Evidence Of Jabhat al-Nusra With Croatian Weapons
So the Obama administration is arming Al Nusra but does not want their fingerprints on it.

Posted by: somebody | May 29 2013 7:00 utc | 3

German BND chief rumoured to have visited Damascus
ARD is Germany’s state owned television – they report a rumour only if there is an official reason for it
Let’s assume Damascus did arrest German Jihadis – Germany’s courts presumably cannot lock them up for what they did in Syria. That applies to the “authorized Jihad” of all European countries.
So in the future, Europe will own militarily trained Jihadis in its suburbs with nothing much to do …
The BND officially has come clean with the fact that 200 members of the Caucasus Emirate live in Germany …
Jihadi groups can be infiltrated and used by any party in any conflict, for some reason the history of the Syrian (and Libyan) conflict mirrors the Chechen wars.

Posted by: somebody | May 29 2013 8:10 utc | 5

add – Ali Hamadi –
the route went via Frankfurt ….

Posted by: somebody | May 29 2013 8:59 utc | 7

slaughtering [1] to a new world order
via those wonderful *ngo*s !
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.sg/2011/07/globalist-imperial-network.html

Posted by: denk | May 29 2013 10:32 utc | 9

I shouldn’t be too critical. The fact that the USA isn’t full-on militarily involved in Syria is a major accomplishment in itself.
Whoever is responsible for this spell of sanity certainly deserves some appreciation.

Posted by: guest77 | May 29 2013 16:00 utc | 11

This article is all about the Israel Lobby, yet neither Israel nor its American lobby is mentioned once. On the front page of the reliably neocon WaPo, Jason Horowitz profiles former Obama official Vali Nasr who is peeved that Obama didn’t swallow his advice whole. Not only are the Republican Israel Lobby pundits (neocons) calling out the Democratic Israel Lobby pundits (liberal hawks), some Democratic Israel Lobby pundits are calling out their fellows (even those who still agree with them) for not being vocal enough often enough. If they would just pick up the tempo of their drum banging, Obama would finally follow their parade:

“I am not the first or the only person who has wanted to know the views of the American writer who has done more than anyone else in recent years to emphasize the humanitarian responsibility of democratic countries in the face of giant massacres — namely, Samantha Power,” Paul Berman, an essayist and author who has been a consistent voice for intervention, wrote in an e-mail.
Power, who declined to comment, is being vetted for the position of undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights at the State Department, according to several sources. She is said to be acting behind the scenes to build support for intervention in Syria. But given Obama’s apparent lack of interest — he told the New Republic that a humanitarian crisis in Syria alone does not justify U.S. military involvement — it is not clear whether having Power in the administration is as useful as having her as a clear voice outside it.
Other left-leaning supporters of previous interventions haven’t exactly been taking up the slack.
…
George Packer, one of the most compelling voices for humanitarian intervention in Iraq and elsewhere, argued in the New Yorker that as much as Obama may want to pivot toward the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East requires his prolonged engagement. Since then, Packer has remained mostly silent, saying that Syria is not his area of expertise.
In an e-mail, Michael Ignatieff, a Harvard professor and author whose writing is said to be influential in the administration, wrote that he and others “have been saying something must be done and something can be done.” But fellow advocates of intervention said they wished Ignatieff would say such things in more prominent arenas so that the president might hear.

If Powers is being vetted for “undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights at the State Department,” won’t she be in a position to use all of those “Democracy Building” institutions and NGOs at State to foment color revolutions and implement regime change across the world, including Syria? Why would she want to go out on a limb before she gets confirmed?
George Packer pimped Vali Nasr’s book and viewpoint in his puff piece on Hillary back in February. But obviously, Packer hasn’t been banging the war drums often enough since then; so he has to be prodded to do his part in the effort, even though war weary citizens — especially Democrats — are becoming more and more skeptical about the Syrian opposition.
Most telling that the underlying issue about Syrian intervention is about what the Israel Lobby wants is that, while the influence of “realists” within the administration is bemoaned, the only “realist” quoted is Stephen Walt (co-author of “The Israel Lobby”):

Even the former liberal hawks who have changed their minds have noticed that many of their one-time compatriots seem mum.
“However one feels about these issues, as a public intellectual you owe the public your best thoughts on it,” said Fareed Zakaria, who said the historical lessons of Iraq led him to oppose intervention in Syria. “I’ve tried to be as honest and open about my reservations about it.” He suggested that perhaps his fellow liberal hawks have been “somewhat chastened by the Iraq experience and relatedly how Afghanistan has turned out.”
The development has pleased traditional foreign policy realists, who applaud Obama’s reluctance to be drawn into the conflict.
“If you have a constant drumbeat in the op-ed columns and on the talk shows and inside the journals of opinion,” said Stephen Walt, a Harvard professor and leading realist thinker, “there are going to be some people within the administration who get influenced by it.”

Posted by: Rusty Pipes | May 29 2013 18:49 utc | 13

And the most obvious hypocrisy of the US administrations re: the Middle East: Intervening in Syria is a MUST DO, but intervening in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory granted them by the UN and their apartheid treatment of Palestinians? Meh…. Too difficult, so just give the Israelis what they want.

Posted by: jawbone | May 30 2013 12:56 utc | 15

@13
“In an e-mail, Michael Ignatieff, a Harvard professor and author whose writing is said to be influential in the administration, wrote that he and others “have been saying something must be done and something can be done.” But fellow advocates of intervention said they wished Ignatieff would say such things in more prominent arenas so that the president might hear…”
Those surprised by the fanatical zionism of the Harper government in Canada should consider that Ignatieff (whose father, from a white Russian Tsarist courtier family, claimed to be the author of the North Atlantic Treaty) was the leader of the “opposition” Liberal party which almost disappeared under his illiberal and uninspired leadership. He is a political “typhoid Mary.”

Posted by: bevin | May 30 2013 16:29 utc | 17