Syrian group with close ties to FSA terrorists openly arms rebels with help of U.S.

Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post

The recently established Syrian Support Group (SSG), a United States-based pro-Free Syrian Army (FSA) group housed just three blocks away from the White House, is openly showing their support for the terrorist FSA like never before.

The SSG was just established this April as a non-profit and thanks to a special license from the Treasury Department, they can now openly provide the Syrian opposition with funding to purchase heavy weaponry which, according to The New York Times, includes “antiaircraft and antitank missiles.”

The individuals involved in this organization are far from detached from the Obama administration, which is hardly surprising. Writing for the Times, Steven Lee Myers reports that the SSG members “regularly consult with State Department officials, including the American ambassador to Syria, Robert S. Ford, who has been based in Washington since the embassy in Damascus closed in February.”

This specific connection with Ambassador Ford is also far from surprising considering the fact that he has been involved with openly supporting the Syrian opposition, even meeting with rebel leaders in Syria before he was essentially forced to flee back to the United States.

Hilariously, The New York Times attempts to paint a picture of the Obama administration taking a back seat in the crusade against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. They go as far as to claim, “it is tacitly encouraging others to do so [intervene militarily or provide weapons to Syrian rebels], including nations like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and, now with the license, a network of Syrian émigrés in the United States and Canada.”

This contradicts the reports quoting Syrian opposition members openly admitting their alliance not only with the U.S., but also with Germany, Britain, and Turkey while wealthy individuals in Qatar and Saudi Arabia are providing funding.

The claim that it is only tacit support is also contradicted by the reports published by the same exact news agency about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) working to help funnel weapons to the rebels.

Interestingly, in the article the members of the SSG interviewed seemed very clear on the fact that they are more than happy to go the military route and, of course, slaughter Syrians in the process (although they avoid addressing that aspect of their campaign).

“If you keep giving people videos and cameras and satellite equipment so they can document how they are getting killed, it won’t stop the killing,” said Louay Sakka, one of SSG’s eight board members, speaking about the aid publicly provided by the U.S.

Hinting at the fact that his group and the other rebels (which al Qaeda has unsurprisingly openly expressed support for) seeks to do nothing short of attack Assad loyalists in the name of their cause, Sakka said, “it’s only the language of force they understand.”

This provides a natural transition to his statement insisting that there is no political or diplomatic solution possible, thus leaving only the options of Libya-style military intervention or the slightly less overt arming and support of the rebels.

“For a long time we’ve been telling them there is no political solution,” said Sakka, referring to officials who have been hoping for a peaceful end to the situation.

Therefore it is no surprise to see renewed calls for a no-fly zone from the Syrian opposition which has been calling for similar actions since last year with reports of plans for a no-fly zone being drawn up by the Arab League and Turkey with U.S. support.

Sakka said that the SSG hopes to raise a whopping $7 million for the FSA terrorists, which one anonymous official hilariously attempted to claim was for undetermined purposes when it is far from uncertain that it will be used for weaponry.

“It’s not for us to determine what the donations are used for,” one anonymous official said to The New York Times.

“It could be for medical supplies,” the anonymous official nonsensically said in an effort to describe what The New York Times called, “a plausible deniability that might not be plausible to all.”

Personally, I would have replaced “to all” with “to anyone who has the ability to read and retain information longer than five minutes.”

In the clearly pro-SSG article, the terrorist support group is painted as an entity bringing together “a diaspora of émigrés with close family, social and cultural ties inside Syria.”

For those who aren’t familiar with these types of groups – almost identical to those which suddenly appeared in the effort to bring about regime change in Libya, which almost immediately brought about a situation even worse than before – they are usually made up of individuals who haven’t even been back to the country for many years.

One of the board members they interviewed is Dr. Naser Danan, a man who described himself as a pediatrician who has “never been involved in a revolution before.” Like so many other individuals calling themselves Syrian holding anti-Assad views in the West, Dr. Danan left Syria a whopping 26 years ago.

In an effort to make the image of the SSG appealing, The New York Times writes, “Like the protesters in Syria, they began by advocating peaceful political change, but as the Syrian government cracked down ever more forcefully, they, too, became more militant, making contacts with the rebel military commands that took shape in Syria’s major cities.”

Yet just a few paragraphs later they reveal the darker truths about this group in writing,

The group became more organized last spring when it formally incorporated, started its Web site and, in May, hired a former NATO political officer, Brian Sayers, as its director of government relations in Washington after finding him through an online employment agency.

That’s right; they just happened to pick up a former NATO political officer as director of government relations and somehow managed to get a license on July 23 from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to raise money for the terrorist FSA after less than three months.

While the SSG can’t outright ship weapons to the FSA, they can instead simply give the money to the rebels to have them purchase the weapons, likely through connections provided by the admitted extensive Western intelligence network in place in the region.

The SSG isn’t even registered as a lobbyist yet they have already “become a clearinghouse for American lawmakers and administration officials trying to learn more about the loose network of rebels that has gradually coalesced into the Free Syrian Army,” according to The New York Times.

The SSG supposedly created a “proclamation of principles” signed by rebel commanders which “calls for a free, democratic Syria that would protect the rights of Syria’s myriad ethnic and sectarian groups, create rule of law, and seek peace with its neighbors.”

In reality, the Syrian rebels are responsible for a disturbing amount of sectarian violence which quite unfortunately just appears to be on the rise.

The group has not revealed their fund-raising efforts as of yet and the only entity they have to report to is the State Department, which is clearly backing the effort wholeheartedly.

“If the Internal Revenue Service approves the group’s status as a charity, donations to help Syria’s rebels could soon be tax-deductible,” notes The New York Times.

“Without force, tyranny will persist,” Danan said, indicating their deep commitment to bloodshed and violence. “We will advocate with whatever means we can to mobilize the United States and other world powers to support the Syrian people, and not just with mere rhetoric.”

One must wonder if the SSG would agree with the Syrian rebels who seek to hold on to the chemical weapons in Syria. I would hardly be surprised since it is painfully clear that they not only seek to destabilize Syria, likely creating a horrific situation like that in Libya, but also that they intend to engage in violence and nothing but violence in that quest.

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This article first appeared at End the Lie.

Syria’s Aleppo bears scars of five-week battle

By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, August 29, 2012 18:15 EDT

ALEPPO, Syria — The blast of a tank shell smashing into a mosque sends Abu Fadi running for cover into a building used by fighters bent on taking over Aleppo in their campaign to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“Bashar is willing to waste 1,000 shells just to hit one person,” said the shaken resident of Seif al-Dawla, Abu Fadi, an elderly man who had picked out a corner near the mosque in the belief that it was beyond the line of fire.

The shell that scared Abu Fadi hit the Al-Nasar mosque and raised a massive cloud of dust, correspondents at the scene said.

Tank and mortar fire unleashed by Assad’s army on Wednesday also rocked the adjacent neighbourhood of Salaheddin.

Mosques and buildings across Aleppo carry the scars of five weeks of bombing and shelling.

The offensive has shown no mercy to the historic city in northern Syria that once drew thousands of tourists to its commanding Citadel and lively souks.

The commander of the Rasul Allah brigade in Aleppo, who gave his name as Abu Abdullah, said his men had “taken out one tank” which Assad’s soldiers then hastily retrieved using a bulldozer.

At least six rebels were wounded in Wednesday’s shelling, according to an AFP tally based on reports from activists and rebel commanders in the city.

Medics at two separate hospitals refused to share records of opposition fighter casualties but one volunteer indicated they were low compared to the civilian toll.

Full Article

Russia is disengaging from Syria: Arms shipments stopped, warships exit Tartus

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 29, 2012, 4:44 PM (GMT+02:00)

Russian naval vessels have unexpectedly departed the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus and Russian arms shipments to Syria have been suddenly discontinued. debkafile’s military sources reveal that those and other steps indicate that the Russians are rapidly drawing away from the Syrian arena to avoid getting caught up in the escalating hostilities expected to arise from military intervention by the US, Europe and a number of Arab states. Russian intelligence appears to have decided that this outside intervention is imminent and Moscow looks anxious to keep its distance for now.

According to our military and Russian sources, these drastic steps must have been personally ordered by President Vladimir Putin. He is believed to have acted over the objections of some of his army and naval chiefs. This would explain the mixed statements issuing from Moscow in recent days about the disposition of Russian personnel at the naval base in Tartus and Russian military personnel in Syria.

Wednesday, Aug. 22, Commander of the Russian Navy Vice Adm. Viktor Chirkov said that if the fighting in Syria reached Tartus, Moscow may decide to evacuate the base. He stressed that this decision would have to be taken on the authority of President Putin. He was the first Russian official to suggest the possibility of an evacuation.
A week later, Aug. 28, Russian chief of staff Gen. Nikolai Makarov denied anything had changed in the working procedures of Russian military personnel in Syria or that there were any plans to evacuate the Russian naval base in Tartus:

“I think it’s too early to draw conclusions [from the situation in Syria],” said the general. “No one is running away from there.”

When a Russian journalist pressed the general and ventured to ask whether Moscow was terminating its military involvement in Syria, Marakov retorted, “Why are you so worried about Syria?”
But he didn’t answer the question.

debkafile’s military sources disclose that the Russians have taken five significant military steps with regard to Syria in the last two weeks:

1. They cancelled a large-scale naval exercise dubbed “Caucasus 2012” scheduled to start mid-August in the eastern Mediterranean opposite the Syrian coast;

2. Warships from three fleets – the Northern, Baltic and Black Sea – concentrated opposite Syria have dispersed and returned to their bases;

3. Syrian President Bashar Assad was notified that Moscow was halting military aid to his army – except for intelligence updates and advice on logistics from Russian military advisers;

4.  Moscow has not clearly announced a freeze on arms shipments, including replacement parts for Russian weapons, which make up the bulk of the Syrian army’s weaponry. Officials have only said, “There are no large Russian weapons shipments planned in the near future to Syria.”

5. The only Russian naval ship left in Tartus – a floating Russian Navy PM-138 shipyard – is also under orders to depart Tartus and return to the Black Sea in September.
A Russian source disclosed that all the remaining Russian personnel in Tartus have gathered on the floating shipyard, except for two officers on shore. This vessel and the remaining personnel are evidently packed up and ready to sail at any moment out of the Syrian port.

NATO-backed Rebels Bomb Funeral in Syria

YouTube
Aug 29, 2012

“Why did they bomb the funeral? For what, For what god, for what?!”

NATO Plot To Use Ambulances As Cover For Humanitarian Invasion of Syria

False flag chemical weapons attack to frame Assad finalized

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Wednesday, August 29, 2012

A source claims that NATO powers in coordination with Saudi Arabia are putting the finishing touches to a false flag plot to frame President Bashar Al-Assad’s forces for launching a chemical weapons attack as a pre-cursor to a NATO intervention which will use ambulances as humanitarian cover for a military assault.

The source told Syrian news channel Addounia that a Saudi company had fitted 1400 ambulance vehicles with anti-gas & anti-chemical filtering systems at a cost of $97,000 dollars each, in preparation for a chemical weapons attack carried out by FSA rebels using mortar rounds. A further 400 vehicles have been prepared as troop carriers.

The attack, which will involve the use of white phosphorus, sarin and mustard gas, will be launched on a heavily populated town near the Syria/Jordan border, possibly Daraa, after which the vehicles will pour in under the cover of humanitarian aid.

The ambulances, emblazoned with the slogan “Syrian People’s Relief,” will operate under the guise of an aid mission to help the victims of the chemical weapons attack, but in reality are nothing short of armored personnel carriers.

Traveling from Riyadh to the Jordanian capital Ammam before entering Syria, the vehicles will be used to create a buffer zone that will lead to a NATO military intervention under the pretext of punishing Assad’s regime for the atrocity, the source claims.

Full Article

Twelve killed, scores injured by suburban Damascus car bomb (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

More at EndtheLie.com –

NY Times Scrubs Mention Of CIA Arming Syrian Rebels

Establishment media careful to hide direct aid to terrorist-aligned FSA

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, August 28, 2012

In an article about France urging Syrian rebels to form a provisional government, the New York Times scrubbed a passage which revealed that the CIA was helping funnel arms to rebel groups that have aligned themselves with Al-Qaeda terrorists.

Version three of the story, posted at 19:45:05 UTC yesterday and entitled France Says It Would Recognize Provisional Syrian Government, included the line, ” American intelligence agents have helped funnel arms to rebel groups.”

However, fifteen minutes later the revelation that the CIA was arming the rebels was removed and replaced with the words, “American intelligence agents have helped to identify the rebel groups that receive arms.”

Copies of the two different versions of the article can be viewed here.

This change of wording, albeit subtle, serves to absolve the CIA of directly arming rebels, who are admittedly being led by Al-Qaeda terrorists as the London Guardian reported last month.

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama signed a secret order authorizing the CIA to aid Syrian rebels in attempting to overthrow Bashar Al-Assad. However, the order stopped short of allowing the CIA to provide lethal weapons.

Full Article

Top Russian general denies plans to evacuate military presence from Syria

DEBKAfile August 28, 2012, 11:10 PM (GMT+02:00)

Russia’s top soldier, Gen. Nikolai Makarov, denied Tuesday that Moscow intended to end its military presence in Syria because of the escalating violence and threat of President Bashar Assad’s fall.
“Why are you so worried about Syria?” Gen. Makarov demanded in response to a question about reports that Russia was in the process of evacuating its Syrian naval base and pulling out senior military personnel.
“All the plans that we have in place are working and no one is running away from there,” news agencies quoted Makarov as saying.
“I would think it is premature to start making any conclusions and saying that we ran away.”