Friday, August 30, 2013

Powerful missiles from Qatar sent to Syrian rebels

Powerful missiles from Qatar sent to Syrian rebels

US, Arab allies warn arms may reach terrorists


WASHINGTON — As an intermittent supply of arms to the Syrian opposition gathered momentum last year, the Obama administration repeatedly implored its Arab allies to keep one type of powerful weapon out of the rebels’ hands: heat-seeking shoulder-fired missiles.
The missiles, US officials warned, could one day be used by terrorist groups, some of them affiliated with Al Qaeda, to shoot down civilian aircraft.
But one country ignored this admonition: Qatar, the tiny, oil-and-gas-rich emirate that has made itself indispensable to rebel forces battling calcified Arab governments and that has been shipping arms to the Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar Assad’s government since 2011.
According to four US and Middle Eastern officials with knowledge of intelligence reports on the weapons, Qatar has since the beginning of the year used a shadowy arms network to move at least two shipments of shoulder-fired missiles, one of them a batch of Chinese-made FN-6s, to Syrian rebels who have used them against Assad’s air force.
Deployment of the missiles comes at a time when US officials expect that President Obama’s decision to begin a limited effort to arm the Syrian rebels might be interpreted by Qatar, along with other Arab countries supporting the rebels, as a green light to drastically expand arms shipments.
Qatar’s aggressive effort to bolster the embattled Syrian opposition is the latest brash move by a country that has been using its wealth to elbow its way to the forefront of Middle Eastern statecraft, confounding both its allies in the region and in the West.
The strategy is expected to continue even though Qatar’s longtime leader, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, stepped down last week, allowing his 33-year-old son to succeed him.
“They punch immensely above their weight,” one senior Western diplomat said of the Qataris. “They keep everyone off balance by not being in anyone’s pocket.”
Obama in April warned Hamad about the dangers of arming Islamic radicals in Syria, although most US officials have been wary of applying too much pressure on the Qatari government. “Syria is their backyard, and they have their own interests they are pursing,” said one administration official.
Qatari officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The United States has little leverage over Qatar on the Syria issue, because it needs the Qataris’ help on other fronts. Qatar is poised to host peace talks between US and Afghan officials and the Taliban. The US forward base in Qatar gives the US military a command post in the heart of a strategically vital but volatile region.
Qatar’s ability to be an active player in a global gray market for arms was enhanced by the C-17 military transport planes it bought from Boeing in 2008.
In Obama’s meeting with Hamad at the White House on April 23, he warned the Qatari leader that the weapons were making their way to radical groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda-affiliated group that the United States has designated as a terrorist group.

Leaked Documents: U.S. Framed Syria in Chemical Weapons Attack

Leaked Documents: U.S. Framed Syria in Chemical Weapons Attack

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On August 21st, 2013 chemical weapons were used the Syrian conflict yet again. Western powers, the U.S. and France in particular enthusiastically didn’t hesitate for even a moment to take advantage of the tragedy, decrying it as a crime against humanity and using it as a springboard to announce their preparations for military strikes against the Syrian government.
Make no mistake this was a crime against humanity… but the gas was NOT used by the Syrian government, it was used by the NATO backed rebels. In this video we’re going to show you definitive evidence to support this claim and we’re going explain the U.S. and NATO’s motive for committing such an atrocity. The leaked documents that we are going to be presenting are available for you to download yourself. You’ll find a in a link in the description to that download and you’ll also find links to the mainstream articles we used in our research.
Now in order to really understand this event we need to look at it in context.
The United States has had Syria and Iran in their cross hairs for a long time. The plans for these wars have been in the works for over a decade.
[Wesley Clark video]
The U.S. government doesn’t like to present its wars as empire building, they prefer to paint themselves as defenders democracy and human rights. To accomplish this little public relations sleight of hand they have have proven time and again that they are willing to flat out make stuff up and they’re willing to kill thousands of people to advance their political objectives. We saw a blatant example of this in the Iraq war where they tried accusing Saddam of still harboring the chemical weapons that the U.S. had provided him in his war agains Iran.
Even back the 80s the U.S. was trying to take out the Iranians, they didn’t like the fact that their puppet, the Shah, had been ousted in 1979 and as Wesley Clark pointed out the end game is still Iran. For a long time they tried going after Iran directly by accusing them of building nuclear weapons but this line of worn out propaganda fell apart when elements within the CIA and Mossad came forward stating that there was no evidence that Iran even intended to build such a weapon. You can only cry wolf so many times before people start rolling their eyes, so these chicken hawk neo-cons switched strategy and decided to go after Syria to get to Iran. They know that Syria and Iran have a mutual defense agreement and if NATO forces enter Syria Iran will be drawn into the fight.
Rather than attacking Syria directly the U.S. and NATO have been running a proxy war by arming and funding the Syrian rebels (aka the FSA) funneling these resources through their allies in the region. To obscure the source of this support Qatar has been used to purchase weapons from countries like Sudan and then route them to Syria via Turkey.
Qatar is a close military ally of the U.S. They provided tank support in the Gulf war of 1991 and Qatar served as the US Central Command headquarters during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Fast forward to January of 2013 when it was revealed that emails and a large quantity of sensitive documents from Britam Defence a, UK-based military contractor, were leaked by a hacker. These documents exposed a proposal coming from Qatar to launch false flag chemical weapons attacks in Syria and blame it on the Syrian government. According to the documents the plan had the full support of Washington and enormous sums of money had been offered to for the project.
“We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington.
We’ll have to deliver a CW to Homs, a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have. They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record.
Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion?
Kind regards
David”
The person sending the email was David Goulding, the managing director of Britam, the addressee was Phillip Doughty Dynamic Director and founder of Britam Defence. By accessing the servers the hacker was able to obtain scans of Doughty’s passport, resume as well as the passports of the Ukranian operatives that the email suggested should be used to carry out the attack.
The leak also included hundreds of other documents containing detailed financial and operational information for Britam Defence, including scores of signed contracts weekly assessments and incident reports for projects in multiple countries. Among these were details regarding a contract with Saudi Arabia to help prepare their forces for a war with Iran. The leaks also depicted a tight business relationship with the infamous war profiteer Haliburton.
The documents acquired by this hacker were not easy to come by, most of the places where they were uploaded were taken down very quickly without explanation. However we managed to get the files and we’ve spent some time analyzing them. After investing this time it’s very clear to us that they are real. But don’t take my word for it. Just take a look in the description for the download link and go verify for yourself.
This leak was never mentioned by the mainstream media at all in the United States or Europe, and there was no investigation whatsoever even though what was being discussed here was clearly plans to commit a war crime. Three months passed and on March 19th sarin gas was used in Syria near Aleppo. Israel and the U.S. promptly blamed the Syrian government for the attacks even though many of those who were killed were Syrian government soldiers. Obama began talking about the event as a red line that had been crossed and the war mongers began their saber rattling in ernest.
However the U.N. insisted on investigating the issue themselves, and on May 6th, 2013 UN investigator, Carla Del Ponte, went public stating that evidence from their investigation indicated that it was Syrian rebels that had used the sarin gas and that there was no indication that the Syrian government had launched any chemical attacks whatsoever.
Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, agreed with Del Ponte after Russian experts visited the location where the projectile struck and took their own samples of material from the site. Those samples were then analyzed at a Russian laboratory certified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. According to lab results they found that the presence of Hexogen, utilized as an opening charge, and which is not used in standard munitions pointed to the attack being launched by the rebels.
Rather than cover this development, the mainstream media did what they always do when they don’t want the public to look at something: the simply changed the subject.
Now of course the fact that the U.S. backed rebels had attempted to frame the Syrian government in order to build support for a NATO invasion would be bad enough, they were trying to start a war of aggression, but let’s remember that sarin gas was in fact used. This means that the U.S. and its allies were willing to commit a blatant war crime, killing scores of civilians in order to justify toppling Assad. Nor did the U.S. withdraw their support after this event, in fact they increased it.
You would think that the fact that after this first plot had blown up in their face the west would back down or try a different approach, but no, apparently those running this circus only have so much material or grey matter to work with. In July the U.S. began openly discussing “kinetic strikes” against Syria as if their lies hadn’t been exposed. This of course brings us to the attack on August 21st, 2013 where they attempted once again to frame the Syrian government for the use of sarin gas, and once again they got caught.
The first wave of media coverage tried to pin the attack on the Syrian government, and the U.S. and France instantly came out condemning Assad. By August 24th the Pentagon had already announced plans for missile strikes, but even as they did their story was already falling apart again.
The Syrian army came forward that same day with footage to back up their report that they had uncovered a massive chemical weapons cache in rebel tunnels in the Damascus suburb of Jobar. This is the exact neighborhood where the chemical attack took place.
The Syrian government’s version of events is backed up with several other key bits of evidence:
1. On May 31st, 2013 security forces in Turkey found a 2kg cylinder filled with sarin gas after searching the homes of Syrian militants.
2. On July 7, the Syrian army went public about a chemical lab they had found belonging to rebels in the city of Banias.
3. We already have documents clearly showing that the U.S. was backing a plan to frame the Syrian government with chemical weapons.
All of this clearly shows that the rebels had the means and the intent, however the most obvious variable in this equation is motive: the only parties that benefit from launching this attack are the Syrian rebels, the U.S. and its NATO allies. The Syrian government knows full well that the U.S. and NATO have been looking for any excuse to invade. The last thing they want to do is hand them that excuse. The rebels on the other hand have already been caught committing brutal atrocities and they’ve already been caught creating fake video of civilian casualties. The clip you’re watching right now is one of the most obvious examples. This chemical attack launched on August 21st
fits with their previous pattern.
The rebels further exposed their hand when two days after the attack they released a video statement vowing to strike back with any and all means. They claimed to have access to chemical weapons and they stated that they now intended to use them in the conflict with zero reservations from this point forward. Essentially, they are using their own crime as a pretext to openly start using chemical weapons in combat.
The stakes in this coverup are high. Both Russia and China have openly sided with Syria and Iran, and Russia has warned that thermonuclear war could result if the U.S. continues down this path. That’s a outcome that’s too horrific to even contemplate. However even if that worst case scenario is averted this is still a matter of life and death for the Syrian and Iranian people. If the U.S. invades a lot of civilians are going to die. Their situation is not going to be improved by the U.S. attacking anymore than it was in Iraq or any of the other countries that we’ve toppled.
We have to do everything in our power to stop this. Please, don’t just treat this like a bit of entertaining political drama. Please help us get this information out to everyone especially to the military. Share this to facebook, to twitter, post it on your website. Download those documents put them on disc with this video and hand them out on the streets. If you’re in the military and you find this video please send it to your commanding officer and to everyone you trust in your unit. If you are afraid of being punished then find a way to send it anonymously.
Hundreds of people were killed in these attacks many of them children, and the U.S. government was behind it. If you’re a parent imagine what that would feel like if it were your son or daughter that had been slaughtered to forward the political objectives of these psychopaths. Think about it long and hard because these things have a way of coming home to roost.
To understand the real reason for this conflict please watch our video entitled The Road to World War 3.
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Leaked Britam Defence Syrian documents for download:http://stormcloudsgathering.com/leaked-britam-defense-syrian-documents-d…
Chemical weapons confirmed in Syrian conflict:http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/08/24/gas-attack-syria.html
U.S. helped Saddam as he was using chemical weapons on Iran:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/08/25/secret_cia_files_prove_…
CIA and Mossad both say the Iran hasn’t even made the decision to seek a nuclear weapon: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/mossad-cia-agree-iran-has-…
Iran and Syria confront US with defense pact:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/feb/17/usa.syria
Iran already sending troops to Syria: http://rt.com/news/iran-troop-deployment-syria-782/
The proxy war in Syria: http://www.globalresearch.ca/americas-imperial-left-and-the-proxy-war-ag…
The U.S. funneling weapons to rebels through Qatar:http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2013/06/29/sending-missiles-syrian…
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/mar/01/syria-conflict-rebels-qatar…
Russia opposes arming militants in Syria:
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/05/04/301705/russia-opposes-arming-mi…
Russia warns Syria/Iran Crisis may go nuclear:http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-g8-russia-idUSBRE84G18M2012…
UK Quatar plot to frame Syria for Chemical weapons:
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/01/30/286331/ukqatari-plot-against-sy…
The March 19th, 2013 Sarin Attack:
Israel and the U.S. blame Assad:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/04/israel-accuses-syria-of-us…
Obama’s red line:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9488314/Barac…
U.N. launches their own probe:http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/21/us-syria-crisis-chemical-un-id…
According to the U.N. investigation the March 19th chemical weapons attack turned out to be committed by the rebels:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22424188
Russia agrees: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/09/us-syria-crisis-chemical-russi…
The August 21st, 2013 Chemical Attack:
Syrian soldiers enter rebel tunnels, find chemical agents
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/24/us-syria-crisis-jobar-idUSBRE9…
Video from attack apparently shows the rockets were small and primitive:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/23/us-syria-chemicals-idUSBRE97M0…
Iran says they have proof rebels used chemical weapons:
http://news.yahoo.com/iran-says-proof-syria-rebels-used-chemical-weapons…
Turkey finds sarin gas in homes of suspected Syrian Islamists
http://rt.com/news/sarin-gas-turkey-al-nusra-021/
FSA says they are going to use chemical weapons from now on:http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/171240#.Uhrr2rwYfUp



Rand Paul: Boehner speakership in jeopardy over immigration reform

From dailycaller.com:
On Laura Ingraham’s Friday radio show, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul said that if Speaker of the House John Boehner passed an immigration reform bill similar to the Gang of Eight’s, it would be “final things he did as speaker.”
Paul offered an update on Congress’ immigration reform efforts: Earlier this summer, the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate passed its version of immigration reform legislation. Despite that, Paul still lobbied for his amendment that would put Congress in charge of making sure the border is secure.
“I’m not hearing much,” Paul said. “It’s gone pretty quiet on it. And I still think they’re still working on something in the House and the conservative members that have come up to me — what I keep saying and what I come back to is my amendment is trust but verify and in my amendment, I say you have to have congressional votes each year for about five years and each time we have to vote to say the border is more secure.”
http://dailycaller.com/2013/08/30/rand-paul-boehner-speakership-in-jeopardy-over-immigration-reform/#ixzz2dVIqhf7F

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Rev. Al Sharpton's $500G link to education reform

Rev. Al Sharpton's $500G link to education reform WOW REALLY WAY TO SPEND MY TAX PAYER MONEY HELPING TEACH ABOUT KILLING WHITE PEOPLE




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Former Chancellor Harold Levy and the Rev. Al Sharpton are pictured in 2002, but stay connected.

Drew/AP/AP

Former Chancellor Harold Levy and the Rev. Al Sharpton are pictured in 2002, but stay connected.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein stunned the education world last June when they joined forces to reform the nation's public schools.
They called their ambitious venture the Education Equality Project, and they vowed in a Washington press conference to lead a campaign to close the decades-old achievement gap between white and black students.
What Klein and Sharpton never revealed is that the National Action Network, Sharpton's organization, immediately received a $500,000 donation for its involvement in the new effort.
The huge infusion of cash - equal to more than a year's payroll for Sharpton's entire organization - was quietly provided by Plainfield Asset Management, a Connecticut-based hedge fund, where former Chancellor Harold Levy is a managing director.
The money came at a critical moment for the National Action Network. Sharpton was then settling a long-running IRS investigation of his organization. As part of that settlement, he agreed in July to pay $1 million in back taxes and penalties both he personally and his organization owed the government.
The $500,000 from the Connecticut firm did not go directly to National Action Network. Levy funneled the cash to another nonprofit, Education Reform Now, which allowed his company to claim the donation as a charitable tax deduction.
The money was then transferred in several payments to Sharpton's group, which does not have tax-deductible status because it is a lobbying organization.
Sharpton and Levy confirmed the contribution.
"The money went mostly to pay for Charlie King's salary [National Action Network's outgoing director] and for promoting the new initiative with Klein," Sharpton said.
"Our goal was to increase public awareness of the problems of high poverty schools, particularly in the context of the presidential race," Levy said.
"The collaboration between Rev. Sharpton and Chancellor Klein is a novel alliance that we thought might help raise the visibility of the issue."
The odd pairing will be on display this week at the annual convention of the National Action Network, where Mayor Bloomberg, Klein, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and several mayors are expected to speak.
Levy says his firm came up with the idea to make the contribution, and neither Klein nor Bloomberg asked him to aid Sharpton.
At the time, Plainfield Asset Management, a major investor in gaming operations, was pressing city and state officials for approval of two deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Levy has been registered for the past two years as a lobbyist targeting City Hall to privatize the city's Off-Track Betting operations. Plainfield also provided more than $200 million in backing for Capital Play, one of three bidders on the state's proposed redevelopment of Aqueduct Racetrack. Neither deal has gone through.
Levy rejected any suggestion of a connection between the donation and his business interests.
"Our contribution was not a way of currying favor with anyone," he said.
The nonprofit that served as a pass-through for the money to Sharpton, Education Reform Now, is run by former Daily News reporter Joe Williams, who also directs Democrats for Education Reform, a leading national advocacy group for charter schools.
Williams is also listed as president and treasurer of the Education Equality Project. He declined to discuss how the Levy contribution was handled.
Williams said the EEP's board has not met in the 10 months since Klein and Sharpton announced its formation, and that city Education Department employees have so far made all day-to-day decisions. He referred any questions about the group's finances to Klein and Sharpton.
DOE spokesman David Cantor said the chancellor did not solicit the Levy donation.
"The money was paid to Joe Williams' nonprofit," Cantor said. "At that time, EEP was essentially no more than a name and had no mechanism with which to receive donations."
Since then, Cantor said

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/rev-al-sharpton-500g-link-education-reform-article-1.359635#ixzz2dVV0xvH9

Syria chemical weapons attack blamed on Assad, based on its contents and other AP reporting, puenerby the

Syria chemical weapons attack blamed on Assad, but where's the evidence?

This image provided by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, purports to show dead bodies after an attack on Ghouta, Syria on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013.
This image provided by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, purports to show dead bodies after an attack on Ghouta, Syria on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013. / AP/Shaam News Network
LONDON Prime Minister David Cameron told British lawmakers Thursday that there is "no 100 percent certainty about who is responsible" for the apparent mass-chemical weapons attack on suburban Damascus on Aug. 21.
Nevertheless, Cameron asserted that "from all the evidence we have," his government, along with the Obama administration, had made the "judgment" that "the regime is responsible and should be held to account."
Also just like the Obama administration, however, Cameron's government has yet to explain exactly what the evidence of Assad's culpability is, or where it came from.


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Russia to send warships to Mediterranean as potential attack on Syria looms

The Prime Minister spoke hours after the British Joint Intelligence Organization (JTI) released a report claiming "a limited but growing body of intelligence" showing that Assad's regime was behind the Aug. 21 attacks, which left at least 355 people dead.
"Some of this intelligence is highly sensitive," the chairman of Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee wrote to Cameron in the open report, "but you have had access to it all."
While Cameron has had access to the intelligence, the rest of the world has not. He did offer one further claim in Parliament on Thursday, however, saying there was "intelligence that regime forces took precautions consistent with chemical weapons use" in the immediate prelude to the Ghouta attacks. He did not explain where that information had come from.

About 4,000 miles to the west, in Washington, the Obama administration was putting the finishing touches on two reports -- the first a classified assessment to be presented to members of Congress; the second, a declassified version for the American public -- meant to lay out the White House's own evidence that Assad's government used chemical weapons.
The White House has claimed to have obtained intercepted phone calls that provide further evidence against the Assad regime, and administration officials also told CBS News that intelligence agencies detected activity at known Syrian chemical weapons sites the week before the Ghouta attack.
Similar activity had been detected before, and the assumption was made that the Syrians were moving things around for security reasons. But last week, the officials told CBS News the most recent activity was being viewed as possible preparation for Wednesday's attack.
With the possible exception of the intercepted phone calls, and the claim by Cameron on Thursday that regime soldiers had taken precautions typical of chemical weapons use, the vast majority of the evidence of Assad regime culpability presented by both Cameron, the Obama administration and their allies in France, Turkey and other nations, is circumstantial in nature.
It hinges largely on the argument, as Cameron put it Thursday, that there are simply "no plausible alternate scenarios."
Below is a look at some of the often-reiterated circumstantial evidence presented by the U.S. and U.K. governments, along with questions which remain unanswered pertaining to that evidence and which skeptics of the legal basis for a military intervention in both countries' legislatures will likely be seeking answers to in the coming days.
"No plausible alternate scenarios"
"There is no credible evidence that any opposition group has used CW (chemical weapons). A number continue to seek a CW capability, but none currently has the capability to conduct a CW attack on this scale."
That quote comes from the British JTI report published Thursday, but it echoes the most often-used argument to pin blame for the Ghouta attacks on Assad's government.
Chemical and biological weapons experts have been relatively consistent in their analysis, saying only a military force with access to and knowledge of missile delivery systems and the sarin gas suspected in Ghouta could have carried out an attack capable of killing hundreds of people.
But no official death toll has been given. The international aid group Doctors Without Borders said it tallied 355 people killed and more than 3,000 displaying symptoms typical of a nerve agent like sarin gas, but no independent organization has yet confirmed that it was sarin gas used in Ghouta. Nor has it been confirmed what the delivery method was.
The international community will hope for clarity on these questions from the U.N. inspectors who have been on the ground in Ghouta this week.
There are other chemical agents which have allegedly been used in Syria since 2012, including far-less-potent organophosphates, which are readily available in the form of industrial insecticides.
It should also be noted that Russia claimed to have provided evidence in July to the U.N. which showed the rebels were behind a sarin gas attack in the village of Khan al-Assal in March 2012.
"It was established that on March 19, the rebels launched an unguided Bashar 3 projectile towards Khan al-Assal controlled by the government forces," Vitaly Churkin, Russian ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters, adding that he intended to share the evidence with the U.S., U.K and France.
The ambassador said the results of the analysis of the gas-laden projectile indicated the Bashar 3 rocket "was not industrially manufactured and was filled with sarin." He said the samples indicated the sarin and the projectile were produced in "cottage industry" conditions.
The absence of chemical stabilizers, which are needed for long-term storage and later use, indicated its "possibly recent production," Churkin said.
The Russian's purported evidence of rebel culpability for the Khan al-Assal attack was never revealed, but neither was the West's purported evidence that the Assad regime did it.
Assad has done it before
"We have assessed previously that the Syrian regime used lethal CW on 14 occasions from 2012 ... A clear pattern of regime use has therefore been established," declared the JTI report in Britain on Thursday.
U.S. intelligence concluded "with some degree of varying confidence" that the Syrian government had twice used chemical weapons, the White House and other top administration officials said on April 25.
However, the officials also said more definitive proof was needed and the U.S. was not ready to escalate its involvement in Syria. The White House disclosed the intelligence in letters to two senators.
"Our intelligence community does assess, with varying degrees of confidence, that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically, the chemical agent sarin," the White House said in its letter, which was signed by Obama's legislative director, Miguel Rodriguez.
No tangible evidence has been offered by either the U.S. or Britain to demonstrate what lead to the conclusion that Assad's forces must have been behind the previous suspected chemical attacks, and the U.N. inspection team -- which had its original plans derailed by the unexpected attacks in Ghouta -- has not reached any other sites. Much like the Ghouta attacks, the intelligence behind the accusations that Assad's regime was involved in previous chemical weapons incidents has remained secret.
Assad regime delayed inspections to destroy evidence
Less than five days after the attack in Ghouta, an Obama administration official told CBS News that the Assad regime had essentially blocked a team of United Nations inspectors already in Damascus access to the Ghouta site -- a delay the White House said would make any eventual granting of permission "too late to be credible."
"At this juncture, any belated decision by the regime to grant access to the UN team would be considered too late to be credible, including because the evidence available has been significantly corrupted as a result of the regime's persistent shelling and other intentional actions over the last five days," the official said.
Officials argued that the suspected weapon in question, sarin gas, degrades too quickly and would have been dispersed by the continued shelling in Ghouta to provide useful evidence.
The JTI report issued by the U.K. on Thursday, however, refutes that claim: "There is no immediate time limit over which environmental or physiological samples would have degraded beyond usefulness. However, the longer it takes inspectors to gain access to the affected sites, the more difficult it will be to establish the chain of evidence beyond a reasonable doubt."
Also clashing with the "too late to be credible" claim is the fact that the 20 scientists in Syria to investigate claims of chemical weapons use for the United Nations were only originally sent to inspect incidents which date back as far as March. Those alleged attacks were much smaller in scale, and the remnants of any CW used have had five months to degrade, but the weapons experts still wanted to go and collect samples.
There is also the fundamental claim that Assad's government delayed the inspectors' visit to Ghouta. They have now visited the suburbs on three separate days, and on Tuesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem countered the accusations of a deliberate delay, saying his government only received the request from U.N. disarmament chief Angela Kane to visit the area on Saturday.
"Miss Kane came on Saturday, on Sunday we agreed and on Monday, they (the U.N. inspectors) went to Moadamiyeh (a town in Ghouta). We did not argue about the sites they wanted to visit. We agreed straight away," said Muallem. "How could we be accused of causing a delay?"
© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Libya Prison Escape: More Than 1,000 Inmates Break From Jail Near Benghazi


Libya Prison Escape: More Than 1,000 Inmates Break From Jail Near Benghazi

By ESAM MOHAMED 07/27/13 04:34 PM ET EDT AP
TRIPOLI, Libya — More than a thousand inmates escaped a prison Saturday in Libya as protesters stormed political party offices across the country, signs of the simmering unrest gripping a nation overrun by militias and awash in weaponry.
It wasn't immediately clear if the jailbreak at al-Kweifiya prison came as part of the demonstrations. Protesters had massed across Libya over the killing of an activist critical of the country's Muslim Brotherhood group.
Inmates started a riot and set fires after security forces opened fire on three detainees who tried to escape the facility outside of Benghazi, a security official at al-Kweifiya prison said. Gunmen quickly arrived to the prison after news of the riot spread, opening fire with rifles outside in a bid to free their imprisoned relatives, a Benghazi-based security official said.
Those who escaped either face or were convicted of serious charges, the prison official said.
The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to speak to journalists.
Special forces later arrested 18 of the escapees, while some returned on their own, said Mohammed Hejazi, a government security official in Benghazi. The three inmates wounded in the initial escape attempt were taken to a local hospital, he said.
There was confusion, however, about how many prisoners exactly broke out, with numbers of escapees ranging as high as 1,200.
At a news conference, Prime Minister Ali Zidan blamed the jailbreak on those living around the prison.
"The prison was (attacked) by the citizens who live nearby because they don't want a prison in their region" he said. "Special forces were present and could have got the situation under control by using their arms but they had received orders not (use) their weapons on citizens ... so the citizens opened the doors to the prisoners."
Zidan said an alert would be sent to border posts about the jailbreak and officers would receive a list of the escapees' names.
Benghazi's security is among the most precarious in post-revolution Libya. Last year, U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in the city.
Meanwhile Saturday, hundreds gathered in the capital Tripoli after dawn prayers, denouncing the Friday shooting death of Abdul-Salam Al-Musmari. They set fire to tires in the street and demanded the dissolution of Islamist parties.
The two incidents highlighted Libya's deteriorating security situation and the challenges the North African country faces as it tries to restore calm nearly two years after the ouster and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
In Tripoli, protesters appeared to be inspired by events in neighboring Egypt, where millions took to the streets Friday to answer a call from the army chief, who said he wanted a mandate to stop "potential terrorism" by supporters of the country's ousted president, Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood.
"We don't want the Brotherhood, we want the army and the police," Libyan protesters chanted, repeating a slogan also used in Egypt. Libya's nascent security forces are struggling to control the country's militias, most of whom have roots in the rebel groups that overthrew Gadhafi in 2011.
The activist Al-Musmari, who used to publicly criticize the Brotherhood, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Benghazi.
Some protesters stormed the headquarters of a Brotherhood-affiliated political party and another Islamist-allied party in the capital, destroying furniture. Witnesses say demonstrators also stormed a Brotherhood party in Benghazi.
Protesters angry with the Libya's weak central government also targeted the liberal National Forces Alliance, ransacking its headquarters. The party came on top in Libya's first free parliamentary elections last year.
Security forces in Libya have been unable to impose their authority on the country since Gadhafi's ouster. Militias, many made up of former rebels who fought in the civil war that toppled Gadhafi, have grown in the strength and in many areas rival the security forces in their firepower and reach. The armed forces also rely on militias for help securing the country in some cases.
On Saturday, a colonel was killed by gunmen in Benghazi. Another three security members were killed a day earlier when gunmen opened fire on them. Security members are frequently targets in the country.
Zidan, the prime minister, said that an investigation was launched into the circumstances around al-Musmari's slaying. He said a foreign criminal investigation team will join Libyan investigators in Tripoli and Benghazi on Monday. He did not offer further details.
New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the Libyan government to "conduct a prompt and thorough investigation" of al-Musmari's death, believed to be the first targeted killing of a political activist.
"Libya's fragile transition is at stake if political killings go unpunished," said Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "This makes investigating al-Musmari's murder all the more urgent."

WAR ON SYRIA; US Treasury Grants TERRORISM LICENSE To Obama Connected SSG For Funding & Arming NATO’s Free Syrian Army Terrorists; SSG Lead By Ex NATO Advisor

October 2, 2012 by  
Filed under Americas, Featured, World
*ADDENDUM:  The link below is a MUST SEE INTERVIEW and follow up companion article:
2012.10.2 WAR ON SYRIA; BBC Interviews Brian Sayers, SSG’s Lobbyist For Terrorism Tries To Sell War As Peace; EPIC FAIL!! (deadlinelive.info):
http://deadlinelive.info/2012/10/02/war-on-syria-bbc-interviews-brian-sayers-ssgs-lobbyist-for-terrorism-tries-to-sell-war-as-peace-epic-fail/

On July 23, 2012 the US Treasury Department’s “Office Of Foreign Assets Control” issued a “License” to the Syrian Support Group Inc. (SSG) allowing this group to bypass laws and Executive Orders which restrict trade with Syria, including funding and arming NATO’s Free Syrian Army (FSA).
SSG’s so called “License” is akin to the old “Letter Of Marque” which turned Pirates into Privateers, or in modern terminology it’s simply a TERRORISM LICENSE. SSG can continue to fund NATO’s FSA terrorists until their TERRORISM LICENSE expires on July 31, 2014.
The idea that this is actually a TERRORISM LICENSE is supported by the following…
As of August 31, 2012 the SSG must provide monthly reports to the US State Department’s “Office Of Terrorism Finance & Economic Sanction Policy”.  I think the name speaks for itself.
I wanted to keep this short, but the following info must be noted…
The response to the “Application” for the TERRORISM LICENSE was sent to SSG c/o Asbahi Law Group, to the attention of Mazen Asbahi. Chicago lawyer Mazen Asbahi was appointed Director of Muslim & Arab American Outreach by the 2008 Obama Campaign but he had to resign when it was discovered he’d been on the board of a Islamic investment fund that also included an alleged Hamas fundraiser. The Hamas link is fairly weak, but the Obama link cannot be ignored. Are we supposed to believe that the only corporation granted a “License” to funnel millions of dollars directly to NATO’s FSA terrorists just happens to have an Obama connection?? Are we supposed to believe in coincidence theories????
Now we can’t leave out Brian Sayers, SSG’s Director Of Government Relations (ie, lobbyist)…
Brian Sayers has quite the career, ex NATO Advisor, ex Defense Operations Division at the US State Department, very impressive. Now Mr. Sayers is lobbying to fund NATO’s Free Syrian Army (FSA), which admittedly includes foreign Al Qaeda and Mujahideen terrorists, all via the US Treasury Department’s TERRORISM LICENSE, and requiring progress reports back to his old friends at the State Department’s “Office Of Terrorism Finance & Economic Sanction Policy”.
But maybe someone can help me with this part… I don’t understand how Mr. Sayers could graduate from university and immediately become Managing Director of a corporation… is that even possible? Also, is it possible to become Managing Director of a corporation that doesn’t exist? Perhaps my tracking skills are lacking, but if anyone can find “Private Digital Limited Corporation” please add a comment below.
The name sounds like a spook operation to me… I’m just saying, no proof.




WAR ON SYRIA; US Treasury Grants TERRORISM LICENSE To Obama Connected SSG For Funding & Arming NATO’s Free Syrian Army Terrorists; SSG Lead By Ex NATO Advisor

WAR ON SYRIA; US Treasury Grants TERRORISM LICENSE To Obama Connected SSG For Funding & Arming NATO’s Free Syrian Army Terrorists; SSG Lead By Ex NATO Advisor

October 2, 2012 by  
Filed under Americas, Featured, World
*ADDENDUM:  The link below is a MUST SEE INTERVIEW and follow up companion article:
2012.10.2 WAR ON SYRIA; BBC Interviews Brian Sayers, SSG’s Lobbyist For Terrorism Tries To Sell War As Peace; EPIC FAIL!! (deadlinelive.info):
http://deadlinelive.info/2012/10/02/war-on-syria-bbc-interviews-brian-sayers-ssgs-lobbyist-for-terrorism-tries-to-sell-war-as-peace-epic-fail/

On July 23, 2012 the US Treasury Department’s “Office Of Foreign Assets Control” issued a “License” to the Syrian Support Group Inc. (SSG) allowing this group to bypass laws and Executive Orders which restrict trade with Syria, including funding and arming NATO’s Free Syrian Army (FSA).
SSG’s so called “License” is akin to the old “Letter Of Marque” which turned Pirates into Privateers, or in modern terminology it’s simply a TERRORISM LICENSE. SSG can continue to fund NATO’s FSA terrorists until their TERRORISM LICENSE expires on July 31, 2014.
The idea that this is actually a TERRORISM LICENSE is supported by the following…
As of August 31, 2012 the SSG must provide monthly reports to the US State Department’s “Office Of Terrorism Finance & Economic Sanction Policy”.  I think the name speaks for itself.
I wanted to keep this short, but the following info must be noted…
The response to the “Application” for the TERRORISM LICENSE was sent to SSG c/o Asbahi Law Group, to the attention of Mazen Asbahi. Chicago lawyer Mazen Asbahi was appointed Director of Muslim & Arab American Outreach by the 2008 Obama Campaign but he had to resign when it was discovered he’d been on the board of a Islamic investment fund that also included an alleged Hamas fundraiser. The Hamas link is fairly weak, but the Obama link cannot be ignored. Are we supposed to believe that the only corporation granted a “License” to funnel millions of dollars directly to NATO’s FSA terrorists just happens to have an Obama connection?? Are we supposed to believe in coincidence theories????
Now we can’t leave out Brian Sayers, SSG’s Director Of Government Relations (ie, lobbyist)…
Brian Sayers has quite the career, ex NATO Advisor, ex Defense Operations Division at the US State Department, very impressive. Now Mr. Sayers is lobbying to fund NATO’s Free Syrian Army (FSA), which admittedly includes foreign Al Qaeda and Mujahideen terrorists, all via the US Treasury Department’s TERRORISM LICENSE, and requiring progress reports back to his old friends at the State Department’s “Office Of Terrorism Finance & Economic Sanction Policy”.
But maybe someone can help me with this part… I don’t understand how Mr. Sayers could graduate from university and immediately become Managing Director of a corporation… is that even possible? Also, is it possible to become Managing Director of a corporation that doesn’t exist? Perhaps my tracking skills are lacking, but if anyone can find “Private Digital Limited Corporation” please add a comment below.
The name sounds like a spook operation to me… I’m just saying, no proof.




WAR ON SYRIA; US Treasury Grants TERRORISM LICENSE To Obama Connected SSG For Funding & Arming NATO’s Free Syrian Army Terrorists; SSG Lead By Ex NATO Advisor

WAR ON SYRIA; US Treasury Grants TERRORISM LICENSE To Obama Connected SSG For Funding & Arming NATO’s Free Syrian Army Terrorists; SSG Lead By Ex NATO Advisor

October 2, 2012 by  
Filed under Americas, Featured, World
*ADDENDUM:  The link below is a MUST SEE INTERVIEW and follow up companion article:
2012.10.2 WAR ON SYRIA; BBC Interviews Brian Sayers, SSG’s Lobbyist For Terrorism Tries To Sell War As Peace; EPIC FAIL!! (deadlinelive.info):
http://deadlinelive.info/2012/10/02/war-on-syria-bbc-interviews-brian-sayers-ssgs-lobbyist-for-terrorism-tries-to-sell-war-as-peace-epic-fail/

On July 23, 2012 the US Treasury Department’s “Office Of Foreign Assets Control” issued a “License” to the Syrian Support Group Inc. (SSG) allowing this group to bypass laws and Executive Orders which restrict trade with Syria, including funding and arming NATO’s Free Syrian Army (FSA).
SSG’s so called “License” is akin to the old “Letter Of Marque” which turned Pirates into Privateers, or in modern terminology it’s simply a TERRORISM LICENSE. SSG can continue to fund NATO’s FSA terrorists until their TERRORISM LICENSE expires on July 31, 2014.
The idea that this is actually a TERRORISM LICENSE is supported by the following…
As of August 31, 2012 the SSG must provide monthly reports to the US State Department’s “Office Of Terrorism Finance & Economic Sanction Policy”.  I think the name speaks for itself.
I wanted to keep this short, but the following info must be noted…
The response to the “Application” for the TERRORISM LICENSE was sent to SSG c/o Asbahi Law Group, to the attention of Mazen Asbahi. Chicago lawyer Mazen Asbahi was appointed Director of Muslim & Arab American Outreach by the 2008 Obama Campaign but he had to resign when it was discovered he’d been on the board of a Islamic investment fund that also included an alleged Hamas fundraiser. The Hamas link is fairly weak, but the Obama link cannot be ignored. Are we supposed to believe that the only corporation granted a “License” to funnel millions of dollars directly to NATO’s FSA terrorists just happens to have an Obama connection?? Are we supposed to believe in coincidence theories????
Now we can’t leave out Brian Sayers, SSG’s Director Of Government Relations (ie, lobbyist)…
Brian Sayers has quite the career, ex NATO Advisor, ex Defense Operations Division at the US State Department, very impressive. Now Mr. Sayers is lobbying to fund NATO’s Free Syrian Army (FSA), which admittedly includes foreign Al Qaeda and Mujahideen terrorists, all via the US Treasury Department’s TERRORISM LICENSE, and requiring progress reports back to his old friends at the State Department’s “Office Of Terrorism Finance & Economic Sanction Policy”.
But maybe someone can help me with this part… I don’t understand how Mr. Sayers could graduate from university and immediately become Managing Director of a corporation… is that even possible? Also, is it possible to become Managing Director of a corporation that doesn’t exist? Perhaps my tracking skills are lacking, but if anyone can find “Private Digital Limited Corporation” please add a comment below.
The name sounds like a spook operation to me… I’m just saying, no proof.



C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition

C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition


WASHINGTON — 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, in part to help keep weapons out of the hands of fighters allied with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, one senior American official said. 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, who has recently escalated his government’s deadly crackdown on civilians and the militias battling his rule. With Russia blocking more aggressive steps against the Assad government, the United States and its allies have instead turned to diplomacy and aiding allied efforts to arm the rebels to force Mr. Assad from power.
By helping to vet rebel groups, American intelligence operatives in Turkey hope to learn more about a growing, changing opposition network inside of Syria and to establish new ties. “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.
American officials and retired C.I.A. officials said the administration was also weighing additional assistance to rebels, like providing satellite imagery and other detailed intelligence on Syrian troop locations and movements. The administration is also considering whether to help the opposition set up a rudimentary intelligence service. But no decisions have been made on those measures or even more aggressive steps, like sending C.I.A. officers into Syria itself, they said.
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. President Obama and his top aides are seeking to pressure Russia to curb arms shipments like attack helicopters to Syria, its main ally in the Middle East.
“We’d like to see arms sales to the Assad regime come to an end, because we believe they’ve demonstrated that they will only use their military against their own civilian population,” Benjamin J. Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said after Mr. Obama and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, met in Mexico on Monday.
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.
Until now, the public face of the administration’s Syria policy has largely been diplomacy and humanitarian aid.
The State Department said Wednesday that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would meet with her Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, on the sidelines of a meeting of Asia-Pacific foreign ministers in St. Petersburg, Russia, next Thursday. The private talks are likely to focus, at least in part, on the crisis in Syria.
The State Department has authorized $15 million in nonlethal aid, like medical supplies and communications equipment, to civilian opposition groups in Syria.
The Pentagon continues to fine-tune a range of military options, after a request from Mr. Obama in early March for such contingency planning. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators at that time that the options under review included humanitarian airlifts, aerial surveillance of the Syrian military, and the establishment of a no-fly zone.
The military has also drawn up plans for how coalition troops would secure Syria’s sizable stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons if an all-out civil war threatened their security.
But senior administration officials have underscored in recent days that they are not actively considering military options. “Anything at this point vis-à-vis Syria would be hypothetical in the extreme,” General Dempsey told reporters this month.
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. Turkey has repeatedly denied it was extending anything other than humanitarian aid to the opposition, mostly via refugee camps near the border. The United States, these activists said, was consulted about these weapons transfers.
American military analysts offered mixed opinions on whether these arms have offset the advantages held by the militarily superior Syrian Army. “The rebels are starting to crack the code on how to take out tanks,” said Joseph Holliday, a former United States Army intelligence officer in Afghanistan who is now a researcher tracking the Free Syrian Army for the Institute for the Study of War in Washington.
But a senior American officer who receives classified intelligence reports from the region, compared the rebels’ arms to “peashooters” against the government’s heavy weaponry and attack helicopters.
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.
About 10 military coordinating councils in provinces across the country are now sharing tactics and other information. The city of Homs is the notable exception. It lacks such a council because the three main military groups in the city do not get along, national council officials said.
Jeffrey White, a defense analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who tracks videos and announcements from self-described rebel battalions, said there were now about 100 rebel formations, up from roughly 70 two months ago, ranging in size from a handful of fighters to a couple of hundred combatants.
“When the regime wants to go someplace and puts the right package of forces together, it can do it,” Mr. White said. “But the opposition is raising the cost of those kinds of operations.”

Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon. Souad Mekhennet also contributed reporting.



Syria

Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
Updated: Nov. 28, 2012
Recent Developments
Nov. 28 Syrian state media said that 34 people and possibly many more had died in twin car bombings in a suburb populated by minorities only a few miles from the center of Damascus. One estimate by the government’s opponents put the death toll at 47.

Nov. 27 Syrian rebels accused the authorities of launching an airstrike outside the northern city of Idlib, killing at least 20 people as they waited to have their olives turned into oil.
Nov. 26 After declaring that they had seized an important military airport and an air defense base outside Damascus, Syrian rebels said they overran a hydroelectric dam in the north of the country, adding to a monthlong string of tactical successes that demonstrate their ability to erode the government’s dominance in the face of withering aerial attacks.
Nov. 24 Hundreds of thousands of Syrians displaced by the war now face the onslaught of winter with inadequate shelter, senior government officials and aid organizations say. With temperatures already plunging, the humanitarian crisis is deepening.
Nov. 20 Making diplomatic and military advances, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces gained official recognition from Britain and showed off one of its largest hauls of heavy weapons from a captured government base inside Syria. The developments came against a backdrop of steadily increasing violence in Damascus.
Nov. 19 The European Union offered crucial support for the new Syrian political opposition, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, calling the group legitimate representatives for the Syrian people. The union stopped short of conferring full diplomatic recognition, as France, Turkey and several Gulf Arab countries have done. Meanwhile, several extremist Islamist groups fighting in Syria have said they reject the new opposition coalition.
Nov. 17 Days after recognizing the newly formed Syrian opposition council as the “sole representative” of the Syrian people, President François Hollande of France met with its leaders in Paris and agreed to install a new Syrian ambassador in France.

Nov. 15 Turkey recognized the newly formed Syrian rebel coalition, known as the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, as the legitimate leader of Syria. It was a powerful boost to the group’s effort to attract legitimacy in its goal of ending the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
Overview
The wave of Arab unrest that began with the Tunisian revolution reached Syria on March 15, 2011, when residents of a small southern city took to the streets to protest the torture of students who had put up anti-government graffiti. The government responded with heavy-handed force, and demonstrations quickly spread across much of the country.
President Bashar al-Assad, a British-trained doctor who inherited Syria’s harsh dictatorship from his father, Hafez al-Assad, had at first wavered between force and hints of reform. But in April 2011, just days after lifting the country’s decades-old state of emergency, he set off the first of what became a series of withering crackdowns, sending tanks into restive cities as security forces opened fire on demonstrators. In retrospect, the attacks appeared calculated to turn peaceful protests violent, to justify an escalation of force.
In the summer of 2011, as the crackdown dragged on, thousands of soldiers defected and began launching attacks against the government, bringing the country to what the United Nations in December called the verge of civil war.  An opposition government in exile was formed, the Syrian National Council, but the council’s internal divisions  kept Western and Arab governments from recognizing it as such. The opposition was a fractious collection of political groups, longtime exiles, grass-roots organizers and armed militants, divided along ideological, ethnic or sectarian lines.
Syrian opposition factions signed an agreement in November 2012 to create a unified umbrella organization with the hope of attracting international diplomatic recognition as well as more financing and improved military aid from foreign capitals. The coalition, known as the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, was recognized by Britain, France, Turkey and several Gulf Arab countries. However, several extremist Islamist groups fighting in Syria said they reject the coalition.
By November 2012, the country was many months into a full-blown civil war. Nearly 40,000 people, mostly civilians, were thought to have died and tens of thousands of others had been arrested. More than 400,000 Syrian refugees had registered in neighboring countries, with tens of thousands not registered. In addition, about 2.5 million Syrians needed aid inside the country, with more than 1.2 million displaced domestically, according to the United Nations.
Control of towns and cities seesawed between rebel forces that were poorly organized but increasingly well-armed and confident, and a government that was too weak to stamp out the rebellion but strong enough to prevent it from holding large chunks of territory.
Tactics have often shifted throughout the conflict, which is approaching the two-year mark. In the summer of 2012, the government withdrew to strong points, increasingly relying on air power and artillery to smash areas that rebels had seized.
The rebels have changed their tactics, too. They have focused on challenging air power, their deadliest foe, by harassing some air bases, ransacking others and seizing antiaircraft weapons. Fighters have overrun a half-dozen bases around Damascus, Syria’s capital; two in the country’s eastern oil-producing area; and the largest military installation near the country’s largest city, Aleppo.
Yet the tactical gains appear unlikely to lead to a sudden shift that collapses the government, analysts say. Rather, they say, a de facto split of Syria is hardening with the government slowly shrinking the area it tries to fully control, a swath that runs from Damascus north along the more-populated western half of the country to Latakia, the ancestral province of President Assad.
The government is still strong in core areas, analysts say, and even when it cedes control of the ground to rebels, as in parts of northern Syria and growing areas of the thinly populated east, it retains the power to strike from the air. And, analysts warn, even if the army abandons some areas, that could simply open the way to fighting among sectarian and political factions.
The conflict is complicated by Syria’s ethnic divisions. The Assads and much of the nation’s elite, especially the military, belong to the Alawite sect, a minority in a mostly Sunni country. While the Assad government has the advantage of crushing firepower and units of loyal, elite troops, the insurgents should not be underestimated. They are highly motivated and, over time, demographics should tip in their favor. Alawites constitute about 12 percent of the 23 million Syrians. Sunni Muslims, the opposition’s backbone, make up about 75 percent of the population.
Neither the government’s violence nor Mr. Assad’s offers of political reform — rejected as shams by protest leaders — have brought an end to the unrest. Similarly, the protesters have not been able to overcome direct assault by the military’s armed forces or to seize and hold significant chunks of territory.
The danger of the fighting setting off regional conflict appeared to rise every month, with destabilizing effects seen in Lebanon and Iraq. But it was the possibility of a clash between Syria and its former ally Turkey that drew the most worry, particularly after Turkey shelled targets across the border in October 2012 after a Syrian mortar attack killed five of its civilians. Since Turkey is a NATO member, the fighting there could deepen international involvement.


Central Intelligence Agency

Saul Loeb/Getty Images
Updated: Nov. 11, 2012
Petraeus Resigns as Director
On Nov. 9, 2012, David H. Petraeus resigned director of the Central Intelligence Agency after evidence of an extramarital affair was uncovered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Mr. Petraeus issued a statement acknowledging the affair after President Obama accepted his resignation and it was announced by the C.I.A.
“After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair,” Mr. Petraeus said in his statement. “Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours.”
The disclosure ended a triumphant re-election week for the president with an unfolding scandal.
Administration and Congressional officials identified the woman with whom he was having the affair as Paula Broadwell, the author of a biography of Mr. Petraeus. Her book, “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus,” was published in 2012.
The F.B.I. investigation that led to Mr. Petraeus’s sudden resignation began with a complaint several months ago about “harassing” e-mails sent by Ms. Broadwell to another woman who knows both of them, two government officials briefed on the case said on Nov. 10.
When F.B.I. agents following up on the complaint began to examine Ms. Broadwell’s e-mails, they discovered exchanges between her and Mr. Petraeus that revealed they were having an affair, said several officials who spoke of the investigation on the condition of anonymity. They also discovered that Ms. Broadwell possessed certain classified information, one official said, but apparently concluded that it was probably not Mr. Petraeus who had given it to her and that there had been no major breach of security. No leak charges are expected to be filed as a result of the investigation.
The identity of the woman who complained about the harassing messages from Ms. Broadwell has not been disclosed. She was not a family member or in the government, the officials said, and the nature of her relationship with Mr. Petraeus was not immediately known. But they said the two women seemed to be competing for Mr. Petraeus’s loyalty, if not his affection.
The circumstances surrounding the collapse of Mr. Petraeus’s career remain murky. It is not clear when Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. or Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the F.B.I., became aware that the F.B.I.’s investigation into Ms. Broadwell’s e-mails had brought to light compromising information about Mr. Petraeus.
The revelation of a secret inquiry into the head of the nation’s premier spy agency raised urgent questions about Mr. Petraeus’s 14-month tenure at the C.I.A. and the decision by Mr. Obama to elevate him to head the agency after leading the country’s war effort in Afghanistan.
On Nov. 12, lawmakers with authority over intelligence and national security expressed consternation that the F.B.I. investigation of Mr. Petraeus could have been conducted without the knowledge of officials in the White House or Congress. They also voiced puzzlement that it came to a head within hours of President Obama’s re-election.
Overview
The Central Intelligence Agency was created in 1947 to continue the intelligence work carried out during World War II by the Office of Strategic Services. For the next 57 years, it was preeminent among the many intelligence-related services that sprung up and flourished across the government.
After a string of intelligence failures that included the run-ups to the Sept. 11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq, the C.I.A. tracked down Osama bin Laden, to a sprawling compound in an affluent Pakistani suburb. The Qaeda leader was killed there on May 2, 2011, during a raid by Navy Seals. For an intelligence community that had endured searing criticism, Bin Laden’s killing brought a measure of redemption.