Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Sources: Syrian gov’t found Eli Cohen dossier after Assad’s fall, offered it to Israel

2025-05-21

[IsraelTimes] After Israel announced recovery of archive in ‘covert and complex Mossad operation,’ sources tell Reuters that Sharaa okayed its return to ease Israeli hostility and as gesture to Trump

Syria’s leadership approved the handover of the belongings of long-dead spy Eli Cohen to Israel in a bid to ease Israeli hostility and show goodwill to US President Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
, three sources told Rooters.

Israel announced its recovery of the trove of documents, photographs and personal possessions relating to Cohen on Sunday, saying its spy agency Mosssd
Mosssd

...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...
had worked with an unnamed foreign intelligence agency to secure the material.

However,
a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth...
a Syrian security source, an adviser to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and a person familiar with backchannel talks between the countries said the archive of material was in fact offered to Israel as an indirect gesture by Sharaa as he seeks to cool tensions and build Trump’s confidence.

Cohen, who was hanged in 1965 in a downtown Damascus square after infiltrating Syria’s political elite, is still regarded as a hero in Israel and Mossad’s most celebrated spy for uncovering military secrets that aided its lightning victory in the 1967 Six Day War.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Cohen on Sunday as a legend and "the greatest intelligence agent in the annals of the state."

While Israel has long sought to recover his body for reburial at home, the return of his archive held for 60 years by Syrian intelligence was hailed by Mossad as "an achievement of the highest moral order."

Israel has not publicly revealed how the archive came into its possession, saying only that it was the result of "a covert and complex Mossad operation, in cooperation with an allied foreign intelligence service."

Netanyahu’s office, Syrian officials and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Syria’s role in Israel’s recovery of the Cohen archive.

COHEN DOSSIER
After rebels led by Sharaa suddenly ousted President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
in December, ending his family’s 54-year-long rule, they found the Cohen dossier in a state security building, according to the Syrian security source.

Sharaa and his foreign advisers quickly decided to use the material as leverage, the source added.

The Syrian security source said Sharaa had realized that the Cohen archive was important to the Israelis and that its return could amount to a significant diplomatic gesture.

Ending Israeli attacks on Syria and improving relations with the United States and other Western countries are vital for Sharaa as he seeks to revive his shattered country after 14 years of civil war.

Israel regards Sharaa and his ex-insurgents, who once formed the al Qaeda faction in Syria, as unreconstructed jihadists. Israeli forces have been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Assad — mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries — and have repeatedly bombed targets in support of Syria’s minority Druze sect.

This month, Rooters reported that the United Arab Emirates had set up a backchannel for talks between Israel and Syria that included efforts to build confidence between the sides.

There have also been other indirect channels for talks, according to two people familiar with the matter.

In the talks, Syria agreed to measures including returning the remains of Cohen as well as three Israeli soldiers killed while fighting Syrian forces in Leb
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
in the early 1980s, a person familiar with those talks said. The body of one of those soldiers, Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, has been returned, Israel said last week.

The return of the Cohen archive came in the context of those confidence-building measures and was done with Sharaa’s direct approval, the person said.

Last week, Trump held a surprise meeting with Sharaa in Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
where he urged him to normalize ties with Israel and announced that he would lift sanctions on Syria.

Syrian officials have said they want peace with all states in the region, and Sharaa confirmed this month that Damascus had carried out indirect talks with Israel via states it has ties with in order to calm the situation.

Link

Afghanistan

Taliban Earning Billions, Giving American Weaponry to Terrorist Groups as Afghanistan Once Again Becomes Jihadi Hotbed: Report

2025-05-08

[Free Beacon] The Taliban took in $3.4 billion in revenue over the last year,

…how much from international donations versus sales of opium derivatives and American weapons?

boosting its cash supply by 14 percent amid the return of Afghanistan as a central safe haven for terrorist organizations across the Middle East, according to a U.S. government watchdog group.

The repercussions of the Biden administration’s disastrous 2021 military withdrawal from Afghanistan continue to reverberate across the war-torn country, with multiple al Qaeda affiliates accessing American-supplied "weapons seized from the former Afghan National Army," according to a new oversight report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

The United States left 78 aircraft, 40,000 military vehicles, and over 300,000 weapons in Afghanistan in a withdrawal that saw 13 American service members lose their lives. According to the SIGAR report—which the watchdog group delivered to Congress on April 30—the Taliban transferred many of these arms directly to terrorist affiliates, while others made their way to the black market.

The Pentagon assesses that of around $18.6 billion worth of U.S. equipment provided to the Afghan Army over decades of support, $7.12 billion in weaponry remains in the Taliban’s possession. As a result, "terrorist groups continued to operate in and from Afghanistan amid ongoing U.S., UN, and regional concerns that the country remains a terrorist haven."

More than two dozen terrorist organizations are currently active in Afghanistan, including the Islamic State-affiliated Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). At least four al Qaeda offshoots are also using the country to organize operations. "Terrorist groups," SIGAR reported, "continued to use Afghan soil to train and plan attacks and a ’small but steady’ flow of foreign terrorists continued to travel to Afghanistan and join one of over two dozen terror groups based there."

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Salafi-Jihadi Cells Continue to Grow Across Nigeria

2025-04-26

Goody.

[UNDERSTANDINGWAR.ORG] Nigeria. Salafi-jihadi factions are strengthening in Nigeria outside the typical hotspots in the northeastern parts of the country. These factions in north-central and northwestern Nigeria have ties to Boko Haram

... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
and the al Qaeda and Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
affiliates in West Africa. These factions could facilitate these groups' activities around the Gulf of Guinea and the Sahel.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Mujahedin-e Khalq Tactics Undermine Iranian Regime Change

2025-03-30

[Townhall] After more than 45 years of holy manal dictatorship, the Iranian people deserve freedom. The Islamic Theocratic Republic is a terrorist regime responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
and across the region.

A diplomatic belief in reform was always a fool’s game for two simple reasons: First, Iranian elections cannot change a regime policy set by unelected figures like Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...>
. Second, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps exists solely to protect the theocratic regime from the Iranian people. Diplomats are naïve to believe that regime reformism is real; in reality, the reformers entrap Western officials in a game of good cop-bad cop. As former Iranian President Muhammad Khatami’s front man explained in 2008, "We had an overt policy, which was one of negotiation and confidence building, and a covert policy, which was continuation of the activities."

As former Iranian President Muhammad Khatami’s front man explained in 2008, "We had an overt policy, which was one of negotiation and confidence building, and a covert policy, which was continuation of the activities."

The irony of the Iranian regime is that it has greater legitimacy among the West’s useful idiots than it does among the Iranian people. For more than a quarter century, Iranians have poured out into the streets with increasing frequency. The murder of Jina "Mahsa" Amini "Woman, Life, Freedom" Movement was the last straw for many Iranians, who openly called for death to Khamenei. Such an event may not be far off: Iran’s dictator is 85-years-old, has had cancer, and is partially paralyzed from a 1981 liquidation attempt.

Iranians have myriad views about what comes next, though they also have remarkable consensus on three things:

First, they do not want external regime change. Iran is not Iraq. They want support, but will win freedom themselves, not at the barrel of a foreign gun. Second, they do not want Iran divided. When Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980, he spoke about cleaving away "Arabistan," his name for the traditionally Arab-populated, oil-producing province of Khuzestan. Iranians rightly rallied to defend their country from Iraq, but the distraction of war allowed Revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to wrap himself in a nationalist flag to avoid accountability for his revolution’s failures and betrayal. The third point of consensus is disdain for the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO).

This third point remains interwoven with the first two in the minds of most Iranians. The MKO—and Maryam Rajavi, for 40-years, its president-elect—were once fierce proponents of Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution. Rajavi has a right to be personally furious with Khomeini: Like he did with so many other supporters, he betrayed Rajavi and the MKO. Many MKO members fled to Iraq, Iran’s archrival that was at the time killing Iranian conscripts after having invaded the country. Most Iranians despise Khomeini—how else to explain why they would put dog excrement into his tomb—but they could not understand a group allying itself with an Arab dictator bent upon dismantling Iran itself.

Ultimately, Iranians will determine their own future, hopefully through a democratic process once the theocracy collapses. Some Iranians may support the son of the late shah as a unifying figure who can preside over a constitutional convention. Others may prefer a president, and still others may advocate for a parliamentary system presided over by a prime minister. Ethnic or religious groups dominant in one province or another may also seek greater local decision-making. Most Iranian groups debate such structures and cooperate with those with whom they disagree.

The MKO, however, stands apart in vision, in opacity, and in tactics. While Iranian women risk their lives for freedom from forced veiling, not only does Rajavi strictly cover herself, but she also requires that all the women of her group cover their hair. What Iranians want is not a different flavor of Islamic Theocratic Republic, but rather no Islamic Theocratic Republic.

Iranians also want democracy. Too many once believed Khomeini’s promises of democracy; they realize the danger of insincere promises. This translates into deep suspicion about the MKO. After all, how can a group that embraced first Khomeini and then Saddam stand for democracy? To suggest the MKO is pro-American is risible. Prior to the Islamic Revolution, the MKO killed American businessmen and military officers. While that was hardly unique among leftist groups during the Cold War, what makes the MKO different today is it denies its history rather than apologizes for it. Indeed, when Americans are not in the room its anti-Americanism flourishes.

The biggest problem with the MKO, however, is that it actively undermines grassroots opposition by disrupting events that do not pay homage to Rajavi or libeling or slandering those who raise questions about the MKO’s record.

I have been a victim of MKO tactics. Ali Safavi, a member of the foreign affairs committee of the National Council of Resistance® of Iran, the political umbrella for the MKO, has six columns here libeling me in response to my criticism of the MKO. None of his columns address criticisms I made about the MKO. Rather, Safavi’s responses range from the bizarre to the conspiratorial: He accuses me of being an Iranian regime agent because, in his imagination, American Jews who worked in President George W. Bush’s administration and have advocated for regime change in Commentary and the Wall Street Journal over a quarter century must be closet Islamists. Sure, I went to Iran. Yale University funded me. I wrote my dissertation on telegraphy in 19th century Iran and penned several spinoff articles about Persian cryptology, Armenian and Baha’i telegraph workers, and the like. That no more makes me an Iranian agent than the many American students that the regime subsequently took hostage. By Safavi’s logic, am I also al Qaeda because I went to the Taliban
Taliban

...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan...
’s Afghanistan? Am I a communist because I went to Cuba? In reality, my job is to study how rogue regimes think, and I consider the Islamic Theocratic Republic the marquee rogue.

Washington policy debate is rough-and-tumble. During the Iraq war, partisans cast aspersions easily. Those that Safavi repeats—about my supposed role shepherding Ahmad Chalabi—originated in convicted fraudster Lyndon LaRouche’s magazine (Actually, I worked mostly with Iraqi Kurds). Ditto, a New York Times

...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
news hound once accused me of being part of the Lincoln Group, which planted news stories in the Iraqi press. Sorry, Ali. Congress investigated the Lincoln Group; I was not part of it. Don’t be the only Townhall columnist that takes the New York Times at face value. And don’t be the only Iranian who, with the Chalabi calumny, appears to lament Saddam’s fall.

I’ve got thick skin, but such tactics matter. First, how can Washington policymakers take the MKO seriously when it cites LaRouche as a reliable source? Or deflects policy debate with ad hominem attacks? Or argues that security-cleared, American Jewish neoconservative Iran hawks are really just closet Revolutionary Guards agents?

More seriously, the aspersions Safavi casts toward me are mild compared to how the MKO treats the Iranian opposition. Rather than work jointly toward the goal of ending an odious regime in Tehran, the MKO would rather attack any Iranians who do not blindly submit to Rajavi, live in her group homes, and fork over their income and, in some cases, children.

During the Cold War, there were Communists, anti-Communists, and anti-anti-Communists who cared more about knocking down critics of the Soviet Union than about defeating the Evil Empire itself. This is the dynamic now at play with the MKO as it obsessively attacks critics of the Islamic Theocratic Republic. There could be no bigger gift to Khamenei than the MKO’s efforts to delegitimize its critics.

Link

Fifth Column

Lawyer for Radical Columbia Grad Student Repped Al Qaeda Members—Including 'Close Associate' of Bin Laden

2025-03-15

[WashingtonFreeBeacon] When Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
-supporting Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil appeared in court on Wednesday, he was represented by, among others, Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer perhaps best known for defending al Qaeda terrorists.

The Syrian-born Khalil had his green card revoked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the weekend as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on foreign nationals involved in pro-terrorist demonstrations at universities.

Kassem has represented murderous Moslems including Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda member convicted in 2017 for the bombing of a French oil tanker, as well as several other Guantanamo Bay detainees, including a "close associate" of the late Osama bin Laden
...... who is no longer with us, and won't be again......
. He went on to serve as an immigration policy adviser to former president Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. This Is A Man That Does Not Seem Demented...
as a member of the White House's Domestic Policy Council.

Like his new client, Kassem was also involved in anti-Israel activism as a student at Columbia, where he lobbied to rename a sandwich called the "Israeli wrap" in the student dining hall, claiming the terminology was offensive to Moslems. He attended Columbia Law School on a fellowship funded by Paul Soros, the elder brother of Democratic megadonor George Soros
...either Ernst Stavro Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger come true. Maybe both....
His client, Khalil, who graduated from a Columbia graduate program in December, was a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which backed Hamas's "armed resistance" against Israel. He served as a lead negotiator for student activists' illegal anti-Israel encampment last spring and vowed that the group would "remain in this encampment until we achieve all of our demands," which included a boycott of Israel.

Columbia briefly suspended Khalil for his role in the encampment, but he continued to back the demonstrations on campus, which turned ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful in the spring, when students stormed and occupied campus building.

"What we will see [is] the students will continue their activism, will continue doing what they've done in conventional and unconventional ways," Khalil told The Hill in August. "So not only protests, not only encampments, kind of any—any available means necessary to push Columbia to divest from Israel."

"And we've been working all this summer on our plans, on what's next to pressure Columbia to listen to the students and to decide to be on the right side of history," Khalil went on.

Since then, pro-Hamas activists at Columbia have disrupted classes to distribute anti-Semitic flyers, ~~violent~~ mostly peacefully seized campus buildings, and physically assaulted university employees. The chaos led the Trump administration last week to cut off $400 million in federal grants to the university, citing the school's "continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students."

Khalil is expected to remain in the country after a federal judge, Jesse Furman, intervened on Wednesday to block his immediate deportation. Furman, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is a prolific Democratic donor who once threw out a terrorism lawsuit against the Paleostine Liberation Organization.

Furman, who has served as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York since he was nominated in 2011 by President Barack Obama
My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it...
, has a long history of involvement with liberal political causes. The brother of Obama’s former economic advisor Jason Furman, Jesse Furman has donated over $20,000 to Democrats
...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
, including Obama, Crooked Hillary Clinton
...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away. Politix is not one of her talents, but it's something she keeps trying to do...
, and the Democratic National Committee.

Furman also served as the treasurer of his family’s charity, the Furman Foundation, which has donated to Media Matters, the Alliance for Justice, and People for the American Way, according to his Senate confirmation questionnaire.

The Khalil ruling isn’t the first time Furman has staked out a controversial position on a case involving Israel. In 2018, Furman dismissed a terrorism lawsuit against the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Paleostinian leadership in the West Bank, citing a lack of jurisdiction.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of Ari Fuld, an American-Israeli citizen who was stabbed to death by a Paleostinian terrorist outside an Israeli shopping center in 2018. The plaintiffs argued that the PLO and Paleostinian Authority were liable in Fuld’s murder under the Anti-Terrorism Act, because the Paleostinian government paid the terrorist’s family following the attack. Critics say this payment system, known as the "pay-to-slay" program, incentivizes terrorism.

Furman tossed the suit, arguing that the court didn’t have jurisdiction over the PLO and the Paleostinian Authority. But Fuld’s family and other victims of Paleostinian terrorism have appealed the issue, and the Supreme Court agreed to take up the question of jurisdiction in December.

In Khalil’s case, the government is challenging the Southern District’s jurisdiction over the case, arguing that Khalil's lawyers should have filed it in either New Jersey or Louisiana, where Khalil was detained at the time.

Ted Frank, the director of the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, told the Washington Free Beacon that there is a strong argument for challenging the jurisdiction and that he would be "surprised if the motion isn't granted."

Khalil's lawyers countered that there is legal standing to file his case in the place where he was arrested, if there is evidence that the government transferred him to prevent him from speaking with legal counsel.

"There is a two-track process here: habeas corpus (in federal court) and deportation (before an immigration judge)," Andrew McCarthy, a former prosecutor in the Southern District and columnist for National Review, told the Free Beacon. "The issue in the habeas case is whether Khalil's arrest and detention violate the Constitution."

Link

Home Front: WoT

Tulsi Gabbard Identifies Biggest National Security Threat, and It's Not What We've Been Told

2025-03-03

[PJMedia] In a sane political environment, this would have passed as a decidedly unremarkable, albeit not quite one-hundred-percent accurate, observation. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, recently warned that “radical Islamist terrorism” is the biggest national security threat the nation faces today.

Then the drugs and violence brought in by narco gangs aided and abetted by Communist China must be the second biggest.

Well, of course. The top terror groups worldwide are all Islamic. On Sept. 11, 2001, Islamic jihadis carried out the largest-ever terror attack on American soil. Numerous other Islamic jihad attacks have taken place in the U.S., at Fort Hood, the Boston Marathon, San Bernardino, New Orleans, and numerous other places. The Biden regime caught numerous people on the terror watch list crossing into the U.S. from Mexico and released at least 99 of them into the country. Gabbard was therefore making an entirely reasonable assessment.

Gabbard said: “We look at the past four years of open borders, where we had tens of millions of people coming across our borders, many of whom we don’t know who they are or what their intentions are, very specifically the threat of radical Islamist terrorism here within our country is higher than it’s ever been before, not only because of Biden’s open borders, but because of his and his administration’s fear of being called Islamophobes.”

For Gabbard to speak of “radical Islamist terrorism” was not quite accurate, as there is nothing “radical” about Islamic jihad violence. It is mainstream and deeply rooted in the Qur’an and Sunnah. And “Islamist” is a phony word that corresponds to nothing in Islamic theology. It is just an attempt to distance Islam from the crimes done in its name and in accord with its teachings.

Nevertheless, her statement was a tremendous improvement over the Biden regime. FBI director Christopher Wray testified before members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 2021, saying: “The top threat we face from [domestic violent extremists] continues to be those we identify as Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs), specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race.”

Old Joe Biden then said it during his speech to a Joint Session of Congress in April 2021: “We won’t ignore what our own intelligence agencies have determined – the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today is from white supremacist terrorism.”

The following month, a revealing piece in Yahoo News by “journalist” Alexander Nazaryan stated that Biden’s desperately corrupt and partisan Attorney General Merrick Garland “told Congress on Wednesday that violence incited by white supremacists poses ‘the most dangerous threat to our democracy.’ That assertion reflects near-universal consensus among national security experts, including those who worked for the Trump administration.”

In June 2021, Biden doubled down: “As I said in my address to the joint session of Congress: According to the intelligence community, terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today. Not ISIS, not al Qaeda — white supremacists. That’s not me; that’s the intelligence community under both Trump and under my administration.”

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

US military says it killed senior member of al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria airstrike

2025-01-31

[IsraelTimes] The US military says it killed a senior operative of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in an airstrike in northwest Syria on Thursday.

The airstrike, part of an ongoing effort to disrupt and degrade terrorist groups in the region, resulted in the death of Muhammad Salah al-Za’bir of the Hurras al-Din group,

… Guardians of Religion split from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (Al Nusra) in 2018. Since then, the two groups have competed for influence and territory, with HTS periodically arresting Hurras al-Din members. America has been killing them for a while, a good thing even if it does help the new conquerers of Syria…

the US Central Command says in a statement.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

As Turkey moves in following Assad’s fall, Syria’s Kurds are on the defensive

2024-12-23

[IsraelTimes] After rebels sweep to power in Damascus, Syrian Kurdish leader asks Trump to prevent northern incursion by Ankara — which views Kurdish factions as a national security threat

With hostile Ottoman Turkish-backed groups mobilizing against them in Syria’s north, and Damascus ruled by a group friendly to Ankara, Syria’s main Kurdish factions are on the back foot as they seek to preserve political gains carved out during 13 years of war.

Part of a stateless ethnic group straddling Iraq, Iran, ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
member, but not the most reliable...
, Armenia and Syria, Kurds have so far been among the few winners of the Syrian conflict, controlling nearly a quarter of the country and leading a powerful gang that is a key US ally in countering the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
But the power balance has tilted against them since the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
(HTS) swept into Damascus this month, toppling president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
, two analysts and a senior Western diplomat told Rooters.

The seismic change in Syria is expected to yield deeper Ottoman Turkish sway just as a change of US administration is raising questions over how long Washington will keep backing the country’s Kurdish-led forces.

For Turkey, the Kurdish factions represent a national security threat. Ankara views them as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency against the Ottoman Turkish state since 1984 and is deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and other powers.

The Syrian Kurdish groups "are in deep, deep trouble," said Aron Lund, a fellow at Century International, a US-based think tank. "The balance has shifted fundamentally in Syria to the advantage of Turkey-backed or Turkey-aligned factions, and Turkey seems determined to exploit this to the fullest."

The shift has been reflected in renewed fighting for control of the north, where Turkey-backed gangs known as the Syrian National Army (SNA) have made military advances against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Fanar al-Kait, a bigwig in the Kurdish-led regional administration, told Rooters that the ouster of Assad, whose Arab nationalist Baath Party oppressed Kurds for decades, presented a chance to stitch the fragmented country back together.

He said the administration is ready for dialogue with Turkey, but the conflict in the north showed Ankara had "very bad intentions."

"This will certainly push the region towards... a new conflict," he added.

Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
said Friday he expected foreign states would withdraw support for Kurdish fighters following Assad’s toppling, as Ankara seeks to isolate the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish militia that spearheaded the SDF alliance.

Responding to questions from Rooters, a Ottoman Turkish official said the root cause of the conflict is "not Turkey’s view towards the region; it is that the PKK/YPG is a terrorist organization."

"The PKK/YPG elements must lay down their arms and leave Syria," the official said.

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, in a Rooters interview on Thursday, acknowledged the presence of PKK fighters in Syria for the first time, saying they had helped battle Islamic State and would return home in the event a total ceasefire was agreed with Turkey. He denied any organizational ties with the PKK.

Meanwhile,
...back at the abandoned silver mine, a triangular dorsal fin appeared in the water. Then another...
in Damascus, the new leadership is showing warmth towards Ankara and indicating it wants to bring all Syria back under central authority — a potential challenge to the decentralization Kurds favor.

While Turkey provides direct backing to the SNA, it along with other states deems HTS a terrorist group because of its al Qaeda past.

Despite this, Ankara is believed to have significant sway over the group. A senior Western diplomat said: "The Turks can clearly influence them more than anyone else."

HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa told a Ottoman Turkish newspaper that Assad’s ouster was "not only the victory of the Syrian people, but also the Ottoman Turkish people."

The Ottoman Turkish official said HTS was not and never had been under Ankara’s control, calling it a structure "we were communicating with due to circumstances," and adding many Western states were also doing so.

Syrian Kurdish groups led by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the affiliated YPG militia took control of much of the north after the uprising against Assad began in 2011. They established their own administration, while insisting their aim was autonomy, not independence.

Their politics, emphasizing socialism and feminism, differ starkly from HTS’s Islamism. Their area grew as US-led forces partnered with the SDF in the campaign against Islamic State, capturing Arab-majority areas.

The Turkey-backed SNA groups stepped up their campaign against the SDF as Assad was being toppled, seizing the city of Manbij on Dec. 9

Washington brokered a ceasefire, but the SDF has said Turkey and its allies have not abided by it, and a Ottoman Turkish defense ministry official said there was no such deal.

US support for the SDF has been a point of tension with its NATO ally, Turkey. Washington views the SDF as a key partner in countering Islamic State, which US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...
has warned will try to use this period to re-establish capabilities in Syria. The SDF is still guarding tens of thousands of detainees linked to the hard boy group.

Ottoman Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said last weekend that Turkey saw no sign of an Islamic State resurgence in Syria. On Friday, Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, told his German counterpart during talks in Ankara that alternatives needed to be found for the management of camps and prisons where the detainees are being held.

Separately, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf said on Friday that Washington was working with Ankara and the SDF to find "a managed transition in terms of SDF’s role in that part of the country."

US President Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. I'm not working for you. Don't be such a horse's ass....
’s administration has said that US troops will stay on in Syria, but President-elect Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
could remove them when he takes office on Jan. 20.

During his first administration, Trump attempted to pull out of Syria but faced pressure at home and from US allies.

In a Dec. 17 letter to Trump, reviewed by Rooters, top Syrian Kurdish official Ilham Ahmed said Turkey was preparing to invade the northeast before he takes office.

Turkey’s plan "threatens to undo years of progress in securing stability and fighting terrorism," she wrote. "We believe you have the power to prevent this catastrophe."

Asked for comment, Trump-Vance transition front man Brian Hughes said: "We continue to monitor the situation in Syria. President Trump is committed to diminishing threats to peace and stability in the Middle East and to protecting Americans here at home."

Trump said on Dec. 16 that Turkey will "hold the key" to what happens in Syria but has not announced his plans for US forces stationed there.

"The Kurds are in an unenviable position," said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma. "Once Damascus consolidates its power, it will move on the region. The US can’t remain there forever."

HTS leader Sharaa told British broadcaster the BBC that Kurds were "part of our people" and "there should be no division of Syria," adding arms should be entirely in the state’s hands.

Sharaa acknowledged one of Turkey’s main concerns — the presence of non-Syrian Kurdish fighters in Syria — and said: "We do not accept that Syrian lands threaten and destabilize Turkey or other places."

He pledged to work through dialogue and negotiations to find "a peaceful formula to solve the problem," saying he believed initial contacts had been established "between the Kurds in northeastern Syria or the SDF organization."

Kait, the Kurdish official, said his administration wanted "a democratic Syria, a decentralized Syria, a Syria that represents all Syrians of all sects, religions and ethnicities," describing these as red lines. The SDF would be "a nucleus of the coming Syrian army," he added.

SDF commander Abdi, in his Rooters interview, confirmed that contact had been established with HTS to avoid festivities between their forces but said Ankara would try to drive a wedge between Damascus and the Kurdish-led administration.

Still, he said there was strong support from international parties, including the U.S.-led coalition, for the SDF joining "the new political phase" in Damascus, calling it "a great opportunity."

"We are preparing, after a total ceasefire between us and between Turkey and the affiliated factions, to join this phase," he said.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

US diplomats arrive in Syria to talk to Islamist rulers about country’s future

2024-12-20

Lame duck tries to limp across the finish line. What odds incoming president Trump repudiates whatever agreements the [Biden]-[Harris] administration comes to with Hayat Tahrir al Sham?

[IsraelTimes] US envoys have arrived in Syria to speak directly to the new Islamist-led rulers, the State Department says, in the most formal US diplomatic mission since the start of the long civil war.

The State Department’s top Middle East diplomat Barbara Leaf, Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens and newly appointed Senior Adviser Daniel Rubinstein, who is now tasked with leading the Department’s Syria engagement, are the first US diplomats to travel to Damascus since Syria’s opposition militias overthrew oppressive president Bashar al-Assad.

The diplomats will meet representatives of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — designated a terrorist group by Washington — and civil society to discuss with Syrians “their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help support them,” a State Department spokesperson says.

Update from the Times of Israel at 12:25 p.m. ET:

The diplomats will meet representatives of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — designated a terrorist group by Washington — and civil society to discuss with Syrians “their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help support them,” a State Department spokesperson said.

The visit comes as Western governments are gradually opening channels to HTS and its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, and start debating whether or not to remove the terrorist designation on the group. The US delegation’s travel follows contacts with France and Britain in recent days.

In their meetings, the US officials will discuss with HTS representatives a set of principles such as inclusivity and respect for the rights of minorities that Washington wants included in Syria’s political transition, the spokesperson said.

The delegation will also work to obtain new information about US journalist Austin Tice, who was taken captive during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012, and other American citizens who went missing during the Assad regime.

“They will be engaging directly with the Syrian people, including members of civil society, activists, members of different communities, and other Syrian voices about their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help support them,” the department spokesperson said.

“They also plan to meet with representatives of HTS to discuss transition principles endorsed by the United States and regional partners in Aqaba, Jordan,” the spokesperson said.

The United States cut diplomatic ties with Syria and shut down its embassy in Damascus in 2012.

Forces under the command of al-Sharaa – better known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani – replaced the Assad family rule with a three-month transitional government that had been ruling a rebel enclave in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib.

Washington in 2013 designated al-Sharaa a terrorist, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. It said the Nusra Front, the predecessor of HTS, carried out suicide attacks that killed civilians and espoused a violent sectarian vision.

Quizzing a bunch of jihadis and their future targets about plans to form a Western-style democracy strikes me as counterproductive. The following is intersting in a modified limited hangout progression kind of way:

US DOUBLES TROOP DEPLOYMENT TO SYRIA
The United States has more than doubled the number of its forces in Syria to fight the Islamic State group — a dramatic increase that the Pentagon revealed Thursday, acknowledging that the added troops have been there for months or even more than a year.

The US had said for years that there were about 900 troops in Syria, but Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, acknowledged there were roughly 2,000 there now.

The Pentagon was asked repeatedly about the US presence in Syria in the wake of the chaotic overthrow of Assad. It did not disclose the increase and instead kept repeating the 900 figure.

Speaking at a Pentagon press conference, Ryder said the additional forces had been in Syria “at a minimum months — it’s been going on for a while.” He said he only just learned the new number and that the increase was not related to the ouster of Assad or any hike in attacks either by or against IS.

Ryder blamed the secrecy on “diplomatic considerations” and sensitivities but declined to be more specific. There has long been friction between the US and Syria’s neighbors — Turkey and Iraq — about the ongoing presence of American forces in Syria and the need to keep them at a particular level.

Ryder said he is “not tracking” any additional adjustments to the force numbers in the future. That could change, however, as President-elect Donald Trump has said he does not support US forces getting more involved in Syria.

Ryder told reporters the increase in forces was temporary and they are there to augment US operations against the Islamic State group. He said US Army conventional and special operations forces make up the bulk of the additional troops.

The “temporary” description, however, belies the fact that troops have been rotating in and out of Syria for nearly a decade, and for much of the last year, or possibly two, the number has consistently been higher than the 900 officials repeatedly insisted were there.

There have always been an undisclosed number of U.S. special operations forces deploying into Syria for short periods of time, but that would not account for the extra 1,100 forces.

Asked whether Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin knew the total was that high, Ryder said, “I’m confident that the secretary is tracking US forces deployed around the world.” When pressed on whether Austin directed his staff to keep the higher number secret, Ryder said no. He also said that Austin has not talked to Gen. Erik Kurilla, the top US general for the Middle East, about the matter.

Since Assad’s overthrow, Israel and Turkey have both launched military operations inside Syria’s borders, including Israeli airstrikes against weapons facilities in the east that belonged to Assad’s regime and Turkey’s offensive in the northeast against Kurdish forces, who have partnered with the US in its fight against the Islamic State.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

After fall of dynasty, tomb of Assad’s father set on fire in Syria hometown

2024-12-12

[IsraelTimes] Ordinary citizens wander through home of ousted president, loot luxury goods; Syrian refugees stream back home through Turkish border, hope for better life

The tomb of ousted Syrian president Bashir al-Assad’s father Hafez was torched in his hometown of Qardaha, AFP footage taken Wednesday showed, with rebel fighters in fatigues and young men watching it burn.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor told AFP the rebels had set fire to the mausoleum, located in the Latakia heartland of Assad’s Alawite community.

AFP footage showed parts of the mausoleum ablaze and damaged, with the tomb of Hafez torched and destroyed.

The vast elevated structure atop a hill has an intricate architectural design with several arches, its exterior embellished with ornamentation etched in stone.

It also houses the tombs of other Assad family members, including Bashar’s brother Bassel, who was being groomed to inherit power before he was killed in a road accident in 1994.

Hafez al-Assad, then-defense minister, seized power in Syria on November 13, 1970, in a bloodless coup. He was elected president in a vote asking citizens to either approve or reject his candidacy months later.

He consolidated power by bringing into key positions members of his Alawite sect, a minority in Sunni-majority Syria, and established a Soviet-style single-party police state with the help of omnipresent intelligence officers — the feared Mukhabarat.

Assad was particularly hated for a vicious crackdown on an armed uprising by the Moslem Brüderbund in the city of Hama in February 1982. Between 10,000 and 40,000 people died at the hands of the Syrian army.

On Sunday, a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels seized key cities before reaching Damascus and forcing his son Bashar to flee, ending more than 50 years of his family’s rule.

The end of Assad’s reign came 13 years after his crackdown on anti-government protests ignited Syria’s civil war, which has drawn in foreign powers, and jihadists and claimed more than half a million lives.

SYRIANS WONDER AROUND ASSAD’S HOME
Roaming the opulent Damascus home of the ousted Syrian president, Abu Omar said he felt a sense of giddy defiance being in the residence of the man he felt had long oppressed him.

"I am taking pictures because I am so happy to be here in the middle of his house," said the 44-year-old, showing photographs he took on his mobile phone.

He was among the dozens an AFP correspondent saw Sunday entering Assad’s home after Assad fled the country.

"I came for Dire Revenge. They oppressed us in incredible ways," Abu Omar added from the compound of three six-story buildings in the upscale al-Maliki neighborhood.

Jubilant men, women and kiddies wandered the home and its sprawling garden in a daze, the rooms stripped bare except for some furniture and a portrait of Assad discarded on the floor.

Residents in the Syrian capital were seen cheering in the streets, as the rebel factions heralded the departure of "tyrant" Assad.

’SALE! SALE!’
On Sunday, video circulating online showed crowds peeking into the bedrooms in the Assad residence, which was previously off-limits to ordinary citizens.

They could be seen snatching clothes, plates and whatever belongings they could find including a Louis Vuitton cardboard shopping bag.

In one video, a man could be heard yelling that everything was on "Sale! Sale!"

Umm Nader, 35, came with her husband from a nearby district to tour the residence that once inspired fear and awe, and which one visitor now described as a "museum."

"I came to see this place that we were banned from, because they wanted us to live in poverty and deprivation," she told AFP.

Nader said the former inhabitants of the residence had left without cutting off the heating and electricity, "meanwhile our children are getting sick from the cold."

Daily power outages that last for hours have been a fact of life in Syria, reeling from successive economic crises after more than a decade of war and Western sanctions.

Most of the population has been pushed into poverty, according to the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
An AFP correspondent also saw a charred reception hall at the Damascus presidential palace a couple of kilometers away.

As he moved from room to room, Abu Omar said he felt overjoyed.

"I no longer feel afraid. My only concern is that we unite (as Syrians) and build this country together," he said, full of emotion.

Syrians stream back home through Ottoman Turkish border

Syrians continued to flow back into the country after the longtime dictator had fled, speaking of their expectations for a better life following what was for many a decade of hardship in ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
"We have no one here. We are going back to Latakia, where we have family," said Mustafa as he prepared to enter Syria with his wife and three sons at the Cilvegozu border gate in southern Turkey. Dozens more Syrians were waiting to cross.

Mustafa fled Syria in 2012, a year after the conflict there began, to escape conscription into Assad’s army. For years he did unregistered jobs in Turkey earning less than the minimum wage, he said.

"Now there’s a better Syria. God willing, we will have a better life there," he said, expressing confidence in the new leadership in Syria as he watched over the family’s belongings, clothes packed into sacks and a television set.

Turkey, which hosts three million Syrians, has extended the opening hours of the Cilvegozu border gate near the Syrian city of Aleppo seized by rebels at the end of November.

A second border gate was opened at nearby Yayladagi in Hatay on Tuesday.

Around 350-400 Syrians a day were already crossing back to rebel-held areas of Syria this year before the opposition rebellion began two weeks ago. The numbers have almost doubled since, Ankara says, anticipating a surge now Assad has gone.

Turkey has backed Syrian opposition forces for years but has said it had no involvement in the rebel offensive which succeeded at the weekend in unseating Assad.

Around 100 trucks were waiting to cross the border, carrying goods including dozens of used cars. Security forces helped manage the flow of people, while aid groups offered snacks to children and tea and soup to adults.

’OUR OWN PEOPLE’ ARE NOW IN CHARGE
Haya was waiting to enter Syria with her husband and three children. They have lived in a nearby container camp since devastating earthquakes in February 2023 killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria.

"We had good neighbors and good relations, but a container is not a home," Haya said as she comforted her six-month-old baby and her daughter translated her comments from Arabic.

"We are going back to Aleppo. Iman has a school here, but we have nothing else. We are going back home, to our family," Haya said, adding that her brother had been released after years in prison following Assad’s ouster.

Syria’s new interim prime minister has said he aimed to bring back millions of Syrian refugees, protect all citizens and provide basic services but acknowledged it would be difficult because the country, long under sanctions, lacks foreign currency.

Mustafa voiced confidence in the new leadership after Assad was ousted by rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else

Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else

...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
, a former al Qaeda affiliate that has since downplayed its jihadist roots.

"Those who have taken power are no strangers. They didn’t come from the United States or Russia. They are our own people. We know them," he said.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Israel destroyed entire Syrian air force in 250-300 targeted strikes over past 24 hours, Russian Naval base in Tartus hard hit, IDF tanks advancing north along Syria-Lebanon border

2024-12-10

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

🚨 Breaking: In over 300 targeted strikes during the past 24 hours, Israel 🇮🇱 destroyed the entire air force of Syria 🇸🇾, including all aircrafts (MiG and Sukhoi), all helicopters, and all anti-aircraft systems. pic.twitter.com/G12q8SIjwD
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) December 9, 2024

Lebanese Media is reporting that Israeli Tanks are currently advancing North along the Border between Syria and Lebanon, with them only roughly 10 Miles now from the Outskirts of the Syrian Capital of Damascus. pic.twitter.com/cGObLl2oG5
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) December 10, 2024

🚨Russian Naval base Tartus is Syria getting hit hard🚨 pic.twitter.com/1ZmqEZK34E
— Bricktop_NAFO (@Bricktop_NAFO) December 9, 2024

Some 250 Israeli strikes hit Syrian military targets after fall of Assad — reports
[IsraelTimes] Syrian security sources say IAF bombed at least 3 major army air bases that housed dozens of helicopters, jets; SOHR reports over 100 strikes since morning; no comment from IDF

Israel appeared to be continuing its aerial campaign in Syria on Monday, targeting weaponry that Jerusalem feared could fall into the hands of hostile forces in light of the dramatic fall of the Bashir al-Assad regime on Sunday.

Two Syrian security sources said on Monday that Israeli planes bombed at least three major Syrian army air bases that housed dozens of helicopters and jets in the biggest such wave of strikes on air bases since Assad was toppled.

The strikes hit Qamishli air base in northeast Syria, Shinshar base in the countryside of Homs, and Aqrba airport southwest of the capital Damascus, the sources said.

The reports came after Israel Air Force strikes on Sunday hit advanced missile storage sites, air defense systems, weapon production facilities, and chemical weapons

...have not been used since WWI except for in Iraq, by the late, unlamented Saddam Hussein and in Syria, but really, honest, not by the Syrian government. And in Germany in WWII, but that was against civilians. Lots of them, just one of many reasons Hitler's also late and unlamented...
sites, and also took out planes, helicopters, and tanks that belonged to the Assad regime’s military.

The 50-year-old regime, which fell on Sunday after a lightning offensive by rebel forces, was an ally of the Iranian regime and a part of its so-called Axis of Resistance® against Israel.

The number of strikes carried out by Israel on Syrian military infrastructure since Sunday is believed to lie at around 250.

Western intelligence sources believe that around 300 strikes have been carried out against Syrian military targets, the Ynet news site reported, adding that if the strikes continue at their current pace, officials believe the Syrian Air Force will be all but destroyed in a matter of days, ensuring that the rebel groups, and any future government, will not be able to threaten Israel from the air.

A Britannia-based war monitor told AFP that Israel had conducted more than 100 ~~Arclight~~ airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s on military targets in Syria on Monday, including a research center Western countries suspected of having links to chemical weapons production in Damascus.

"Israeli warplanes launched over 100 strikes in Syria today, including on the Barzah scientific research center," Rami Abdel Rahman who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP, reporting "increased Israeli strikes to destroy the former regime’s military capabilities."

There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces on the Monday strikes.

SOHR, run by a single person, has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false reporting and inflating casualty numbers as well as inventing them wholesale.

On Monday evening, three witnesses in Barzeh, north of Damascus, told Rooters that there were at least two explosions in the area, where the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Centre has an office.

The SSRC has been sanctioned and previously struck for its links to chemical weapons production under the Assad regime.

Al Jazeera also reported Israeli airstrikes targeting the Qabr Essit Airport south of Damascus, which was used by the ousted army for helicopters.

A short while earlier, reports in Syria claimed that the IAF had bombed the Latakia port, targeting naval assets belonging to the toppled regime.

Syrian media also reported Israeli strikes in Da’ara in southern Syria early on Monday, with unverified footage of the strikes posted to social media appearing to show secondary explosions, indicating that weapons were stored in the buildings targeted.

Defense sources told The Times of Israel on Sunday that dozens of IAF aircraft had struck numerous targets, with a focus on destroying "strategic weapons."

The IDF also took up new positions in a buffer zone between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights on Sunday, as it prepared for potential chaos. It marked the first time since the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement was signed following the Yom Kippur War that Israeli forces took up positions inside the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, though the IDF has entered the zone briefly on several occasions in the past.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
Security Council on Monday that the IDF had taken "limited and temporary measures" in a demilitarized strip bordering Syria to counter any threats, particularly to residents of the Golan Heights.

"It is important to emphasize, however, that Israel is not intervening in the ongoing conflict between Syrian gangs; our actions are solely focused on safeguarding our security," he wrote in a letter to the 15-member council, adding that Israel remained committed to the framework of a 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement.

The United States was also taking advantage of the new reality in Syria, carrying out dozens of strikes on Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
targets in central Syria on Sunday. American warplanes struck more than 75 Islamic State targets hitting the group’s leaders, operatives and camps, the US military said.

The Syrian government fell early Sunday in a stunning end to the 50-year rule of the Assad family, after a sudden rebel offensive sprinted across government-held territory and entered the capital in 10 days.

Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 as an uprising against Assad’s rule, dragged in major outside powers, created space for jihadist snuffies to plot attacks around the world, and sent millions of refugees into neighboring states.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
, the strongest rebel group, is the former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria regarded by the US and others as a terrorist organization, and many Syrians remain fearful it will impose draconian Islamist rule. HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani has tried to reassure minorities that he will not interfere with them and the international community that he opposes Islamist attacks abroad. In Aleppo, which the rebels captured a week ago, there have not been reports of reprisals.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Why Veterans Really Hate Liz Cheney And Kamala Harris

2024-11-08

[THEFEDERALIST] The recent controversy regarding Donald Trump
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
's criticism of Liz Cheney as a warhawk who has never faced the dangers of the wars she embraces has synthesized an issue that may be opaque to non-veterans: the extreme resentment many veterans of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) feel toward Kamala Harris
former senatrix from California, 2020 Dem presidential hopeful and ultimately Joe Biden's intended successor
and the Democrat Party.

Harris and the Democrats

...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
have created a perfect storm of veteran disdain in that they have succeeded in uniting three once-inapposite groups behind Harris: the neocons who started the GWOT, the media and Democrats who undermined the veterans' GWOT missions, and the generals who failed again and again and again at bringing the GWOT to a successful conclusion.

If you want to understand the prevailing veteran rage against Harris and love for Trump, you need to understand this unholy trinity that so many veterans loathe.

I'll start with the neocon ''chickenhawks.'' Maybe it's not fair to blame Liz Cheney for the GWOT as her father was its prime architect and not Liz herself, but she has come to serve as a symbol of the many advocates for useless, endless wars who never put their own lives (or the lives of their children) on the line, and who now support Kamala Harris. Liz Cheney stands as a symbol in this regard, and she stands for the many establishment Republicans who would rather support a radical Democrat than the only president in decades who did not start new wars.

These are neocons like Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, Bill Kristol, and the infamous 200-plus Republican former staffers for George W. Bush, Willard Mitt Romney, aka Pierre Delecto
...former governor of Massachussetts, the Publican nominee for president in 2012, now Senator from Utah. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney has a record as a successful businessman, heading Bain Capital, and he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics from the midst of bribery and mismanagement scandals. He is currently a trans Republican and a member in good standing of the Never Trump Party, attempting to assume the mantle of the late John McCain...
, and

John Maverick McCain
... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. As an ordinary citizen he greased the infamous hookers peeing on the Obamabed in Moscow dossier in an attempt to smear President Trump...
who helped design the GWOT. These are the people who put GWOT veterans into the cauldron that left them and so many of their friends dead, maimed, or bearing invisible scars that linger even today.

I served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. I was committed to our missions when I was there, and I know we did great good for so many citizens of those two countries. But in the end — given how those wars ended — I have to admit it was all for naught. Defeating al Qaeda and bin Laden in Afghanistan was the one mission that actually mattered, and the rest of what we did in those two wars was, sadly, a waste of time, money, and lives.

To have the architects of those useless, endless wars now turn on the one president who really cared about not squandering our lives feels like an injustice. Many of us stood by those neocons — even defended them in our private lives against slanderous lies — and now they turn on us by opposing the one man who vows that these sorts of wars will end. It is painful and feels like a betrayal.

The second leg of the unholy trinity is the Democrats and their media lackeys who helped us lose those wars — the same people those treacherous neocons have now allied themselves with.

Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and the Taliban
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
in Afghanistan both knew they could never defeat us in battle toe-to-toe. Our technology, our forces, our training, and our tactics were unbeatable. Instead, AQI and the Taliban adopted Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam war strategy: bleed the Americans dry so the folks back home would abandon the war effort. They knew that if they could turn the national will against our mission, America would quit.

They were right. Every IED attack was made not against the soldiers or Marines it killed or maimed, but against the folks back home watching CNN
...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for...
. The ''death counts'' on TV were the ultimate goal of our enemies.

When I returned from Iraq in 2004, I was shocked at how disconnected the news reports were from the reality on the ground, and I was shocked to see those same Democrats who sent us to war now suddenly turning against our mission. The daily march of Democrats with giant Dick Cheney puppet heads on the National Mall and the endless chants of ''Bush Lied, People Died'' served precisely the purpose AQI and the Taliban intended: to break the national will. To many of us returning vets, it felt that our own countrymen were giving aid and comfort to our enemy, helping them fulfill that enemy's strategic objective. This too felt like a betrayal.

The last leg of the trinity of veteran betrayal is the generals who could not win those same wars, retired from the military and went deep into the military-industrial complex, and now endorse Harris and demean Trump. These are generals like Stan McChrystal, who gave us such restrictive rules of engagement in Afghanistan that it cost the lives of so many troops. These are generals like John Kelly, whose counterinsurgency tactics solved so little in Al Anbar Province and who now libels the boss who fired him in The Atlantic magazine. These are generals like Michael Hayden, whose tenure at the National Security Agency did nothing to prevent 9/11, yet who found ways to use that tragic day as an excuse to spy on Americans.

These are the generals who led us in wars that they were not competent enough to win. Their leadership failed, no one was held to account, and now these same men stand proudly against the one president who would not tolerate those failures nor repeat them. This too feels like a betrayal.

Three groups, three betrayals. So many veterans feel like I do — not all, but many.

Link

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