Respect: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM – سلام القدس عليكم

by JEFF KLEIN As Mitt Romney completes his electoral swing through Jerusalem, it is tempting to view this as just a cynical campaign maneuver. No doubt the candidate – in an effort coordinated the Republican Jewish Coalition and Bill Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel — aims to peel off some Jewish support from Obama, especially in states like Florida, and to seek votes from the large right-wing Israeli-American expat community. Also, a fundraising affair in Jerusalem ($50,000 minimum ticket) promises to add quite a few shekels to his campaign coffers. But that’s only part of the story. Romney is no Willard-come-lately when it comes to serving the interests of Israel. His ties to the Israeli Right and especially Likud Party President Benjamin Netanyahu go back many years. Mitt met Ben in when the two were business school graduates in Boston. Romney, with a Harvard MBA, and Netanyahu (then calling himself “Benjamin Nitai”) from MIT’s Sloan School, worked together at Th…

July 26, 2012|

Paul Craig Roberts

One wonders what Syrians are thinking as “rebels” vowing to “free Syria” take the country down the same road to destruction as “rebels” in Libya.

Libya, under Gaddafi a well run country whose oil revenues were shared with the Libyan people instead of monopolized by a princely class as in Saudi Arabia, now has no government and is in disarray with contending factions vying for power.
Just as no one knew who the Libyan “rebels” were, with elements of al Qaeda reportedly among them, no one knows who the Syrian “rebels” are, or indeed if they are even rebels (Antiwar.com).
Some “rebels” appear to be bandit groups who seize the opportunity to loot and to rape and set themselves up as the governments of villages and towns. Others appear to be al Qaeda. (Antiwar.com)

The fact that the “rebels” are armed is an indication of interference from outside. There have been reports that Washington has ordered its Saudi and Bahrain puppet governments to s…

Local Editor

Lebanese Army Intelligence successfully managed to arrest Rmeileh network, consisting of four members, following the arrest in Sidon of a Palestinian from Gaza, Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

There is information that a fifth member was also arrested. Estimates do not rule out that this cell may constitute other members. As Safir daily reported that the number of suspects with links to the network has reached five and the army intelligence is seeking to seize a sixth.

It is noteworthy that this network included Lebanese Christians, Muslims and Palestinians.

Initial investigation showed that the cell was plotting to bring down a United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) chopper with a rocket at the Shouf town of Rmeileh’s landing field which is used by the Interim forces operating in the South for logistics, the newspaper said.

In a communique issued on Saturday, the army command said that the military intelligence arrested three men in Rmeileh af…

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. (photo by REUTERS/Fahad Shadeed) By:Samir Karam posted on Friday, Jul 27, 2012 Translator: Naria Tanoukhi I share the United States’ concern that Saudi Arabia’s turn is coming, whether it be before or after that of other tiny Gulf states. The US knows, and has confirmed, that organized Islamist groups are first and foremost fighting for power. These are groups which have previously fought in Libya, Syria and Yemen, and waged political battles in Egypt. Their ambitions will not stop at the borders of Saudi Arabia, or anywhere else. The US also knows that the Saudi regime — whose system is similar to that which the Islamist organizations may establish in any Arab country — is not exactly the system they prefer. As these groups extend their sphere of control in the region, their desire to seize power in Saudi Arabia only grows.
The US knows that the generous aid provided by Saudi Arabi…

Western press portrayed these photos as Syrian tanks moving into Aleppo, when in actual reality, it's Russian made tanks on the way to South Ossetia, how many lies do the West have to portray in order to demonize Bashar Al Assad and Syria?.


[ED NOTES:HAT TIP TO CATALINA CAT... Nysoulcontrolla aka Ali at 10:20 AM

In Syria, U.S. should arm rebels, shape future political agenda, says Wolfowitz
Nysoulcontrolla aka Ali at 9:39 AM WAR CRIMINAL WOLFOWITZ, IS RAHELLS PITBULL WHO URGES US ATTACK SYRIA, SAYS SYRIA IS NOT IRAQ AND FORGET WORRIES IT MIGHT TURN INTO ANOTHER IRAQ
In Syria, U.S. should arm rebels, shape future political agenda, says Wolfowitz Appearing on CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria, American Enterprise Institute (AEI) scholar Paul Wolfowitz, who has been a proponent of taking military action against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime, reiterated his stance that Syria is not Iraq.“I think Iraq and Syria are almost completely different situations,” said Wolfowitz in response to a question about the mistakes from Iraq’s post-war period.Wolfowitz, who was one of the chief architects of the Iraq invasion and post-war planning as Deputy Secretary of Defense under Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, for one, there would be no American ground troops necessary in Syria. “…

Via FLC

'Syrian troops after regaining Damascus' "... IMO, the rebels have miscalculated. Their force has not "evolved" enough to confront significant conventional forces in an urban environment or anywhere else that the conventional forces can "pin" them in place against terrain or some other obstacle.
They will pay heavily for this error. They will lose a lot of men, and be driven from the city. Following that defeat IMO the Syrian millitary will move further north and northwest to regain control og the "sanctuaries" on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey. They will succeed in doing this unless Turkey intervenes directly in the fighting.

This would not mean the end of the war. Following such a defeat the rebels are likely to spend an extended period re-building their force in Turkey...."Posted by G, M, Z, or Bat 1:23 PM In Syria, U.S. should arm rebels, shape future political agenda, says Wolfowitz

Posted by Daniel Mabsoutat 11:28:00 PM

In these difficult times where the western establishment is beating the drums of war, where the greedy west is sharpening its knives to kill more and usurp more, where Syria has become an open wound and a meeting ground for all the thugs of the world, where Gaza is still under siege and Israel building and expanding more and more , we witness a world wide campaign- carried on by activists and NGOs- to promote alternative means -or non violent means -distinct and different from the means adopted by the actual victorious Resistance ... It is not by accident nor it is a coincidence that these NGOs -who promote non violence as the sole approach to solve the Palestinian problem or the Arab/Israeli conflict- are found in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine that have opted for armed Resistance .

By this promotion of alternative means, these organizations- actually- are declaring a different kind of war, a soft war –as Sayyed Hassan said - that is …

Local Editor
A pro-Syrian Arab diplomatic source confirmed that Turkey has received, during the past couple of hours, a strict Iranian letter warning it of "changing the game rules" in Syria. In an interview with Syrian daily al-Watan, the Arab source said that this warning comes as a clear response to the latest threats posed by Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyeb Erdogan, claiming that his country will target Kurdish combatants inside the Syrian territories. Also, the Ankara-based Arab diplomat, whose country's government supports the Syrian al-Assad regime, said that Ankara had been preparing, in agreement with Washington, for a military interference in the Syrian crisis; under the pretext of Kurdish population.

However, Iran drew a line for the Turkish dreams, and informed it that any attack on the Syrian territories will witness a harsh attack; as Iran might put into force the mutual defense agreement signed with Syria, the source iterated.
Furthermore…

byJonathon Blakeley
Monday, July 30th, 2012

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (C) stands with leaders of the army, including Fahad Jassim al-Freij (front L) and Daoud Rajha (front R) at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in a ceremony to mark the 38th anniversary of the 1973 October War with Israel, in Damascus. 2011. (photo by REUTERS/Sana/Handout/Files)   By:Eli Avidar posted on Tuesday, Jul 24, 2012 Ever since the demonstrations began in Syria in January 2011, the world has waited for a tie-breaking development in the struggle between the regime and the rebels. This took place last week [July 18] in the form of an explosion in the national security building [in Damascus] that took the lives of Defense Minister General Daoud Rajiha and his deputy, Assad’s brother-in-law General Assef Shawkat. This attack on the regime’s "holy of holies" proves that Assad no longer has the ability to consolidate the coalition of minorities that has retained his family in power.....

The events taking place in Syria are li…

This is a very timely and important message from Heabollah Leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah that people of all faiths would do well to heed. There are, he says, those in the Middle East now who are deliberately trying to sow religious hatred. This is the age-old divide-and-conquer strategy, and Nasrallah is telling his listeners not to fall for it. Those who allow themselves to be manipulated into hating other people for their religion, he says, are weak-minded. And he is correct. They are. "This reveals to the Israeli and the American how (easily) we, as Muslims, can be deceived."

And of course everything he says about Muslims who have fallen into this trap, could equally apply to Christians, for as we know, there are Christian Zionist leaders today who deliberately engender fear and hatred of Islam among their followers. I could go to the trouble of naming them, but I think most people already know who they are. The media of course give them lots of attention. B…

Franklin LambBeirut Al-Manar Graphics by Alex From this observers experience in Lebanon there is only one cosmic like event that is nearly as predicable from Ramlet al Baida beach in Beirut, near Shatila Palestinian refugee camp, than the sun coming up like thunder out of Syria across the eastern Bekaa Valley every morning. And that might be the regularity of the on cue from Washington, Riyadh, Doha, and Tel Aviv cacophonous chorus that very frequently these days wafts throughout this country and region: “Hezbollah must give up their weapons!” As this country begins focused preparation for next year’s parliamentary elections which is predicted by some analyst’s to quickly develop into the most expensive in Lebanese history in terms of dollars per vote contracted for by some well financed parties, the Future Movement-led March 14 coalition and their international backers are out of the gates early and currently stressing “the urgent need to disarm Hezbollah in order to depriv…