Free Syrian Army Blows Up People And U.S. Plans

January 6, 2012

Those peaceful Syrian revolutionaries …

January 4th, 2012

The Free Syrian Army plans to kick off "huge operations" this week against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, the force's commander, Col. Riad al-Assad, said Wednesday.

January 6th, 2012

A suicide bomber killed 26 people and wounded 63 in Damascus Friday, Syria's interior minister said ..
…
The blast came two days before an Arab League committee was due to discuss an initial report of Arab observers who are checking Syria's compliance with an Arab plan to halt President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on nearly 10 months of unrest.

Those observers will probably report that the Syrian government is not totally complying with the government. It seemed that the U.S. and other anti-Syrian entities did not wanted the observers to say anything about the compliance and the violence from the other side. The plan was to solely damn the Syrian government and to push the Arab League to call for NATO intervention.

Col. Riad al-Assad blew that plan up. Yesterday his folks announced the exact place of the "huge operation" in comments on the AlJazeera website. He proved the Syrian government is right in its assessment that the Free Syrian Army and its followers are just another terrorist group. It will be hard to argue for intervention when it is so obvious that the major violence is not from the government's side.

Posted by b on January 6, 2012 at 17:59 UTC | Permalink

Comments

A recent photo caption on an article in The Atlantic referred to purported members of “Free Syrian Army” who were photographed firing at a convoy of government security buses as “fearless protesters.”
The BBC reporter, after “carrying a sack of ammunition and two or three Kalashnikovs for the fighters inside (Syria),” wrote that “The struggle with the government is becoming increasingly militarized; there is a small but growing insurgency.”
In fact if the government forces being fired at belonged to a government set up by the U.S. they wouldn’t be “fearless protesters” they’d be terrorists, extremists or insurgents.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/12/a-tour-inside-syrias-insurgency/250654/
This is part-and-parcel of the “strategic communications” I posted on yesterday, with the media toeing the government line.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 6 2012 18:53 utc | 1

Video of “peaceful Syrian demonstrators” shooting at civilian buses.

Posted by: b | Jan 6 2012 19:34 utc | 2

b. how come you are so credulous?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Security_Directorate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag
you mean it was false false flag?
you think al jazeera checks its comment section for the identity of posters?
you think any sane person would advertise their political movement with a video like that?
cui bono might cut either way, either the government tries to get support by making people fearful or opposition groups try to get the government to crack down so they can call for intervention, get more support internally, whatever.
but which opposition in their right mind would stage a suicide attack here?
http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2011/05/syria_0
“THE protesters in Syria have nothing like Midan Tahrir, the hub of Egypt’s revolutionaries. But in the Damascene neighbourhood of Midan, demonstrators have poured out of the al-Hassan and Abu Ayoud al-Ansari mosques every Friday for the past month. They were fewer in number this week; the authorities checked people’s’ identity cards to make sure that worshippers, who had come from far and around in previous weeks, were local. “The week before we could hear the chants from the other mosque”, said one protester.
Midan, which means gathering place, is just outside Damascus’s old walled city. Locals describe it as the country’s “heartland”, full of old Damascene families who are mainly shopkeepers and traders, though younger residents have become teachers and doctors. Its inhabitants stood staunchly against the French occupation in the early twentieth century and have featured in the country’s most famous soap opera. Unlike newer, upmarket suburbs, few people have moved there from other cities.”

Posted by: somebody | Jan 6 2012 21:30 utc | 3

cui bono might cut either way
Haha. Oh yeah. Bingo.
There could not be a more precise expression of what passes as b’s foreign-policy analysis.
What a dick.

Posted by: slothrop | Jan 6 2012 21:47 utc | 4

Yet another annoying intrusion of reality dismaying to the exciting “Syrian protesters are terrorists” horseshit.

Posted by: slothrop | Jan 6 2012 22:02 utc | 5

Reuters, Jan 5

Colonel Riad al-Asaad, head of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), pledged this week to escalate operations in response to what he said was the unsatisfactory performance of Arab League monitors in halting President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on protests.
The warning came just days after he said he had ordered a halt to operations against security forces while the monitors carry out their work – an order apparently disregarded by rebels who killed at least nine soldiers in three attacks.
Attacks by the rebel army have already begun to overshadow 10 months of largely peaceful protests. Authorities have seized on them as proof that Syria faces armed Islamist fighters backed by foreign powers.
Since November rebel fighters have ambushed military convoys, attacked an airbase, seized army checkpoints and launched symbolic attacks on an intelligence centre and an office of the ruling Baath Party in the heart of Damascus.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 6 2012 22:29 utc | 6

Don’t worry, the media is already blaming the Syrian regime for the bombings either because they set them or because they ‘let’ the attacks go. Or both. The propaganda doesn’t need to be very coherent anymore. It’s just need to fill the void with noise of the proper frequency.
Obviously the same reasoning doesn’t apply to terrorist attacks where western forces, or their peaceful and ‘popular supported’ allied regimes, are affected.
So that’s it. If you are putting bombs against the western empire you are to guilty, if you are getting bombed by the western empire you are guilty.

Posted by: ThePaper | Jan 6 2012 22:34 utc | 7

Are Syrian Spies on U.S. Soil?
“Syrian spies are operating in the United States, keeping tabs on Syrian-Americans who oppose President Bashar al-Assad, according to a federal indictment filed in October and PBS NewsHour interviews with Syrian-Americans.”
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2012/01/syrian-spies.html

Posted by: DakotabornKansan | Jan 6 2012 23:00 utc | 8

there is nothing the state department of those united states can say that slothrop does not approve, most highly, nothing nato does that he doesn’t fall in love with immediately, stroking always the empire’s erection

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jan 6 2012 23:45 utc | 9

b, that video @ #2 is very damning too. poor syria.

Posted by: annie | Jan 7 2012 2:13 utc | 10

The situation is not without humor.
foxnews:
Obama Administration Seeks to Remove Syria From Human Rights Committee

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 7 2012 2:50 utc | 11

“It will be hard to argue for intervention when it is so obvious that the major violence is not from the government’s side”
Not when you’re a gang of criminal lying pieces of shit and you own the media. Look at the success they’ve had feeding an entire nation a line of crap about Iran’s nuclear program. What, you think those of us that know the truth are in the majority??? It suprises me, b, seeing you argue that the facts will have anything to do with shaping the narrative.
Besides….Al Jazeera???? Doncha know thats just a Muslim propaganda rag, b? Just ask anyone that gleans their “facts” from MSNBC, CNN, or Fox. If its in Al Jazeera, and it doesn’t fit the narrative, its propaganda. Get with the program, man. Whataya, some sort of anti-american?

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Jan 7 2012 3:16 utc | 12

Does everyone forget that it was the BBC that began Al Jazeera back in the early 1990’s to be the west’s proxy arabic media? Then a few years ago, Qatar was threatened by the US (for Israel) and Haim Saban of zionist settlements/casino fame stepped in and bought a controlling interest. Not sure if he still has it.
An indepth investigation of that NWO outlet is long overdue.

Posted by: hijira | Jan 7 2012 4:31 utc | 13

THE SYRIAN GOVERNMENT IS NOT ABLE TO PROTECT ITS OWN CITIZENS SO THEY MUST RESIGN. 6000+ DEAD PEOPLE ALREADY. WTF IS THIS GOVERNMENT DOING? THEY SHOULD RESIGN BY THEMSELVES WITH NO NEED OF PROTESTS.

Posted by: JOHN | Jan 7 2012 5:48 utc | 14

There is also a similar protests in Iraq and Afghanistan, but since the people they attack is the US military, they are called terrorists. The number of dead in Iraq is far greater than in Syria.

Posted by: nikon | Jan 7 2012 7:25 utc | 15

@somebody – b. how come you are so credulous?
As know some of my writings here you do well know that I am anything but “credulous”.
I have observed the Syrian revolt from the beginning. There were bloody attacks from rebels on government forces from the very beginning. Prof. Joshua Landis reported the death of his wife’s uncle, a Colonel, back in April. There were snipers shooting at anti-government demonstrations early on. They did not make sense from a government point of view and were likely from the rebel site to exacerbate strife. There have been more armed attacks against government forces in recent weeks and the Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for them.
So when the Free Syrian Army announces a big coming attack and two days later a police bus in Midan is attacked by a suicide bomber nothing in the big picture read points to a false flag attack but everything to an FSA attack. It fits the series of rebel attacks. The target fits as does the method.
On the other side nothing in this incident, a suicide bomb on government forces, fits the historic picture of Syrian government acts. It doesn’t fit Assad’s strategy of calming things down.
I try to judge by logic, not by credulity, and usually, as the archives her can prove, I am pretty good at it.

Posted by: b | Jan 7 2012 11:11 utc | 16

Recommended via Race For Iran: Tour d’horizon: An Iranian optic on the Middle East and its prospects – Seyed Mohammad Marandi – University of Tehran (PDF, nine pages)
I pretty much agree with the views expressed therein.

Posted by: b | Jan 7 2012 11:12 utc | 17

yes, b. but one side being bad, does not mean the other side is good.

Posted by: somebody | Jan 7 2012 12:29 utc | 18

Who is Raid al-Asaad? Did he exist before July, or spring fully-formed from his creator’s head?
Google’s web is remarkably free of any “priors” on him, even using my favorite trick of skipping randomly to 20th, 30th, 49th google search pages. Going directly to websites of smajor western news sources also yields nothing. (In passing, it is interesting to note how sparsely mentioned he is by the NYT, even when discussing the Free Syrian Army; one can only conclude that the NYT or its sources have a problem with him. – perhaps he is expendable, don’t count on him lasting long?.) Maybe someone with access to non-Enlish sources can find something? In an article from Dec 15, Pepe Escobar reports Sybil Edmonds saying:

None of this [French, British, NATO activity behind the scenes in Syria] is being reported by US media because of a gag order from above that in theory expired this Tuesday.

A gag is still in place, it would appear.
Meanwhile, Pepe Escobar’s piece is the only one, which I could locate, that discusses anatomy of the forces behind the scenes in Syria. (Am playing catchup with MoA here, after several mos, Hope I am not redundantly reposting what has already been discussed.)
As to the most recent developments, Col Asaad appears to have a tenuous command control over his forces, similar to the apparent ineffectiveness of Prez Assad’s command control. Prior the announcement of renewed aggression, cited by b here, Asaad announced that he had ordered Free Syrian Army forces to cease all offensive actions when the Arab League delegates arrived; nevertheless, numerous aggressive actions by rebels occurred and at least 9 government soldiers were killed in that period. Buenos Aires Herald gives some details. The Herald story gives equal billing to total deaths in Syria, both govt forces and rebel/ protestors, while noting the difficulty of verifying any accounts.
Finally, Kurdistan Media reports that FSA and Asaad have been frustrated so far in their wish to meet with Arab delegates. The delegation had not contacted them. Nor has FSA been given telephone numbers or any means of contacting the Arab delegates, despite FSA requests.
It all makes one wonder: 1) how many divergent factions are involved both on the open “battle” front in Syria and how many different sponsors behind the scenes; 2) whether the behind-the-scenes sponsors are more splintered in aims and strategy than the Syrian groups openly involved in struggle. Mostly, it looks like some of the behind-the-scenes actors would prefer a low level Syrian civil war, as Pepe Escobar asserts, at least for the near term.

Posted by: smoke | Jan 8 2012 9:44 utc | 19

Ah,the wonders and beauty of isolationism and non intervention should be self evident except to the Ziomic aficianados.
It is absolutely amazing the bloodlust of poison ivy league cowards.

Posted by: dahoit | Jan 8 2012 16:04 utc | 20

[the comment below is from posted for “nels” – b.]
FOR
FSA Bombing & US plans thread
Who is Raid al-Asaad? Did he exist before July, or spring fully-formed from his creator’s head?
Google’s web is remarkably free of any “priors” on him, even using my favorite trick of skipping randomly to 20th, 30th, 49th google search pages. Going directly to websites of major western news sources also yields nothing. (In passing, it is interesting to note how sparsely mentioned he is by the NYT, even when discussing the Free Syrian Army; one can only conclude that the NYT or its sources have a problem with him. – perhaps he is expendable, don’t count on him lasting long?.) Maybe someone with access to non-Enlish sources can find something? In an article from Dec 15, Pepe Escobar reports Sybil Edmonds saying:

None of this [French, British, NATO activity behind the scenes in Syria] is being reported by US media because of a gag order from above that in theory expired this Tuesday.

A gag is still in place, it would appear.
Meanwhile, Pepe Escobar’s piece is the only one, which I could locate, that discusses anatomy of the forces behind the scenes in Syria. (Am playing catchup with MoA here, after several mos, Hope I am not redundantly reposting what has already been discussed.)
As to the most recent developments, Col Asaad appears to have a tenuous command control over his forces, similar to the apparent ineffectiveness of Prez Assad’s command control. Prior to the announcement of renewed aggression, cited by b here, Asaad announced that he had ordered Free Syrian Army forces to cease all offensive actions, when the Arab League delegates arrived; nevertheless, numerous aggressive actions by rebels occurred and at least 9 government soldiers were killed in that period. Buenos Aires Herald gives some details. The Herald story gives equal billing to total deaths in Syria, both govt forces and rebel/ protestors, while noting the difficulty of verifying any accounts.
Finally, Kurdistan Media reports that FSA and Asaad have been frustrated so far in their wish to meet with Arab delegates. The delegation had not contacted them. Nor has FSA been given telephone numbers or any means of contacting the Arab delegates, despite FSA requests.
It all makes one wonder: 1) how many divergent factions are involved both on the open “battle” front in Syria and how many different sponsors behind the scenes; 2) whether the behind-the-scenes sponsors are more splintered in aims and strategy than the Syrian groups openly involved in struggle. Mostly, it looks like some of the behind-the-scenes actors would prefer a low level Syrian civil war, as Pepe Escobar asserts, at least for the near term.

Posted by: b | Jan 9 2012 17:37 utc | 21

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