US Bullying Canada to Pursue Anti-Russian Foreign Policy


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Russia's president Vladimir Putin looks dubious about shaking Obama's hand in New York in 2015. He should be. Count your fingers afterwards, Vladimir.

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin looks dubious about shaking Obama’s hand in New York in 2015. He should be. Count your fingers afterwards, Vladimir.

Putin's face says it all.

Putin’s face says it all.

As the world is faced with numerous crises requiring cooperation between the US and Russia – Syria, Ukraine, and international terrorism to name just three – Washington just can’t help its Russophobic ways.

McFaul—This guy and his ilk are the men who push the world to the edge. They should be in gaol for crimes against humanity, like constant warmongering.

McFaul—This guy and his ilk are the men who push the world to the edge. They should be in gaol for crimes against humanity, like constant warmongering.

Most recently, former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul expressed his extreme displeasure (dare I say revulsion) at the idea that the Canadian Government, and specifically its Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion, could possibly make the independent decision to not follow the diktats of Washington in adopting a Canadian version of the Magnitsky Act, a piece of proposed legislation which would have severe repercussions for the Russia-Canada relationship.  McFaul, a staunch anti-Putin crusader whose time as ambassador was marred by countless failures and embarrassing public blunders, went so far as to cast doubt on the commitment to human rights of Mr. Dion and the Canadian Government.

Canada's Stephane Dion. Flogged for refusing to become a rubber stamp of America's State Dept.

Canada’s Stephane Dion. Flogged for refusing to become a rubber stamp of America’s State Dept.

In highly undiplomatic language, McFaul bluntly declared, “Do you stand for human rights or not? If this is an important value [sic] then this is something that should be done.” Leaving aside the condescension oozing from every word of that statement, it is quite clear that the US political establishment is not at all pleased with its usually pliant partners in the Great White North who, it seems, are attempting the unthinkable: conducting a foreign policy that is independent of the United States, at least on this issue.  Indeed, despite the finger-wagging from McFaul, and the ceaseless lobbying and self-promotion of the vulture capitalist and convicted criminal Bill Browder, Canada is unwilling to sacrifice its increasingly friendly relations with Moscow simply to satisfy the anti-Putin obsession of interests based in Washington and London.

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Indeed, Browder is undeniably the leading voice of the transnational lobbying effort to internationalize the Magnitsky Act – a US law passed in 2012 that places sanctions and restrictions on key figures in the Russian government ostensibly over alleged participation in the murder of whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky – and to try to isolate Russian President Putin and his closest advisers.  Of course, embarrassingly for Browder, he was until a decade ago the leading pro-Putin voice in the western investing community in Russia, lauding Putin up and down as the savior of Russia.

For instance, in 2005 Browder told the New York Times, when speaking about the jailing of the criminal oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, that “Putin cares about foreign investors; he just doesn’t care about them enough to allow one oligarch to use his ill-gotten gains to hijack the state for his own economic purposes.”  However, the warm and fuzzy feelings Browder once had for Putin & Co. seem to have evaporated right around the time he was curtly shown the door out of Russia.  As Pando’s Mark Ames wrote in 2015:

And ever since his KGB pals decided they’d had enough of him and chased him out to London a very rich vulture capitalist, Browder has styled himself as the Mother Theresa of global vulture capitalism—and he’s thrown untold millions into promoting that public relations/lobbying effort, whose goal is to use human rights abuses he once covered for and profited from as a cudgel to force the Kremlin to become investor-friendly to vulture capitalists like Bill Browder again.

So it seems that the Magnitsky Act itself, and Browder’s crusade to make it holy writ around the world, is less a product of concern for human rights, and more the result of a personal vendetta against the Russian Government by a very rich and influential vulture capitalist nested comfortably in the City of London, hatching his various anti-Russian pressure campaigns.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dion has rightly pointed to Canada’s invitation to join the International Syria Support Group in Vienna as an example of the fruit of the Russia-Canada relationship, implicitly arguing that it would be unwise to pass a Magnitsky-style bill solely to placate anti-Russian elements in Washington and London while alienating an important global power with considerable political, economic, and diplomatic influence.

Interestingly, in all the talk of human rights, and the chastising of Dion and the Canadian government for their shameful sale of $15 billion of combat vehicles to Saudi Arabia, it is completely ignored that the US is the principal arms dealer to Saudi Arabia, and countless other autocratic regimes which routinely, and quite systematically, violate the human rights of their own people.  So it would seem that for the US human rights is the convenient club with which to bash allies over the head, but which can be completely ignored when it suits Washington’s political and geopolitical agenda.

Russia = bad. Russia = human rights violator. Russia must be punished.

Saudi Arabia = friend. Saudi Arabia = human rights violator but let’s not talk about. Saudi Arabia must be rewarded with tens of billions of dollars of military equipment.

Got it? Good.

Ultimately, the issue is really about control.  The US would like to be able to control the way in which Canada, and all the countries of the West, carry on their relations with Russia.  Washington would like to cobble together a “united front” of sorts that will isolate Russia and, in the wildest pipe dreams of strategic planners, bring down Putin and his administration.

And the US believes that the combination of sanctions, depressed oil prices, Magnitsky-style legislation, and a number of other political, economic, and diplomatic weapons will bring those pesky old Russians to heel.  How little Washington has learned.






ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eric-DraitserEric Draitser is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City and the founder of StopImperialism.com. He is a regular contributor to RT, Counterpunch, New Eastern Outlook, Press TV, and many other news outlets. Visit StopImperialism.com for all his work. 

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Most European Nations Act More Like US Colonies Than Sovereign States

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STEPHEN LENDMAN

stephen-lendmanInstead of declaring their independence, most European nations let Washington pressure, bully and bribe them to go along with its imperial agenda, harming their own national security. 


Dispatch #1

Most European Nations Act More Like US Colonies Than Sovereign States

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]conomic powerhouse Germany remains occupied since WW II ended, permitting numerous US bases on its territory, some jointly operated, harming its security, not protecting it.

The Obama-Merkel not so-odd couple. Their ruling circles are crazy enough to entertain visions of global hegemony at almost any cost.

The Obama-Merkel not so-odd couple. Their ruling circles are crazy enough to entertain visions of global hegemony at almost any cost. Meanwhile, Merkel, a certifiable Russophobe, remains America’s shill in the heart of Europe.

Instead of normalizing relations with Russia, a reliable ally, Die Welt newspaper said a new Defense Ministry White Paper near completion lists it as one of Germany’s 10 major threats, despite no credible evidence suggesting it – plenty proving otherwise.
Other threats include international terrorism – without explaining it’s US created and Berlin supported. Terrorist groups can’t exist without state sponsors.
According to sources quoting what the report says, Russia is Germany’s key rival, using “hybrid instruments to blur the boundaries between war and peace…undermin(ing) other states.”
Other threats include international terrorism – without explaining it’s US created and Berlin supported. Terrorist groups can’t exist without state sponsors.
Moscow’s military strength (almost entirely on its own territory, solely for defense and fighting terrorism in Syria), technological capability, nonexistent “aggression,” reunification with Crimea, and ability to influence public opinion are contrived reasons for considering Moscow a key rival and threat, not a partner – despite Putin urging cooperative relations with all nations, the world’s preeminent peacemaker.
Germany’s Merkel is polar opposite. So are most other European leaders, allied with Washington’s killing machine, humanity’s greatest threat.
She urges greater militarism, not less, at a time demilitarization and all-out efforts for world peace are desperately needed.
The alternative is endless war, European nations threatened because of allying with Washington’s imperial agenda instead of firmly opposing it for their own self-interest.



 Dispatch #2

Jerusalem Day 2016
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n June 5, Israelis celebrate what Palestinians mourn – the conquest and occupation of East Jerusalem, following Israel’s June 1967 preemptive Six Day War of choice, naked aggression by any standard.

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Photo by Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign

Palestinians were and remain deprived of their historic capital. Israel transformed Jerusalem from a multi-cultural, multi-religious metropolis into a predominantly Jewish one. On July 30, 1980, the Knesset introduced the Jerusalem Law. It annexed the city as Israel’s unified capital.
On March 1, 1980, Security Council Resolution 465 declared “all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant (Fourth Geneva) violation…and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development (and) have been established in breach of international law.”
Israel systematically breaches international law and UN resolutions unfavorable to its interests. It lawlessly claims  Jerusalem as its exclusive capital, wanting the entire city Judaized.

Palestinians are being forced out, their fundamental rights denied. Jerusalem Day is a national holiday, ignored by most Israelis, celebrated by “religious chauvinists…a bullying, screeching minority,” Gideon Levy explained.

Palestinians were and remain deprived of their historic capital. Israel transformed Jerusalem from a multi-cultural, multi-religious metropolis into a predominantly Jewish one. 

They infest the city, terrorizing Palestinian neighborhoods, dispossessing longstanding residents – with full regime support, including from its racist courts.
“Today we are supposed to celebrate this day by law,” said Levy. “No person of conscience can do this.” One day the occasion will be “mourn(ed).” Occupation is no cause for joy.
Palestinian rights are mocked. Israel’s High Court rejected a petition submitted by human rights attorney Itay Mack to bar the annual march from passing provocatively through the Old City’s Muslim quarter.
Participating Zionist zealots notoriously insult Palestinian residents. Unaccountable vandalism occurs. Justices ordering police to assure “minimal friction with the Muslim residents (and show) zero tolerance to verbal and physical violence” was meaningless.
Palestinian rights are systematically denied – on Jerusalem Day and all others. Ramadan begins Monday, June 6.
Joint (Arab) List MK Yousef Jabareen called the High Court’s ruling, permitting Zionist zealots free access to the Old City’s Muslim quarter on Ramadan’s eve “provocative (and) racist” – its “sole purpose…to terrorize” Palestinian merchants and other residents.
“On the evening in which Palestinians celebrate Ramadan, a month of tolerance and brotherhood, the police chose, and the High Court approved, to (let) marchers provoke Palestinians, hurt them and sow hatred and fear,” he explained.
“Can anyone imagine” Israeli authorities letting Palestinians march through Jewish neighborhoods “on the eve of Passover” or any other Jewish holiday?
“East Jerusalem is part of” illegally Occupied Palestine. No High Court or political authority can change reality on the ground.


About the author
Screen Shot 2016-02-19 at 10.13.00 AMSTEPHEN LENDMAN lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."  ( http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html ) Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.



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Samantha Power: Obama’s Undiplomatic Ambassador to the UN and #1 Russia Hater


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The woman is on a warpath.  What is it with top female Obama appointees who are married to Neocon power brokers?  Why are they the most hysterical, strident, dare we say it, harpies?  Power seems to be in a race with Victoria Nuland [and formerly Susan Rice, another specimen worth noting] to tell any lie, pull any trick, to do Russia in.  This excellent analysis from Finian Cunningham on her latest adventures is well worth the read.

s.Powers-UNO

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power © Mike Segar / Reuters

This article originally appeared at RT.com / Crossposted with Russia Insider
Power in the service of Power

It’s been a bad month for the angst-ridden US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power. Last week, she was “outraged” by Russia’s veto at the UN Security Council of an international criminal court into the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 over eastern Ukraine.

Three weeks prior, Power was again “outraged” by Russia’s veto of a draft resolution to declare the mass killing at Srebrenica during the Bosnian War in 1995 a “genocide.”

On Srebrenica, Power said: “Russia’s veto is heartbreaking for those families and it is a further stain on this council’s record.

On the latest MH17 veto, the American ambassador fulminated: “When people see Russia’s hand up on something like this, when the whole world is united that when a civilian airliner goes up in smoke and so many families are affected, it is in all of our interests, our collective interests to see that justice is done.

Leave aside Power’s assertion that “the whole world is united” over the crashed airliner, which was apparently shot down near the city of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine in July 2014, with the loss of all 298 people onboard. The draft resolution for a criminal tribunal was tabled by the Netherlands, Australia, the Western-backed Kiev regime and Malaysia. The first three are allies of the US-led NATO military alliance. Hardly a world consensus, as Power would claim.

Power arrogantly trying to intimidate the UN's Russian Ambassador. No limit to the audacity of these criminals.

Power arrogantly trying to intimidate the UN’s Russian Ambassador. No limit to the audacity of these self-righteous criminals.

But it was what Power said next in relation to the Russian veto on a MH17 probe that reveals the politicized agenda lurking behind her emotive appeal. She told US government-controlled Voice of America: “I think not only does it raise real questions about Russia’s relationship to the crime itself and what they’re afraid of within the creation of an independent tribunal, but also raises real questions about the Security Council and whether it can be counted on to enforce the UN charter.”

The US, as with other NATO states, has set itself up as jury and judge on the MH17 tragedy, and has already decided on Russia’s guilt over the incident. From the outset, Western governments and media have insinuated that Russia or “Russian-backed rebels” in eastern Ukraine are the perpetrators. The case has already been poisoned with politicized prejudice, without any evidence. As Christopher Black, a respected international war crimes lawyer, has pointed out to this author, the tribunal proposed by the NATO countries would have been used as “a trap” to incriminate Russia and possibly even indict President Vladimir Putin for having ultimate responsibility.

This is not the place to go into the details of the downing of MH17.

A Dutch-led aviation investigation has yet to publish its findings into the crash. So any move toward setting up an international criminal probe are, to say the least, premature.

As for the 20-year-old Srebrenica massacre in which some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed, again the British-tabled resolution at the UNSC for the incident to be labelled a genocide smacks of a “politicised agenda” that has little do with upholding international justice. During the 1991-95 Bosnian War, there were as many as 100,000 killings, which included countless Bosnian Serb victims.

Why selectively focus on the Srebrenica atrocity now, while ignoring other mass killings during that war? The purpose seems to be to tarnish Serbia – and by extension Russia – with a “genocide” condemnation. Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, said his country’s veto was invoked because the proposed resolution was not conducive to reconciliation in the Balkans, by its purported elevation of one group of victims over others.

Samantha Power has become something of an expert at Russia-bashing and using fiery rhetoric for her selective political aims at the UN Security Council. The UNSC is supposed to be the ultimate arbiter on legal standards for the maintenance of world peace. Power has managed to turn the UNSC into a reckless vehicle for American political objectives.

In September 2013, it was Power who claimed that Russia was “holding the council hostage” and “shirking its international responsibilities” over an apparent atrocity involving chemical weapons in Syria. Power claimed then that there was “overwhelming” evidence that the Syrian armed forces of President Assad had committed the attack on hundreds of civilians. The US was about to launch air strikes on Syria on the back of these claims, only to be averted by Russia’s objection. It turned out that Power’s “overwhelming” evidence was anything but convincing. In fact, it later transpired that the horror was most likely carried out by Western and Saudi-backed anti-government militants.

Irish-born Samantha Power, 44, has made a successful career for herself from the profane use of human rights, atrocities and genocide for the furtherance of American foreign policy.

As a young reporter during the Balkans Wars, her selective focus on “genocide” claims helped contrive the NATO narrative of criminalizing Serbia. That led to NATO military intervention and break-up of the former Yugoslavia, which culminated in the bombardment of Belgrade in 1999.

Power would later write a Pulitzer-winning book, A Problem From Hell: America in the Age of Genocide, in which she developed the policy of “US military intervention for humanitarian protection.” The book has been described to this author by informed legal sources as “a concoction of lies and plagiarism of propaganda in the service of CIA and American government interests.”

Following a stint as professor on humanitarian law at Harvard, she then joined the Obama presidential campaign as foreign policy advisor. She had to resign in 2008 after an injudicious cat fight in which she panned Obama’s rival, Hillary Clinton, as “a monster and liar.”. Power slavered her way through subsequent public apologies to Clinton.

sPower-Obama-UNO-maicious

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power (R) talks with President Barack Obama. Note Obama’s look, it seems to mirror what’s really behind this man’s elaborate facade. © Brendan McDermid / Reuters

However, Samantha was rewarded for her loyalty after Obama’s election and was made a special advisor on his National Security Council.

It was Power who urged Obama to launch the NATO “humanitarian intervention” in Libya in March 2011, which led to a seven-month NATO bombardment, the murder of Muammar Gaddafi and the toppling of his government by Al Qaeda-linked jihadists. Libya has since degenerated into a lawless state, fueling refugees to Europe and gun-running jihadists to Syria.

Power used similar “humanitarian” appeals to side-step the UNSC in order to justify American-led bombing of Iraq and Syria, beginning in September 2014, allegedly to “defeat” the Al Qaeda-linked ISIS terror group. That ISIS has grown out of the US devastation of Iraq between 2003-2012 and its subsequent covert regime-change war in Syria appears to have escaped Power’s reasoning capabilities.

At the UNSC, Power has worked assiduously to shield Israel from sanctions over its violations against Palestinians. Just before the onslaught against Gaza during the summer of 2014, Power said any criticism of Israel was a “red line.”

America’s supposed “foremost scholar on genocide” has also shielded Saudi Arabia from criticism for its ongoing aggression in Yemen, instead accusing the Houthi rebels of violations, this while thousands of civilians have been killed in Saudi-led air strikes and millions face humanitarian catastrophe from an American-assisted air and sea blockade on the country.

Power’s denunciations of Russia’s vetoes at the UNSC as an “embarrassment” should really apply to her own conduct. She has willfully manipulated and distorted concepts of humanitarian law and genocide for the self-serving objectives of American military machinations – machinations that have led to even worse humanitarian crises involving mass atrocities.

In summing up Power’s dubious character and motivations, let’s leave the last word to her. Originally from Ireland, she moved with her parents to the US as a young girl in 1979. On her nomination as US ambassador to the UN by Obama in June 2013, she gushed with gratitude for yet another plum career appointment.

Even as a little girl with a thick Dublin accent who had never been to America, I knew that the American flag was the symbol of fortune and of freedom… I came home from school every day, as my mother can attest, my dad can attest, and I sat in front of the mirror for hours, straining to drop my brogue so that I, too, could quickly speak and be American.”

That abject pursuit of “fortune” in the service of American power has apparently served her well. Others might call it selling your soul.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FINIAN CUNNINGHAM

FINIAN CUNNINGHAM

Finian Cunningham (born 1963) has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, he is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. For over 20 years he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organizations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Now a freelance journalist based in East Africa, his columns appear on RT, Sputnik, Strategic Culture Foundation and Press TV.


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Syria – The War Can Be Limited


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Every time the Syrian Arab Army beats the jihadists, new combatants arrive in Syria in their thousands. We are therefore forced to admit that this war is being cultivated from the exterior, and that it will last as long as soldiers are sent to die. So we must understand the external reasons which continue to maintain it. Then, and only then, can we elaborate a strategy which will spare lives.

The author discussing the prospects for peace in the current era.

The author discussing the prospects for peace in the current era.

Information Clearing House

Syria has been at war now for more than five years. Those who supported the conflict first explained it as an extension of the «Arab Spring». But no-one today uses this explanation. Simply because the governments which developed from these «Springs» have already been overthrown. Far from being a struggle for democracy, these events were no more than a tactic for changing secular régimes to the profit of the Muslim Brotherhood.

It is now alleged that the Syrian «Spring» was hijacked by other forces, and that the «revolution » – which never existed – has been devoured by jihadists who are all too real.

As President Vladimir Putin pointed out, primarily, the behaviour of the Western and Gulf powers is incoherent. It is impossible on a battlefield to combat both jihadists and the Republic at the same time as pretending to take a third position. But no-one has publicly taken sides, and so the war continues.

The truth is that this war has no internal cause. It is the fruit of an environment which is not regional, but global. When war was declared by the US Congress in 2003 with the vote on the Syrian Accountability Act, Dick Cheney’s objective was to steal the gigantic reserves of Syrian gas. We know today that the «Peak Oil» scare did not signal the end of oil reserves, and that Washington will soon be exploiting other forms of hydrocarbons in the Gulf of Mexico. The strategic objectives of the United States have thus changed. As from now, their objective is to contain the economic and political development of China and Russia by forcing them to engage in commerce exclusively by maritime routes which are controlled by their aircraft-carriers.


The “Arab Spring” may have proved a fraud or a dud. 
As soon as he arrived in power in 2012, President Xi Jinping announced his country’s intention to free itself from these constraints and to build two new continental commercial routes to the European Union. The first route would build on the antique traces of the Silk Road, the second would pass via Russia and on to Germany. Immediately, two conflicts appeared – first of all, the war in Syria was no longer directed at régime change, but at creating chaos, while the same chaos broke out, for no better reason, in Ukraine. Then, Belarus contacted Turkey and the United States, expanding the Northern barricade which splits Europe in two. Thus, two endless conflicts block both routes.

syrian war photo

Kurdish fighter taking cover and saving a pup. Photo by Kurdishstruggle

The good news is that no-one can negotiate victory in Ukraine against defeat in Syria, since both wars have the same objective. The bad news is that the chaos will continue on both fronts as long as China and Russia have been unable to build another route.

Consequently, there is nothing to be gained by negotiation with people who are being paid to maintain the conflict. It would be better to think pragmatically and accept that these are simply the means for Washington to cut the Silk Roads. Only then will it be possible to untangle the numerous competing interests and stabilise all the inhabited areas.

Translation – Pete Kimberley – Source – Al-Watan (Syria)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thierry Meyssan, French intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace Conference. His columns specializing in international relations feature in daily newspapers and weekly magazines in Arabic, Spanish and Russian. His last two books published in English : 9/11 the Big Lie and Pentagate. http://www.voltairenet.org


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Syria: “Left-Wing” Charlatans as Harbingers of Terrorism


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A FRENCH WRITER DENOUNCES THE PSEUDO LEFT, “THE LEFT FOOT OF NATO”(1)


Global Research, May 20, 2016  | 21st Century Wire | Region: Middle East & North Africa | Theme: 9/11 & ‘War on Terrorism’, Crimes against Humanity, US NATO War Agenda

[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ollowing the death of a prominent leader of the Arab-lebanese resistance, murdered by the Zionist forces while on Syrian soil, I address this open letter to all left-wing  intellectuals and activists who have aligned themselves with the Syrian “revolution” and believe that by dreaming of the fall of Damascus, they are defending the Palestinian cause.

In the spring of 2011, you were telling us that the Arab revolutions represented an unprecedented hope for the peoples living under oppressive, bloodthirsty tyrants.  Our excessive optimism persuaded us to listen to your arguments for this miraculously flourishing democracy and your proclamations on the universal human rights.

You almost persuaded us that these popular uprisings deposing the Tunisian and Egyptian dictators were going to universally sweep tyranny from the arab world, in Libya as in Syria, in Yemen as in Bahrain and who knows where else.

Hezbollah has confirmed its military commander, Mustafa Badreddine, was killed in Syria this week in what it described as a “major explosion” at Damascus airport. Media reports in Lebanon and Israel quickly suggested the blast had been caused by an Israeli airstrike, a suggestion to which Hezbollah gave weight, announcing it was investigating whether a “missile or artillery strike” had been responsible. Badreddine was the most senior member of the organisation to have been killed since the death of his predecessor and brother-in-law, Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated by a joint Mossad/CIA operation in the Syrian capital in February 2008. There was no immediate reaction from the Israeli government, which has authorised at least eight air strikes against targets inside Syria since the start of the civil war five years ago. Most had targeted anti-aircraft systems that Israeli officials claimed were being moved to Lebanon, where they could pose a threat against its air force.

Hezbollah has confirmed its military commander, Mustafa Badreddine, was killed in Syria this week in what it described as a “major explosion” at Damascus airport.

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Media reports in Lebanon and Israel quickly suggested the blast had been caused by an Israeli airstrike, a suggestion to which Hezbollah gave weight, announcing it was investigating whether a “missile or artillery strike” had been responsible. Badreddine was the most senior member of the organisation to have been killed since the death of his predecessor and brother-in-law, Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated by a joint Mossad/CIA operation in the Syrian capital in February 2008. There was no immediate reaction from the Israeli government, which has authorised at least eight air strikes against targets inside Syria since the start of the civil war five years ago. Most had targeted anti-aircraft systems that Israeli officials claimed were being moved to Lebanon, where they could pose a threat against its air force.



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Sirte, Libya, shows the devastation caused by the NATO attacks and the destruction inflicted by the Washington-armed rebels. The same story wold repeat itself later in Syria and elsewhere, wherever the Washington mafia and its criminal accomplices show up to implement an imperialist agenda.

However the flaws in this evolving narrative began to reveal themselves. The first glaring flaw appeared in Libya. A UN resolution, adopted by the Security Council to ostensibly save endangered civilians, transformed itself into a blank cheque for the military removal of a head of state that had become undesirable for his western partner states. This “regime change” operation can be considered one of the worst moments of the neo-conservative era, accomplished on behalf of the US by two powerful European nations in search of neo-imperialist influence, it precipitated a disaster for which Libya is still paying the price.  The collapse of this unitary state in its infancy delivered the country into the hands of the tribes & factions whose unbridled ambitions were driven by oil lusting western scavengers.

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Despite this, the “good souls” among you managed to find “extenuating circumstances” for this operation thus justifying the demands for a similar fate for the government in Damascus. Consquently, the winds of revolution that were blowing in syria seemed to validate your interpretation of events and retrospectively provided a rationale for the humaniarian warmongering unleashed against the Tripoli potentate.

However, far from the mainstream media arena, certain analysts observed that the Syrian people were not unanimous.  The anti-government protests arose in certain towns, traditional bastions of the Islamist opposition and these feverish protests by those impoverished by the financial crisis did not present any real threat to the government in Damascus.

You chose to ignore these rational, logical warning signs.  Simply because these facts did not correspond with your narration of events, you extracted only that which suited your interpretation. Where these objective observers saw a polarisation of syrian society, you only wanted to see a bloody tyrant assassinating his people. Where a dispassionate view would have allowed you to discern the weaknesses but also the strengths of the Syrian state, you deployed a self righteous rhetoric to bring to trial a government that is not the only perpertrator of violence inside Syria.

The efforts to topple Pres. Assad have met with obstinate support among the Syrian people.

The efforts to topple Pres. Assad have met with the obstinate support for their leader among the Syrian people.

Despite the constant hurricane of lies and demonization against him, Bashar al-Assad is given higher marks than Obama and his assigned court liar John Kerry for honestly seeking peace with dignity in the Middle East.

Despite the constant hurricane of lies and demonization against him, Bashar al-Assad is given higher marks than Obama and his assigned court liar John Kerry for honestly seeking peace with dignity in the Middle East. He is still supported by a clear majority of the Syrian population, regardless of religious and ethnic affiliation.

You saw many protests against Bashar Al Assad yet you failed to see the overwhelming marches in support of the government and the proposed reforms, these marches filled the streets of Damascus, Aleppo and Tartous but you didnt see them. You have highlighted the macabre accounts of the government victims but failed to report those of the victims of the armed opposition. In your eyes, there are good and bad victims. There are victims that you talk about and those you dont want to hear about. You have deliberately chosen to see one side and ignore the other.

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]t the same time, the French government, whose domestic policies you openly criticize to maintain the illusion of independence, has entirely supported your narrative. Curiously, your narrative coincides perfectly with that of French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, the master of servility, combining unconditional support for the Israeli war against the Palestinians with a Pavlovian alignment with the US leadership and hostility towards arab resistance.  You seem unperturbed by your apparent marriage to the French Foreign Office.

Laurent Fabius, along with the rest of the Hollande administration are a disgrace to the legendary reputation of France as the most independent nation in Europe. Fabius is nothing but a lapdog, and a conscious accomplice in Washington's crimes.

Laurent Fabius, along with the rest of the Hollande administration, is a disgrace to the legendary reputation of France as the most independent nation in Europe. Fabius is nothing but a lapdog, and a conscious accomplice in Washington’s crimes.

You were defending the Palestinians while dining with their assassins behind their backs. You even accompanied french state officials on a visit to the State of Israel. You are willing accomplices to a French President who has declared that he will ” always support the Israeli leaders”.  It seems that was not enough to scandalise you and you still joined everyone else who boarded the plane with the President.

You correctly condemned US military intervention in Iraq in 2003. You were left “cold” by the carpet bombing for democracy and you doubted the educational value of surgical strikes. However, your indignation at such “high tech” gunboat diplomacy seems bizarrely selective. Now you justify the hue and cry against Damascus that you found intlolerable 10 years earlier, against Baghdad.  A decade has sufficed to render you so malleable that you envisage the salvation of the Syrian people to be a rain of cruise missiles targeting a country that has done nothing to harm you.

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Bush addressing 25,000 military 2005, Ft Hood, Texas. US politicians are masters of the photo op, this one presenting George W Bush before a captive audience whose overwhelming sentiments are liable to be supportive.

You have denied your anti-imperialist convictions to be enthusiastically wedded to the Washington agenda. Shamelessly, not only were you applauding the B52s but you upheld the most groteque US propaganda, when you should have been immunised against it by the Iraqi precedent and the unforgettable lies from the Bush era.

 

While you were inundating the French press with your inaccuracy, an outstanding American investigative journalist tore the pitiful chemical weapons “false flag” to shreds. A false flag destined to pin responsibility for a chemical attack onto Bashar Al Assad despite no international organisation supporting these accusations.  The experts at the Massachussets Institute of Technology and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons even went so far as to accuse the opposition of carrying out the attacks.

Ignoring facts and concealing them where necessary you played your miserable part in this orchestra of lies. Even worse, you continue to do so. Even Obama had said he didnt believe it, but you persisted in regurgitating your lies like guard dogs that bark long after the intruder has escaped. To what aim? To justify the bombing, by your own government, of a small sovereign state, whose greatest crime was to resist the imperialist order. To come to the aid of a  Syrian “revolution” whose true face you have hidden behind a mask, perpetuating the myth of a moderate, democratic opposition that, in reality,  exists only in the meeting rooms of luxury hotels in Doha, Paris or Ankara.

You have therefore exalted this “Syrian revolution” but have turned a blind eye to its mafia practices, its sectarian ideology and its troubling and dubious funding. You have painstakingly obscured the interfaith hatred that inspires this morbid aversion to other faiths, a hatred held in place by the Wahhabi ideological cement.

You knew that the secular Baathist government acted as a life insurance for all minorities inside Syria but you persisted in discrediting and ridiculing those who came to the defence of the persecuted Christian communities. But thats not all.  On the day of reckoning there remains one ultimate ignominy: you have endorsed the politics of Laurent Fabius who has declared that Al Nusra, Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, is “doing a good job”.  No compassion for the mutilated civilians on the streets of Homs or the Alawites of Zahra massacred by the “rebels”, in your view these human beings have no significance.

Mustafa Badreddine

Between 2011 and 2016, the masks have fallen. You refer to the international law but you applaud its violation against a Sovereign State. You pretend to promote democracy for the Syrians but you are the harbingers of the terrorism that is prolonging their suffering. You say you defend the Palestinians but you are on the same side as Israel. When a Zionist missile is launched at Syria, dont worry, it will never harm your friends. Thanks to Israel, thanks to the CIA, and thanks to you, these courageous “rebels” will continue to work towards a “brighter” future for Syria under the Takfiri banner.  The Zionist missile will, in fact, kill one of the leaders of the Arab resistance that you have cynically betrayed.

Translation by Vanessa Beeley for 21st Century Wire.

The original source of this article is 21st Century Wire

Copyright © Bruno Guigue, 21st Century Wire, 2016

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bruno_Guigue_texte

Bruno Guigue is a French author and political analyst born in Toulouse 1962. Professor of philosophy and lecturer in international relations for highter education. The author of 5 books including  Aux origines du conflit israélo-arabe, l’invisible remords de l’Occident (L’Harmattan, 2002).


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