[Peace-discuss] Institute for Public Accuracy: An Illegal War Forced on Syria that Benefits Al-Qaeda?

[Robert Naiman]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Institute for Public Accuracy <dcinstitute at igc.org>
Date: Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 10:50 AM
Subject: An Illegal War Forced on Syria that Benefits Al-Qaeda?
To: Institute for Public Accuracy <institute at igc.org>


Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa at accuracy.org
______________________________**_________________________

          Tuesday, August 27, 2013

          An Illegal War Forced on Syria that Benefits Al-Qaeda?

ROBERT NAIMAN, naiman@**justforeignpolicy.org <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
, @naiman <https://twitter.com/naiman>
    Policy director of Just Foreign Policy<http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/>,
Naiman recently wrote the article "President Obama: Don't Strike Syria
Without Congressional Approval<http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/08/26-6>."
A petition Naiman
initiated<http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/president-obama-dont-18?source=c.url&r_by=1135580>
has
over 13,000 signers in the last 24 hours.

JAMES PAUL, james.paul.nyc at gmail.com
    Author of *Syria Unmasked*, until recently Paul was executive director
of Global Policy Forum, a think tank that monitors the UN. He said today:
"A U.S. military strike would opt for more violence and destruction in
war-torn Syria and promote victory of the fundamentalist Islamic rebels.
Such an intervention is clearly contrary to international law, in the
absence of Security Council authorization. It is a reminder of the wars in
Afghanistan, Iraq and so many others, when justifications were concocted
and propaganda pumped out at high volume. Coming just after the U.S.-backed
coup in Egypt, a Syria attack would further destabilize the Middle East
region, while reflecting decades of interventionist U.S. strategy in the
oil-rich Middle East.

    Reuters reports<http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/27/us-syria-crisis-russia-idUSBRE97Q06E20130827>:
"Russia said on Tuesday it regretted a decision by Washington to postpone
talks on an international peace conference for Syria, underlining growing
diplomatic tensions over the civil war." Added Paul: "Syria needs a peace
conference, not aerial bombardment and self-righteous lectures from those
who support al-Qaeda over Syria’s secular democrats." See: "Syria: Why Is
the Nonviolent Opposition Being
Ignored?<http://www.accuracy.org/release/syria-why-is-the-nonviolent-opposition-being-ignored/>
"

MAIREAD MAGUIRE, [in Northern Ireland] mairead.home at btinternet.com
    Nobel Peace Laureate Maguire, who has done peace work based in Northern
Ireland, recently lead a delegation in Syria. She recently released a
statement <http://www.transcend.org/tms/2013/08/no-armaments-to-rebels/>:
"Contrary to some foreign governments’ current policies of arming the
rebels and pushing for military intervention, the people of Syria are
calling out for peace and reconciliation and a political solution to the
crisis, which continues to be inflamed by outside forces with thousands of
foreign fighters funded and supported by outside countries for their own
political ends.

    “Having visited Syria in May 2013 leading a 16-member delegation, I
returned convinced that the civil community, with groups such as Mussalaha,
which are working on the ground building peace and reconciliation, can
solve their own problems if their plea for outsiders to remain out of the
conflict is honored by the international community. ...

    “Currently there is an International Commission of Inquiry on Chemical
Weapons in Damascus staying at [the] Four Seasons Hotel, which is less than
ten minutes from the areas where the chemical weapons were allegedly used.
The western media ... are accusing President Assad of using chemical
weapons on his own people but have no proof of this accusation; rather,
some factors point to rebels as the ones who used such weapons.

    “The question must be asked, ‘What would it benefit Assad to use sarin
gas in the vicinity of visiting international UN inspectors?’"

Background: "U.S. Complicity in 'Some of the Most Gruesome Chemical Weapons
Attacks' Revealed <http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/26-5>."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167


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-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
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