Hans-C von Sponeck (Former UN Assistant Secretary General & UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, 28 August 2013) ■ [The] US Navy and other NATO ships are assembling in the Eastern Mediterranean. “We are ready to strike” are the words from Chuck Hagel, the US Secretary of Defence. A morally, financially and politically exhausted America prefers the rockets from the sea to boots on the ground. The decision to go ahead, as with the Iraq war in 2003, rests with the Commander-in-Chief, US President Obama, and his minions in London and Paris, not with the President of the UN Security Council. The UN weapons inspectors, deployed to Syria to get the facts, are told by Washington, as their predecessors were in Iraq in 2003, “Do not waste your time. You are too late to make a difference”. Once again, a pre-meditated act of aggression is about to take place with no regard to law and the mandate of the UN Security Council. A sign on the doors of the UN Security Council might as well read: “Until further notice out of order!” ■ The ramifications of military action against Syria rather than multilateral negotiations are far-reaching. The price will be paid first and foremost by the Syrian people. They are forced to join the many others before them who have become victims of hegemonial double standards. Confrontation will intensify well beyond the borders of the Middle East. Impunity will not survive. People worldwide are disgusted and angry. One thing is certain: they will show it.

Tony Cartalucci: Defeated NATO Dangerously Desperate in Syria ● Did the West Gas Thousands to Rescue Failed Syrian War? As far back as 2007, it was a documented fact that the West, including the United States and its allies Saudi Arabia and Israel, conspired to use terrorists drawn from the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda in an attempt to overthrow the governments of Iran and Syria. Starting in 2011, this conspiracy was catapulted into all out war - albeit behind the tenuous smokescreen of "pro-democracy activists" and the so-called "Free Syrian Army" fighting for "freedom" within and along Syria's borders.

Phil Greaves: Syria: Obama’s Pretext for War? The “Rebels” are in Possession of Chemical Weapons ● It seems many have forgotten the last two and a half years of western sabre-rattling and covert military aggression against the Syrian state. It is worth reiterating that without the vast amount of military, financial, and diplomatic largesse the west and their regional clients have thrown at the “revolutionary rebels” in Syria – who have now beyond doubt been exposed as sectarian extremists, lead and dominated by Al Qaeda ideologues – the violent insurgency in Syria would have been defeated long ago by the Syrian army. These extremist-dominated “rebels” were armed and funded by Syria’s enemies – with the tacit approval and coordination of the west – from an early stage in the supposed “Syrian uprising” (read: local protests), to wage a sectarian insurgency upon the Syrian state and its security apparatus on behalf of the US and its various allies. ● “Rebels” in Possession of WMD - There is already a strong case being made that the “rebels” have deployed a form of sarin in a home-made shell fired on government forces in Khan al-Assal. Russia has provided the UN with evidence to this effect and Khan al-Assal was one of the sites on the list to be visited by the UN inspection team. Moreover, in May this year UN investigator Carla Del Ponte pointed the finger at the “rebels” for the use of chemical weapons, a fact that has been thoroughly whitewashed in both western media and from the duplicitous mouths of western diplomats – who still claim that “rebels” don’t have the capability to launch chemical weapons. Contrary to western diplomats hollow claims; in late May militant cells with links to Jabhat al Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham were found in both Iraq and Turkey with sarin and other chemical weapons materiel in their possession – another fact that received only light attention in western media, and has been virtually ignored in any western diplomats talking points.

Jason Ditz: Syria: Three Other Chemical Attacks by Rebels in Same Area ● The Syrian government is continuing to reject allegations that it launched the August 21 chemical weapons attack at the center of the so-called Jobar Incident, being used as an excuse for an impending US war on Syria. They say the rebels did it, and they’re putting forward evidence. The Syrian government has also presented some evidence to the United Nations of three other, smaller rebel chemical attacks in the general vicinity of the first strike, carried out on the 22nd, 24th and 25th, and targeting Syrian soldiers.

Russia Today: As we can see, Britain, as well as some other countries, is ready to go ahead. But where does the rest of Europe stand on this?
Nigel Farage: Split I think is the honest truth. But overall, I sense that the feeling of moral outrage will win and therefore a majority in Europe will decide that a military action is acceptable. I would just say this. Number one: can we please actually find out for certain that it was Assad that used those weapons. It’s probable, but please can we find out for certain. Moral outrage on its own is not a good enough reason to get involved in a war, but could have unforeseen consequences.

RT: At this point there is no proof or any identification that the Assad government carried out the chemical attack, right?
NF: What I’m saying that I do myself believe that it’s probable that they did but it’s not absolutely certain. This whole situation is very very complicated. And the so-called opposition are very split amongst themselves. And, probably, there are stronger hatreds between some of the opposition groups than there are against the Assad regime. We ought to be slightly cautious and we ought to absolutely make sure that it was Assad that used those weapons.

Alex also interviews Paul Craig Roberts on how U.S. officials are radicalizing Muslim groups in order to destabilize Russia and China.

Britain has drafted a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Assad regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons. Despite witness reports that rebels may have been behind last week’s attack, the West is insisting Assad was responsible. UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced the resolution would be tabled in New York later Wednesday on his Twitter feed.

Stephen Lendman: Cheerleading War
Paul Craig Roberts: Syria: Another Western War Crime In The Making
Russia Today: It’s coming: US finalizing plans for military strike on Syria
TANS: Russian FM Lavrov Denounces US Double-Standards for Dictators—Says John Kerry Is Lying
ThinkProgress: How We Got Here: A Timeline Of The Syria Chemical Weapons Saga

The Syrian Government continues presenting evidence showing that armed opposition groups use chemical weapons, as it seeks to dismantle a media campaign aimed at unleashing a military invasion. ■ During a raid on Saturday in a warehouse that belonged to mercenaries in Jobar, the Syrian Arab Army found some barrels containing toxic substances made in Saudi Arabia, in addition to some gas masks and pills to neutralize the effects caused by exposure to such chemicals, local television reported. During the raid, Syrian soldiers suffered from respiratory problems, throat and eye burning and irritation, dilated pupils, weak pulse, muscular contractions, since extremists had sprayed gases to prevent them from occupying the warehouse. According to medical sources, such symptoms appear when chemical substances or Sarin gas are inhaled.

Russia Today: Syria asks UN to immediately investigate three new ‘chemical attacks’ by rebels
Jerome R. Corsi: Evidence: Syria gas attack work of U.S. allies - VIDEOS
SOTT.net: British MP George Galloway: Israel provides terrorists in Syria with chemical weapons

● The publication August 23 by Britain’s Independent newspaper of an article by its defence correspondent Kim Sengupta reveals the reliance of the UK government on the complicity of the media in concealing its secretive and illegal activity.
● The article [...] was written to accompany an “exclusive” in the same edition headlined, “UK’s secret Mid-East internet surveillance base is revealed in Edward Snowden leaks”.
● The article’s pedigree and purpose are dubious. It states that the newspaper had been informed that Britain’s spying network, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), “runs a secret internet-monitoring station in the Middle East to intercept and process vast quantities of emails, telephone calls and web traffic on behalf of Western intelligence agencies.” The article emphasised: “The Independent is not revealing the precise location of the station, but information on its activities was contained in the leaked documents obtained from the NSA by Edward Snowden.”
● Later the same day, Glenn Greenwald published an article in the Guardian questioning the origins of the Independent’s disclosure, specifically their claim that it came from “documents obtained from the NSA by Edward Snowden.”

Are you a conservative, a libertarian, a Christian or a gun owner? Are you opposed to abortion, globalism, Communism, illegal immigration, the United Nations or the New World Order? Do you believe in conspiracy theories, do you believe that we are living in the “end times” or do you ever visit alternative news websites (such as this one)? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you are a “potential terrorist” according to official U.S. government documents. At one time, the term “terrorist” was used very narrowly. The government applied that label to people like Osama bin Laden and other Islamic jihadists. But now the Obama administration is removing all references to Islam from terror training materials, and instead the term “terrorist” is being applied to large groups of American citizens.

Iranian parliamentarians approved Tuesday a bill that seeks to sue the United States for its involvement in the 1953 coup which overthrew the democratically- elected Prime Minister Mohamed Mosaddeq, Press TV reported. ● During an open session of the Iranian Majlis (parliament) on Tuesday, the parliamentarians voted in favor of the urgent need to take a legal action against the United States. In case of a final approval, an ad hoc committee will be set up to debate ways of filing a formal complaint against the U.S. government in the international courts for its interference in Iran's internal affairs and causing damages, according to the report. Earlier this month, the U.S. declassified documents revealing the details of the CIA involvement in the coup against the democratically-elected prime minister of Iran 60 years ago.

The clip from Revelations in which Bill talks about Iraqis converting "machine tools" and "farming equipment" into military equipment.

Tony Cartalucci: Reuters: US to Strike Syria Before UN Evidence Collected
Syrian Radio & TV: Information Minister : US has no evidence on Syria's use of chemical weapons
Reuters: Remember bogus U.S. excuses for Iraq war before attacking Syria: China's Xinhua
LibertyBlitzKrieg: CIA Documents Show the U.S. Helped Saddam Hussein Use Chemical Weapons

Senior American officials say the United States has planned to launch missile strikes against Syria “as early as Thursday” in order to punish Damascus over the alleged use of chemical weapons. ■ The unnamed officials told NBC News on Tuesday that the “three days” of strikes would be limited in scope, and aimed at “sending a message to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad rather than degrading his military capabilities.” On Monday night, four US warships were deployed in the Mediterranean within cruise missile range of Syria. American defense officials said if the US wants to send a message to Assad, the most likely military action would be a Tomahawk missile strike, launched from a ship in the Mediterranean.

Reuters: Syria strike due in days, West tells opposition

Some 16 Russian battleships are now deployed in the Mediterranean waters are in fact a deterrence concerning any probable adventurism by the US against Syria. ● According to Al Madayen, the US has deployed 3 navy fleet, including Haman which was salted to return to its command center was ordered to stay. ● A Royal Navy rapid-reaction force including aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and two frigates will sail for the Mediterranean, on the other side of the developments in the region. ● A group of warships from Russia’s Pacific Fleet entered the Mediterranean waters for the first time in decades. The task force has successfully passed through the Suez Channel and entered the Mediterranean. It is the first time in decades that Pacific Fleet warships enter this region, according to Capt. First Rank Roman Martov.

Iran French Radio: Les navires de guerre russes appareillent vers Tartous
Al Mukawama: La Marina y el Ejército de Rusia movilizados a favor de Siria

● “Warplanes and military transporters” have reportedly been moved to Britain’s Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus in the latest sign of the allied forces’ preparations for a military strike on Syria amid bellicose rhetoric against the Syrian government.
● Two commercial pilots who regularly fly from Larnaca, Cyprus, claim to have spotted C-130 transport planes from their own aircraft and small formations of possibly European fighter jets from their radar screens, according to the Guardian.
● Akrotiri airbase is less than 100 miles from Syria, making it a likely hub for a bombing campaign. Residents near the airfield confirmed to the Guardian that “activity there has been much higher than normal over the past 48 hours.”

Voz Iz Neias: Senior Israeli Team In DC As U.S. Prepares For Possible Syria Attack
Xinhuanet.com: Syria slams Western allegations amid looming military intervention
The Independent: Russia’s warning falls on deaf ears as Britain and US prepare to bomb
Reuters: Russia warns U.S. not to repeat in Syria past mistakes in region
Russia Today: Hysteria around chemical attack suits those who want military intervention in Syria - Lavrov
PressTV: West must abide by international law on Syria: Russia
Google/AFP: US threatens Syria over 'obscene' chemical strike
StormCloudsGathering: Leaked Documents: U.S. Framed Syria in Chemical Weapons Attack - Video
Jerome R. Corsi: Evidence: Syria gas attack work of U.S. allies - VIDEOS
Ynet News: Skirting the ground: How the West will attack Syria [for Israel]
The Excavator: U.N. Official And Syrian Kurdish Leader: Assad Did Not Use Chemical Weapons

[January 28, 2013] - Documents allegedly "hacked" belonging to UK-based defense contractor Britam (official website here) appear to show the company considering an offer from Qatar to use Libyan chemical weapons in Homs, Syria in order to frame both the Syrian and Russian governments. The plan involves using Britam's Ukrainian mercenaries and Soviet-era chemical weapon shells brought in from Libya's large, Al Qaeda-linked, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) controlled arsenals.

Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia’s gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria. ● The revelations come amid high tension in the Middle East, with US, British, and French warships poised for missile strikes against Syria, and Iran threatening to retaliate. The strategic jitters pushed Brent crude prices to a five-month high of $US112 a barrel. ‘‘We are only one incident away from a serious oil spike. The market is a lot tighter than people think,’’ said Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review. Leaked transcripts of a behind closed doors meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan shed an extraordinary light on the hard-nosed Realpolitik of the two sides.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll has finally found something that Americans like even less than Congress: the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Syria. Only 9 percent of respondents said that the Obama administration should intervene militarily in Syria; a RealClearPolitics poll average finds Congress has a 15 percent approval rating, making the country’s most hated political body almost twice as popular.

An Israeli rights group, B’Tselem, has published a report on the Israeli regime’s violations of the human rights of the Palestinians in the occupied territories, Press TV reports. ● The group said in an August 22 report that Palestinians, including children, have been subjected to torture during periods of interrogations or in Israeli jails. The group received testimonies from 64 Palestinian residents living in Bethlehem and al-Khalil (Hebron) in the occupied West Bank. Fifty-six of them, who were minors at the time of their interrogation, said they were subjected to threats, torture, and violence after being arrested.

“More than 95 percent of prisoners including children are suffering from torture. Israeli doesn’t differentiate between a child and an adult. We have even received testimonies of sexual abuse and threats against minors,” the Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Prisoners Affairs Kaldura Faris told Press TV. “They are often held for long hours, suffer sleep deprivation before they are tortured into confessing crimes they may have never committed…,” he added.

The far-reaching Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) should be a force for improving health outcomes for the more than half a billion people in twelve countries affected by the pact, but instead negotiators are moving towards finalizing a deal that in fact would restrict access to affordable medicines and constrain governments’ ability to protect the health of their citizens, warned Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

“Despite more than 18 months of persistent opposition from its trading partners, the U.S. government has refused to back down from its demands for intellectual property (IP) rules designed to impede timely access to affordable generic medicines,” said Leena Menghaney, MSF Access Campaign Manager, who is attending the negotiations. “The U.S. is keen to block developing country governments from any attempt to control abusive patenting or limit drug patent terms to the internationally-agreed 20 years. These efforts are a repudiation of the U.S. government’s own prior commitments to balance commercial pharmaceutical interests with the public health interests of developing country populations.”

In this 19th round of negotiations, the U.S. may up the ante with a new demand for 12 years of “data exclusivity” protections for biologics, a class of products that includes many lifesaving drugs used to treat conditions such as diabetes, cancer and hepatitis C. Data exclusivity gives companies monopoly rights on drugs by restricting the use of clinical trial data by drug regulators when approving generic drugs or “biosimilar” versions of drugs and vaccines. Data exclusivity therefore creates a new patent-like barrier to accessing medicines and vaccines, even when these products are not protected by patents.

Belgrade Site Will Be Serbia’s Biggest Shopping Center. ● An Israeli architectural firm defended its involvement in the planned construction of a shopping mall on a former concentration camp for Jews in Serbia. “We cannot be suspected in being insensitive to anything relating to the Holocaust,” Ami Moore of the MYS firm in Tel Aviv said in a statement sent to JTA. Moore was responding to allegations that appeared earlier this month in an article by the Reuters news agency that his firm was pursuing unlicensed plans for building a shopping mall for Serbia’s Delta corporation on the premises of the Topovske Supe camp, where 6,000 Jews and 1,500 Roma were murdered during World War II.

■ The U.S. government may be considering military action in response to chemical strikes near Damascus. But a generation ago, America’s military and intelligence communities knew about and did nothing to stop a series of nerve gas attacks far more devastating than anything Syria has seen, Foreign Policy has learned.
■ In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq’s war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. U.S. intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein’s military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent.

■ Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi reiterated that Syria never used any chemical weapons in any shape or form, not in the Ghouta area in Damascus countryside nor anywhere else, and that it would never use it even if it possessed it, adding that there's evidence that such weapons were used by terrorist groups including satellite imagery and witness testimonies.
■ In an interview given to al-Mayadeen TV on Saturday, Minister al-Zoubi said that Syria and its friends have incontrovertible proof that the projectiles in question were launched from sites controlled by terrorists on sites containing civilians, therefore terrorists are fully responsible for these actions and all their repercussions.

Christof Lehmann: Former Jabhat al-Nusrah Member admits Chemical Weapons Use
Evidence Indicates that Syrian Government Did Not Launch a Chemical Weapon Attack Against Its People

The Iraqi government has said it will not allow its airspace or territory be used in any action against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

■ A UN inspection team vehicle in Syria has been shot at by snipers, a UN spokesman says. The team has currently come back to the government checkpoint to replace the damaged vehicle. There have been no reports of casualties so far. The inspectors’ car “was deliberately shot at multiple times by unidentified snipers in the buffer zone area," the spokesman for the UN secretary-general, Martin Nesirky, said. Despite earlier reports that the inspection will be suspended, the team went to the inspection area after replacing the vehicle, which is no longer serviceable, at the checkpoint. Syrian state TV has issued a statement accusing rebel fighters of carrying out the attack, quoting Syrian information ministry.

Ban Ki-Moon/UN: Note to Correspondents on the UN Chemical Weapons Investigation Team in Damascus
PressTV: Snipers shoot at UN experts on way to chemical attack sites
Le Figaro: Les experts de l'ONU visés par des tirs
Jason Ditz: Report Claims US, Israeli Trained Rebels Moving Toward Damascus

Government will allow United Nations experts to visit site of alleged gas attack outside Damascus, according to state media. ● Syrian state media says the government has reached an agreement with the United Nations to allow a UN team of experts to visit the site of last week's alleged chemical weapons attack. State TV also said in a statement on Sunday that the two sides were working to set a date and time for the visit to the agreed upon locations outside Damascus purportedly hit by chemical agents last week. The UN said that a team of experts already in Syria "is preparing to conduct on-site fact-finding activities'" on Monday, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.

Rixon Stewart: Who Benefits?
Daily Star (Lebanon): Israel's Peres urges "world" to "take out" Syria chemicals
Stephen Lendman: Drumbeat for War on Syria
PressTV: US cannot "afford to" wait for UN to attack Syria: Officials
ECB: 15 Signs That Obama Has Already Made The Decision To Go To War With Syria
Jason Ditz: US, Britain and France Agree to Attack Syria Within Two Weeks
CLG: British Navy ready to launch first strike on Syria
Christof Lehmann: UN Inspection in Syria to Begin Monday. Iran warns White House not to Cross Red Line
Voice of Russia: Russia says West has no proof for Syria weapons claims

The UN headquarters were being wiretapped by American intelligence agency NSA, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel. If confirmed, it would be against a long-standing agreement between the US and the UN.
■ Germany's Der Spiegel claims to have analyzed secret NSA documents that show that, last summer, the US intelligence agency managed to get access to the video conferencing system used at the United Nations headquarters in New York, leading to "a dramatic improvement of data on video conferencing and our ability to decode that data," according to the document. The NSA also allegedly caught Chinese intelligence spying on the UN and started analyzing the material China was wiretapping. The alleged spying activities are illegal. The US has a long-standing agreement with the UN stipulating that the US refrain from covert operations with regards to the UN's activities. Der Spiegel also claims that the NSA documents it has analyzed show that the NSA spied on the EU even after its move to its new UN embassy in September 2012.

Der Spiegel: US-Geheimdienst hörte Zentrale der Vereinten Nationen ab
Manager-Magazin: US-Geheimdienst spähte auch Vereinte Nationen aus
Thomas Gaist: NSA used decryption technology to spy on the United Nations