 24.
Syrian chemical weapons movements out of storage, the presence of crack Iranian fighting units on Israel’s borders and Tehran’s determination to keep Assad in power “whatever it takes” hung in menacing silence over Netanyahu’s powerful cartoon presentation of the Iranian nuclear peril.
Already on Sept. 16, the Revolutionary Guards chief Gen. Ali Jafary announced publicly that al Qods Brigades personnel had landed not only in Syria but also Lebanon. The chemical weapons may therefore have already reached Hizballah or be on their way there unbeknownst to US intelligence.
Both Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have repeatedly stated that the transfer of chemical weapons to Hizballah would necessitate Israeli military action.
The IDF’s large-scale military call-up and firing exercise on the Golan of Sept. 19 failed to deter the Iranian military buildup opposite Israeli northern borders in Syria and Lebanon. The Iranian airlift continues and US intelligence has not denied that some al Qods arrivals may now be armed with chemical weapons.
The Iranian threat to Israel is therefore far from static; it is gaining substance and menace, keeping two IDF divisions on call in northern Israel after the exercise was over.
Netanyahu’s red line for preventing Iran achieving a 240-kilo enriched uranium stockpile does not cover an Iranian preemptive attack on the Jewish state before then – as threatened explicitly by the Iranian missiles Corps chief Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizade on Sept. 24.
Neither had Israeli officials anything to say about the Hamas leaders’ trips to Beirut and Tehran this month to sign military accords with the Revolutionary Guards and Hizballah pledging the Palestinian extremists’ participation in an attack on Israel.
The red line on the cartoon bomb which Netanyahu held up so effectively at the UN Thursday covered only one segment of the peril Tehran poses for the Jewish state. A more immediate danger lurks in the north.
The red line on the cartoon bomb which Netanyahu held up so effectively at the UN Thursday covered only one segment of the peril Tehran poses for the Jewish state. A more immediate danger lurks in the north.
and....
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/09/201292891319528669.html
| Dozens escape after gunmen attack Iraqi jail | ||||||||||||
More than 80 inmates flee prison in city of Tikrit, that housed several hundred prisoners, after attack by fighters.
Last Modified: 28 Sep 2012 10:08
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Dozens of inmates have escaped after gunmen attacked a prison in the central Iraqi city of Tikrit, leaving at least 10 policemen dead, officials have said.
and we're back in Iraq.....
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/foreign-policy/item/13000-us-troops-deployed-in-iraq-again
U.S. Troops Deployed in Iraq AgainWritten by Jack Kenny
A unit of U.S. Army Special Operations soldiers was recently deployed to Iraq and more U.S. soldiers may soon be on their way, according to a New York Times report on the impact the civil war in neighboring Syria is having on Iraq's "fragile society and fledgling democracy."
Buried in the 15th paragraph of the report in Tuesday's Times was the news that "Iraq and the United States are negotiating an agreement that could result in the return of small units of American soldiers to Iraq on training missions" and that a unit of Army Special Operations soldiers has already been deployed to Iraq to advise on counterterrorism and help with intelligence.
Nearly a decade after U.S. and coalition forces invaded Iraq and overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein and just nine months after withdrawal of the last of the American combat units, the Shia government in Iraq is fighting for its survival against Sunni insurgents in its own country, while struggling to cope with the "spillover" of the fighting and the influx of refugees from the war next door in Syria. Meanwhile, the Times reported, the Baghdad government "leans closer" to the Shia regime in Iran and is looking to buy arms from Russia, while continuing to rely on military support from the United States. Aerial attacks by Turkey on Kurdish enclaves in the mountains of northern Iraq have added to the woes of a government trying to assert its sovereignty both in the air and on the ground.
"Iraq recognizes they don't control their airspace, and they are very sensitive to that," said Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr., whom theTimes identified as the U.S. commander leading an effort to accelerate American arms sales to Iraq. Whenever Turkish fighter jets enter Iraq's air space to bomb Kurdish targets, Iraqi officials "see it, they know it and they resent it," Caslen said. Iskander Witwit, a former Iraqi Air Force officer and current member of the Parliament's security committee, expressed his government's determination to put some force behind that resentment.
"God willing, we will be arming Iraq with weapons to be able to shoot down those planes," said Witwit, perhaps foreshadowing an all-out war between Iraq and Turkey, a war that would likely draw the United States into the conflict, since Turkey is a NATO ally. The potential for the United States to be caught in a web of conflicting alliances was noted by long-time leftwing dissident and antiwar activist Tom Hayden. Writing for thenation.com, Hayden noted the U.S. support of the insurgency in Syria, where the Obama administration has shipped weapons to Sunni rebels, and President Obama's repeated calls for the removal of the government of Bashar al-Assad, a demand the President repeated in his speech at the United Nations on Tuesday.
"The irony is that the U.S. is protecting a pro-Iran Shiite regime in Baghdad against a Sunni-based insurgency while at the same time supporting a Sunni-led movement against the Iran-backed dictatorship in Syria," Hayden wrote. "The U.S. is caught in the contradictions of proxy wars, favoring Iran's ally in Iraq while trying to displace Iran's proxy in Syria."
While the United States is providing Iraq with refurbished antiaircraft guns, free of charge, those weapons are not scheduled for arrival before June of next year. Meanwhile, the Times reported, Iraqis are trying to get in working order "cold war-era missiles found in a junkyard on an air base north of Baghdad." Iraq is also negotiating with Russia to buy air defense systems that can be delivered more quickly than those bought from the United States. The U.S., meanwhile, is continuing with a $19 billion program of weapons sales to Iraq.
At the same time, the United States has been pressuring Iraq, thus far unsuccessfully, to deny the use of its air space to Iran for flights of weapons and fighters to aid the Syrian government in its war against insurgents in that country. While some Congressional leaders are threatening a cutoff of aid to Iraq unless Baghdad moves to stop the flights, the ongoing sale of U.S. arms to the beleaguered nation is an effort by U.S. officials to secure Iraq as an ally.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has sent guards at the border with Syria to stop the flow of refugees from Syria's civil war. Some of those trying to escape the violence in Syria fled there from Iraq during the height Iraq War and are now trying to return. An estimated 2 million Iraqis were made homeless by the sectarian wars and the fighting between insurgents and coalition forces during the nine-year military occupation of Iraq by the United States and its allies. One refugee, having returned to Iraq after enduring round the clock shelling in Damascus, told the Times he was robbed as he fled.
"It's the same situation as it used to be in Iraq," he said of his experience in Syria "Everyone is afraid of one another."
and how long before we have another surge in Afghanistan....
Military Report Shows Afghan Surge Complete Failurethe Taliban insurgency is as strong as ever, Kabul is weak, and overall violence has not subsided.
by John Glaser, September 27, 2012
The US-led NATO military command in Afghanistan has found in a new report that the surge ordered by President Barack Obama has failed to improve conditions on the ground, according to Wired‘s Danger Room.
 “That conclusion doesn’t come from anti-war advocates,” Danger Room reports. “It relies on data recently released by the NATO command in Afghanistan, known as ISAF, and acquired by Danger Room. According to most of the yardsticks chosen by the military — but not all — the surge in Afghanistan fell short of its stated goal: stopping the Taliban’s momentum.”
The ISAF report primarily aggregates data on insurgent attacks, and documents that the NATO surge, training operations, and occupation of Afghanistan have not mitigated those trends.
In August 2009, as the Obama administration was preparing for the surge, insurgents attacked occupation forces approximately 2,700 times. And in August 2012, they attacked just under 3,000 times.
The more than 30,000 surge troops deployed to Afghanistan were completed their withdrawal from the country last week. But the Taliban insurgency is as strong as ever, Kabul has not been able to build up stable and independent security forces, and overall violence has not subsided.
and Operations back to normal but don't tell the troops that , they aren't buying that....
Troops Wary of Attacks as Panetta Declares Afghan Operations ‘Back to Normal’After a Week of Curtailing Joint Operations, Has Anything Changed?
by Jason Ditz, September 27, 2012
Last week the US made a major deal of “scaling back” its joint operations inside Afghanistan after the surge of green-on-blue attacks by Afghan troops against NATO occupation forces. There was talk of re-screening the entirety of Afghanistan’s recruits, a process that would take months.
 Today, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says that the scaling back is over, and joint operations are “back to normal.” He claimed that there had been some “temporary adjustments” made.
Back to normal is a relative term, of course, as even if the operations returned to where they were two weeks ago, the troops are even more distrustful of their Afghan allies than they were before, and Afghan forcesdon’t seem very happy with US advisers either.
Concerns that the indefinite delays in training could mean major changes to the war’s timetable seem to be behind the backtracking, but with no apparent changes made, can more insider attacks be far behind?
and the lies continue , can't decide which set to go with on Libya,,,,,
15 Days In, US Still Can’t Get Its Facts Straight on BenghaziImpatient Congress Presses Obama for Actual Details
by Jason Ditz, September 27, 2012
It has now been 15 days since the attack on the Benghazi consular compound, which led to the death of the US Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. The Obama Administration insists it was “a terrorist attack.”
 At least today. Over the past two weeks the administration has kept changing its story every few days, jumping from announcing it to be a “complex attack” and an “act of terror” to later claimingit was just spontaneous, then going back and denouncing it again as terror and blaming al-Qaeda, or maybesomeone else.
The shifts have Congress wondering what the truth actually is, and Sen. John Kerry (D – MA) is said to be pushing a letter signed by a number of Congressmen calling for the administration to provide them some actual details of the incident.
But it isn’t clear if the administration actually has any. Each of its story changes has included an admission that it doesn’t have “facts” to back up its claims, and the FBIsays that they still haven’t been granted access to Benghazi, let alone the scene of the crime. The Obama Administration’s changes in public comments may not reflect any actual progress in the investigation, as it isn’t clear that there is any.
and Bibi at the UN......complete with comical bomb prop and red marker.....
Bibi’s Crazy UN Speech
Medievalist poses as champion of “modernity”
by Justin Raimondo, September 28, 2012
It’s no wonder the Israeli Foreign Ministry initially held back from releasing atranscript of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the UN General Assembly: Bibi’s wackiness doesn’t bear close scrutiny. Perhaps “wacky” isn’t quite the right word for his 40-minute peroration, during which he pulled out a bomb “diagram” and a red marker to illustrate where he would draw a “red line” defining the outer limits of Iran’s nuclear program. Cartoonish is more like it. The cartoonish quality of the bomb drawing underscored the content and tone of the speech, which was the jeremiad of a radical ideologue rather than anything one would expect from a statesman:
“Today a great battle is being waged between the modern and the medieval. Israel stands proudly with the forces of modernity. We protect the right of all our citizens, men and women, Jews and Arabs, Muslims and Christians, all are equal before the law.”
Israel, which privileges its priestly caste, has a state religion, and bases its national mythology on a “promise” from G-d, is as medieval as any of its neighbors. Aside from being a lie, however, this statement is interesting because it evokes the very same supremacist spirit that animates the controversial pro-Israel public relations campaign launched by the Jewish state’s extremist American supporters. Posters in the public transport system, from New York to San Francisco, proclaim:
“In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.”
No wonder the Israeli consulates in New York and San Francisco won’t disavow those vile subway posters: Pamela Geller is the new public face of Israel.
Yes, Israel protects the rights of all citizens – unless they’re Palestinians who happen to own property coveted by the “settlers,” in which case it doesn’t. And the key word here is citizens: of course, the Palestinians in the occupied territories are not citizens, but helots, with no rights, and no protection from fanatical Jewish fundamentalists who have launched hundreds of attacks on their homes, and sought to displace them at every opportunity, with the active complicity of the Israeli government.
This idea that Israel represents “modernity” is rich, considering that every day Israeli society is sinking lower into the morass of religious and cultural fundamentalism, a regression that has not gone unnoticed in the West. Bibi opened his speech with biblical references, describing Jersusalem as the “eternal capital” of Israel and declaring that “the Jewish state will live forever.” Yet as we secularists know, nothing lives “forever,” and the idea of a city being the “eternal” capital of anything is a metaphor, at best, at worst a dangerous delusion. If this is the “modern” then one wonders how much it differs from the “medieval.” But let’s not linger too long over the obvious. Bibi rants on:
“Militant Islam has many branches, from the rulers of Iran with their revolutionary guards to al-Qaeda… but they’re all rooted in the same soil. It’s not whether this fanaticism will be defeated, but how many lives will be lost before it’s defeated. Nothing could emperil my country more than arming Iran with nuclear weapons. To imagine what the world would be like with a nuclear Iran, imagine what the world would be like with a nuclear al-Qaeda. There’s no difference.”
The Israeli Prime Minister may have been addressing the UN General Assembly, but he was really talking to the Americans, whose fear and loathing of the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks can always be counted on to raise them to new levels of hysteria. Outside that context, however, equating the Iranians with Al Qaeda makes about as much sense as likening the late unlamented Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden – and, hey wait, didn’t we hear that equation made endlessly in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq? Yet this was not a time for subtlety from the Israeli Prime Minister – the cartoon “bomb” ended all hope of that – but for the crudest sort of propaganda, which is, of course, war propaganda.
Imagine if Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who addressed the UN that day minutes before Netanyahu took the stage, had said: “Militant Judaism has many branches, from the Washington offices of AIPAC to the center of Jewish power in Tel Aviv – but they’re all rooted in the same soil” of intolerance? Picture him conjuring images of violent Jewish “fanaticism” – not a hard task, given what is happening in Israel today. If he had done so, Abbas would have been denounced in every Western capital as the 21st century incarnation of Hitler.
Netanyahu went on to cite the nonexistent “record of Iranian aggression without nuclear weapons” – an odd claim, since Iran hasn’t attacked a single one of its neighbors since the Battle of Thermopylae. The country did fight one war in modern times, when it was attacked by Iraq, which was being backed by the United States. However, it’s necessary to remember that war propaganda has no need of facts: only emotionally-charged evocations of rage – and fear:
“Given this record of Iranian aggression without nuclear weapons, just imagine an Iran with nuclear weapons. Who among you would feel safe in the Middle East? Who’d be safe in Europe? Who’d be safe in America? Who’d be safe anywhere?”
That this alleged champion of “modernity” should base his case on fearmongering should come as no surprise: hasn’t fear been the leitmotif of all the “modern” ideologies of aggressive nationalism? Fear of the Other, of the barbarian at the gates – the “savage” who, at the first opportunity, will tear your throat out with his bare teeth – is what keeps ideologues like Netanyahu and his American co-thinkers in business.
Those Eye-ranians, says Bibi, aren’t like the rest of us, which is why deterrence won’t work. “Iran’s apocalyptic leaders” are awaiting the return of the Mahdi, a holy man, whose reappearance is supposed to occur after a devastating war:
“Militant jihadists are not secular Marxists. Militant jihadists behave very differently. There were no Soviet suicide bombers.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the Israelis also awaiting the return of Someone Special, a Messiah who will lead them out of the wilderness and establish the Kingdom of Jerusalem as His earthly domain? Militant jihadists may not be secular Marxists – but then again, militant Zionists aren’t, either. I would no more trust nuclear bombs in Bibi’s hands than I would in Ahmahdinejad’s – the difference being that the former is actually in possession of such weapons.
Which brings us to the absurdity of this lecture by the leader of the only nuclear-armed country in the region: here is a nation which refuses to even admit it acquired nukes long ago, and which disdains the Nonproliferation Treaty, making the case for war against a neighbor that has indeed signed the NPT and is abiding by its requirements.
That treaty gives Tehran the right to develop nuclear power. Furthermore, there is zero evidence Iran is embarked on a nuclear weapons program: our own intelligence community tells us they gave that up in 2003 and show no signs of resuming it. Their own religious and political leaders have denounced the possession of nuclear weapons as sinful: the Israelis, on the other hand, haven’t bothered reassuring us they would never use the nuke they won’t admit they have.
In a rational world, Israel would be in the dock, answering for its unwillingness to come out of the nuclear closet and admit what the whole world knows by now. Indeed, Bibi could give us some insight into exactly how Israel
In the world in which we are living, however, in which the innocent are put on trial and the guilty sit in judgement, the situation is quite different. In that world, the leader of a tiny nation entirely dependent on US largesse takes to the UN podium to issue his marching orders to Washington. Here is my “red line,” says Bibi – daring not only the Iranians but also the Americans to cross it.
Think of Netanyahu’s UN oration as just another Romney campaign speech, in which the GOP presidential candidate says Tehran must not be allowed to get “one turn of the screwdriver away” from joining the nuclear club. According to Netanyahu, Iran is nearly at that point today, and will have a nuclear weapon in less than a year if the US fails to act.
This is technical nonsense, but then again the truth has nothing to do with war propaganda: to the average American, the mere possession of weapons-grade uranium means all the Iranians have to do is plug it in and hurl it, slingshot style, in the general direction of Israel. This is an impression Israeli propagandists would dearly love to inculcate in the American public, and they have the great advantage of relying on general ignorance of the technical details. Good luck explaining to Mr. Average American why it would take a good four years after they’ve weaponized their nuclear material for the Iranians to create a useable nuke.
The ticking-bomb theme, which has been used to justify everything from torture to the invasion of Iraq, permeates Israeli propaganda in the US and was a cental theme of Bibi’s speech. His message was clear: “the hour is getting late.” We must act without giving too much thought to the possible consequences. Don’t delay, don’t think, actnow – before the fraud is exposed, and we discover that – as in the case of the Iraqis– those “weapons of mass destruction” were just a figment of our easily manipulated collective imagination.
and the latest decisive battles in Syria.....
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/rebels-in-decisive-aleppo-offensive/story-e6frf7k6-1226483038848
REBELS have unleashed an unprecedented barrage of mortar fire against troops in Aleppo after announcing a "decisive" battle for Syria's second city, residents and a watchdog say.
Shells crashed down at a steady rate and clashes were widespread, leaving layers of dust and smoke over Aleppo, according to the residents of the northern city and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Friday.
"The fighting is unprecedented and has not stopped since Thursday. The clashes used to be limited to one or two blocks of a district, but now the fighting is on several fronts," the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Residents in neighbourhoods previously spared the worst of the two-month-old battle for Aleppo also told AFP the violence was "unprecedented".
"The sound from the fighting ... has been non-stop," said a 30-year-old resident of the central district of Sulimaniyeh who only identified himself as Ziad.
"Everyone is terrified. I have never heard anything like this before."
The outgunned rebels, a rag-tag army made up of mutinous soldiers and civilians who have taken up arms in the 18-month battle to oust President Bashar al-Assad's regime, declared an all-out assault for Aleppo on Thursday.
"Tonight, Aleppo will be ours or we will be defeated," Abu Furat, a rebel commander, told AFP as several thousand fighters went on the offensive in the city.
After his remarks an AFP correspondent counted about 16 mortars fired from 5.00pm to 7.30pm (midnight to 2.30am AEST Friday), with a shot about every 15 minutes in three army-held areas, including Sulimaniyeh and Sayyid Ali.
"This is the first time I have seen something like this in Sayyid Ali," another resident told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"One of the mortars hit a residential building and killed four people from the same family, including an old man and a young child. We tried to carry them away to bring them to the hospital but they were already dead," added the resident.
"It was a horrible scene in the street. A whole crowd was trying to help. There were children and whole families because it's a civilian area."
In Damascus, meanwhile, Assad's forces launched assaults on several rebel areas in the north of the capital on Friday, said the Observatory.
"Regime forces stormed the neighbourhoods of Barzeh, Jubar and Qaboon in Damascus, cutting off streets and breaking into and raiding houses. They arrested a large number of residents," it said.
The Local Coordination Committees activist network said "a large number of soldiers and tanks have deployed throughout" Barzeh district and that "the sound of gunfire can be heard, and families in the neighbourhood are in panic".
More than 30,000 people have been killed overall in violence since the March 2011 outbreak of the revolt against Assad, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
The conflict has dominated proceedings at the UN General Assembly in New York, where UN and Arab leaders expressed concerns the country could become a "regional battleground."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Arab League leader Nabil al-Arabi and special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi voiced those fears as they met at UN headquarters to discuss "the appalling levels of violence", said a UN spokesman.
"The three leaders warned against the risk of Syria turning into a regional battleground as violence intensifies.
"They were concerned that Syria will fall prey to actors whose agenda has nothing to do with Syria if violence continued," the spokesman added.
There was mounting Western pressure on Russia and China to ease their opposition to UN action against the Assad regime.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced the UN's inability to act.
"The atrocities mount while the Security Council remains paralysed and I would urge that we try once again to find a path forward" for the council to try to end the violence," she said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said the blood of children killed in the conflict had become "a terrible stain on the reputation of this United Nations".
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country stands accused of blocking UN action, accused the West of pursuing policies that had destabilised Arab countries.
"They have already created a situation of chaos in many territories and are now continuing the same policy in other countries - including Syria," news agencies quoted him as saying.
In New York, Clinton is due to host on Friday a meeting of the Friends of Syria group at which Syrian activists will urge world leaders to do more to help people caught up in the battle.
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“If they’re going for terrorists – we do not disagree,” Khar added, though she did say that Pakistan continues to consider the strikes “illegal and unlawful” and is not accomplishing its overall goals.
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