U.S. Senator McCain: Congress’ rejecting use of force in Syria would be catastrophic
2 Spetember, 2013 – Reuters

WASHINGTON: U.S. Senator John McCain said on Monday that a vote by the U.S. Congress against President Barack Obama’s proposal for using military force in Syria would be catastrophic.

“If the Congress were to reject a resolution like this after the president of the United States has already committed to action, the consequences would be catastrophic,” McCain told reporters after a meeting with the president at the White House. McCain, a Republican, said he was encouraged by the meeting but that there was “a long way to go” to get the resolution passed.

McCain said that he and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham – who was also in the meeting with Obama – favored changes in the resolution that would broaden it to make it more than just a response to the use of chemical weapons by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“We do want an articulation of a goal that over time will degrade Bashar al-Assad’s capabilities, increase and upgrade the capabilities of the Free Syrian Army and the Free Syrian Government so they can increase the momentum on the battlefield,” McCain said.

Both McCain and Graham have long favored U.S. intervention against Assad in the civil war in Syria, while Democrat Obama has tried to stay out of the conflict until now.

“We appreciate the president meeting with us. We had a candid exchange of views and I think we have found some areas that we can work together. But we have a long way to go,” McCain said.
…source

French PM says no vote in parliament on Syria
2 September, 2013 – Agence France Presse

PARIS: French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said there would be no vote during Wednesday’s parliamentary debate on the Syria crisis, adding that there was no doubt that Damascus was behind a deadly chemical attack.

“The regime of Bashar al-Assad has committed the irredeemable on August 21,” Ayrault said on Monday.

The prime minister, who met prominent lawmakers to discuss the crisis, said President Francois Hollande was “continuing efforts to forge a coalition as soon as possible” to punish the Syrian regime for the attack.

But he added that “there is no question that France will act on its own”.

“It is up to the president to decide if a vote… should be held,” Ayrault said of the emergency parliamentary session. He said there would be no vote on Wednesday as in all probability no coalition would have been formed by then.

The United States and other Western and Arab countries blame the alleged gas attack in the Damascus suburbs on the Assad regime, which itself strenuously denies any responsibility and points an accusing finger at the opposition forces.

Washington says that based on its intelligence, more than 1,400 people were killed in the gruesome incident. Frane on Monday spoke of “at least 281” deaths.

US President Barack Obama has deferred any military action in Syria, seeking Congressional approval while the British parliament has rejected any intervention there.

The French president can order military action without parliamentary approval but some lawmakers have urged Hollande to put the issue to a vote.
…source

Criminal insanity of US regime
2 September, 2013 – By Finian Cunningham

This is from the leader of the same terror state that supplied former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with chemicals weapons and the coordinates to gas thousands of Iranians and Kurds during the 1980s; it is the same United States of terror that dropped white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah and others in 2005-2006 during its genocidal war of illegal occupation; it is the same terror state that poisoned Iraq and generations of children with depleted uranium; the same terror state that supplies Israel and other allies such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain with a plethora of toxic chemicals that are then fired into civilian homes every day of the week.

They say absolute power corrupts absolutely. That adage applies more than ever to the president of the United States, his administration and the Wall Street flunkeys that sit in Congress.

But the corruption extends beyond the usual meaning of a dysfunctional moral compass to include the incapacity for intelligent reasoning and self-reflection. The political class of most powerful country on earth has been so over-indulged in arrogance and hubris that it is no longer able to realize how ridiculous it appears to the rest of the world. In short, criminal insanity seems to be the condition of US rulers and their puppets, including those in the mass media.

The American president and his cronies on Capitol Hill preen and talk as if into a charmed mirror that reflects loveliness to the beholder, yet the rest of the world sees ghastly, frightening clowns, loaded up on self-righteousness, delusion, inordinate firepower and a reckless ease for squeezing the trigger.

Indeed, such is the ridiculous posing by Washington that the US – the world’s number-one terrorist state – seems to have added a new weapon to its arsenal of planet-destroying armaments – one that induces uncontrollable laughter in victims to the point of death from asphyxiation or from a busted gut.

President Barack Obama may have been testing out this new “mass laughter” weapon last weekend when he announced that he was seeking approval from Congress to launch military strikes on Syria. This was after his administration accused the Syrian government of “murdering over 1,000 of its own people” with chemical weapons in the suburbs of Damascus on 21 August.

The death of hundreds of innocent civilians, including women and children, is certainly no laughing matter. But it is a cruel mockery to their memory that the US president should try to use these deaths as an excuse to escalate his transparent and criminal agenda for regime change in Syria.

While the Americans huff and puff that they have “high confidence” in their secret allegations against the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad, the rest of the world is more convinced that it is the US-backed mercenaries who committed mass murder with chemical weapons supplied by Washington’s ally Saudi Arabia.

So out-of-control is the delusional US president that it took his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to make a telephone call and remind Obama that he is a Nobel Peace Laureate and should act accordingly instead of playing with fire that might engulf the region and the entire globe.

“I would like to address Obama as a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Before using force in Syria, it would be good to think about future casualties,” Putin said, as if he was addressing an imbecile, which he was. “Russia is urging you to think twice before making a decision on an operation in Syria.”

Apart from the world’s most reactionary and lawless regimes, Saudi Arabia and Israel, the rest of humanity is also urging the American government to think twice before it murders countless more people in a region already teetering on the brink of conflagration. Even the normally gung-ho British have backed away from such reckless adventurism. …more

Russia may send lawmakers to US to discuss Syria
2 September, 2013 – By Laura Mills – Associated Press

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin proposed on Monday to send a delegation of Russian lawmakers to the United States to discuss the situation in Syria with members of Congress.

Two top Russian legislators suggested that to Putin, saying polls have shown little support among Americans for armed intervention in Syria to punish its regime for an alleged chemical weapons attack.

Russian television showed Putin meeting on Monday with Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the upper house, and Sergei Naryshkin, the lower house speaker, at his residence outside Moscow.

The lawmakers said maybe U.S. legislators can be persuaded to take a “balanced stance” on the issue. Putin supported the initiative, which would require formal approval by the Foreign Ministry.

Russia has sent legislators to the U.S. before to try to persuade Congress about pending legislation. But sending a delegation to Washington to discuss Syria’s civil war could be seen as a publicity stunt, given the strong positions Moscow already has taken as a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

The U.S. has accused Russia of providing military support to Assad that has allowed him to cling to power during Syria’s civil war.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed evidence of the alleged chemical weapons use by the Syrian regime as “absolutely unconvincing.”

He said the evidence presented by the U.S. to Moscow showed “there was nothing specific there, no geographic coordinates, no names, no proof that the tests were carried out by the professionals.” He did not describe the tests further.

The U.S. said it has proof that Assad’s regime is behind attacks that Washington claims killed at least 1,429 people, including more than 400 children in a suburb of the Syrian capital of Damascus on Aug. 21. Syrian officials have denied the allegations, blaming rebel fighters.

Lavrov has brushed aside Western assertions of an alleged Syrian regime role. Russia, along with China and Iran, has staunchly backed Assad throughout the conflict.

“What our American, British and French partners showed us in the past and have showed just recently is absolutely unconvincing,” Lavrov said at Russia’s top diplomatic school. “And when you ask for more detailed proof, they say all of this is classified so we cannot show this to you.”

On Saturday Putin spoke out against the prospect of U.S. military intervention in Syria, calling such a move “foolish nonsense” that “defies all logic.”
…more

Russia: US fails to present hard evidence of Syria chemical attack
2 September, 2013 – Al Akhbar

The United States has failed to present concrete evidence that the Syrian government was behind last month’s alleged chemical attack in a Damascus suburb, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

Moscow vehemently opposes US-led plans for a military assault against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in response to the alleged attack, even though the timetable has now been put back by President Barack Obama’s decision to put it to Congress.

“What we were shown before and most recently by our American partners as well as the British and the French absolutely does not convince us,” Lavrov said at a university lecture in Moscow.

“And when you ask for more detailed evidence, they say that it is all secret and they cannot show you. Thus, there are no such facts for the purposes of international cooperation,” he added.

President Vladimir Putin said over the weekend it would have been “utter nonsense” for the government to launch such an attack when it has the military ascendancy.

Lavrov said Russia had been shown some evidence by the West but doubted its validity, saying “there was nothing concrete, without geographic coordinates or names.”

He accused the West of concealing comments by “many experts” who have expressed “serious doubts” about the validity of the video footage of the attack posted on the Internet.

“If we are going to state that these are pictures of the use of chemical arms and of the effects on the victims then there is a mass of disparities and absurdities,” Lavrov said.

“There are very many doubts,” he said. “There are no facts, just talk that ‘we probably know this,'” he added.

The dispute between the West and Russia over Syria is expected to be at the center of the G20 summit which is to be hosted by Putin later this week in Saint Petersburg. …source

Democracy Bahrain – How Bahrainis Seek to Win Democracy

Democracy Syria – How US Seeks to Win Democracy in Syria

The events that we have experienced since August 21 (announcement of the Allied bombing of Syria rejected by the House of Commons ) are not a competition between major colonial powers, but mark the Western peoples’ revolt against their leaders. For Thierry Meyssan, Westerners now face their contradictions: exploiting the rest of the world under their rule or live in peace under the rule of reason.

Enlightenment against colonialism
by Thierry Meyssan – Voltaire Network – 2 September 2013

As in a Greek tragedy, Westerners who announced they would bomb Syria within the hour have done nothing but tear each other apart. “Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad,” said Euripides.

On one side, the leaders of the permanent member states of the Security Council, Barack Obama, David Cameron and Francois Hollande; on the other, their peoples. On the one hand, hubris (ὕβρις), the excesses of the last great colonial powers, on the other, the Light of Reason. Facing them, the Syrians, quiet and enduring, and their allies, Russians and Iranians, on watch.

The piece being played is not just another episode of world domination, but is a pivotal moment in that history has not known since 1956 and the victory of Nasser at the Suez Canal . At the time, the United Kingdom, France and Israel had to give up their colonial dream. Certainly, there were still the wars in Algeria, Vietnam and the end of apartheid in South Africa, but the momentum placing the West at the head of the world had collapsed.

This dream, however, was revived by George W. Bush’s conquest of Iraq. Seeing their economies falter and believing in the imminent disappearance of crude oil (according to the theory of “peak oil”), U.S. multinationals used Allied armies to re-colonize the East. During one year, a private company, the Coalition Provisional Authority, ruled and plundered Iraq. This dream was to continue in Libya, Syria and Lebanon, then Somalia and Sudan, before culminating in Iran, according to the revelations of General Wesley Clark, former commander of NATO.

However, the Iraqi experience will have shown that even after years of war against Iran and years of sanctions both draining the lifeblood of a nation, it is not possible to colonize an educated people. The difference in status between the occidental powers knowing to read and write and mastering gunpowder, and the rest of the world has disappeared. And even the most ignorant people watch television and think about international relations.

This paradigm has a corollary: the Western peoples are not bloodthirsty. Sure of their superiority they set out to assault the world and came back bruised. Today, they refuse to reembark upon this criminal adventure for the sole benefit of their captains of industry. This is the meaning of the vote in the House of Commons rejecting a motion to attack Syria submitted by David Cameron.

Do the people have a clear awareness of their actions? Certainly not. Rare are the Westerners, Europeans and North Americans who have figured out how NATO caused the secession of Benghazi, making it pass for a revolution against Muammar el- Qaddafi, before crushing the country under a deluge of bombs. Rare are those who recognized the green, white and black flag of the Free Syrian Army as that of the French colonization. Yet everyone knows that this is what it is.

The communication from Downing Street and the White House is stupefyingly arrogant. In their note on the legality of the war, the services of the British Prime Minister stressed that the United Kingdom can intervene outside of a mandate from the Security Council to prevent the commission of a crime, provided that this intervention be directed exclusively towards this goal and be proportional to the threat. But how can we claim to prevent an army’s use of chemical weapons by bombing their country?

The White House, for its part, issued a memorandum from its intelligence services assuring they have “certainty” of the use of chemical weapons by Syria. Was it necessary to spend more than 50 billion dollars a year to give birth to a conspiracy theory devoid of the slightest tangible evidence? In 2001 and 2003, accusation was law. Colin Powell could attack Afghanistan by promising to provide further evidence of the involvement of the Taliban in the attacks of September 11, and never transmit it to the Security Council. He could have it listen to false telephone interceptions and brandish a vial of fake anthrax before razing Iraq and apologizing for his lies. But the West today faces the contradictions between supporters of colonization and the Enlightenment .

What is playing out in Syria is really the future of the world. The leaders of Western states, ever in pursuit of profit and power, are no longer able to exploit their people and are turning their ambitions outward. They are disowned by the representatives of their people. The vote of the British would no doubt also be that of the French, if the National Assembly was called upon to decide, and will perhaps be that of the United States, when Congress is consulted.

Meanwhile, rather than resolving their internal economic problems, Washington, London and Paris rivalize with bombastic and bellicose statements, devouring each other on the ruins of their extinguished glories. …source

Syrian army ambushes Nusra-linked ‘terrorists’: SANA
2 September, 2013 – The Daily Star

BEIRUT: The Syrian army has ambushed a group with links to the Nusra Front on the outskirts of Damascus, SANA, quoting a security sources, said Monday.

“A brave unit of the Syrian army ambushed most members of a terror group affiliated to the Nusra Front that was trying to cross into Eastern Ghouta on the Al-Dumay Adra Mayda’a road on the outskirts of Damascus,” the source told the Syrian state-news agency.

…source

HM King Hamad Congratulated on Arab Honour
2 September, 2013 – BNA

Manama, Sep 1 (BNA) –The Kingdom of Bahrain will officially host the headquarters of the Arab Human Rights Court. The Arab League Council today approved in its evening session the Kingdom Bahrain to host the permanent HQ of the pan-Arab rights tribunal.

Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa congratulated His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa on the Arab honour. Shaikh Khalid paid tribute to HM the King for his farsighted initiative which keeps pace with the aspirations of the Arab peoples. He hailed the pan-Arab court as a quantum leap forward and major step for human rights in the region and the Arab World.

He underscored the importance of the Royal initiative in promoting human rights to keep pace with other developed nations which boast major strides in this field.

“The initiative to establish the court stems from HM the King’s firm belief in the importance of human rights and basic human liberties”, Shaikh Khalid said. He described the endorsement of Bahrain to host the permanent HQ as a positive step on the right path to disseminate and protect human rights in the Arab World. He stressed Bahrain’s firm resolve to spare no effort for the court to achieve its goals and promote the protection of human rights in the Arab World. …more

Obama, Cameron climbed a tree, don’t know how to get down : Al-Jaafari
1 September, 2013 – Shia Post

Syria’s permanent representative to the UN Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari said that US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron “climbed to the top of the tree and don’t know how to get down,” which is why they resorted to the House of Commons and the Congress to seek a way out of the trouble they got themselves into, or were placed in by others.

In a phone call with the Syrian TV on Saturday, al-Jaafari said that Obama is under a lot of pressure from the hardline right wing, neo-Zionists, Israel, Turkey and some Arabs, and that he did well by emulating Cameron by referring the decision of waging an aggression on Syria to the congress, which is how Cameron “got down from the tree.”

He said that the western media has become a very negative war media, pressuring for aggression against Syria more than military personnel who seem hesitant, citing the example of CNN which began to criticize Obama immediately after his speech, saying that he hesitated and changed his mind.

Al-Jaafari said that civilians at the US State Department, the Pentagon and the White House who are pushing Obama to wage an aggression, which is ironic because military figures are the ones who are usually enthusiastic about military action, yet the US Chief of Staff, Defense Secretary and top officers seem very hesitant when it comes to attacking Syria. …more

Arab states urge international action against Syrian government
2 September, 2013 – Shia Post

Arab states on Sunday called on the international community to take action against the Syrian government over a chemical gas attack that killed hundreds of civilians.

The final resolution of an Arab League meeting in Cairo urged the United Nations and international community to “take the deterrent and necessary measures against the culprits of this crime that the Syrian regime bears responsibility for”.

The Arab League foreign ministers also said those responsible for the attack should face trial, as other “war criminals” have.

The head of Syria’s opposition National Coalition on Sunday urged Arab countries to back US-led Western strikes on the Damascus regime over an alleged chemical weapons attack.

“I am here before you today to appeal to your brotherly and humanitarian sentiments and ask you to back the international operation against the destructive war machine” of the Syrian regime, Ahmad al-Jarba told a Cairo meeting of Arab League foreign ministers.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday called on the world community to take all necessary steps to deter Syrian government violence.

“The time has come to call on the world community to bear its responsibility and take the deterrent measure that puts a halt to the tragedy,” Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told an Arab League meeting in Cairo. …more

The first Photo below is a “Car Bombing” in Bahrain, MOI blames Democratic Opposition, though they only have confession coerced though torture to corroborate their allegations.

The second is a recent “Car Bombing” in Turkey. Note: images of Bahrain “Car Bombings”, if you can even find them in the Western Media, are often “close up(because no debris field) and resemble a “Car Fire”. Much of the “crime scene” is arranged and the small amount of debris obviously staged. Note the Bahrain “Car Bomb” picture, there is a tent within ten feet unfettered by the blast or the fire and what’s up with the door in the bed of the truck?

News Stories Published to the West seldom have images, but have a picture of a MAp showing where in the world Bahrain is… The “Car Bomb” in Turkey, well that’s “bloody car bomb”.

Saudi King Abdullah Lavishes Hillary Clinton With N81 Million ($500K) Worth Of Jewels
1 September, 2013 – by naijamayor
|
This file photo shows, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, right, holding a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Riyadh. Photo: AP

This file photo shows, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, right, holding a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Riyadh. Photo: AP

Foreign leaders gave lavish gifts to a number of US officials last year, including the Saudi Arabian king, who gave Hillary Clinton diamond-and-ruby-encrusted jewels worth half a million dollars.

Clinton’s gifts from King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz – which included a necklace, bracelet, earrings and a ring – were by far the most expensive items among the hundreds of gifts given to US officials in 2012.

A complete list of the gifts received last year, as well as a couple dozen from previous years, were disclosed by the State Department on Thursday.

The gift-giving continues a long-held tradition of international diplomacy, in which dignitaries show their appreciation for one another by exchanging artwork, jewelry, electronics and other presents.

Most of the items are required to be donated to the national archives, though a few may be bought by the recipients. The Hill newspaper first reported on the gifts.

In addition to her jewels from Saudi Arabia, Clinton also received wine from Algeria; a two-piece bronze sculpture of a red chili pepper from Singapore; a cuff bracelet, necklace and earrings from Kazakhstan; caviar and a wool carpet from Azerbaijan; Cognac from Russia; and gold, sapphire and diamond jewelry worth $58,000 from Brunei.

Among President Obama’s gifts were: Christmas mugs, coffee, and steak knives from Brunei; a basketball autographed by Chinese President Xi Jinping; a ‘silver figure representing [an] oversized coffee bean’ from Colombia; a leather wallet and tote bag from France; a porcelain vase decorated with images of the White House and Kremlin from Russia; a chest of liquor and a Coca-Cola bottle decorated with beads from Mexico; and a 41-inch saber from Mongolia. …more

Siding With A Tyrant: British Policy Towards Bahrain And Its People
By Daniel Wickham – 2 September, 2013 – The left foot forward

In early August, David Cameron met with the King of Bahrain in Downing Street for the third time since he took office in 2010. The Prime Minister was keen to “reiterate the UK’s support for ongoing political reform in Bahrain”, though according to Human Rights Watch “no progress” has actually been made so far by the government. Hours later, King Hamad had banned protests in the capital city of Manama in preparation for pro-democracy demonstrations planned for the 14th of August- a move described by Amnesty International as an “outrageous” violation of international law.

Over the next few days the Bahraini authorities arrested lawyers, denied human rights activists the right to enter the country and began erecting barbed wire around villages to prevent protests. The Bahraini Prime Minister warned that illegal demonstrations would be met with force, echoing his earlier remarks that the regime would “burn to a cinder all those who seek to tamper with its security and stability.”

Despite the warnings, thousands took to the streets on the 14th of August, the anniversary of Bahrain’s independence from the United Kingdom (an event not celebrated by King Hamad, who insists that “for all practical and strategic purposes the British presence has not changed” since it was a protectorate). As promised, the authorities responded violently, beating and arresting over a dozen protesters and firing tear gas and birdshot at many more.

Political repression of this kind is now a daily reality for many Bahrainis. Since the uprising began in February 2011, the security forces have killed around eighty civilians, among them children who were gassed to death in their own homes. Thousands more have been arrested for taking part in protests, and hundreds are reported to have been tortured in state custody.

The regime has sought to justify the crackdown as part of a larger war on terror, using the pretext of Iranian aggression to smear the Shia-led pro-democracy movement as some sort of proxy for Tehran. But Bahrain’s own Independent Commission of Inquiry and diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks have shown that there is no evidence of Iranian involvement in the unrest.

Yet still Britain continues to reiterate the regime’s propaganda about a “foreign plot.” Ambassador Ian Lindsay has “condemned Iran’s meddling” in Bahrain, accusing Tehran of “providing support to people who are bent on violence” and even going as far as publishing pro-regime smears about the protesters on the British government website.

But the clearest example of foreign “meddling” has come not from Iran, but from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which in 2011 sent its National Guard in to support the crackdown, using British armoured vehicles to do it. Naturally this warranted no such criticism from Ambassador Lindsay, despite the findings of the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Arms Exports Controls that the vehicles “facilitated extreme violence against civilian demonstrators and very serious human rights abuses” in Bahrain.

Later that year, birdshot pellets made by the British arms company Gamebore were found to have been used against Bahraini protesters, eleven of whom have been killed by birdshot since 2011 (though it is not clear what make of pellets were responsible). Britain has also supplied the country with FinFisher spyware which was then used to target pro-democracy activists in London, Washington and Manama.

Throughout the crackdown Britain has loyally remained one of the regime’s closest allies and biggest military suppliers, while the Bahraini people have reportedly suffered the single largest decline in political freedom of any Middle Eastern nation in the last five years. The tear gassing, torture, house raids and jailing of dissidents continues unabated. Britain had the chance to condemn these practises at the UN Human Rights Council in 2012 along with 28 other countries, but chose to remain silent (as did the United States). …more