[Peace-discuss] FW: CIA Interventions in Syria: A Partial Timeline

[David Johnson]

From: David Sladky [mailto:tanstl at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, October 04, 2015 10:53 AM
Subject: CIA Interventions in Syria: A Partial Timeline

 

CIA Interventions in Syria: A Partial Timeline

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43031.htm

By Michael S. Rozeff October 03, 2015 "
<http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/> Information Clearing House" - "
<https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/cia-interventions-in-syria-a-partial-t
imeline/> Lew Rockwell"-  This partial timeline provides evidence that the
U.S. government and Obama in particular bear a significant responsibility
for the Syrian war and the results of that war. Obama approved elements of
CIA plans that go back over 65 years. The CIA meddling is distinct from the
Pentagon's failed plan to train moderate rebels, not covered in this
timeline.
 
<http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/01/16/the-great-game-and-the-ci
a-shaped-the-modern-middle-east> 1940s and 1950s ".if you want to understand
the origins of authoritarian rule in Syria today, it is important to go back
to the 1940s and the 1950s and see the role the CIA played in that land."
See also here
<https://books.google.com/books?id=N-xjxWYWnlwC&pg=PA122&lpg=PA122&dq=cia+%2
B+syria+1940s&source=bl&ots=j0w5MnWoXg&sig=ajMHEIKbaHNxUUeCAPKSC9-l1Gw&hl=en
&sa=X&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBGoVChMItqC48J-myAIVjBY-Ch2DwQHb#v=onepage&q=cia%20%2B%20
syria%201940s&f=false> , p. 122: "In the late 1940's, U.S. policymakers grew
alarmed when the Syrian government, bowing to public pressure, refused to
let a U.S. oil company build a pipeline through its territory. Washington
also found the strong anti-Western sentiment and the large Communist party
in the country ominous. Concerned that Syria was 'drifting leftward', the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) laid plans to overthrow its three-year old
civilian government." CIA operatives met with right-wing military leaders in
Damascus to discuss installing a "military-supported dictatorship". 
 
<https://books.google.com/books?id=xZT4SvjiTuYC&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=cia+%2
B+syria+1940s&source=bl&ots=0_SNwkwUaB&sig=UEVG79seZnB1wzN7hGoK8kfJmh4&hl=en
&sa=X&ved=0CBwQ6AEwADgKahUKEwifmMOop6bIAhUDbT4KHR0PBJQ#v=onepage&q=cia%20%2B
%20syria%201940s&f=false> 1947-1948 CIA attempts "to influence the 1947-8
elections by backing right-wing figures in the Nationalist Party." 
 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1949_Syrian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat> March,
1949 CIA sponsors Syrian coup d'etat; CIA directly involved.
 <https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/10/syri-o06.html> 1957 CIA and MI6
devise plan to assassinate 3 top Syrian leaders and overthrow the
government. ".they planned to use agents provocateurs to launch a series of
incidents." "A 'Free Syria Committee' should be funded and 'political
factions with paramilitary or other actionist capabilities' in Syria should
be armed." [Does this sound familiar?] See also here
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Syria> .
 
<http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2011/0418/Cables-reveal-c
overt-US-support-for-Syria-s-opposition> 2006-2011 Prior to the onset of the
Syrian war, the U.S. stirs up opposition to Syrian government (Assad). An
April 18, 2011 article reads "Newly released WikiLeaks cables reveal that
the US State Department has been secretly financing Syrian opposition groups
and other opposition projects for at least five years, The Washington Post
reports."
 
<http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-who-is-behind-the-protest-movement-fabri
cating-a-pretext-for-a-us-nato-humanitarian-intervention/24591> March 2011
Daraa violence launches Syrian war. "The Daraa 'protest movement' on March
17-18 had all the appearances of a staged event involving covert support to
Islamic terrorists by Mossad and/or Western intelligence." "In Daraa, roof
top snipers were targeting both police and demonstrators." [Notice that this
technique also occurred in the Kiev, Ukraine violence.] See also here
<http://www.globalresearch.ca/daraa-2011-syrias-islamist-insurrection-in-dis
guise/5460547> .
 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/assad-must-go-obama-says/2011/08/18/
gIQAelheOJ_story.html> August 18, 2011 Obama says Assad must go. "President
Obama and European leaders called Thursday for Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad to resign, after months of his violent crackdown on protesters. The
rhetorical escalation was backed by new U.S. sanctions designed to undermine
Assad's ability to finance his military operation."
 
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/us-usa-syria-obama-order-idUSBRE8
701OK20120802> August 1, 2012 "Obama authorizes secret support for Syrian
rebels". "The full extent of clandestine support that agencies like the CIA
might be providing also is unclear." 
 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-ramping-up-cover
t-training-program-for-moderate-syrian-rebels/2013/10/02/a0bba084-2af6-11e3-
8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html> October 2, 2013 "The CIA is expanding a
clandestine effort to train opposition fighters in Syria amid concern that
moderate, U.S.-backed militias are rapidly losing ground in the country's
civil war, U.S. officials said." "The pace of the CIA program amounts to a
trickle into the ranks of opposition fighters, who total about 100,000. U.S.
intelligence officials said that as many as 20,000 of those are considered
'extremists' with militant Islamist agendas."
"Those hard-line factions have drained momentum and support from moderate
rebel groups. The most prominent Islamist groups, the Islamic State of Iraq
and Syria (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra, include fighters who have extensive
experience from the war in Iraq, have ties to al-Qaeda and have carried out
high-profile strikes against Assad's government."
 
<http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/04/23/306233248/cia-is-quietly-r
amping-up-aid-to-syrian-rebels-sources-say> April 23, 2014 "The U.S. is
providing more arms and training to the moderate rebels in Syria, under a
growing secret program run by the CIA in Jordan." "Skeptics doubt the U.S.
effort will help much, given the weakened state of the opposition and the
inroads made by al-Qaida fighters. The moderate fighters being supported
currently have relatively little influence on the ground."
 
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/2015/10/02/44c1f7fc-
6932-11e5-9223-70cb36460919_story.html> Oct. 2, 2015 "The CIA has provided
the thousands of fighters it has trained at secret bases in Jordan with
communications equipment, intelligence support and arms, including antitank
missiles. Those CIA-backed fighters reentered Syria across that country's
southern border with Jordan, but many have made their way into units that
are now arrayed north and east of Damascus - areas that have been pounded by
Russian strikes over the past several days." 
In my opinion, the most serious U.S. meddling is what the Wikileaks cables
reveal, which is the State Department's organization of domestic opposition
to its elected government. This provoked the revolution that started in
Daraa, and that provided an opening for radical and armed Muslim elements to
enter the battle. Next in importance is Obama's position that Assad must go,
because this guides the entry of the CIA and Pentagon into the war while
committing the U.S. to a politically untenable and impossible course of
attempting to reconstitute a new government among radical and rival forces
if and when Assad falls or rebel forces gain control. Undetermined but
significant amounts of arms and training have ended up flowing to ISIS and
other radical groups that the U.S. cannot control, and these forces can't be
dislodged without bigger military commitments by the U.S. Neither the CIA's
activities nor the Pentagon's failed training program have resulted in
control over the battlefield or those groups, which have expanded control
over Syrian territory.
Why did Obama intervene in Syria? There are four main reasons and they are
not mutually exclusive. One reason is "democracy promotion". This appears
again and again in his rhetoric and that of the State department, where
"democracy" is taken to mean "rights" among other things. Obama viewed Assad
as standing in the way of the Syrian people. Obama's intention to bomb Syria
when he accused Assad of using chemical weapons brought out a version of
this position in his concern for violations of international law. Obama has
an idea of world order and the U.S. role in enforcing it. Obama's position
on the Arab Spring also showed this democracy promotion concern. The second
reason is to thwart Iran in order to maintain U.S. dominance in the region.
Related to this is U.S. support for Saudi Arabia and Gulf states who have
also supported rebel elements in Syria as well as support for Turkey. The
U.S. leads a coalition. The third reason is Israel's influence in
administration circles and on Capitol Hill. The fourth reason is to thwart
Russia's influence in Syria and deny it access to the Mediterranean. This
appears to have backfired.
These are all reasons associated with Empire. Maintaining and extending the
U.S. Empire is the dominant underlying and unquestioned assumption in all of
this and in all of the meddling going on in other countries. It is the idea
that American ways are superior and should be extended over the globe to
create some kind of world order that's in some sense vaguely utopian or
reaches a kind of ever-progressing ascent to God only knows what. There is
no real benefit to us average everyday Americans from any of this government
meddling in Syria. We can ascend on our own. We can progress or regress on
our own, without such interference. We do not need to bring down Assad and
replace him with phantom moderates of the choosing of the State Department,
the CIA or a president. We can invent, paint, write and play music, plant
and cultivate crops, build dwellings, travel, participate in sports, take
recreational drugs, have sex, play computer games, write poetry and do
innumerable other activities without notions of empire, foreign meddling, or
even progress. Who is to say what anyone is to do but themselves?
Why would I or many sane Americans want to bother with who rules Syria or
how they rule it? It's not my province. It's none of my business. How in the
world can I know whether I'm doing any good if I decide to butt in? 
The government doesn't think this way. It's composed of people who want to
meddle and run for office for that very reason. They are arrogant enough to
think that they know what's good for everyone when they don't know
diddly-squat. Who are they but pompous babbling fools? The CIA attracts
smart people who love to work by schemes and subterfuges behind the scenes.
These are power freaks who love playing byzantine games and relish
manipulations. Why should any sane American want to allow these kinds of
people to have access to ungodly amounts of money and power that they waste
on their futile and very dangerous schemes that kill, maim and destroy?

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20151004/2d6eba5c/attachment.html>