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HOMS
THE DAJJAL
THIS REVOLUTION IS NOT THE PRODUCT
HE IS TRYING TO HIJACK THE SUPPORT & EFFORTS OF QATAR, ARABIA , TURKEY, JORDAN, THE U.S., FRANCE & THE UK IN ASSISTING A BRAVE UPRISING WHO PAID A HEAVY PRICE FOR FREEDOM SO FAR ZAWAHIRI IS ATTEMPTING TO DRIVE A WEDGE BETWEEN THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION, TURKEY, THE ARAB LEAGUE, THE UNITED STATES & WESTERN CAMP PER TEHRAN REQUEST WHILE THE MEGALOMANIAC OF DAMASCUS IS BUSY BUTCHERING THE INNOCENTS IN SYRIA WITH IMPUNITY WHY ZAWAHIRI STATEMENTS CAME AFTER ALMOST 10 MONTHS? WHO IS THE BENEFICIARY OF SUCH A MOVE? THE BLOODY ASSAD REGIME, IRAN, RUSSIA & CHINA WHO LOVES TO MUDDY THE WATERS AND UNDERMINE THE EFFORTS OF THE SYRIAN UPRISING GOING AGAINST THEIR INTERESTS MAYBE IF HE SHUT UP, THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION & ITS MARTYRS WILL SUCCEED ITS NATIONAL COURSE BETTER ZAWAHIRI & ISMAEL HANIYEH CANNOT PUT THE SUNNIS OF SYRIA IN AL QAIDA’S BASKET AND THE MANIPULATION OF THE MULLAH REGIME TEHRAN USING THESE TWO FIGURES TO TRAP & SPLIT THE SUNNI WORLD ACCORDING TO IRAN’S INTERESTS THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION SHOULD KEEP THE COURSE FORWARD AS A PATRIOTIC REVOLUTION AND BYPASS THESE DIVISIVE ATTEMPTS TO DETRACT ITS DYNAMIC FROM ITS NATIONAL OBJECTIVE
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24 SIGNS THAT WE ARE GETTING DANGEROUSLY Is 2012 the year when we will see a major war in the Middle East ? For years we have heard about rising tensions in the Middle East, and for years we have heard politicians express concerns about Iran 's nuclear program, but now things really do seem to be reaching a boiling point. In just the past few days, the U.S. government has imposed tough new sanctions on Iran and has totally shut down the U.S. embassy in Syria . The truth is that we are getting dangerously close to a major war in the Middle East . So will Israel strike Iran at some point in the next few months? Will the U.S. military intervene in the rapidly escalating conflict inside of Syria ? If a major war does erupt, it could send the price of oil skyrocketing and there is the potential that the war could broaden very quickly. Hezbollah has already indicated that it will side with Syria , and there is always the potential that Hamas could as well. Russia and China have both stated that they are completely opposed to military action by the United States against Iran and Syria, and they have even hinted that they would possibly even help defend those countries. As the nations of the world take sides, there is even the potential that we could see World War III develop. Let us hope that it never comes to that, but with the world as unstable as it is right now, you never know what may happen. What makes war so much more likely now is that nobody has shown any signs of backing down. Syrian President Bashar Assad has sworn that he will never step down. U.S. President Barack Obama says that it is only a matter of time until he is forced to step down and that no other outcome is acceptable. Iran has sworn that it will never end its nuclear program. The United States believes that if Iran is allowed to develop a nuclear weapon it would be a fundamental threat to world security. Israel believes that if Iran is allowed to develop a nuclear weapon it would be a fundamental threat to the very existence of the nation of Israel . So if nobody backs down, what is going to happen? I think we all know what is going to happen. The following are 25 signs that we are getting dangerously close to a major war in the Middle East .... #1 The United States has just imposed tough new sanctions on Iran . Some of the new sanctions are specifically targeted at the central bank of Iran . Stronger sanctions have been a prelude to war in the past, and the Obama administration surely wants to argue that "all other alternatives have been exhausted" before going to war. "This is not going to be a matter of if, it's going to be a matter of when." This is very reminiscent of the language that Obama used to describe the removal of Gaddafi before the U.S. launched airstrikes in Libya . #6 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is calling for "an international coalition" to support the opposition fighters in Syria . #7 Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says that Iran is moving their uranium enrichment facilities into recently constructed underground bunkers and that the point of no return is rapidly approaching.... "The world has no doubt that Iran 's nuclear program is steadily nearing readiness and is about to enter an immunity zone" #8 There are indications that Israel may consider launching an attack against Iran without even notifying the United States . Aaron David Miller, a Mideast peace negotiator during the Clinton administration, recently made the following statement.... "There's a growing concern -- more than a concern -- that the Israelis, in order to protect themselves, might launch a strike without approval, warning or even foreknowledge" #9 The Washington Post is reporting that U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes that Israel will strike Iran at some point during the months of April, May or June #10 Former IDF chief of staff Moshe Yaalon insists that an attack on Iran could be successful.... "It's possible to strike all Iran 's facilities, and I say that out of my experience as IDF chief of staff" #11 U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner says that the Obama administration "is absolutely committed to preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons". #12 Barack Obama underscored his policy toward Iran in a speech just the other day.... "I've been very clear -- we're going to do everything we can to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and creating a nuclear arms race in a volatile region" #13 According to an intelligence report, thousands of U.S. troops have been heading to "two strategic islands within reach of Iran ". #14 Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei is speaking as if the coming war is a foregone conclusion.... "The war itself will be 10 times as detrimental to the U.S. " #15 Khamenei also seems to think that the outcome of the coming war is a foregone conclusion as well.... "In light of the realization of the divine promise by almighty God, the Zionists and the Great Satan ( America ) will soon be defeated" #16 Khamenei also has declared that Israel is a "cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut". #17 According to one estimate, there are currently 200,000 missiles aimed at the nation of Israel . #18 Some Israeli officials claim that Iran is trying to develop a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States . #19 The death toll from the conflict inside of Syria continues to rise. Â "A continuous Syrian bombardment beginning early Saturday, Feb. 4, is estimated to have left a record 350 dead and up to 1,300 wounded in the Homs district of Khaldiyeh." #20 According to the United Nations, a total of approximately 6,000 people have been killed since the conflict in Syria began. #21 The city of Homs is one giant war zone at this point. The following comes from a recent article in the Telegraph.... "We can't count all the bodies from the streets and the collapsed buildings. Anyone who tries to go on the street might be killed - there are snipers," said Abu Abdu al-Homsi, spokesman for the Syrian Revolutionary Council, an opposition group, in Homs . "An old woman - her son was shot and killed in the street, she went to get his body and was shot dead too." #22 The Russians appear to be very serious about supporting the Assad regime in Syria , "the Russians backed their hard line against the West by putting Rapid Reaction Force (aka Spetsnaz) units in Black Sea bases on the ready to set out for Syria and defend Damascus ." #23 It is being reported that a Hezbollah official has indicated that Hezbollah will attack Israel if Syria is attacked. #24 There are even signs that Saudi Arabia is busy preparing for a coming war. The following comes.... "Our military sources report that the Saudis this week wound up their own intensive preparations for war. Large forces are now deployed around Saudi oil fields, pipelines and export facilities in the eastern provinces opposite the Persian Gulf , backed by anti-missile Patriot PAC-3 batteries. American, British and French fighter-bombers have been landing at Saudi air bases to safeguard the capital, Riyadh ." If a major war does erupt in the Middle East , what is that going to do to the global economy and the price of oil? It is being projected that the price of gasoline in the United States could go above 4 dollars a gallon this spring even if there isn't a war in the Middle East . So how much higher would it go if there is a conflict with Iran ? Today, Iran is the third largest exporter of oil in the entire world. If those shipments are cut off that would have a huge impact. But Iran could have an even greater impact by closing the Strait of Hormuz . Approximately 20 percent of all oil sold in the world goes through the Strait of Hormuz each year. If Iran started raining missiles down on oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz , that would change the global economy overnight. We live in very unusual times, and it should be apparent to everyone that there is not going to be lasting peace in the Middle East any time soon. When the next major war does erupt in the Middle East , it is going to change the world forever. But what kind of change will that be?
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice:
SYRIA’S
REGIME MASSACRES & ATROCITIES
HEZBOLLAH CHIEF
COLONEL RIAD AL ASAAD
GEN MUSTAFA AL SHEIKH
FREE SYRIAN ARMY ATTACK
NEW DEFECTION TO THE
FREE SYRIAN ARMY
Syria's Splintered Opposition:
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Syrian soldiers who defected to join the Free Syrian Army and set up the Arabad bin Sarieh battalion join a protest against Syrian President Bashar Assad in the town of Hula , near the city of Homs , on Feb. 3, 2012
Syria is no longer sliding into war or staring at the abyss of warfare. Syria is at war. Although peaceful protesters still take to the streets by the thousands, the phenomenon that is the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is, short of a palace coup, becoming the main actor in a revolution that is growing nastier by the day. A source in the besieged city of Homs told TIME on Monday, Feb. 6, that government forces have continued to bombard residential areas with some of the heaviest barrages in the 10 months since the protests began, with perhaps 25 civilians dead in two hours of shelling and sniper fire in just one district.
On one side of this clearly asymmetrical conflict is President Bashar Assad and his army of more than 200,000 men, its officer corps largely intact, a loyalty forged by shared interests and fears - and blood spilled as a result. Opposing them is the FSA, a loose franchise of lightly armed military defectors (and in some areas civilians) waging a growing number of localized guerrilla campaigns in their hometowns and cities with minimal centralized control from the FSA's nominal leadership, which is based across the border in Turkey. (See the Free Syrian Army take part in anti-Assad protests.)
It's unclear how big this rebel force is. Colonel Riad al-As'aad, the head of the FSA, has boasted of as many as 40,000 men - a claim impossible to verify and probably part of a psychological campaign to encourage further defections. General Mustafa al-Sheikh, the highest-ranking breakaway to date, has gone further, telling a British newspaper that President Assad's army is just weeks away from collapsing. Few would concur.
Perhaps that is because Sheikh and As'aad are rivals. On Sunday, the general announced the formation of the High Syrian Council for the Liberation of Syria, a move that is likely to cement a split within the armed opposition, given that the FSA's deputy commander Colonel Malik Kurdi told TIME Sheikh's move was nothing short of "a knife in the back of the revolution."
"We were surprised by this," Kurdi said by phone from Turkey . "General Sheikh defected and did not join us. He announced this council — it's his business. We have nothing to do with it. We don't know anything about it or its aims, but we question its formation at this point. We think it's an attempt to split the armed opposition."
It is debatable whether the FSA's leadership in Turkey serves anything more than a p.r. function - a source for media and Western diplomats - without real command of FSA fighters on the ground. Now a separate and rival authority under General Sheikh is likely to confuse things in an already disunited opposition front, even as Assad escalates his attacks and takes an ever higher daily death toll.
Bassma Kodmani, spokeswoman for the Syrian National Council (SNC), the de facto political opposition group, says the SNC was also wary of Sheikh's announcement. "It's not something that we fully know what were the issues behind it," Kodmani tells TIME. "We realize there are some tensions related to the timing of the event. We are working to ensure that the military command will remain united." (See a bomb blast in Damascus.)
While the leaders of the Syrian opposition bicker and play politics, FSA troops on the ground are outnumbered and outgunned, although they are putting up a fight and making gains in some areas. In Zabadani, a picturesque mountain resort town not far from the Lebanese border, the rebels recently forced loyalists out. A videotaped statement released in late January by the town's elders said the town had negotiated a cease-fire with representatives of the regime, the first such tactical victory in many months of failed attempts across the country. (Zabadani's mountainous terrain may have been just as crucial as its fighting men: the town is perched high above the main road leading into it, making it harder to storm.)
Other towns, like Rastan (which is near Homs and surrounded by flat farmland) and Jabal al-Zawiya in the north, have become rebel military strongholds and scenes of intense clashes with loyalists. The rebels have at times gained and held territory, but only briefly before loyalists forcefully pushed back. Even Zabadani is reportedly once again being shelled.
Still, the regime defectors have some advantages. The military breakaways tend to return to their hometowns, enabling even a small group to tap into a much wider social and clan-based network. In the early days of what was a predominantly peaceful uprising, bands of army defectors across the country turned away civilians volunteering to join their ranks, in a bid to maintain some semblance of military hierarchy and discipline. Now, in amateur videos posted on YouTube, some units are openly calling for civilian volunteers.
Kurdi insists that's not part of the FSA's general strategy. Critics counter that a command based in Turkey cannot dictate terms to men fighting and dying in their homeland. Kurdi responds that military commanders the world over need not necessarily be based in an area to issue orders for it. "A command can be anywhere, in a city, in a town," he says. "In any military command, orders are issued via communications. we count on these communications."
They also count on weapons entering clandestinely from neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, as well as what Kurdi terms the "regime's smuggling gangs" that sell weapons to defectors. Syria was not a weaponized society, unlike Iraq , where gun ownership was common before the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. But after almost 11 months of being shot at, some Syrians have found ways to protect themselves and start shooting back. A Syrian expatriate and human-rights activist who works closely with refugees in Jordan says that every Syrian man who flees across the border is "FSA in waiting." Kalashnikovs were going for about $1,600 each, he says — about half the price of those sold on the black market in Lebanon . Most of the men go back into Syria , the activist says, as soon as they secure a weapon. (See "Why They Protest: Egypt, Libya and Syria.")
Kodmani says unifying armed groups on the ground "is the big challenge today." Although the SNC had not been quick to endorse the FSA, insisting on peaceful rather than military means to bring down the regime, it has since come out in support of the armed defectors, offering to find it funding but not weapons. "There is going to be more of a role for the FSA in the continuation of the struggle against the regime," Kodmani says, adding that support for the FSA is predicated "first and foremost" on "helping integrate those [armed] groups that if not integrated might operate on the ground, which is a concern. It's not about throwing money and arms at them. It's first and foremost about unifying them under one command."
Syrians don't have to look far to see how militias, especially those with a sectarian hue, can ravage a country: neighboring Lebanon and Iraq are bloody examples of that. They are also examples of the price proxy wars can extract from a local population. The international battle lines over Syria are clearly drawn. Russia and Iran continue to politically back and arm Assad, while Qatar is leading the Arab charge against the regime, along with Turkey , the U.S. , France and other Western powers.
There is much talk that Qatar - which financed, armed and trained Libya 's rebels - may do the same for Syria 's. Kurdi wouldn't state whether that had moved from notion to fact, saying only that the FSA needed weapons to "at least make us on par with the regime."
Pressure Mounts in Washington to Aid Syrians
Jay Solomon
WASHINGTON—The Obama administration and Turkey are moving ahead with discussions on how to provide humanitarian assistance to victims of Syria's internal strife, even as diplomats from both countries weigh the risks of being drawn more directly into the conflict.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington Monday, said Ankara wants to begin supplying aid to the tens of thousands of Syrian civilians seeking to survive President Bashar al-Assad's military offensive on the cities of Homs and Hama.
Mr. Davutoglu said Turkey is also seeking to accelerate aid to Syrian refugees who have fled into his country and to Jordan , Lebanon , and Iraq to avoid the violence.
"There should be some ways for the accessibility of food and medicine to these people," Mr. Davutoglu said in Washington on Friday. "It is time for humanitarian access to these cities [inside Syria ]. It is a must."
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Davutoglu are seeking to establish a "Friends of Syria" contact group to channel aid to Syrian and support the democratic opposition.
Pressure on Capitol Hill intensified for humanitarian intervention on Friday. Sens. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) and Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) introduced a bipartisan resolution urging the administration to help the Syrian opposition and help facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. The senators called for the departure of Mr. Assad.
Mr. Davutoglu and senior U.S. officials said they are weighing the risks posed by any outside humanitarian intervention into Syria .
American and Turkish officials said they hoped that the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent would be allowed access by Damascus to enter areas affected by the violence.
But they acknowledged that Mr. Assad could deny such cooperation and that protecting Syrian citizens might prove impossible without an outside security force. Mr. Davutoglu stressed that he wasn't calling for military intervention, but he wouldn't rule out the potential need for North Atlantic Treaty Organization involvement if the humanitarian situation deteriorates further.
Mr. Assad and his closest backers— Russia , China and Iran —have repeatedly spoken out against any foreign intervention inside Syria , even humanitarian.
U.S. officials said Friday that Syria poses a particularly difficult challenge because of the sectarian cleavages inside the country and the potency of Syria 's military.
Syria's security forces are considered well-trained, and have air defenses, Russian-made MiG fighters and stockpiles of chemical weapons, including mustard gas and weaponized sarin and VX nerve agents.
Some analysts are drawing comparisons between Syria and the Balkans during the 1990s. Then, Western and Mideast countries attempted to establish humanitarian zones inside the former Yugoslavia without military force. The plan collapsed when Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and his allies overran these areas, eventually leading to NATO airstrikes on Serbia .
"We wanted Bashar Assad to be [Mikhail] Gorbachev," Mr. Davutoglu said on Friday, referring to the Soviet Union 's reformist leader. "But [Assad] preferred to be the Milosevic of Syria, not Gorbachev."
Turkey has emerged as among the most aggressive among Middle Eastern countries in responding to the political uprisings that have surged across the region over the past year.
Ankara provided military support to the NATO mission that helped overthrow Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was among the first Mideast leaders to call for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down.
Mr. Davutoglu also said his government was kick-starting efforts to get Iran to return to international negotiations aimed at containing its nuclear program.
The Turkish official visited Tehran last month and said senior Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and the government's chief nuclear negotiator, Saad Jalili, had voiced a willingness to return to a dialogue.
Mr. Davutoglu said he saw such a negotiation as building on a previous Turkish mediation that sought to get Iran to agree to freeze parts of its nuclear fuel production in exchange for an easing of Western sanctions.
"It is in the interest of all parties to reach an agreement," Mr. Davutoglu said.
U.S. and European diplomats on Friday voiced skepticism that Iran was serious about returning to the negotiating table. They noted that the European Union's foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, formally wrote Mr. Jalili in October seeking to restart negotiations that have been frozen for a year. But they said Iran hasn't responded to the request.
"What counts as a serious response to [ Turkey ] is less than what counts as a serious response to us," said a U.S. official.
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