Syria and the ISIS Crisis - Effective Counterterrorism

>> you talked about these strikes as hopefully having an effect. i wonder if you could assess a little bit, obviously, the iraq end of this campaign has been going on for a while. do you think you had an effect so far with those strikes, and what more is going, is hoped for from this wave? 

>> the most important thing is to create some space for the iraqi security forces to reorganize and replace leadership that needs to be replaced, to allow them to reorganize their equipment and rearm, to get their ministry connected to this newly-formed government and to allow them to get on the offensive. what we have been doing over these last couple of weeks and what last night's campaign was about was simply buying them some space so that they can get on the offensive. 

>> general, you talked about the overall plan along the iraqis, peshmerga to go on the offensive, won't these strikes in syria benefit assad? you're hitting the corazon group, the isis, this benefits him, doesn't it? 

>> right now the task at hand is countering isil, that's job one. as you mentioned last night, we not only were doing strikes this syria, we did several strikes this support of peshmerga forces in iraq. but the principal focus right now is countering the threat to isil first to iraq, then to the region. 

>> but as a result of that, it's benefiting assad, isn't it? 

>> i wouldn't characterize the effects we had last night as benefiting assad. it's certainly causing isil to address the fact that there now is an air war against them. 

>> You said the Syrians were informed through the UN that this was going to happen. We've heard a lot about their air defense system being very robust. Were any of your aircraft painted with radar coming in? Was the radar turned off? 

-- >> Yeah. The target acquisition last night, radar acquisition i would characterize as passive. 

>> They turned it off or what?

 >> I won't get into specifically what we know they did, but i think it's fair to say to assess last night it was a passive radar.

Ellsberg works for Kissinger.

He lies.

"A.  Well, that was my war.  That makes me pretty old. And at 83, I am. This means I know what Vietnam means as well as Iraq, unlike most members of Congress. The New York Times noted on Sept. 18 that only a third of those voting on authorizing American advisers, arms and trainers for Syrian rebels were in Congress the last time there was a vote on war, which was for Iraq, in 2002. "

This simply is not true. There was a vote last year on a war with Syria, and the Congress (this SAME Congress) said "No".

The Warmongers and the Zionists are absolutely furious with Obama over this - hence the Wave of Assassins at the White House.

October Surprise 2014 - The Wave of Assassins from Spike EP on Vimeo.

"We are a wave of assassins throughout the world.''

Edward M. Richardson,

Letter to Jodie Foster,

April 1981

Watch the Pentagon briefings - they are furious. The Navy spokesperson denied that the attacks into Syria were done in cooperation with Assad or would help the Syrian government, but he did confirm that the Syrians were advised via their UN mission that the strikes would be going in, and where they would be hitting.

So the Pentagon NeoCon Warmongers (along with the foundation funded Left Warmongers) are just flat out lying - the Pentagon spokesman confirmed that the Syrian Integrated Air Defence Net, which is one of the most efficient and sophisticated in the world (as US Navy aviators learned in 1983) was turned OFF to allow the US Strikes in.

Obama is working with Assad - this is proper, credible anti-terrorism measures of the kind the US has not practiced outside of the drone program since at least August of 1998, when Clinton ALMOST succeeded in killing Bin Laden (in spite of Madeline Albright and William Cohen's active sabotage of the Tomahawk strike (by warning the Pakistani ISI, who in turn warned Bin Laden, who moved)).

Let's see what CodePink have to say about this....

Given that they were silent for nearly 2 years over the Death Squads in Syria, and were (rightly) denied entry into Egypt after Tahir as foreign agents provocateurs.

What is Code Pink...? from Spike EP on Vimeo.

Ms. Masooda Jalhal, former Afghan Minister of Women, to a Code Pink Delegation to Kabul : "It is good for Afghanistan to have more troops – more troops committed with the aim of building peace and against war, terrorism, and security – along with other resources. Coming together they will help with better reconstruction."

Medea Benjamin: "We [also] heard a lot of people [in Afghanistan] say they didn't want more troops to be sent in and they wanted the U.S. to have a responsible exit strategy that included the training of Afghan troops, included being part of promoting a real reconciliation process and included economic development; that the United States shouldn't be allowed to just walk away from the problem. So that's really our position."

Foundation Cash Funds Antiwar Movement
By: Julia Duin
Washington Times | Thursday, April 03, 2003


The American antiwar movement is decked out with all the elements of the counterculture, but it is getting some very establishment funding.

In a few months, foundations and donors have kicked in millions of dollars to help antiwar groups stage demonstrations, take out expensive newspaper and TV ads, maintain Web sites, hire and pay staff, and lease office space in high-rent New York, Washington and San Francisco locales.

Most work under the umbrella of sympathetic "fiscal sponsors," groups with tax-exempt status that have also lent out staff and office space. For instance, Code Pink Women for Peace, a feminist movement known for its pink clothing and awarding of "pink slips," or pink lingerie, to legislators they deem pro-war, operates under the aegis of Global Exchange, a San Francisco organization with a $4.2 million budget.

Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, a director for Global Exchange, says they are paying a bargain $400 a month for a cubicle office at 15th and H streets in the District. More space for Code Pink is on loan from two organizations down the hall, the National Organization for Women and the Institute for Policy Studies.

Code Pink has raised $70,000 to $80,000 in its four-month existence, mostly through its www.codepinkalert.org site and sales of Code Pink buttons and T-shirts, "which we can't keep in stock," she adds.

The Institute for Policy Studies, a left-wing think tank, has released a drumbeat of antiwar essays in recent months. The institute has a $2.2 million budget for 2003 provided by the Turner, Ford, MacArthur and Charles Stewart Mott foundations, among others.

The brunt of the peace funding, says institute director John Cavannagh, is being done by smaller foundations able to quickly shift funds from other programs.

"Individual peace groups have all gone out and raised funds," he says. "It's a lot of money, but I don't know how much. There's a pooling of resources between peace groups I've not seen before, which explains the large numbers of demonstrations and peace marches created."

For instance, the institute's 2002 foreign policy budget of $400,000, which includes antiwar activism, received $50,000 from the HKH Foundation, $50,000 from the Arca Foundation, $20,000 from the Samuel Rubin Foundation, $15,000 from the Solidago Foundation and $50,000 from the MacArthur Foundation.

Hollywood Accredits The Memes: Obama Will Be Kidnapped from Spike EP on Vimeo.

"These are warnings..."

18 U.S. Code § 871 - Threats against President and successors to the Presidency

Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(b) The terms “President-elect” and “Vice President-elect” as used in this section shall mean such persons as are the apparent successful candidates for the offices of President and Vice President, respectively, as ascertained from the results of the general elections held to determine the electors of President and Vice President in accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 1 and 2. The phrase “other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President” as used in this section shall mean the person next in the order of succession to act as President in accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 19 and 20.

Al-Moallem of Syria

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Syrian Arab Republic, SYRIAN – steeped in history for seven thousand years. ARAB – proud of its steadfast pan-Arab heritage despite the deliberate acts of aggression of supposed brotherly Arabs. REPUBLIC – a civil state that some, sitting in this room, have tried to return to medieval times. Never have I been in a more difficult position; my delegation and I carry the weight of three years of hardship endured by my fellow countrymen – the blood of our martyrs, the tears of our bereaved, the anguish of families waiting for news of a loved one – kidnapped or missing, the cries of our children whose tender fingers were the targets of mortar shelling into their classrooms, the hopes of an entire generation destroyed before their very eyes, the courage of mothers and fathers who have sent all their sons to defend our country, the heartbreak of families whose homes have been destroyed and are now displaced or refugees.

My delegation and I carry the hope of a nation for the years to come

My delegation and I also carry the hope of a nation for the years to come – the right of every child to safely go to school again, the right of women to leave their homes without fear of being kidnapped, killed or raped; the dream of our youth to fulfill their vast potential; the return of security so that every man can leave his family safe in the knowledge that he will return.

Finally, today, the moment of truth; the truth that many have systematically tried to bury in a series of campaigns of misinformation, deception and fabrication leading to killing and terror. A truth that refused to be buried, a truth clear for all to see – the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic representing the Syrian people, the government, the state, the Army and the President – Bashar al-Assad.

It is regrettable that seated amongst us are representatives of countries that have the blood of Syrians on their hands

It is regrettable, Ladies and Gentlemen, that seated amongst us today in this room, are representatives of countries that have the blood of Syrians on their hands, countries that have exported terrorism along with clemency for the perpetrators, as if it was their God given right to determine who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. Countries that have prevented believers from visiting holy places of worship whilst abetting, financing and supporting terrorists. Countries that gave themselves the authority to grant and deny legitimacy to others as they saw fit, never looking at their own archaic glasshouses before throwing stones at acclaimed fortified towers. Countries that shamelessly lecture us in democracy, in development and in progress whilst drowning in their own ignorance and medieval norms. Countries that have become accustomed to being entirely owned by kings and princes who have the sole right to distribute their national wealth granting their associates whilst denying those who fall out of favor.

They lectured Syria – a distinguished, virtuous, sovereign state, they lectured her on honour whilst they themselves were immersed in the mud of enslavement, infanticide and other medieval practices. After all their efforts and subsequent failures, their masks fell from their quivering faces, to reveal their perverse ambitions. A desire to destabilize and destroy Syria by exporting their national product: terrorism. They used their petrodollars to buy weapons, recruit mercenaries and saturate airtime covering up their mindless brutality with lies under the guise of the so-called “ Syrian revolution that will fulfill the aspirations of the Syrian people.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, how is what has happened and continues to plague Syria, meeting these aspirations? How can a Chechen, Afghani, Saudi, Turkish or even French and English terrorists deliver on the aspirations of the Syrian people, and with what? An Islamic state that knows nothing of Islam except perverse Wahhabism? Who declared anyway that the Syrian people aspire to live thousands of years in the past?

In Syria, the wombs of pregnant women are butchered and their foetuses killed

In Syria, Ladies and Gentlemen, the wombs of pregnant women are butchered and their foetuses killed; women are raped, dead or alive, in practices so heinous, so vile and repulsive that they can only be attributed to their perverse doctrine. In Syria, Ladies and Gentlemen, men are slaughtered in front of their children in the name of this revolution; worse still, this is done whilst the children of these foreign perpetrators sing and dance. In Syria, how can so-called revolutionaries cannibalize a man’s heart and claim to promote freedom, democracy and a better life?

Under the pretext of the “Great Syrian Revolution,” civilians, clergymen, women and children are killed, victims are indiscriminately blown up in streets and buildings regardless of their political views or ideologies; books and libraries are burned, graves are dug up and artifacts stolen. In the name of the revolution, children are killed in their schools and students in their universities, women are extorted in the name of jihad al-nikah and other forms, mosques are shelled whilst worshipers kneel at prayer, heads are severed and hung in the streets, people are burned alive in a true holocaust that history and many countries will deny without being accused of anti-Semitism.

In the name of a revolution, “to free the oppressed Syrian people from the regime and to spread democracy,” does a father blow himself up with his wife and children to prevent foreign intruders from entering his home? Most of us in this room are fathers – I ask you then, what would compel a man to kill his own family to protect them from freedom fighting monsters. This is what happened in Adra, a place that most of you have not heard of but where the same alien monsters attacked: killing, looting, beheading, slaughtering, raping and burning people alive. You have heard nothing of this brutality for sure, yet you have heard of other places where the same heinous crimes were committed and where the same blood soaked finger was pointed at the Syrian Army and government. And when these flagrant lies were no longer credible, they stopped spinning their web of deceit.

This is what their masters ordered them to do, these countries that spearheaded the war against Syria, trying to increase their influence in the region with bribes and money, exporting human monsters fully soaked in abhorrent Wahabi ideology, all at the expense of Syrian blood. From this stage, loud and clear, you know as well as I do that they will not stop in Syria, even if some sitting in this room refuse to acknowledge or consider themselves immune.

Ladies and Gentlemen, everything you have heard would not have been possible, had our border sharing countries been good neighbours during these challenging years. Unfortunately they were far from it; with backstabbers to the North, silent bystanders to the truth in the West, a weak South accustomed to doing the bidding of others, or the tired and exhausted East still reeling from the plots to destroy it along with Syria.

Misery and destruction, which has engulfed Syria, has been made possible by the decision of Erdogan’s government

Indeed, this misery and destruction, which has engulfed Syria, has been made possible by the decision of Erdogan’s government to invite and host these criminal terrorists before they entered into Syria. Clearly, oblivious to the fact that magic eventually turns on the magician, it is now beginning to taste the sour seed it has sown. For terrorism knows no religion, and is loyal only unto itself. Erdogan’s government has recklessly morphed from a zero problems with its neighbours policy to zero foreign policy and international diplomacy altogether, crucially leaving it with zero credibility.

Nevertheless, it continued on the same atrocious path falsely believing that the dream of Sayyid Qutb and Mohammad Abdel Wahab before him was finally being realized. They wreaked havoc from Tunisia, to Libya, to Egypt and then to Syria, determined to achieve an illusion that only exists in their sick minds. Despite the fact that it has proven to be a failure, they nevertheless are still determined to pursue it. Logically speaking, this can only be described as stupidity, because if you don’t learn from history, you will lose sight of the present; and history tells us: if your neighbor’s house is on fire, it is impossible for you to remain safe.

Some neighbours started fires within Syria whilst others recruited terrorists from around the globe – and here we are confronted with shockingly farcical double standards: 83 nationalities are fighting in Syria – nobody denounces this, nobody condemns it, nobody reconsiders their position – and they impertinently continue to call it a glorious SYRIAN Revolution! While when a few scores of young resistant fighters supported the Syrian Army in a few places, all hell broke loose and it suddenly became foreign intervention! Demands were made for the departure of foreign troops and the protection of Syrian sovereignty and for it not to be violated. Here I affirm, Syria – the sovereign and independent state, will continue to do whatever it takes to defend herself with whatever means it deems necessary, without paying the least bit of attention to any uproar, denunciations, statements or positions expressed by others. These have been and always will be Syria’s sovereign decisions.

They imposed sanctions on our food, our bread and our children’s milk

Despite all of this, the Syrian people remained steadfast; and the response was to impose sanctions on our food, our bread and our children’s milk. To starve the population, pushing them into sickness and death under the injustice of these sanctions. At the same time, factories were looted and burned, crippling our food and pharmaceutical industries; hospitals and healthcare centers were destroyed; our railroads and electricity lines sabotaged, and even our places of worship – Christian and Muslim – were not spared their terrorism.

When all of this failed, America threatened to strike Syria, fabricating with her allies, Western and Arab, the story about the use of chemical weapons, which failed to convince even their own public, let alone ours. Countries that celebrate democracy, freedom and human rights regrettably only choose to speak the language of blood, war, colonialism and hegemony. Democracy is imposed with fire, freedom with warplanes and human rights by human killing, because they have become accustomed to the world doing their bidding: if they want something, it will happen; if they don’t, it won’t. They have heedlessly forgotten that the perpetrators who blew themselves up in New York follow the same doctrine and come from the same source as those blowing themselves up in Syria. They have heedlessly forgotten that the terrorist that was in America yesterday is in Syria today, and who knows where he will be tomorrow. What is certain, however, is that he will not stop here. Afghanistan is an ideal lesson for anyone who wants to learn – anyone! Unfortunately, most do not want to learn; neither America nor some of the ‘civilized’ western countries that follow its lead, starting from the city of lights to the kingdom over which “the sun never set,” in the past; despite the fact that they have all felt the bitter taste of terrorism in the past.

And then suddenly they became “Friends of Syria.” Four of these ‘friends’ are autocratic, oppressive monarchies that know nothing of a civil state or democracy, whilst others are the same colonial powers which occupied, pillaged and partitioned Syria less than one hundred years ago. These so called ‘friends’ are now convening conferences to publicly declare their friendship with the Syrian people, whilst covertly facilitating their hardship and destroying their livelihoods. They openly express their outrage over the humanitarian plight of Syrians whilst deceiving the international community of their complicity. If you were truly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Syria, you would remove your strangle hold on her economy by lifting the sanctions and the embargo, and by partnering with her government in tightening security by fighting the influx of weapons and terrorists. Only then can we assure you that we will be well as we once were, without your deep concern for our wellbeing.

Some of you may be asking yourselves: Are foreigners the sole manufacturers of the happenings in Syria? No Ladies and Gentlemen, Syrians amongst us here, having been legitimized by foreign agendas, have played a contributing role as facilitators and implementers. They did this at the expense of Syrian blood and the people whose aspirations they claim to represent, whilst they themselves were divided hundreds of times and their leaders on the ground were fleeing far and wide. They sold themselves to Israel becoming her eyes on the ground, and her fingers on the trigger for Syria’s destruction; and when they failed, Israel intervened directly to reduce the capabilities of the Syrian Army and thus ensuring the continued implementation of her decades old plan for Syria.

Our people were being slaughtered while opposition figures legitimized by foreign agendas were living in five star hotels

Our people were being slaughtered while they were living in five star hotels; they opposed from abroad, met abroad betraying Syria and selling themselves to the highest foreign bidder. And yet, they still claim to speak in the name of the Syrian people! No, Ladies and Gentlemen, anyone wishing to speak on behalf of the Syrian people cannot be a traitor to their cause and an agent for their enemies. Those wishing to speak on behalf of the people of Syria should do so from within her borders: living in her destroyed houses, sending their children to her schools in the morning not knowing if they will return safe from mortar shelling, tolerating the freezing cold winters because of the shortage in heating oil and queuing for hours to buy bread for their families because sanctions have prevented us from importing wheat when we were once exporters. Anyone wanting to speak in the name of the Syrian people should first endure three years of terrorism, confronting it head on, and then come here and speak on behalf of the Syrian people.

Syrian has welcomed hundreds of international journalists and facilitated their mobility

Ladies and gentlemen,

The Syrian Arab Republic – people and state, has fulfilled its duties. It has welcomed hundreds of international journalists and facilitated their mobility, security and access; and they in turn have reflected the stark and horrific realities they witnessed to their audiences, realities that have perplexed many Western media organisations who couldn’t bear their propaganda and narrative being exposed and contradicted. The examples are too many to count. We allowed international aid and relief organizations into the country, but the clandestine agents of certain parties sitting here, obstructed them from reaching those in dire need of aid. They came under terrorist attack several times, whilst we, as a state, did our duty in protecting them and facilitating their work. We issued numerous amnesties and released thousands of prisoners, some even members of armed groups, at the anger and dismay of their victim’s families; these families though, like the rest of us, ultimately accepted that Syria’s interests come before anything else, and hence we must conceal our wounds and rise above hatred and rancor.

What have you done, you who claim to speak on behalf of the Syrian people. Where is your vision for this great country? Where are your ideas or your political manifesto? Who are your agents of change on the ground other than your armed criminal gangs? I am certain that you have nothing and this is only too apparent in the areas that your mercenaries have occupied or to use your words “liberated.”

In these areas, have you freed the population or have you hijacked their moderate culture to enforce your radical and oppressive practices? Have you implemented your development agenda by building schools and health centres? No, you have destroyed them and allowed polio to return after it had previously been eradicated in Syria. Have you protected Syria’s artifacts and museums? No, you have looted our national sites for your personal profit. Have you demonstrated your commitment to justice and human rights? No, you have enforced public executions and beheadings. In short, you have done nothing at all except muster the disgrace and shame of begging America to strike Syria. Even the opposition, over which you are the self-appointed masters and guardians, do not acknowledge you or the methods in which you manage your own affairs, let alone the affairs of a country.

A country they want to homogenize; not in the sectarian, ethnic or religious sense, but rather in a warped ideological sense. Anyone against them, whether Christian or Muslim, is an infidel; they killed Muslims of all sects and targeted Syrian Christians with severity. Even nuns and bishops were targeted, kidnapping them after they attacked Ma’loula, the last community that still speaks the language of Jesus Christ. They did all this to force Syrian Christians to flee their country. But little did they know, that in Syria we are one. When Christianity is attacked all Syrians are Christians, when mosques are targeted all Syrians are Muslims. Every Syrian is from Raqqa, Lattakia, Sweida, Homs or the bleeding Aleppo when any one of these places is targeted. Their abhorrent attempts to sow sectarian and religious sedition will never be embraced by any levelheaded Syrian. In short, Ladies and Gentlemen, your “glorious Syrian revolution” has left no mortal sin uncommitted.

There is another side to this dark gloomy picture. A light at the end of the tunnel shinning through the Syrian people’s determination and steadfastness, the Syrian Army’s courage in protecting our citizens and the Syrian state’s resilience and perseverance. During everything that has happened, there are states that have shown us true friendship, honest states that stood on the side of right against wrong, even when the wrong was clear for all to see. On behalf of the Syrian people and state, I would like to thank Russia and China for respecting Syria’s sovereignty and independence. Russia has been a true champion on the international stage strongly defending, not only with words but also with deeds, the founding principles of the United Nations of respecting the sovereignty of states. Similarly China, the BRICS countries, Iran, Iraq and other Arab and Muslim countries, in addition to African and Latin American countries, have also genuinely safeguarded the aspirations of the Syrian people and not the ambitions of other governments for Syria.

The Syrian people, like other people of the region, aspire to more freedom, justice and human rights

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Syrian people, like other people of the region, aspire to more freedom, justice and human rights; they aspire to more plurality and democracy, to a better Syria, a safe, prosperous and healthy Syria. They aspire to building strong institutions not destroying them, to safeguarding our national artifacts and heritage sites not looting and demolishing them. They aspire to a strong national army, which protects our honour, our people and our national wealth, an army that defends Syria’s borders, her sovereignty and independence. They do not, Ladies and Gentlemen, aspire to a mercenary army ‘Free’ to kidnap civilians for ransom or to use them as human shields, ‘Free’ to steal humanitarian aid, extort the poor and illegally trade in the organs of living women and children, ‘Free’ to canibalise human hearts and livers, barbequing heads, recruiting child soldiers and raping women. All of this is done with the might of arms; arms provided by countries, represented here, who claim to be championing “moderate groups”. Tell us, for God’s sake, where is the moderation in everything I have described?

Where are these vague moderate groups that you are hiding behind? Are they the same old groups that continue to be supported militarily and publicly by the West, that have undergone an even uglier face-lift in the hope of convincing us that they are fighting terrorism? We all know that no matter how hard their propaganda machine tries to polish their image under the name of moderation, their extremism and terrorism is one and the same. They know, as we all do, that under the pretext of supporting these groups, al-Qaeda and its affiliates are being armed in Syria, Iraq and other countries in the region.

This is the reality, Ladies and Gentlemen, so wake up to the undeniable reality that the West is supporting some Arab countries to supply lethal weapons to al-Qaeda. The West publicly claims to be fighting terrorism, whilst in fact it is covertly nourishing it. Anyone who cannot see this truth is either ignorantly blind or willfully so in order to finish what they have begun.

Is this the Syria that you want? The loss of thousands of martyrs and our once cherished safety and national security replaced with apocalyptic devastation. Are these the aspirations of the Syrian people that you wanted to fulfill? No, Ladies and Gentlemen, Syria will not remain so, and that is why we are here. Despite all that has been done by some, we have come to save Syria: to stop the beheadings, to stop the cannibalizing and the butchering. We have come to help mothers and children return to the homes they were driven out of by terrorists. We have come to protect the civil and open-minded nature of the state, to stop the march of the Tatars and the Mongols across our region. We have come to prevent the collapse of the entire Middle East, to protect civilization, culture and diversity, and to preserve the dialogue of civilizations in the birthplace of religions. We have come to protect tolerant Islam that has been distorted, and to protect the Christians of the Levant. We are here to tell our Syrian expatriates, to return to their home country because they will always be foreigners anywhere else, and regardless of our differences we are all still brothers and sisters.

We have come to stop terrorism as other countries that have experienced its bitter taste have done, whilst affirming loudly and consistently that a dialogue between Syrians is the only solution; but as with other countries that have been struck by terrorism, we have a constitutional duty to defend our citizens and we shall continue to strike terrorism that attacks Syrians regardless of their political affiliations. We have come to hold those accountable, for as long as particular countries continue to support terrorism, this conference will bear no fruit. Political pluralism and terrorism cannot coexist in the same landscape. Politics can only prosper by fighting terrorism; it cannot grow in its shadow.

Nobody has the authority to grant or withdraw legitimacy from a president, a government, a constitution, a law or anything else in Syria except Syrians themselves

We are here as representatives of the Syrian people and the state; but let it be clear to all, – and experience is the best proof – that nobody has the authority to grant or withdraw legitimacy from a president, a government, a constitution, a law or anything else in Syria except Syrians themselves; this is their constitutional right and duty. Therefore, whatever agreement is reached here will be subject to a national referendum. We are tasked with conveying our people’s desires, not with determining their destiny; those who want to listen to the will of the Syrian people should not appoint themselves as their spokesperson. Syrians alone have the right to choose their government, their parliament and their constitution; everything else is just talk and has no significance.

Finally, to all those here and everyone watching around the world: in Syria we are fighting terrorism, terrorism which has destroyed and continues to destroy; terrorism which since the 1980’s Syria has been calling, on deaf ears, for a unified front to defeat it. Terrorism has struck in America, France, Britain, Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan; the list goes on and it continues to spread. Let us all cooperate to fight it, let’s work hand in hand to stop its black, horrifying and obscurantist ideology. Then, let us as Syrians stand united to focus on Syria and start rebuilding its social fabric and material structures. As I said, dialogue is the foundation to this process, and despite our gratitude to the host country, we affirm that the real dialogue between Syrians should in fact be on Syrian soil and under Syrian skies. Exactly one year ago, the Syrian government put forward its vision for a political solution; think of how much innocent blood we would have saved had some countries resorted to reason instead of terrorism and destruction. For a whole year, we have been calling for dialogue, but terrorism continued to strike at the Syrian state, her people and institutions.

Today, in this gathering of Arab and Western powers, we are presented with a simple choice: we can choose to fight terrorism and extremism together and to start a new political process, or you can continue to support terrorism in Syria. Let us reject and isolate the black hands and the false faces, which publicly smile but covertly feed terrorist ideology, striking Syria today, but ultimately spreading to infect us all. This is the moment of truth and destiny; let us rise to the challenge.

Thank you .

Later, Minister al-Moallem said,

“The orchestra that we have heard from some sides today and the content of some hostile speeches from some states, to the extent that in some minutes we seemed to have heard old rhetoric with no difference except for the place of delivering them, do not deserve to be answered.”

Concluding the second session of the conference, al-Moallem added,

“Because we want to stop bloodshed in Syria, to protect the lives of citizens, to build Syria again and because, as a state, we play our constitutional, political, security and social role to save Syria from what is going on, we are here and we hope the Geneva conference will be a first step on the way to start Syrian-Syrian dialogue on the Syrian territories.”

“I thank those who have stood by us from the friendly countries for three years so far and we say to all that we will continue hitting terrorism wherever it was with one hand and we will build Syria democratically, politically and socially with the other.”

“I say to those who are interfering in the Syrian affairs through any sort of interference: three years and you are still trying; have you not become desperate yet? … Enough! … Put your hands off Syria so that we can indeed achieve the people’s aspirations of a secure and developed life.”

Why Iraq Will Lose and Why Syria Has Won.

"It will give our young people a comprehensive education... to make up for their Comprehensive Education."

- Hacker

The universally maligned, slaughtered and abused Iraqi Armies of 1990-1 and 2003, (at the time of Desert Storm, the fourth largest Army in the world), was comprised for it's enlisted ranks almost entirely of teenaged conscripts, commanded by experienced, battle-hardened officers, schooled in Soviet war doctrine, who were all veterans of a major and very attritional war.

Demolished Iraqi vehicles line the Highway of Death on 18 April 1991.

Demolished vehicles line Highway 80, also known as the "Highway of Death", the route fleeing Iraqi forces took as they retreated fom Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm. The tank visible in the center of the picture is either a Type 59 or a Type 69 as evidenced by the dome-shaped ventilator on the top of the turret and the headlamps on the right fender.

They are all dead now. 

Most of them, very violently, and long before their proper time.

The Syrian Arab Army, still, is organised along almost exactly the same principles - they are the same set of principles upon which the Israeli Defence Forces have been organised since [about 46 years before] the foundation of the Zionist State;

That is to say, compulsory National Service, a fully deputised civilian citizenry of potential reservists with military training to call on in the event of invasion, attack or other national emergency, and a firm and central indoctrination into all citizens of the Republic of "the Myth of the Nation", as NeoConservatives term the Social Contract.

Military colleges use the term "Nation Building", and the Anglo-American Power Structure and Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex have agreed in universal, lock-step consensus that this is something that they should never-ever try to do - anywhere. 

EVER. 

Because it is "not our job".

In other words, the Monopoly of Law and Force, which is the hallmark of all modern Nation States, and not the hallmark of the Global Zionists of the New World Order, or absolutist tyrannies, military juntas and dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Thailand, North Korea or rural Nevada.

The Iraqi Army doesn't have that.

Fortunately, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard absolutely does...

GCHQ

GCHQ from Spike EP on Vimeo.

"On the eve of this year’s Bilderberg meeting, the Anglo-French intelligence bosses have clearly shown their hand with two high-profile attacks on Obama. Wednesday, June 5 marked the liberation of Qusayr, the great Stalingrad of the Syrian terrorist death squads deployed by NATO against Assad. With the rout of these terrorists, the main units of the self-styled Free Syrian Army, along with the Nusra branch of al Qaeda, are likely to face annihilation in the short to medium term.

On the same day that Qusayr fell, the British and French governments hysterically demanded that Obama undertake a total bombing campaign against Syria, whatever the consequences in regard to Russia and other powers. To his credit, Obama is continuing to say no to this lunatic Anglo-French neocolonial adventure. 

On that same June 5, the London-based daily The Guardian, in an article by the expatriate American Glenn Greenwald, hyped a court order from the secret FISA panel of federal judges showing that the US National Security Agency was routinely monitoring the telephone records (including time, locations, call duration, and unique identifiers, but not the contents of the conversations) of possibly unlimited millions of Verizon phone subscribers. Back in the US, reactionary talk show hosts began screaming 

“Obama taps your phones!”

On June 6, again in advance of every other newspaper in the world, The Guardian published another article by Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill revealing that the National Security Agency, under a program called Prism, had obtained direct access to the servers of Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Apple, Youtube, Skype, AOL, and Microsoft, and was busily monitoring the content of e-mails, file transfers, and live conversations. Back in the US, reactionary talk show hosts began screaming, 

“Obama reads your e-mail!”

Under George Bush, warrantless wiretaps and similar illegal programs were revealed by various media organs. These revelations had minimal impact on Bush, whose base was indifferent to civil liberties. 

Obama’s base, by contrast, cares very much, and has been visibly upset by these new reports. 

While strongly condemning these totalitarian programs, we must also not lose sight of who is putting these reports into circulation, and why. 

Phone taps are bad, but a general war in the Middle East leading to a possible Third World War is far worse.

The British and French defense and intelligence establishment (they have virtually merged) want Obama and the American people to take the lead and shoulder the risk in a perilous attack on Syria, in time to preserve the death squads so they can fight another day in another country. 

London and Paris, of course, see themselves as the principal beneficiaries of the breakup of Syria. 

Since Obama is currently blocking their plans, they are bringing up their big guns of scandal, with the center-leftGuardian evidently chosen to take the point, doubtless to obtain more attention among Obama’s leftist supporters. 

(During the initial Clinton scandals of Whitewatergate and Troopergate, the flagship of scandal was the reactionary London-based Daily Telegraph, especially through its columnists Peregrine Worthshorne and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard.)

Coming as they do on the eve of the yearly Bilderberg conference, these scandals stamped Made in England suggest that the majority of this elitist cabal have maintained their anti-Obama line already evident in last year’s meeting, and are using the current gathering to further their plans.

Modified Limited Hangout: The Bogus Whistleblower's Shibboleth

"I would say, really, we're looking to expose....Governments. And hold them to account."

Julian Assange,

Page One - One Year Inside the New York Times, 

2010

Assange, Manning, Snowden.... All of these guys say the same thing "The US Government has gone too far (for reasons left unspecified) - I will use the power of free information and the Internet to hold corrupt governments who abuse their power to account in the court of world opinion!"

Really. Is that right. Then I have a handy little Shibboleth for the next phoney whistleblower they try and foist on us to spin us a load of crap.

Show us all the classified material you have on the Smolensk Air Disaster, April 10th 2010, the one that killed President Kaczyński, his entire government, and half the Polish Army General staff.

And after that, we can talk about NMD missile deployment East of the Alps, the Islamic Renaissance in Tartarstan and other Russian Republics and the Brezynski Doctrine.

You want to expose abuses of power by authoritarian governments....? Step on up.

Mr. Putin will see you now....

Edward Snowden's Alternative Christmas Message (with Commentary)

A Christmas Message From Edward Snowden from Gendo on Vimeo.

On December 25th 2013 Edward Snowden delivered an alternative Christmas message on the UK's channel 4 TV station. Before the broadcast a short version of the speech was leaked and immediatly uploaded to youtube. That upload was immediatly blocked but many re-uploads made the clip available everywhere. This is one of those places.

 If you want to thank Edward Snowden for giving up his relationship, familiy, job and any chance of a normal life to inform us all go here (http://freesnowden.is/donate/index.html) and donate.

I don't, and he hasn't, and what has he informed us of that we didn't already know? He has said absolutely nothing, and continues to.
 Or spread his message.

I don't know what his message is.

And do something with it. 

I am. I'm critiquing it.

Because if something is done all of Edward's sacrifices have meaning.

Which is what, exactly?

And which sacrifices are these? I don't see any.

Hi, and Merry Christmas.

I'm honored to have the chance to speak with you and your family this year. 

You're not. You're and television, and they're not here.

Recently, we learned that our governments, working in concert, have created a system of worldwide mass surveillance, watching everything we do.

No, they didn't. They did that in the mid-1990s, and completed a process of the growth of military intelligence in domestic surveillance that began in the Philippines in the 1900s following the Spanish-American War.

Great Britain's George Orwell warned us of the danger of this kind of information. 

No he didn't. 

He was not warning about the danger of surveillance. 

Surveillance is the symptom, not the disease.

He was warning about the ultimate bankruptcy of ideology in the service of The Myth of the Nation, and the necessity for Permanant War to offset the excess in production  produced by a rising standard of living and technology by constantly destroying the productive capacity and output of Mankind to engage further social, technological and spiritual development.

The types of collection in the book -- microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us -- are nothing compared to what we have available today. 

Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) was, and is, always, the most secondary and second most reliable and useful form of intelligence; Human Intelligence (HUMINT), was, and is always the primary focus of intelligence gathering, the most reliable, versitile and strategically useful, and it is for this reason that the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (HUMINT) and it's analysts preceded the creation of the National Security Agency (SIGINT) by over five years, and has a budget far in excess of anything required by NSA.

Microphones don't spy on people - people spy on people. 

And people have reasons.

Blaming the technology is a classic Straw Man fallacy which serves to distract from the reasons, and reasoning for surveillance, data gathering and intelligence collection - which is exactly why Snowden raises the point here.

The point of the surveillance in the Oceania of 1984 was not intelligence gathering, nor was it all-pervasive or even consistent.

The point of the constant and overt surveillance of the Outer Party in Air Strip one was the same as it was in the Soviet Union for visitors, and the same for anyone under FBI surveillance - John Lennon complained of this specifically - it was to let people KNOW that they were being constantly watched and followed.

The process of intelligence gathering and open surveillance collection was a means of social control and mitigating people's behaviour via a normative process - the actual intelligence gathered was of little or no concern and was rarely put to any use.

During morning exercises and stretching, the telescreens occasionally talked back to people and told them to stretch further or try harder - but there is no indication that they people they were calling on actually existed, or if this was merely a psy-op tactic to remind people that they MIGHT be called on at any time.

And only the Middle Class were surveilled at all - there were no telescreens or spies amongst the Proles, and little enforcement of the laws amongst the masses of the people, since they were not politically active or aware. They posed no threat to the State or to the System and thus spying on them was a complete waste of time.

Intention X Capability = Threat.

Likewise, the ideologues of the Inner Party and their trusted staff, such as O'Brien and his manservant had telescreens they could switch off, since they believed totally in the system and were enriched by it. Since their power, position and largesse was wholly tied to The State, there was no point in spying on them either.

Intention X Capability = Threat.

We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go.

Only if you're stupid. 

I don't take my phone with me when I don't want people to to know where I am.

And I often take my battery and SIM out of my phone and leave it somewhere where I want people to think I am.

This is basic personal security.

Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person.

Not enough, because they're not thinking about this.

A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. 

I don't know what it means now.

There is no such thing as privacy.

They'll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves -- an unrecorded, unanalyzed thought. 

Unless Snowden thinks most people talk to themselves while alone, this is NOT what PRISM was and has nothing to do with any aspect of his so-called revelations.

What he is talking about is Psychotronics, and it has been a major area of US Defence Department Reseach since the early 1990s.

Remotely reading a person's thoughts in the same way that a Polygraph reads their biofeedback responses to situations and stimuli, using high-gain electromagnetic resonance and neural mapping IS possible with current levels of technology, and can be done, and the output does require interpretation in the same way a Polygraph output does; but that's not what Snowden is talking about, and that's not what he's disclosed; moreover, it's conspicuous by its absence in everything he has said, and failed to say so far. 

Individual Mind Contol, and Mass Mind Control via Psychotronics, EM Radiatiom and other forms of broadcast are a genuine cause concern and need to be brought to mass awareness and consciousness - but Snowden is not talking about that.

He's talking about voyuerism and illicit phone sex.

Not Mass Mind Control.

And that's a problem, because privacy matters. 

Why?

Privacy is what allows us to determine who we are and who we want to be.

Almost certainly not.

Most would argue that it is the nature and extent of our interaction with others, and with the world around us that does that.

The exact opposite is true - privacy limits us to be less than what we are by limiting interactions and sensory stimuli and opportunities to develop new neural stimuli, spiritual and physical growth and development.

The conversation occurring today will determine the amount of trust we can place both in the technology that surrounds us and the government that regulates it. 

Government doesn't regulate it, that's the job of the Courts, and there is no Gold Standard available to allow them to do that because the parameters of what is to be achieved are not offered.

What is the point of all of this...?

What is the harm, and what are the benefits, and what is the reality..?

Together, we can find a better balance. 

With what?

You have not presented any evidence that things are out of balance, or what this level of information gathering is (in your estimation) being balanced against.

What he presumably means is "security". But he hasn't said that.

He said "technology".

Technology is not a threatening force. It's a neutral force.

Technology does not spy on people - people spy on people.

So if you're not measuring the level of surveillance against a quantiable threat, like international terrorism, or the IRA, or the Mythical al-Qaeda Beast - how can you possibly judge whether or not there is too much of it, or not enough...?

End mass surveillance. 

How? And why?

For what reason.

I have reasons of my own, but I am not hearing any from you.

And remind the government that if it really wants to know how we feel, 

Government doesn't care how you feel.

It cares if you are able to destroy it or do it harm.

If you are not able to cause it harm, or if you have the desire, but not the capacity to do so, then you are irrelevant.

Intention X Capability = Threat.

asking is always cheaper than spying.

Yes it is. 

That's why when the Bush Administration wanted to data-mine all of Verizon's customer's communications and emails, they went to Verizon and asked them "Can we data-mine all of your customer's communications and emails, please?" in 2004, Verizon said "Yes."

Because that's not illegal, and they asked nicely.

Again, Snowden has you hating the oppressed and loving the people doing the oppression.

It's the job of the National Security Agency to suck up and analyse the largest data set possible.

It's the job of Verizon to make as much money as possible for their stockholders.

It's not the job of NSA to respect rights you don't actually have, and it's not the job or Verizon to protect the data of people who do not practice basic data security, such as encryption or secure VPNs.

For everyone out there listening, thank you, and Merry Christmas.

I thought you said listening was bad...