Prince Bandar Heads the Secret Saudi-CIA Effort to Aid Syrian Rebels to Topple Assad

http://www.democracynow.org/embed/story/2013/9/6/iran_contra_redux_prince_bandar_heads

The video link above and article below I found here at Democracy Now  Prince Bandar is the guy in charge so to speak for the FSA ISIS and Nusra Front. Turkey is perhaps the second most involved even allowing ISIS to use their hospitals in Turkey free of charge.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud — Saudi’s former ambassador to the United States — is leading the effort to prop up the Syrian rebels. Intelligence agents from Saudi Arabia, the United States, Jordan and other allied states are working at a secret joint operations center in Jordan to train and arm hand-picked Syrian rebels. The Journal also reports Prince Bandar has been jetting from covert command centers near the Syrian front lines to the Élysée Palace in Paris and the Kremlin in Moscow, seeking to undermine the Assad regime. “Really what he’s doing is he’s reprising a role that he played in the 1980s when he worked with the Reagan administration to arrange money and arms for mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan and also worked with the CIA in Nicaragua to support the Contras,” says Wall Street Journal reporter Adam Entous. “So in many ways this is a very familiar position for Prince Bandar, and it’s amazing to see the extent to which veterans of the CIA were excited to see him come back because, in the words of a diplomat who knows Bandar, he brings the Arabic term wasta, which means under-the-table clout. You know his checks are not going to bounce and that he’ll be able to deliver the money from the Saudis.”

Watch Part Two of Interview, ‘U.S.-Russian Tensions Heighten over Syria; Roots of Conflict Stem from NATOBombing of Libya’

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: At the G-20 Summit in Saint Petersburg, Russian and China officials, as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, are urging the United States not to bomb Syria in response to last month’s chemical weapons attack. The U.N.’s Ban Ki-moon said, quote, “Let us remember: Every day that we lose is a day when scores of innocent civilians die. There is no military solution.” Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly said a U.S. strike without authorization from the U.N. Security Council would be illegal. But on Thursday the Obama administration declared there is, quote, “no viable path forward” in the U.N. Security Council on Syria. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power has accused Russia of holding the U.N. Security Council hostage.

SAMANTHA POWER: I was present in the meeting where the U.K. laid down the resolution. And everything in that meeting, in word and in body language, suggests that that resolution has no prospect of being adopted by Russia, in particular. And our view—again, our considered view, after months of efforts on chemical weapons and after two-and-a-half years of efforts on Geneva, on the humanitarian situation, is that there is no viable path forward in the Security Council.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power.

SHOW FULL TRANSCRIPT ›

Rebels in Syrian reject envoy plan to cease-fire in Aleppo Syria

Rebels in Syrian with the FSA and other rebel groups have rejected envoy plan to freeze Aleppo fighting.

Military and political opposition forces in Aleppo on Sunday rejected U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura’s proposal for a freeze in fighting in the divided northern Syrian city.

“We refuse to meet with Mr. Staffan de Mistura if it is not on the basis of a comprehensive solution to Syria’s drama through the exit of (President) Bashar al-Assad and his chief of staff, and the prosecution of war criminals,” The commission of Aleppo revolutionary forces was set up on Saturday at a meeting in the Turkish border town of Kilis attended by exiled coalition chief Khaled Khoja, other opposition figures and Aleppo civil society representatives.

De Mistura’s proposal “falls short of an initiative to resolve the humanitarian crisis of our people targeted by the regime’s use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs prohibited by the international community,” it said in a statement.

Aleppo’s opposition forces also turned down preferential treatment for their region over other areas of Syria stricken by the country’s deadly conflict since 2011. “Syria and its people are one and indivisible. The blood of our brothers in Daraa (in the south), in Ghouta (near Damascus), in Homs (central) and in other Syrian provinces are no less important than our blood in Aleppo,” they said in a statement.

De Mistura on Saturday held talks in the Syrian capital to try to finalize a deal to freeze fighting in the war-ravaged second city of Aleppo. He met Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and agreed to send a delegation from his Damascus office to Aleppo on a fact-finding mission, state news agency SANA said, without giving a date.

“The mission will aim to assess the situation on the ground and to ensure that, once the freeze is announced, humanitarian aid can significantly increase and to prepare arrangements to follow up on violations of the freeze,” the U.N. said.

The Swedish-Italian diplomat “hopes to set in motion as soon as possible his project” to halt fighting in Aleppo for six weeks, said a member of his delegation.

He has met government officials and opposition chiefs in recent weeks to promote his plan for a temporary truce in Aleppo in order to move aid into the northern city.

However, de Mistura, who has made an Aleppo freeze the centerpiece of his mediation efforts since he was named last July to the post of special envoy to Syria, incurred the wrath of the opposition last month by describing Assad as “part of the solution” to the conflict.

Once Syria’s commercial hub, Aleppo has been devastated by fighting that began in mid-2012, and the city is now split between loyalist forces and rebels.

About 220,000 people have been killed in Syria since its conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests that spiraled into a multisided civil war drawing foreign jihadis.

ISIS Morale has hit the ground - They kill 100 of their own for wanting to leave

Both local and foreign fighters in ISIS reports seem to indicate that all is not well in the house of the so called "Islamic State" better name is #daeshbags

"Morale isn't falling – it's hit the ground," the activist said. "Local fighters are frustrated – they feel they're doing most of the work and the dying … foreign fighters who thought they were on an adventure are now exhausted."

Fighters are forced to stay and fight once they join the caliphate because they receive threats from other ISIS members who say they will kill the fighters if they try to leave.

A decline in troop morale is causing even ISIS' local fighters to want to abandon the jihad,

ISIS has established a form of military policing unit designed to crack down on fighters ditching the caliphate. Additionally, new regulations require ISIS fighters to carry proof that they are an ISIS fighter along with documentation showing where they are assigned. ISIS fighters are supposed to report to ISIS offices within 48 hours of receiving the new rules to check in and avoid punishment. The activists said that many ISIS militants' homes were raided and as many as 400 fighters were arrested for not reporting within the 48 hours.

Things have gotten so bad that fighters are no longer allowed to "speak the truth" and are "forced to do useless things."

A former ISIS fighter from Syria, who has since fled to Turkey, told NPR that ISIS wants to kill anyone who says "No!"

"Everyone must be with them," the former ISIS fighter said. "[If] you turn against ISIS, they will kill you."

ISIS, #daeshbags, daeshbags, #ISIS, #TwitterKurds, Syria, Kurdistan, Assad, foreign fighters, FSA, free syrian army, FSA, 

Pentagon's Syria plan would see results in 2016 - Yeah Right

Anyone who believes 2016 will see peace and democracy in Syria is a fool

But lets here what the Pentagon says anyways? - Ian Bach
here is an Article I posted a while back regarding US arming Rebels

By Kristina Wong - 12/13/14 12:41 PM EST

The Pentagon said Friday that a year-long plan to train and equip 5,000 Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria could stretch into early 2016.

Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said during a Pentagon briefing that it would take three to five months to recruit and vet Syrian rebels before any training begins. 

By that timeline, the 5,000 rebels would not start training until between March and May 2015 at the earliest. And that recruiting and vetting has not begun yet, Kirby said.

That timeline is even later than the one given earlier this week by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Brett McGurk, who told lawmakers on Wednesday that the rebels would begin training in March and ready to fight by March 2016.

But Kirby estimated training would only take eight to nine months of training time -- which would see rebels ready between November 2015 and February 2016 at the earliest. 

"We want to get this right more than we want to get it done fast. And it's going to be time-consuming," he said. 

Some lawmakers expressed concern this week that the program was not moving fast enough, and that moderate opposition in Syria is nearly extinct as it fends off attacks from ISIS and the Assad regime. 

"All of the indications are the moderate part of the insurgency such as it is, has collapsed in Syria, is actually losing ground catastrophically almost to the point of extinction," Rep. Gerry Connelly (D-Va.) on Wednesday. 

The timeline was not entirely unexpected by Congress. Lawmakers on Friday approved authority for that program for two years as part of a defense policy bill that would give the Pentagon until December 2016. 

"The train and equip program cannot be delayed. In order for it to be operationally effective, the U.S. must prioritize equipping Syrian freedom fighters to take on Assad's terrorist militias as well as Daesh," said Oubai Shahbandar, a senior adviser for the Syrian National Coalition, using an Arab term for ISIS. 

Kirby said planners have not been "sitting idle," and that Army Maj. Gen. Michael Nagata, who has been appointed to oversee the effort, has established vetting criteria.

The Pentagon has also has been working with other U.S. agencies and international partners in the region "who know these groups and know these individuals," he said. 

"We have been developing a training curriculum and a building-block approach," Kirby added. "And we've been doing the necessary preparations for the training sites that we know that we will have access to."

"We know how to do it very, very well. But to make it done very well, you've got to -- you've got to invest the time. And we need to be patient and willing to do that," he said.

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Looks like same old crap. Arm a bunch of Sunni militias to go kill Shia militias? In Iraq USA arm Shia militias to kill Sunni militias so I guess that makes things nice and even? - Ian Bach

Free Syrian Army (FSA) joins Islamist group Levant Front - Jabhat al-Shamiyya

Hazzm is one of the groups that form the western backed FSA (Free Syrian Army - i.e. "insurgents"). They recently have joined an alliance that includes the "Islamic Front", an Islamist coalition which includes Saudi-backed combatants and other factions. We have een this in the past FSA groups joining al-Nusra and/or ISIS.

Syria has maintain since the start that these were terrorists rebelling, not people who want a secular Syria, instead most wanted an Islamic state with Sunni Arab leadership of the Government, Army and the people. Their idea of a free Syria is something that 90% of all Syrians dread. 

Levant Front - Jabhat al-Shamiyya is a grouping of insurgent factions formed in December in the northern province. Levant Front - Jabhat al-Shamiyya is an alliance of mainly Islamist insurgent factions in Aleppo. Forming the Levant Front was an attempt at unity among factions in Syria that have often fought each other as well as the Syrian army and hardline jihadist groups

Hazzm is also one of ther groups that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia gave TOW anti-tank missle and surface to air anti-plane missles. Both are mobile small and very sophistcated armaments that one to two men can operate and launch. The west may end up being attacked by their own missles if they are not more careful in the future. However McCain in the USA and other politicians and war mongers have already said they have sent over 1,000 troops to train more Syrian fighter. Also they are planing on finding people who they think are okay to use and arming them.

THE MONEY – WHERE THE MONEY IS COMING FROM TO WAGE WAR ON SYRIA

This is nothing new. Go back a while to early 2006, and you have the state department announcing a new “funding opportunity” called the “Syria Democracy Program“. On offer, grants worth “$5m in Federal Fiscal Year 2006″. The aim of the grants? “To accelerate the work of reformers in Syria.”

These days, the cash is flowing in faster than ever. At the beginning of June 2012, the Syrian Business Forum was launched in Doha by opposition leaders including Wael Merza (SNC secretary general). “This fund has been established to support all components of the revolution in Syria,” said Merza. The size of the fund? Some $300m. It’s by no means clear where the money has come from, although Merza “hinted at strong financial support from Gulf Arab states for the new fund” (Al Jazeera). At the launch, Merza said that about $150m had already been spent, in part on the Free Syrian Army.

Merza’s group of Syrian businessmen made an appearance at a World Economic Forum conference titled the “Platform for International Co-operation” held in Istanbul in November 2011. All part of the process whereby the SNC has grown in reputation, to become, in the words of William Hague, “a legitimate representative of the Syrian people” – and able, openly, to handle this much funding.

Building legitimacy – of opposition, of representation, of intervention – is the essential propaganda battle.

In a USA Today op-ed written in February this year, Ambassador Dennis Ross declared: “It is time to raise the status of the Syrian National Council”. What he wanted, urgently, is “to create an aura of inevitability about the SNC as the alternative to Assad.” The aura of inevitability. Winning the battle in advance.

A key combatant in this battle for hearts and minds is the American journalist and Daily Telegraph blogger, Michael Weiss.

Michael Weiss

One of the most widely quoted western experts on Syria – and an enthusiast for western intervention – Michael Weiss echoes Ambassador Ross when he says: “Military intervention in Syria isn’t so much a matter of preference as an inevitability.”

Some of Weiss’s interventionist writings can be found on a Beirut-based, Washington-friendly website called “NOW Lebanon” – whose “NOW Syria” section is an important source of Syrian updates. NOW Lebanon was set up in 2007 by Saatchi & Saatchi executive Eli Khoury. Khoury has been described by the advertising industry as a “strategic communications specialist, specialising in corporate and government image and brand development”.

Weiss told NOW Lebanon, back in May, that thanks to the influx of weapons to Syrian rebels “we’ve already begun to see some results.” He showed a similar approval of military developments a few months earlier, in a piece for the New Republic: “In the past several weeks, the Free Syrian Army and other independent rebel brigades have made great strides” – whereupon, as any blogger might, he laid out his “Blueprint for a Military Intervention in Syria”.

But Weiss is not only a blogger. He’s also the director of communications and public relations at the Henry Jackson Society, an ultra-ultra-hawkish foreign policy thinktank.

The Henry Jackson Society’s international patrons include: James “ex-CIA boss” Woolsey, Michael “homeland security” Chertoff, William “PNAC” Kristol, Robert “PNAC” Kagan’, Joshua “Bomb Iran” Muravchick, and Richard “Prince of Darkness” Perle. The Society is run by Alan Mendoza, chief adviser to the all-party parliamentary group on transatlantic and international security.

The Henry Jackson Society is uncompromising in its “forward strategy” towards democracy. And Weiss is in charge of the message. The Henry Jackson Society is proud of its PR chief’s far-reaching influence: “He is the author of the influential report “Intervention in Syria? An Assessment of Legality, Logistics and Hazards”, which was repurposed and endorsed by the Syrian National Council.”

Weiss’s original report was re-named “Safe Area for Syria” – and ended up on the official syriancouncil.org website, as part of their military bureau’s strategic literature. The repurposing of the HJS report was undertaken by the founder and executive director of the Strategic Research and Communication Centre (SRCC) – one Ausama Monajed.

So, the founder of Barada TV, Ausama Monajed, edited Weiss’s report, published it through his own organisation (the SRCC) and passed it on to the Syrian National Council, with the support of the Henry Jackson Society.

The relationship couldn’t be closer. Monajed even ends up handling inquiries for “press interviews with Michael Weiss“. Weiss is not the only strategist to have sketched out the roadmap to this war (many think tanks have thought it out, many hawks have talked it up), but some of the sharpest detailing is his.

https://ianbachusa.wordpress.com/2015/01/15/the-money-where-the-money-is-comming-from-to-wage-war-on-syria/

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/12/syrian-opposition-doing-the-talking