According to a
Mar.9, 2012 article, titled “The Bloody Road to Damascus: The Triple Alliance’s
War on a Sovereign State,” by The Arab Revolt and the Imperialist Counterattack
author and Binghamton University Sociology Professor James Petras, there was “clear and overwhelming evidence” by 2012 in Syria
“that the uprising to overthrow President Assad of Syria” was “a violent, power
grab led by foreign-supported fighters who have killed and wounded thousands of
Syrian soldiers, police and civilians, partisans of the government and its
peaceful opposition;" and that “the outrage expressed by politicians in
the West and Gulf State and in the mass media, about the ‘killing of
peaceful Syrian citizens protesting injustice’” was “cynically designed to
cover up the documented reports of violent seizure of neighborhoods, villages
and towns by armed bands, brandishing machine guns and planting road-side
bombs.” In Professor Petras’s view:
“The assault on
Syria is backed by foreign funds, arms and training….An objective analysis of
the political and social composition of the principle armed combatants in Syria
refutes any claim that the uprising is in pursuit of democracy for the people
of that country. Authoritarian fundamentalist fighters form the backbone of the
uprising. The Gulf States financing these brutal thugs are themselves absolutist
monarchies…The armed groups infiltrate towns and use population centers as
shields from which they launch their attacks on government forces. In the
process they force thousands of citizens from their homes, stores and offices
which they use as military outposts. The destruction of the neighborhood of
Baba Amr in Homs is a classic case of armed gangs using civilians as shields
and as propaganda fodder in demonizing the government.
"These armed
mercenaries have no national credibility with the mass of Syrian people… The
kings and emirs of the Gulf States bankroll these fighters. Turkey provides
military bases and controls the cross-border flow of arms and the movement of
the leaders of the so-called `Free Syrian Army’. The US, France and England
provide the arms, training and diplomatic cover. Foreign
jihadist-fundamentalists, including Al Qaeda fighters from Libya, Iraq and
Afghanistan, have entered the conflict…This is an international
conflict pitting an unholy triple alliance of NATO
imperialists, Gulf State despots and Muslim fundamentalists against an
independent secular nationalist regime. The foreign origin of the weapons,
propaganda machinery and mercenary fighters reveals the sinister imperial, `multi-national’
character of the conflict….
“…The Western
backed militias have seized neighborhoods by force of arms, destroyed oil
pipelines, sabotaged transportation and bombed government buildings. In the
course of their attacks they have disrupted basic services critical to the
Syrian people including education, access to medical care, security, water,
electricity and transportation. As such, they bear most of the responsibility
for this `humanitarian disaster’…A majority of Syrians prefer a peaceful,
negotiated settlement and reject mercenary violence. The Western-backed Syrian
National Council and the Turkish and Gulf States-armed `Free Syrian Army’
flatly rejected Russian and Chinese calls for an open dialogue and negotiations
which the Assad regime…accepted. NATO and Gulf State dictatorships are pushing
their proxies to pursue violent `regime change’, a policy which already has
caused the death of thousands of Syrians. US and European economic sanctions
are designed to wreck the Syrian economy, in the expectation that acute
deprivation will drive an impoverished population into the arms of their
violent proxies…”
According to
Thomas Plofchen’s May 14, 2014 timeline on The Cairo Review of Global Affairs
website, on Jan. 23, 2012 the Al-Nussra Front (Jabbat Al-Nursa)—a Syrian
opposition armed rebel group affiliate of the Al-Qaeda group—announced its
formation. And in an article by Eric Schmitt, titled “C.I.A. Said to Aid in
Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition,” the New York Times reported the
following on June 21, 2012:
“A small number of C.I.A. officers are operating secretly in
southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across
the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to
American officials and Arab intelligence officers.
The weapons, including automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades,
ammunition and some antitank weapons, are being funneled mostly across the
Turkish border by way of a shadowy network of intermediaries including Syria’s
Muslim Brotherhood and paid for by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the
officials said.
“The C.I.A. officers have been in southern Turkey for several weeks…The
Obama administration has said it is not providing arms to the rebels, but it
has also acknowledged that Syria’s neighbors would do so.
“The clandestine intelligence-gathering effort is the most detailed known
instance of the limited American support for the military campaign against the
Syrian government. It is also part of Washington’s attempt to increase the
pressure on President Bashar al-Assad of Syria…The United States and its allies
have…turned to…aiding allied efforts to arm the rebels to force Mr. Assad from
power.
“…`C.I.A. officers are there and they are trying to make new sources and
recruit people,’ said one Arab intelligence official who is briefed regularly
by American counterparts…The struggle inside Syria has the potential to
intensify significantly in coming months as powerful new weapons are flowing to
both the Syrian government and opposition fighters…Spokesmen for the White
House, State Department and C.I.A. would not comment on any intelligence
operations supporting the Syrian rebels, some details of which were reported
last week by The Wall Street Journal…
“The State Department has authorized $15 million in nonlethal aid, like…communications
equipment, to civilian opposition groups in Syria…What has changed since March is
an influx of weapons and ammunition to the rebels. The increasingly fierce air
and artillery assaults by the government are intended to counter improved
coordination, tactics and weaponry among the opposition forces, according to
members of the Syrian National Council and other activists.
“Last month, these activists said, Turkish Army vehicles delivered
antitank weaponry to the border, where it was then smuggled into Syria….The
United States, these activists said, was consulted about these weapons
transfers….The Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile, has
recently begun trying to organize the scattered, localized units that all fight
under the name of the Free Syrian Army into a more cohesive force…”
(end of part 28--section 1)
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