US official: Russia sends troops to Syria as peace hopes fade

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U.S. military completes planning for Syria

Security Clearance/  By Barbara Starr

The U.S. military has completed its own planning for how American troops would conduct a variety of operations against Syria, or to assist neighboring countries in the event action was ordered, officials tell CNN.

In recent weeks, the Pentagon has finalized its assessment of what types of units would be needed, how many troops, and even the cost of certain potential operations, officials tell CNN.

The planning comes as the U.S. has become increasingly concerned that the violence in Syria is verging on civil war. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the recent series of bombings have heightened the worry.

Dempsey said it reminded him of the escalating violence during the Iraq war.

The violence "gives us all pause that have been in Iraq and seen how these issues become sectarian and then they become civil wars and then they become very difficult to resolve," Dempsey told CNN in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

A senior U.S. official said the developments have been a matter of discussion in the Obama administration.

"There is a sense that if the sectarian violence in Syria grows, it could be worse than what we saw in Iraq," the official said.

The military planning includes a scenario for a no-fly zone as well as protecting chemical and biological sites. Officials say all the scenarios would be difficult to enact and involve large numbers of U.S. troops and extended operations.

The planning, officials insist, is being done protectively and there have been no orders for any action from the White House.

The U.S. Navy is maintaining a presence of three surface combatants and a submarine in the eastern Mediterranean to conduct electronic surveillance and reconnaissance on the Syrian regime, a senior Pentagon official said. The official emphasized that the U.S. routinely maintains this type of naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, but acknowledged the current focus is on Syria.

The United States, Britain and France have all been discussing contingency scenarios, potential training and sharing of intelligence about what is happening in Syria with neighboring countries including Jordan, Turkey and Israel. But it is Jordan, so far, that is most seeking the help because of its relatively small military and potential need for outside help if unrest in southern Syria were to impact Jordan's security.

U.S. special forces are training and advising Jordanian troops on a range of specific military tasks they might need to undertake if unrest in Syria spills over into Jordan or poses a threat to that country, three Defense Department officials told CNN. The officials declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the training. Jordanian officials also are refusing to publicly confirm details, but a senior Middle Eastern government official also confirmed details to CNN.

The U.S. has been training in Jordan using mainly special operations forces under a program called Joint Combined Exchange Training, which sends troops overseas to train foreign soldiers and units in specific missions. Jordan's major security concern is that if the Syrian regime were to suddenly collapse, then it would face unrest on its northern border, as well as the possibility of large refugee flows, weapons smuggling into Jordan, and potential disarray in Syria's chemical and biological weapons complex. Jordan also is considering how and where to potentially set up humanitarian assistance bases inside its borders, another matter the U.S. is advising it on.

The Jordanians do not believe regime of Bashir al-Assad would attack them. But they have made it clear to the United States they want the training so they are ready to move quickly if any scenario develops that could destabilize their country, which is already reeling politically from a collapsing economy. While there's no formal agreement, one of the U.S. officials said the U.S. would come to the defense and support of Jordan in the event any of the Syria scenarios pose a challenge.

While there is no current scenario for putting U.S. troops on the ground in Jordan or Syria, the U.S. could wind up providing air support to move Jordanian troops to the border. In addition, American forces could provide a wide range of intelligence and surveillance capabilities to Jordan so they would have up-to-date information on what is happening on the Syrian side of their border region. In one of the most extreme scenarios, a small unit of Jordanian troops could move into Syria to protect a chemical or biological weapons site.  More >>

Cuba y Siria: La impunidad y sed de sangre de los dictadores/ Espinaxiones

Con las informaciones procedentes de Siria, lo ocurrido en Houla donde masacraron a mas de 100 personas los agentes de la dictadura, no puedo dejar de pensar en la masacre ocurrida frente al inocente Malecon habanero donde fueron masacradas 42 personas, la gran mayoria mujeres y niños que pretendian menos que estos infelices de Siria, pues solo pensaban en dejar de disfrutar del paraiso kaxtrante.
Hasta la Rusia de Putin ha tratado de lavarse las manos y distanciarse de este criminal Bashar al Assad.
La mosca muerta cubana no se ha pronunciado claramente para no embarrarse demasiado, aunque ha dejado al energumeno venezolano ayudando con petroleo y respaldo politico a esta descontrolada dictadura siria.
Tambien recuerdo como pocos dias antes de que el pueblo rumano se deshiciera y ajusticiara a Ceausescu, una delegacion de alto nivel del Partido Comunista de Cuba participo en el congreso del Partido Rumano cuando ya era inminente por desvergonzado y criminal el completo desmerengue del supuesto campo fascio-socialista.

Syrian Al-Qaeda Rebel Working with UN Observers!

Rebel wearing the Al-Qaeda flag on his arm accompanying UN observers

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Syria: Muslim Brotherhood's Clandestine Revolution

Infidel Bloggers Alliance/

(Reuters) - At a meeting of Syria's opposition, Muslim Brotherhood officials gather round Marxists colleagues, nudging them to produce policy statements for the Syrian National Council, the main political group challenging President Bashar al-Assad.

With many living in the West, and some ditching their trademark beards, it is hard to differentiate Brotherhood from leftists. But there is little dispute about who calls the shots.
From annihilation at home 30 years ago when they challenged the iron-fisted rule of Hafez al-Assad, the Brotherhood has recovered to become the dominant force of the exile opposition in the 14-month-old revolt against his son Bashar.
Careful not to undermine the council's disparate supporters, the Brotherhood has played down its growing influence within the Syrian National Council (SNC), whose public face is the secular Paris-based professor Bourhan Ghalioun.
"We chose this face, accepted by the West and by the inside. We don't want the regime to take advantage if an Islamist becomes the Syrian National Council's head," former Brotherhood leader Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni told supporters in a video.
The footage is now being circulated by Brotherhood opponents, seeking to highlight its undeclared power.

"We nominated Ghalioun as a front for national action. We are not moving now as Muslim Brotherhood but as part of a front that includes all currents," said Bayanouni. 

Report: Syria accepts Kofi Annan’s plan to end violence

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Updated at 7:01 a.m. ET: Syria has accepted a United Nations peace proposal calling for a ceasefire, international envoy Kofi Annan said on Tuesday amid reports Assad's troops have enterted Lebanon and clashed with rebels hiding there.

On a two-day visit to Beijing, Annan told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that he faced a long and difficult task in his mission to end fighting in Syria, but global cooperation with China and other countries was the only way to do it.

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"I indicated that I had received a response from the Syrian government and will be making it public today, which is positive, and we hope to work with them to translate it into action," Annan told reporters in Beijing after meeting Wen.   More >>

Assad crackdown turning peaceful Syrians into terrorists?

REUTERS / Shaam News Network / Handout

Smoke rises from Bab Sabaa neighborhood of Homs on Monday.

By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com staff

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s deadly crackdown on opposition to his regime is turning once peaceful protesters into “terrorist people,” an activist hiding in a city shattered by an army bombardment told msnbc.com.

Sami Ibrahim, of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, was reacting to an open letter written by New York-based Human Rights Watch, claiming opposition members were carrying human rights abuses such as kidnappings, torture and executions.

Ibrahim spoke Tuesday by satellite phone from Homs, a rebel stronghold until it was hit by a sustained bombardment by government troops, forcing the Free Syrian Army to withdraw earlier this month. More >>

Report: Leaked emails indicate Syria president got advice from Iran

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took advice from Iran on how to handle the uprising against his rule, according to several thousand emails apparently received and sent by the Syrian leader and his wife, the Guardian newspaper of London reported Wednesday.

Assad also received details about Western journalists in Homs and was urged to "tighten the security grip" on the opposition-held city in November, The Guardian said, citing more than 3,000 emails that activists shared with the newspaper after downloading them from private accounts belonging to Assad and his wife, Asma.

The messages were intercepted by members of the opposition Supreme Council of the Revolution group between June and early February, the Guardian said.

The documents emerged on the eve of the rebellion’s first anniversary, a day that also saw Saudi Arabia close its embassy in Damascus and ahead of a United Nations briefing by crisis envoy Kofi Annan, who completed a peace mission to Syria to end violence that has already cost 8,000 lives.

The email messages appear to show Asma spending thousands of dollars over the internet for designer goods such as candlesticks, tables and chandeliers while Assad swapped entertaining internet links on his iPad and downloaded music from iTunes.  More >>

Russia, China reject UN move to rebuke Syrian president

By NBC, msnbc.com and news services

Updated at 12 p.m. ET: Amid fresh bloodshed in the Syrian city of Homs, the U.N. Security Council on Saturday failed to pass a resolution calling on the Syrian president to step down.

Russia and China vetoed the resolution endorsing an Arab League call for Bashar Assad to leave power. The other 13 council members, including the U.S., France and Britain, voted in favor of the resolution.

The vote took place as Syrian forces pummeled the city of Homs with mortar and artillery fire that activists say killed more than 200 people in one of the bloodiest episodes of the uprising against Assad's regime. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed over almost 11 months in a Syrian government crackdown on civilian protests.

NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

Spurred by the latest violence, Western nations pressed for the U.N. vote.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it had not been possible to work constructively with Russia ahead of the vote. "I thought that there might be some ways to bridge, even at this last moment, a few of the concerns that the Russians had. I offered to work in a constructive manner to do so. That has not been possible,'' she told reporters at a security conference in Munich.

Syria has been a key Russian ally since Soviet times and Moscow has opposed any U.N. call that could be interpreted as advocating military intervention or regime change.

NBC's Mike Viqueira reports.

Earlier, President Barack Obama issued a statement calling the latest attack on Homs "an unspeakable assault" by Assad's regime on citizens.

"Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people now. He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately," Obama said.

"The Syrian regime's policy of maintaining power by terrorizing its people only indicates its inherent weakness and inevitable collapse," Obama said. "Assad has no right to lead Syria, and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the internationalcommunity."

The violence in Homs sparked protests in several cities outside Syria.

British police used batons and riot shields to try to hold back protesters trying to storm the Syrian Embassy in London. "We want to close the embassy!" demonstrators shouted.

Police brought in sandbags and riot gear to regain control of the surging crowd, which lobbed objects at the embassy, situated near Buckingham Palace.

In all, anti-Assad demonstrators stormed at least five embassies in Europe and the Middle East.

Activists: 200 dead in Syria's Homs

msnbc.com news services/

The offensive was reported in Homs, which has been one of the main flashpoints of opposition to the regime during the uprising that began nearly 11 months ago. The reports were centered in the Khaldiyeh neighborhood.

Two main opposition groups said 200 people were killed in the assault late Friday and early Saturday. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees cited witnesses on the ground.

The LCC said the regime used tanks and heavy machine-guns.

The reports could not be independently confirmed.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council will meet on Saturday to vote on a European-Arab draft resolution endorsing an Arab League plan calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to give up power, council members announced.

"UN Security Council is set to meet 9:00 a.m. Saturday," Britain's U.N. mission announced on Twitter on Friday. "Plan is to vote on Syria resolution." Other missions confirmed the announcement.

Diplomats said that the meeting was tentatively scheduled for 9:00 a.m. EST, though Russia had requested that it be pushed back to 11:00 a.m.

Diplomats said it was unclear if Russia, which has opposed significant council action on Syria since an uprising started there 11 months ago, would vote in favor, abstain or veto the resolution.

The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have died in attempts by Syrian government forces to crush anti-Assad protests across the country.

NYT: 'Big war' if West helps rebels, Russia says

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Allá en la Siria... en el camino de Damasco

Juan Benemelis y Eugenio Yáñez 

Conversion de San Pedro en el Camino de Damasco

Es muy históricamente prematuro asumir como indisoluble la actual partición en naciones árabes de este parche de terreno enclavado entre los Montes Taurus y los arenales de la Arabia, que antiguamente se apellidó la Gran Siria, que por dos milenios estuvo uncida al carro de guerra de romanos, bizantinos, árabes, mamelucos, selyúcidas y otomanos, y del cual dejaron testimonios estupendos las audaces exploradoras inglesas Gertrude Bell y Freya Stark.

 

La rivalidad anglo-francesa para repartirse esa parte del mundo echó a perder la única entidad nacional que tenía sentido para ese paraje, la Gran Siria, que terminó dividida en seis entidades: mientras el líder turco Mustafá Kemal Atatürk recuperaba un trozo del norte sirio, los secretarios coloniales británicos dibujaban caprichosamente en un mapamundi los mandatos de Irak, Transjordania y Palestina, que se convertirían posteriormente en “naciones”, y los franceses transmutarían su zona, más tarde, en Siria y Líbano.

 

La parte que conservó el nombre de “Siria” fue separada de Turquía por el arco de triunfo romano de Bab-al-Hawa. Si algo diferenció a esa nueva Siria del resto del mundo islámico mesoriental fue que el sentimiento nacional constituye el cimiento de su Estado, siendo una de las pocas entidades nacionales reales en ese territorio. Al igual que los Balcanes, Damasco es parte del mismo mundo que aún no se ha repuesto del colapso del imperio turco, y los conflictos fronterizos que ello generó.

 

El pan-arabismo no es el único patriotismo que ha existido allí; después de todo, mientras que otras “naciones” en el Medio Oriente realmente no lo son, y por resultar productos artificiales de las estrategias geopolíticas, los designios coloniales y los intereses de las compañías petroleras, tienen que aferrarse al pan-arabismo y la justificación y defensa de un discutible e impreciso “mundo árabe” que no es evidentemente demostrable, Siria puede recurrir continuamente a un nacionalismo sólido con cimientos reales e históricos.

 

Pese a que el territorio ha sido cortado por todos los costados, Siria no deja de afrontar sus sectas, cofradías religiosas e intereses tribales parroquiales, enemigos unos de otros, aunque con su localización geográfica específica cada una, pero ello no la hace una versión levantina de los Balcanes.

 

Siria es hoy un “país árabe” atiborrado de templos griegos, anfiteatros romanos, castillos de cruzados, e imponentes arquitecturas árabes antiguas. La urbe de Alepo, al norte y a orillas del legendario río Éufrates, es la Hal-pa-pa de los textos de Ebla que datan de hace 5,000 años; es la segunda ciudad de Siria y una de las más viejas del planeta; fue destruida por los mongoles del Kan Hulagú en el año 1260 y por Tamerlán, el cojo de hierro, en el año 1400.

 

Con sus bazares multinacionales (árabes, turcos, armenios, kurdos), Alepo es la entrada hacia la meseta turca de Anatolia, y conserva vínculos históricos con el norte, Mosul y Bagdad, ambas ahora en Irak.

 

En medio del país se halla el espacio musulmán sunnita de Hama, Homs y Damasco. La región austral está ocupada por la comunidad islámica de los drusos, etnia que se extiende hasta el Líbano. Hacia el poniente montañoso, y contiguo al Líbano, está el núcleo de los alauitas, otra secta islámica que se haría del poder en 1971 con Hafiz al-Assad y su actual heredero Bashir al-Assad.

 

Tanto los drusos como los alauitas (seguidores de Alí) son los remanentes de una ola de shiísmo procedente de Persia y Mesopotamia, que hace un milenio se esparció por sobre la Gran Siria. Pero los alauitas practican una versión desteñida del shiismo, con afinidades “peligrosas” al paganismo fenicio y al cristianismo (navidades, domingo de ramos, pan y vino en las ceremonias), es decir, una religiosidad que no resulta para nada simpática a los ojos de los fundamentalistas musulmanes.

 

Los alauitas se refugiaron en el secularismo turco propiciado por Kemal Atatürk y la sombrilla preventiva que ofrecía el multi-etnicismo de la sultánica Estambul, para escudarse del fundamentalismo de los islámicos sunnitas. De los alauitas -y de los drusos-, reclutaban fusileros y burócratas tanto los otomanos como los franceses, granjeándose el rencor, que aún perdura, de los árabes de Bagdad, Jordania y Arabia Saudita.

 

Por eso, los sirios fueron y son odiados por sus “hermanos” de religión, aunque no sólo por profesar el mahometanismo de manera sui géneris, sino porque resultan una nacionalidad diferente (al igual que los persas y los bereberes), que en múltiples ocasiones ha guerreado contra sus vecinos. Desde los temibles asirios, como tropa de choque de Alejandro de Macedonia, como componentes de las legiones romanas asiáticas del emperador Vespasiano, como los alfanjes que arrasaron el África norte bajo el estandarte de Okba Ibn Nafi, como núcleo central de los Jenízaros turcos y, por último, como tropa colonial inglesa en el Medio Oriente: el famoso ejército de Glub Pashá.

 

Los alauitas abrazaron el baasismo, un corpus doctrinario transnacional de un “socialismo árabe de la resurrección” inspirado por el nacional-socialismo alemán de la década de 1930, que cobró ímpetu entre los árabes de Damasco, Bagdad, Beirut y Palestina. El baasismo concluyó como una pose intelectual que infló el racismo de los árabes sunnitas contra cristianos y judíos, parió los regímenes dictatoriales en Siria e Irak, e influyó en los militares egipcios que derrocaron al rey Farouk en 1952, y los oficiales yemenitas que establecieron la República en Sanaá en 1963.

 

Siria desarrolla en el siglo XX el primer corpus nacionalista asentado en una ideología que trasciende al Estado islámico de la sharia: el baasismo, y aporta a sus principal teórico: Michel Aflak. Desde el Café Habana, en Damasco, el baasismo sirio se extendería al Irak y llevaría como elementos esenciales la liquidación del Estado teocrático, los derechos de la mujer, la modernización de la sociedad. Modernidad absoluta: sólo que en el mundo islámico, la idea de un Estado “democrático” resulta fuera de contexto.

 

Si algo tuvo el baasismo en Siria (a diferencia de Iraq, donde se expresaba antes que todo como un pensamiento pan-arábigo) es que consistió en un elemento más de consolidación de la nación-Estado. La aspiración de la clase política siria, incluyendo al clan Assad, ha sido el empeño de rediseñar todas las fronteras improvisadas por los europeos para restaurar la añorada Gran Siria. Pero, por ser esta Siria más pequeña que la otra Siria, y mucho menos “árabe” que sus más cercanos vecinos “químicamente puros” árabes, es que no dispone de atractivos políticos para la unificación de todo el Levante.

 

En 1958 la claque rectora siria formó con el Egipto de Gamal Abdul Nasser y el Yemen feudal un experimento de unidad árabe -la República Árabe Unida (RAU)- que se desintegró en 1961, porque la política prácticamente colonial e imperialista del Egipto hacia Siria y Yemen, más el desprecio mutuo entre los alauitas sirios y los sunnitas egipcios, casi provoca un conflicto. Dos años después, el ejército, compuesto principalmente de alauitas, entre ellos Hafiz al-Assad, asumió el poder en Damasco, implantando un Estado policiaco que -similar a Irak-, amarró a la clase política, y amaestró la sociedad civil.

 

El círculo alauita que rige el país ha construido numerosas mezquitas, como un medio para aplacar a los fundamentalistas sunnitas de la Hermandad Musulmana, cuyas aspiraciones por un Estado islámico fueron ahogadas sangrientamente en la década 1980 por Assad padre. Los alauitas, nacionalistas de vocación mucho más que islamistas, y convencidos del Estado moderno tipo occidental, reaccionarían de manera implacable contra la ortodoxia fundamentalista islámica. En lo adelante, el movimiento fundamentalista sirio optaría por la semi-clandestinidad, mientras el régimen ilegalizaba la Internet y los teléfonos móviles.

 

Pero eso no fue óbice, sino más bien todo lo contrario, para que Siria alentase el terrorismo internacional, ya desde la década 1960. Ella utiliza a los shiítas en el sur del Líbano para atacar y mantener la hostilidad contra Israel; ejerce control sobre el grupo terrorista HizbAlláh, asentado en el valle libanés del Bekaá, a la vez que facilita inteligencia, dinero y el tráfico internacional a organizaciones tipo Al-Qaida.  

Continuar leyendo en Cubanalsisis >>

Inside Story - Russia's Syria stance

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish

Is Moscow buckling under international pressure, or is it trying to lessen the impact of a future resolution on Syria? With guests: Sergei Strokan, Ezzedine Choukri Fishere, and Christopher Swift.

The Syria Crisis: Assessing Foreign Intervention

STRATFOR/ By Scott Stewart

The ongoing unrest, violence and security crackdowns in Syria have been the subject of major international attention since February. Our current assessment is that the government and opposition forces have reached a stalemate in which the government cannot quell the unrest and the opposition cannot bring down the regime without outside intervention.

In the Dec. 8 Security Weekly, we discussed the covert intelligence war being waged by the United States, Israel and other U.S. allies against Iran. Their efforts are directed not only against Tehran’s nuclear program but also against Iran’s ability to establish an arc of influence that stretches through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. To that end, the United States and its allies are trying to limit Iran’s influence in Iraq and to constrain Hezbollah in Lebanon. But apparently they are also exploring ways to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al Assad, a longtime ally of Iran whose position is in danger due to the current unrest in the country. In fact, a U.S. State Department official recently characterized the al Assad regime as a "dead man walking." Read more »

Buques de guerra de EE.UU. frente a la costa de Siria, Francia propone la intervención de la OTAN

Desde Eurabia >>

Masacre en #Siria, a través de los ojos de un testigo

Army defectors attack Syria security complex

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Syrian army defectors attacked an intelligence complex on the edge of Damascus early on Wednesday, the first such reported assault on a major security facility in the eight-month uprising against President Bashar Assad, activists said.

Members of the Free Syrian Army fired shoulder-mounted rockets and machine guns at a large Air Force Intelligence complex situated on the northern edge of the capital at about 2.30 a.m. local time (7.30 p.m. Tuesday ET), it said in a statement.

The renegade group said the other attacks targeted military checkpoints in the Damascus suburbs of Douma, Qaboun and Arabeen and Saqba.

The claim of the attacks could not be independently confirmed and the Free Syrian Army released no details about the fighting or possible casualties.

Attacks near Damascus are rare, and clashes between defectors and troops have in the past been concentrated in the northwestern province of Idlib and central region of Homs and the southern province of Daraa.

The attacks are the latest sign of growing pressure on Assad both within Syria and from other countries, including the U.S.

Syria said it would boycott a Wednesday Arab League meeting following the body's decision to suspend Damascus from the organization. More >

NATO preps for new war

TEL AVIV – NATO troops are training in Turkey for a Turkish-led NATO invasion of Syria, a senior Syrian diplomatic official claimed to WND.
Separately, informed Middle East security officials said Russia has been inspecting Syrian forces and has been advising Syria about possible Syrian military responses should NATO attack the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The officials said Russia recently sold Syria a large quantity of Iskander ballistic missiles, and that, in light of the NATO threat, the Russian government renewed its pledge to sell Syria the advanced S-300 anti-missile system.

Read more: NATO preps for new war http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=351969#ixzz1ZvGsP9lF

Syria Protests Following Prayers

Published on Aug 12, 2011 by AssociatedPress

Syrian soldiers opened fire Friday on tens of thousands of protesters who flooded the streets shouting for the ouster of President Bashar Assad. (Aug. 12)

Lecciones para "pacifistas" cubanos: Tanques contra civiles en Siria