War watch - December 5th - Syria , Iran , Egypt and Iraq in focus.....

Syria items of note...

http://www.debka.com/article/22586/USS-Eisenhower-aircraft-carrier-arrives-off-Syrian-shore

USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier arrives off Syrian shore

DEBKAfile Special Report December 5, 2012, 4:20 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  US aircraft carriers   Syrian war   Turkey 

The USS Eisenhower in a lightning storm

The USS Eisenhower Strike Group transited the Suez Canal from the Persian Gulf Saturday, Dec. 1, sailing up to the Syrian coast Tuesday in a heavy storm, with 8 fighter bomber squadrons of Air Wing Seven on its decks and 8,000 sailors, airmen and Marines.
The USS Eisenhower group joins the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group which carries 2,500 Marines.  

Facing Syria now are 10,000 US fighting men, 70 fighter-bombers and at least 17 warships, including the three Iwo Jima amphibious craft, a guided missile cruiser and 10 destroyers and frigates.
Four of these vessels are armed with Aegis missile interceptors.
This mighty US armada brings immense pressure to bear on the beleaguered Assad regime after it survied an almost two-year buffeting by an armed uprising. Its presence indicates that the United States now stands ready for direct military intervention in the Syrian conflict when the weather permits.
Left behind in the Persian Gulf is just one US aircraft carrier, the USS Stennis and its strike group.

Welcoming NATO’s decision Tuesday, Dec. 4, to deploy Patriot missile batteries in Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday: “The protection from NATO will be three dimensional; one is the short-range Patriots, the second is the middle-range Terminal High Altitude Air Defense [THAD] system and the last is the AEGIS system, which counters missiles that can reach outside the atmosphere.”DEBKAfile’s military sources: While the Patriot is land-based and will be deployed on the Turkish-Syrian border, the THAD and the Aegis have just reached the Syrian coast aboard the USS Eisenhower strike group.

 “With this integrated system,” said Davutoglu, Turkey will have maximum protection.”

He added: “The Syrian regime has 700 missiles,” and their location, storage method and holders are no secret to Ankara. This was the first time Ankara had made threats to destroy Syrian missiles, including any carrying chemical warheads.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/12/04/senate-passes-ndaa-amendment-on-syria-no-fly-zone/

Senate Passes NDAA Amendment on Syria No-Fly Zone

The amendment requires the President to provide contingency plans for a no-fly zone in Syria, but stops short of actually authorizing the use of force

by John Glaser, December 04, 2012

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The Senate on Tuesday passed an amendment to a controversial 2013 defense bill requiring the President to submit a plan detailing the military activities for a no-fly zone over Syria.

In a 92-6 vote, the Senate amended the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act to include a provision requiring “a report on military activities to deny or significantly degrade the use of air power against civilian and opposition groups in Syria.”

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) voted against the amendment, but thanked its authors for “including in this amendment a clause that says that nothing in this amendment is to be construed as a declaration of war or a use of authorization of force. I think that’s very important,” he said in a statement.

In expressing his opposition to the amendment, Paul explained, “Our Defense Department no doubt has contingency plans for a ballistic missile attack on the United States, for a conventional land invasion, for naval or air encounters throughout the world, but we don’t necessarily openly discuss them or encourage them.”

“I hope my colleagues today will not encourage a rush to war by publicly clamoring for a plan to become involved in Syria’s civil war,” he added.

Imposing a no-fly zone over Syria is a military plan that has been pushed by some in Washington since the start of the Syrian civil war. But such action would require significant military commitments, worsen the humanitarian situation, and would likely be an invitiation for a much more expansive US-led war in Syria.

A no-fly zone would require American airpower to disable Syria’s airpower, but the Assad regime’s “anti-aircraft capabilities are located in or near urban areas, which means that significant civilian casualties could result from any attempt to eliminate them.” explained Marc Lynch of George Washington University in testimony before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee back in April.

“Creating and protecting a safe area in Syria would therefore require a significant and lengthy investment of troops and resources, and would not likely hasten Assad’s collapse,” Lynch added.

Such an intervention would also embolden the Syrian rebel fighters, the bulk of whom have ties to Islamic jihadists and would not bring an alternative regime to power that might be acceptable to Washington.

Still, hawks in Congress – like John McCain, who was the author of this amendment – can’t stop advancing the call to initiate war in Syria, no matter how terrible an idea it is.

and......

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/12/04/russia-accuses-us-of-exaggerating-syrian-chemical-weapons-threat/

Russia Accuses US of Exaggerating Syrian Chemical Weapons Threat

Russian FM claimed the huffing about Syria's chemical weapons was used to justify NATO putting Patriot missiles in Turkey

by John Glaser, December 04, 2012

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The Russian government on Tuesday claimed the West was knowingly overstating the threat from the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons stockpiles

The US and its NATO allies this week issued bombastic statementsabout a “red line” for military intervention in Syria if the regime of Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons on its people. Other reports cited anonymous sources claiming Assad had been mixing new combinations of toxins and moving them to various locations.

“Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov declared that there had been an exaggeration of the threat faced by Turkey to justify NATO’s deployment of Patriot missile batteries and the move will end up adding to the tension in the region,” reports The Independent.

In explaining the deliberate exaggeration and perhaps fabrication of the Syrian chemical weapons threat, Lavrov explained that “as soon as we get these rumours [about chemical weapons] we engage in constructive demarche; when we get confirmation that nothing of that type is happening we share this information with our American colleagues.”

The new bombast was featured directly alongside NATO’s decision to station Patriot missiles in Turkey along the Syrian border. Officials denied they would be used for offensive purposes.

and Iran item of the day....

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/12/04/us-denies-drone-capture-but-iran-has-pictures/

US Denies Drone Capture, But Iran Has Pictures

Catapult Drones Had Been Touted by Navy Just Days Before

by Jason Ditz, December 04, 2012

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Iranian claims to have captured a US drone were met by quick denials from the US Navy, which is continuing to insist it isn’t missing any drones. Iran has something else though: it has pictures.

Iranian state media showed images of the captured drone, apparently one of the smaller types of “catapult-launched” drones that the Navy has been so recently fond of. Such drones are fired by an oversized slingshot and often land in the water for later recovery.

Catapult drones have been hyped in multiple Navy reports in recent days, and late last week the launching of prototype X-47Bs by a steam-powered catapult was touted as a step toward more affordable drones.

The drone in the pictures was smaller than these, and has been speculated to be a Boeing ScanEagle, a military version of the SeaScan, a cheap drone used to track fish at sea. ScanEagles have been heavily used by the military in the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

and Iraq government and Kurd schism continues........

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/12/04/iraq-blocks-turkish-energy-ministers-visit-forces-plane-to-turn-around/

Iraq Blocks Turkish Energy Minister’s Visit, Forces Plane to Turn Around

Revoked Permits for Flight Into Kurdish Capital

by Jason Ditz, December 04, 2012

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The Iraqi government has blocked a Turkish government plane from entering Iraqi airspace today, despite the plane having already been giving all flight permits and its passenger, the Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, having planned the visit well in advance.

The plane was already en route to Irbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), for a meeting with KRG officials, when Iraqi officials ordered them to turn the plane around in mid-air and return to Turkey.

Iraqi government officials are downplaying the incident, saying Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued an edict just hours earlier that all planes headed to Irbil are required to land in Baghdad first to be searched. Normally a plane with a foreign government’s minister would be exempt from this sort of rule.

Yet it reflects both the growing tensions between the KRG and the Iraqi central government as well as Iraq and the Turkish government. An energy ministry visit might’ve been particularly annoying since Turkey has been buying oil directly from the KRG over Maliki’s objections.

and Friday should be interesting in Egypt.....

http://www.juancole.com/2012/12/egypt-100000-demonstrators-deliver-final-warning-chase-president-morsi-from-palace.html

Egypt: 100,000 Demonstrators Deliver “Final Warning,” chase President Morsi from Palace

Posted on 12/05/2012 by Juan

On Tuesday, another big wave of protests was held against the policies of President Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, with rallies in in the public squares of most of Egypt’s major cities. The protests were called “The Final Warning.” Many newspapers and television stations went dark, while big rallies were held in Tahrir Square (downtown Cairo) and at the residence of the president in Heliopolis. Some 100,000 demonstrators marched on the presidential residence, broke through a barbed wire barrier, and engaged in clashes with police, who initially fired tear gas and tried to repel them. Then, abruptly, according Arabic wire services, the police allowed the crowd to approach the building, prompting Morsi to flee the building. Russia Today’s correspondent, an eyewitness, said that a section of the police sought protection from the crowd, afraid of being overwhelmed, and the protesters then threw up a cordon around them.

The sight of the elected president of Egypt forced out of the presidential palace by angry demonstrators has to join other iconic images of the nearly two-year-old Egyptian revolution.

Belle True’s Russia Today reports from the scene:

Alarabiya is reporting that the demonstrators gave Morsi until Friday to renounce his constitutional declaration of November 22, which placed him and his decisions beyond the review powers of the courts. Many of the demonstrators also want the draft constitution, placed before the president by a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Constituent Assembly last Saturday, withdrawn.

A separate, huge, rally was held in downtown Cairo at Tahrir Square, and some of the demonstrators at the presidential palace returned there to share what had happened. (Tahrir when in demonstration mode typically has several makeshift stages, and people mount them to speak into a microphone to the crowd.

The new constitution, which guarantees many rights but is vague about others and has articles that could be a trojan horse for crackdowns by Muslim authorities, is scheduled to be voted on by the people on December 15. But90% of Egyptian judges are refusing to oversee the vote (this role for them is required by law).

Scroll down this page for a great collection of pictures from various protest sites on Tuesday.

There was also a truly massive protest in Alexandria.

For what’s going on outside Cairo, see the report by Lamia Hassan at “Your Middle East”