Why the West is Standing by Amid Russia's Campaign in Syria by Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor
… The West’s inaction in the face of the recent Russian onslaught in Syria – which is in support of the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – has several explanations, regional experts say. Those range from a desire to keep Moscow on board the sputtering Syria peace process to the emphasis by the United States and France, since the Paris and San Bernardino terrorist attacks, on the effort to degrade the so-called Islamic State.
But the key reason appears to be that no one in the West has the appetite to confront Russia as it pursues its interests in the Middle East.
“Russia has very clear intentions and is using military means to accomplish them,” says Heather Conley, director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. “At the same time our aims are not so clear, and we are using soft means to try to accomplish those unclear goals.”…
Comments
Received Russian NGO funding support and rode the anti immigrant propaganda wave.....
BREAKING: Openly Anti-EU extremist neo-Nazi Slovakian party wins 8.1%/14 seats.
Some background on the neo-Nazi party that just got into Slovakia's parliament (from 2013)
http://bit.ly/1TXyu3I
Just as does the German AfD which is estimated to win upwards of 10-17% in the coming various German Federal State elections.
Nato centre analysts claim 2have evidence of ‘info war’ over migration crisis w/links to #Putin
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/05/russia-refugee-germany-ang… …
Some called my views that NATO and the EU are right now in the verge of unraveling melodramatic.......maybe not melodramatic enough.....the question now is...led by the US..?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-and-the-end-of-nat…
Is this the end of the West as we know it?
By Anne Applebaum Columnist March 4 at 4:32 PM
Back in the 1950s, when the institutions were still new and shaky, I’m sure many people feared the Western alliance might never take off. Perhaps in the 1970s, the era of the Red Brigades and Vietnam, many more feared that the West would not survive. But in my adult life, I cannot remember a moment as dramatic as this: Right now, we are two or three bad elections away from the end of NATO, the end of the European Union and maybe the end of the liberal world order as we know it.
In the United States, we are faced with the real possibility of Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump, which means we have to take seriously the possibility of a President Trump. Hillary Clinton’s campaign might implode for any number of reasons, too obvious to rehash here; elections are funny things, and electorates are fickle. That means that next January we could have, in the White House, a man who is totally uninterested in what presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton, Reagan — as well as Johnson, Nixon and Truman — would all have called “our shared values.”
Trump has advocated torture, mass deportation, religious discrimination. He brags that he “would not care that much” whether Ukraine were admitted to NATO; he has no interest in NATO and its security guarantees. Of Europe, he has written that “their conflicts are not worth American lives. Pulling back from Europe would save this country millions of dollars annually.” In any case, he prefers the company of dictators to that of other democrats. “You can make deals with those people,” he said of Russia. “I would have a great relationship with [Vladimir] Putin.”
Not only is Trump uninterested in America’s alliances, he would be incapable of sustaining them. In practice, both military and economic unions require not the skills of a shady property magnate who “makes deals” but boring negotiations, unsatisfying compromises and, sometimes, the sacrifice of one’s own national preferences for the greater good. In an era when foreign policy debate has in most Western countries disappeared altogether, replaced by the reality TV of political entertainment, all of these things are much harder to explain and justify to a public that isn’t remotely interested.
And Americans aren’t the only ones who find their alliances burdensome. A year from now, France also holds a presidential election. One of the front-runners, Marine Le Pen of the National Front, has promised to leave both NATO and the E.U. , to nationalize French companies and to restrict foreign investors. Like Trump, she foresees a special relationship with Russia, whose banks are funding her election campaign. French friends assure me that if she makes it to the final round, the center-left and center-right will band together, as they did two decades ago against her father. But elections are funny things, and electorates are fickle. What if Le Pen’s opponent suddenly falls victim to a scandal? What if another Islamic State attack jolts Paris?
By the time that happens, Britain may also be halfway out the door. In June, the British vote in a referendum to leave the E.U. Right now, the vote is too close to call — and if the “leave” vote prevails, then, as I’ve written, all bets are off. Copycat referendums may follow in other E.U. countries too. Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, sometimes speaks of leaving the West in favor of a strategic alliance with Istanbul or Moscow.
It’s not hard at all to imagine a Britain unmoored from Europe drifting away from the transatlantic alliance as well. If the economic turmoil that could follow a British exit from the E.U. were sufficiently severe, perhaps the British public would vote out its conservative government in favor of the Labour Party, whose leadership is now radically anti-American. Everyone discounts Jeremy Corbyn , the far-left Labour leader, but they also discounted Trump. Corbyn is the only viable alternative if the public wants a change. Elections are funny things, and electorates are fickle.
And then? Without France, Europe’s single market will cease to exist. Without Britain, it’s hard to see how NATO lasts long either. Not everyone will be sorry. As Trump’s appealing rhetoric makes clear, the costs of alliances (“millions of dollars annually”) are easier to see than the longer-term gains.
Western unity, nuclear deterrence and standing armies gave us more than a half century of political stability. Shared economic space helped bring prosperity and freedom to Europe and North America alike. But these are things that we all take for granted, until they are gone.
Kerry stated that the delivery of humanitarian aid was indeed a critical part of the cessation of hostilities......NOT much has been delivered as it is being held up by Assad, the UN and Russia as starvation is still a weapon Assad and Putin are intent on still using.
Assad has 43 sieges running; Jobar's 200 remaining people are suffering one of the six worst
http://bit.ly/1oNS7hJ
Many @UN staffers & #Syria opposition say @UN excessive accommodation of regime restrictions on aid "shameful"
http://on.wsj.com/1Qw8iY6
On the day East Ghouta is supposed to receive aid, @OrientNewsEn reports Douma is being bombarded for first time since #SyriaCeasefire began
Incidentally, of six worst siege zones, U.N. doesn't recognize three (Jobar, Madaya, Yarmouk) as under siege. Does: Douma, Zabadani, Daraya.
Daily: UN - #Assad Regime Holding Up Requests for Aid
http://eaworldview.com/2016/03/syria...ks-in-latakia/
For a full list of the sieges in Syria
http://bit.ly/1oNS7hJ
Note: Madaya not recognized by UN as besieged although surrounded completely with minefields and Hezbollah troops...
This does not even begin to include the "hard to reach areas also cut off from aid and medical supplies....
AN estimated 470,000 are being actively starved by Assad and Putin.......
After five years of genocide, war crimes, starvation and besieges and five solid months of Russian air strikes and an invasion of transnational shia jihadists....the ideals of rule of law and good governance are still alive and well in the Sunni opposition to Assad.
Something both Obama and Kerry have simply overlooked in their lack of a US strategy for the ME.....or as the article suggests..."simply standing by"..the exact same so called values that Obama and Kerry preach for over seven years...but in the end fail to support whether in Ukraine or is Syria.........
Really an interesting development and one the Russians/US cannot simply overlook ......where the rebellion controls there has been a massive outbreak of peaceful demonstrations such as they there were in 2011...If Assad tries to hold April elections in the rebel zones....seriously doubt he would get a single vote so outside of the 16-19% he controls...his votes will not mean much of anything when the anti Assad forces and IS control largely 70% of the rest of the Syrian nation state.
So much for the Russian MoD so called "reconciliation"......
Russia/Assad won the #SyriaCeasefire militarily, but politically—with the return of the peaceful demos—the opposition might have edged it.
At first chance, #Syria's opposition returned to peaceful means against Assad.
Some "terrorist conspiracy".
Marat al-Numan...
Extraordinary to see the resilience of #Syria’s revolutionary ideals. 5yrs on & its still alive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKgA...ature=youtu.be …
Maarat al-Numan in the centre of the "Nusra-held area" according to #RussianPropaganda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oep_3ResqMA …
"We haven't protested in 3 years, so we almost didn't know what to say. But we were so happy to protest, we just started dancing."
It really is like back to the future: First chance #Syria got, peaceful protests recommenced.
Aleppo today
People demanding the overthrow of the regime.
Some islamists among them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwzUaXdvl2U …
The Points that Russians and regime broke ceasefire
27 Feb between 01 March
http://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/valkryv-the-points-that-russians-br… …
The Gulf Cooperation Council has finally declared Hezbollah a "terrorist organisation".
Wow...that highly paid DoS Staff assigned to the Syrian Coordination Center with their 1-800 and worldwide email address...seems to not be present in their call center..... maybe it was outsourced to China.....
Syrian journalists' reporting of ceasefire violations hampered by poor response on special US hotline @SyriaDirect http://syriadirect.org/news/communication-breakdown-on-the-line-with-th… …
BUT WAIT would have not helped anyway based on the Kerry comment yesterday....even if there are videos of Russian fighters in the area of the bombings....we still need to know who dropped it and on whom it was dropped.
Based on this reasoning there will be virtually no CoH violations.
Would really like to know just how many Syrians were able to get through on the 1-800 number and how many reached DoS via email...notice DoS has not said a word about the numbers......
QUOTE:
Ceasefire violations in the land of Pepsi
On Monday, Syria Direct’s Osama Abu Zeid called the hotline number advertised by the State Department’s Twitter account (1-202-736-7829) to report a series of Russian airstrikes on villages in southern Hama province earlier in the day.
The first State Department employee to answer the phone told Osama, in stilted Arabic, that he had the “wrong number” before disconnecting the line.
Osama redialed the same number, and another employee answered the call.
“Ok sir, I’m a Syrian journalist and I’d like to report a breach of the hudna [ceasefire] involving multiple airstrikes in the countryside south of Hama city—at the area where Hama governorate meets northern Homs province,” Osama said. [For additional reporting on this reported ceasefire violation, the Hama News Agency’s coverage is here.]
During the four-minute phone call, the operator struggled to ask basic questions regarding the incident.
At one point, when attempting to ask Osama if the strikes had resulted in any casualties, the operator instead said what appeared to be an accidental string of expletives.
Osama explained that local residents believed that Russian planes were responsible for the airstrikes based on the “intensity of the strikes” and the “number of planes” participating. Following this detailed explanation, the operator replied: “Russian.”
During the call Osama told the operator the name of the village (Hirbinifsah) four times and spelled it out.
However, when Osama asked whether the operator knew where the village was, he responded: “Yes, Harb Bebsi,” the latter being the word for “Pepsi” in Arabic.
Fascinating natural cloud formations across the Latakia mountains yday as "the ceasefire was mostly holding"
And 10 more of these phenomena yesterday afternoon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09FYTYlRDEg …
32 civilians were killed by Putin's and Assad's armies on the 4th day of the SyriaCeasefire.
- LCC
This is just a Russian mushroom in Syria.
Because the SyriaCeasefire is "mostly holding"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbPoo54Pq9Y …
The Assad regime has used "military grade chemical weapons...against civilians" since the "ceasefire" began.
http://reut.rs/1oMui9T
The possibilities of lexicography have been extended yet further by Syria: We have a 'ceasefire' that remains intact even after gas attacks
Defected Syrian General:
"I Was Ordered To Use Chemical Weapons"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB_43l9Hb6c&feature=youtu.be …
BUT WAIT how can Assad have military grade chemical weapons WHEN Russia verified to the US they had all been destroyed?????
Another "pothole" on the road to implementation of the CoH.....
Wonder if the DoS SCC recorded this particular "pothole violation"..seriously doubt it as it falls under genocide and war crimes by Assad....not the CoH.....
"There are some violations, but neither our UN colleagues, nor our other partners are inclined to dramatize them," Lavrov added.
This is exactly the Assad Syria that Putin and Lavrov does not want you to fully understand and what was the exact reason for the Sunni rebellion starting in 2011...and why it is strange that when Obama and Congress use the word genocide when talking about IS THEY totally forget Assad...currently there are over 200K plus Sunni prisoners in an Assad maze of prisons that the Obama WH does in fact know about but does not want to talk about nor for you to learn about...
Little boy from #Erbeen arrested by #SAA in #Damascus FEB 27
TORTURED to death, his body returned today
#Syria MAR 1
pic.twitter.com/F3HC7mVOaX
Why is it that Kerry and Obama have such an exceptionally hard time using the words genocide and war crimes?????
Did the DoS just notice that humanitarian aid that should have been delivered by the UN seems to now come in boxes with Russian aid logos all over it?????
Russian Embassy, UK ✔ @RussianEmbassy
Russian Centre for reconciliation in Syria delivered humanitarian aid to Maalula & al-Husenia
pic.twitter.com/o9cRJLRbKv
Appears the UN knows the cessation of hostilities are not really working......but the Russian Coordination Center and the US DoS Syrian Coordination Center......states..."the CoH is largely holding".....JUST as both do in eastern Ukraine and Minsk 2..
DeMistura: "Syrian Talks may postpone if 'ceasefire' doesn't progress"
Footage
Many Russian air strikes hit rebel positions,villages @ the #Idlib-#Latakia border
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdyWg7OlZCg …
BreakingFootage
Syrian rebels fire back at the thermal power plant near Hirbnafsah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l3BfgvIeQg …
SAA airstrikes targeted direct hit a #Ambulance in Eastern #Ghouta
#Damascus cs #Syria MAR 1
BREAKING
#SAA & #RUSSIA shelling targeting #alHambushiyah village
#Idlib cs #Syria - #Turkey borders MAR 1
SAA shelling on #Khan_Sheykhoun now
#Damascus cs #Syria MAR 1
Dozens of air strikes and intense shelling on Har Banafsa in rural Hama during continued attempts to invade town.
RUSSIA carried out more than 10 airstrikes targeting #alKibane village in #Kurds_Mount
#Latakia cs #Syria MAR 1
DoS SCC here are 15 more "potholes if we count each separate air strike as a single "pothole"......
BREAKING
More than 15 #Russia airstrikes on #Kurds_Mount & #Turkmen_Mount
#Latakia cs #Syria MAR 1
pic.twitter.com/36Dd0fLN2A
DoS SCC I would urgently notify your Russian counterparts that Turkey has clearly stated they will not allow the border to be closed by anyone including the Russians...that is unless you really think the Russians want a war with Turkey...then I would not call as it is coming anyway.
Russia wants Syrian border with Turkey closed: Lavrov
http://www.dailystar.com.lb//News/Middle-East/2016/Mar-01/339982-russia… …
Agence France Presse
QUOTE
GENEVA: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Tuesday for the closure of Syria's border with Turkey to cut off outside supplies to "terrorists," including through humanitarian convoys.
"Of course, neither in ceasefire agreements, nor in the process of political settlement is there a place for terrorists and extremists," Lavrov told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
"A very special task is to cut the terrorists' supply from the outside. For this purpose it is important to close the Syrian-Turkish border, since across this border those gangs receive arms, including with humanitarian convoys," Lavrov said, according to an official transcript in English of his remarks.
He insisted that a "landslide defeat of (ISIS) ... al-Nusra and those of their kind is a necessary precondition for securing the rights of long-suffering peoples of Syria" and the rest of the region.
UNQUOTE
Question the Washington DoS Syrian Coordination Center needs to clear up with their Russian counterparts in Damascus......DO Iranian drone strikes count as a violation (or in DoS speak "pothole") of the Russian/US CoH.....??
Iranian Drones Now Hitting Rebel Targets in Syria http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/29/iranian-drones-now-hitting-rebel-ta… …
MORE support for that overworked and under paid DoS SCC that has to record all these "potholes" that are appearing everywhere in Syria.....AND yet they seem to not know who/what is causing them.....well here is some video assistance. JUST from today DAY FOUR "of the largely holding CoH'....?
"Holding on to exactly what" should be the follow on question...another great choice of words from diplomats.....
Syria Heavy airstrikes on southern #Hama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnKn0YPPVPc …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W51KHNJL5-8 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0nHlYriez0 …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34.951312&lon=36.658545&z=14&m=b …
Here is hoping the DoS Syrian Coordination Center is keeping up with all those Russian/Assad "potholes"....here is another batch just in...BUT WAIT it cannot be Assad and Russia causing all the "potholes"...as it is their proposed CoH....BUT WAIT also Kerry's..........
SAA terrorists in #Joureen launched #RUSSIA STS missiles on #alMastouma, killing one child and a man, dozens wounded
#Idlib cs #Syria MAR 1
BREAKING
#RUSSIA airstrikes targeted #alSirmaniyah village
#Idlib/#Hama countryside #Syria MAR 1
BREAKING
2 martyrs so far,dozens injured victims of 3 #SAA STS missiles targeted #alMastouma
#Idlib cs #Syria MAR 1
RUSSIA airstrikes targeted the #IDP Camp nearby #Yamadi village
#Latakia/#Idlib countryside #Syria-#Turkey borders MAR 1st
RUSSIA airstrikes targeted the #IDP CAMP in #Idlib countryside 3:20 PM
#Syria MAR 1st
According to @snhr 1033 civilians were killed in Feb 2016 in #Syria by #Russia & #Assad including 303 children & 173 women
The DoS Washington Syrian Coordination Center when they are conversing with their Russian counterparts in the Russian Coordination Center in Damascus SHOULD really really ask them what the heck they have been smoking lately with their statements below....whatever it is must be great because they are definitely on another planet in "an altered state of reality.
Russian MoD has now truly entered the outer space realm of "an altered state of reality" in trying to convince themselves that they are on the verge of a great success.....WTH.....?????
Acc. to the latest Russian MoD report, only "Jabhat al Nusra" keeps fighting, all other groups "come back to peaceful life" (under Assad)...
Russia once again going totally nuts.
"Jaish al Islam","Free Syrian Army" & "Yarmouk Brigade" sign agreement of reconciliation with Assad.
BUT WAIT.......
Leaflets dropped over #EastGhouta reassure (the world), #Assad will resume total war, try to recapture all land.
News
Thousands of #Assad leaflets dropped over #Douma,
#EastGhouta & #Daraa today.
People joke:"Burning material!"
BreakingNews
The #Russian air force killed 382 civilians across #Syria in February
121 of them children.
Syrians had all but given up in trying to get through to the DoS SCC...SCC now the laughing stock of the ME......
The US will review staffing of its truce-monitoring center after realizing only "some" staff speak Arabic --
http://www.france24.com/en/20160302
According to @SyriaDirect US official mistook "Harbnifsah" village for "Pepsi War."
AND just how many years did DoS work in Iraq where Arabic was the standard language?????
Wow.......really hope the DoS SCC Hotline and email lines are buzzing right now as the second batch of "potholes" has just come and surprise of surprises all the "potholes" are being created by Assad, Russian AF, Shia mercenaries and Hezbollah.....WHICH should not surprise even the DoS SCC....because they already know this......
News
#Assad and #Putin attacks taking place in #Daraa, #Aleppo, #Hama, #Homs & #Latakia provinces today.
There is def. NO #SyriaCeasefire.
Footage
#Assad artillery and #Putin air force working together in Hirbnafsah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-bYfYrzjpY …
BTW this town has had 36 air strikes today by the RuAF...so does that count as 36 violations of the CoH????????
The #SyriaCeasefire continues ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nwBXmLqH7w …
Footage
Also in #ShaykhMaskin (#Daraa province),fighting continues after 3 days of a lull.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofLIKtIJs5I …
Activists say the regime attacked there, but from what I see it looks like fire is in regime-held area.
Assad regime burning FSA houses in the town they have a list of all the houses belongs to FSA rebels & they set them on fire
News
14 #Russian air strikes hit rebel-held southern #Hama province so far today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELSgK_dZ0mo …
Off and running with DAY FOUR of the Russian cessation of hostilities HOPEFULLY all the Syrians that witnessed the following call called the DoS Washington Syrian Coordination Center using that 1-800 and email address...that is if they were not spending a lot of time dodging bombs and or digging themselves out of rubble....
Took awhile to have the reports drift in due to poor comms in Syria........
HOPE the SCC finally figures out who is causing of the "potholes" in the road to implementing the CoH???????
Ballistic missile (TBM)impact at Al-Za'iniyah in #Latakia mountains
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35...25314&z=15&m=b …
#Syria rocket impacts in Al-Mastouma area some km south of #Idlib city
#Syria Airstrikes on Teir Maalah in northern #Homs now
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34...10322&z=15&m=b …
#Syria Several airstrikes hit also Bdama in #Latakia mountains
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35...01024&z=15&m=b …
#Syria 3 airstrikes hit Kinada in #Latakia mountains
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35...08448&z=15&m=b …
#Syria #Assad-forces shelling rebel hold parts of #Daraa city with mortars
#Syria #Russia conducted several air raids on villages in #Latakia moutains
#Syria Regime dropped leaflets on #Daraa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1WDG8cdwM8 …
Hama Regime continues today its bombing of Harbinafsah town by air & artillery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELSgK_dZ0mo …
Hama Regime continues bombing of Harbinafsah town by air & artillery
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34...24856&z=15&m=b …
In this whole debate of Obama "standing by or not standing by".....ever notice the Obama WH has distinctly kept quiet about the massive number of transnational shia jihadists numbering roughly 30,000..from over 60 Iraqi Shia militias, Hezbollah Lebanese/Iraqi, and a Shia mercenary army from over 12 countries recruited and paid for by IRGC and the 30-40,000 IRGC troops.
Why is that??...there have been a number of serious comments with very accurate quotes indicating that both Obama and Kerry signaled to the Iranians during the Iran Deal that they share the Iranian view that Syria belongs distinctly to the Iranian "sphere of influence".....
What is even more interesting is that Iran needs the Syrian land corridor via Syria to Hezbollah and to finish their construction started under Khomeini of the Green Crescent from AFG to Lebanon.
BTW...the Hezbollah land corridor ran right through the middle of the existing and established Sunni 70% majority in Syria....
In order to achieve this the complete Arab Sunni majority is being literally ethnically cleansed and displaced largely out of Syria and is being replaced with Shia...example the AFG Shia currently fighting in Syria have been promised by the IRGC a house and land in Syria for them and their families, and the Kurds are definitely ethnically cleansing all former Arab areas or destroying the Arab villages that they bring under their control. Also similar IRGC promises have been made to the other foreign shia mercenaries fighting in Syria.
Do not think for a moment the sheer destruction by the Russians of anything Sunni right now is an "accident" as the Russians along ago signed onto the Green Crescent as it allows them a superpower hegemony over the entire ME at a time when they sense Obama has basically "pulled completely out of the ME".......
Now then look at the great dislike by Obama and Kerry to use the term genocide and war crimes as that would require them to explain exactly what that is.......and they then must call out Iran and their Syrian proxy Assad and Putin.......
AND it might force Obama and Kerry to explain the massive increase in the last few weeks in Shia and Iranian troops being flowing into Damascus from Tehran and Iraq by Russian, Syrian and Iranian military troop transports...BUT again silence on this topic.
Interesting by @joshua_landis on whether the Russians are doing to Sunnis in Syria what the US did to Sunnis in Iraq
http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/russian-airstrikes-syria-crush-anti-as…
There is an old German political saying...the security services have always been blind on the "right eye"....Obama when it comes to the question of why the US gets so uptight about Islamic State overlooks and outright ignores the "right wing jihadist".....Iran.
One of the reasons Obama is "standing by" is that in theory he has to at some point call out the Assad and Putin's use of starvation and deliberate air strikes against civilians, hospitals, schools, mosques and schools as genocide and or at the least "war crimes".....and I pointed put that the Obama WH is using the smokescreen of legalese to delay having to do anything.
Appears that this "standing by" has also now "hit" Congress..........
U.S. lawmakers to condemn IS's genocide against minorities, but give Assad and Putin a pass on exterminating Syria's Sunni majority.
http://bv.ms/1TN6XC6
Read @joshrogin on the new House genocide resolution that condemns ISIS but is silent on Assad.
http://www.bloombergview.com/article...d-a-pass<br /> …
Strange is it not that a nation that proclaims religious freedom for all religions really really has a problem calling out the ethnic cleansing and genocide of a civil society that is not the same religion that the Obama WH and Congress "deems" of interest.
An interesting thesis that might go a long way in explaining the Obama ..."standing by"......
Interesting by @joshua_landis on whether the Russians are doing to Sunnis in Syria what the US did to Sunnis in Iraq
http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/russian-airstrikes-syria-crush-anti-as…
Maybe social media can assist the DoS figure out who caused those "potholes"........
SYRIA: Evidence of Russian airstrikes breaching ceasefire cataloged by @CITeam_en
https://citeam.org/you-cease-we-fire...-syrian-truce/ …
Obama,Kerry and the DoS have only themsleves to thank..
After 72 hours of straight Russian and Assad air stikes, countless ground attacks, shellings and barrel bombs and one chemical attack the FSA oppositon forces have come to the conclusion that the Russians and the US NEVER intended to actually hold to a CoH, nor hold to their promises of humanitarian aid being delivered AND HAVE now resumed offensive operations......
That was it.
After 72 hours of constant Russian/Assad ceasefire violations, rebels resume operations in response. First recorded GRAD firings by a FSA Group at Assad militia positions that were attacking a town of their's during the so called CoH.....
Jaish al-Tahrir fire Grad missiles in Sahel al-Ghab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlNOgdIPhlw …
Now watch for the Turk and Saudi responses....they are coming as they can point to the Russian violations and the US sitting back and counting "potholes".......as proof they never intented to rein in Assad's genocide of Arab Sunni's.....
Remember both Turkey and KSA have defined Russia and Assad as threats to their national security.....somewhat overlooked by Washington and Moscow.....
Wonder if Obama, Kerry and the DoS ever noticed the close coordination between the Assad SAA and the Islamic State.......
Aleppo E rif, Daesh handed over almost 20 villages to the regime militias https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/02/29/syria-aleppo-e-rif-daesh-… …
Just as the Assad SAA works closely with the YPG in attacking FSa positions even during the so called CoH.......
BUT WTH...the Syrian Sunni's are just "potholes" on the road to implementing the CoH.....
BTW the CoH is holding just fine for the IS as not a single Assad and or Russian air strike has hit them in 72 hours...only the US has bombed them to support the YPG from being overrun by the IS...wonder why that is.....
A normal mortal must wonder if the highly paid DoS Syrian Coordination Center got enough 1-800 calls or emails from enough Syrians to record these 36 "potholes" just today in one single town...BUT WAIT the Syrians were dodging some serious air strikes and never could call and or email Washington to let them know "they were being used to create potholes" as they could not even get out of their bomb bunkers...ie their own houses...OR they were to busy digging out their families from under the bomb rubble to call Washington.
AND the US IC absolutely does not know who created those "potholes"...what a poor ROI for the US taxpayer.......
Here is a video to help the Obama WH figure out who casued the 36 "potholes".....
36 #Russia|n airstrikes targeted Harbenafseh in rural #Hama on 3rd day of #SyriaCeasefire
http://youtu.be/yXbaW-PLI2w
BUT WAIT the Obama WH already "knows" who caused the "potholes"...the Russians as they were out "stabilizing the situation"....
SO EXACTLY why did they use the term "potholes" WHEN they knew the Russians had in fact violated their own CoH from the very beginnng......?????????
Sorry Dayuhan and Bill M......Obama and Kerry does have the US sliding even deeper into Syria and the US public does not see it coming......
Минобороны России
@mod_russia
#SYRIA Leadership of Russian and American Coordination Centres held a telephone call within coordination on cease-fire Monitoring
Bit by bit US being sucked into Russian operations in Syria.
Hey DoS here is another one of those undefined "potholes" being reported right now...wonder if any Syrian Sunni had the time to call or email this Russian air strike into the DoS SCC????
Russians have attacked Deir Hafir in eastern Rif Aleppo with four missiles from its aircraft.
Another "pothole" ...man they are all over the place BUT YET the entire US IC cannot figure out what and or who is causing them...sad....really sad.....
Moments ago, #Russian jets performed two air strikes on civilians in #KhanShaykhoun
BUT WAIT we have the first Russian admission they are causing the "potholes"......striking just on JaN terrorist groups........BUT WAIT not a single verified JaN group was anywhere close to the actual "potholes"...ONLY FSA Units.....
BUT WAIT some unnamed Sunni militia commander from some unnamed Sunni militia told the Russians all Assad opposition groups are tied to JaN.....honest...this was an actual Russian report.....
BreakingNews
The Russian regime admits the first air strikes since the start of the #SyriaCeasefire.
Pathetic.
pic.twitter.com/11MwKcwjAF
Russian statement is to the effect..."we created the potholes in order to stabilize the situation".
You know if civilians and especially women and children were not getting killed while the Russians "stabilized the situation" by creating more "potholes" this could actually be turned into a comedy for filming....
Now I will become provocative with the following comments.....
The DoS sets up a CYA Washington based Syrian Coordination Center with a 1-800 Call Center probably based in India for Syrians to call in CoH violations AND then does not tell us just how many Syrians actually took the time out of dodging falling bombs, and artillery shells to CALL DoS in Washington.
THEN social media literally provides countless actual video recordings of Russian aircraft complete with RED STARS and videos of numerous Assad aircraft and other Russian aircraft bombing in areas that were not under JaN and IS control...HECK one of the civilian killing air strikes was in the middle of EVEN a Russian no strike zone on their own map.....
THEN we get this from the Obama WH today....WTH is with this Obama WH and Kerry?????
ARE THEY totally wanting to destroy whatever creditability the US has left in the ME AND worse by their doing nothing they are actually providing Turkey and KSA totally valid reasons to enter Syria just to protect Arab Sunni's from Assad, Russian, Iranian and YES even now US supported genocide.......
.@PressSec says "too early" to determine responsibility for truce violations in #Syria & calls them "potholes" on road to implementation
"potholes".....right now there is serious Syria Arab Sunni percpetion that the US and Russian have done a secret handshake to destroy all Assad opposition forces and to ensure Assad remains in power until 2020.
IMHO the US is very complicit now in the ongoing Syrian genocide with this dumb use of the term "potholes".....this the height of stupidity....utter stupidity..
IS this the admission by the Obama WH that the billions spent on the US intel community since 911 HAVE been an utter waste as the US IC cannot even figure out who caused the "potholes"...come on just how stupid does the WH believe the US public is much less the Sunni public and do they really believe the Turks and Saudi's are buying into this "pothole" theory"??.
Nobody wants to be hasty, do they? Price won't be paid in U.S. lives, after all so what is the hurry as it is really only genocide...what our own US National Security Strategy defined as a threat to US national security.
AND what is the cost of a life of a Arab Sunni in the grand scheme of the "Obama standing by ME FP"....."evidently only a potholes worth it appears".......
Obama and company should not be totally surprised now when Turkey and KSA actually do move into Syria and it will fall back on the US provided argument that they were the only ones that could "protect the potholes".......
Obama and Kerry are truly "standing by"....or why does it seem that a US MSM knows more about Russian negotiation tactics than the entire Obama WH and the 700 Person NSC......????
"Russia and [Assad] consider the truce as a military tactic, not as a preparatory measure for a political solution"
http://wpo.st/a1rG1
EXACTLY as they did with the Minsk 2 Agreement AND yet Obama and Kerry never seem to learn..........
"The diplomacy shift [by the U.S.] ... essentially brought Washington closer to Moscow's position" on #Syria
http://reut.rs/1Q7jE
The U.S. could see the Russian build-up in Syria and did nothing. It will be believed by many that this was deliberate
U.S. former official on the White House's apparent indecisiveness: "There was this tendency to say, 'We don't know. Let's see'."
By DEC 2015, U.S.…concluded…Russia had achieved its main goal of stabilizing Assad…and could maintain its operations in Syria for years."
Hope that DoS Syrian Call Center 1-800 line is running hot today as the "so called largely holding ceasefire"...ain'nt holding a cm of water........
Update
#Assad / #Russian raids ongoing in #Homs, #Hama, #Idlib, #Latakia and #Aleppo.
Activists talk of "total ignorance of the truce".
Syrian opposition says government wrecking truce deal
http://reut.rs/1ThwDHk
Notice it is already about 0930 DC time 16:OO Berlin time and the DoS Syrian Coordination Center still has not say a single word about the Russian lack of compliance with their own proposed and pushed CoH.......
DAY THREE and still no humanitarian aid has been delivered......
After Obama and Kerry saw the thousands of attacks carried out by the Russian military and her mercenaries in eastern Ukraine AFTER Minsk 2...JUST why did they really think Putin would adhere to his own CoH in Syria??
Michael Weiss ✔ @michaeldweiss
Ceasefire in practice: Syria regime reportedly mobilizing for west Aleppo campaign
http://mme.cm/UXAW00
via @NOW_eng
Come on really...we have this massive DoS 1-800 Call Center to record Syrian called in CoH violations AND now the French call a spade a spade and they have no such center???????
Breaking: French Foreign Ministry calls for immediate meeting to discuss violations of #Syria ceasefire
Al Arabiya English ✔ @AlArabiya_Eng
#Breaking France says called for immediate meeting of Syria task force to discuss violations of cessation of hostilities
AND our billions invested into the 17 intel agencies could not come to this conclusion faster than the French?????
How embarrassing is this?
Am sure the DoS DC based Syrian Coordination Center 1-800 Call Center has not received many calls and or emails from these Syrian FSA bombed areas.....bombed by both Russian and Assad AFs....so I can help them out ......
Syria Airstrikes continues on northern #Hama, northern #Homs, #Idlib & #Latakia mountain towns & villages today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vykSvtVqvVY …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbGtQ-vzqN0 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz6p889pNg0 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWs6k-JkiD4 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5eem2womus …
Just from today.....still not a statement from the Russian Syrian RCC about number of CoH violations especially from the Assad and Russian AFs.....
BUT WAIT....Russia stated they would keep on bombing terrorists and that is their definition of a "CoH".......
Not even sure exactly why the DoS even has a Syrian Hotline 1-800.....
Not even sure Ahrar al Sham has even called and notified the DoS directly that Russia bombed them even though they officially stated they do not sign onto the so called CoH...BUT they "will respect it until they are attacked"......AAS has not been declared a terrorist group by the UNSC so their position is a valid one if you are deep in a rebellion and do not trust either the Russians and or the US.......
So they get bombed today....BUT there is a deeper problem...does this bombing actually reinforce the FSA and the other anti Assad groups that the US in fact wants them destroyed thus has concluded a "secret handshake" to allow the Russians to do just that.
Kerry: “We are clear: If you don’t choose to be part of it, then you are choosing to perhaps make yourself a target."
Now AAS will in fact interpret this to mean Kerry and Putin work together.....
Remember in the ME "perception" is the game and that is all that counts so right now the "perception that the US is colluding with Putin" has validity in the eyes of the Syrians and thus this "Hotline" is just for CYA.......
This article goes directly to the heart of that perceived Russian US collusion and Obama/Kerry cannot seem to understand that "perceptions are hard to change in the ME.
"U.S. using the threat of Russian atrocities to cajole the Syrian opposition into surrender"
https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/...fire-in-syria/ …
WILL be extremely interesting to see just how the DoS Coordination Center terms this Russian attack on al Sham....a true violation or will it simply stay silent.....probably deafening silence is what we will only "hear"....
Because to say something against Russian violations would take a certain amount of courage this WH does not have.
For those especially Obama and Kerry that do not want to believe there is a great similarity between the Ukrainian Maidan and the Arab Spring of Damascus.......think again.
Well worth seeing this documentary on Netflix up for a possible Oscar......watch it and then tell me there is no similarity........and both are facing Russia not by accident but by Russian intent...
Oscars2016 nominee ''Winter on Fire'' tells story of Ukraine’s fight for freedom.
https://goo.gl/hXT6VD
Maidan
pic.twitter.com/e3EEPO0TG2
More information for the DoS Hotline 1-800...tough right now for Syrians to call the US DoS or email as many areas are now reporting no electricity today.
One there has been one reporting verified by his own video of a reporter recording actual Russian strikes being deliberately bombed in the middle of his filming.
SAA mortars shell w/ Chemical Gas targeted #FSA #Failaq_ArRahman positions in #Erbeen, 2Martyrs
#Damascus cs #SYRiA FEB 29
Civilians killed in the so called Day Two of the so called Russian CoH.......up from 28 on Day One.........
40 Martyrs
[10 Fighters 2 Children 2 women 1 Tortured]
15 Aleppo
8 Damascus
6 DeirEzzor
5 Homs
4 Idlib
1 Daraa
1 Hama
#Syria FEB 28
SAA shelling mortars targeting #alMarj area at 2:29 AM
Children victims of #RUSSIA airstrikes on #Tarmala
hours ago(before 12am/FEB 29)
#Idlib cs #Syria FEB 28
A short while ago, Russian warplane attacks targeted Ahrar al-Sham HQ/checkpoints in Tarmala, southern rural Idlib.
Talbiseh Hospital field full with victims of #RUSSIA & #SAA bombardment the region
#Homs cs #Syria FEB 29
BREAKING
More 2 #Russia airstrikes targeting #Teir_Maela in the last minutes
SAA positioned in #Kwaires airbase, shelling MLRS targeting #alBab
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 29
SAA shelling with heavy artillery targeting #alRastan moments ago
#Homs cs #Syria FEB 28
While filming #CeaseFireviolation @houla_homs received a strike close to his location near #AlHoula south of #Hama:
So explain to me and or any other SWJ.....how can the DoS and Obama tell the US public that the Russian/US "CoH"......"is largely holding"...any Sunni Syrian might actually dispute that comment.
AND still not a single humanitarian aid convoy that gone anywhere in Syria even though Kerry stated in Munich SEVEN were to go out starting after the Munich talks.....and humanitarian aid was a key component of the Russian/Us CoH......
DAY THREE of the so called Russian "CoH" with the FSA ceasing fire and the Assad and Russian troops firing on all cylinders....
STILL no humanitarian aid convoys to be seen anywhere in Syria a key point in the Russian "CoH".......
And we are off and running today....hope the DoS 1-800 hotline for Syrians is up and running and taking note of all the Russian/Assad/Khamenei violations.
During #SyriaCeasefire, rebel areas hit include:
- ALEPPO: ~8 towns
- IDLIB: Jisr a-Shughur
- HOMS: Teir Maalah, Talbiseh
- HAMA: Harbnafsah
Multiple sources reporting some kind of gas attack in #Irbin outside Damascus. Victims suffering from symptoms of suffocation.
BUT WAIT did not Russia confirm there were not more chemical weapons in Syria...just another lie it appears as this is the fifth attack in the last five months.
Hope this is evidence enough for the DoS Hotline of the Russian/Assad CoH violations yesterday....
A #RUSSIAN Su-24 bombs besieged #Homs province yesterday (stars).
Not one of #Assad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NxwQjZRM8o …
Hope DoS Hotline got this yesterday.......evidence was on social media all day.
FSA Asala & Tanmiya Front: 10 Russian airstrikes targeted Harbinifsah village in new violation of the ceasefire deal
BreakingFootage
Russian jets now target civilians in #TerMaela with brutal strikes yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_n64J0uKlw …
Footage
#Assad / #Putin Su-24 bombing #Talbisah yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcGp7TndNAc …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-on1hWa-n-o …
BTW...notice the Russian Coordination Center said nothing about these air strikes from yesterday......nor of the chemical attack today
One of the other key elements of the CoH was the question of Syrian detainees in Assad prisons...never ever discussed by US MSM nor Obama and Kerry and for a good reason....the number of Syrian Sunni detainees are massive to say the least.
Ppl who think Assad will stop slowly torturing/butchering the +200k Syrians in his dungeons are naive.
Obama and Kerry urgently need to remember...one of the key points in the Minsk 2 agreement was a like for like exchange of POWs....which Russian has not complied with since the Minsk 2 signing....they still hold 146 UAF prisoners some for over a year now.....
For reference...refer to the posted video link yesterday of a protest out of one of the Assad prisons......total darkness is standard
Let's not even get into the incoming reports of Assad artillery firing on FSA positions...which is in fact a CoH violation........
Assad artillery fire continues to target Jabal al-Tufahia, Ayn al-Hour, Jabal al-Qalaa, Jabal al-Hayat & Shahroura in Jabal Akrad, #Latakia
So with this new DoS 800 call center just how did they get the DoS call center info if the Syrian Sunni's have been dodging Assad/Russian artillery and Assad/Russian bombs all day yesterday and today????......Must have been one heck of a leaflet drop.......field reporting is indicating they know nothing about a so called DoS call center.....anyway they have been way to busy dodging shells, cluster munitions and bombs and Assad ground attacks to even think about calling......
US foreign diplomacy hard at work..........
Yes folks we now have the Syrian Russian RCC repeating their Ukrainian JCCC concepts...and Kerry/Obama never learned a thing out of Minsk 2....the Russian JCCC in Ukraine has repeatedly always pointed the violations finger at the UAF and virtually never at the Russian military and or her own mercenaries as the cause for Minsk 2 violations.
Even recently when the Ukrainian State Security charged three Russian officers of colluding with the enemy complete with video and audio evidence and asked them to be pulled out of eastern Ukraine the Russian MoD screamed they had done nothing wrong...
SO why would a tiger change his stripes in the Syrian RCC?
Simple he does not....
Here today from the RCC...there were nine violations....by FSA/HNC count way over a total of 30 plus committed by Russians, SAA, YPG, Shia mercenaries and the Assad AF.....
Russia claim "#Syria'n opposition forces violated cease-fire 9 times"
-that's not true, all these where al Qaida attacks on YPG positions-
Russia is constantly charging the FSA now with the violations and yet never says a word about IS......just as they always bombed FSA claiming they were attacking IS but never really attacked IS.
Remember Obama stated 2016.."we have received assurances that the Russians will not attack the moderate opposition".....
Well that goes into the Obama 2014 category of...."we will judge Putin by his actions and not his words".....
What a flaming facade Obama builds to smoke screen his total inability to counter and or want to counter Russia on just about anything in his tilt to Iran.
Wow...DoS you might have a hard time keeping up with those Russian violations.....not a single field report has come in that any unit of any group associated with the FSA has fired and or created a single CoH violation...all reports flowing in right now are Assad, YPG, Shia mercenary and or Russian casued direct violations ANd here is the kicker...not a single IS or JaN unit anywhere close to the towns being bombed by both Assad and Russia.
So where is the Kerry/Obama indignation that the "so called Russian assurances that the moderate opposition would not be attacked" was basically a Russian lie...no indignation whatsoever to be heard anywhere in DC or from the Obama WH....
BREAKING
12 martyrs & dozens wounded victims of #RUSSIA airstrikes on #alHadi_Society
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 28
WILL be simply amazing to hear the Russian CC state anything different tomorrow...not sure just how they are going to sell their bombings on non IS and JaN locations?
To assist the great efforts at DoS for coordination of just about nothing here is a list but not complete of all Russian and Assad airstrikes and the reports are still coming in...
As of 37 minutes ago
#RUSSIA airstrikes #Aleppo cs:
#Anadan
#Hayan
#Kafr_Hamrah
#Asia
#Qabr_alEnglizi
#Daret_Ezza
#Qobtan_alJabal
#Syria FEB 28
DoS...take note several towns hit multiple times today...and cluster munitions were used after normal bombs probably to hit first responders.
So I would recommend after the 30 attacks yesterday and the extensive attacks today..MAYBE you should stop using the phrase "CoH is largely holding"...it ain't holding at all.
Just as it is not holding in eastern Ukraine.....
Hope that DoS 1-800 call center is taking notice of the Russian air strikes today...not so sure Syrians are willing to call DC just to let them know they have just been hit with Russian cluster munitions....probably more busy trying to dig out their children and families.
RUSSIA Cluster Bombs airstrikes on #Jist_alShghour 3:15 PM
#Idlib cs #Syria FEB 28
Was right that Syrians are simply to busy surviving right now to think about calling and filing a formal complaint to someone in DC on a 800 number...probably DoS outsourced it anyway to a Chinese call center to save money.....
Seconds aftermath #RUSSIA airstrikes on #Jisr_alShghour
#Idlb #Syria FEB 28
2 martyrs, 12 injured
Wow another Russian air strike..hope the DoS call center caught this one as the activist on the ground said he cannot keep up with the incoming bombing and ground attack reports...
Airstrikes on Teir Maalah in northern #Homs today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F0nbD-bKTA …
And even more reports flowing in...we should be at about the 40-50 attacks and bombings today ....the standard average for the daily Russian attacks on the Minsk 2 front line...
BUT hey yesterday the DoS and VOA and MSM all claimed the "CoH" is largely holding"...the exact same standard worn out phrase used in Ukraine cesaefire also Russian violations there as well.
Reports of heavy gunfire by Assad/Hezbollah targeting besiged #Madaya a little while ago. #Zabadani, #Syria
#Syria Helicopters also dropping bombs now on Teir Maalah in northern #Homs
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34.802598&lon=36.708841&z=14&m=b …
#Syria Helicopters dropped free fall bombs on Kinada & Al-Najiyah in #Latakia mountains this morning
HECK here is one report that even social media has tagged and confirmed just to help the DoS 1-800 call center....
No #ceasefire for #Hirbnafsah, only airstrikes.
https://youtu.be/xU34xiYZ5dE
HD: http://img.ly/DpP0
Have a great suggestion to the Kerry DoS since Kerry stated it was massively important to end starvation as a weapon by Assad and Putin...why not start a 1-800 call center to take calls from besieged Sunni Syrians who are starving and or hard to get to Sunni locations who are also starving asking to confirm if they have received that much promise humanitarian aid even Kerry said was coming via UN convoys....????
I mean it is roughly 470,000 starving civilians we are talking about here not chump change...and even the UN states that is a very rough estimate and possibly on the low side.
DAY TWO ......Still not a single UN humanitarian aid convoy to any Sunni besieged location...inherent part of Munich 1938 that is failing to be done.....
Daraya, where #Assad lets NO FOOD IN, despite #UNSC Res. 2254, #Munich 1938 and #Geneva.
pic.twitter.com/29m51uKL9F
Remember even at Munich 1938 Kerry stated SEVEN would start moving immediately...well they did not and Kerry went silent.
So did DoS catch this Russian violation by the way from today and verified by video footage date time stamped and geo tagged?
Syria Jisr al-Shughour city in western #Idlib prov. under #Russia'n air attack today
pic.twitter.com/Jw5MWoVU6j
NOT so sure the Syrian dodging the Russian bombs had a chance to call in and or email ...so I am sending via SWJ notice to the DoS...yes it was violation...why there is simply no IS and or JaN anywhere close to this town. Not even sure they have cells, land lines and or an internet provider for email.....
AND just make it easier on the DoS to state it was a Russian violation....here from another angle.....
Breaking
From different angles: Large bombs hit Jisr al-Shughur in #Idlib province.
pic.twitter.com/aOo4sPF1cU
OR social media makes it even easier for the DoS to confirm the Russian violation by supplying even a video.....
BreakingFootage
#Russia's "commitment" to the #SyriaCeasefire in #Idlib.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkJHLPnvzRk …
pic.twitter.com/W4ElGECYIN
What the heck of an excuse is this from the US DoS...."how to report a CoH violation".
DO they honestly think that an average Sunni Syrian can pickup his land line phone and call the US DoS sitting in Washington DC and say..."hey I am dodging SIX barrel bombs dropped on my son's school by an Assad Mi24 flying north by north west at a height of say I think 2,000 feet"....the Syrians have virtually little money and the local pay phone was bombed four years ago by Assad and lately rebombed by Russia. Email...come on it is hard enough for some Syrian Sunni activists using their satphones to keep them even charged and if they stay to long on the satphone they get a Russian bomb on the top of them......because Russia has defined him a "terrorist"...
Then starts the Russian CC response, just how did you know it was an Assad copter, what was the color and shape etc....how did you know it was a barrel bomb vs a normal bomb...it could have just been a gas explosion in the school....??
Then the next thing we will see from this DoS is the request by the US that they ask the Syrians to conduct bomb conduct crater analysis and recover bomb fragments and or get a device to trace the sounds of a HMG firing at them from a Shia attack.......heck DC should know by now even Syrian Sunni media activists are when they are on their cells reporting are being actively intercepted, pinpointed and then bombed by the RuAF.
Why is it that they shy away from the countless streams of actual social media providing them even the videos to conduct analysis on to confirm a violation...OR is the ability to fact check social media information simply to hard for the US intel community,..... all 17 agencies....?
Come on this cannot the best the DoS can do...it is more or less a façade to show they did something.......
Social media geo tags all the time and the US intel community cannot do it????
U.S. Embassy Syria ✔ @USEmbassySyria
If you have firsthand knowledge of a violation of the #CoH in #Syria, there are several ways to report it:
pic.twitter.com/5jE1SoumuT
Of all the stupidest things this DoS has done in years.....really a 1-800 number to call in the middle of an actual fighting rebellion...could they have not found a location to talk a tad closer to Syria...DC...come on.
Bad really bad...reminds me of the bad moves the DoS made in the years 2004-2006 in Iraq.......
In 2005 I had a DoS FSO drop into FOB Warhorse in loafers, sports coat and tie expecting us to provide a fully functioning field office and he did not understand why he had to wear body armor an a helmet when he moved outside the wire and why did we not have a fully functioning office in downtown Baqubah for him to operate out of as he was responsible for Diyala Province.
I honestly had a hard time not laughing......he complained to me that he had volunteered in order to get the head of the Morocco Desk when he returned to DC.
We clashed for over six months as my list of Sunni insurgent leaders working both openly and underground where the same ones he wanted to interact with and he had a hard time accepting confirmed evidence and I mean confirmed a number of ways that they are working with and for QJBR and then AQI.
He left after 11 months later and got his Morocco Desk job in Foggy Bottom....still not understanding the Sunni insurgency.
Ever wonder why the Obama WH and the DoS often splits hairs over the use of a single word....in the case of eastern Ukraine they blatantly called an actual Russian invasion an "incursion" why because under US laws the President would have to take some kind of actions...WHICH he badly did not want to do.
In the case of the PAST/CURRENT Syrian genocide and countelss Russian war crimes we see the same exact WH and DoS behavior...."well we must study closely the legal definition of genocide".....well as they study genocide is continuing and Russian war crimes still continue....the US is as bad with their disinformation as are the Russians...in this disinformation game there is not any superpower differences.
How is it that it seems social media is faster and far more accurate than all of the 17 US intelligence agencies with billions in budgets....can anyone explain that to me since 80% of intel comes from open source to even begin with.
Really worth reading to understand just why the US has not called out NOR will call out Russia for it's war crimes in Syria.....OR for that matter call out Assad for genocide and war crimes....the US is for not calling it out now an actual mutually complicit actor in both genocide and war crimes.....
Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins
How Russia Evades Responsibility for War Crimes in Syria via @bellingcat
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena...arm-diplomacy/
Bellingcat is one of the strongest social media open source analysis groups and has constantly shredded the Russian lies about their shot down of MH17 earning them countless Russian DDoS cyber attacks for their work...providing to the Dutch extensive information which the Dutch incorporated into the MH17 investigation...that is just how accurate it was.
AND has earned the dislike by the Russian MoD for disproving 25 of their air strike videos when they claimed they were striking IS and has analyzed the Russian extensive strikes against hospitals and schools included in the recent investigations of HWR and AI which accused Russia of war crimes.
AND where was the US intel community in all of these war crime violations...silent as a church mouse....especially when US federal law requires one to report them if they have knowledge of genocide taking place......
As someone use to by now the Russian disinformation and to a degree the Kerry/Obama disinformation I NEVER did expect the UN to get into that game as well.
They announced with great and grand fanfare they were going to drop 21 tons of humanitarian aid to the starving Sunni's in a town besieged from Assad military forces and IS.....
Well the drop occurred with a Russian contracted IL76, using a Russian loadmaster and Russian pilots...and lo and behold the drop went as the UN stated.....but not where it was suppose to go ie to the civilians BUT all 21 tons were damaged in the drop, and or landed/were lost in a Assad minefield used to enforce the besiege of the town.
THIS was the story as told by the UN to the awaiting global press.....well there is always two sides to the same story and this is what the UN did not tell you......
Posted to a comment of mine concerning the air drop failure starting to now be picked up by MSM.....
Response of a SWJ commenter...
BTW, should Oblabla and his Mentalist - perhaps the UN too? - still wonder where that load of 'humanitarian aid' dropped by (Russian-flown) Il-76 over Dayr az-Zawr ended...
...well, why not ask the locals?
The UN’s first delivery of humanitarian aid to Deir Ezzor province by air falls into hands of Assad forces
Quote:
“Earlier this morning, a WFP plane dropped the first cargo of 21 tonnes of items into Deir Ezzor,” in eastern Syria, UN aid chief Stephen O’Brien said on 25 February, 2016.
The air-drop is part of a larger effort to lift the starvation siege which has been imposed by both ISIS and the Assad-regime on civilians living in the city for more than a year now.
“A Cargo plane accompanied by two Russian warplanes airdropped food aid shipments over the regime-held territories of Deir Ezzor,” a D24 correspondent said.
...
...more precisely: straight into the hands of the '137th Brigade' NDF.
Of course, why should one bother: 'all Syrians' in Dayr az-Zawr are either under Daesh occuppation, and thus 'pro-terrorists', or besieged by the regime, and thus 'terrorists'...
AND that was the story of the UN....dropped but totally damaged and or landed in a minefield VS. all 21 tons dropped into the hands of the Assad military NDF which has a airfield near them...
Question is did the contracted Russian pilot and loadmaster know exactly where to drop the 21 tons ie next to the airfield and into the hands of the Assad NDF???
No wonder the UN sidestepped the truth and went with "disinformation"......I would to as it cost the WFP who paid for a bungled air drop NOT the UN.
Also REMEMBER Kerry also stated at Munich 1938 that there were going to be SEVEN aid shipments going out immediately at the end of Munich 1938...even his DoS spokesperson confirmed several days later when questioned about it that THREE had been received....WELL days later it is found out not a single shipment of the SEVEN ever went anywhere as Assad refused to allow them and in the THREE cases that the UN moved the Assad military took them from the UN for their own use.
REMEMBER the theft of UN aid for Syrian civilians ie Sunni's is part and parcel used for the Assad military and the Russian military now in Syria...if one had looked at the field videos recently taken by Pleitgen of CNN there were a number of UN humanitarian aid white tents in the videos being used by the Russian troops that he inadvertently videoed and never knew they were Russian until social media pointed it out to CNN who later changed their story to indicate they were Russians.