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<h2>Now that the Syrian election has reaffirmed
broad support for Assad it should be clear to
all that there was no such thing as a "Syrian
revolution". It was a terrorist attack on a
sovereign nation initiated by the US/NATO War
Machine. This article tells who the architect
of it was.<br>
</h2>
<br>
<br>
<h2>The Architect of US Sponsored Terrorism in
Syria</h2>
<b><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-is-ambassador-robert-stephen-ford-the-architect-of-us-sponsored-terrorism-in-syria/5385973"
target="_blank">http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-is-ambassador-robert-stephen-ford-the-architect-of-us-sponsored-terrorism-in-syria/5385973</a>></b><br>
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<div> <b><img moz-do-not-send="true"
src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/fordrobert3.jpg"
alt="fordrobert3" title="fordrobert3"
height="258" width="392"></b> </div>
<b>
</b><strong>Author’s Note</strong><br>
<b>
</b><b><em>In recent developments, the Western
media is portraying former US Ambassador
to Syria Robert Stephen Ford as a
“moderate”, committed to supporting
so-called “moderate mainstream opposition
rebels”. Ford is now upheld as a outspoken
critic of US foreign policy, tacitly
blaming the US State Department for gross
mismanagement:</em></b><br>
<b>
</b>
<blockquote><b><em>“I was no longer in a
position where<strong> I felt I could
defend the American policy</strong>…
We have been unable to address either
the root causes of the conflict in terms
of the fighting on the ground and the
balance on the ground,<strong> and we
have a growing extremism threat.”</strong>…
(<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/06/04/robert_ford_obama_s_former_syria_ambassador_won_t_defend_the_administration.html"
target="_blank">quoted in Slate, </a>June
3, 2014, emphasis added)<br>
</em></b><br>
</blockquote>
<b>
</b><b><em>Ford calls upon Washington to
support the moderates:</em></b><br>
<b>
</b>
<blockquote><b><em>“<strong>We need – and we
have long needed – to help moderates
in the Syrian opposition with both
weapons and other non-lethal
assistance.</strong> … Had we done
that a couple of years ago, had we
ramped it up, frankly <strong>the al
Qaeda groups that have been winning
adherents</strong> would have been
unable to compete with the moderates who
frankly we have much in common with,” <span
id="ecxarticleText"><span
id="ecxarticleText">(<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/03/us-syria-usa-envoy-idUSKBN0EE2IR20140603"
target="_blank">Reuters,</a> June
3, 2014, emphasis added)</span></span></em></b><br>
</blockquote>
<b>
</b><b><em><span id="ecxarticleText">Responding
to Ford’s comments, State Department
spokeswoman Marie Harf said, “He’s a
private citizen. He’s entitled to his
views.”(<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/03/us-syria-usa-envoy-idUSKBN0EE2IR20140603"
target="_blank">Reuters,</a> June 3,
2014)<br>
</span></em></b><br>
<b>
</b><b><em>Who is Robert Stephen Ford? In a
bitter irony, Robert Stephen Ford is no
“Moderate” as portrayed by the media. </em></b><br>
<b>
</b><b><em>Ford played a central role in
developing <strong>the “extremism threat”
scenario including the channeling of
military aid to the Al Qaeda affiliated
rebels.</strong> </em></b><br>
<b>
</b><b><em>Ford was from the outset in the
months leading up to the March 2011
insurrection among the key architects
involved in the formulation of a US
“Terrorist Option” for Syria including the
recruitment and training of death squads
in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.<br>
</em></b><br>
<b>
</b><strong><em>The following text is based on
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pentagon-s-salvador-option-the-deployment-of-death-squads-in-iraq-and-syria/26043"
target="_blank">a longer article first
published by GR in August 2011</a> under
the title <strong><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pentagon-s-salvador-option-the-deployment-of-death-squads-in-iraq-and-syria/26043"
target="_blank">The Pentagon’s
“Salvador Option”: The Deployment of
Death Squads in Iraq and Syria.</a>
as well as <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-is-ambassador-robert-stephen-ford-the-architect-of-us-sponsored-terrorism-in-syria/terrorism-with-a-human-face-the-history-of-americas-death-squads/"
target="_blank">Terrorism with a Human
Face: T</a></strong></em><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-is-ambassador-robert-stephen-ford-the-architect-of-us-sponsored-terrorism-in-syria/terrorism-with-a-human-face-the-history-of-americas-death-squads/"
target="_blank"><em>he History-of Americas
Death Squads</em></a></strong><br>
<b>
</b><strong>Michel Chossudovsky, June 6, 2014</strong><br>
<b>
</b><b>-</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>Since his arrival in Damascus in late
January 2011, Ambassador Robert S. Ford
played a central role in laying the
groundwork as well as establishing contacts
with opposition groups.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>A functioning US embassy in Damascus
was seen as a precondition for carrying out
a process of political destabilization
leading to “regime change”.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>Ambassador Robert S., Ford is no
ordinary diplomat. He was U.S.
representative in January 2004 to the Shiite
city of Najaf in Iraq. Najaf was the
stronghold of the Mahdi army</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>A few months later he was appointed
“Number Two Man” (Minister Counsellor for
Political Affairs), at the US embassy in
Baghdad at the outset of John Negroponte’s
tenure as US Ambassador to Iraq (June 2004-
April 2005). Ford subsequently served under
Negroponte’s successor Zalmay Khalilzad
prior to his appointment as Ambassador to
Algeria in 2006.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>Negroponte’s mandate as US ambassador
to Iraq (together with Robert S. Ford) was
to coordinate out of the US embassy, the
covert support to death squads and
paramilitary groups in Iraq with a view to
fomenting sectarian violence and weakening
the resistance movement. Robert S. Ford as
“Number Two” (Minister Counsellor for
Political Affairs) at the US Embassy in
Baghdad played a central role in this
endeavor.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>To understand Robert Ford’s mandate in
both Baghdad and subsequently in Damascus,
it is important to reflect briefly on the
history of US covert operations and the
central role played by John D. Negroponte.</b><br>
<b>
</b><strong>Negroponte and the “Salvador
Option”</strong><br>
<b>
</b><b>John Negroponte had served as US
ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. As
Ambassador in Tegucigalpa, he played a key
role in supporting and supervising the
Nicaraguan Contra mercenaries who were based
in Honduras. The cross border Contra attacks
into Nicaragua claimed some 50 000 civilian
lives.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>During the same period, Negroponte was
instrumental in setting up the Honduran
military death squads, “operating with
Washington support’s, [they] assassinated
hundreds of opponents of the US-backed
regime.” (See Bill Vann, Bush Nominee linked
to Latin American Terrorism, by Bill Vann,
Global Research, November 2001, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/VAN111A.html"
target="_blank">http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/VAN111A.html</a>)</b><br>
<b>
</b>
<blockquote><b>“Under the rule of General
Gustavo Alvarez Martnez, Honduras’s
military government was both a close ally
of the Reagan administration and was
“disappearing” dozens of political
opponents in classic death squad fashion.</b><br>
<b>In a 1982 letter to The Economist,
Negroponte wrote that it was “simply
untrue to state that death squads have
made their appearance in Honduras.” The
Country Report on Human Rights Practices
that his embassy sent to the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee took the same
line, insisting that there were “no
political prisoners in Honduras” and that
the “Honduran government neither condones
nor knowingly permits killings of a
political or nonpolitical nature.”</b><br>
<b>Yet according to a four-part series in
the Baltimore Sun in 1995, in 1982 alone
the Honduran press ran 318 stories of
murders and kidnappings by the Honduran
military. The Sun described the activities
of a secret CIA-trained Honduran army
unit, Battalion 316, that used “shock and
suffocation devices in interrogations.
Prisoners often were kept naked and, when
no longer useful, killed and buried in
unmarked graves.”</b><br>
<b>On August 27, 1997, CIA Inspector General
Frederick P. Hitz released a 211-page
classified report entitled “Selected
Issues Relating to CIA Activities in
Honduras in the 1980′s.” This report was
partly declassified on Oct. 22, 1998, in
response to demands by the Honduran human
rights ombudsman. Opponents of Negroponte
are demanding that all Senators read the
full report before voting on his
nomination. to the position of US
Permanent Representative to the UN}”
(Peter Roff and James Chapin, Face-off:
Bush’s Foreign Policy Warriors, Global
Research November 2001, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ROF111A.html"
target="_blank">http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ROF111A.html</a></b><br>
</blockquote>
<b>
</b><strong>John Negroponte- Robert S. Ford.
The Iraq “Salvador Option”</strong><br>
<b>
</b><strong>In January 2005, following
Negroponte’s appointment as US ambassador to
Iraq, the Pentagon confirmed in a story
leaked to <em>Newsweek</em> that it was
“considering forming hit squads of Kurdish
and Shia fighters to target leaders of the
Iraqi insurgency in a strategic shift
borrowed from the American struggle against
left-wing guerrillas in Central America 20
years ago”. (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article410491.ece"
target="_blank">El Salvador-style ‘death
squads’ to be deployed by US against Iraq
militants – Times Online</a>, January 10,
2005)</strong><br>
<b>
</b><b>John Negroponte and Robert S. Ford at
the US Embassy worked closely together on
the Pentagon’s project. Two other embassy
officials, namely Henry Ensher (Ford’s
Deputy) and a younger official in the
political section, Jeffrey Beals, played an
important role in the team “talking to a
range of Iraqis, including extremists”.
(See <em>The New Yorker</em>, March 26,
2007). Another key individual in
Negroponte’s team was James Franklin
Jeffrey, America’s ambassador to Albania
(2002-2004). Jeffrey is currently the US
Ambassador to Iraq.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>Negroponte also brought into the team
one of his former collaborators Colonel
James Steele (ret) from his Honduras heyday:</b><br>
<b>
</b>
<blockquote><b>Under the “Salvador Option,”
“Negroponte had assistance from his
colleague from his days in Central America
during the 1980′s, Ret. Col James Steele.
Steele, whose title in Baghdad was
Counselor for Iraqi Security Forces
supervised the selection and training of
members of the Badr Organization and Mehdi
Army, the two largest Shi’ite militias in
Iraq, in order to target the leadership
and support networks of a primarily Sunni
resistance. Planned or not, these death
squads promptly spiralled out of control
to become the leading cause of death in
Iraq.</b><br>
<b>Intentional or not, the scores of
tortured, mutilated bodies which turn up
on the streets of Baghdad each day are
generated by the death squads whose
impetus was John Negroponte. And it is
this U.S.-backed sectarian violence which
largely led to the hell-disaster that Iraq
is today. (Dahr Jamail, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=10289"
target="_blank">Managing Escalation:
Negroponte and Bush’s New Iraq Team,</a>.
Antiwar.com, January 7, 2007)</b><br>
</blockquote>
<b>
</b><b>John Negroponte described Robert Ford
while at the embassy in Baghdad, as “one of
these very tireless people … who didn’t mind
putting on his flak jacket and helmet and
going out of the Green Zone to meet
contacts.” Robert S. Ford is fluent in both
Arabic and Turkish. He was dispatched by
Negroponte to undertake strategic contacts:</b><br>
<b>
</b>
<blockquote><strong>[O]ne Pentagon proposal
would send Special Forces teams to advise,
support and possibly train Iraqi squads,
most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga
fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target
Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers,
even across the border into Syria,
according to military insiders familiar
with the discussions. It remains unclear,
however, whether this would be a policy of
assassination or so-called “snatch”
operations, in which the targets are sent
to secret facilities for interrogation.
The current thinking is that while U.S.
Special Forces would lead operations in,
say, Syria, activities inside Iraq itself
would be carried out by Iraqi
paramilitaries. (Newsweek, January 8,
2005, emphasis added)</strong><br>
</blockquote>
<b>
</b><b>The plan had the support of the US
appointed Iraqi government of Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi:</b><br>
<b>
</b>
<blockquote><b>The Pentagon declined to
comment, but one insider told Newsweek:
“What everyone agrees is that we can’t
just go on as we are. We have to find a
way to take the offensive against the
insurgents. Right now, we are playing
defence. And we are losing.”</b><br>
<strong>Hit squads would be controversial
and would probably be kept secret. </strong><br>
<b>The experience of the so-called “death
squads” in Central America remains raw for
many even now and helped to sully the
image of the United States in the region.</b><br>
<strong>…. John Negroponte, the US
Ambassador in Baghdad, had a front-row
seat at the time as Ambassador to Honduras
from 1981-85. </strong><br>
<b>Death squads were a brutal feature of
Latin American politics of the time. In
Argentina in the 1970s and Guatemala in
the 1980s, soldiers wore uniform by day
but used unmarked cars by night to kidnap
and kill those hostile to the regime or
their suspected sympathisers.</b><br>
<b>In the early 1980s President Reagan’s
Administration funded and helped to train
Nicaraguan contras based in Honduras with
the aim of ousting Nicaragua’s Sandinista
regime. The Contras were equipped using
money from illegal American arms sales to
Iran, a scandal that could have toppled Mr
Reagan.</b><br>
<b>It was in El Salvador that the United
States trained small units of local forces
specifically to target rebels.</b><br>
<strong>The thrust of the Pentagon proposal
in Iraq, according to Newsweek, is to
follow that model and direct US special
forces teams to advise, support and train
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shia
militiamen to target leaders of the Sunni
insurgency. </strong><br>
<strong>It is unclear whether the main aim
of the missions would be to assassinate
the rebels or kidnap them and take them
away for interrogation. Any mission in
Syria would probably be undertaken by US
Special Forces.</strong><br>
<b>Nor is it clear who would take
responsibility for such a programme — the
Pentagon or the Central Intelligence
Agency. Such covert operations have
traditionally been run by the CIA at arm’s
length from the administration in power,
giving US officials the ability to deny
knowledge of it. (Times Online, op cit,
emphasis added)</b><br>
</blockquote>
<b>
</b><b>Under Negroponte’s helm at the US
Embassy in Baghdad, a wave of covert
civilian killings and targeted
assassinations was unleashed. Engineers,
medical doctors, scientists and
intellectuals were also targeted. The
objective was to create factional divisions
between Sunni, Shiite, Kurds and Christians,
as well as weed out civilian support for the
Iraqi resistance. The Christian community
was one of the main targets of the
assassination program.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>The Pentagon’s objective also consisted
in training an Iraqi Army, Police and
Security Forces, which would carry out a
homegrown “counterinsurgency” program
(unofficially) on behalf of the U.S.</b><br>
<b>
</b><strong>Operation “Syrian Contras”:
Learning from the Iraqi Experience</strong><br>
<b>
</b><b>The gruesome Iraqi version of the
“Salvador Option” under the helm of
Ambassador John Negroponte has served as a
“role model” for setting up the “Free Syrian
Army” Contras. Robert Stephen Ford was, no
doubt, involved in the implementation of the
Syrian Contras project, following his
reassignment to Baghdad as Deputy Head of
Mission in 2008.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>The objective in Syria was to create
factional divisions between Sunni, Alawite,
Shiite, Kurds, Druze and Christians. While
the Syrian context is entirely different to
that of Iraq, there are striking
similarities with regard to the procedures
whereby the killings and atrocities were
conducted.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>A report published by <em>Der Spiegel</em>
pertaining to atrocities committed in the
Syrian city of Homs confirms an organized
sectarian process of mass-murder and
extra-judicial killings comparable to that
conducted by the US sponsored death squads
in Iraq.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>People in Homs were routinely
categorized as “prisoners” (Shia, Alawite)
and “traitors”. The “traitors” are Sunni
civilians within the rebel occupied urban
area, who express their disagreement or
opposition to the rule of terror of the Free
Syrian Army (FSA):</b><br>
<b>
</b>
<blockquote><strong>“Since last summer [2011],
we have executed slightly fewer than 150
men, which represents about 20 percent of
our prisoners,” says Abu Rami. … But the
executioners of Homs have been busier with
traitors within their own ranks than with
prisoners of war. “If we catch a Sunni
spying, or if a citizen betrays the
revolution, we make it quick,” says the
fighter. According to Abu Rami, Hussein’s
burial brigade has put between 200 and 250
traitors to death since the beginning of
the uprising.” (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-atrocities-committed-by-us-nato-sponsored-opposition-executioner-for-syria-s-rebels-tells-his-story/30072"
target="_blank">Der Spiegel, </a>March
30, 2012)</strong><br>
</blockquote>
<b>
</b><strong>In early July [2011], US
Ambassador Robert Ford travelled to Hama and
had meetings with members of the “protest
movement” (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/low-key-us-diplomat-transforms-syria-policy/2011/07/12/gIQAc5kSBI_story.html"
target="_blank">Low-key U.S. diplomat
transforms Syria policy – The Washington
Post</a>, July 12, 2011). Reports confirm
that Robert Ford had numerous contacts with
opposition groups both before and after his
July trip to Hama. In a recent statement
(August 4), he confirmed that the embassy
will continue “reaching out” to opposition
groups in defiance of the Syrian
authorities.</strong><br>
<b>
</b><b>The project required an initial program
of recruitment and training of mercenaries.
Death squads including Lebanese and
Jordanian Salafist units entered Syria’s
southern border with Jordan in mid-March
2011. Much of the groundwork was already in
place prior to Robert Stephen Ford’s arrival
in Damascus in January 2011.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b><img moz-do-not-send="true"
src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/WashingtonPost/Content/Production/Blogs/checkpoint-washington/Images/Nic587382.jpg"></b><br>
<b>
</b><b>Ambassador Ford in Hama in early July
2011</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>Ford’s appointment as Ambassador to
Syria was announced in early 2010.
Diplomatic relations had been cut in 2005
following the Rafick Hariri assassination,
which Washington blamed on Syria. Ford
arrived in Damascus barely two months before
the onset of the insurgency.</b><br>
<b>
</b><strong>Behind Closed Doors at the US
State Department</strong><br>
<b>
</b><strong>Robert Stephen Ford was part of a
small team at the US State Department team
which oversaw the recruitment and training
of terrorist brigades, together with Derek
Chollet and Frederic C. Hof, a former
business partner of Richard Armitage, who
served as Washington’s “special coordinator
on Syria”. Derek Chollet has recently been
appointed to the position of Assistant
Secretary of Defense for International
Security Affairs (ISA).</strong><br>
<b>
</b><strong>This team operated under the helm
of (former) Assistant Secretary of State
for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman.</strong><br>
<b>
</b><b>Feltman’s team was in close liaison
with the process of recruitment and training
of mercenaries out of Turkey, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia and Libya (courtesy of the
post-Gaddafi regime, which dispatched <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/report-new-libyan-regime-sends-600-troops-to-fight-in-syria/27946"
target="_blank">six hundred Libya Islamic
Fighting Group (LIFG) troops to Syria</a>,
via Turkey in the months following the
September 2011 collapse of the Gaddafi
government).</b><br>
<b>
</b><strong>Assistant Secretary of State
Feltman was in contact with Saudi Foreign
Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, and Qatari
Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim. He
was also in charge of a Doha-based office
for “special security coordination”
pertaining to Syria, which included
representatives from Western and GCC
intelligence agencies well as a
representative from Libya. Prince Bandar bin
Sultan. a prominent and controversial member
of Saudi intelligence was part of this
group. (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail/241358.html"
target="_blank">See Press Tv, </a>May 12,
2012).</strong><br>
<b>
</b><b><img moz-do-not-send="true"
id="ecxil_fi"
src="http://www.islamicinvitationturkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Feltman.jpg"
height="162" width="221">In June 2012,
Jeffrey Feltman (image: Left) was appointed
UN Under-Secretary-General for Political
Affairs, a strategic position which, in
practice, consists in setting the UN agenda
(on behalf of Washington) on issues
pertaining to “Conflict Resolution” in
various “political hot spots” around the
world (including Somalia, Lebanon, Libya,
Syria, Yemen and Mali). In a bitter irony,
the countries for UN “conflict resolution”
are those which are the target of US covert
operations.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>In liaison with the US State
Department, NATO and his GCC handlers in
Doha and Riyadh, Feltman is Washington’s man
behind UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahmi’s
“Peace Proposal”.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>Meanwhile, while paying lip service to
the UN Peace initiative, the US and NATO
have speeded up the process of recruitment
and training of mercenaries in response to
the heavy casualties incurred by
“opposition” rebel forces.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>The US proposed “end game” in Syria is
not regime change, but the destruction of
Syria as a Nation State.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>The deployment of “opposition” death
squads with a mandate to kill civilians is
part of this criminal undertaking.</b><br>
<b>
</b><strong>The Free Syrian Army (FSA)</strong><br>
<b>
</b><b><a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="syriafree army"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/syriafree-army1.jpg"
rel="lightbox[5317564]" target="_blank"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" title="syriafree
army"
src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/syriafree-army1-e1357355444924.jpg"
height="129" width="150"></a>Washington
and its allies replicated in Syria the
essential features of the “Iraq Salvador
Option”, leading to the creation of the Free
Syrian Army (FSA) and its various terrorist
factions including the Al Qaeda affiliated
Al Nusra brigades.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>While the creation of the Free Syrian
Army (FSA) was announced in June 2011, the
recruitment and training of foreign
mercenaries was initiated at a much an
earlier period.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>In many regards, the Free Syrian Army
is a smokescreen. It is upheld by the
Western media as a <em>bona fide</em>
military entity established as a result of
mass defections from government forces. The
number of defectors, however, was neither
significant nor sufficient to establish a
coherent military structure with command
and control functions.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>The FSA is not a professional
military entity, rather it is a loose
network of separate terrorist brigades,
which in turn are made up of numerous
paramilitary cells operating in different
parts of the country.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>Each of these terrorist organizations
operates independently. The FSA does not
effectively exercise command and control
functions including liaison with these
diverse paramilitary entities. The latter
are controlled by US-NATO sponsored special
forces and intelligence operatives which are
embedded within the ranks of selected
terrorist formations.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>These (highly trained) Special forces
on the ground (many of whom are employees of
private security companies) are routinely in
contact with US-NATO and allied
military/intelligence command units
(including Turkey). These embedded Special
Forces are, no doubt, also involved in the
carefully planned bomb attacks directed
against government buildings, military
compounds, etc.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>The death squads are mercenaries
trained and recruited by the US, NATO, its
Persian Gulf GCC allies as well as Turkey.
They are overseen by allied special forces
(including British SAS and French
Parachutistes), and private security
companies on contract to NATO and the
Pentagon. In this regard, reports confirm <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/breaking-private-security-companies-in-syria-supporting-rebels-foreign-mercenaries-detained/31509"
target="_blank">the arrest by the Syrian
government of some 200-300 private
security company employees </a>who had
integrated rebel ranks.</b><br>
<b>
</b><strong>The Jabhat Al Nusra Front <img
moz-do-not-send="true" id="ecxrg_hi"
src="https://a.gfx.ms/i_safe.gif"
height="131" width="211"></strong><br>
<b>
</b><b>The Al Nusra Front –which is said to be
affiliated to Al Qaeda– is described as the
most effective “opposition” rebel fighting
group, responsible for several of the high
profile bomb attacks. Portrayed as an enemy
of America (on the State Department list of
terrorist organizations), Al Nusra
operations, nonetheless, bear the
fingerprints of US paramilitary training,
terror tactics and weapons systems. The
atrocities committed against civilians by Al
Nusra (funded covertly by US-NATO) are
similar to those undertaken by the US
sponsored death squads in Iraq.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>In the words of<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://world.time.com/2012/12/25/interview-with-a-newly-designated-syrias-jabhat-al-nusra/"
target="_blank"> Al Nusra leader Abu Adnan
in Aleppo</a>: “Jabhat al-Nusra does count
Syrian veterans of the Iraq war among its
numbers, men who bring expertise —
especially the manufacture of improvised
explosive devices (IEDs) — to the front in
Syria.”</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>As in Iraq, factional violence and
ethnic cleansing were actively promoted. In
Syria, the Alawite, Shiite and Christian
communities have been the target of the
US-NATO sponsored death squads. The Alawite
and the Christian community are the main
targets of the assassination program.
Confirmed by the Vatican News Service:</b><br>
<b>
</b>
<blockquote><b>Christians in Aleppo are
victims of death and destruction due to
the fighting which for months, has been
affecting the city. The Christian
neighborhoods, in recent times, have been
hit by rebel forces fighting against the
regular army and this has caused an exodus
of civilians.</b><br>
<b>Some groups in the rugged opposition,
where there are also jiahadist groups,
“fire on Christian houses and buildings,
to force occupants to escape and then take
possession [ethnic cleansing] (Agenzia
Fides. Vatican News, October 19, 2012)</b><br>
<b>“The Sunni Salafist militants – says the
Bishop – continue to commit crimes against
civilians, or to recruit fighters with
force. The fanatical Sunni extremists are
fighting a holy war proudly, especially
against the Alawites. When terrorists seek
to control the religious identity of a
suspect, they ask him to cite the
genealogies dating back to Moses. And they
ask to recite a prayer that the Alawites
removed. The Alawites have no chance to
get out alive.” (Agenzia Fides
04/06/2012)</b><br>
</blockquote>
<b>
</b><b>Reports confirm the influx of Salafist
and Al Qaeda affiliated death squads as well
as brigades under the auspices of the Muslim
Brotherhood into Syria from the inception of
the insurgency in March 2011.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>Moreover, reminiscent of the
enlistment of the Mujahideen to wage the
CIA’s jihad (holy war) in the heyday of the
Soviet-Afghan war, NATO and the Turkish High
command, according to Israeli intelligence
sources, had initiated”</b><br>
<b>
</b>
<blockquote><b>“a campaign to enlist thousands
of Muslim volunteers in Middle East
countries and the Muslim world to fight
alongside the Syrian rebels. The Turkish
army would house these volunteers, train
them and secure their passage into Syria.
(<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.debka.com/article/21207"
target="_blank">DEBKAfile, </a>NATO to
give rebels anti-tank weapons, August 14,
2011).</b><br>
</blockquote>
<b>
</b><strong>Private Security Companies and the
Recruitment of Mercenaries</strong><br>
<b>
</b><b>According to reports, private security
companies operating out of Gulf States are
involved in the recruiting and training of
mercenaries.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>Although not specifically earmarked for
the recruitment of mercenaries directed
against Syria, reports point to the creation
of training camps in Qatar and the United
Arab Emirates (UAE).</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>In Zayed Military City (UAE), “<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/a-secret-army-of-mercenaries-for-the-middle-east-and-north-africa/24952"
target="_blank">a secret army is in the
making” </a>operated by Xe Services,
formerly Blackwater. The UAE deal to
establish a military camp for the training
of mercenaries was signed in July 2010, nine
months before the onslaught of the wars in
Libya and Syria.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>In recent developments, security
companies on contract to NATO and the
Pentagon are involved in training
“opposition” death squads in the use of
chemical weapons:</b><br>
<b>
</b>
<blockquote><strong>“The United States and
some European allies are using defense
contractors to train Syrian rebels on how
to secure chemical weapons stockpiles in
Syria, a senior U.S. official and several
senior diplomats told CNN Sunday. (<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/09/sources-defense-contractors-training-syrian-rebels-in-chemical-weapons/?hpt=hp_t3"
target="_blank"> CNN Report, </a>December
9, 2012)</strong><br>
</blockquote>
<b>
</b><b>The names of the companies involved
were not revealed.</b><br>
<b>
</b><b>While conditions in Syria are markedly
different to those in Iraq, Robert S. Ford’s
stint as “Number Two Man” at the US Embassy
in Baghdad has a direct bearing on the
nature of his activities in Syria including
his contacts with opposition groups.</b><br>
</div>
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<div dir="ltr"><b><span
style="font-family:georgia,serif;">May The
Force be with you,<br>
Bill<br>
<br>
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