http://news.antiwar.com/2012/10/30/obama-administration-working-to-set-up-syrian-opposition-council/
“The State Department has been heavily involved in crafting the new council as part of its effort oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and build a more viable and unified opposition,”The Cable reports. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with some of these Syrian activists in September when they were quietly flown in to New York, an event that went unpublished in the press until now.
The report, released Tuesday by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, in part investigated a recent decision by Maliki to fire the head of the Central Bank of Iraq, Sinan al-Shabibi.
Officials say they have yet to confirm if the attack was an actual policeman or just someone in a uniform, but it seems likely this was the case because he was deployed at the checkpoint. The attacker fled after the attack and is still at large.
The Obama Administration and the French government have both been keen to start such a war, and have been petitioning the UN Security Council to quickly endorse any plan that would lead to an invasion, which they seem certain to do.
Obama Administration Working to Set Up Syrian Opposition Council
The US has been putting together a body of opposition figures to serve as a potential interim government post-Assad
by John Glaser, October 30, 2012
As part of its policy of regime change in Syria, the United States has been working on putting together a body of Syrian opposition leaders to replace the defunct Syrian National Council, and the new group will meet next week in Qatar.
“The State Department has been heavily involved in crafting the new council as part of its effort oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and build a more viable and unified opposition,”The Cable reports. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with some of these Syrian activists in September when they were quietly flown in to New York, an event that went unpublished in the press until now.
“Dozens of Syrian leaders will meet in the Qatari capital, Doha, on Nov. 3 and hope to announce the new council as the legitimate representative of all the major Syrian opposition factions on Nov. 7, one day after the U.S. presidential election,” The Cableadds.
The council is supposed to serve as a a viable interim government in the event that the Assad regime falls. But the technocrats in Washington putting this group together have very little local knowledge of the internal dynamics in Syria, and many opposition activists not included in the Doha meeting expect the effort to be another failed attempt to unify the opposition.
“Right now, the opposition groups are very vague and there’s no agreement on who’s representing who and what and where,” one opposition activist told The Cable. “Right now there is a lot of risk that this will be another failed approach that will not achieve anything.”
Besides the famous lack of cohesiveness that has riddled previous such efforts, the other problem is that such a council is likely to have little in common with the rebel fighters in Syria, many of whom have committed war crimes, are linked with al-Qaeda, and aim to establish an Islamic state post-Assad, yet which still continue to receive aid from the US and its allies.
“We have to get [the internal opposition] to bless the new political leadership structure they’re setting up and not only do we have to get them to bless the structure, but they have to get the names on it,” an administration official told The Cable.
The influence of the Syrian opposition’s other primary backers – Saudi Arabia and Qatar – should be enough to establish that US meddling in setting up a potential interim group is unlikely to produce a democratic, rights-conscious replacement for Assad.
But Washington seems clueless: ”We call it a proto-parliament. One could also think of it as a continental congress,” a senior administration official told The Cable.
and business as usual in Iraq.......
Report: Corruption in Iraq At All-Time High
US-backed Prime Minister Maliki is not only wrenching the country into dictatorship, but his regime is increasingly corrupt
by John Glaser, October 30, 2012
Corruption in Iraq is at an all-time high, according to a recent US government report, and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is demonstrating increasingly authoritarian behavior, even as US support continues to flow to Baghdad.
The report, released Tuesday by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, in part investigated a recent decision by Maliki to fire the head of the Central Bank of Iraq, Sinan al-Shabibi.
“This peremptory and constitutionally questionable move occurred as an audit of the CBI’s foreign currency auctions surfaced. The audit purportedly found that perhaps 80% of the $1 billion purchased at weekly CBI-managed auctions was tied to illegal transactions, with the funds subject to those transactions potentially lost abroad to money laundering,” the report says.
“This development is symptomatic of a troubled year in Iraq,” it adds, “evidenced by increasing corruption, resurgent violence, deepening ethno-sectarian strains, growing apprehensions about the conflict in Syria, and widening divides within the coalition government.”
Special Inspector Stuart Bowen told The Cable that the firing may have been an attempt by the Maliki regime to consolidate more power in his government and to gain access to the vast money the bank held in reserves.
“The facts are that Governor Shabibi was widely respected around the globe amongst financial ministers for building up Iraq’s reserves to about $65 billion. And I did know from my discussions in Iraq there was some desire in Iraq to access some of that money for capital expenditure purposes and Shabibi had exerted a firm hand in preventing its use,” Bowen said. “The government of Iraq wanted to access some of those reserves.”
According to Ayad Allawi, the secular Shi’ite leader of the opposition Iraqiya bloc in parliament, Maliki’s US-trained and backed security forces have detained and brutally tortured more than 1,000 political opponents in secret prisons and denied them access to legal counsel.
US support for dictatorship and human rights abuses in Iraq is expected to continue, aimed at increasing Washington’s influence in the Middle East, following a fiasco war that inadvertently provided Iran with a new Shiite ally in neighboring Iraq.
Similarly , killings continue as usual in Afghanistan.....
Two British Soldiers Killed by Afghan Policeman in Insider Attack
Attacker Killed Them at Helmand Checkpoint, Fled
by Jason Ditz, October 30, 2012
Yet another green-on-blue attack was reported today in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, where a member of the Afghan police attacked and killed two British soldiers from the Royal Gurkha Rifles First Battalion at a police checkpoint.
Officials say they have yet to confirm if the attack was an actual policeman or just someone in a uniform, but it seems likely this was the case because he was deployed at the checkpoint. The attacker fled after the attack and is still at large.
Taliban in the region issued a statement claiming credit for the attack, and saying that the attacker, who they didn’t identify either, was now safely with them. They said he had infiltrated the Afghan police on their behalf.
This isn’t necessarily the case, of course, as the Taliban claims credit for all such attacks whether it was them or not. If confirmed, however, this will make 11 British soldiers killed in insider attacks this year alone, roughly a quarter of the troops they have lost overall.
As if dealing with Afghanistan wind down , drone war in Pakistan , Iran nuclear wrangle and ongoing Syria conflict wasn't enough - it looks like troops will be heading to Mali next ....
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/10/30/us-backed-african-troops-could-invade-mali-within-weeks/
US-Backed African Troops Could Invade Mali ‘Within Weeks’
EU May Send 200 'Trainers' for War
by Jason Ditz, October 30, 2012
With Mali’s military dominated “interim” government hoping for international help in the reconquest of the northern two-thirds of their nation, Western diplomats say that the deal to finalize an African Union (AU) led invasion could have troops on the ground within a matter of weeks.
The Obama Administration and the French government have both been keen to start such a war, and have been petitioning the UN Security Council to quickly endorse any plan that would lead to an invasion, which they seem certain to do.
The US has been light on details of exactly what its role in the war will be, though it is likely to include funding and surveillance support. The European Union is now discussing sending 200 troops as “trainers” for the conflict.
The Malian government lost its northern region to Tuareg secessionists earlier this year, when fighters obtained large amounts of advanced weapons from Libya in the wake of the NATO-backed war there. The Tuaregs have since lost control of the region to a third faction, Ansar Dine, which is calling for a Salafist theocracy in the state. The Malian military held a coup in the south after their defeat in the north, and has since installed an “interim” government.
Tuaregs have long complained of persecution by the Malian government, which was the basis for their secessionist efforts. Today the Mali military launched an attack on the frontier, killing eight Tuaregs who they suspected of being “armed gunmen” but who later turned out to be innocent civilians.
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