'al-Qaeda fighting 'al-Qaeda' in Turkey AND Syria.....may the good lord let the WAR spread with the help of the USA.

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Syrian rebels, Qaeda group clash near Turkish border crossing

Yemeni secret Jew Osama with USA military jacket.....and the other is a Egyptian secret Jew.......both from rich multimillionaire families, working with Western intelligence to destabilize Third World countries.

By Jonathon Burch and Alexander Dziadosz
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ANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Al Qaeda-linked fighters battled a rival Syrian rebel group near the Turkish frontier for a second day on Thursday, after the militant Islamists stormed a nearby town and prompted Turkey to shut a border crossing.
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The fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Wednesday killed at least five members of the Northern Storm Brigade, a rebel group that controls the border, highlighting Syria's deep opposition divisions.
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The confrontation in the town of Azaz was one of the most serious clashes between the al Qaeda affiliate, made up largely of foreign fighters, and the more ideologically moderate home-grown rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
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Their struggle, however, is less about ideology and more about a fight for territory, resources and the spoils of war. ISIL fighters had positioned themselves to defend the town while a nearby rebel brigade tried to broker a ceasefire.
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A Turkish official told Reuters the Oncupinar border gate - about 5 km (3 miles) from Azaz and opposite the Syrian Bab al-Salameh gate - had been closed for "security reasons".
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"There is still confusion about what is happening on the Syrian side. All humanitarian assistance that normally goes through the gate has ceased," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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Crossings such as Azaz have been a lifeline for rebel-held territories in Syria's north, allowing in humanitarian aid, building materials and food as well as giving refugees a route out of Syria.
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The crossing fell into opposition hands last year when rebels launched an offensive to take the northern business hub of Aleppo.
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An activist from Azaz who identified himself as Mohamed al-Azizi said fighting flared up again in the border area on Thursday when Northern Storm members moved to retake a checkpoint from ISIL fighters about 2 km from the frontier.
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"There are very heavy clashes happening now," he said, citing a rebel commander. He did not have details about the number of any wounded or dead.
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ISIL supporters also reported renewed fighting and activists near the town said they heard heavy machine gun fire.

View gallery."

A truck is parked at the entrance of Oncupinar border gate in Kilis, southeast Turkey, in this file  …

REBEL DIVISIONS
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The latest round of fighting started when ISIL fighters tried to abduct a German doctor in Azaz and Northern Storm fighters tried to stop them, rebels said. After expelling their opponents, ISIL fighters spread throughout the town and positioned snipers on rooftops.
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Northern Storm fighters moved to the border crossing, joined by fighters from the powerful Tawheed Brigade who came from Aleppo to try to broker a truce. Tawheed has a large presence in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, about 30 km south of Azaz.
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"Reinforcements from the Tawheed Brigade were sent to impose a ceasefire on the two sides," said Abu Obeida, a Tawheed spokesman. "There is still no ceasefire yet ... There are negotiations under way."
The clashes were a stark illustration of the relative strength of the al Qaeda-linked fighters compared to Syria's larger but less experienced moderate forces. It also highlights the divisions that have plagued the opposition.
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Both dilemmas have left Western powers hesitant to supply the rebels with the advanced weapons they need to counter Assad's better-equipped army.
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ISIL declared an offensive last week against two other rebel factions, accusing them of attacking its forces and suggesting they may have collaborated with the government.
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"What is worrying are the clashes themselves," a second Turkish official said, referring to rebel infighting generally.
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"What we want is to see the various coalition groups put their house in order and focus on the struggle with the regime, because that is the real issue - the violence inflicted by the regime on the Syrian people."
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Ankara has been one of the strongest backers of the rebels in the 2-1/2-year uprising against Assad. While it denies arming them, fighters including militant Islamists have been able to cross its border into Syria.
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At the same time, many activists and Kurdish forces accuse Turkey of allowing radical groups to go through its territory to launch attacks on its other foe - Kurdish militias, who are now operating on the frontier in northeastern Syria. Turkey denies those charges.
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(Additional reporting by Erika Solomon and Khaled Yacoub Oweis; Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Alison Williams)

 

Uncle SAMs loves 'al-Qaeda'

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U.S.-backed Syrian rebels being shoved aside by radical Islamists

Rebels walk along the frontline in Mayadeen, Syria. | David Enders/MCT

By Roy Gutman | McClatchy Foreign Staff

RAQQA, Syria — There’s hardly a more sensitive topic in Syria’s eastern provinces than the standoff between the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army rebels and the Islamist militants who run much of the region, so it was no surprise that the commander of the Free Syrian Army unit in eastern Syria’s biggest town understated the state of play when he was asked earlier this summer.
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“There are no tensions,” said Abu Tayf, a former businessman who asked to be called only “Tayf’s father.” “We all still have one goal: to get rid of Assad,” a reference to Syrian President Bashar Assad. The reason that black flags, the symbol of Islamist fighters, are flying in the town is that “the international community has let the Syrian people down,” he said, and “they became desperate.”
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Five days later, militants kidnapped Abu Tayf while he was out in the city. He hasn’t been seen since. Then on Aug. 13, a car bomb was detonated in front of the headquarters of his Ahfad al Asoul brigade. Those who weren’t killed by the blast were arrested, according to locals.
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What happened in Raqqa, the first provincial capital to be taken over by the rebels, is now being played out across northern and eastern Syria after an al Qaida affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (Sham is the general area that includes Syria), declared war on the Free Syrian Army.
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On Wednesday, extremists captured the north Syrian town of Azaz, killing eight Free Syrian Army troops and support personnel and effectively blocking a primary supply route from the nearby Turkish border to Free Syrian Army forces in Aleppo. Turkey closed the border crossing Thursday, while Free Syrian Army forces battled to regain control.
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Fierce fighting also was reported in Deir el Zour, close to the Iraqi border, where extremists reportedly captured a number of Free Syrian Army fighters. 
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The confrontation had been growing all summer between the Islamists, who took control of large parts of eastern Syria early this year, and the Free Syrian Army, which has been begging the U.S. for arms so it can seize territory from the Assad regime and displace the radicals.
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The three Islamist groups that run Raqqa – Ahrar al Sham, Jabhat al Nusra, which is also known as the Nusra Front, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham – claim that the Free Syrian Army leadership here received funds from France to fight the militants. Free Syrian Army supporters say that what really happened is that Abu Tayf and his colleagues persuaded the “prince” in charge of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, which has many foreign volunteers, to join the Nusra Front, a group that Syrians claim, despite its al Qaida loyalties, has less foreign influence. That angered Islamic State leaders, who then kidnapped Abu Tayf, they theorize.
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The distrust runs both ways. Two Free Syrian Army commanders insisted to McClatchy that the Islamists aren’t fighting the Syrian regime but working with it, a charge that sounds somewhat implausible but for which they offer circumstantial evidence. Why else, they say, would Raqqa, which once had a population of 220,000, have fallen to jihadists without much of a fight? And why haven’t the jihadis attacked a Syrian army base that’s just outside the city?
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One of the commanders, who asked to be identified only as Abu Sayaf, said he’d served in Assad’s security services for 10 years in northeast Syria’s Hasaka province and had watched closely as the regime trained Kurdish rebels to mount operations against Turkey in support of a separatist Kurdish state. He has a sour personal relationship with the Islamists, who he said twice had threatened to kill him.
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Abu Sayaf claims that the Syrian intelligence service had recruited most of the leaders of the Islamist groups to fight U.S. forces in Iraq. When they returned to Syria after the U.S. withdrew from Iraq at the end of 2011 – by then, the Syrian conflict had been raging for nine months – the government imprisoned them, fearing they were sympathetic to the anti-Assad uprising. “The government turned them in prison. They started to work for the regime” again, he insisted. He now claims that all but a few are working with the regime. “They get their orders and the timing of their operations from Damascus,” he said. 
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He also claims that recent fighting between the Kurdish Democratic Union and the Islamists was a sham by two government-allied organizations to keep the Free Syrian Army “from gaining ground.”
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The other Free Syrian Army leader, Abu Hadi, 40, the deputy commander of the unit in Deir el Zour, offers similar allegations. The main evidence he cited for the Islamists working with the regime was that Nusra and other Islamic extremists refuse to fight with the Free Syrian Army to capture the city of Deir el Zour, which, along with the airport and a military base, remains under government control. Rebels control the area east of the Euphrates River, including key oil and natural gas fields.
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“At first, they fought with us, but not anymore. Now they just go to where there are (mineral) resources,” Abu Hadi said.
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Abu Hadi admitted that he was one of many in the area attracted to the Islamists because of their call for the introduction of Islamic law. He said he still favored a far bigger role for religion in a post-Assad Syria. But he became disenchanted when he saw the way the Islamists treated the residents of some of the areas they controlled.
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“At first, people were attracted to them. But they were using religion as a cover. Now people realize they are using religion as a means of terror,” he said.
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There’s little doubt that the Islamists are far better equipped than the Free Syrian Army. Fadel Abdullah, the commander of the Al Khadisyr brigade in Deir el Zour, said he had 402 men, but they have among them only 100 mostly light weapons – semiautomatics and rocket-propelled grenades -- and must share them in shifts. He’s certain he could raise a far bigger force if he had the weapons.
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“Everyone wants to fight,” he said. “The problem is not with the human resources. The problem is with arming them.” 
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So far they’ve received only one shipment from the U.S.-backed Supreme Military Council: 10,000 rounds of ammunition that on the local market are worth about $1.60 each.
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Right now, though, they’re badly outgunned by the Islamists, who control the oil fields outside Deir el Zour as well as much of the region’s food and agriculture facilities. Nusra made $40 million off the sale of heavy construction equipment it captured when it overran government facilities.
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“If we had more supplies, we could control the entire region again,” Abu Hadi said. “If we were better armed, the people in Hasaka and Raqqa would realize that they want to be with us.”
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McClatchy special correspondents Zakaria Zakaria in Raqqa and Paul Raymond in Istanbul contributed to this article.
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Email: rgutman@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @roygutmanmcc

Turkish authorites arrest 'al-Qeada' manfacuring Sarin gas many months before the present CW crisis blamed unjustly on the Damascus government.

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Turkish Police/Judiciary Indicts 'al-Qaeda' Jihadists for Alleged Attempts to Acquire Chemicals With Intent to Produce Sarin

By Resho Bistuyek and at "Information Clearing House -   

The Turkish Republican Prosecutor in Adana has issued a 132-page indictment, alleging that six members of the al-Qaeda-aligned al-Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham – one Syrian and five Turks – tried to acquire chemicals with the intent to produce the chemical weapon sarin.
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The Turkish newspaper Radikal reports that the suspects were under surveillance by Turkish police after they received information that the al-Nusra

Turkish police raids al-Nusra safe house in Adana.

members tried to acquire two government-regulated military-grade chemical substances. 
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11 people were arrested in their safe house in the city of Adana in southeastern Turkey on May 23, 2013, after they had acquired some of the chemicals.
.(This part of Turkey is not controlled by Deonme Jewish Erdogan)

Initial reports to media had indicated that the Jihadists had been in possession of 2.2 kg Sarin gas when arrested. Five of the detained Jihadists were released by Turkish police after interrogation and background checks. Media reports indicates that the five released were Turkish nationals who shortly after being released joined al-Nusra Front in Syria.
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In the indictment, the prosecutor names the 35-year-old Syrian-national Hytham Qassap (codenamed “Abu Salah”) as the buyer and leader of the group.
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The five Turkish-nationals: 52-year-old Halit Usta, 47-year-old Halit Ünalkaya, 50-year-old İbrahim Akça, 43-year-old Bekir Karaoğlan, and 40-year-old Raif Ay, are named as Qassap’s logistics men. 
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The Turkish nationals were released on bail after laboratory results showed that the chemical substance in their possession during arrest had not been sarin. But the prosecutor kept Qassab in detention, since surveillance tapes indicated discussions regarding acquisition of large amounts of chemical substances with the intent to produce sarin. The six Jihadists deny the accusations.
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Qassab is being charged with “being a member of a terrorist organization” and “attempting to acquire weapons for a terrorist organization.” The other five members are being charged with “attempting to acquire weapons for a terrorist organization.” If guilty, Qassab could receive a 25 year prison sentence. His friends could receive 15 years each.

USA components/companies covert help which made the Nazi Genocide possible.

 
USA supplied CIA Saddam (1955...training in Lebanon and Egypt) with chemical weapons to kill Iranians in the Iran/Iraq war.
Washington Attacked Iraqi Civilians with White Phosphorus in 2004. 
The U.S. Military Killed Hundreds of Thousands of Japanese Civilians with Napalm from 1944 - 1945
 

The U.S. Military Dumped 20 Million Gallons of Chemicals on Vietnam from 1962 - 1971

Munich 1938

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LUNCH WITH THE FT - VLADIMIR PUTIN by aangirfan

Vladimir Putin meets me in the VIP room at the Shotlandskaya Kletka restaurant in Moscow.

Before we order our food, I ask Putin about Syria's offer to hand over its chemical weapons.
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"In 2002," says Putin, "Saddam Hussein allowed the weapons inspectors to carry out a thorough inspection.
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"The inspectors found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. But Bush went ahead with his invasion anyway.
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"It may be the same this time with Syria," continues Putin,"but, on the other hand, more of the American public, politicians and military now know that the American government is run by mafia gangsters. That is an important change since 2002."
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We order salmon served with a sauce of honey and heather.


Forrest Hills, home of the Mafiya.

"What about Russia's Mafiya?" I inquire.

"Most of them now life in New York and London," explains Putin.

As we sip our whiskies, I ask Putin if the Syria crisis is like the Czech Crisis of 1938.

"Shouldn't we stand up to the bully?" I say.

"Oh yes indeed," replies Putin. "In 1938, little Czechoslovakia was being bullied by big Germany.
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"Today it is little Syria being invaded by the forces of the bullying USA."
 
The Munich Crisis.
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Perhaps anticipating my next question, Putin says: "Czechoslovakia is no longer communist.
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"It is the USA that now has military bases in the Czech Republic.
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"The USA also has military bases in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, former Yugoslavia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan."
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I suggest that the American Empire has some similarities with the Russian Empire.
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"We have a free trade zone, not an empire," says Putin. "Our free trade zone consists of Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia."

Our salmon arrives.

I list some of Russia's problems, such as  corruption and poor social services:

(1. Population dropping .....80 million by 2050. Russian government response and initiative has been very weak, and simplistic.....Russian mothers get more cash if they have more children...thats it!!!!!...slow genocide by the Jewish Oligarchs in Russia. What is needed is a sophisticated approach which includes greater expenditure on healthcare, so that LESS Russians die at an earlier age; greater job opportunities, so that Russians don't leave the country to migrate mostly to Western Europe and North America; a better police force.....which are loathed by Russians as I spoke to them at language schools in Germany 2004. More of the huge wealth of the country being distributed more evenly among the people....the massive $542.5 billion exports wealth and income is not distributed to the people(2012 est.)....wealth and development is concentrated around Moscow and St. Petersburg. 

The top countries in order of the expected increase in population between 2010 and 2050 are (From Hufpost): (1) India 467 million projected population increase
(2) Nigeria 231 million
(3) Pakistan 101 million
(4) Tanzania 93 million
(5) United States 93 million
(6) DR Congo 83 million
(7) Ethiopia 62 million
(8) Philippines 62 million
(9) Uganda 61 million
(10) Kenya 56 million

If Third World Tanzania can manage such a huge increase why can't Russia?

Is the Russian government run by the Rothschild Jews of London and Jewish oligarchs still?

Russian population increase is a basic strategic, security, social, political, cultural, ethnic requirement for national survival.

2.  Russia's middle class is only 15%. That is the Middle Class size of a banana republic. Russia is a feudal neo-liberal society. A few rich Jews at the top and a lot of poor at the bottom......after 13 years of Putin rule defacto, and the huge export wealth of the country.  
The USA Middle Class is 45%........"Farrell: Oh I think there are a number of countries that are truly getting it right. The northern European countries -- Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany -- they're doing it right, have a healthy middle class. And then there's Canada, Australia, New Zealand -- they also have a much more vibrant middle class compared to the U.S."

3. Russia is a banana republic corrupt country......simple example....its earned $550 billion in exports in 2012....its economy is anything between $2.3--3.3 trillion....with such HUGE export figures its growth should be like China's......around 8--9%, but isn't, but isn't due to Mafia corruption. 

4. Afghan heroin is destroying Russian society killing millions. The Pentagon/CIA run Afghanistan.....since 2001. Putin has done NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING to stop the CIA/Pentagon Afghan heroin flooding Russia via Central Asia. Quite the reverse.......Russia sustains and helps the CIA/Pentagon in Afghanistan....via strategic transit routes. 
 
Putin agrees that there are problems, as in the UK and USA.
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"I am often having to intervene, whether it's in certain towns or certain factories," says Putin.
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I mention the street protests in Russia.

"These have been the work of the CIA," relates Putin. "The CIA-front known as USAID stirred 
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up the protests. We kicked USAID out of Russia."
(The above has no link to the Financial Times.)

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Russia will fight with Syria

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Spetnaz, air-defense units, arms supplies.......and especially SAMs, SSMs, EW, radar......with Russian personnel.

(This will be good training for them)

Please no 18 year old conscripts...thank you.

Veterans 30 to 50 years of age.

Do they work against USA military hardware? _________________________

Russia “Will Help Syria” In The Event of a Military Strike, Putin

By RT

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin gives a press conference at the end of the G20 summit on September 6, 2013 in Saint Petersburg (AFP Photo)

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By "Information Clearing House - "RT" -   

The alleged chemical weapons use in Syria is a provocation carried out by the rebels to attract a foreign-led strike, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the G20 summit.

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There was no 50/50 split of opinion on the notion of a military strike against the Syrian President Bashar Assad, Putin stressed refuting earlier assumptions.

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Only Turkey, Canada, Saudi Arabia and France joined the US push for intervention, he said, adding that the UK Prime Minister’s position was not supported by his citizens. 

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Russia, China, India, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Italy were among the major world’s economies clearly opposed to military intervention.

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President Putin said the G20 nations spent the “entire” Thursday evening discussing the Syrian crisis, which was followed by Putin’s bilateral meeting with UK Prime Minister David Cameron that lasted till 3am Moscow time.

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Russia “will help Syria” in the event of a military strike, Putin stressed as he responded to a reporter’s question at the summit.

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“Will we help Syria? We will. And we are already helping, we send arms, we cooperate in the economics sphere, we hope to expand our cooperation in the humanitarian sphere, which includes sending humanitarian aid to support those people – the civilians – who have found themselves in a very dire situation in this country,” Putin said.

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Putin said he sat down with US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 summit and talked for about half an hour in “a friendly atmosphere”.

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Although the Russian and the American leaders maintained different positions regarding the Syrian issue, Putin said they “hear” and understand each other.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry will continue discussing the situation in Syria “in the short run,” Putin said.

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'A dangerous precedent'
 

Both presidents stressed that the situation in Syria could create a dangerous precedent, but supported their points with contrasting arguments.

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Obama stressed his “goal” and US “responsibility” was to maintain international norms on banning chemical weapon use, saying he wanted the enforcement to be “real.”

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“When there is a breach this brazen of a norm this important, and the international community is paralyzed and frozen and doesn’t act, then that norm begins to unravel. And if that norm unravels, then other norms and prohibitions start unraveling, and that makes for a more dangerous world,” Obama said.

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Putin, on the contrary, stressed that setting precedents of military action outside a UN Security Council resolution would mean the world’s smaller countries can no longer feel safe against the interests of the more powerful ones.

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“Small countries in the modern world feel increasingly vulnerable and insecure. One starts getting the impression that a more powerful country can at any time and at its own discretion use force against them,” Putin said, citing the earlier statement made by the South African President.

Such practice (aggressive confrontational policies of the USA)would also make it much harder to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear program, Putin pointed out.

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The meeting of the leaders of the major world economies - G20 - took place in St. Petersburgh, Russia. The participants of the summit focused on economic issues during round-table talks, including unemployment, the lack of global investment, and better international financial regulation. While on the sidelines the conversation shifted to the issue of the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria and the possibility of military action in the war-torn country.

Why on Gods earth is the USA OBUMMER GOVERNMENT supporting anti-American 'al-Qaeda'?

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Not one of 'bad guys,' but Syrian rebel group proclaims 'anti-American' bent

By NBC News

A photo-illustration from the Facebook page of the al-Aqsa Islamic Brigades, a faction of the opposition Free Syrian Army fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, shows Islamic fighters marching away from a burning U.S. Capitol.
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By Robert Windrem, Investigative Reporter, NBC News

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As debate grows over the extremism of some armed factions battling to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, an incendiary illustration on the Facebook page of one such group leaves little doubt where its leaders envision the uprising ending – with masked Islamic fighters marching through Washington, D.C., as the U.S. Capitol burns in the background.
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The image is one of eight photos posted on the official Facebook page of the “Al-Aqsa Islamic Brigades,”  a small armed Sunni rebel faction fighting with the Free Syrian Army, the main umbrella military organization of the opposition forces. Two other photos posted on the group’s page feature the widely recognized black flag of the al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist group, which operates freely in Syria.
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Evan Kohlmann, a senior partner with the security firm Flashpoint Intelligence and an NBC consultant on terrorism, who discovered the image on Facebook and provided it to NBC News’ investigative unit, said Al-Aqsa has not been designated as a terrorist group by the United States. But he noted that it fights alongside another Free Syrian Army force, the Tawhid Brigade, that has been linked to Jabhat al-Nusra, one of two rebel factions labeled terrorist groups by the U.S. government.
(You mean to say the State Department/CIA don't actually know the full details of ALL THE TERRORISTS FIGHTING FOR THE USA IN Syria, and who is getting what arms, and American taxpayer money?) 

"As a group that claims affiliation to the generally pro-Western Free Syrian Army, it is difficult to reconcile the fact that it has plastered such a lurid anti-American image as the banner on its own official Facebook page," Kohlmann said. "It raises the unfortunate but inescapable fact that not every group within the Free Syrian Army is closely aligned with U.S. interests in the region."(Do you think....and only some?)

Flashpoint Intelligence

Gallery on the Al-Aqsa Islamic Brigades Facebook page includes photos featuring the black flag of al Qaeda in Iraq.
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Such murky alliances and rivalries within the Free Syrian Army help explain the skepticism that greeted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday when he told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that “bad guys” – Islamic extremists – constitute “maybe 15 to 25 percent” of the opposition forces.  
(They all 100% want a sharia SUNNI state....so I am 100% sure that 100% of them eventually must become enemies of the USA.....'The shining light on the hill' purportedly, and a Secular Democracy......which is developing a global empire since 1898......so, ALL these guys if they come to power will stand against everything the USA stands for in terms of values and culture...hamburgers, Pizza's, promiscuity, gender equality, gay rights....blah, blah, blah.......was that rocket science, or just doing Israel's bidding to get mad fundies into power in order to destroy a society)
Several lawmakers questioned Kerry’s assertion and a senior military official told NBC News that actual percentage is “way higher than that.” Defense officials estimate that al Qaeda and related extremists groups now constitute “more than 50 percent” of the rebel force, which is made up of at least 70 different factions, “and it’s growing by the day,” according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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NBC News' Chief Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski contributed to this report.
 

Dennis Kucinich asks a few questions about Syria.....no sleep walking into this one please.

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Top 10 Unproven Claims for War Against Syria 

By Dennis J. Kucinich at Huffingtonpost.

Barack Obama , Bashar Assad, Military, Syria, War, Syria Rebels, US Military, Chemical Weapons, Government, Intelligence, Sarin Gas, Syria Chemical Weapons, Syria War, Politics News

In the lead-up to the Iraq War, I researched, wrote and circulated a document to members of Congress which explored unanswered questions and refuted President Bush's claim for a cause for war. The document detailed how there was no proof Iraq was connected to 9/11 or tied to al Qaeda's role in 9/11, that Iraq neither had WMDs nor was it a threat to the U.S., lacking intention and capability to attack. Unfortunately, not enough members of Congress performed due diligence before they approved the war.
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Here are some key questions which President Obama has yet to answer in the call for congressional approval for war against Syria. This article is a call for independent thinking and congressional oversight, which rises above partisan considerations. 
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The questions the Obama administration needs to answer before Congress can even consider voting on Syria:
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Claim #1. The administration claims a chemical weapon was used.
The UN inspectors are still completing their independent evaluation.
Who provided the physiological samples of sarin gas on which your evaluation is based? Were any other non-weaponized chemical agents discovered or sampled?
Who from the United States was responsible for the chain of custody?
Where was the laboratory analysis conducted?
Were U.S. officials present during the analysis of the samples? Does your sample show military grade or lower grade sarin gas?
Can you verify that your sample matches the exact composition of the alleged Syrian government composition?
Further reading: Brown Moses blog; McClatchy News report; Global Research report.
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Claim #2: The administration claims the opposition has not used chemical weapons.
Which opposition?
Are you speaking of a specific group, or all groups working in Syria to overthrow President Assad and his government?
Has your administration independently and categorically dismissed the reports of rebel use of chemical weapons which have come from such disparate sources as Russia, the United Nations, and the Turkish state newspaper?
Have you investigated the rumors that the Saudis may have supplied the rebels with chemicals that could be weaponized?
Has the administration considered the ramifications of inadvertently supporting al Qaeda-affiliated Syrian rebels?
Was any intelligence received in the last year by the U.S. government indicating that sarin gas was brought into Syria by rebel factions, with or without the help of a foreign government or intelligence agents?
Further reading: Global Research report; Wall Street Journal article; Reuters story; Zaman story (in Turkish -- see Google translate from Turkish to English); Atlantic Sentinel story; AP story
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Claim #3: The administration claims chemical weapons were used because the regime's conventional weapons were insufficient
Who is responsible for the conjecture that the reason chemical weapons were used against the Damascus suburbs is that Assad's conventional weapons were insufficient to secure "large portions of Damascus"?
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Claim #4: The administration claims to have intelligence relating to the mixing of chemical weapons by regime elements
Who saw the chemical weapons being mixed from August 18th on?
Was any warning afforded to the Syria opposition and if not, why not?
If, on August 21st a "regime element" was preparing for a chemical weapons attack, has an assessment been made which could definitively determine whether such preparation (using gas masks) was for purpose of defense, and not offense?
Further reading: McClatchy report; Brown Moses blog . Claim #5: The administration claims intelligence that Assad's brother ordered the attack
What is the type of and source of intelligence which alleges that Assad's brother personally ordered the attack?
Who made the determination that Assad's brother ordered the attack, based on which intelligence, from what source?
Further reading: here
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Claim #6: The administration claims poison gas was released in a rocket attack
Who was tracking the rocket and the artillery attack which preceded the poison gas release?
Did these events occur simultaneously or consecutively?
Could these events, the rocket launches and the release of poison gas, have been conflated?
Based upon the evidence, is it possible that a rocket attack by the Syrian government was aimed at rebels stationed among civilians and a chemical weapons attack was launched by rebels against the civilian population an hour and a half later?
Is it possible that chemical weapons were released by the rebels -- unintentionally?
Explain the 90-minute time interval between the rocket launch and chemical weapon attacks.
Has forensic evidence been gathered at the scene of the attack which would confirm the use of rockets to deliver the gas?
If there was a rocket launch would you supply evidence of wounds from the rockets impact and explosion?
What is the source of the government's analysis?
If the rockets were being tracked via "geospatial intelligence," what were the geospatial coordinates of the launching sites and termination locations?
Further reading: FAIR.org report
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Claim #7: The administration claims 1,429 people died in the attack
Secretary Kerry claimed 1,429 deaths, including 426 children. From whom did that number first originate?
Further reading: McClatchy report
. Claim #8: The administration has made repeated references to videos and photos of the attack as a basis for military action against Syria
When and where were the videos taken of the aftermath of the poison gas attack?
Further reading: FAIR.org report
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Claim #9: The administration claims a key intercept proves the Assad regime's complicity in the chemical weapons attack
Will you release the original transcripts in the language in which it was recorded as well as the translations relied upon to determine the nature of the conversation allegedly intercepted?
What is the source of this transcript? What was the exact time of the intercept? Was it a U.S. intercept or supplied from a non-U.S. source?
Have you determined the transcripts' authenticity? Have you considered that the transcripts could have been doctored or fake?
Was the "senior official," whose communications were intercepted, a member of Assad's government?
How was he "familiar" with the offensive? Through a surprised acknowledgement that such an attack had taken place? Or through actual coordination of said attack? Release the transcripts!
Was he an intelligence asset of the U.S., or our allies? In what manner had he "confirmed" chemical weapons were used by the regime?
Who made the assessment that his intercepted communications were a confirmation of the use of chemical weapons by the regime on August 21st?
What is the source of information that the Syrian chemical weapons personnel were "directed to cease operations"?
Is this the same source who witnessed regime officials mixing the chemicals?
Does the transcript indicate whether the operations they were "directed to cease" were related to ceasing conventional or chemical attacks?
Will you release the transcripts and identify sources of this claim?
Do you have transcripts, eyewitness accounts or electronic intercepts of communications between Syrian commanders or other regime officials which link the CW attack directly to President Assad?
Who are the intelligence officials who made the assessment -- are they U.S. intelligence officials or did the initial analysis come from a non-U.S. source?
Further reading: FAIR.org report and AP story; Washington Post editorial . Claim #10: The administration claims that sustained shelling occurred after the chemical weapons attack in order to cover up the traces of the attack
Please release all intelligence and military assessments as to the reason for the sustained shelling, which is reported to have occurred after the chemical weapons attack.
Who made the determination that was this intended to cover up a chemical weapon attack? Or was it to counterattack those who released chemicals?
How does shelling make the residue of sarin gas disappear?
Further reading: here
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The American people have a right to a full release and vetting of all facts before their elected representatives are asked to make a decision of great consequence for America, Syria and the world. 
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Congress must be provided answers prior to the vote, in open hearings, not in closed sessions where information can be manipulated in the service of war. We've been there before. It's called Iraq.
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Visit Dennis Kucinich's website at www.KucinichAction.com

 

Follow Dennis J. Kucinich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Dennis_Kucinich

Shady Syrian lobbyists in DC urging a regime change, boots on the ground war.

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Shady PR operatives, pro-Israel ties, anti-Castro money: Inside the Syrian opposition’s DC spin machine

Max Blumenthal at Mondoweiss

 


 

During the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria on September 3, Secretary of State John Kerry and Senator John McCain both cited a Wall Street Journal editorial by Elizabeth O’Bagy to support their assessment of the Syrian rebels as predominately “moderate,” and potentially Western-friendly.
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“She works with the Institute of War,” Kerry said of O’Bagy. “She’s fluent in Arabic and spent an enormous amount of time studying the opposition and studying Syria. She just published this the other day. Very interesting [Wall Street Journal] article, which I commend to you.”
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Kerry added, “I just don’t agree that a majority are al-Qaida and the bad guys.”
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What Kerry and McCain neglected to mention was that O’Bagy had been recently hired as the political director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a little known outfit that functions as a lobbying arm of the Syrian opposition in Washington.
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Until today, O’Bagy had failed to note her role as a paid Syrian opposition lobbyist in her Wall Street Journal byline and did not note the position in her official bio at the Institute for the Study of War. Only after a storm of criticism did the Wall Street Journal insert a note in O’Bagy’s recent op-ed disclosing her paid position at SETF. O’Bagy was also compelled to amend her bio with a lengthy clarification about her work at SETF.
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But her work at the Institute for the Study of War should have been enough to set off alarm bells.

“Logrolling for war”
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The Institute for the Study of War’s (ISW) board of directors is led by William Kristol. Kimberly Kagan, the group’s president, was on General Stanley McChrystal’s strategic review team in 2009, advocating for a dramatic expansion of the US presence in Afghanistan. Her husband is Frederick Kagan, the AEI fellow who is the uncle of fellow neocon Robert Kagan.
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In its 2011 annual report [PDF], the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) detailed its close working relationship with Palantir Technologies, a private surveillance firm contracted by Bank of America in 2011 in an unsuccessful plot to dismantle Anonymous and sabotage Glenn Greenwald.
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The report listed New York Times reporter Michael Gordon as “ISW’s journalist in residence.” Back in January 2013, Gordon published an article pushing claims that Syrian army forces had used sarin gas, thus crossing Obama’s “red line” and triggering a US intervention. Noting that the State Department could not confirm the information in Gordon’s report, former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Pat Lang accused Gordon of “logrolling for war in Syria.”
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Despite his past affiliation with a think tank dedicated to pushing for US intervention in Syria, Gordon remains on the Times’ Syria beat.
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Rebel marketing
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When O’Bagy took to Twitter to boast about McCain’s “shout out” to her during the Senate hearing on Syria, the conservative writer Charles C. Johnson (who recently reported on O’Bagy’s lobbying) asked her if she was in fact employed by the Syrian Emergency Task Force.
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“Yes I do humanitarian aid work through the organization,” O’Bagy told Johnson. “Can’t go to Syria frequently and not help the people.”
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But O’Bagy’s work has less to do with tending to the needs of war-stricken refugees than it does with leveraging the media to agitate for US intervention. Indeed, she has been among the most prominent and widely cited commentators marketing the Syrian rebels as a bunch of America-friendly moderates.
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As she said during an August 26 appearance on Fox News, “What I’ve tried to show through this research and by traveling around with many of these rebel groups is that there are actually a majority of the opposition that would be aligned with U.S. interests.”
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The Cuban Connection
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Last summer, I encountered an exceptionally talkative young Syrian man at a tweet-up of Middle East-oriented activists in Washington DC’s Woodley Park area. Having learned that I was a journalist, he struck up a conversation, telling me eagerly about his work on behalf of the Syrian opposition through something called the Syrian Emergency Task Force.
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About thirty seconds into our chat, I could tell that the young man was not the most sophisticated operator. “We’re really trying to get in with the Jews,” he told me. “We feel like the Americans really listens to them the most, so we’re working with them all we can.”
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“We prefer to be referred to as the yahood,“ I responded in a deadpan tone, prompting nervous laughter from a few friends who were listening in on the conversation.
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Unfazed by the sarcastic aside, the activist told me about meetings at WINEP and entreaties to AIPAC. He mentioned Radwan Ziadeh, director of the Syrian Center for Political & Strategic Studies, as a key emissary between SETF and pro-Israel lobbyists.
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Ziadeh appeared at the American Jewish Committee’s 2011 Global Forum to make the case for Western intervention in Syria. Ziadeh was among the self-proclaimed “foreign policy experts” who signed an August 27 open letter to Obama calling for military intervention in Syria. Other “experts” lending their names to the letter included Karl Rove, Elliot Abrams, Governor Tim Pawlenty, and veteran anti-abortion activist Gary Bauer.
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As our conversation continued, the Syrian activist revealed to me a recent training session SETF had arranged between Syrian opposition figures and Cuban exiles in Coral Gables, Florida. Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott attended the seminar, he said with pride, greeting a who’s who of hardline anti-Castro activists who had spent decades pushing for the overthrow of Cuba’s socialist regime.
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When I returned home, I searched for details of the meeting and discovered a single press release posted on the anti-Castro web portal Directorio. I could find no coverage of the seminar in any US media.
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According to the press release, participants in the seminar pledged “To coordinate all of our political, diplomatic, logistic and humanitarian efforts in pursuit of the liberation of Cuba and Syria; hence constituting a United Front for Freedom and Democracy; Therefore, the Cuban Resistance and the Syrian Revolution jointly declare: The people want the overthrow of the dictatorial regimes of Assad and Castro.”
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On its website, SETF cites as one of its landmark achievements securing $1 million in humanitarian aid “from the Cuban-American community.”

WINEP ties, pressing for regime change
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At the helm of the SETF, which is registered as a 501 c-4 lobbying organization, is a previously unknown activist named Mouaz Moustafa. Back in May, Moustafa arranged a meeting between John McCain and a group of Free Syrian Army fighters. The photo-op quickly transformed into a public relations disaster when Lebanon’s The Daily Star reported that one of the man posing with McCain had kidnapped 11 Shiite pilgrims a year before.
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Since emerging as SETF’s Executive Director, Moustafa has forged close ties with WINEP, the neocon-oriented think tank founded as an ancillary of AIPAC. Formerly listed as a WINEP “expert” – his page on the think tank’s site has disappeared – Moustafa spoke at WINEP’s Soref Symposium this year.
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By Moustafa’s side at the conference was Louay Sakka, the founder of the Syrian Support Group, the only organization licensed by the US government to send financial and supposedly non-lethal support to the Free Syrian Army. In soliciting donations, the group notes, “We leave it up to the people on the ground to judge how financial assistance can best put to use.”
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With Congress set to vote on a resolution authorizing the US to strike Syria, SETF has issued an action alert on its website urging supporters to light up congressional phone lines urging “yes” votes. In a call with the White House, SETF urged much broader action in Syria than the “limited strikes” Obama has asked Congress to authorize. The group is dedicated to regime change, and is pressing for any and all military measures to accomplish the mission — even, apparently, boots on the ground.