British and Qatari troops are directing rebel ammunition deliveries and tactics in the bloody battle for Homs, according to an Israeli website known for links to intelligence sources. - Four centers of operation have been established in the city with the troops on the ground paving the way for an undercover Turkish military incursion into Syria. The debkafile site said the presence of British and Qatari troops in Homs topped the agenda of Tuesday’s talks between Assad’s officials and head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Fradkov. Qatar makes little secret of supporting the Syrian opposition with cash, arms and political support. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani said in mid-January he is ready to send troops to Syria to stop the violence there. Britain insists it is not planning any military action against the Assad regime. The scenario painted by the report closely resembles Libya’s collapse into anarchy. UN Security Council resolution 1973 forbade any ground troops from intervening in Libya while creating a pretext for NATO to launch a bombing campaign against Muammar Gaddafi’s troops.

The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command have begun a preliminary review of U.S. military options against the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, as violence throughout the country continues to escalate. - The most significant violence is reported to have taken place in the city of Homs, where government security forces have bombed civilian areas in their attempt to extinguish an armed uprising against the Assad regime, led by army defectors in the Free Syrian Army. As the crisis worsens, Washington has begun openly talking about intervention. [The] rhetoric from U.S. officials has become increasingly aggressive. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said in comments directed at President Assad, “Your days are numbered. It is time and past time for you to transfer power responsibly and peacefully.” Influential members of Congress, like Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman, have also openly argued for providing military and other support to the opposition in Syria. Senator John McCain this week said, “There’s a lot we can do to provide moral support and to provide material support, along with Turkey and other nations, in assisting these people with medical care and other assistance.”

Justin Raimondo: Our Bloodstained Hands In the Middle East
Russia Today: Syria: White House preaches peace as Pentagon preps for war

Lebanon’s security officials say a suspicious cargo containing huge amounts of US dollars, guns, special passports and credit cards have been seized upon arrival in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, from the US and Brazil. - The items, packed in a number of chests and delivered via airmail, were discovered at Beirut’s airport, the Lebanese security officials said. The chests also contained a list of both well-known and ordinary Lebanese citizens including a figure related to Salafi extremist groups. The security officials have summoned a number of the individuals, whose names were on the list, arresting some of them. Beirut has redoubled security surveillance across the country following remarks by some Lebanese factions as well as widespread rumors about the presence of al-Qaeda in Lebanon.

John Glaser: Push for US Intervention in Syria Grows
Stephen Lendman: Heading for War on Syria
Alex Lantier: US shuts Syrian embassy, threatens war
Washington's Blog: Independent Report Contradicts Western Portrait of Syria

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told President al-Assad of Syria he had to do what it takes to ensure peace in the country, during talks in Damascus on Tuesday. - “Every leader in every country should understand their responsibility. You understand yours,” Lavrov told Assad, adding "it's in our interests that the Arab peoples live in peace and harmony." Lavrov’s visit comes three days after Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the violent crackdown in Syria. He arrived along with his Foreign Intelligence Service chief Mikhail Fradkov. Lavrov had not revealed the purpose of his mission, telling a news conference in Moscow on Monday it would be “unveiled only to the addressee.”

While officials in Washington tirelessly admonish Russia and China for blocking another resolution on Syria, Rick Rozoff of the Stop NATO group tells RT that the UN has been hijacked by the US and NATO. - On Saturday, the United Nations voted on a resolution on Syria, drafted by Morocco. In the end of the day, the document was vetoed by Moscow and Beijing. This move provoked a wave of anger from the West, with most harsh rhetoric heard from the US; American Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said Washington was “disgusted” by the veto, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the vote a "travesty."‎ But Rozoff says the US is going overboard in its pursuit for international democracy. “The very name of the international community has been appropriated by the US and its NATO allies – now including the Arab world,” Rozoff told RT. Syrian opposition groups operate with complete impunity inside Turkey – which is a NATO member – with a green light from the Turkish government. Without arms and sponsorship from outside Syria, the opposition would never dare to take up arms against the Syrian army, Rozoff concludes. Thus, Damascus is stripped of its natural right to protect itself from foreign assault.

A Statement of Condemnation from Homs the Coastal Cities (Alawites) - We the citizens, political activists, and intellectuals from the Alawite sect in Homs and the surrounding suburbs of the coastal cities, strongly condemn the massacres committed by Bashar al-Assad. In particular, we condemn the bombardment of our city, the brave city of Homs, where hundreds were martyred and hundreds more wounded, including women and children. These people are oppressed innocent Syrians that have been affected. We condemn the massacres and raids committed by the regime in Damascus, Hama, Idlib, and all the Syrian cities and towns. Out of fear for our beloved Syria, we are committed to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people. We call upon all sects and ethnic minority groups to unite as one and to halt all efforts put forth by the Assad regime to drag the country into a never-ending civil war.

Informed Comment: Syria Veto and the Revenge of the BRICS - Syria’s high officer corps is disproportionately drawn from the Allawi sect, to which the president also belongs. Allawis, a form of Shiite Islam, make up about 10% of the Syrian population, but are more powerful in the ruling Baath Party than their numbers might suggest. There have been no high officer defections, but NCOs and troops from the Sunni branch of Islam (who make up over 70% of the population) have defected, and formed a militia that has ambushed and killed loyalist troops and officers. The regime appears to be holding the families of those defectors hostage or taking revenge on the defectors by targetting the neighborhoods where their clans live.

Russia Today: Syrian rebels claim 50 killed, govt says attack staged - Video
Jason Ditz: Reports: Dozens Killed as Syrian Forces Bombard Homs

King Abdullah II of Jordan met the head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Khaled Mashal, on Sunday in Amman. Mashal is conducting his first official visit to Amman in twelve years; the official visit was conducted under the direct mediation of Qatar. - Mashal arrived in Amman along with the Crown Prince of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, and were welcomed at the Amman Airport by Jordan’s Crown Prince, Hussein Bin Abdullah. The officials then headed to Amman, and held a meeting with King Abdullah at the Royal Palace in Amman. The Hamas leadership left Amman in 1999, and the movement opened its office to the Syrian Capital, Damascus. Mashal was also accompanied by his deputy, Mousa Abu Marzouq, in addition to Mohammad Nasr, Izzat Al-Rishiq, Sami Khater and Mohammad Nazzal; all are members of the Hamas Political Bureau. During the meeting, the officials discussed the situation in Palestine and the efforts to implement the national unity agreement in Palestine.

Khalid Amayreh: The Amman fiasco

Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a Security Council resolution backing an Arab League peace plan that calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down amid escalating violence. - The other 13 members of the council, including the United States, Britain and France, voted in an unusual weekend session favor of the resolution aimed at stopping the ongoing violence in Syria. The rare double-veto was issued following days of negotiations aimed at overcoming Russian opposition to the draft resolution. Several European envoys said before the session that they felt compelled to call for the vote despite Russia's attempts to seek a delay because of the escalating violent crackdown by Assad's regime. The urgency was heightened by an assault by Syrian forces firing mortars and artillerey on the city of Homs. Activists said more than 200 people were killed in what they called one of the bloodiest episodes of the uprising against Assad. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed over almost 11 months in a government crackdown on civilian protests.

NYT: Deadly Attack on Syrian City Adds to Push for U.N. to Act

In a barrage of shelling, Syrian forces killed 200 people and wounded hundreds early Saturday in Homs in an offensive that appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said. - The offensive was reported in Homs, which has been one of the main flashpoints of opposition to the regime during the uprising against President Bashar Assad. Two main opposition groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, said the death toll was more than 200 people. More than half of the killings — about 140 — were reported in the Khaldiyeh neighborhood. "This is the worst attack of the uprising, since the uprising began in March until now," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Observatory, which tracks violence through contacts on the ground. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

Syria opposition leaders raised the death toll to 260 in a military assault Saturday on the ravaged central city of Homs, an attack that opposition leaders described as the government’s deadliest in the nearly 11-month-old uprising. - Reports were contradictory, given the difficulty of communications with Homs, and the Syrian government flatly denied the toll, calling it an attempt at propaganda ahead of a United Nations Security Council meeting Saturday on Syria. But videos smuggled out of the city and reports by opposition activists showed a harrowing barrage of mortar shells and gunfire that left hundreds more wounded in the city. “It’s an unprecedented attack,” said Mohammed Saleh, an opposition activist from Homs who recently fled to a nearby town to escape the mounting strife there. As word spread of the barrage, opposition protests broke out Saturday at Syrian embassies around the world, including Egypt, Germany and Kuwait. Accounts by activists, independently basing their information on what they described as contacts in Homs, said the barrage was apparently unleashed after defectors attacked two military checkpoints and kidnapped soldiers. One activist put the number of abducted soldiers at 13, another 19. They suggested that enraged commanders then ordered the assault, which lasted from about 9 p.m. Friday to 1 a.m. Saturday, focusing on the neighborhood of Khaldiya. Five other neighborhoods were also assaulted. The precise number of dead was almost impossible to obtain.

USA Today: Syrian activists: 200 dead in government assault

The United States, European governments and Arab states have begun discussing the possibility of exile for Bashar al-Assad despite skepticism the defiant Syrian president is ready to consider such an offer, Western officials said on Wednesday. - While talks have not progressed far and there is no real sense that Assad's fall is imminent, one official said as many as three countries were willing to take him as a way to bring an end to Syria's bloody 10-month-old crisis. Two sources said no European states were prepared to give Assad sanctuary, but one official said the United Arab Emirates might be among those open to the idea. With the White House insisting for weeks that Assad's days in power are numbered, it was unclear whether this marks an attempt to persuade the Syrian leader and his family to grasp the chance of a safe exit instead of risking the fate of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, who was hunted and killed by [the CIA's] rebels last year. But with Assad showing he remains in charge of a powerful security apparatus and the Syrian opposition fragmented militarily, it could also be an effort to step up psychological pressure and open new cracks in his inner circle.

One 'Wanted Militant' Slain, Rest Termed 'Al-Qaeda'. - At least 12 people, and by some accounts as many as 15, were killed today in Yemen after being attacked by US drones. The attack targeted vehicles in the nation’s contested Abyan Province. Preliminary reports indicate that one of the slain was a “wanted militant” named Abdel-Munem al-Fatahani, while local tribesmen said four of them were “al-Qaeda leaders” in the area. The targets were apparently affiliated with either the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) or the Ansar al-Sharia. Reports termed everyone suspects.

BEIRUT - In dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, Syrian troops stormed rebellious areas near the capital Sunday, shelling neighborhoods that have fallen under the control of army dissidents and clashing with fighters. At least 62 people were killed in violence nationwide, activists and residents said. - The widescale offensive near the capital suggested the regime is worried that military defectors could close in on Damascus, which has remained relatively quiet while most other Syrian cities descended into chaos after the uprising began in March. The rising bloodshed added urgency to Arab and Western diplomatic efforts to end the 10-month conflict. The violence has gradually approached the capital. In the past two weeks, army dissidents have become more visible, seizing several suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus and setting up checkpoints where masked men wearing military attire and wielding assault rifles stop motorists and protect anti-regime protests.

A prominent member of the Saudi royal family has called for a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East, warning of the potential for a nuclear arms race in the region. - An Iranian nuclear weapons program would certainly be a concern to Saudi Arabia, who competes with Iran for regional influence, but the opinion of the U.S. intelligence community, the Obama administration, and the latest IAEA report is that Iran’s enrichment is so far civilian in nature. In May 2010, all 189 signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – including Iran – tacitly agreed to a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East and called for a conference in 2012. Finland will be hosting that event this year. But Israel has refused to support a nuclear weapons-free zone for the region, reluctant to give up its own. Israel also is not a signatory to the NPT. These facts have arguably destabilized the region, leaving open the possibility of a nuclear arms race in the region, as Turki warned.

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The Lebanese Cabinet has a meeting scheduled regarding the contentious issue of Beirut’s energy policies in relation to the country’s offshore energy assets.

At stake are massive offshore Mediterranean sub-sea natural gas reserves but the issue involves competing seabed claims with Israel, Cyprus and Turkey. Offshore maritime assets fall under the general delineation terms of the 1982 U.N. Law of the Sea Convention. That provides each country with a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone for unilateral development of offshore assets. But the issue becomes complicated in congested waters with overlapping claims, as in the eastern Mediterranean. Massive natural gas reserves have been discovered in the region and the fields cross international boundaries. Sources familiar with the governmental discussions said that the 2007 rejection by the Turkish government of the proposed demarcation maritime border between Lebanon and the Republic of Cyprus resulted in the failure of the governments to ratify a proposed bilateral agreement. Issues between Turkey and the Republic of Cyprus, a member of the European Union, remain complex and delicate. According to UNCLOS terms, countries with shared maritime borders must reach bilateral agreements for the demarcation of the borders. Accordingly, Lebanon, Israel and Cyprus are obliged to complete a tripartite agreement on the demarcation of the maritime area they share. Last week Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said Lebanon is studying the maritime issues related to Mediterranean energy assets and intends to take the dispute to the United Nations.

Assad's popularity, Arab League observers, US military involvement: all distorted in the west's propaganda war. - When coverage of an unfolding drama ceases to be fair and turns into a propaganda weapon, inconvenient facts get suppressed. So it is with the results of a recent YouGov Siraj poll on Syria commissioned by The Doha Debates, funded by the Qatar Foundation. Qatar's royal family has taken one of the most hawkish lines against Assad – the emir has just called for Arab troops to intervene – so it was good that The Doha Debates published the poll on its website. The pity is that it was ignored by almost all media outlets in every western country whose government has called for Assad to go. The key finding was that while most Arabs outside Syria feel the president should resign, attitudes in the country are different. Some 55% of Syrians want Assad to stay, motivated by fear of civil war – a spectre that is not theoretical as it is for those who live outside Syria's borders. What is less good news for the Assad regime is that the poll also found that half the Syrians who accept him staying in power believe he must usher in free elections in the near future. Assad claims he is about to do that, a point he has repeated in his latest speeches. But it is vital that he publishes the election law as soon as possible, permits political parties and makes a commitment to allow independent monitors to watch the poll.

Russia has accused Nato countries of trying to start a war with Syria and foment unrest in Iran - claims backed up by some Western security analysts. - Its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov at a press briefing in Moscow on Wednesday (18 January) said: "Our partners in the West are in fact discussing a no-fly zone ... There are other ideas being realised, including humanitarian convoys, in the hope they could provoke a response from [Syrian] government forces." He added - without naming names - that foreign powers are supplying arms to Syrian "extremists."

Syria's powerful allies in Russia vowed Wednesday to block any Western attempts to intervene militarily in Syria as Damascus fights off an increasingly chaotic 10-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad. - The support came as Assad was showing fresh confidence that he can ride out the uprising with the help of a small — but influential — set of friends in Russia, China and Iran. Iran also gave Syria another boost Wednesday. According to Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency, with the commander of Iran's Quds Force, Brig. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, said Assad's government enjoys public support and won't collapse.

The Pentagon has quietly shifted combat troops and warships to the Middle East after the top American commander in the region warned that he needed additional forces to deal with Iran and other potential threats, U.S. officials said.

Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, who heads U.S. Central Command, won White House approval for the deployments late last year after talks with the government in Baghdad broke down over keeping U.S. troops in Iraq, but the extent of the Pentagon moves is only now becoming clear. Officials said the deployments are not meant to suggest a buildup to war, but rather are intended as a quick-reaction and contingency force in case a military crisis erupts in the standoff with Tehran over its suspected nuclear weapons program. The Pentagon has stationed nearly 15,000 troops in Kuwait, adding to a small contingent already there. The new units include two Army infantry brigades and a helicopter unit - a substantial increase in combat power after nearly a decade in which Kuwait chiefly served as a staging area for supplies and personnel heading to Iraq. The Pentagon also has decided to keep two aircraft carriers and their strike groups in the region. Earlier this week, the American carrier Carl Vinson joined the carrier Stennis in the Arabian Sea, giving commanders major naval and air assets in case Iran carries out its recent threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint in the Persian Gulf, where one-fifth of the world's oil shipments passes.

Tensions are rising along the Israeli-Lebanese border today as a reported 75 Israeli artillery shells exploded inside Lebanese territory during a military exercise in the occupied Golan Heights. - The shells were only part of the mystery today, as Israeli warplanes also dropped an unidentified object into a ravine in southern Lebanon during the operations. Lebanese forces have been unable to get close to the object because the area is littered with Israeli cluster bomblets from the 2006 war. The area hit with the shells was near the border, and likely was a case of accidental fire, though it is sure to raise questions as to why the operations were so close to the contested border to begin with, even if no injuries were reported. The area around the mystery object is likely unoccupied, since cluster bombs have rendered it uninhabitable. Lebanon’s National News Agency was quoted as identifying the shells as 75 mm, 155 mm, and 175 mm artillery shells. Israel occupied the Shebaa Farms and Golan Heights in 1967, and claims it is now part of Israel.

Damascus is criticizing the US for sending an envoy to Cairo's Arab League discussions about ending the Assad regime’s crackdown on dissent. London-based political analyst Chris Bambery says the US is preparing for a military intervention in Syria.

According to Barbery, sanctions against Syria are only the beginning of Western intervention. "The key ally in this enterprise, Turkey, has been involved with the Free Syrian Army – training them, and we know there are also American advisers in those camps in Turkey," he says. And, "when you combine all that – sanctions, diplomatic moves, the involvement with the Free Syrian Army, it begins to create a dynamic that though perhaps the Americans don’t want involvement in the military operation in Syria, they can pull it in that direction.”

Syria’s Foreign Ministry says the US is getting involved in affairs that are none of its business. And now, Damascus has pulled heavy weapons and tanks from cities after pressure from the Arab League, which says that security forces continue to kill civilian protestors regardless.

PressTV: UK to make Syria another Libya?
Michel Chossudovsky: Pentagon is preparing to send several thousand US troops to Israel

The Taliban announced Tuesday that they will open an office in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar to hold talks with the United States, an unprecedented step toward a peace process that might lead to a winding down of the 10-year war in Afghanistan. Although U.S. and Taliban representatives have met secretly several times over the past year in Europe and the Persian Gulf, this is the first time the Islamist insurgent group has publicly expressed willingness for substantive negotiations.

Dramatic amateur footage has emerged from cities across Syria of an apparently brutal crackdown by government forces after the biggest demonstrations in months. - Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets across Syria's towns and cities after Friday prayers as an Arab League monitoring mission observed. Government forces purportedly used water cannons to disperse protesters in the southern city of Daraa. Amateur video also purports to show an Arab League observer reporting to have witnessed snipers in the city. "We saw them with our own eyes. We call on the authorities to remove them immediately. We will contact the Arab League immediately and if they do not comply within 24 hours, there will be other measures," he said. In Hama, a group of men appear to run into the street to retrieve a body as heavy gunfire rang out. The authenticity of the amateur material cannot be verified as Syria has banned most foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting inside the country.

Members of the Obama Administration are confirming tonight that the National Security Council has been instructed to begin seeking options for US intervention in Syria, including what they call the “unlikely” option of setting up a no-fly zone. - The process is being led by NSC Director Steve Simon, and is said to involve top members of the State, Defense and Treasury Departments. The focus is on ways to “aid” the Syrian opposition. Unspoken in all of this, of course, is exactly which segments of the Syrian opposition the administration are looking to aid, though it seems likely that the administration will use the time-honored tactic of principally aiding groups in favor of a large, long-term US presence in the nation.

Wayne Madsen: World War III Has Begun – It`s the First Asymmetric War Long Awaited by Pentagon Think Tanks

Two suicide car bombs apparently aimed at state security facilities rocked the Syrian capital on Friday leaving at least 40 dead and 100 wounded. The government dubbed the attacks “terrorist operations with involvement by al-Qaeda.”

RT’s Sara Firth, who has just returned from Damascus, says reports suggest the attacks might have been launched by an increasingly well-armed section of the opposition. State TV said police had arrested an individual involved in the attacks in the Kfar Sousa district of Damascus which claimed the lives of both civilians and soldiers. The attacks are believed to be the first in the Syrian capital since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad in March. They come a day after a team of Arab League observers arrived in Syria in the hope of salvaging prospects for peace in the conflict-torn country. Former Belgian MP Lode Vanoost believes the ongoing conflict in Syria is not simply about domestic issues, but has geo-strategic implications. “The West wants to control the Middle East, and for the moment, Syria remains a dictatorship out of their control,” he told RT.

Reuters: Forty killed, 100 wounded in Damascus blasts: Syrian TV

Former Central Intelligence Agency officer, Rober Baer, said that Hezbollah’s naming of several agents and the agency’s Beirut Station Chief was a “serious blow” to the United States. - Talking to the English-written Lebanese newspaper, Daily Star, Baer said the resistance unmasking of the agency’s spies “is a serious blow to the US’ ability to gather intelligence”. The former CIA officer described Hezbollah as the “sophisticated enemy”, saying he “has enormous abilities” and "he can do whatever we can imagine". Baer also talked about an apparent “intensifying covert war between the West and Iran”. “There’s obviously an espionage war going on in Iran. And to lose an asset in the middle of a war like this, I think it’s catastrophic.”

Russia has submitted its own draft resolution on Syria to the United Nation Security Council (UNSC), calling on all sides involved to end to the ongoing violence in the country.

A draft was put forward to the members of the UNSC on Thursday, AFP reported. Moreover, the draft urges both the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the country's opposition to engage in dialogue and to work together towards reform. According to experts, the draft shows no change in Russian policy on Syria. Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in favor of President Assad. Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed in the turmoil. While the opposition and Western countries accuse Syrian security forces of being behind the killings, Damascus blames outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups for the deadly violence, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad. Meanwhile, the confession of Syrian rebels to carry out armed activities and killing people as well as security forces proves that recent developments in the country are to be seen as parts of an attempt to start a revolt in order to overthrow the current government and replace it with a US-backed regime.

Al-Manar News: Russia Proposes Syria Resolution, US Hails Cautiously
Russia Today: Russia puts new draft resolution on Syria to UNSC

A former official from within the ranks of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is reporting that US and NATO forces have landed outside of Syria and are training militants to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. - Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, formerly a translator with the FBI, wrote over the weekend that American soldiers are among the NATO troops that have mysteriously and suddenly landed on the Jordanian and Syrian border. According to her, several sources internationally have confirmed the news, although the US media has been instructed to temporarily censor itself from reporting the news. Additionally, Edmonds says that American and NATO forces are training Turkish troops as well, to possibly launch a strike from the north of Syria. Edmonds writes that an Iraqi journalist based out of London has confirmed that US forces that vacated the Ain al-Assad Air Base in Iraq last week did in fact leave the country as part of President Obama’s drawdown of troops, but rather than return home, the soldiers were transferred into Jordan during the late hours of Thursday evening. Another source, writes Edmonds, informs her that “soldiers who speak languages other than Arabic” have been moving through Jordan mere miles from the country’s border with Syria. Troops believed to be NATO/American-affiliated have been spotted between the King Hussein Air Base in al-Mafraq and the Jordanian village of Albaej and its vicinity.

Boiling Frogs: US Special Forces Mass On Syrian Border

According to first-hand accounts and reports provided to Boiling Frogs Post by several sources in Jordan, during the last few hours foreign military groups, estimated at hundreds of individuals, began to spread near the villages of the north-Jordan city of “Al-Mafraq”, which is adjacent to the Jordanian and Syrian border. - According to one Jordanian military officer who asked to remain anonymous, hundreds of soldiers who speak languages ​other than Arabic were seen during the past two days in those areas moving back and forth in military vehicles between the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq (10 km from the Syrian border), and the vicinity of Jordanian villages adjacent to the Syrian border, such as village Albaej (5 km from the border), the area around the dam of Sarhan, the villages of Zubaydiah and al-Nahdah adjacent to the Syrian border. Another report received from our source in Amman identified an additional US-NATO Command Center in “al-Houshah,’ a village near Mafraq. Our Iraqi journalist source in London provided us with the following related information:

“Some of the US forces that left the Ain al-Assad Air base in Iraq last Thursday, did not come back to the USA or its base in Germany, but were transferred to Jordan during the evening hours.”

Hezbollah has revealed the identities of CIA officers working undercover in Lebanon, a blow to agency operations in the region and the latest salvo in an escalating spy war. - Hezbollah made the names public in a broadcast Friday night on a Lebanese television station, al-Manar. Using animated videos, the station recreated meetings purported to take place between CIA officers and paid informants at Starbucks and Pizza Hut. The disclosure comes after Hezbollah managed to partially unravel the agency's spy network in Lebanon after running a double agent against the CIA, former and current U.S. intelligence officials said. They requested anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence. The fiasco happened despite top CIA officials being warned to be extra careful when handling informants after Hezbollah and Lebanese officials arrested scores of Israeli spies in 2009. The outing of the officers is particularly damaging because it will hinder the ability of these CIA employees to work overseas again - especially in the Internet age where references to their names will be widely available to other foreign intelligence agencies.

Al-Manar TV: Information on CIA’s Work in Lebanon, Published for First Time by Hezbollah

Local Coordination Committees of Syria + Videos

The Local Coordination Committees in Syria was able to document 848 martyrs who fell from being shot by security forces and the regime's army during the month of November including 44 martyrs who died under torture in different security branches, 44 male children and 15 female children in addition to 14 women; despite the killing and the human losses the Syrians insist on their legitimate demands of toppling the criminal regime and to live in freedom and dignity in a civil country for everyone.

UN Syria Report Co-Authored by Director of US Corporate Think-Tank - Blatant lies told by alleged "human rights activists" led to ignominious NATO-sanctioned brutality and ultimately brought BP, Shell, Total-sponsored Petroleum Institute representative, Abdurrahim el-Keib, into power in Libya. Now, these same corporate-financier interests, through their same networks of propaganda, duplicity and deception, are laying the ground work for a repeat performance in Syria. It was just recently revealed that the UN Human Rights Council report regarding Syrian "crimes against humanity" was actually co-authored by Karen Koning AbuZayd, a director of the US Washington-based corporate think-tank, Middle East Policy Council, that includes Exxon men, CIA agents, US military and government representatives, and even the president of the US-Qatar Business Council, which includes amongst its membership, AlJazeera, Chevron, Exxon, munitions manufacturer Raytheon (who supplied the opening salvos during NATO's operations against Libya), and Boeing. The conflict of interest is so monumental it is only outdone by the corporate media's eager acceptance of the report and their complete negligence in airing the compromised backgrounds of those responsible for compiling it.

Russia Today: George Orwell’s guide to the news - The Seven Step Mainstream Media Country Destruction Guide

1. First, they start by targeting a country ripe for “Regime Change”, and brand it a “rogue state”; then…
2. They arm, train, finance local terrorist groups through CIA, MI6, Mossad, Al-Qaeda (a CIA operation), drug cartels (often CIA operations) and call them “freedom fighters”; then…
3. As mock UN Security Council Resolutions are staged that rain death and destruction upon millions of civilians, they call it “UN sanctions to protect civilians”; then…
4. They spread flagrant lies through their “newsrooms” and paid journalists, and call it "the international community’s concerns expressed by prestigious spokespeople and analysts…” then…
5. They bomb, invade and begin to control the target country and call it “liberation”; then…
6. As the target country falls fully under their control, they impose “the kind of democracy that we want to see” (as Hillary Clinton before visiting Egypt and Tunisia on March 10, 2011), until finally…
7. They steal appetizing oil, mineral and agricultural reserves handing them over to Global Power Elite corporations, and impose unnecessary private banking debt and call it “foreign investment and reconstruction.”

Their keynotes are: Force and Hypocrisy, which they have used time and again to destroy entire countries, always in the name of “freedom”, “democracy”, “peace” and “human rights”. Utmost force and violence is used to achieve their ends and goals.

Wayne Madsen: The Obama Doctrine: Imperialism masked as humanitarian interventionism
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya: SYRIA: The Orwellian "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) used to Justify "Regime Change" and All Out War

Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al- Moallem on Monday accused the international community of turning a blind eye to the fact that armed groups are behind the violence in Syria, as the United States and its Western allies seem determined to accuse Syrian government by urging it to "halt violence immediately." At a press conference held in Syria's capital of Damascus, Moallem charged that the Arabs and their Western backers refused to believe in the existence of armed groups in Syria, but instead "they accuse the Syrian army of committing crimes against the Syrians." Moallem also urged neighboring countries to stop the smuggling of weapons and funds through borders, as well as to stop all campaigns of media provocations by Arab TV channels. He noted that armed and terrorist groups have stepped up their crimes following the withdrawal of the Syrian army and security forces from some cities. Syria has, from the start, accused what it called "armed terrorist groups" of carrying out attacks and crimes against civilians and army personnel with the aim of plunging the country in bloodshed.

Russia Today: 600 Libyans ‘already fighting in Syria’

Moscow is deploying war ships at its base in the Syrian port of Tartus. The long-planned mission comes, providentially, at the very moment when it could help prevent a potential conflict in the strategically important Middle Eastern country. - The Russian battle group will consist of three vessels led by the heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser, Admiral Kuznetsov. Russian military officials insist that the move has no connection with the ongoing crisis in the region and was planned a year ago, the Izvestia newspaper reports. Apart from Syria, the aircraft carrier and its escort ships are set to visit the Lebanese capital, Beirut, Genoa in Italy and Cyprus, says the former Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Viktor Kravchenko. Nevertheless, he added that the presence of a military force other than NATO’s is very useful for this region, because “it will prevent the outbreak of an armed conflict,” Izvestia quoted Kravchenko as saying.

AWIP: Nuke carrier leads US strike force into Syrian waters - Video
RIANovosti: Russian Navy to base warships at Syrian port after 2012
WikiMapia: Russian naval base "Tartus" [Syria]

30 martyrs fell today, shot dead by security forces and the army of regime, including 5 children, 22-martyrs in Homs, 3 martyrs in Hama, 2 martyrs in Deir Al-Zour, and a martyr each Damascus Suburbs (Knaker) and Idleb.

Peter Eyre: Syria is fast becoming another Libyan style US – UK – France “False Flag”

Russia Today: Regime change: the 21st century energy source - The US and Europe are to hammer out harsh penalties for Syria and Iran at a joint summit in Washington on Monday, but their objectives are being widely seen as far from democratic. The summit comes as the US and Europe seek new ways to strengthen their global position, with the two Arab countries proving a tempting source of fortification as hawks call for regime change in one nation and a megaton of discipline in the other. Observers believe European politicians are joining with the US president in turning tensions around Syria and Iran to economic gain. After all, the decision on whether or not to meddle in a foreign country’s affairs is never entirely selfless. Looking at Iran, for example, a country with vast natural resources, it is not hard to see the benefits of such a venture. Iran is the world’s third-largest oil exporter. It is second in gas reserves. And the US is not getting any of the Iranian oil.

[PHOTO: Hundreds of Syrians attend a demonstration protesting against Arab League's decision to impose sanctions against Syria, Damascus, Syria, Nov. 27, 2011. The Arab League (AL) decided Sunday to impose sanctions against Syria, as the country failed to sign a protocol before the deadline of Friday over the visit of an AL observer mission. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)]

BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- In response to the incumbent president Bashar al-Assad’s failure to halt a violent crackdown on eight-months of unrest against his rule, and in an unprecedented move against an Arab nation, the Arab League has voted to impose economic sanctions on Syria.

On Sunday, Damascus slammed the sanctions as a betrayal of Arab solidarity and insisted a foreign conspiracy was behind the revolt, all but alluding to more bloodshed could follow.

This has not only sent thousands of pro-government Syrians to street rallying against the sanctions which are interpreted as the clearest sign to leave Syria in the cold and more vulnerable to the outside assault, but has raised fears of civil war -- a worst-case scenario in a country that is a geographical and political keystone in the heart of the Middle East. Syria borders five countries with whom it shares religious and ethnic minorities. And its web of allegiances extends to Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran's Shiite theocracy. Chaos in Syria could send unsettling ripples across the region.

As a latest sign of Western intervention, the nuclear aircraft-carrier USS George HW Bush has reportedly anchored off Syria. The ship is capable of carrying up to 70 aircraft, including 48 attack jets. The aircraft-carrier is escorted by a group of vessels which contains a destroyer. As the deadline set by Arab league to allow observers into the country meets with no response from Damascus, the possibility of a direct military intervention in Syria seems to be augmented.

Nuclear aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush has reportedly anchored off Syria. As an Arab League deadline to allow observers into the country passes with no response from Damascus, the possibility of intervention in Syria seems to be growing. - The George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group along with additional naval vessels are to remain in the Mediterranean to conducting maritime security operations and support missions as part of Operations Enduring Freedom and New Dawn.The US 6th Fleet is also patrolling the area, Interfax news agency reports. Meanwhile, America and Turkey are urging their citizens to leave Syria. The US released a statement on Wednesday urging American citizens to “depart immediately while commercial transportation is available.” Against this backdrop, the prospect of humanitarian intervention in Syria no longer looks like such an impossible scenario. And pressure is growing on the issue.

AWIP: US deploys aircraft carrier off Syria

US aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush

The US has deployed its newest aircraft carrier off the Syrian coast amid mounting speculations of a Washington-led military invasion against the Arab nation.

A US naval task force, led by the USS George H.W. Bush, parked off just outside Syria's territorial waters, just after the US embassy in Damascus urged Americans to “immediately” leave the country, the Daily Caller news website reported on Wednesday. Media reports also indicated that US ambassador to Damascus Robert Ford, recalled from Syria in October due the mounting anti-US sentiment in the country, will not return later this month as planned. The developments come amid Western attempts, spearheaded by the United States, to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. The CVN 77, better known as the George H.W. Bush, is capable of carrying up to 70 aircraft, including 48 fighter jets. Washington has not explained the purpose of the carrier's deployment to the Syrian coast.

Russia Sends Warships to Syrian Waters to Stem Intervention [November 18, 2011]
Paul Joseph Watson: Russia Arms Syria With Missiles To Defend Against NATO Attack
Stephen Lendman: Heading for War on Syria?
NOWLebanon: US deploys aircraft carrier near Syria, report says
Daily Caller: U.S. carrier sent to Syrian coast as tensions flare

Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group, has identified and captured several people it accuses of being informants and spies for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to a Lebanese security official and news agency reports quoting Hezbollah officials and current and former American officials. - The Lebanese security official, who is close to Hezbollah but spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said that the group captured the accused spies, all thought to be Lebanese, earlier this year. Hezbollah believes that at least some of them were recruited by the United States Embassy in Beirut, he said. “It is not clear how many they are and how they were all recruited and from where,” the official said. “No one also knows anything about their fate.”

The number of martyrs today, thus far, is 22. Among them were two women and a child. 15 of the martyrs were in Homs, 4 in the Hama suburbs, and 1 in Deir Ezzor, 1 Raqqa and 1 in Idlib: Names of the dead.

In a significant failure for the United States in the Mideast, more than a dozen spies working for the CIA in Iran and Lebanon have been caught and the U.S. government fears they will be or have been executed, according to four current and former U.S. officials with connections to the intelligence community. - The spies were paid informants recruited by the CIA for two distinct espionage rings targeting Iran and the Beirut-based Hezbollah organization, considered by the U.S. to be a "terror group" backed by Iran. "Espionage is a risky business," a U.S. official briefed on the developments told ABC News, confirming the loss of the unspecified number of spies over the last six months.

AWIP: CIA forced to curb spying in Lebanon

Syria’s National Council opposition group has unveiled a plan for a transitional period lasting up to 18 months if President Bashar Assad is toppled, but prominent Assad opponents said more unity was needed to bring his downfall. - The 260-member council, which was formed in Istanbul in September as Assad intensified a military crackdown on street protests calling for his removal, announced its political program on Sunday. It said the council planned to lead an interim government with the help of the military to “guarantee the security of the country and its unity once the regime falls.” Assad, battling eight months of protests against his rule, faces street demonstrations, increasing armed opposition, deepening international isolation and an economic crisis triggered by the unrest and aggravated by Western sanctions. But despite reports of army conscript desertions, he has retained the loyalty of most military officers and government officials and says he will not bow to international pressure to stop a crackdown on foes he describes as “armed terrorists.” The United Nations says 3,500 people have been killed in the crackdown. Authorities blame armed groups and say 1,100 police and soldiers have been killed.

Sam Husseini, best known for his work with Washington Stakeout, has been suspended from the National Press Club in Washington, apparently for no other reason than asking Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi intelligence, a tough question. ” I asked a tough question at the news conference – a question that dealt with the very legitimacy of the Saudi regime. Before the end of the day, I’d received a letter informing me that I was suspended from the National Press Club “due to your conduct at a news conference.” [Please note that there are difficulties with the video sound (The Arabic version also is unsatisfactory.). This too may be censorship but right now we simply don't know what to make of this fact.]

Xymphora comment here.
Sam Husseini: Journalist Questions Legitimacy of Saudi Regime, Is Suspended from National Press Club

Pepe Escobar: Exposed: US press 'freedom' - Was this a one-off? Obviously not. Flashback to January 2009, at the same National Press Club, during a news conference by then-Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni. When Livni was asked a tough question - once again by Husseini - the mike was cut.

The agency's crucial post in Beirut is affected after the arrest of several informants this year, sources say. - The CIA was forced to curtail its spying in Lebanon, where U.S. operatives and their agents collect crucial intelligence on Syria, terrorist groups and other targets, after the arrests of several CIA informants in Beirut this year, according to U.S. officials and other sources. "Beirut station is out of business," a source said, using the CIA term for its post there. The same source, who declined to be identified while speaking about a classified matter, alleged that up to a dozen CIA informants have been compromised, but U.S. officials disputed that figure. U.S. officials acknowledged that some CIA operations were suspended in Beirut last summer. It's unclear whether full operations have resumed. Beirut is considered a key watching post for turmoil in the Middle East.

USA Today: American spies outed; CIA suffers in Lebanon

MSNBC: Spies outed, CIA suffers at hands of Hezbollah - The CIA's operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Hezbollah identified and captured a number of U.S. spies recently, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The intelligence debacle is particularly troubling because the CIA saw it coming. Hezbollah's longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted on television in June that he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group closely allied with Iran. Though the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, current and former officials concede that it happened and the damage has spread even further. In recent months, CIA officials have secretly been scrambling to protect their remaining spies — foreign assets or agents working for the agency — before Hezbollah can find them.

26 martyrs have fallen on the last day of the Arab League's deadline, and among them is a child 11 martyrs fell in in Homs ( 5 of them from Qasir), 9 in the town of Kafr Takharim in Idlib, 3 in the town of Halfaya in Hama,2 in Bokamal and one in Daraa. http://bit.ly/v6kQJG

Global Post: Bashar al-Assad: "Syria" will not bow down

Russian warships are on route to Syrian territorial waters in a move that sends a clear message from Moscow that they would not allow any foreign intervention into Syria’s civil unrest. - Syria’s President Bashar al Assad, a close ally of Russia’s, has been violently cracking down on mass Syrian protests against his rule. Over 3,000 citizens have been killed by security forces, according to rights groups, and some soldiers have begun to defect, launching small operations against Assad’s forces. Russia claims Syria’s trouble is a civil war and advocates against foreign intervention, despite it’s own interventions in the form of economic aid and diplomatic bolstering of Assad’s regime.

Since the Arab League Peace Plan was announces till this moment 376 Syrian were killed by the Security forces and the Asad Army amongst them are 26 children and today the number of martyrs rose to 20 up till now. 11 martyrs in Homs, 7 martyrs in Idlib and 1 martyrs in each Daraa and Damascus suburbs. Homs: Baba Amro: the five-year-old child Mu'tassem Bargouth was killed at his home. Idlib: Mastouma: injury of an eight-year-old child after the regime army shelled a residential house. Heavy fire shooting by machine guns is still occuring downtown. Hama: heavy fire shooting in Qusour neighborhood in the direction of residential houses. Explosions are occuring at most of the check-points and more particularly at Assad compound and Falat roundabout. Heavy fire shooting in Manakh neighborhood and at Bilal roundabout. Aleppo: Bab: fire shooting sounds in Mahlaq (at the junction of Jabal hospital) accompanied by a heavy security presence, a significant circulation of ambulances and heavy fire shooting in Jabal al Sheikh Aqeel. Lattakia: A demonstration took off in the neighbourhood of Bustan Al-Seidawi praising the Arab League's decision to send international observers and chanting for toppling of the regime. Idlib: Mastouma: heavy fire shooting targeting the inhabitants' homes. Mortar sounds are heard downtown where five tanks, twenty armored vehicles, thirty buses and more than twenty-five cars of Shabiha were deployed. deployed.

Stephen Lendman: America's Media War on Syria

Syria crisis: Assad given three days to end bloodshed - live updates

• Arab League offers surprise reprieve to Bashar al-Assad
• UK urged to help set up international Syria contact group
• Protesters storm Kuwaiti parliament

PressTV: US plot to wage Syria war revealed - Informed sources in Syria say they have discovered a pre-fabricated US scenario for the country's future, seeking to wage war against the nation from various fronts, Press TV reports. The sources said the US strategy includes attacks on Syrian diplomatic missions abroad. According to the American scenario, the Syrian opposition abroad would engage in taking over the country's diplomatic missions and use them as bases for directing and carrying out terrorist activities within the country. The US plan is set to refer Syria to UN's human rights commission and the General Assembly on November 23 as well as the the International Criminal Court in an effort to formally declare the Damascus government as a "war criminal," sources say.

[Video a shorter version of THIS video.] "Arab Revolutions" Predicted Back In 2003. Israel vs Tunisia, Egypt, Iran - Dont be Fooled. WAKE UP - Israel wants WW3

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